In the past we relied on a network of friends that unless very large, usually provided only spotty reports, or newspapers and periodicals whose information was often a week old, or phone calls to local sporting goods stores that sometimes had objectives other than just providing accurate information. Most of us even had to “interpret” information provided by our friends – after all, fishermen are notorious at “stretching” the truth. Now I admit to being biased but Ive always wondered why so much of the sports pages are devoted to baseball, football, etc. when in fact more money is spent on fishing by the general public than any of the others, more than $115 Billion in 2002? My local paper prints a single column on fishing only once a week.

In just a few short years, the amount and quality of information available to us almost on a real-time basis has forever changed the way we will fish. How many times in the past did we arrive at a favorite fishing spot only to find the water running chocolate brown and completely blown out? – Not anymore! Now we can get accurate and up to date information from an increasing variety of sources. There is no doubt in my mind that the Internet has improved my fishing. Having access to more and timely information, ability to purchase products and services, and basic education has certainly increased my fishing enjoyment. Here is a small list of some of the information that I have become reliant upon for my fishing.

Basic Weather, Travel, and River Conditions – Today there are hundreds of places to get up to date weather information; Weather.com , http://www.weather.com, is one example.

Following are links to just two of the national sites that provide water levels, flow rates, and temperature on thousands of rivers across the country:
......USGS Site: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt
......NOAA Site: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ahps/

Here is an example of a 2 week river-level plot for a specific river. You can see here that there have been three fairly significant rains during this period. Over time you will learn at what levels each river is fishable and when it is blown out.

There are many more websites available that offer additional data on rivers and ocean conditions in your area. This site, http://tbone.biol.sc.edu/tide/sites_uswest.html is a listing of tide predictions at various points along the whole west coast. A search engine query will give you lots of additional data..

Road Conditions - Most states provide information on road conditions. Check for your state’s Department of Transportation, (DOT), website. Here is an example for California. I have found this particularly useful as some of the roads I travel are subject to mudslides and other hazards.

Fishing Reports and Education – Numerous websites and bulletin boards have been launched in the past few years. Today you can find fishing reports that are only hours old and some guys are even posting while they are still on the water using their mobile phones connected to email and the Internet. Some people are beginning to point their webcams at rivers. You can learn a life-time’s worth of fishing tips and education with the click of a mouse. Here are examples of just a few that are focused on steelhead and salmon fishing in the PNW:

Piscatorial Pursuits, - a site hosted by a full time fishing guide that focuses primarily on Washington fishing Steelheader.net, - another site focusing on salmon and steelhead fishing in the PNW Qualityfishing.net, - a site that focuses primarily on Oregon fishing Anglernet.net, - focuses primarily on California fishing

Fishing is traditionally a solitary sport and I think that these boards provide a wonderful sense of community for their members. Further they help fulfill my argument that we all need to do whatever we can to sustain our sport. The sad fact is that fishing as a sport is declining in numbers. Between 1998 and 2002 the number of people fishing in the US has declined by 10 percent. Information provided on sites like these can help fishermen be more successful and hopefully add to our ranks.

I believe that the accuracy of information in general has increased because of these boards. If one person follows another with a conflicting report, there is often additional information proffered by other members to support the more accurate report. The only downside I see, is that most of these sites are “open” and thus there is a fair bit of chatter in addition to the excellent information. A small price to pay in my mind.

Zipperlip - I think a word of caution is in order about the availability of so much information. Some think that merely reporting that they had a successful day of fishing on a specific river will result in a tremendous number of fishermen at the same location on the following day. The term “zipperlip” has come into vogue to indicate that many are not willing to share their information. While I can sympathize to some degree when referring to very small fisheries, the truth is there really aren’t very many secrets when it comes to fishing for steelhead and salmon. Im certain that every special “spot” that you consider to be your own secret fishing location is known by more people than you can imagine. I think the risk of having too many people come to your favorite fishing location is far outweighed by the benefit of having more people be successful and becoming lifelong supporters of our sport.

Regulations and fishing reports - Every state in the country publishes its fishing rules and regulations at its DFW website. Some of these websites publish weekly fishing reports as well and several even let you purchase your fishing license online. Here are a few examples:

• California - http://www.dfg.ca.gov/fg_comm/regs.html
• Oregon - http://www.dfw.state.or.us/ODFWhtml/InfoCntrFish/InfoCntrFish.html
• Washington - http://wdfw.wa.gov/
• Idaho - http://www2.state.id.us/fishgame/fishgame.html
• British Columbia - http://wlapwww.gov.bc.ca/fw/fish/recreational.html

Many of the DFWs publish hatchery return statistics and the book Steelhearder's Reference Guide by Amato Press both give you quantity of fish returns, timing of peak returns, plantings/smolt release data and more. These data can serve as excellent background education for targeting where you might want to fish.

Education - There is a wealth of information about our fisheries, conservation, and pure research that is readily available. Key in “steelhead” to a popular search engine and you will get more than a half a million references. Included in these links are research reports from universities, data from conservation groups, commercial references, and more. I believe that learning how to fish is a lifelong experience and in addition to spending time on the water, you can learn much by spending time in front of your computer. Finally, I believe that the Internet has provided an economical way to distribute information provided by many worthy conservation and recovery & restoration groups that heretofore was prohibitive.