Fishing Information

Colorado Fly Fishing - Bait Huckin vs. Fly Fishin


It was one of those fishing trips. You know, everyone catches fish but you, you loose six or eight of your most expensive streamers, it rains buckets, and you sink the boat. That's right; I got skunked at Steamboat Lake over Memorial weekend.

I was determined to show those meat huckers (worms and power bait) that a well chosen and strategically placed fly was as effective as anything a conventional fisherman could load on a hook and hang under a bobber. Well, no such luck, I got stomped.

The fish were rising like mad on a midge hatch, and I threw everything in the box at them. I could swear I saw a hefty rainbow nudge my fly to the side to eat the natural laying only centimeters from my damn near perfect replica. As we watched the group of 12 year olds add another 18" fish to their stringer (full loaded, I might add) I decided it must be a lake thing. I don't fish lakes often.

I usually have good luck with a streamer in faster moving water, so I head for one on the several tributaries hoping to get the boat up far enough to make a make a few good casts. No such luck, here comes the wind. Determined and frustrated, I proceed to lose several of my best streamers in the dense shrubbery surrounding the mouth of the creek (can't retrieve them since the current is too strong to get the boat any further up the creek).

On the way back to camp we are passed by a couple of boats with stringers of fish crashing off the bows of their boats (hmmm, are they just rubbing it my face, or are they tenderizing the meat?)Questioning my decision to become a fly fisherman, I head over to the dock to pick up my 5 year-old son and a fresh styro of night crawlers. I'll let my son fish the meat before I crumble and load one up on the spinner myself. Surprising, no luck with the meat either, and hear comes the rain. I throw my arms up and ponder my karma activity of the past year.

We charge for shore as the lake turns to white caps. The rain and lightning moves in fast. Did I mention that we got the boat for free and have no clue what to do in the rain? We pull the boat up close to shore near our camp, outside of the no-wake zone. We leave all of our gear and head for the soggy camp.

Well, apparently it's best to leave your boat in protected cove in the no wake zone. From what we could tell, our boat was hammered with 300 to 400 gallons of water from the waves and boat wakes from boaters rushing back to the dock. Yes, it sank in 18 inches of water. I didn't realize a boat could sink in 18" of water! All of our gear is floating around the shore. The gas tank and gear which included an Orvis waste pack with hmmmm, some 500 plus flies. Every box any fly had to be opened and dried on the dashboards of our trucks.

We bail the boat, load the truck and haul our soggy gear and crippled egos back home.

Next memorial day, it's back to the river!!!

Rick Chapo is with http://www.nomadjournals.com - makers of small, compact fly fishing journals, hiking journals, rock climbing journals, travel journals, bird watching journals and more.


MORE RESOURCES:

Fishing report: Week of Feb. 8
Fresno Bee
Compiled by Dave Hurley and edited by Roger George, a central San Joaquin Valley native and local fishing expert. New Melones trout on fire, Melanie Lewis said. Delta sturgeon action awesome, Tony Lopez reported. Delta Mendota stripers ramp up bite, ...
Fishing Line for Feb. 8Buffalo News
Fishing Report (2/8/12)Sacramento Bee
Fish FinderStockton Record
U-T San Diego -Royal Oak Daily Tribune
all 8 news articles »


NOAA

Fishing Regulators Double Catch Limits on Gulf of Maine Winter Flounder
MPBN News
Federal fisheries regulators say they're doubling the allowable catch of Gulf of Maine winter flounder for the current fishing season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it's increasing the amount of the fish that commercial ...
NOAA doubles Gulf of Maine winter flounder catch limitsNOAA

all 2 news articles »


Fish Factor: DNR mission statement trades 'conserve' for 'responsibly develop'
Capital City Weekly
Section 3; Common Use, says: "Wherever occurring in their natural state, fish, wildlife, and waters are reserved to the people for common use." The governor was also asked at the press conference about recent law violations with some staff at the ...

and more »


Fishing Report: Tarpon starting to make their appearance
Naples Daily News
More water movement means more feeding fish. Instead of a midday high tide of 1.4 feet, we will be jumping up to 1.8 or 2.2, and those few inches mean a lot in terms of a good bite. Everything from snook and reds, to sheepshead and pompano, ...

and more »


John Berry's Fly-Fishing for Trout: Fishing on opening day with Lori
Baxter Bulletin
By not fishing over them during their spawn, we encourage them to spawn and protect them during this important period of their life cycle. When the browns spawn they do not take nourishment. As a result, at the end of the spawn, they are hungry and ...

and more »


Scientists Find Radioactive Fish In New Part Of Vermont
WPTZ The Champlain Valley
FRANKLIN, Vt. -- A new report finds fish in the northern part of Vermont are radioactive like the fish living in the waters near the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The significance of this finding is not just that these fish have radioactive ...

and more »


Alaska Dispatch

Ex-Murkowski aide gets prison term in fish case
Juneau Empire
The former fisheries aide for Murkowski, who falsified commercial fishing records for profit, is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012. Fuglvog pleaded guilty in federal court in Anchorage last August to one count of violating the Lacey Act ...
Former federal fisheries regulator Arne Fuglvog sentenced to prisonAlaska Dispatch
Former Murkowski Aide to be Sentenced TuesdayKTUU.com

all 5 news articles »


Mark Sampson: Log on and speak up about fisheries
Delmarva Now
This week I'll also take care of my "HMS permit" and after that my Maryland fishing license. Let's see... I've already renewed my Maryland "guides license," the documentation for my boat, my membership in a "random drug testing program" and the renewal ...

and more »


TheNewsTribune.com

5 months in prison for former fisheries official
TheNewsTribune.com
Lisa Murkowski who worked as a commercial fisherman while sitting on the council that regulates fishing off Alaska's coast was sentenced today to five months in prison for falsifying his own fishing reports. Arne Fuglvog, former fisheries aide for Sen.
Former Murkowski aide to be sentenced Tuesday for falsely reporting where he ...The Republic
Fuglvog Sentenced to Five Months In PrisonAlaska Public Radio Network

all 22 news articles »


Craftsmen have a passion for bamboo fishing rods
Bellingham Herald
He's fishing a bamboo rod again. But he didn't buy it. Bamboo rods are prohibitively expensive for most anglers, running from $800 to $3000 or more. So, in his retirement, Johnson learned to make bamboo rods. He buys bamboo from the south of China.

and more »

Google News

home | site map | Ocean Photography
© 2006