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#91
The Gravel Bar / Watch the FOX8 Hurricane Helen...
Last post by Woolly Bugger - September 29, 2025, 13:55:19 PM #92
The Gravel Bar / Unfucking believable
Last post by Woolly Bugger - September 29, 2025, 13:39:13 PMTrump administration opens more land for coal mining, offers $625M to boost coal-fired power plants
The Trump administration said Monday it will open 13 million acres of federal lands for coal mining and provide $625 million to recommission or modernize coal-fired power plants as President Donald Trump continues his efforts to reverse the year-long decline in the U.S. coal industry.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-coal-mining-power-climate-burgum-electricity-eebec80c6060f37890de8dc18a1732ec
The Trump administration said Monday it will open 13 million acres of federal lands for coal mining and provide $625 million to recommission or modernize coal-fired power plants as President Donald Trump continues his efforts to reverse the year-long decline in the U.S. coal industry.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-coal-mining-power-climate-burgum-electricity-eebec80c6060f37890de8dc18a1732ec
#93
The Gravel Bar / Re: Song of the day
Last post by Woolly Bugger - September 29, 2025, 09:36:53 AM #94
Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued
Last post by Woolly Bugger - September 27, 2025, 19:40:16 PMQuote from: Woolly Bugger on May 05, 2024, 09:16:36 AM
#24 -- 47
Continuing with the bamboo series, I chose the 1975 8' Madison 4 1/8 oz which cast a 5 wt line. Driving up to the river I realized that once again I didn't have my wet wading or wading pant with me. Riverbum was passing by, and we met up at the 666 bridge for the caddis hatch. The bum was in the water when I got there and I prepared the boo for fishing as he strolled up. There were bugs in the air and a few fish were rising. As the bum waded to the middle of the river a fish rose righ behind him and I attempted to "pick his pocket". I got the fish to rise but missed the hookset. Oh, well, I moved on to the head of the run as he worked his was down stream. I caught a couple and turned to look downstream as the bum hollered about his hookup.
A few fish were caught, and then the bum had to leave, I stayed on waiting for things to pick up in the evening. I took a break as I waited for the action to pick up. Just as I was ready to go after the many rising fish, my son called, and we spoke for 30 minutes during the heat of the hatch.
Neil from Greensboro, the 80 year old that I met the other day, arrived as cautiously waded up stream as I worked the middle of the run. I caught few fish and got a handful to rise but the hookup ration was dismay. A series of fly changes only led to more frustration.
DJ's raft approached from upstream, and we spoke as he beached the raft at the ramp. He said he had some flies to try and handed my three. As I was getting ready to fish his fly it started to rain, I ignored it at first but eventually it drove me off the water.
Back at the car I started put the gear up and then tried to take the boo apart, wating to hear the satifisying pop of seperation. Damn it, it was suck, I tried all the moves, over the head, behind the knees to no avail. Dame it!
Drove home and tried and tried to get it apart, I'm now thinking its a one piece rod.I even tried Kelly Galloup's tape method. I'll have to try the two-person interwoven method next with grips or tape.
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Never give up!
This has been bothering me for what 16 months now? I tired several times since that post without success. I even bought some freeze spray to chill the ferrule, but I couldn't get a good enough grip on the tip piece as it's so narrow. So, I ordered a pair of arrow pullers. The one on the butt section felt secure but the tip section is too narrow. I padded the puller with a jar opening pad. Tried again — nope, froze the joint, nothing , continued spraying the ferrule until it was white with froze and pulled. I was rewarded with a loud pop! Like the cork on a champagne bottle!
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Never give up!
#95
Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued
Last post by Woolly Bugger - September 27, 2025, 14:39:16 PM#24 -- 65 scattered clouds, low 80s, perhaps cooler on the river.
I started out with the fly that was tied on the St. Croix Legend 3 wt., a partridge and orange soft hackle, even thought I didn't see any surface activity. No fish rising, no bugs in the air except for midges. I waded up to the top of the run and worked my way downstream. I heard a trout rise behind me and I began to notice a sulfur pop off here and there. I got a few fish to hit the wet but they didn't fully commit. After about ninety minutes of casting I worked a fish, the only one that rose more than once, but blew the hookset, I was sure the fish was there, but should haved waited beyond the usual, tap, tap, tap. I pulled the fly out of the fishes mouth.
I moved on down to the lower reach and got a few more fish to show some faint interest in my fly, but I failed to hook any of them. Finally I had enought dissapointment to change flies. By this time there were more bugs emerging and I selected a nice puff daddy to tie on. Third cast and this brown exploded on the fly as it drifted in the current.
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Several more browns came to hand along with the occasional rainbow.
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After another hour of so I was ready to have a beer and head on home for dinner, but on the walk out I trided casting out on the still water at the head of the run from the bank. I was hitting 45-50 feet out, but couldn't get a decent drift over the punes that were occasionally hitting the surface. I reeled in and as I turned, I saw the wildlilfe officer walking towards me. He greated me and asked if I had and luck, to which I gave my standard reply, "I'm just lucky to be out here." "I guess you want to see my license?" I reached into my waders and grabbed my phont and opened up the GoOutdoorsVa app and showed it to him. We talked a bit about how this spot didn't see many anglers, and I lamented the loss of access to the Philpott property below the mirror plant.
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#96
The Gravel Bar / Re: Unlimited Everything Everg...
Last post by Woolly Bugger - September 26, 2025, 08:53:17 AM #97
The Gravel Bar / Alaskan rivers turn orange as ...
Last post by Woolly Bugger - September 26, 2025, 08:45:09 AMAlaskan rivers turn orange as permafrost thaws, threatening fish and communities
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# A new study found that 75 streams in Alaska's Brooks Range have turned orange due to thawing permafrost, which releases metals like iron, aluminum and cadmium that exceed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency safety thresholds for aquatic life.
# The contamination threatens fish populations, with aluminum concentrations at one location reaching nearly five times the safe limit, and the study suggests this may help explain recent crashes in chum salmon returns that Indigenous communities depend on for food and income.
# The pollution flows hundreds of miles downstream to coastal communities like Kivalina, where residents who rely on traditional fishing face threats to food security as some tributaries of rivers like the Wulik have begun turning orange.
# Scientists warn that this climate change impact is irreversible and spreading across the Arctic, with no cleanup options, as these remote watersheds contain hundreds of contamination sources.
The writer John McPhee once described Alaska's Salmon River as having "the clearest, purest water" he'd ever seen. Today, that same river runs orange with toxic metals unleashed by thawing permafrost.
"During the summer of 2019, the clear waters of the Salmon turned distinctly orange and have remained discolored and turbid since," according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Salmon River's transformation represents a much larger crisis. In Alaska's Brooks Range,75 streams have "recently turned orange and turbid," the study found.
"This is what acid mine drainage looks like," said Tim Lyons, a biogeochemist at the University of California, Riverside, and co-author of the study. "But here, there's no mine. The permafrost is thawing and changing the chemistry of the landscape."
The cause lies underground in permanently frozen soil, known as permafrost. As global temperatures rise, this ancient layer is thawing. When water and oxygen reach the newly exposed soil, they trigger chemical reactions that break down sulfide-rich rocks, creating sulfuric acid that leaches naturally occurring metals like iron, cadmium and aluminum from rocks into the river, the research shows.
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/alaskan-rivers-turn-orange-as-permafrost-thaws-threatening-fish-and-communities/
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# A new study found that 75 streams in Alaska's Brooks Range have turned orange due to thawing permafrost, which releases metals like iron, aluminum and cadmium that exceed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency safety thresholds for aquatic life.
# The contamination threatens fish populations, with aluminum concentrations at one location reaching nearly five times the safe limit, and the study suggests this may help explain recent crashes in chum salmon returns that Indigenous communities depend on for food and income.
# The pollution flows hundreds of miles downstream to coastal communities like Kivalina, where residents who rely on traditional fishing face threats to food security as some tributaries of rivers like the Wulik have begun turning orange.
# Scientists warn that this climate change impact is irreversible and spreading across the Arctic, with no cleanup options, as these remote watersheds contain hundreds of contamination sources.
The writer John McPhee once described Alaska's Salmon River as having "the clearest, purest water" he'd ever seen. Today, that same river runs orange with toxic metals unleashed by thawing permafrost.
"During the summer of 2019, the clear waters of the Salmon turned distinctly orange and have remained discolored and turbid since," according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Salmon River's transformation represents a much larger crisis. In Alaska's Brooks Range,75 streams have "recently turned orange and turbid," the study found.
"This is what acid mine drainage looks like," said Tim Lyons, a biogeochemist at the University of California, Riverside, and co-author of the study. "But here, there's no mine. The permafrost is thawing and changing the chemistry of the landscape."
The cause lies underground in permanently frozen soil, known as permafrost. As global temperatures rise, this ancient layer is thawing. When water and oxygen reach the newly exposed soil, they trigger chemical reactions that break down sulfide-rich rocks, creating sulfuric acid that leaches naturally occurring metals like iron, cadmium and aluminum from rocks into the river, the research shows.
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/alaskan-rivers-turn-orange-as-permafrost-thaws-threatening-fish-and-communities/
#98
The Gravel Bar / Re: Historic sale of dams clea...
Last post by Woolly Bugger - September 25, 2025, 22:25:50 PMRestoring Balance to the Kennebec River
The Nature Conservancy has reached agreement with Brookfield Renewable for the purchase of the four dams on the lower Kennebec River—Lockwood, Hydro-Kennebec, Shawmut and Weston. This is the latest step in decades of work by many people and organizations to find a long-term solution for the Kennebec—a solution that will restore the river's ecological health and protect the region's economic vitality.
https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/maine/kennebec/#hero-banner_immersive_hero-subsection
The Nature Conservancy has reached agreement with Brookfield Renewable for the purchase of the four dams on the lower Kennebec River—Lockwood, Hydro-Kennebec, Shawmut and Weston. This is the latest step in decades of work by many people and organizations to find a long-term solution for the Kennebec—a solution that will restore the river's ecological health and protect the region's economic vitality.
https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/maine/kennebec/#hero-banner_immersive_hero-subsection
#99
The Gravel Bar / Historic sale of dams clears t...
Last post by Woolly Bugger - September 25, 2025, 20:59:59 PMThe Nature Conservancy on Tuesday announced a landmark investment worth $168 million to purchase and oversee Brookfield Renewable's four hydroelectric dams on the lower Kennebec River in Maine, paving the way for their eventual removal.
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The sale all but guarantees unfettered access for endangered Atlantic salmon and other seagoing fish from the Gulf of Maine to their historic spawning grounds upstream on the Sandy River for the first time since the Kennebec River was permanently dammed more than a century ago.
The four dams are located in and between Waterville and Skowhegan and are the last impediments between the mouth of the Kennebec River and its confluence with the Sandy River near Norridgewock.
The two parties finalized a purchase agreement on Sept. 15 that requires Brookfield to continue operating the dams over the next few years while The Nature Conservancy establishes a broader river restoration plan with stakeholder input, said Alex Mas, deputy state director for The Nature Conservancy in Maine, in an exclusive interview with The Maine Monitor.
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https://apnews.com/article/brookfield-corp-waterways-fish-animals-janet-mills-0ee08e4f17055b6f01ffefff2190cce2
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The sale all but guarantees unfettered access for endangered Atlantic salmon and other seagoing fish from the Gulf of Maine to their historic spawning grounds upstream on the Sandy River for the first time since the Kennebec River was permanently dammed more than a century ago.
The four dams are located in and between Waterville and Skowhegan and are the last impediments between the mouth of the Kennebec River and its confluence with the Sandy River near Norridgewock.
The two parties finalized a purchase agreement on Sept. 15 that requires Brookfield to continue operating the dams over the next few years while The Nature Conservancy establishes a broader river restoration plan with stakeholder input, said Alex Mas, deputy state director for The Nature Conservancy in Maine, in an exclusive interview with The Maine Monitor.
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https://apnews.com/article/brookfield-corp-waterways-fish-animals-janet-mills-0ee08e4f17055b6f01ffefff2190cce2
#100