California’s salmon community has lost one of its most influential and determined advocates.
Dick Pool, a founding board member of the Golden State Salmon Association and a driving force for salmon restoration in California for decades, recently passed away at the age of 92.
For those who worked alongside him, Dick will be remembered for his extraordinary energy, his willingness to challenge conventional thinking and, above all, his determination to find practical ways to bring California’s salmon back.
“Dick was tireless,” said GSSA Policy Advisor Barry Nelson. “I used to call him the ‘energizer bunny’ because of his boundless energy working for salmon. He kept working. And he would work with anyone.”
That energy helped shape not only salmon conservation efforts across California, but GSSA itself.
Helping Build an Organization for Salmon
Dick played a critical role in bringing together the people who would eventually form what was then the Golden Gate Salmon Association.
In 2010, Dick learned that businessman and passionate salmon fisherman Victor Gonella wanted to create an organization dedicated to rebuilding California’s salmon runs. Dick recognized the opportunity and began connecting Gonella with longtime salmon advocates, including John McManus, Randy Repass, Roger Thomas, Zeke Grader and others.
Those introductions helped give life to an organization that would grow into today’s Golden State Salmon Association.
“Dick was the spark that gave life to the formation of the Golden Gate Salmon Association,” said GSSA Senior Policy Director John McManus.
It was characteristic of Dick. He knew the salmon world, he knew the people who could make things happen, and he understood the power of getting them into the same room.
A Businessman Who Built a Second Career Around Fishing
Dick brought considerable business experience to his work for salmon.
Earlier in his career, he rose through the ranks at Kaiser Aluminum and eventually became one of the company’s top executives. But retirement from the corporate world wasn’t the end of Dick’s career.
He turned his attention to something he loved: fishing.
Dick founded Pro-Troll, building it into a successful tackle company and developing innovative gear for salmon fishermen. He experimented with underwater video to study how salmon reacted to tackle, wrote books about salmon fishing, and became a respected figure in the fishing industry.
But Dick’s involvement with fishing went far beyond building better tackle. He increasingly devoted his time, knowledge, and business skills to ensuring there would actually be salmon left for future generations to catch.
Willing to Fight for What He Believed Was Right
Dick was never afraid to take a position simply because it was unpopular.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he strongly advocated for Endangered Species Act protections for Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon. The position put him at odds with some fellow fishermen at the time.
Dick stuck with it because he believed protecting the struggling run was the right thing to do.
That willingness to push for salmon eventually took him from California rivers to the halls of government.
He served on numerous state and federal salmon advisory committees, testified on salmon issues before the California Legislature and U.S. House of Representatives, and regularly visited congressional offices in Washington and legislative offices in Sacramento.
“He was in the thick of it and always a creative fighter, continually pushing for the great cause of restoring Central Valley salmon,” said longtime GSSA leader Randy Repass. “Overall he was an amazingly energetic and dedicated promoter of California salmon restoration — and a great guy.”
Always Looking for the Next Idea
Dick didn’t simply advocate for salmon in the abstract. He constantly searched for projects that could put more fish into California’s rivers and ocean.
He worked with salmon biologist Dave Vogel to understand the importance of restoring side-channel habitat, helping draw attention to an approach that would eventually become an important part of salmon restoration efforts throughout the Central Valley.
He recognized the potential for rebuilding salmon on Putah Creek and identified a seasonal dam that was interfering with restoration efforts there.
Even late in his career as an advocate, Dick kept coming up with new ideas.
One of the most important was an experiment at Coleman National Fish Hatchery designed to test different release strategies for juvenile salmon.
Dick helped secure a meeting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to discuss a long list of potential salmon projects. McManus remembers convincing Dick that instead of arriving with 20 different requests, they should walk into the meeting with one.
That request was an experimental release of juvenile salmon from Coleman Hatchery.
The idea moved forward.
The resulting experiments included releasing juvenile salmon at different locations and using tags to measure their survival as they migrated toward the ocean. Those experiments provided valuable evidence about how release strategies could improve the survival of hatchery salmon. They helped inform subsequent efforts to give young salmon a better chance of reaching the Pacific.
It was classic Dick Pool: identify a problem, study the science, find the people who could do something about it, and keep pushing until an idea became reality.
A Legacy That Still Shapes GSSA
Dick’s influence still shows in how GSSA approaches salmon restoration today.
He believed limited time and resources should be directed toward projects capable of producing meaningful results for salmon.
“Dick also was a real leader in helping GSSA think critically about priorities — and the restoration projects that would produce the most benefit,” Nelson said. “We still look at our work through that lens.”
Dick’s contributions were recognized throughout the fishing and conservation communities. He received the American Sportfishing Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award for salmon and steelhead conservation, was inducted into the California Outdoor Hall of Fame and, in January 2025, received GSSA’s Salmon Conservation Lifetime Achievement Award.
Those honors recognized decades of work. But for the people who knew Dick, his legacy isn’t measured only in awards, meetings attended or projects launched.
It’s also measured in days on the water and the enthusiasm he shared with everyone around him.
“I loved my time fishing with Dick,” Nelson said. “His boat. His gear. And catching what could fairly be called his salmon. He loved those fish — and it was contagious.”
And rather than simply lament their decline, he devoted an enormous portion of his life to doing something about it.
The organization Dick helped create continues that work today. Every time GSSA pushes for better river flows, smarter hatchery practices, restored habitat or a project capable of putting more salmon into California’s rivers and ocean, a little of Dick’s thinking remains behind it.
California’s salmon are better off because Dick Pool decided they were worth fighting for.
And GSSA is a stronger organization because he showed us how.