Like rivers, in life, some of us meander, while others run deep and true. Fisheries biologist Dennis Lee has been focused on and dedicated to the welfare of California’s anadromous fish, its steelhead and salmon, for nearly four decades, ever since his college days. And he also has been a dedicated steelhead angler, a professional tyer of steelhead flies, and since his retirement from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife after a long career helping manage California’s anadromous fisheries, an author — his book, The Half-Pounder: A Steelhead Trout; Life History and Fly Fishing, is reviewed by Larry Kenney in this issue of California Fly Fisher. Dennis Lee has seen Northern California’s steelhead fishery from both sides — as a DFW biologist in charge of their management and as fly fisher concerned with the sport. We wanted to find out more about how the state of the fishery looks from that double perspective.
Bud: You started fishing for steelhead while an undergraduate at Humboldt State in the late 1960s, majoring in fisheries biology. What brought you to that degree program, and what brought you to fly fishing and your focus on steelhead?
Dennis: My interest in fish came about through my fourth-grade teacher, Kevin Nevins, who kept several aquariums in the classroom. I was fascinated with tropical fish and talked my folks into allowing me to keep my first aquarium at home. From that early introduction, I decided I wanted to become an ichthyologist. Authors of popular tropical fish books and magazines such as George S. Myers and Herbert Axelrod became my heroes, and I read everything I could get my hands on about fish. Eventually, I had several dozen aquariums in our home basement, and through high school, I was breeding several species of tropical fish and selling them to a local tropical fish store.
After high school, I attended junior college in Visalia at the College of the Sequoias, earning an associate of science degree in 1968. I wanted to go to New York University, but out-of-state costs were too high, so I settled on Humboldt State University, which offered a degree program in fisheries.
In high school and junior college, I swam competitively and played water polo, and I arrived at Humboldt State in the summer of 1968 to work out with the university team. I had a part-time custodian job, but spent my free time exploring the area. I learned about fishing on the lower Eel River and made my first visit to the river near Fernbridge late that summer. At the Singley Pool, I was fascinated with the fly anglers making long casts across the pool and slowly retrieving their lines and flies. They were fishing for “chubs,” a colloquial name for fall chinook salmon weighing up to about 12 pounds — actually “grilse” salmon, fish that have spent just one year in salt water. Most of the fly anglers used 8-1/2-foot or 9-foot singlehanded glass rods with sinking shooting heads to fish the slow-moving pools of the lower Eel. I watched as anglers caught bright salmon and an occasional steelhead.
I was hooked on fly fishing. I visited the local fly shops, usually Lloyd Silvius’s shop in Eureka, bought flies and tackle — a Fenwick FF85 fly rod, a 1495-1/2 Pflueger fly reel, and a Scientific Anglers sinking shooting head. That fall, I caught my first steelhead from the Eel River, just below the confluence with the Van Duzen River, on a Brindle Bug. Humboldt State is in the heart of Northern California’s steelhead region, and with additional influence from fisheries professors (most of whom fly fished for steelhead), my interest in anadromous fish and fly fishing grew. I fished throughout Northern California and Southern Oregon during my Humboldt years, but truly love fishing for half-pounders. There is something special about stepping down a large riffle, making long casts, and swinging a fly in anticipation of that jarring grab from a half-pounder or even the occasional larger adult fish.
In addition to my fisheries classes, I tried to read every book and article on steelhead I could find, both popular and technical, in the well-stocked university library. After I graduated from Humboldt State with a bachelor of science degree in fisheries, and after taking several state civil service tests, I eventually landed a permanent job at the Nimbus Salmon and Steelhead Hatchery as a fish-and-wildlife assistant. During my time at the hatchery, I connected with a group of local fly anglers who fished for chinook salmon and steelhead on the American River — several remain friends today. After a short stint at the hatchery, I was promoted to junior aquatic biologist at the Department of Fish and Game regional headquarters in the Napa Valley and a position overseeing the Russian River steelhead study. Future promotions and transfers allowed me to work throughout Northern and Central California, including a stint as a unit fisheries biologist in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties and later supervising the Klamath River Salmon and Steelhead Research Project in the 1980s.
Bud: I’ve got to ask: How does a fisheries biologist fish? Is it different from how the rest of us go about fishing when we arrive at a stream? It would seem that if anyone has an advantage, it would be someone in your profession.
Dennis: How does a fisheries biologist fish? Every opportunity possible! The only advantage a fisheries biologist has is in knowing a little more about the fish, their habits, and their habitats. This can be helpful some of the time, but in other instances, it can also be a detriment. As a fisheries biologist, I often think I have all the answers and know what is going on. As such, I am often unwilling to experiment or change, while a good angler is more open to changing methods, flies, and presentations. Nonetheless, in general, I have always believed that knowing more about the fish and the environment will help you be a better angler.
Bud: You’re also a professional fly tyer, and as Larry Kenney notes in his review in this issue, one of the striking things about your book, The Half-Pounder, is the gallery of steelhead flies for half-pounders at the end. This is a wild overgeneralization, but West Coast fly tyers tend to be more interested in innovation than in tradition. However, steelhead flies also tend to be the exception to that claim. You’ve been around West Coast steelheading for a long time. To what extent has tying and fishing steelhead flies changed, and who have been the tyers who influenced your own tying?
Dennis: When I began fishing for steelhead at Humboldt, California steelhead fly fishing had been influenced by many great early fly tyers. Patterns followed the traditional style, with a hackle-fiber tail, chenille body, wound feather hackle, and a wing of bucktail or some other hair. In some instances, the wing was left off. The 1960s and 1970s saw many new anglers take up fly fishing (I was one), which also increased interest in fly tying. New materials and improved dying techniques were becoming available, and that included synthetic materials and fluorescent colors. A few West Coast fly tyers such as Syd Glasso began to incorporate historic European styles and Spey styles in their steelhead flies and also expanded and improved on the traditional style. Authors such as Trey Combs disseminated many of these new styles in their books about steelhead fly fishing. Fortunately, steelhead are not selective, and fly pattern and color is more important to the angler than to the fish, thus allowing for much innovation and advances among West Coast fly tyers.
My early fly-tying efforts were assisted by fly shop owner Lloyd Silvius, who operated a small fly fishing shop in Eureka from the front of his home. Later, when I was working in the San Joaquin Valley, Dave Inks, who at that time operated a wholesale fly materials business in Fresno, provided help and instruction in a variety of materials. I also had the opportunity to interact with individuals such as the late Darwin Atkins, a great fly tyer from Porterville, California, and Doug McKinsey and Ed Schroeder, both from Fresno. Later, I often watched Andy Puyans tie flies at Creative Sports Enterprises in Walnut Creek. I fished with and was influenced by Hal Janssen, an excellent estuary and slow-water fly fisher, and also by members of the Napa Valley Fly Fishing Club, including Will Tallman and the late Jim Pease, and I fished with all of them on North Coast steelhead waters. My tying has been especially influenced by Al Perryman, the best steelheader fly angler I know. I met Al when I worked at the Nimbus Hatchery in 1970, and he has continued to influence my fly-tying. An excellent fly tyer, Al still examines and criticizes my creations, offering suggestions for improvement.
Although I have only occasionally had the opportunity to watch some of the great Northwest steelhead fly tyers in person, I have been influenced by the creations of Steve Brocco, Syd Glasso, Steve Gobin, Marty Howard, Joe Howell, Walt Johnson, Mike Kinney, Harry Lemire, Dave McNeese, Mark Noble, John Shewey, and Bob Veverka, whose f lies have graced many fly tying books. The Northwest Fly Tying Expo, now held annually in Albany, Oregon, is hosted by the International Federation of Fly Fishers and not only provides the opportunity for fly tyers to show off their fly-tying skills, but for others like me to watch and learn.
Bud: Your résumé as a fisheries biologist covers both anadromous fisheries and resident species, but you chose to go the trouble and expense of writing and publishing a book on half-pounders, the 10-to-14inch steelhead that many steelheaders ignore. Why focus on half-pounders?
Dennis: Half-pounders are the most underappreciated steelhead in the world! California sport fishing regulations do not even recognize the half-pounder, first described in fisheries literature in 1925, as a steelhead. Many anglers misunderstand the relationship between half-pounders and adult steelhead, incorrectly calling any bright, silvery steelhead of less than three pounds a half-pounder. Unfortunately, many popular fly-fishing books and articles also ignore half-pounders, focusing on large adult steelhead, and fail to provide accurate information on half-pounders. Fortunately, fisheries studies from the Rogue, Klamath, and Eel Rivers have provided insight into half-pounder life history and biology. In my book, I attempt to include information on life history, run timing, migration, and other fishery facts about half-pounders that might be of interest to fly anglers and help improve their success.
Writing The Half-Pounder was a labor of love and could not have been done without the help of my friend and editor, Ken Hashagen, and especially my wife, Wendy, who was responsible for all the book layout and publishing. The response to the book has been excellent, and I am working on a second book on California winter steelhead from Southern California to the North Coast.
Bud: You spent nearly four decades in the CDFG/DFW, and I don’t usually get to interview someone with that kind of experience. You’ve seen how angling regulations are made and implemented. If that’s anything like how laws and sausages are made, it may not be something we’d like to know, but at the same time, a lot of anglers would benefit from knowing a bit about it. What shapes the process that ends up setting the parameters of what we can and can’t do on a stream?
Dennis: Early North American angling regulations were based on notions of fair play and sportsmanship. Later, fisheries biologists and managers recognized that regulations could be used as a tool to regulate and manage fish populations and to protect overexploited fisheries. Today, many regulations are based on the results of studies, while others are still the product of social conventions, for example, regulations against snagging fish or closures to protect spawning fish, even when not supported by science. Changes in angling regulation are most often simply small tweaks to past regulations.
In California, the Fish and Game Commission has the responsibility for promulgating regulations to manage sport fishing and hunting. New angling regulations and changes to existing regulations come from the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) and public input. Commissioners often consider biological, social, and economic impacts when making their decisions. Today’s California angling regulations remain complicated and generally not user-friendly. During the past several decades, there have been several attempts within the DFG/DFW to simplify angling regulations, but every attempt has fallen short. Failure in most instances is due to a lack of consensus, coupled with a low priority.
Bud: Part of your experience as a fisheries biologist involves working with nongovernmental groups in the course of that process. What does the interaction between governmental agencies and nongovernmental groups look like from within the agency when conservation issues are involved?
Dennis: During my career, I worked with many nongovernmental groups, including the Klamath/Trinity Salmon Restoration Committee, the Director’s Warmwater Fishery Board, California Trout, Trout Unlimited, and United Anglers, to name a few. These and other groups, including commercial interests, often have a tremendous influence on policy and direction. However, the angling public in California remains fractured, with many different organizations all vying for the attention of the commission and the department. As such, it is often difficult or impossible to please each group.
In the past, DFG/DFW directors declared that management decisions should be based on good science. However, since California remains extremely political and the department is subject to the whims of the state legislature, final decisions are often political, rather than based on good science. Such decisions often create confusion and reduce morale among the rank-and-file employees.
Bud: You’ve had a lot of experience managing hatcheries and hatchery programs for anadromous fish. Many fly fishers tend to look down their noses at hatchery fish and to regard hatcheries as problems, rather than solutions, when it comes to the management of West Coast salmonid fisheries. You obviously have a more nuanced view. What is the case for hatchery programs as they are currently constituted, and what can we do better?
Dennis: There have been several periods of hatchery bashing throughout my career. In 1995, the American Fisheries Society responded with Symposium 16, “Uses and Effects of Cultured Fishes in Aquatic Ecosystems,” and the papers were published in a book with the same title. This was an attempt to demonstrate and present examples how fish culture and hatcheries could be and had been used to restore, improve, and manage fisheries throughout North America.
In the Pacific Northwest, hatchery programs became an easy target as researchers began to identify problems associated with interactions between hatchery and naturally produced salmonids, and interactions between hatchery and wild fish are often used to denigrate hatchery programs and the fish they produce. Some individuals and groups have used this information to redirect public opinion away from problems associated with dams, lack of habitat, and other issues for anadromous fish populations.
The problem in Central California (the Sacramento–San Joaquin River system) is the reduction from over three thousand miles of anadromous fish habitat to only three hundred miles, with most of that just a migration corridor. In addition, the majority of Central Valley rivers are engineered systems with major environmental changes, compared with the conditions that prevailed historically. I am often surprised how anyone can expect significant numbers of wild salmon and steelhead to survive in light of these alterations.
The situation is somewhat different in the Klamath-Trinity system, which still has considerable habitat available for anadromous fish. In addition, and fortunately, most of these runs (not including coho salmon) are in fair condition. However, the Iron Gate Hatchery steelhead program, which was supposed to compensate for lost habitat resulting from the construction of Iron Gate Dam on the Klamath River, is and has been a failure for several decades, while up to 60 percent of the Trinity River steelhead run are hatchery produced. In spite of this, steelhead anglers still fish both rivers with good success.
In 2012, I was part of an independent California Hatchery Scientific Review Group (CA HSRG) and helped produce a report that included numerous recommendations to improve hatchery programs. In some instances, some programs, especially steelhead programs, were significantly underperforming. Last year, the DFW implemented one of the CA HSRG recommendations and instigated the formation of Hatchery Coordination Teams at all of the state’s anadromous hatcheries. The teams have been tasked with reviewing the CA HSRG recommendations and determining which recommendations could be implemented with no additional staffing or funding and which recommendations will require additional staff and funds. Many recommendations have already been implemented, while others will become part of hatchery and genetic management plans for hatchery anadromous fish programs as required by the National Marine Fisheries Service and federal regulations.
Bud: What’s your assessment of the current state of anadromous fisheries in Northern California and Oregon, and what issues and possibilities to you see arising in the future?
Dennis: I am only familiar with conditions in California and the Rogue River in Southern Oregon. Central Valley anadromous fisheries continue to fluctuate due to lack of habitat and changing environmental conditions — especially conditions in the Pacific Ocean and inland drought conditions. Steelhead programs on the American and Feather Rivers are supported almost entirely by hatchery programs, while the Sacramento River steelhead fishery is only a shadow of the historical run, in spite of the steelhead program at the Coleman National Fish Hatchery. The Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery steelhead program is still small, but appears to be improving as a result of innovative hatchery management.
The steelhead fishery in the Rogue River appears to remain in good shape, and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife surveys on the lower river have indexed better than average runs in some recent seasons. Anadromous fish habitat has been reduced by construction of the Lost Creek Dam, while the Cole Rivers Fish Hatchery helps maintain the summer steelhead run in the river. Hatchery-produced half-pounders may constitute up to 60 percent of the annual run, based on ODFW studies.
There will be continued problems associated with water management, especially as California experiences drought conditions and a growing population with no additional water storage and supply. Conflicts between fisheries and societal needs will continue.
Bud: Here we are at the dreaded Silly Tree Question. If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?
Dennis: The coast redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, has been my favorite tree for many years. This must be some kind of perverted psychological personality test.
Bud: To quote Curly — or is it Larry? Or Moe? Soytenly!
