Yellowstone National Park has been battling invasive species for decades, but one recent discovery has left wildlife managers worried about the future of the Yellowstone River watershed: a smallmouth bass. The specific fish was landed in the Gardner River just north of the park and has sparked a flurry of action from local authorities to work to prevent the species from making its way into Yellowstone NP.
It is worthy of note that smallmouth has existed in the Gardner River system for years alongside the extant native and stocked trout. But what worries biologists most is the smallmouth’s ability to quickly colonize and establish themselves in higher and higher reaches of the river systems they invade.
Check out the press release below from the Park Service regarding the catch.
From Yellowstone National Park Lead Fisheries Biologist Todd Koel:
“Smallmouth bass are an invasive predatory species that will threaten our wild and native trout populations if they become established in the upper Yellowstone River. Since anglers are highly effective at suppressing invasive fish in waters where they coexist with native species such as cutthroat trout, they will be required to kill and report any smallmouth bass caught in Yellowstone National Park when the fishing season opens Memorial Day weekend. Additionally, Yellowstone National Park and USGS biologists will be sampling the Gardner and Yellowstone rivers, upstream of where the invasive smallmouth bass was caught. Over the next few weeks, biologists will monitor these rivers closely to gauge the possible extent of the invasion. Our goal is to protect native fish populations and natural ecosystems. We will do everything in our power to prevent the establishment of smallmouth bass in the park and prevent them from preying on and displacing trout and other native fish.â€
CORRECTION: We previously titled this article “First Smallmouth Caught in Yellowstone River” when the smallmouth was actually landed in the Gardner River, just a few miles north of the Park. It was brought to our attention that the invasive species have been present in the Yellowstone River system for years and have “coexisted” with the river’s trout since. Despite trout and smallmouth “coexisting” in the same system, the impacts of the invasive species have been measured and anticipated by Park officials as the smallmouth populations creep closer to the Park’s boundaries.
For a more in-depth analysis of the invasive species’ previous, current, and forecasted impacts on the Yellowstone River and its native species, please read the article “Invasive Smallmouth Bass Caught in Gardner River” from Fly Fisherman Magazine.
Setting sail for 21 days in a country nobody on the crew has been to isn’t an adventure for the faint of heart. But that only encouraged Chris Kitchen and his crew to embark on the trip of a lifetime. With Captain Deadshot Danny helping lead the way the wild bunch got into a heavy handful of bonefish, tarpon, triggerfish, and even a barracuda. We got to sit down with Chris Kitchen of KGB Productions and discuss what it took to make the whole film possible.Â
Flylords: Tell us a little bit about who you are.
Chris Kitchen: I’m Chris Kitchen and I run KGB Productions, it’s a small commercial production company based in Jackson, Wyoming. I got into it because I had a love for the outdoors and skiing, and I moved to Jackson and wanted to make ski films. Over the last 20 years, it’s just blossomed into all sorts of video productions and documentaries. At the heart, we just like to tell good stories of great people, and when we can, of good adventures.
Flylords: What inspired the concept of the Three Sheets film?
Chris Kitchen: We had heard about all these fishing lodges and guides that were suffering because they had no tourism because of COVID. The initial idea for the film was to go down and showcase how the hit to tourism has really hurt the local scene but also how it brought the biodiversity in the sea life back.
We couldn’t stay on land… but we found a loophole where we could rent a sailboat. Originally we were going to sail from Florida to Belize, but that wasn’t allowed because of COVID. So the film pivoted. The new idea was that we don’t need to focus on one species or one thing it’s just an experience. We’re going to go down there, we’re going to get on the boat, and we’re just going to see what we can find.
Flylords: What was it like setting sail for a full 21 days and how did you all prepare?
Chris Kitchen: I don’t think we were prepared. I mean, it’s a big endeavor. We had all this gear, we had all these provisions, and then when we got to the ship we had to be like ‘Okay, what do we really, actually need?’. We did go to port occasionally, where we could get fresh water, fresh fruit, and buy rum. But as far as fishing gear, you had to bring all your own gear, we had extra rods, reels, you had to bring all that. And then we have Rudy Barbican, who’s one of the characters, who’s an incredibly talented fly tier who had more fly-tying stuff than you would believe just to be able to be prepared to tie anything.
Flylords: Tell us a little bit more about captain Deadshot Danny.
Chris Kitchen: He’s a local Belizean guy, he grew up in San Pedro. He grew up sailing on the coast, spearfishing, and whatnot, and never really done fly fishing, had always been a traditional fisherman. His personality was so amazing. His knowledge of the sea was amazing. He’s just a sea guy. He’s one of those people you meet and our life experiences are so different, but he’s an ocean person and a fish person and we’re ocean people and fish people and we just immediately got along for that love of the ocean and sea… He was excited, he was down to party and hang out, but he was also a serious sailor. If we were in charge of the boat without him, we would’ve like to run aground a hundred times.
He just understood fish, he knew where we were going to go fishing. And he was like “Why would you use fly rods? That’s dumb when you can just like catch fish and tie on meat and catch really big fish.”
But then he picked it up immediately. Once he saw what we were doing, I think it was day two or three, is when he caught that bonefish by himself. He had a fly rod for maybe like 15 minutes before that. We showed him how to cast and he just intuitively knew the fish’s behavior because he’d been watching his whole life.
Flylords: What equipment were you using to shoot the film and did you have other videographers there with you?
Chris Kitchen: The main videographers were Matt Fournaris and me, he’s the main cinematographer for KGB productions. He was actually there for 35 days because he was there five or six days before to help prep and film all that and then he was there for a handful of days after getting a bunch of shots. He was living and breathing that whole ordeal.
We want to be light and portable, but we also want to have a cinematic quality. So we had a combination of some Sony a7S IIIs and then a RED Dragon and a couple of drones. But just a couple of lenses because everything we had, we had to carry on our backs. We would take a little dinghy from the sailboat to wherever we were going to fish. We would walk anywhere from one to two miles to six miles along these little flats and we’d either have backpacks or we were towing this little scanoe, which is a canoe-skiff combo behind us with some camera gear in it.
I think the difficulty of it is, and I didn’t realize going into it, that flats fishing is very sensitive. The fish are sensitive, they hear you walking, they hear you stepping. And between the fishermen, the camera guys, the photographer, and our guide, we would have eight people walking on the noisiest coral. So the fact that we actually even caught a permit was impressive.
Flylords: Did you guys have any issues with charging your gear?
Chris Kitchen: The sailboat had some power and some solar panels and we would charge up at night in the engine, but it was always a concern. There was one time we went to port, where we had to refuel and we spent a night in a bay of civilization, which is a loose word. We were able to plug in a bunch of gear and that was when we really recharged everything.
Flylords: Is there a particular shot or scene in the film that’s your favorite?
Chris Kitchen: One was obviously when Olivia caught the Barracuda. We saw this Barracuda cruising in the fly and she’s like, I wanted to catch a Barracuda and then we’ve got the wire leader and everything and tied it on and she cast and she hooked it up while we had the drone up. That was awesome because she was just so excited about it and catching it.
That’s what a lot of us did. Even a triggerfish or something, you’re like, ‘I’ve never even seen a triggerfish or a parrotfish or whatever‘. We were like, ‘We can just cast it and catch it’. I think being able to do that and not just being focused on, ‘Oh, we have to catch a permit, oh, we have to catch a bonefish’.
Flylords: Is there anyone you want to thank for helping this film come to life?
Chris Kitchen: It’s always an army of people that make it happen. Matt Pourbaix, he runs a fly fishing operation down there, Cayo Frances Farm and Fly. He was our on-the-ground logistics guy that had the sailboat, knew the Belizean people, and made the operation happen.
Obviously Deadshot Danny. It was a dice roll on who would’ve been our captain and his ability to roll with our program and our inevitable junk show of myriad of issues from camera failures to picking wrong locations, to wanting to go to spots that weren’t actually accessible by a boat. He was awesome.
And then of course Olivia. She literally jumped on last minute. She had some dead-end service job in Aspen and she was like ‘I’m going to quit my job and come on this trip for three weeks and have no idea what I would do with my life after. Because it’s hard, she had a stable setup and she lives in an expensive town and she just got on a sailboat for 21 days with three or four random dudes and some Belizean captain. She was an all-star.
Flylords: So, what’s next?
Chris Kitchen: I don’t know and I think it’s okay. We’ve done films that have been in F3T for the last four years and they’re a major undertaking. My accountant and my wife are like ‘Why do you do these projects? They’re massively time-consuming and not as profitable as all the other stuff you do.’ But we love it because of our passion for those adventures.
We’ve done two conservation pieces, two what I would call stoke pieces, which is what Three Sheets is. So I don’t know. We might take a year off from making a fly fishing film, we might get a call or come up with an idea in the next couple of months and just go full bore at it. But there’s nothing on the horizon.
You can watch Three Sheets at an F3T showing nearest you or head to Outside and become a member to view the entire lineup whenever and wherever you want.
Are you looking to learn or improve upon your fly casting technique? Check out this casting tutorial series from Mad River Outfitters. These short videos will have you casting like a pro in no time.
Community showers that might have hot water, basic electricity powered by a generator (so don’t forget to fill it), bears that prowl through camp at night, and sleeping in a wood and tarp tent for six months – these are just a few things that ensure that the guides up at Alaska’s Naknek River Camp never have a dull moment.
After spending last summer with this crew we couldn’t help but be impressed by their passion and dedication for what they do… and the sheer insanity. Get to know a little more about the guides that really make Alaska tick.
Flylords: So, tell us, who is Connor?
Connor: That’s a hard one to answer. I am just a man who has tried a whole lot of different things and ended up finally chasing my passion that started when I was three. My dad told me, he said ‘you’ll never be able to get paid to hunt and fish’ and here we are: owning a company in hunting, fishing, and being outdoors.Â
Flylords: How did you end up in King Salmon, Alaska?
Connor: One of the other guides here, I’ve known him for about twelve years, has pestered me to come up here, and finally, I got an opportunity and it worked out and now I’m here every year!
Flylords: What does a typical day look like for you?
Connor: Starting at about 6:30 I roll out of bed and we start moving around trying to figure out what’s going on for the day: who I’m with, what they want to go for, eat some breakfast, try to formulate a plot. Then we’ll hit the river, we’re on the river from about 8 until 4/4:30. Some days we’ll chase just one species, other days we chase two or three, it all depends on what the client wants to do. Sometimes they have a particular method that they want to use and we just focus on using that one method. Then we come back.Â
Since I’ve done so many other things, I usually get off the boat and start working on cars, boats, buildings, whatever else needs to be fixed around here. And then there’s always typical day-to-day camp stuff that needs to be done: gas runs, trash runs. Then eat dinner, go to sleep, and do it all again!Â
Flylords: How do you prepare for a season in Alaska?
Connor: This being my first one, it was talking to my buddy who got me the job and try to figure out what to bring first and foremost. Seeing that a lot of the species and a lot of the methods being used in Alaska are used back in Michigan too, I had a good awareness already of what to do but prepping for Alaska is basically gathering gear, gathering clothes. The hardest part is figuring out flights because we are in rural Alaska, remote Alaska is fun to get to. Other than that it’s really just packing. Since I’ve lived out of bags and done all kinds of stuff all over the place I just pack up quickly and head out the door.Â
Flylords: What’s one thing you wouldn’t hit the water without?
Connor: Probably fishing rod, first and foremost. Haha. In all seriousness the right gear for the day. You always bring more clothing articles than necessary because: you can always take layers off to be cooler. Then if it does get cold put it on. Or clients often come ill-prepared so clients get to use the extra clothes that I bring. Other than that, lunch. Don’t hit the river without lunch!Â
Flylords: Where do you live in the off-season?
Connor: I am about 45 miles north of Detroit. I live there for now, but since I guide in Michigan, guide in Alaska, go back to Michigan, then back to Alaska, home for like a week, and then back to Arkansas, and then back to home, I would say that I’m not really home there that much anymore. And when I am home I sleep at a boat launch more than I sleep at my bed!Â
Flylords: What occupies your time in the off-season?Â
Connor: Hunting and fishing, that’s what I do. I like to travel too after the season has chilled out for a little bit.Â
Flylords: Do you guide anywhere else? If so, how is that different from guiding in Alaska?
Connor: My Michigan season starts in March, we don’t go for numbers of fish we go for big fish. Then April is your Detroit River season where we start our numbers. May is Detroit River as well, but I start weaning off and start heading to Saint Clair and focusing on walleye there and some multi-species trips here and there. And well now I come up here and do all the salmon and trouts. Go back home for a few walleye trips but really get into our sturgeon trips. This is such a fun season, it’s September through October. Then I’ll switch over to duck season which will go through early December. And then I’ll be back up here (Alaska) for more ducks and then to Arkansas for ducks and snow geese! There’s not really an off-season for me which is how I like it.
Much different boats and waterways. I mean, back home I look down and I see the bottom I need to abort the mission because I have made a critical error. Here, you look down and you’re going over a VW size rock two feet below you, and the pucker factor goes from 0 to 10 really quickly. So it’s way different here in that sense with how shallow the water is. You don’t really see too many jet boats on the east side of Michigan. And I experience so much more fly fishing here than on the east side. And there’s also just totally different tactics – same gear, different tactics. And being in the remoteness of it all.
Flylords; What is your favorite fish to target in your own backyard?
Connor: Edible fish? Walleye. Fun fish? Sturgeon, all day. We’ve had them rip 300 feet of line off in less than 3 seconds. It’s crazy. Watching a five-foot fish come clean out of the water and splash sounds like you’ve dropped a bathtub out of an airplane, it’s awesome. And you’re catching fish that are older than you and I combined. They’re prehistoric. Their skin is like a shark, it’s super rough. If you catch one of the small ones they’ll rip your hands to shreds because they have these sharp little scoots on them and they are like razor blades. It’s not something everyone gets to see so I enjoy that.Â
Flylords: If you were a fly or streamer pattern which would you be?
Connor: Wooly bugger because I like the name haha. Really, I don’t know what it is, Kessner brought it up, but that thing has caught so many fish. It’s a rabbit strip, with two jig heads on it. I don’t know. It’s a sweet-looking fly and it works great.
Flylords: What’s your favorite part about being up in Alaska?
Connor: It’s a totally different world. Every day I wake up to the sound of bald eagles, I walk out and see remote Alaska as my office. I drive up and down the river and what people are here to see for a week, and it’s their once in a lifetime, is my daily commute to work. My daily commute is either I avoid other boats or I avoid floatplanes. I had to stop yesterday because one was landing right in front of me and then a little while later one landed right behind me and scared me a little bit because I didn’t know he was coming up behind me! You just can’t take that for granted.Â
I was on the phone talking with my dad while I was fishing yesterday, and I’m just hooking up with salmon. I caught more salmon in that 20-30 minute phone call than he has in his entire life. He’s sitting there just like “dude, that’s it, I’m coming up there next year!â€Â
And then the next thing is not necessarily Alaska but all of the guiding is being part of someone’s memory. Some people will only be here once in their life and I get to be part of their memory. Some days we have rough days, of course, I don’t control the fish. Liz and Curtis last week, we went 10 for 21 on silvers that day. And the next day we had 10 for 13 by noon! Then later we took Liz out, she was just dying to catch this chum. Last 10/15 minutes, I’m telling her to cast and focus on this bend, this bend produces chums almost every time. So she’s casting, casting, casting, and the whole top of her rod flew off. So I said strip it in quickly and we’ll put the rod back together. As she’s stripping it in a big ol gnarly, nasty chum comes up and smokes this fly and starts pulling line out on her.Â
Flylords: What do you miss most about home?
Connor: My dog, Cooper. That cute little shit. He’s very large, tall, and stocky. He’s a Brittany, 60lbs. He is just a phenomenal dog. He is my boat dog. He’s known around the marina I’m at, I’m on Sinbad’s Marina on Detroit River in the spring. He’s known up and down the way as my dog. He’ll go and say hi to everybody but he just trots down the dock like he owns the place, goes right to my boat, hops right on, and looks at me like ‘hey are you gonna start this thing, and are we going to go or what?’. I’ve got clients that don’t go if he’s not going.Â
Flylords: What is your favorite AK memory?Â
Connor: I can’t even answer that. There’s been too many this year with all my coworkers here, clients. Some clients have good and bad memories of good and bad days- fish lost, fish caught. I had one client, it was her second-ever fish, and she caught a sockeye and started crying tears of joy, she was that excited. And then we proceeded to beat up fish the rest of the week. She caught monster kings, and sockeye and I don’t even know what else she went after, and one client from her group caught the lodge record fish for the kings for this year: 40 inches and about 35 pounds and they’re all less than a year into fishing. Fishing will never be the same for them.Â
There’s no one memory I can put, you just have to be here to experience it: the good, bad, ugly, everything.
Flylords: Final Thoughts?Â
Connor: Do I have to go home yet?Â
To keep up with all of Connor’s adventure traveling follow him on Instagram at @dreamcatcherscharters
Every angler’s got one. A place that lives at the forefront of your mind’s off-season slideshow. A place that always lives up to its reputation. Mostly on account of it being, hackneyed as this may be…about more than just the fishing. You visit it more often than other places, or you may not visit it at all. It may be a brook trout stream tucked two thousand miles away, where you learned to use flies for fooling trout. Or it may be like mine, about an hour outside of town and full of hungry cutthroat.
Friend Ben Pepe with a good one on my favorite creek. *do not forget to soak a couple beers in the cold waters of a rock pool on your way upstream.
Bring grasshoppers and other terrestrials. My favorite creek is not very big, and tall grass and bushes line the banks.
Open loops for “splatting†your fly.
When a plan comes together, all seems right and well with the world. Especially when they want to eat on top. You are once again impressed by the fish of your favorite creek. You remember why daydreams so often lead you here >>>
UNEQUIVOCAL PERFECTION
You send them back home. Back to your favorite creek.
You’re already a ways from the truck so you fish more, just a few more bends for the walk back.
They are cold, they are perfect. There’s a shady spot on the grassy bank behind you. Hecuba mayflies, a strange shoulder season drake of sorts, are hatching en mass and you watch the pool in front of you erupt with feeding fish. You don’t fish. It isn’t to prove some point, but it seems better to just watch the thing unfolding over there. Did I mention how cold the beers are?
Over the last couple of years, we have strived to always take new approaches and attempt to push the envelope of fly-fishing photography. One of the avenues we’ve enjoyed exploring the most was the world of underwater photography. Capturing the underwater worlds our favorite fish inhabit is a great way to expand on the stories we’re telling, while also optimizing our catch and release-conscious mission.
One of our best tools in capturing this style of content has been the AxisGO underwater housing, from Aquatech Imaging Solutions. This lightweight and affordable underwater phone housing has allowed us to efficiently and effectively capture top-notch iPhone footage beneath the surface. Earlier this month, the folks at AxisGO announced the newest iteration to their underwater iPhone housing – with the announcement of the iPhone 13 compatible case.
AquaTech has been making Sport Water Housings for the world’s leading water
photographers for over 20 years and has used its knowledge and experience to create
the latest AxisGO for iPhone 13. Whether you’re surfing, paddle boarding, snorkeling, fishing, freediving, kayaking or just taking photos of the kids in the pool, the AxisGO protects your iPhone and lets you focus on capturing the perfect shot to depths of 10m or 33ft.
The AxisGO 13 Waterproof Case for iPhone will support iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro and
iPhone 13 Pro Max with one single housing and is compatible with a standard range of AxisGO accessories including:
AxisGO Bluetooth® Pistol Grip
AxisGO Dome
AxisGO Sports Leash
AxisGO Protective Case
Novus Cleaning and Scratch Remover Kit
AxisGO’s full touchscreen allows you to access and explore iPhone 13’s latest features including Macro Mode so you can capture the finest details and striking compositions. With Cinematic Mode, you can take full control of shooting videos with cinematic rack focus transitions and improved images, including low light capturing up to 2.2 x more light. The AxisGO 13 also allows you to use all 3 lenses from ultra-wide, wide, and telephoto ensuring you have maximum flexibility to capture creative images.
For the optimal user experience, AquaTech offers a range of AxisGO accessories
including Bluetooth® Pistol Grip, AxisGO Dome, Novus Cleaning Kit, AxisGO
Protective Case and AxisGO Sports Leash. The AxisGO accessories allow you to capture
those special moments from new angles and perspectives while making stunning
images.
Taken on an AxisGO
“We are passionate about designing products that continually improve the customer
experience allowing iPhone creators to take their images to the next level. We are
confident that our newest range of AxisGO 13 Sport Housings and Accessories will
achieve this goal giving our customers the perfect Sport Housing for the iPhone 13â€
says Alan Love Managing Partner.
The AxisGO 13 Waterproof Case for iPhone has a USA MSRP of US$219/-
excluding tax and is available through its online store at www.aquatech.net.
About AquaTech:
Founded in 1998 AquaTech is a leader in the design and manufacture of photographic
accessories used in action water sports, fashion, advertising and lifestyle. From our beginning, we have focused on exceptional designs and products offering a range of lightweight and durable Water Housing equipment and accessories. Today AquaTech products and accessories are used by professional and amateur photographers alike in advertising, surfing, sailing, seascape art, fashion, fishing, and more. Headquartered in Woonona, NSW, Australia AquaTech is a globally recognized brand in action water sports with an office in Southern California and retail distributors located in the USA, Europe, and Australia.
In this Week’s Video of the Week, we take a look at Vision Fly Fishing’s new series “Flymaniacs” featuring Niklaus Bauer and Daniel Bergman. Niklaus and Daniel are long-time friends and are the Co-Owners of FlyDressing.se. In this episode, they target brown trout with an assortment of topwater flies and mice. From crease flies to Morrish mice it’s a topwater extravaganza. So sit down and enjoy some epic topwater fishing and some awesome advice with the boys from Vision Fly Fishing.
Vision Fly Fishing is a Finnish fly fishing brand focused on the European fly fishing market. They started in 1997 and now have customers and team members in over 40 countries. From Rods, Reels, Line, Waders and more Vision has it all. If you liked the first episode of Flymaniacs make sure to check out their youtube here: Vision Fly FishingÂ
If you have guided fly fishing or worked in and around fly shops you’ve probably heard the acronyms of AFFTA and IFTD mentioned. AFFTA which stands for American Fly Fishing Trade Association is the sole trade organization for the fly fishing industry. It is comprised of a community of fly shops, manufacturers, guides, outfitters, travel companies, sales representatives, and media professionals within the fly fishing industry. The goal of AFFTA is quite simple “sustainable growth of the sport of fly fishing, individual businesses and the fly fishing industry as a whole”.
AFFTA puts on an annual event called IFTD, the International Fly Tackle Dealer Show. The IFTD is the fly fishing industry’s premier business-to-business trade event. The show kicks off later this month from March 30th-April 1st, 2022 in Salt Lake City, Utah, so we thought we’d get in touch with Lucas Bissett, the Executive Director of AFFTA to learn more about the Trade Association and the upcoming 2022 IFTD show. Check out the full interview with Lucas below.
Flylords: Tell us how you ended up becoming the Director of AFFTA?
Lucas: I was on the AFFTA Board of Directors from 2018 to 2021 when I resigned to take the Executive Director role. The prior President of AFFTA resigned in early 2021, I stepped up and took over the back end of the website and membership management as a volunteer. The board went on a nationwide search and through a hiring committee received over 300 resumes and conducted nine interviews. After the months-long process didn’t yield a viable candidate, I was asked to apply for the position as I had been doing most of the work behind the scenes for the position and had intimate knowledge about the organization and where the strategic plan was supposed to go. After applying and going through a rigorous process, I was offered the position in June of 2021.
Flylords: Are you excited about the upcoming IFTD show? What can we expect?
Lucas: I am very excited about IFTD in late March in Salt Lake City. We as an industry have not been together in over two years and we are way past due for a gathering. We have added a Dealer Summit on the front end of the show for our retailers. At IFTD this year we have big plans to redesign the experience around the show and what attendees and exhibitors alike are getting out of it. I want there to be a much larger focus on coming together to discuss the big picture of our industry and how we want it to look moving forward. To that end, I will be hosting roundtable discussions to discuss industry gatherings and industry surveys. Expect there to be many fun events throughout the show as well as helpful and timely educational seminars during the week. The goal of this show is to come together to reconnect and redirect the industry to reflect the changes we are seeing due to the pandemic and increased participation.
Flylords: How do you see AFFTA changing over the next few years with the new leadership?
Lucas: I see AFFTA going through a few iterative changes over the next few years. For one, we want to focus much more heavily on membership benefits and to make sure our members feel represented by their trade association. Next, I want there to be a whole new level of transparency created by more extensive and effective communications with the membership and how knowledgeable the membership is when it comes to the vision and direction of their association.
Also, we as AFFTA need to create a new industry gathering or gatherings that reflect how our industry is doing business with each other and discover any new additions to a gathering that would be beneficial to the members. Lastly, AFFTA needs to create and distribute new industry surveys that incorporate what the industry needs to make better business decisions.
Flylords: Is there anything else you’d like to talk about or mention?
Lucas: AFFTA is going through some pretty serious transformations. We are looking to diversify our focus, our vision, and the path our industry takes. In order to make those visions a reality we need the support of our industry and our membership. Now is the time to stand together to fight as a unified voice and AFFTA has an opportunity to be the banner we all stand under as we stand together.
For more information on AFFTA check out their website here and for more information on the International Fly Tackle Dealer Show in Salt Lake click the link here.Â
Looking to start your fly fishing career or trying to find new employees in the industry? Well, FlyFishingJobs.com has just relaunched the job listing platform to make finding work in the fly fishing industry a breeze.
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Well, after an almost two-year-long process, it’s here. The public comment period for Draft Amendment 7 to the Atlantic Striped Bass Management Plan began in late February and will remain open until April 15th. If you’ve followed this subject and love striped bass, you understand the importance of this document for much of the east coast. The striped bass stock is overfished and in a period of poor recruitment. It’s a grim outlook but makes this opportunity to improve striped bass management all the more important. Right now, the American Saltwater Guides Association is leading the charge for the responsible management and conservation of striped bass.
The Bare Bones of Striped Bass Management
Striped bass are anadromous fish that are mostly found from North Carolina to Maine. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), which manages striped bass, declared the stock to be overfished and subject to overfishing in 2019. The ASMFC Striped Bass Board took quick action to curb fishing mortality (the overfishing component) through Addendum 6, which was designed to achieve an 18 percent reduction in coastwide removals. Towards the end of 2020, the Board initiated Amendment 7 to address “longstanding fishery management issues.” Throughout last spring in 2021, stakeholders provided public comment on a Public Information Document regarding potential issues to include in the Draft Amendment. In January 2022, the Striped Bass Board approved Draft Amendment 7 with four primary issues (management triggers, recreational release mortality, rebuilding plan, and conservation equivalency), and began the public comment period—this is where we are today. The Board will meet in May to review all the public comment and select final alternatives for the Amendment.
Draft Amendment 7 is a beefy and complex document. Heck, there are 18 decision points. But it’s all important, and these decisions will impact striped bass management for years to come. We all have a great opportunity to positively influence striped bass management and, hopefully, restore this iconic fishery to its past glory and enjoy all that follows. Keep reading for the ins and outs of Draft Amendment 7 and how to provide effective, informed public comments.
Draft Amendment 7 considers four primary topics: management triggers, recreational release mortality, rebuilding plan and conservation equivalency. Each of these issues have their specific complexities, so this article will try to stay at a high level. Listed below are brief summaries of these issues and themes ASGA is voicing.
Conservation Equivalency
If you have read any of Flylords’ striped bass coverage or followed management in recent years, you probably have an understanding for how CE can be abused to the striped bass stock’s detriment. CE is a program fishery managers use to allow states flexibility in setting regulations (bag/size/season limits) as long as the same levels of conservation are achieved—or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work.  This section provides several options to bring accountability to the program and reduce the inherent uncertainty that CE injects into management.
If there is one issue in Draft Amendment which can fundamentally improve striped bass management, it is the reform of CE. So, if you must prioritize these issues, focus on this section and encourage the Board to place responsible guardrails on its CE program. Draft Amendment 7 includes options to restrict CE based on stock status, set minimum data precision standards, add an uncertainty buffer (luxury tax), and hold states responsible for their share of fishing mortality.
“Conservation Equivalency has been systematically abused by several states resulting in missed conservation goals,†said ASGA’s VP and Policy Director Tony Friedrich. “New Jersey and Maryland have used CE to continue an unsustainable level of harvest. In 2020, NJ and MD accounted for over 73% of the total number of recreationally harvested striped bass. CE cannot continue in its current form.â€
Management Triggers
This section deals with how, when, and why striped bass management reacts to new information. For the most part, the biomass and mortality triggers in the current Fishery Management Plan are effective—when they’re followed—and thus should remain status quo. For example, the overfishing trigger that directed management action in 2020 through Amendment 6 successfully reduced fishing mortality by the prescribed amount. However, CE almost jeopardized that success. Here are a couple of instances where the triggers could be improved.
Photo by Kirk Marks of Team Flylords, a healthy schoolie in the Chesapeake Bay, the most important striped bass nursery.
Recruitment—or how many juvenile striped fish are entering the key nursery areas—is an essential component in striped bass management, yet its outcome is largely out of our hands. The current recruitment trigger has only tripped once despite a long period of below average recruitment, prompting the Striped Bass Board to question its design and efficacy.
Tony offers more insight: “If a trigger never trips, is it really a trigger? The Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay has seen the worst three consecutive years of recruitment since 1979-81, and the trigger was not tripped. That is all we need to know about the need for updating this management tool.â€
New options for the recruitment trigger would improve its design by tweaking the sensitivity so that it actually trips when recruitment is poor. The thinking behind this is to modify the trigger to act more like an early warning sign. Additionally, there are options that would compel the Board to react to the recruitment trigger tripping.
Taken in conjunction, improving the sensitivity of the recruitment trigger and requiring the Board to adequately respond to the trigger seem like common-sense improvements to striped bass management and should better prepare management for future periods of poor recruitment.
Recreational Release Mortality
The striped bass fishery is overwhelmingly a recreational, catch-and-release fishery. This is even more true in the booming striped bass fly fishing community—most anglers just want to go out and get on a great bite, and filling coolers is not a strong motivator (not that there is anything wrong with legally harvesting a striper to feed friends and family).
For more than 30 years, the vast majority of striped bass caught by recreational anglers have been released, hovering around 90 percent or 50 million fish annually. While this shows that there is inherent value in abundance and the opportunity to reencounter a striper, it also presents a management challenge as some fish don’t survive following catch-and-release fishing. Stock assessments tell us that roughly half of all recreational removals (dead fish) are the result of release mortality. Currently, managers assume nine percent of all striped bass that are released die. While this is an averaged assumption, there are times when mortality is much less (think cold, salty, oxygen-rich waters of New England) and when it is far greater (think lukewarm water with low oxygen levels such as the Chesapeake Bay in mid-late summer).
The alternatives in this section seek to limit the impact of catch and release mortality through varying mechanisms, including seasonal closures, gear restrictions, and educational outreach. There are some difficult, possibly painful topics in this section, notably options which would institute “no-targeting closures.” Such closures would prohibit anglers from trying to catch a striped bass (even if you planned to safely release them or environmental conditions would not contribute to increased mortality) over specified time periods.
ASGA contends that because no-targeting closures are not enforceable and any conservation benefit is not quantifiable, such closures, which would punitively harm conservation-minded light tackle and fly fishing guides, should not be implemented at this time. Coming from the world of fly fishing, this might seem foreign. What about the steelhead closures in the PNW or hoot owl closures on western trout rivers? Coastal fisheries are an entirely different beast. For example, in the Northeast if you are fishing for bluefish, you are de facto also fishing for striped bass. There’s just no way around it. However, this is undoubtedly a difficult issue, because there really aren’t that many tools managers have for recreational fisheries management. This issue will definitely be the topic of intense debate at the May meeting. Further discussions on spawning closures will likely occur then too.
Rebuilding Plan
Striped bass were declared overfished in 2019, but the Board has not developed or implemented a rebuilding plan yet. According to its own rules, the Board must rebuild the stock by 2029. Draft Amendment 7 will address this and, given the recent period of poor recruitment, provides an option to attack rebuilding with more conservative assumptions regarding striped bass spawning success. Additionally, Draft Amendment 7 includes an option to allow the Striped Bass Board to respond quickly to the upcoming stock assessment update should it require additional restrictions. Simply put, if the October 2022 updates indicates that additional measures are needed to rebuild striped bass by 2029, the Board can quickly implement measures, instead of using the traditional year-long addendum process.
ASGA supports using a low recruitment assumption to rebuild striped bass and allowing the Board to adjust measures through Board action (simple majority vote).
“Without this option, we would lose another year and be backed further into a rebuilding corner. None of this would be necessary if the Board had acted in 2018. But, here we are again,” said Friedrich. “An additional year could make a lot of difference in the pain we all will face through rebuilding. The only downside to this option is that public comment is limited since time is of the essence. We will still be able to comment in some capacity, but it would be limited.”
Once approved, Amendment 7 will guide management long into the future (Amendment 6 was developed in 2003, and it’s not inconceivable that this document guides striped bass management for another 20 years). So, read the Draft Amendment 7 (or the more digestible quick reference guide), check out ASGA’s materials, talk to your fishing buddies, think about what type of fishery you want to see in five or ten years, and then submit a well thought out comment! The striped bass could really use your help right now.
So, by now, you probably have a solid footing for what is in this document and how management could be impacted. If you want to help improve striped bass management and restore this amazing fishery, it’s time to develop and submit a public comment. You can do so in person or at a webinar at one of the remaining state hearings. Or you can simply write an email and send it to ASMFC staff. It’s important to stay focused on the issues because that is what staff will be tracking. Put another way, comments on issues not in Draft Amendment 7 will not be nearly as constructive.
If you can’t make it to a state hearing or just want to take your time to develop a well-reasoned comment, written comments over email are a great option. However, ASMFC has a policy in place that weights ‘form letters’ or identical comments less than individual comments. So, it’ll be important to make sure you add some level of personalization on top of whichever options you decide to support. Also, to further motivate public comment and engagement around Draft Amendment 7, ASGA is putting on a raffle for folks who send in a comment. Email your comment to comments@asmfc.org with “Draft Amendment 7” in the subject line and cc stripercomments@gmail.com in the email to be entered—no matter which positions you decide on.
Striped bass are a special and iconic fish. Some call schoolie stripers the perfect fly rod fish–they put a great bend in an 8wt, will eat all sorts of flies, are usually with other willing takers, and you can catch them on the flats, in the surf, or way up in a brackish tributary. Fly fishing aside, striped bass also every man’s fish and the most popular sportfish on the east coast. When striped bass are abundant, like they were in the early 2000s, coastal towns from Maine to Virginia felt the impact. Hotels were full, guides were booked, fly shops couldn’t keep up with demand, all because of the fact that there was a healthy, abundant biomass.
It’s time ASMFC turns it around and restores this iconic fish, but it’ll take a big push from conservation-minded anglers and the larger fly fishing community to nudge the Striped Bass Board in the right direction. And by now, I think we all know just how powerful the fly fishing community can be.
