It’s steelhead season. These famed ocean-going trout, the greatest sport fish of the Pacific Northwest, come back every year to spawn. Unlike their cousins, the salmon, they then turn around and go back to sea. On Vancouver Island, where steelhead are extensive, yet with low population numbers, avid steelhead fishermen often find their old lures in fish they caught and released the season before. The thing is, in British Columbia, the steelhead rivers run along the coast, and up into the Fraser River system, and, well, north. Take a look at this map. It claims the south, but, um, not south, guys. Good try.

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Just a few miles away, in Washington, however, the fish are doing well. Here’s an article from the Omak Chronicle, which gives the skinny on steelhead openings in the Okanagan and Similkameen rivers, right up to the border. So, like, it seems that the Americans in the valley are picking up on our wine successes. About time that we started treating steelhead with the respect they give them, I’d say. After all, it’s the same valley, and the same water.

Fishing doesn’t have to be a lottery.

There’s No Good Reason This Chikamin Pish Couldn’t be in a Stream Near You

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As Roderick Haig-Brown said, if you want to know the health of a society and its members, look to the health of its resource policies. And its pish.