Blushing beauty…

caught & released in Oregon

Beauty slips away…

“A trout is a moment of beauty known only to those who seek it.”   Arnold Gingrich

Speckled Beauty…

“Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” 

Henry David Thoreau

Ah Henry, not so true. I purposely seek the beauty of the trout…I see the rest too. 

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All Trout caught, carefully admired, gently released.

Slip Sliding Away….Blissful

seeking the escape
immersing oneself to find
colors and speckles

respect for nature
taking in the visuals
leaving the beauty

Central Oregon Rainbow Trout, Caught~Released by SwittersB

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Meaningful connections…..

beauty brought to hand

momentary, fixation soothes

slides down from wet hands

Oregon Rainbow Trout Caught & Released

The chase….

“People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election.” Otto von Bismarck

I understand that a portion of the visitors to SwittersB cannot abide by anything that seemingly disrupts the daily activities of any animal upon this planet. So you should probably enjoy this post for the photography (maybe) and then turn away. Not that I am a constant advocate of killing fish (or any other animal) but I am an advocate for the chase, the encounter, the parting of contact with a sense of satisfaction. I do all this for me.

Yes, I selfishly do it of for me while trying to leave as little impact as possible upon the prey…the magnificent trout, salmon or steelhead trout. Some would argue this is inhumane (PETA types) to hook a fish and stress it while deriving pleasure. Others, would argue that if you do hook a fish it is only humane to kill it and more preferable than playing the fish and then releasing it stressed, vulnerable and nothing but an object for my satisfaction.

I am imbued with the ‘need’, the instincts to chase beautiful fish, and not so beautiful fish, with a fly rod using creations I concocted. This requires me to study nature, understand the fish, the environment of the fish, feeding habits, its predacious ways and combine all that to seduce/provoke the fish into taking my offering. I make no apologies for that. 

I believe few people could not be intrigued, if put into the right circumstances, to appreciate the search, the quest, the ‘moment’ when they connect with a fish, big or small, and realize they are connecting with something more primal. Urban living, supermarkets, sedentary lives, numbed instincts combine to separate up from any sense of nature beyond pretty sunrises, sunsets, trees and the expanses of waters. 

SwittersB & Exploring was SwittersB & Fly Fishing for a good many years. All those outdoor encounters, seeking beautiful fish, only highlight the always magnificent surroundings it all takes place in. Visually, I share it all as best I can. Intellectually once in awhile. 

Release

The Catch & Release Obsession

Quite a few of you non-fly fishers, who primarily drop by SwittersB for my photographic efforts, write and ask why I kill such beautiful fish. A very few have picked up on my past notations about ‘the fish was released unharmed’ and wonder why I don’t harvest fish.

If one peruses fly fishing writing, you quickly surmise a fixation with the fish must be released unharmed. It is almost a given that we rarely kill a fish and we must pay particular attention to the preservation of wild trout so as to maintain the genetic stock of what may have been the original, wild residents of a stream.

Somewhere along the way, I have unquestionably bought into all this and never question it. It just seems the right thing to do. I have kept hatchery trout in numbers on camping trips only to waste them in a cooler sans ice. After that happened and I put that bag of trout in a garbage can and set the metal lid down with a clang, I have rarely killed a fish beyond hatchery salmon or wild salmon in Alaska. The real benefit is I really don’t appreciate the taste of most fish. An occasional piece of halibut, fish and chips or fish tacos are about it. A few pieces of smoked salmon, some red snapper, that’s it. So I have no desire to harvest beautiful trout to eat them. I have no need to kill something to satisfy a primal need to conquer. 

I am not judging those that harvest hatchery fish or plentiful wild fish. Decimating populations in fragile watersheds or lakes is unacceptable to me. The connection to the habitat and the vulnerability of the fish is missing for the fisher solely concerned for the kill.

So that is my answer for those that have written about my killing or not killing trout. Just at a very guttural level I think the fish I pursue are beautiful, whether barely covering the palm of the hand or taking two hands to hoist them. They give me a different kind of food that benefits my mind, my well being.

Photography: At First Blush……….

This image means many things to me: a beautiful rainbow trout…a fly, I tied, seduced this fish…the gill plate pops its gorgeous pinkish-red…the fish put up a noble fight with airborne leaps and runs…how much my rod bent and my wrist ached…the tail slap and spray of water in my face as I released her back into the icy water…and that I was able to capture this image with my little Pentax Optio W-60 while the fish laid motionless for an instant (the primary recorder of such events…my wife…was off photographing some shore side flowers).

For some this image is a tortuous abuse…or just a slab of meat…or a clinical eye takes in the  exposure and composition. For me it is a moment of reverence and synergy that bathes my mind and soul. The Moment. Caught/Released

Catch & Release: How To………….

Saw this nice how to release trout graphic on FB. It was put out there by the Central Oregon Fly Fishers. Almost a given with many fly fishers, catch & release is a noble tool to sustain the fishery, share the resource and pay reverence to nature’s treasures. Without pontificating here, it is always good to remind one’s self of the basics and this is a nice graphic to do that.

Catch & Release is a constant for me. Mostly because I just don’t eat that much fish anymore nor enjoy the hassle of catch and clean. When Fly Fishers have outings they sometimes keep hatchery fish for a fish fry. Their rationale is the fish caught and killed are hatchery fish and not worthy of release because they compete with the ‘wild’ strains of trout in the watershed.

Something about that does not set well anymore…with me. The science justifies the kill. The current, righteous high ground justifies the kill.

I will just slip them all back into the water until the hatchery fish go away by planning not killing…at least in those wild trout watersheds.