There is a great new resource available for those who are interested in native fish and fishing for them. I have written my own little “manifesto” on the joys of fishing for natives when I posted my “Reasons to Fish for Natives – One Man’s List.” Anders Halverson is also interested in fishing for natives, and his passion has spilled over into a new website, The Angler’s Life List and Native Fish Network. (Plug for Anders’ upcoming book which he has tentatively titled: An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World, will be published by Yale University Press in March, 2010.)

“The Angler’s Life List” is a one-stop website for all things dealing with native fish. There is a place for learning about native fish  (“The Fish”) that is an excellent resource, forums for discussing all things dealing with natives, feeds from several blogs that deal with fishing for natives (full disclosure, I’m one of them), links to other native resources, and a place for registered users to write about their fishing experiences (“My Journal”) which actually revolves around the original impetus of Anders vision for the site, to start/maintain a native fish life list, much like birders do.

More about the site in Anders’ own words:

This site was established as a hub for the growing community of anglers who are focused on catching native fish. The central tenet: that this movement benefits both those with the rod in their hand and those with the hook in their mouth.

For people, filling out a fish life list provides new inspiration and even an excuse (if one is needed) to visit beautiful and remote places. And for the fish, it creates a constituency that can have a profound impact on fishery management priorities.

I’m really intrigued by the concept that the more a person enjoys fishing for natives, the more he/she will become an advocate for natives. It’s kind of a back door approach, but I like it. In private conversations with Anders, he mentioned something along the lines that the more people were clamoring to a local chamber of commerce that they were looking for  X native species in the local river, possibly that locale would start looking at stopping the stocking of nonnatives and help the natives reestablish and flourish in the local waters instead.

Head on over to The Angler’s Life List, browse around, set up an account and get involved in the wonderful world of natives.

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