Fishing in Oregon 11th Edition Press Releases

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The following press releases from Flying Pencil Publications announce the release of Fishing in Oregon, Eleventh Edition.

Bigger and better than ever, the venerable Oregon fishing classic, Fishing in Oregon makes its debut this week, just in time for Father’s Day, June 16.

“Every big project needs a goal, and getting Fishing in Oregon into stores in time for the holiday gave me something to aim towards,” said author Madelynne Diness Sheehan (“Maddy” to friends and virtual fishing buddies who have “taken her along” on fishing trips for almost 30 years.)

Maddy Sheehan published her first edition of Fishing in Oregon in 1985, and has updated the comprehensive encyclopedia of Oregon angling every five years or so.

“It took me seven years to do this one,” says Sheehan, who attributes the delay to her need to re-experience the state and its fisheries personally after devoting three years to law school (Lewis & Clark, ’05) and several more establishing a small town law practice in Scappoose, Oregon.

Before Sheehan acquired the copyright in 1985, Fishing in Oregon was known as “Henning’s Guide,” and was first published in1960 by Henning Helstrom, then owner of Foster Sporting Goods in Southeast Portland.

“My first edition (which was the book’s Fifth edition), was 175 pages long, and included advertising. At 400 pages, the Eleventh Edition is more than double in size—with no advertising.

What’s new? “There are about 100 fisheries described that have never been included in Fishing in Oregon, or any other book that I know of.” Some of these are  what Sheehan calls “fishing geo caches” in Oregon’s backcountry—ODFW-stocked waters so remote that anglers are urged to use a GPS to find them.

Others are former borrow pits and ponds closer to civilization. Sheehan estimates the total number of waters described in the book  to be about 1,300.

There are also more priceless tips, insights, and explanations to help anglers understand how weather, changing ocean effects, illegal baitfish introductions, and changing fishery and water flow management decisions affect the fishing at a particular water over time.

“My goal is help anglers know what to expect when they go fishing, and to make good choices about where to spend their precious time on the water. I want to share with them what I’ve learned about how Oregon fishing ‘works.’

Wherever they go with my book beside them, I want them to feel like they’re not a stranger—or, at least, they’re not alone.”

And then there are the photographs. Black and white, but charming and true in their depiction of who, what, where, when, and why people fish Oregon.

“I cast a wide net to find photographers for this edition— people who favor many different fisheries and techniques, but who share a common love of fishing, and who have captured that enjoyment in photographs. This book is filled  with smiles,” says Sheehan.

Many of them are on the faces of children. “I’m a grandmother now myself,” she says. “But that had nothing to do with the choice of photographs.” In fact, the book’s photo essay was actually curated by someone other than Sheehan:  John Laursen, Portland book designer and author (of Wild Beauty, with Terry Toedtemeier, a collection of historic photographs of the Columbia River Gorge) made the final pick.

“After gathering hundreds of photos, I realized  I had lost my objectivity,” says Sheehan. I needed a fresh pair of eyes to make the photo selection.  I gave John a thirty-minute tutorial on Oregon fishing (species, techniques, geographic settings, major watersheds), then I walked away. That was hard.

I’d been living with those photographs for almost a year. But it would have been harder for me to say no to some of them. I was so grateful John was willing and available to make the final choices.” Says Laursen, “I’m not a fisherman, but I found these photographs absolutely charming. The people in them look so happy.” Adds Sheehan, “He included almost all my favorites.”

The cover photo sets the theme (“I gasped when I saw it. It was so perfect,” says Sheehan), not only for the photo essay, but for the whole book:  the Alsea River, a misty morning, drift boats, the expectation of fall chinook, a fishing trip in memory of a departed friend.

Sheehan includes cover photographer Eric Martin’s explanation of the photo in her acknowledgments: According to Martin, “This same raw, wild beauty fueled Wysh’s passion for fishing and the outdoors, a passion that inspired thousands throughout his life.”

Sheehan dedicates this edition of Fishing in Oregon to the late Bill Wysham (former Madras High School forestry teacher) “and to other patient men and women in Oregon who teach youngsters how to fish.”

Fishing in Oregon is widely available.

The book retails for $29.95. An e-book version of Fishing in Oregon is planned for early 2014.

More information: Flying Pencil Publications website

Second News Release:

“Much has happened in the Oregon fishing world since I last updated the book,” says author Maddy Sheehan, who spent two years gathering information for Fishing in Oregon, Eleventh Edition, an award-winning guide to the state’s sportfishing waters (“Excellence in Publication, NW Outdoor Writers Association”).

“Dams have been removed, long landlocked kokanee have been to sea and returned as sleek sockeye salmon, fisheries closed for decades have reopened, wild cutthroat and coho are once more abundant enough in many places to allow harvest, and plump trout ply the waters of remote (formerly fishless) forest ponds like living geo-caches beckoning the adventurous with frisky booty,” says Sheehan in her Introduction to the book. Sheehan notes that there are literally thousands of updates.

Many of these changes are major, such as: (1) the water temperature adjustments at Round Butte Dam on the Deschutes which affect steelhead fishing (See Deschutes River, “Useful Information,” p. 236); modifications to the the water outlet structure at Lake Billy Chinook to allow outmigration of kokanee (220,000 kokanee took advantage of the opportunity to go to sea in 2010, the first year they had the chance; See Billy Chinook Reservoir, p. 215); and dam removals on the Rogue, Hood, and Sandy rivers (says Sheehan, “I have meticulously updated the maps, taking particular delight in removing Savage Rapids Dam from the Rogue River”).

For a sampler of changes, see below:

  • Decline in the largemouth bass population of Crane Prairie due to illegal introduction of stickleback, and the consequent increase in trout heft. (p.222);
  • Shift in the Columbia River’s estuary sturgeon fishery from winter to summer (affected by the appearance, or not, of smelt, which returned in 2013 for the first time since 2003; See p. 371);
  • Opening of Tahkenitch and  Siltcoos lakes on the northwest coast to wild coho fishing (pp, 37 and 44);
  • Decline of largemouth bass fishing in Siltcoos Lake (p. 37);
  • Capture of a world record kokanee from Wallowa Lake in 2010 heralding the shift toward an abundance of smaller kokanee (p. 356);
  • Judicial finding in 2007 that the John Day downstream from Kimberly is “navigable” clarifying the right to stand “on the bed and banks up to ordinary high water”. (p. 341);
  • among thousands of others, including the first time ever stocking of many forest ponds off the beaten track (See: Walla Walla Forest Ponds, p. 355; Nekbobets Lake (p. 173) Jeni Lake (p. 157), Joyce Lake (p. 158), Indian Lake (p. 157), ).

“If you’ve been putting off buying a new edition for decades, feeling your way along with an old edition (handed down from your dad, or grandpa)—this is time to update,” says Sheehan. “This is truly my magnum opus.”

More information: Flying Pencil Publications website

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