Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
The Pebble Mine was proposed as an open-pit gold mine above Lake Iliamna, upstream of the rivers feeding the world's largest sockeye runs into Bristol Bay. After roughly 13 years of opposition the EPA determined in 2023 that the project was not acceptable, and the effort has since shifted toward permanent protections for the watershed.
Cliff Watson is a conservationist and angler who guided in Alaska, worked commercial fishing seasons in Bristol Bay, and formerly hosted the Emerger Podcast for the Trout Unlimited Costa 5 Rivers program.
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What was the Pebble Mine and why was it a threat?
The Pebble Mine was a proposed open-pit gold mine on claims above Lake Iliamna in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska. Lake Iliamna feeds rivers that carry the largest remaining salmon runs in the world, runs that shifted north as dams, development and pollution reduced returns in Washington, Oregon and Northern California. An open pit requires roads and power infrastructure across remote country, and a tailings pond failure in one of the most tectonically active regions on earth would be irreversible.
Where does the Pebble Mine fight stand now?
After roughly 13 years of organized opposition, the EPA determined in 2023 that the mine was not acceptable, which Cliff Watson describes as the nail in the coffin for that proposal. He is careful to say it is not permanently over, because a mining company can revise and resubmit a proposal, and this one has shown 13 years of determination to develop what is among the largest gold deposits in the world.
What are permanent protections for Bristol Bay?
The focus has shifted from stopping one project to securing protections that do not have to be re-fought. The petition-by-petition cycle exhausted supporters over 13 years, and the goal now is durable safeguards for the watershed. Trout Unlimited's Save Bristol Bay effort remains the main entry point, and a native coalition, the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, works the issue from a heritage and cultural standpoint that predates any fishing interest.
How does a college fly fishing program grow from six people to a hundred?
The chapter at the University of Colorado Boulder had six or seven people at its first meeting of the semester. Recruiting was direct and relentless: attending every club fair and asking people individually whether they had ever fly fished. Local fly shops supplied cleanup gear, grills and event space, and sponsor swag drove raffles that converted attendance into membership. By graduation the chapter had grown from roughly 20 to 25 members to more than a hundred active members.
What conservation projects can a local chapter actually do?
Cliff Watson's chapter ran stream gauge monitoring on South Boulder Creek with the local Trout Unlimited chapter, sending two volunteers a week to record levels and report them back. They also ran creek cleanups in urban Boulder, and in winter they salvaged fish stranded in agricultural irrigation ditches as flows dropped, wading through and moving them back into the main channel.
What is the tactical grid fishing technique?
The grid method treats a run as a set of lanes rather than one piece of water. Cliff Watson divides the river into roughly three-foot rows running from a couple inches of water on the near bank across to the far side, fishes the first lane, steps forward, and works through each lane in sequence. Once a section has been covered at one depth with one set of flies, he changes depth, pattern or color and covers the same grid again rather than repeating identical drifts.
How do you apply the grid on stillwater and salt?
On a lake the grid becomes a fan: start with a cast to the left at 25 or 30 feet, retrieve at a set speed, work five casts across the fan, then extend to 50 feet and repeat while varying retrieve speed between slow and fast. The same logic covers a swung run, or an oyster bar for redfish where the variables are angle and tide. The point in every case is deliberate coverage rather than drifting the same four-foot lane eight times.
Key takeaways
- The Pebble Mine was an open-pit proposal above Lake Iliamna, upstream of Bristol Bay's salmon runs, opposed for roughly 13 years.
- The EPA determined in 2023 that the project was not acceptable, but a revised proposal remains possible.
- Support has shifted toward permanent watershed protections, coordinated through Trout Unlimited's Save Bristol Bay effort and native-led coalitions.
- Divide a run into roughly three-foot lanes from near bank to far bank and fish each lane in sequence before repeating any of them.
- After covering a section once, change depth, pattern or color and re-cover the grid rather than making identical drifts.
- On stillwater, fan cast at a set distance and retrieve speed, then extend the distance and vary the retrieve to cover the water systematically.
