Where Are They Now?

A HOOK TAKES THE FORM of a question mark. The symbolic implications of this coincidence between punctuation and piscatory quest can take you deep, but the surface of the inquiry is often the most immediate, and occasionally when answered with a tug at the end of a line, the most satisfying: Where are they now? The fish, that is. Where are the fish? This is the angler’s omnipresent query—pondered in dry-land daydreams away from the river—and is certainly foremost on any flyfisher’s mind when those senses of anticipatory delight percolate with the first steps into flowing water.

For the aficionado of salmonid angling, the question lately has taken on new urgency. Populations have plummeted. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but makes the mind more curious: Where are they? Where did they go? How did they get here in the first place? Where did they come from? A specific answer requires a specific place. Take, for