The Adipose

In this episode of The Adipose, we continue exploring transformative fishing moments. Building on our premiere episode, we again invited anglers to share their first and last steelhead encounters—bookends to their ongoing journey on the water. 

Chasing and encountering a wild steelhead is the spark that started most of us on our journey as anglers and advocates, and keeps us motivated to do the work. In this new episode, w...

In this storytelling episode, we share the connections between friendship, fly fishing, and the wild steelhead of British Columbia. This story blends humor and heartbreak and captures the emotions of chasing these legendary fish while coming to grips with the changes that time can bring. 

This podcast covers recreational marijuana use, and listeners should stay informed about and adhere to all local, state, and federal laws concerni...

Lynda Mapes is an award-winning writer who, during her 27-year tenure as a reporter at The Seattle Times, has written numerous stories about natural history, the environment, and Native American tribes. In addition to her newspaper career, she is the author of numerous books, including the 2022 Washington State Book Award Winner Orca: Shared Waters Shared Home.

Lynda has written an investigative article for the Seattle Times explori...

We’re excited to bring you a brand-new episode of The Adipose podcast. This time, we sit down with Steve Duda, a celebrated writer, editor, and producer who has significantly influenced the voice of fly fishing for over three decades. You might know Steve as the former editor of The Flyfish Journal or from his standout appearances on Writers on the Fly.

In this episode, Steve takes us through his new book, River Songs. Ste...

For steelheaders of this era, there is no doubt we have reached a major juncture. in the journey. One option is to surrender to the grim circumstances. We can go out in a blaze of glory, Thelma and Louise style, and fish our way to extinction and then move on to other species once wild steelhead are gone. The other fork in the road is to fight and build a robust army of steelhead champions who work as hard to restore wild steelhead...

Fly Fishermen began catching steelhead on flies up and down the Pacific Coast from BC to Northern California in the early 20th Century. As stories of the beauty and power of wild steelhead appeared in print publications, a bevy of steelhead anglers perfected their craft and became the first generation of wild steelhead conservationists. 

In this first episode of our series, Fly Fishing Pioneers & Legends of the Northwe...

Can you imagine what it would be like to wake up in Seattle on a misty March morning and struggle to decide which of Puget Sound’s prolific 49 wild steelhead rivers and streams to fish that day? Can you imagine what it would be like to catch two wild steelhead and be disappointed by how slow the day was? And can you imagine what it would feel like to wade waist-deep into the Snohomish River knowing that 225,000 wild steelhead were ...

In many watersheds, most wild steelhead returning each season will be caught and handled by anglers, some more than once. Regardless of our best intentions, some fish will die, and many will endure sublethal short and/or long-term impacts, such as reduced spawning success.

Dr. Andy Danylchuk and his teams have researched the impacts of catch-and-release fishing on various recreational fisheries around the globe.

In this epi...

Most anglers listening to this podcast likely understand that the species Oncorhynchus mykiss exhibits a complex of reproductive behaviors that generally involve summer-run steelhead, winter-run steelhead, and resident rainbow trout that all can spawn in the same river. But is it a case that ‘never the twain shall meet’? 

Listen to Wild Steelhead Coalition Science Advisor Guy Fleischer on what differentiates young steelhea...

In fish conservation, it isn’t always about the big wins, success often comes in small steps and underestimated sources, and even small steps can help create a movement. Sometimes it’s simply about seeing a need, taking personal initiative, and having the courage to advocate for unpopular solutions. In this episode of The Adipose, we share the background behind Sparky’s Rule and how it helped kickstart a new era in how we handle wi...

In 2007 writer and Wild Steelhead Coalition Trustee Dylan Tomine published State Of The Steelhead, an essay you can now find in his new book Headwaters. The essay was a warning and a call for steelhead anglers to step up and fight for these incredible fish. 

The lessons are as relevant today as when Tomine penned that essay over a decade ago, but one thing has remained constant: his commitment to protecting wild steelhead and their ...

Last year, only 70 steelhead returned to the iconic Thompson River. For decades, the runs of Interior Fraser River steelhead in Southern British Columbia have been allowed to completely collapse. 

Restoration plans have not been enacted, and a previous emergency attempt to provide critical protections under Canada's Species at Risk Act (SARA) has been derailed by managing agencies. Today a new effort is underway to protect and ...

In October of 2021, the Wild Steelhead Coalition released “Wild Steelhead: Now or Never,” a campaign to provide a status report on the current state of wild steelhead populations, educate anglers on the causes of declines, and the investments required to restore their populations.

As a part of that project, board member Ed Sozinho and the writer Geoff Mueller hit the road to visit anglers, scientists, and conservationists and hear a...

For our first episode of The Adipose, we thought it made sense to start with some fishing stories. After all, chasing and encountering a wild steelhead is the common spark that started most of us on our journey as anglers and advocates, and keeps us motivated to do the work.

Every steelheader knows: Wild steelhead can change lives. We want to share some of our favorite stories of the first steelhead caught, and even a few great ones...