I recently posted on social media about attending a White House dinner announcing executive action on hunting and fishing and recognizing sportsmen’s contributions to American conservation. The instant replies included accusations of collusion. One reader condemned the administration’s conservation record; another asked, “why are you cooperating with these soulless fascists?” Those were the commenter’s words, not a description of any particular provision in the order. I had posted about an outdoor-policy event and found myself answering questions about the morality of accepting an invitation.

Apparently, our algorithms were delivering different news feeds. Rather than conduct another hearing before the Court of People Typing While Angry, I decided to examine the record: legislation, executive orders, agency rules and court decisions. The question was what President Trump had done concerning hunting, fishing, conservation and the Second Amendment. Attending dinner did not answer it. Neither did the comments.

Start with the Great American Outdoors Act, signed August 4, 2020. It permanently funded the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million annually and authorized up to $1.9 billion annually for deferred maintenance during fiscal years 2021 through 2025. Congress passed it; Trump signed it. These were statutory funding provisions, not an honorary plaque announcing that the administration had recently discovered trees. 

Trump also signed the 2019 Dingell conservation act, permanently authorizing the conservation fund and addressing public access. His signature on the 2018 Modern Fish Act enacted key recreational-fisheries management and data provisions.

His administration’s August 2020 refuge rule opened or expanded hunting and fishing opportunities across more than 2.3 million acres. On August 13, 2026, Interior announced another final rule adding 1,488 species-and-location opportunities at 111 refuges and hatcheries. These figures measure different things: affected acreage in one instance, particular opportunities in the other. Neither means the government purchased that much new land, but it’s hard not to view them as a net positive for sportsmen. 

The September 17 hunting order explicitly recognizes hunters’ conservation contributions. It directs agencies to pursue access improvements, infrastructure work and voluntary agreements concerning difficult-to-reach public lands. It addresses hunter education, youth and veterans, habitat connectivity, disease, invasive species and game-meat donations. It also directs Interior to encourage expanded Sunday hunting.

This conservation role predates the dinner: license revenue, duck stamps, excise taxes and voluntary habitat work support wildlife programs. The order recognizes that history; it did not invent the relationship between sportsmen and wildlife conservation in this country. But isn’t it nice to see the most powerful office in the land recognize the architects behind American conservation?

The companion saltwater order directs fisheries-management reviews, improved catch information and artificial-reef initiatives. Both require implementation consistent with existing law and available appropriations. A directive to improve access is not a repaired bridge. Until equipment and funding arrive, the bridge remains stubbornly resistant to executive stationery. Nevertheless, the first step to improvement starts with ink.

The public responses from hunter and angler-funded conservation groups were uniform: Safari Club International, Ducks Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Mule Deer Foundation, Boone & Crockett, Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, the National Shooting Sports Foundation and many other members of the camo coalition welcomed the orders’ recognition of hunters, access, science-based wildlife management and education. And why wouldn’t they?

There are newcomer organizations who profess to speak for America’s sportsmen but they seem especially shy of one key element: constituency. Certainly, an organization can explain its membership’s priorities and advocate for certain policies, but perhaps we should also know who their start-up venture funders are and what their motivations might be. Camouflage should be clothing, not something that covers fundraising appeals.

The comparison with other presidents also requires keeping the record intact. Obama signed the 2009 public-lands law locking up millions of wilderness acres and more than 1,000 river miles. Biden’s administration expanded hunting and fishing opportunities across 2.1 million acres in 2021. These actions coexist with Trump’s measures. An inauguration does not make the preceding administration’s acreage disappear. 

That leaves separate questions about habitat and access. Permission to hunt, a passable route and wildlife populations are related but distinct. An access announcement alone cannot establish a population trend. A concern about habitat does not identify whether a particular gate opened. These questions require different evidence, however inconvenient that may be for a single triumphant headline.

On firearms, Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. All three joined the six-justice majority in the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen decision, which invalidated New York’s special-need requirement for public handgun carry and established a text-and-history framework for Second Amendment challenges. That was a judicial decision with legal consequences, not a campaign photograph featuring borrowed hearing protection. 

Trump’s February 2025 Second Amendment order directed review of federal firearms policies. His Justice Department sued Colorado over magazine restrictions in May 2026 and San Jose over a carry-license application fee it described as nearly $1,600 on September 16. The filings document the administration’s legal position—clearly one that aligns with the majority of gun-owning hunters, which is most of them.  

Conversely, Obama advocated expanded background checks and renewed assault-weapon and magazine restrictions, despite no concrete evidence that they would deter crime. Biden signed the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, including enhanced checks for purchasers under 21 because, of course, criminals wouldn’t think of committing crimes without first passing a background check. History has an irritating habit of refusing to fit on a bumper sticker. 

After reviewing the Trump record for sportsmen, for the most part, it holds up well against his recent predecessors. Apparently, that’s an inconvenient truth for those who get a steady diet of outrage theater from groups who survive on opposition fundraising.

My dinner attendance was an account of where I went. The policy record concerns what government did. The comments concerned what readers thought of both. Those are three different subjects; however efficiently social media can scramble them into one. Out on public land, the questions remain more concrete: What is funded? What is permitted? What has changed? The answers are in the documents and the field—not the seating chart.

– Chris Dorsey

Chris Dorsey is a Coloradan, 30-year media veteran, biologist, outdoor television producer and natural history filmmaker whose writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Forbes and dozens more national titles. 

State and federal wildlife agencies, private conservation organizations and landowners have formed an important partnership focused on water quality restoration projects within the Paint Rock watershed in northeast Alabama. Those projects include streambank restoration, barrier removal and cleaning the river through the reintroduction of native mussels.

On Tuesday, August 25, 2026, representatives from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Alabama, the Alabama Rivers Alliance and the Beagle Charitable Foundation met in rural Jackson County for the release of approximately 1,500 rare native mussels into a section of the Paint Rock River that flows through the property of Huntsville businessman and Alabama Conservation Advisory Board member Raymond Jones, Jr. State Rep. Mike Kirkland and State Sen. Steve Livingston also attended the release.

“Partnerships like this are essential to our mission to conserve the state’s natural resources,” said Chris Blankenship, ADCNR Commissioner. “They bring together knowledge, resources and a shared commitment to protect Alabama’s lands, waters and wildlife. The work they are doing to improve water quality and habitat in the Paint Rock watershed is inspiring and will benefit communities along the river for generations to come.”

Native freshwater mussels and snails are important to healthy rivers and streams because they filter and clean water, recycle nutrients, provide food for other wildlife and help indicate the health of aquatic ecosystems by serving as an early warning system for declining water quality.

Dr. Paul Johnson, Director of ADCNR’s Alabama Aquatic Biodiversity Center (AABC), said the Jones property is a showcase site for restoration efforts on the Paint Rock.

“We’re releasing about 1,500 mussels today,” Johnson said. “Two are endangered species, the Pale Lilliput and Tennessee Bean, and one that’s proposed for listing, the Cumberland Moccasinshell. Both the Pale Lilliput and Tennessee Bean were among 20 species of freshwater mussels first listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1976. There is a proposed rule for Cumberland Moccasinshell. It remains in only two places in Alabama. This will be the first release of Cumberland Moccasinshell in the middle Paint Rock. These releases are an ongoing attempt to reintroduce the Tennessee Bean and expand Pale Lilliput and Cumberland Moccasinshell in the Paint Rock River.”

Expanding where these species occur is necessary to meet the USFWS formal recovery criteria, so the species might eventually be delisted from the Endangered Species Act. Since 2010, the AABC has released more than 23,000 mussels at the Jones property site and 53,000 mussels representing six species throughout the Paint Rock River. In addition to the Tennessee Bean, Pale Lilliput and Cumberland Moccasinshell, the AABC has also released the Alabama Lampmussel, Oystermussel and Birdwing Pearlymussel into the Paint Rock.

“Our partners in this project have worked directly with the landowners to repair a lot of the damage that was done to the river in the past,” Johnson said. “One reason some of these species were listed was because of a channelization project here in the 60s that disturbed and moved the river. The habitat restoration work on the Paint Rock is helping landowners recover from some of the damage that was caused by that channelization project. Once the habitat has stabilized, that allows us to come in and complete the species recovery work with the goal to move them towards downlisting from the Endangered Species Act.”

Established in 2004, the AABC is the largest state nongame recovery program of its kind in the U.S. Its mission is to promote the conservation and restoration of rare freshwater species in Alabama waters and restore cleaner water in the state’s waterways. The reintroduction and recovery efforts provide leverage to other partners in pursuit of habitat recovery projects in critical watersheds statewide. The AABC is also working with other state natural resource agencies, primarily the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, on reintroduction efforts where the animals once were in Tennessee as well.

The Paint Rock is one of the most biodiverse watersheds in North America. At just under 59 miles in length and occupying only 460 square miles, the Paint Rock River and its watershed support more than 150 different tree species, nearly 100 native freshwater fish species and 52 freshwater mussels species, including 12 listed under the Endangered Species Act.

In 1994, TNC’s Alabama Chapter established the Paint Rock River Initiative to begin habitat restoration efforts in the watershed. Over the next two decades, 45 streambank and channel restoration projects were completed through the cooperative efforts of the ADCNR, USFWS, TNC, Tennessee Valley Authority, Jackson County, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and private landowners.

Additionally, these partnerships have secured 38,000 acres of public lands to support conservation efforts in the Paint Rock watershed and increase access to outdoor recreation, including ADCNR’s Skyline Wildlife Management Area and various Forever Wild properties like the popular Walls of Jericho tract, USFWS’s Paint Rock River National Wildlife Refuge in Tennessee, and TNC’s Roy B. Whitaker Preserve, Keel Mountain Preserve, and Paint Rock Forest Research Center.

The Paint Rock meanders for a little more than 3 miles through Jones’ nearly 5,000 acres. In the late 1960s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers implemented a program to straighten sections of the upper Paint Rock where parts of the river were artificially channelized in an attempt to diminish flooding events.

The channelization project triggered severe bank loss and erosion throughout the watershed, causing damage to property and the loss of acreage for landowners. Jones’ father, Raymond Jones, Sr., built a levy along a section of the river on their property in the late 70s and early 80s to protect against the damage. River restoration projects began at the Jones site in 2012, and two streambank stabilization projects were completed in 2017 and 2019. These river restoration projects have made the Jones property an important location for AABC’s mussel recovery efforts on the Paint Rock River.

Jones said the river has changed for the better over the last two decades thanks to the partnerships working to restore it.

“I think the river is the lifeblood to the whole valley and brings together a variety of people and supports an incredibly diverse habitat for so many species of wildlife,” he said. “The river itself is healthier today than it was when I was kid. The Nature Conservancy and the Conservation Department’s Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF) Division have been great partners. It would be very difficult to do this on your own as a landowner. These partnerships are everything.”

More than 95 percent of land in Alabama is privately owned, making private landowner participation in restoration and recovery projects essential to conservation. Partnerships between state, federal and private conservation organizations and landowners like Jones are critical to ensuring the health and sustainability of the state’s natural resources.

The USFWS Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program helps support these types of conservation efforts by providing free technical and financial assistance to individual landowners and organizations interested in improving wildlife habitat on their land. Since 1987, USFWS has helped more than 25,000 landowners complete more than 40,000 projects, restoring more than six million acres of forest, prairie, wetland and stream habitat throughout the U.S.

“For more than 25 years, the Paint Rock River Basin has been a priority watershed for us,” said Jeff Powell, Acting Field Supervisor for the USFWS's Alabama Ecological Services Field Office. “Our goal is to work with private landowners and other agencies and conservation groups to provide positive conservation opportunities for willing participants. Of the more than 40 projects that have been implemented in the Paint Rock River over the last 25 years, Mr. Jones’ property has always been special for multiple reasons. First, because he has always been such a faithful and willing partner and second, the presence of numerous trust resources including several federally protected freshwater fishes and mussels on this property make it a priority.”

During the mussel release, ADCNR Deputy Commissioner Charlanna Skaggs thanked Jones for making his property available for AABC’s recovery efforts.

“Raymond has been an incredible partner in the restoration work of the Paint Rock watershed,” Deputy Commissioner Skaggs said. “He and his father have served on various boards associated with the Conservation Department, including the Conservation Advisory Board and the Forever Wild Land Trust, and this is one of those projects where the state can partner with private landowners and do some really great work together. We are grateful for his stewardship of this section of the Paint Rock.”

Amy Silvano, Chief of WFF's Nongame Resources and Wildlife Health Section, said much of the species recovery work on the Paint Rock depends on habitat restoration efforts and could not be accomplished without support from the State Wildlife Grant Program. Mandated by Congress in 2000, the State Wildlife Grant Program provides states with funding for proactive conservation efforts for species of greatest conservation need and their habitats.

“The State Wildlife Grant Program was established to support a wide range of conservation activities, including research, surveys, restoration and habitat management for species of greatest conservation need,” Silvano said. “Each state is required to develop a comprehensive State Wildlife Action Plan to remain eligible for program funding. Among other conservation projects, this funding helps support the Aquatic Biodiversity Center. Paul and his team play a critical role in implementing Alabama’s State Wildlife Action Plan by developing and restoring populations of species of greatest conservation need throughout the state, including today’s mussel release at the Paint Rock.”

State Rep. Mike Kirkland, who represents Jackson County in House District 23, said the mussel release in the Paint Rock at the Jones property is an ideal model for conservation efforts within the watershed.

“As a lifelong resident of Jackson County, I’ve had the privilege of knowing and spending time on this land for many years, and seeing it preserved is something that means a great deal to me personally,” Rep. Kirkland said. “What we witnessed during the mussel release is an important investment in the future of our community and the state of Alabama. Restoring this land will allow nature to do what it does best—help clean and protect our river, provide valuable habitat for wildlife and conserve a place that is incredibly diverse biologically. This is the kind of conservation that benefits everyone, including our residents, our landowners, our outdoor heritage and future generations who will have the opportunity to experience this remarkable part of Jackson County.”

State Sen. Steve Livingston represents Senate District 8, which covers Jackson and Madison counties and portions of DeKalb. He is excited to see the legacy of the river protected through the restoration and conservation efforts of the partner organizations working together on behalf of the watershed.

“Attending the mussel release was a special day for me because this is land I’ve known and spent time on for many years,” Sen. Livingston said. “Growing up in Jackson County, I’ve always understood how important this river and the surrounding land are to our community—not just for the people who live and work here, but for the wildlife and natural resources that make this area so unique. By allowing this land to work naturally to filter and clean the river, we’re investing in cleaner water, healthier habitat and a stronger future for Jackson County and the entire state of Alabama. I’m proud to see something that has been such a meaningful part of our community preserved for the generations who come after us.

“We are so proud to have the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, along with Raymond Jones and Mark Yokley representing the Jones family, working together to help preserve and restore the Paint Rock watershed. It takes partnerships like these and people who truly care about this land to make lasting conservation possible.”

In addition to improving habitat along the river and repairing damage to landowner property, the restoration and recovery efforts are yielding positive results for the animals that are doing the heavy lifting to clean the river. Since AABC’s mussel recovery efforts began, some of the reintroduced animals have established reproducing populations.

“We’ve verified recruitment in the middle and lower Paint Rock for Pale Lilliput, Birdwing Pearlymussel, Oystermussel and Alabama Lampmussel,” Johnson said. “Working with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, we’ve reintroduced Pale Lilliput into five different locations, and we have established reproducing populations in three of those sites. We’ve also reintroduced the Cumberland Moccasinshell to Bear Creek in Colbert County and it is reproducing. That’s how we’re going to meet the recovery criteria, by completing reintroduction efforts in multiple states simultaneously. The kicker is that this helps push the clean water effort forward and improves the property for landowners.”

–Kenny Johnson, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

You’d have to have been living under a rock not to know about Virginia Attorney General (AG) Jay Jones and his infamous text messages that came to light during his campaign to be the commonwealth’s top law enforcement officer.

“Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, Hitler, and Pol Pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head,” then-Delegate Jones mistakenly texted to Republican Virginia Delegate Carrie Coyner in 2022, referencing then-Republican Virginia Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert. “Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time,” AG Jones added.

After Delegate Coyner addressed his disgusting sentiments, then-Delegate Jones doubled down, following up with a disgusting and vile text message stating how he “wished” that the Virginia Speaker’s children would be shot and “die in their mother’s arms.”

Fast forward and AG Jones announced he’s established a dedicated, taxpayer-funded unit to investigate potential violations of the commonwealth’s new firearm industry liability law and bring civil enforcement actions against lawful and highly regulated businesses.

Announced Sept. 15, the Firearms Accountability & Industry Responsibility (FAIR) Unit gives the attorney general’s office a team focused on enforcing a statute that took effect July 1 and imposes so-called “standards of conduct” on firearm manufacturers, distributors, importers, marketers and retailers.

Virginians shouldn’t hold their breath if they think the same guy who texted the reprehensible messages that he did — and doubled down on them — will be a fair arbiter of any regulations in place meant to hamper the firearm industry and law-abiding Virginians’ ability to exercise their constitutional rights.

What Virginia’s New Law Requires

Enacted through House Bill 21 and Senate Bill 27, the Virginia Firearm Industry Standards of Responsible Conduct prohibits an industry member from knowingly creating, maintaining or contributing to a so-called “public nuisance” through unlawful or unreasonable conduct involving the sale, manufacture, importation or marketing of firearm-related products. It separately requires industry members to establish and implement vague and undefined “reasonable controls” regarding their products. Under the statute, violating either requirement constitutes a public nuisance, even if the product was sold in accordance with all state and federal laws.

The law vaguely defines reasonable controls as procedures, safeguards and business practices designed to address specified risks. Those include sales to straw purchasers, firearm traffickers and prohibited persons, as well as firearm theft or loss, unlawful marketing and certain violations of consumer protection law. The definition also addresses sales to individuals whom a business has reasonable cause to believe present a substantial risk of unlawful firearm use or harm.

These provisions matter because the statute reaches beyond the point of sale. Its definition of a firearm industry member covers businesses engaged in manufacturing, distribution, importation and marketing, while its definition of firearm-related products includes ammunition, components and accessories that meet the law’s Virginia-related criteria.

It’s a lot of overly broad legalese that means the avowed antigun attorney general and local government attorneys may bring civil actions against lawful firearm industry businesses seeking injunctions, nuisance abatement, restitution, compensatory or punitive damages and attorney fees simply because they don’t like the way they legally sell their products. Individuals allegedly injured as a result of an alleged violation may also sue for specified relief. A complaint, however, is an allegation. Any liability must be established through the applicable legal process.

A Dedicated Unit to Pursue Enforcement

AG Jones’ office said the FAIR Unit is housed within its Civil and Criminal Justice & Public Safety divisions and that it is recruiting attorneys, prosecutors and investigators. The office identified potentially unlawful sales, distribution and marketing practices, along with practices alleged to facilitate illegal firearm acquisition or diversion, as examples of conduct that could prompt enforcement.

The unit follows an earlier public commitment by AG Jones to implement the law. Before it took effect, he held a news conference with lawmakers and other participants to discuss the attorney general’s next steps. The FAIR Unit is the office’s subsequent organizational step toward enforcement, rather than a new grant of authority beyond the enacted statute.

Virginia law also permits the attorney general to issue a civil investigative demand when there is reasonable cause to believe a violation has occurred, is occurring or is about to occur. Such a demand can be part of an investigation before a lawsuit is filed; it is not a finding that a business has broken the law.

To supposedly establish more credibility for his actions, AG Jones has previously cited his involvement in litigation against Polymer80 while he was working in the District of Columbia attorney general’s office. But reporting during his 2025 campaign noted that the case was filed before he joined the office and questioned the extent of his role. That litigation is separate from the authority Virginia’s new statute gives his office.

Federal Protections and the Next Legal Test

The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) generally bars specified civil actions seeking to hold firearm manufacturers and sellers liable for harm caused by remote third parties’ criminal or unlawful misuse of firearms. It also contains statutory exceptions. In order to sue, the industry defendant must have knowingly violated a state or federal law specifically applicable to the sale and marketing of firearms which proximately cause the injury, i.e., public nuisance, complained of. Whether a particular Virginia claim is barred or falls within an exception would depend on its allegations and the applicable federal or state law.

A separate dispute illustrates why the distinction matters. On Sept. 8, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit allowed NSSF’s challenge to New Jersey’s nearly identical “reasonable controls” law to proceed, resolving questions about whether NSSF had standing to sue and whether the federal district court could abstention from hearing our case. That ruling did not decide the merits of NSSF’s challenge, it allows our case to move forward. Challenges to Virginia’s law would be routed through the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, so the Third Circuit’s decision wouldn’t have direct bearing on Virginia’s law. It does, however, show that litigation over state firearm industry liability laws involves procedural questions as well as the underlying federal law issues. NSSF sued Maryland over its identical “reasonable control” law in federal court. Like in New Jersey, the federal district court wrongly dismissed our case. We have appealed to the Fourth Circuit where the court will hear oral argument in mid-December.

For lawful firearm businesses operating under Virginia’s statute, the immediate questions concern compliance with its ill-defined standards and the scope of any investigation. The developments to watch are the FAIR Unit’s first investigative demands and enforcement filings. Those actions will identify the practices Virginia chooses to challenge and may give courts an opportunity to address how the state’s new liability provisions operate alongside federal protections.

NSSF will be watching very closely. AG Jones’ past actions have clearly demonstrated he has an anti-Second Amendment agenda and would likely, comfortably, use his political office to make a political point and attack Virginians’ Second Amendment rights. As we have in other states with identical laws, all of which were proposed, written and supported by the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety, NSSF will not hesitate to sue AG Jones should he enforce the law in a manner that violates the constitution or is preempted by the PLCAA.

– Larry Keane

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

How a salmon run quietly turns into the best trout and steelhead fishing of the year

Numerous fish species migrate upstream to spawn, but nothing commands an angler's attention quite like a salmon run. Some of the world's most notorious fisheries erupt into an annual frenzy as anglers travel far and wide for a shot at a burly salmon during peak season.

Species and Timing

Pacific salmon species — including Chinook (king), coho (silver), sockeye (and their landlocked cousins, Kokanee), pink, and chum — jam into natal river systems draining into the Pacific Ocean, as well as the Great Lakes, where Chinook, coho, and pink are well-established.

From a table-fare perspective, spawning salmon lose their appeal fast. The longer they sit in the river, the less palatable they get, since they're on a one-way mission to spawn and die, usually within weeks. That matters for one reason: anglers locked in on salmon alone are missing the better option, and it's often sitting right in front of them.

The Underwater Buffet

Most anglers view salmon as the star of the show. Experienced anglers know better — the salmon are the sideshow. They're a moving feast, with females hauling precious, high-protein egg cargo upstream into the territory of fish built to capitalize on it.

As salmon excavate gravel beds (redds) to deposit their eggs, they inevitably dislodge eggs and aquatic insects like caddis larvae, stonefly, and mayfly nymphs. Resident trout and temporary residents like steelhead abandon their usual wariness to feed heavily on this temporary buffet. And as salmon break down during the dying process, even their flesh becomes a food source for a wide range of species, fish included.

The Angler's Opportunity: Targeting Trout and Steelhead

The biggest challenge for anglers is ignoring the salmon to focus on species that are in peak condition and fight with real zest when hooked. When conditions line up, you'll find multiple trout and char species of various age classes, and potentially steelhead, feeding aggressively just downstream of the salmon. Where grayling exist, count on them too.

As a guide, I call this scenario "ripping eggs" — trout and steelhead darting around chasing eggs, occasionally bumping into each other in the chaos. Most anglers miss this opportunity entirely because they're too locked in on the salmon, casting to them repeatedly expecting different results. These fish rarely bite voluntarily, and casting to them frequently ends in a snagged fish instead of a hooked one.

That's where the terms "flossing" and "lining" come from — feeding the leader into a salmon's mouth and setting the hook so it buries somewhere in or near the mouth, which is typically viewed as a legally hooked fish.

To be clear, fresh salmon staging to spawn are some of the sportiest fish you'll ever hook, and they provide outstanding sport the moment they enter the stream. But that window only lasts two or three weeks before they congregate on gravel flats with moderate-to-fast current to spawn. Chinook in particular dig huge, deep redds to incubate eggs — activity that, over the years, has reshaped entire stretches of river bottom.

Guide to Finding and Fishing the Feeders

Locating Redds: Heavily redded areas are easy to spot — lighter-colored, round depressions on the bottom, with a high spot on the downstream side where eggs were layered in and incubated. Just off the back of that high spot, there's often a sharp drop-off into moderately deeper water. River current scours the beds to prevent sedimentation and keep eggs oxygenated, and stray eggs naturally wash into this deeper "egg dump" just downstream, where hydraulics hold eggs and insects in place for feeding trout and steelhead.

Finding "Dark Water" Refuges: Salmon are often aggressive toward fish that creep into their spawning zone, but displaced feeders rarely travel far. Some trout and steelhead feed out in the open flats, but many take refuge in deeper troughs and pools downstream — what I call "dark water." These spots almost always hold big fish keyed in on eggs and dislodged insects.

Tackle and Techniques: Targeting feeders works with conventional or fly gear alike. Some anglers prefer skein or spawn bags, but yarn eggs (like glo-bugs) and beads are hard to beat when feeding activity peaks. Bottom-bouncing with a drift rod or fly rod is very productive, and float-fishing with centerpin or drift rods — or an indicator setup on a fly rod — helps keep your offering in the zone while avoiding the bottom.

Alternative Protein: If the egg bite goes quiet, throw them a curveball. Flies mimicking aquatic insects — green caddis larvae, stonefly, and mayfly nymphs — often do the job, especially teamed with an egg in a tandem rig where legal.

To Move or Not to Move: Don't abandon a spot just because you've pounded it. Feeding fish shuffle around searching for active lanes, and a big hen salmon actively spawning will ring the dinner bell for any feeders downstream, so stay alert for spawning activity.

Targeting Steelhead: Steelhead — both summer-run and winter-run — feed heavily during this window. Summer-runs have likely been around a while, but fresh, chrome winter-run steelhead arrive in peak shape come fall for an incredible fight.

Gear Selection: Lean lighter than a dedicated salmon setup to protect the leaders and tippets suited for trout and steelhead. A 10- or 12-pound fluorocarbon leader is ideal — heavy enough to handle a stray salmon, light enough for trout and steelhead. Make sure reels carry a strong drag and leaders and tippet are fresh for severe duty.

Timing and Conditions: Spawning salmon often take cover on bright days or spawn at night. Search deeper water with cover, since feeding fish keep taking eggs and insects even when salmon go idle. Early morning, evening, low light — that's prime time.

Tactical Comfort: Some of the best days on the water are drizzly, wet, miserable, and sunless. Fish that would normally stay wary in bright sun get bold hunting for food, so dress for it or you'll be miserable too. Lean on polarized sunglasses rated for low light to spot fish, and skip bright colors like a cheap yellow rain slicker — these fish notice, even against a backdrop of fall leaves. Move with stealth. You're surrounded by eyes evolved to dodge eagles, ospreys, and bears. Death comes from above — don't be it.

Conservation: Many fisheries rely on natural reproduction, so avoid stepping on redds and crushing eggs or disrupting the delicate hydrology that keeps them viable. Resident trout and char spawn in fall too, and steelhead spawn in late winter and spring — consider releasing fish so they survive to spawn.

Bonus Tip: The same scenario plays out when steelhead spawn in late winter and spring. Resident trout and pre-spawn and "dropback" steelhead will be on the egg bite, offering some of the most consistent action just downstream of active spawners.

One Last Cast

Next time you're staring down a river full of thrashing salmon, remember: they're not the whole story. Downstream, in the dark water and gravel flats, trout and steelhead are stacked up and feeding like it's the last meal of the year. Fish the salmon if you want the photo. Fish the feeders if you want the fight of your life.

– Jay Anglin

Westin Dallas Fort Worth Airport Hotel, Dallas, Texas

Coalinga Rifle Club in Coalinga, California

Wilson Lake, Florence, Alabama

Phoenix Convention Center, Phoenix, Arizona