More than 250 Trout Unlimited officials have gathered at Snowbird this week. There will be numerous seminars and discussions, but the big news expected to come from Little Cottonwood Canyon is that the non-profit conservation organization has asked the fishing industry to do away with felt-bottomed wading boots because they can act like sponges, moving exotic and troublesome species like New Zealand mudsnails and the whirling disease parasite. Both have wreaked havoc on the trout populations in North America and across the world.


New Zealand apparently has banned felt altogther. Word is that most of the major industry officials have agreed to do go felt free by 2011. This is great news, but many of the companies already have alternatives to felt on the market. It would be great to see it happen earlier.


See my column on the ills of felt here.

Brett