Using Science and Technology to Find Fish

Chasing blue lines has been a hobby of mine since I started fly fishing. It is the best way to discover new spots, and the exploration is a large part of the draw for me. Nothing beats rounding a bend in the river deep in the woods, miles from the road, and hooking a sweet fish on the first swing or drift.

But simply picking a blue line and walking it can be a real test of your skills as an outdoorsman and your patience as an angler. I can recount many days of spending hours hiking down a canyon, through head high brush, over countless dead logs, and finally reaching a river that is seemingly fishless. And that's not even the hard part, the real test begins on the hike out after a long fishless day. Luckily, given advances in information technology we now have some great tools to help us improve our chances and put our limited free time to better use.

The first tool I use, for locating drainages and getting a lay of the land is Google Earth. This is a great way to get a bird's eye view of the river that you would need an airplane to see any other way. You can identify drainages, rapids, waterfalls, stream confluences, and potential access routes. I recommend you change a few default settings to make Google Earth easier to use.

First, I like to exaggerate the terrain. This will show river gradients and make mountains stand out more. To do this, go to the Tools-Options Menu. Next I like to turn on a few layers (photos, roads, and Borders/Labels). These are located in the drop down menu on the bottom left side of the application. Photos will show you user uploaded photos which is great. I have found a few great spots this way. Roads will mark most roads in the area as well which helps find good access.

Once I have got a general overlay of the area the real pre fishing work begins. At this point I brew a cup of coffee and load up the fish and game website for the State I am planning to fish. Once on the fish and game website you want to find the science reports section.

For Washington, start at http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/

For Idaho, start at http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/science/

For Montana, start athttp://fwp.mt.gov/fishing/mFish/

These sections of the website are searchable and filled with fisheries reports, creel surveys, habitat restoration projects, and most other public research that has been conducted across the state. I usally begin by searching for the body of water or species I am after. You can find all sorts of useful information by reading these reports. Recently, I have used them to study bull trout migration and spawning patterns here in north Idaho. There is so much data you could spend years and just skim the surface, but when you dive into it you can find information that would take a lifetime to discover on your own. Radio telemetry of fish migrations, spawning densities in different tributaries, and complete electrofishing data of your favorite river with GPS coordinates are among the many useful things hidden in these science reports. It is not light reading though, and sometimes you browse 80 pages of text for two helpful sentences. Other times, you find data that turns a month of hard fishing around. Other information available in these reports are things like historical fish counts, drainage continuity, and public access to streams, lakes, and rivers.
Do yourself a favor the next time you're stuck inside during a lightning storm and load up some of these newer tools, you never know what sort of data diamond you might find.