Breakaway Adventures: Possible Origin of Sportfishing
Breakaway Adventures: Possible Origin of Sportfishing
Are Our Forefathers Responsible for Modern Day Sportfishing?
Photo / Indrek Kongats
Maybe that’s stretching it a bit, but what we do know is that the main character in the penning of the Declaration of Independence and the discovery and taxonomy of multiple species of fish shortly thereafter was the 3rd president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson!
Jefferson’s vision as a scientist and the leader of the country was to explore the continent that up until then consisted of the 13 colonies reaching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Appalachian Mountains with most Americans living within 50 miles of the coast. The rest of America was little explored by Americans.
Step one was the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, just two years after he became president and only 27 years after July 4, 1776. Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France on April 30, 1803; the French territory extended from the Gulf of Mexico all the way up to the Canadian Border. It encompassed the entire Mississippi and Missouri River Drainage Systems and reached west to the Rockies.
Step two was the forming of The Corps of Discovery more familiar to us as the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the greatest Adventure in American History! On August 31, 1803 the expedition set off with instructions from President Jefferson to find a passage through to the Pacific Ocean, map and record all animal and plant life. Most importantly, they were to negotiate peace treaties and work closely with all Native American Nations encountered along the way.
As we all know, Lewis and Clark were successful on their mission, reaching the Pacific Ocean on November 7, 1805 after 18 months of struggle and hardship, returning by September 1806. What few of us know was what Lewis and Clark learned along the way. Lewis and Clark discovered 178 different plants, 122 different animals and most importantly to the sportfishing world, 14 different fish species. A permanent exhibit of these scientific discoveries is on display at the Missouri River Basin Lewis and Clark Interpretive Trail and Visitors Center in Nebraska City, Nebraska.
According to the extensive journals kept by Captains Lewis and Clark, on August 13, 1805 Lewis was given some fresh salmon roasted by a hospitable member of the Shoshones tribe. This was the first salmon the party had seen. Several months earlier on June 10, 1805 the expedition, while searching for the Great Falls of the Missouri, a new species of trout was discovered which now bears the scientific name of Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi, after Lewis and Clark. The common name today is Westslope Cutthroat Trout or Black Spotted Trout which is a Cutthroat Trout subspecies!
Sacagawea, a Lemhi Shoshone woman whom Lewis and Clark hired as a guide and interpreter, was also mentioned during this discovery as participating in the fishing. On June12, 1805 Lewis wrote, “This evening I ate very heartily and after penning the transactions of the day, amused myself catching those whitefish (Mountain Whitefish, a salmonid fish) mentioned yesterday… I caught upwards to a dozen in a few minutes; they bit most freely.”
The Cutthroat Trout (main species), Oncorhynchus clarkii and the Coastal Cutthroat Trout (another subspecies), Oncorhynchus clarkia clarkii are all in the Salmonidae family, discovered by Lewis and Clark. The Cutthroat Trout is now the State Fish of Montana.
Upon reaching the West Coast in the late fall of 1805 and having traveled down the Columbia River, Lewis and Clark had unknowing witness the greatest natural event of their journey. The river was full of salmon, some dead and many still alive. This was the annual spawning cycle of the Pacific Salmon. Clark wrote, ”I observe… great numbers of salmon dead on the shores, floating on the water and in the bottom which can be seen at the depth of 20 feet. The cause of the immense numbers of dead salmon I can’t account for… I must have seen 3 or 400 dead and many living.”
The native people along the river depended on this natural life cycle of salmon, returning to their birth place, for their own subsistent living. Lewis and Clark observed “large drying scaffolds strung with fish, piles of salmon lying all about, and many women splitting and drying the crop.”
Despite the river being full of salmon, the dying salmon concerned the explorers with Clark writing, “The fish being out of season and dying in great numbers in the river, we did not think proper to use them.” Instead they resorted to purchasing dried fish from the native tribes while traveling along the river.
Lewis and Clark witnessed firsthand how the life of the salmon, returning to the river from the ocean, governed the subsistence of the native west coast tribes as the buffalo did so east of the Rockies on the vast plains. This was also the first examples of commercial fishing as trade developed from the sale of dried fish to the Corps.
The salmon varied in size, shape and color with the largest of these being the Chinook, King or Pacific Salmon, followed by Silver or Coho Salmon and the deeply colorful red Sockeye Salmon. Also included in their discovery was the ultimate sportfish of the West Coast and now also of the Great Lake tributaries - the Steelhead, a sea-going Rainbow Trout. What the Corps did not realize is that not all of the salmon and steelhead died upon returning to their spawning grounds. The Silver Salmon and the Steelhead would feed upon the salmon eggs and return back to the ocean after they themselves had spawned. Eventually they, too, would die in the river after successive returns.
The life of the salmon and steelhead now represent the most important sport fishery here in western New York - both on the Great Lakes and in local tributaries like Cattaraugus Creek. Without Lewis and Clark’s discoveries, the significance of the importance of the salmon and the trout may have been never documented.
This is all came about because Thomas Jefferson, the founding Father of the Declaration of Independence signed by fifty-five others on July 4, 1876, had the foresight to make this nation bigger and better!
Actually, the signing was not completed until a month later on August 2, 1776, therefore the national holiday should be more than just for one day; it should be a month-long holiday! All for this… please call your local representative!
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Indrek Kongats is an artist, traveler, outdoorsman, and business owner residing in Ellicottville. He operates River Dog Art Gallery in Houghton, NY, and his Breakaway Classic Adventures specializes in adventure travel destinations. Learn more about him at breakawayclassicadventures.com.