Site Map
Here's a quick run down of the major sections of this site and the focus of each:
Fly Patterns Habitat- Alaska's Bristol Bay
- Blackfoot River, North Fork
- Carson River, East Fork - Carson Iceberg Wilderness Section
- Carson River, East Fork - Hangman's Bridge & Below
- Clavey River
- Clavey River - Headwater Trib
- Cottonwood Lakes
- Deer Creek
- Eagle Lake
- Golden Trout Creek
- Golden Trout Wilderness
- Green River
- Heenan Lake
- Hot Creek
- Jones Hole Creek
- Kelly Creek
- Kern River - "The Forks" Confluence of Little Kern River and the North Fork
- Kern River - Johnsondale Bridge to Rincon Trailhead
- Kern River - Heritage Trout Section
- Kern River - Upper South Fork
- Kings River - Lower Section
- Kings River - South Fork
- Kings River - Upstream of Pine Flat
- Kinney Lakes
- Kirman Lake
- Lake Alpine
- Little Kern River
- McCloud River
- McCloud River - Nature Conservancy Preserve
- Merced River - Below Yosemite N.P.
- Merced River - South Fork
- Merced River - Yosemite National Park
- Mill Creek, California
- Mokelumne River, North Fork below Salt Springs dam
- Owens River, Upper
- Piru Creek
- Pit River
- Rock Creek
- Rogue River - Middle Section
- Sacramento River - Balls Ferry to Red Bluff
- Sacramento River -Redding
- Sacramento River, Upper
- Sagehen Creek
- Saint Joes River
- Salmon River, Middle Fork
- San Joaquin River, Middle Fork
- Sierra Nevada Small Stream, East-side
- Sierra Nevada Small Stream, West-side
- New! Silver King Creek
- South Warner Wilderness
- New! Stanislaus River, Clark Fork
- Stanislaus River, Lower
- New! Stanislaus River, Middle Fork
- Stanislaus River, North Fork
- Updated! Trinity River
- Truckee River -Upper Section
- Tule River
- Tuolumne River, Dana Fork
- Tuolumne River, Lyell Fork
- New! Tuolumne River, Poopenaut Valley
- New! Tuolumne River, Tuolumne Meadows
- Uintas Small Stream
- Walker River, East Fork
- Walker River, West Fork
- Little Walker River
- New! Wind River
- Yuba River - Lower Section
- Yuba River, North Fork
- River Restoration
- Artic Grayling
- Brook Trout
- Brown Trout
- Bull Trout
- Cutthroat Trout
- New! Bonneville Cutthroat
- Colorado River Cutthroat
- Lahontan Cutthroat
- Paiute Cutthroat
- New! Snake River Finespotted Cutthroat
- Westslope Cutthroat
- Whitehorse Creek Cutthroat
- Dolly Varden
- Golden Trout
- Lake Trout
- Rainbow Trout
- Catlow Valley Basin Redband Trout
- Chewaucan Basin Redband Trout
- Eagle Lake Trout
- Fort Rock Basin Redband Trout
- Goose Lake Redband Trout
- Malheur Lakes Redband Trout
- Klamath Basin Redband Trout
- McCloud River Redband Trout
- Warner Lakes Redband Trout
- Steelhead
- Salmon - Coho
- Endangered Listings
New Content
April 20, 2013
The Nushagak River supports the largest king salmon fishery in North America, but by mid August, their smaller cousins start charging up this big river.
April 1, 2013
Fly Fishing Southwest Alaska's Wood River and a major trib with a nice run of silvers.
March 14, 2013
A look at Artic Grayling, and of course profiling its large doral fin.
March 4, 2013
Fly Fishing an Alaskan Legend - the Agulowak River.
The Great Salmon Place.
February 9, 2013
A profile of the most strikingly beautiful member of the char family. And they fight like girls. (Seriously, have you seen girls fight?)
January 28, 2013 California Heritage Trout Challenge Honor Roll has been updated. Mark Skawinski joins the Honor Roll with Certificate # 140. Mark has a 2nd CHTC application in the pipeline as well. Mark - thanks for supporting this site!
January 2, 2013
December brought big rains to Northern California and with it some very welcome guests -
coho spawning in Lagunitas Creek.
December 19, 2012
A different kind of restoration story for the Christmas Holiday. Hope you enjoy and have a safe and Merry Christmas with loved ones.
December 4, 2012
Late October and November brought large amounts of rain and roe to
the steelhead in the Trinity River.
November 5, 2012
Guided by Captain Obvious, the EcoAngler explores
a spot he's driven by and never stopped to fish in Yosemite National Park.
October 26, 2012
Journyed over to the Eastside of the Sierras for a last taste of
fall fishing on a small Sierra Nevada Creek.
October 22, 2012 Well it's been a while since the California Heritage Trout Challenge Honor Roll has been updated. That changes today with the addition of Evan Eropkin and Matthew Hernandez. Great job guys, and thanks for supporting this site!
September 25, 2012
When not dodging Bambi Buckets, managed a couple of good days
fly fishing the Upper Sacramento River.
September 20, 2012
A word to the wise - don't attempt to fish the Upper Sac when you see these huge bugs hatching.
September 1, 2012
Putting the camera at eye level with some of the most
aggressive hitters of a pink fly.
August 27, 2012
Some real heavies can be found patrolling the
Wind River below Boysen Reservior.
July 17, 2012
Just below this iconic granite formation in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness flows the
Clark Fork Stanislaus River.
June 27, 2012
It might be named after a Polish Saint, but this river is certainly no joke.
June 12, 2012
An amazing wilderness in California for native trout deserves a nice home on EcoAngler.com.
May 30, 2012
Yellowstone cutthroats and time travel.
May 8, 2012
What exactly drives the abundance of brown trout below Flaming Gorge Dam on the Green River?
The Nature of Fly Fishing
It's less about how to cast further, or increasing the number of fish landed, and more about increasing the angler's knowledge of the species, the environment he inhabits, and what he likes to eat (real or inmitated). That's the goal of this site - EcoAngler.com.
A good ecologist can dovetail into dovetail until the whole thing stretches out of sight. We call it an ecosystem now; earlier Americans called it the Sacred Circle. Either way it can make your little head swim with a vision of a thing of great size and strength that still depends on the underpinning of its smallest members.
Sex, Death, and Fly-Fishing by John Gierach
Ecological?
By definition, ecological is the interactions and relationships between organisms and their environment. It comes from two Greek words: oikos meaning "the family household," and logy, meaning "study of." The science of ecology teaches the angler, it is impossible to separate the study of a species of fish such as trout from the study of their environment. Freshwater ecology is a broad and complex science, and the scope of this site only allows a brief overview of the critical elements - Fly patterns (a.k.a. aquatic insects), Habitat and Species.
It starts with a trout's favorite class of food - aquatic insects. (Grasshoppers, ants, beetles, minnows and leeches are also on the menu here.) And in the case of the angler, the fly patterns which imitate these insects.
The goal of the EcoAngler is to recognize the insects that freshwater trout survive on, and to the extent possible the ecology of these tiny creatures.
Trout are coldwater fish and take up residence in streams, ponds, and lakes that have cold water year round and provide enough food and oxygen to survive. The initial focus of the EcoAngler is trout habitat in the Sierra Nevada and Northern California.
Each of the fisheries covered in habitat includes information critical to your angling success - such as fly patterns, map of area and flow information.
No species of fish has excited the freshwater angler through the years as the trout. California is home to two native trout species (rainbow and cutthroat) and numerous subspecies including California golden trout, Lahontan cutthroat and Kern River rainbow trout.
California Heritage Trout Challenge
Catch, photograph, and release six different forms of California native trout from their historic range and California Department of Fish and Game will send you a personalized certificate featuring the art of Joseph Tomelleri (similiar to this one).
A sort of Angler Honor Roll lists a number of anglers who have successfully completed the California Heritage Trout Challenge since the program started.
Central California Coho
Today, fisheries biologists fear coho salmon have entered an extinction vortex along the Central Coast of California. Is extinction inevitable or can we recover their populations in time?
To understand both the challenges to their survival and the recovery efforts, writer and photographer, Michael Carl, travels up and down California's Central Coast exploring their natal streams, talking to scientists and fishermen, and working alongside fisheries managers at a conservation hatchery.
Download this eBook to your Apple iOS or Google Android device.
Native Fish of the Golden Trout Wilderness
California's Golden Trout Wilderness is home to three unique forms of native trout, and you'll find descriptions for each of these trout in my new eBook - Native Fish of the Golden Trout Wilderness.
Read More...
Native Trout Waters of California
Native Trout Waters of California is now available for purchase.
Nearly three years in the making - pouring over survey data, sorting through photographs, and of course, spending time fishing each of these amazing waters which support populations of California's native trout.
Read More...
The EcoAngler Reports
In pursuit of the California Heritage Trout Challenge or just looking to chase down some native trout in a remote and wild place? Now you can access any of the EcoAngler Reports here....
Conservation Article - The Quest for Coho
Bay Nature
In this feature story for Bay Nature I put down my flyrod (just for a while) and do some research. Driven by curiosity about the coho salmon that once lived and spawned in the streams of the Santa Cruz and San Mateo Coast, I begin a three year quest to find them.
Learn what I discovered and meet some of the folks dedicated to helping this fragile population survive in the
October - December 2012 issue of Bay Nature.
Fly Fishing Articles
Salmon & Steelhead Journal
Look for my feature article on one of North America's finest steelheading rivers the - Rogue River - in the Spring 2012 issue of Salmon & Steelhead Journal.
With a focus on the middle Rogue, you'll learn effective techniques to fish thisclassic steelhead water.
American Angler
Look for my feature article - Secrets of the Sierras 4 Classic Walk-In Trips appearing
in the current May/June 2010 issue of American Angler.
You'll learn about some terrific wild trout fisheries of the Central Sierra Nevada.
Southwest Fly Fishing
I contributed a story for the January/February 2009 issue of Southwest Fly Fishing focusing on the Wishon Fork of the Tule River of California.
Arising from the high granite slopes of Moses and Maggie mountains in the Golden Trout Wilderness, this segment of the Tule River flows south and then west through a portion of the former Sequoia National Forest ...
I contributed a feature story for the November/December 2008 issue of Southwest Fly Fishing focusing on the Kings River of California.
Broken down into two classic reaches: the lower Kings River below Pine Flat Dam, and the upper Kings River above Pine Flat Reservior.
It's ultimately a story of two different fisheries. Each reach impacted by vastly different management practices.
I wrote a feature story for the July/August 2007 issue of Southwest Fly Fishing. The article details a five day span spent angling for Kern River rainbow trout along the upper Kern River within the Golden Trout Wilderness.
Northwest Fly Fishing
Another, shorter article I wrote appeared in the July/August 2007 issue of Northwest Fly Fishing. It's a piece about one of my favorite still-water destinations in the entire Sierra Nevada - Heenan Lake.
I contributed a feature story for the January/February 2008 issue of Northwest Fly Fishing. The article covers the upper Merced River in Yosemite Valley flowing down through the Merced Canyon until it meets the South Fork of the Merced.
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