Throw That Trout!!!

My son had an odd visual experience on Oregon’s East Lake this week. Maybe it was the altitude? ODFW was there doing some on the water survey of sorts using nets and boats. As my son watched their process he observed them sorting trout and as each one was handled it was then tossed, thrown and slung out from the boat some 20+ feet onto the waters surface. Given I had spent the effort in his formative years to instill a respect in handling the fish, particularly Trout, with care and ease, he was a bit aghast (as were other nearby fishers) in seeing this handling of the fish.

Now I know most of them come into the lakes via trucks and big hoses that shoot them into the water in a harsh manner, but is this normal? Is this a reflection of the ‘put n take’ handling of a commodity with no respect? The reality, I suspect, of those that handle the species day in and out and see them as nothing more than pellet eating pieces of meat that grew in a hatchery pond. We (me) attach spiritual worth to fish and surround them with the whole natural process into one tidy shrine of homage. To others, because I believe our production mentality, they are simply a food/recreation commodity handled by men doing a job on a schedule and trying to satisfy the masses. 

Stillwater Fly Fishing: Good Info on Retrieve & Setting the Hook

Here, I took refuge from the winds by pulling off into a back bay where I could rest from the rowing and kicking. The seam between the quieter water and the wind driven water (almost like a river’s current) was about six feet deep. I was able to maintain position in the quiet water and cast out into the chop and let the wind drift along my fly with success. The quiet water is not always available so anchoring up with the wind at your back is another option.

A video by Bennett Watt on retrieves and hook setting (excuse the up front ad…ugh) (X)

Imagination Station

This photograph was taken in my parent’s back yard as we readied to sell their home after their passing. The playhouse had become a storage place for lumber, an unfitting use considering the intent of building it for their grandsons and what took place in and around the little fort.

I recall several such places like this that my dad built over the years for me. Sturdy, honest construction. Some had ladders to a roof, and others bunk beds. Some had window panes and some were open to the imagination of what loomed outside. Forts and Imagination Stations. My dad built these as surprises. Tired and a busy man, often working two jobs, he built these places to pretend as true signs of love. 

The imagination one has as a child. Pretending. Imagery. Physical effort. Acting. Following or Leading as others participated. Morning sunshine. Evening dusk. Wood floors or dirt floors. Hiding…Seeking. Sneaking. Costumes. Toys. Daydreaming.

Imagination & Fly Fishing

Climate Change & Drivel?

“Two months ago, James Lovelock, the godfather of global warming, gave a startling interview to msnbc.com in which he acknowledged he had been unduly “alarmist” about climate change. The implications were extraordinary. Lovelock is a world-renowned scientist and environmentalist whose Gaia theory — that the Earth operates as a single, living organism — has had a profound impact on the development of global warming theory.”  (X)

                                     

Summertime, Warm Temps and Trout

Finding Trout, in lakes, during the Summer requires some thought. Oxygen, temperatures, inlets, outlets, channels, drops, food, structure…………SwittersB

SOME HELPFUL ADVICE FOR FINDING TROUT IN LAKES DURING THE SUMMER

Red Bead Bugger has been productive at times.

Pink Beauty & The Spark

Pink Beauty

The old adage to stop and smell the roses has never been more true of late. It is, at times, seemingly overwhelming to absorb the obvious beauty around us when life is just too much. 

Trout Tail…Split (photography)

Sometimes even the most beautiful things in life have their flaws and blemishes. The split Trout Tail in no way diminished the early morning beauty of this Rainbow Trout. It is ever more beautiful than that dead Alligator Gar in my previous post…don’t you think?