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:

Wilkes Barre Times-Leader

Ice-fishing festival gets assist from cold weather | Outdoors
The Seattle Times
With a deep freeze settling into areas east of the Cascades, anglers are breaking through the ice to catch fish. By Mark Yuasa No comments have been posted to this article. With a deep freeze settling into areas east of the Cascades, ...
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Bellingham Herald

OUTDOORS: Lower Columbia fishing set, halibut hold line
Bellingham Herald
Early 2012 salmon, steelhead and sturgeon fishing seasons are now set for the lower Columbia River, giving anglers some hard information on which to plan trips. Expectations rate as good for the lower Columbia's early returning chinook fishery this ...
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Minister Ashfield Announces a 2011 National Recreational Fisheries Award ...
MarketWatch (press release)
GRANBY, QUEBEC, Feb 04, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- The Honourable Keith Ashfield, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Gateway, today announced that Claude Bernard is a winner of a 2011 National Recreational ...

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For-profit fishing limited on reefs off Georgetown
MyrtleBeachOnline.com
Commercial spear fishing was stripping clean artificial reefs that were meant for recreational fishing, anglers claimed. Two years later, after The Post and Courier's 2009 report of the alleged abuses, a federal law has been put on the books to ...
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Brevard Times

Cocoa Beach Surf and Fishing Report for Sunday February 5, 2012
Brevard Times
As of 5:00 am on Sunday February 5, 2012, jelly fish were not present throughout Cocoa Beach from Coconuts on the Beach northward to Jetty Park in Cape Canaveral as a result of westerly winds over the last week pushing the jellies away from shore.

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Fishing the rivers will be different in 2012 than last year
The Times of Trenton - NJ.com
One of the most important of these facts is that fish, no matter where they live, being creatures of habit and their environment, thrive on stability. A stable environment causes fish to fall into patterns when it comes to movements and feeding, ...



Craftsmen have a passion for bamboo fishing rods
Duluth News Tribune
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.

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Feb. 2 fishing report
The Tennessean
There's still too much generation at the dam to allow for decent fishing. • Center Hill. Lots of smallmouth bass are being caught on swim baits and jigs. Try the creeks. • Cheatham. Striper are being caught below the dam. Crappie bite is good in main ...
Fishing reportsPryor Daily Times
Fishing Report 2-6-12Log Cabin Democrat
Outdoor notebookMuskogee Daily Phoenix

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Rose State College offering bass fishing classes starting Tuesday
NewsOK.com
Outdoors notebook: Join the Oklahoma Equestrian Trail Riders Association; Spring field trials for bird dogs being held in February and March; Fly fishing expert to speak Saturday; Crappie expert appearing Feb. 16 in Oklahoma City; Illinois River Fly ...

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Federal wildlife officials offer ice fishing day in Mississippi River refuge
The Republic
Federal wildlife officials are planning a free ice fishing day for kids on the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. Children between the ages of 6 and 13 will be allowed to fish for free at a Mississippi River boat landing in Winona, ...

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