Brian and Pat Robertson first noticed something wrong nearly 30 years ago. A stream called Little Bear Creek ran through their property in northern Idaho, but the waterway had long ago been altered during a logging operation and essentially functioned as a ditch, carrying water swiftly away from the valley. Trees were dying; the water table was dropping; neighbors were digging dry wells. After consulting with Natural Resources Conservation Service and touring several Forest Service restoration projects in Oregon, the Robertsons decided to take the creek back to Stage Zero.

I enjoy fishing creeks because they’re easy on anglers. When creek fishing, there’s typically less of a need for analytical thinking and technically-perfect drifts. The tradeoff, of course, is that the trout in most creeks aren’t all that big.