Washington angler wins August TroutBlitz

 

 

Malisha Small of Longview, Wash., is the winner of the August TroutBlitz contest—she recorded five unique observations for TU's angler science initiative and will receive an assortment of terrestrial flies for TU corporate sponsor FlyAssortments.com. 

 

 

 

Small is in full-on steelhead mode these days, chasing chrome in western Washington's coastal rivers. But her true passion, she says, is chasing small trout in the backcountry streams of the coastal mountains of the Northwest.

 

"I can't wait for sea-run cutthroats to start running in October," she said. 

 

TroutBlitz is TU's citizen science program that encourages anglers all across North America to record their catches photographically through our iNaturalist interface. It's simple—anglers just need to take a photo of their catch, enter the general location of the catch and then upload the data to the internet. The data is then used by TU's Science Team to identify native trout persistence, the presence of non-native trout in native trout waters and potential opportunities for native trout reintroduction and restoration opportunities.

 

"It really is a simple way for all anglers to help us expand our knowledge about North America's trout," said TU Senior Scientist Jack Williams. "It can be very dependable, research-grade data that helps us with any number of efforts to make fishing better all across the continent."

 

 

As an incentive, the angler who records the most observations each month over the course of the summer will win a fly collection from FlyAssortments.com. Small will receive a terrestrial fly assortment for her August efforts, and anglers will be recording observations in September for the chance to win a steelhead nymph assortment. 

 

"We're so happy to be able to support TU's scienc work by offering incentives for anglers to record their catches through TroutBlitz," said Wayne Richey of FlyAssortments.com. "This is important work that every angler can help with, and we're more than happy to send flies to deserving anglers who help TU through this citizen science effort."

 

The monthly contests last through October, and at the end of the 2015 contest, the angler who has recorded the most observations from June through October will receive a FlyAssortments.com "war chest" of flies that, depending on the selection, could be worth more than $500. 

 

To learn more about TroutBlitz, visit our project page where detailed instructions are available for how to upload data, how to take research-grade photos and how to handle fish safely during the photographic process.

 

"It's important that anglers try to keep the fish in or near the water and quickly take their photographs," Williams said. "We have no problem with anglers harvesting trout where that's legal, but fish that are kept wet are stressed less and retain their natural coloring and are much easier to identify."