PORT ANGELES, WA. (June 8, 2026) – The Conservation Angler is proud to announce Dave McCoy, owner of Emerald Water Anglers in Seattle, Washington, as the first featured member of its new Ambassador Program, a growing network of anglers, guides, fly shop owners, storytellers, and community leaders working to advance wild steelhead conservation across the Pacific Rim.
The Ambassador Program is part of TCA’s broader effort to connect science, angling culture, and on-the-water experience through its Northern Crown Initiative, a coordinated network of sentinel rivers spanning wild steelhead strongholds from California to Kamchatka. Through the Northern Crown, TCA is working with anglers, guides, lodges, and scientists to collect the long-term biological information needed to better understand and protect wild steelhead populations.
TCA will highlight one Ambassador each week over the next several months, beginning with McCoy, whose life and work reflect the central purpose of the program: helping anglers become active participants in the protection of wild fish and the rivers that sustain them.
McCoy was introduced to fly fishing and the outdoors at an early age through his father and extended family. Raised in the Eugene area, he grew up exploring some of the Pacific Northwest’s most iconic waters, including Crane Prairie Reservoir, Hosmer Lake, the Deschutes, McKenzie, and North Umpqua rivers. What began as a love of catching fish became something deeper: a lifelong relationship with rivers, wild fish, and the landscapes that make angling possible.
For McCoy, the North Umpqua was more than a river. It was one of the places where steelhead became inseparable from questions of wildness, restraint, responsibility, and belonging. Those early experiences helped shape not only his identity as an angler, but also his belief that people who fish have an obligation to speak up for the fish and waters that have shaped their lives.
In 1999, McCoy returned to the Pacific Northwest and founded Emerald Water Anglers, a full-service fly fishing guide service, boutique retail shop, and travel consultancy based in western Washington. Over the past two decades, Emerald Water Anglers has become widely recognized not only for its fishing programs, but also for its commitment to conservation, sustainability, inclusion, and responsible business practices.
A central part of McCoy’s work has been to create a space where new anglers feel welcome, experienced anglers continue to grow, and people from historically underrepresented communities feel safe and included in the sport. Through his business, public voice, and daily interactions with anglers, McCoy has worked to reshape perceptions of fly fishing in the Seattle region while advocating for the protection of the fisheries and wild places that sustain it.
“Dave represents exactly why this program matters,” said John R. McMillan, President of The Conservation Angler. “Fly shops and guides are often the first point of contact for new anglers. They shape how people think about fish, rivers, ethics, and conservation. When people like Dave speak up for wild steelhead, they help move an entire culture toward stewardship.”
Unlike traditional ambassador programs centered primarily on brand promotion, TCA’s Ambassador Program is built around stewardship. Ambassadors are selected because of their credibility, experience, community influence, and commitment to wild fish. They represent the idea that anglers can be more than users of a resource. They can become active participants in its protection.
That idea is especially important for wild steelhead, which continue to face serious threats across much of their native range, including habitat degradation, climate change, harvest impacts, hatchery interactions, and shifting ocean conditions. Protecting these fish requires more than science alone. It also requires informed anglers, strong local communities, credible messengers, and a culture that understands what is at stake.
“Science gives us the tools to understand what wild steelhead need, but anglers often provide the eyes, experience, and long-term connection to place that make that science stronger,” said George Pess, Science Director for The Conservation Angler. “Through the Ambassador Program, we’re connecting trusted voices in the angling community with the information, responsibility, and shared purpose needed to help protect these fish across their native range.”
For TCA, McCoy’s role as an Ambassador reflects the power of trusted voices within the angling community. Guides and shop owners see changes on the water season after season. They hear what anglers are thinking. They help shape norms around fish handling, harvest, hatcheries, habitat, access, and what it means to participate responsibly in a fishery. When those voices are grounded in wild fish conservation, they can help turn concern into action.
The Ambassador Program will include respected voices from across the steelhead community, including professional guides, fly shop owners, conservation advocates, traveling anglers, lodge operators, and others whose lives have been shaped by wild steelhead rivers. Together, they will help TCA build a broader grassroots movement around a simple idea: the people who know and love wild steelhead rivers can help provide the science, support, and the public will need to protect them.
Dave McCoy represents that spirit fully. He is a diehard steelhead angler, a business owner, a conservation advocate, and a community leader who has spent much of his life helping people find deeper connections to fish, rivers, and wild places.
The Conservation Angler is honored to welcome Dave McCoy as its first Ambassador.
About The Conservation Angler: The Conservation Angler is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting wild steelhead and salmon through science, advocacy, education, and angler engagement. Through its Northern Crown Initiative, TCA is building a Pacific Rim network of sentinel rivers where anglers, guides, lodges, and scientists work together to collect the biological information needed to understand and conserve wild steelhead populations across generations.
For more information about The Conservation Angler, please visit their website and follow TCA on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, and YouTube.