In the Loop 11.29.10

Start your Monday on a calming note with this performance of Franz Schubert’s Trout Quintet, written when the composer was just 22 years old. Those of us who love fly-fishing for trout can appreciate the mood of the piece. It is a series of variations on Schubert’s earlier song “The Trout,” which begins (in German, of course):

Across a clear brook gentle,

There shot in eager haste

The Trout, so temperamental;

Quite arrow-like it raced.

I on the shore was gazing

And watched the brook disclose

The merry fish’s bathing

To me in sweet repose.

 At its November meeting, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission made year-round trout seasons the rule, rather than the exception. The open-year-round-season rule is a way to limit the number of rule exceptions, fisheries Chief Ed Schriever told commissioners. Many Idaho streams already are open year round, but they are listed as exceptions because statewide the general season for rivers and streams is from Memorial Day through November 30. The new rules make rivers and stream open year-round the rule, and those that have special seasons will now be listed as exceptions. Special seasons and gear restrictions were maintained in rivers and streams where continued protection remains necessary to meet fishery objectives.

Anglers in New York fear that state budget cuts will result in fewer fishing opportunities because of reduced stocking. The state has already raised the prices for licenses, but staffing levels and allocations for expenses continue to drop.

In a series of amazing images, photographer Paul Stinsa captured an Alaska wolf copying a brown bear’s method for catching salmon from a river in Katmai National Park.

Residents of Montana’s Big Blackfoot Valley are trying to block permits that would allow huge trucks hauling space-shuttle-size equipment along the backcountry roadway that parallels the river made famous by Norman Maclean.

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