Fly Fishing Insider Newsletter featuring Bill Bakke

Bill Bakke with Sandy River steelhead.

February 03, 2002, 1:00 to 5:00pm
Bill Bakke - Steelhead Flies & Wild Fish
If you love wild steelhead, don't miss this program!
Bill Bakke is certainly one of the major players in the "Waking Steelhead Fly" revolution of the 1960's. He and his friend, Bill McMillian tromped the Oregon & Washington summer steelhead streams in their youths, fly fishing together. Observations of wild vs. hatchery steelhead

obtained while developing floating line fly fishing techniques, lead both gentlemen to believe that the wild fish were superior.
Bakke noticed a difference in Wind River and Deschutes River summer steelhead. He wanted to know why the smaller river had large fish and the larger river had smaller fish. Seeking an answer to this question and others took him to the Oregon Dept. Fish and Wildlife where Chuck Campbell, the fish division director, pointed him to the journals of

Wild steelhead are beautiful to look at.

the American Fisheries Society. This started the informal education of Bill Bakke. He devoured all the scientific information he could find on fish life history. This interest lead him to respect the fish he caught on his skating flies even more and took him down the road of conservation.

Bill Bakke is the Director of The Native Fish Society. He was the Founding Director of Oregon Trout. Bill has been an advocate for will steelhead and salmon all his life.

What is the Sandy River Spey Clave?
It's a gathering of anglers interested in two-hand fly rod fishing.
It is a place to exchange information and meet new fishing friends.
Watch exciting programs and learn cutting edge techniques.
This year there will be (7) fly tackle rep groups
to put on a tackle show specifically for the spey casting fraternity.

Russian Kamchatka. It has been transplanted to nearly every state in the Union and to all continents except Antarctica. Steelhead are anadromous, which means that the spawn in freshwater, but spend part of their growing period in saltwater. If salt water is not available, they quickly adapt to an entirely freshwater environment. Where lakes are available they replace the ocean part of the life cycle.

However, where no large bodies of still water are available, steelhead can remain in flowing water their entire lives. Some individuals may stay in their parent stream for their entire lives even where larger bodies of saltwater or freshwater are available. Steelhead which do not have a saltwater component in their life cycle are commonly called Rainbow Trout. In all of its many forms, steelhead are very

desirable to humans. At present far more steelhead are raised in hatcheries than are produced naturally in the wild. In recent years wild steelhead stocks are in decline throughout their entire range. This is apparently true of sea run hatchery steelhead as well. Probable cause is depletion of the Ocean food chain brought about by the over harvest of shrimp, krill & squid. Man made changes in native spawning streams and competition and genetic intervention from hatchery programs are also held responsible for declines in wild steelhead. Over harvest by both commercial and sport fisheries have had negative effects. In the 1990's harvest by all factions was heavily curtailed. Recent rebounds in returns of both wild and hatchery fish is largely do to sympathetic Ocean rearing conditions. Wild juvenile steelhead numbers in our local river systems lends optimism that long term catch and release management does work.
Even when runs are in a depleted condition steelhead draw considerable angling activity. In years when numbers are high, fishing pressure is correspondingly high. This is because steelhead fight hard, are beautiful to look and the rivers where wild steelhead return to are places that are comfortable to humans. If you would like to know more about steelhead from a scientific point of view, please attend the January 27 Round Table. If you would like to know more about fly fishing for steelhead, check out Steelheadquarters.

Because of the overwhelming demand and an extensive waiting list left over from our March 8-Hour School, (filled in 8 days) we are offering an April School:
8-Hour On the Water Steelhead Fly fishing School
Take a drift boat ride down the Sandy River with:
Mark Bachmann, Brian Silvey and Ron Lauzon

This is a school that will cover a lot of water and fishing knowledge in one day.
Learn how to locate steelhead water and how to approach it.
Watch an expert guide as he fishes and discloses the secrets and proven methods that put fish on the beach. Get a lot of hands on help so that you too can be productive.
Save yourself five years of experimenting on your own.
Bring your own waders & rain gear. Rods, reels, flies & tackle are supplied.
A quick lunch will be served on the river.
Date: Friday, April 19, 2002 - 9 students only!
First come, first served.

Item	Description	Price	To Top
DRSHOK-4	Dr. Slick 4 inch Hook Sharpener , includes shipping in USA	$11.95

Item	Description	Price	To Top
ST-CLASS-4	8-hour steelhead class with Mark Bachmann, Brian Silvey and Ron Lauzon.	$150