Creating New Trout Streams, with Chris Wood of Trout Unlimited

The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast

James Hathaway

Bass, Fishing, Bonefish, Wilderness, Flyfishing, Trout, How To, Steelhead, Bluegill, Fly, Orvis, Sports, Salmon, Panfish, Education, Rosenbauer

4.8 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2025

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Well, maybe we're not creating new trout streams, but we are creating waters that now support trout and cold, clean water by mitigating abandoned mine runoff. These are streams have been lifeless in some cases for over 100 years. There are hundreds of thousands of abandoned mines leaking acids and toxic metals throughout the country, and until a recent law was passed if an independent organization went in to clean these up, they could be held liable for any damages. The technology is there but the law prevented them from helping. With recent passage of a Good Samaritan law, a number of test cases will be established to prove that independent organizations can work to clean up these mines without legal risk.

Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited, [41:35] walks us through what has been done and what can be done in the future to ensure cleaner water for fishing, drinking, and swimming. Chris is always an articulate and interesting guest and we know you'll enjoy this podcast.

In the Fly Box this week, we have some great new questions and tips including:

What is a good chair for fly tying?
What is a good light for fly tying?
How do you organize your tying desk?
What setup should I use to fish streamers in a narrow, brushy piece of water?
A piece broke off the jaws of my fly-tying vise. How can I prevent this from happening in the future?
Why don't they make polarized sunglasses with clear magnifying inserts?
A tip from a listener to always pack an extra pack with dry clothes in case you fall in.
Should I recycle my hooks after all the dressing has fallen off a fly?
I want a rod for pike and musky fishing. What is the difference between the 10-weight and 11-weight Clearwater rods?
Is it bad a stretch a leader by hanging a pair of forceps on it?
For small stream trout, should I get a Battenkill Disc or Battenkill spring-and-pawl reel?
If I want to practice casting to my "off" side prior to a float trip, should I practice casting with my left hand or use my right hand to cast over my left shoulder?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, and welcome to the Orvis Flyfishing podcast.
0:14.3	You know, there's an old cliche that we're not making any new trout streams.
0:18.7	But actually, we are creating some new trout streams where there haven't been trout historically in a very long time.
0:28.3	And that's cleaning up abandoned mine damage, polluted outflow of toxic metals and acids from abandoned mines. Some of these mines are over
0:41.3	100, 150 years old. And there's some great news about these abandoned mines. Trout Unlimited,
0:50.5	as well as other conservation groups, and some good players in the mining industry
0:55.8	have been working up a plan to do some pilot projects where they can go in and clean up
1:03.5	these abandoned mines and clean up the water that's flowing out of them.
1:09.4	And they've actually created some trout water and some game fish water where there
1:15.4	hasn't historically, at least in our lifetimes, been any trout or other fish.
1:24.7	And my guess this week is Chris Wood, Chris is president and CEO of Trout Unlimited.
1:30.5	It's always great to get Chris on the podcast because not only is he knowledgeable, but
1:34.9	he's always positive and fun to talk to and is great at explaining some of these
1:42.8	relatively complicated issues that we deal with in the
1:47.3	environment. So Chris is going to talk about the Samaritan Act regarding cleaning up abandoned
1:54.6	minds, and I think you'll find it fascinating. I learned quite a bit on this podcast, and it's a real positive
2:01.7	feel-good podcast where both industry and conservation groups are getting together to
2:07.8	clean up these abandoned mines. And before we do the flybox, a few things I wanted to talk about.
2:15.6	One is that I get, you know, I get podcast questions all
2:21.8	the time. I'm going on a road trip and I'm going through such and such a state or province and I want
2:27.5	to go fishing along the way and where do I go? And I really can't answer these questions, but I can give you a great place to go and look.
2:36.3	If you go to the Orvis Adventures page, and that's Orvis.com backslash adventures. There is an
	...

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