The New Very Large Trout Lovers Thread

Catching redfish, mackerel, ladyfish, and speckled trout on Chandeleur Islands.  Crabs  were hitting my lures! LMAO.  

Going to the Miracle Mile to swing some streamers on the 4wt spey rig in probably about a month and getting started early on tying for the trip.  Goldie with size 4 4x long up front and size 6 2x long in back.  Hoping for some porkers!

Up in Alaska for three weeks of fly fishing. This first week I caught and released over a hundred sockeye salmon and had to take a day off today to rest my arms! The fishing has beeen excellent even though the rivers are at the top of their banks at flood stage from weeks of constant rain. The first three weeks of August have been the rainiest in recorded history for southwest Alaska.

Next week I'll be targeting pink salmon, rainbows, and dolly varden.

Photos by Yvonne Gaines

Wow! Lots of very pretty fish on here! With the possible exception of the hunchbacked, hook nosed, guy in Bob's last post. But, that's the red that Idaho's Redfish lake is named for. And, these guys headed for the end days make a heckuva lot of food for everything else.

Best, Helen

Bob Gaineswrote:

Up in Alaska for three weeks of fly fishing. This first week I caught and released over a hundred sockeye salmon and had to take a day off today to rest my arms! The fishing has beeen excellent even though the rivers are at the top of their banks at flood stage from weeks of constant rain. The first three weeks of August have been the rainiest in recorded history for southwest Alaska.

Next week I'll be targeting pink salmon, rainbows, and dolly varden.

Photos by Yvonne Gaines

Speaking of Sockeyes close cousin, the Kokanees are about to start running here in CO.  Just tied up a few intruder style flies in the most ridiculously gaudy colors and might go out to the Gunnison this weekend if the local shop gives me good news later this week (called them Friday and apparently one of their guides caught one last week so they are probably staging in Blue Mtn Reservoir right now).  Super stoked, one of my favorite trips I take every year.  Those things fight so much harder than any other salmonid I've ever gone after (granted I haven't gone after proper salmon or steelhead runs yet).

Got into some great action today for pink salmon stripping flash flies.

photos by yvonne gaines

Nice humpies!  Great looking trip, Bob!

Sweet cutty from a trip to the Tetons in late July...

Bob… Fantastic fishing trip- I’m jealous sort of….
I just did 3 days down by Devil’s Post Pile on San Joaquin, a stream that I have never had much luck at. But not now- this one is small but represents most of the BOWs that were caught and released.
I don’t even like to remove them from the water now.

Christopher Smithwrote:

Speaking of Sockeyes close cousin, the Kokanees are about to start running here in CO.  Just tied up a few intruder style flies in the most ridiculously gaudy colors and might go out to the Gunnison this weekend if the local shop gives me good news later this week (called them Friday and apparently one of their guides caught one last week so they are probably staging in Blue Mtn Reservoir right now).  Super stoked, one of my favorite trips I take every year.  Those things fight so much harder than any other salmonid I've ever gone after (granted I haven't gone after proper salmon or steelhead runs yet).

Shhhhhh! 

Not Not MP Adminwrote:

Shhhhhh! 

1. It ain't really a secret, Almont is basically going to be shoulder season in about 3 weeks.

2. I don't think it's a big deal here on a national climbing forum in a somewhat obscure thread.

I never noticed the new trout lovers thread!

Nice fish, Bob, looks like your trip is going well (not surprising since it's you).  I spent ten days in Alaska at the beginning of the month and although catching salmon was fun, I don't think anything beats big rainbows in small rivers.  Everywhere we fished I'd catch one salmon and then start trying to catch the rainbows.  The best day was an unguided one with my brother on a little creek fishing below the spawning king salmon, it's hard to beat 20" rainbows from 12" deep water!

Nice fish DJ! I remember you from the supertopo trout lover's thread and Aaron's Pyramid Lake crew. Good to see you posting here too.

Christopher Smithwrote:

1. It ain't really a secret, Almont is basically going to be shoulder season in about 3 weeks.

2. I don't think it's a big deal here on a national climbing forum in a somewhat obscure thread.

You’re real fun at parties huh….

Not Not MP Adminwrote:

You’re real fun at parties huh….

Lol I know I'm not fun at parties, I prefer to go fishing or climbing or smoking cigars and drinking whisky.

Another rainy day in Alaska and the fishing was fantastic. The sockeye salmon are beginning to spawn and the rainbows and dolly varden are right behind them, hungry for eggs. Caught dozens of bows and dollies drifting beads. But the "big one" got away. It cleared the water in a magnificent leap, so I got a very good look at it. The hook popped after a brief tussle in heavy current- one of the biggest rainbows I've ever hooked in Alaska.

photos by yvonne gaines

Christopher Smithwrote:

Lol I know I'm not fun at parties, I prefer to go fishing or climbing or smoking cigars and drinking whisky.

We should not go to parties together 

As a fellow angler, I love what's been going on in these threads.

And, y'all ought to really consider avoiding air exposure on fish you're going to release - doing so greatly reduces angling-induced stress on the fish. It's good ethics, just like not hammering a clean route. And yes, your Insta-fame will suffer. Bummer.

In case you're interested: Fish Need Water

Carry on and/or flame away   

My bet is most of us do limit the time out of water for the fish we catch (and snap a pic of).  Good reminder though.

Article in the reference materials from the "fish need water" website indicate that 10 seconds or less is kinda pretty ok.  Which, my guess is normal for most of us.  

I'd guess in a typical day where I catch multiple fish, I rarely lift them out of the water.  I'll photograph maybe 1 nicely colored (and sized) fish in a day where I might catch a couple of dozen or more.

What I try to do to help with sustainability is bump up my terminal tackle to a strength that will minimize the fight time.  Play quick and release quick usually without removing the fish from the water.

A huge thing especially in the western rivers I fish is water temperatures.  We just don't go when it gets warm.  See hoot owl restrictions in Montana for instance.  I think trout especially get pretty stressed when the water temps get warm.

Single hooks with flattened barbs help a bunch.  A net without knots.  Wet hands.  Etc.

Interesting study from Alaska on rainbows.  Kind of on my list of places to go fish.  Not sure I learned a bunch from it but was interesting the lengths they went to collect the data.

Rainbows in Alaska study

Was searching for some late summer fatties that avoided being caught since stocking. Got skunked but I did make a new friend.

Good points Matt and Brian. Here's a release tool I made that allows you to pop the hook without taking the fish out of the water or touching the fish with your hands. As far as doing the least damage to fish, barbless hooks are important, as is a rubber net. On days when I'm catching dozens of rainbows in Alaska, I'll choose to photograph only a few of the most notable ones. 

To get a fish pic, a good process is to make sure the photographer is ready before taking the fish out of the water. I usually hold my hand out where the fish will be, so the photographer can pre-focus and pre-frame the shot. Then I'll just lift the fish out for a second or two and put it back in the water.

An underwater camera is great too, to get a nice shot of the fish in the water, but it only works well on sunny days with clear water.