The hosts of this year’s Humboldt Steelhead Days event,  CalTrout, Mad River Alliance, and Mountain Community and Culture, issued the following letter to sponsors and participants.

To our Humboldt Steelhead Days sponsors,

It’s been several weeks since the close of the 2016 Humboldt Steelhead Days. The Mad, the Trinity, and the Eel Rivers have all rounded into fishing shape, and in many instances, have provided unique, exciting, and soul-satisfying angling experiences. Unfortunately, little of this happened during our steelhead celebration. Nevertheless, we are grateful that the rivers are running full and cold, providing for the perpetuation of a species — and the recreational, emotional and spiritual rewards they provide.

With the above in mind, we want to thank all of you for getting behind the concept of Humboldt Steelhead Days in such a big way. While the actual fishing was almost non-existent, our on-shore activities in Willow Creek, Scotia, Fortuna, Eureka, and Blue Lake were all well-attended and received with great enthusiasm.

With your help, we confirmed the greater community of Humboldt really likes and appreciates this event in all its forms. And just as the resilient steelhead will sometimes stray into rivers far away from their home, our events also captured some out-of-area interest. This vote of confidence inspires us to deliver more events and more special river access in 2017.

“Fish the Peak of the Run” will remain our call-to-action for those anglers living outside the area. Promoting winter tourism remains an essential ingredient of Humboldt Steelhead Day’s mission. But in addition to tourism, we want to educate people of all ages and interests, locals and out-of-towners, as to the unique nature of Humboldt and its steelhead and salmon legacy. We want to continue promoting respect for the resource and honoring the fish, an embodiment of the miracle of life and the beauty of nature. Hence, an even greater emphasis on our “Keep Em’ Wet” campaign and the dedicated work on the part of individuals, agencies and private companies, to protect, restore, and enhance our steelhead and salmon populations.

We are in the early planning stages for 2017 as this is being written. An event encompassing the entirety of Humboldt and running for several weeks requires a year-long planning process to assure a professional result and good value for sponsors supporting the effort such as yourselves.

As such, we will soon be in touch with a broad outline of what Humboldt Steelhead Days might look like in 2017. With your continued support, we hope to build the event regionally to promote and showcase our rivers and fish, as well as many of Humboldt’s other amenities. In doing so, we hope to spread the wealth, a wealth of knowledge, awareness, and appreciation for our special corner of the world and its mysterious visitors in from the broad Pacific, coming home.

Again, thanks so much! We will be in touch.

Dave Feral, director of Mad River Alliance, joins David Lippman of Mountain Community & Culture, and Darren Mierau and Mary Burke of California Trout, North Coast in co-signing this “My Word.”

To see the letter as it appeared in the Eureka Times-Standard click here.