Fishing for beginners

[Jeff Lebowski]

You should take your 7mm wetsuit to Strawberry. A diving buddy and I would pick up and fill a couple of coolers of crawfish off the bottom. Then we would boiled them all up with some smoked sausage, corn, cajun spices, etc. It is a Texas/Louisiana thing.

We got a 5-gallon bucketful over the weekend. Chicken legs.

[Uncle Ted]

We got a 5-gallon bucketful over the weekend. Chicken legs.

Yeah, chicken legs work well. The crawfish off the bottom of strawberry taste a lot better than the ones out of the lakes around here.

[mtnbiker]

I have done that myself, but in lakes. My older brother used to enjoy finding gear that way. One time we were going along and found a clear bubble and picked it up and it zipped out of my hand trailing along some bait. Then some rocks started dropping in around us. Turns out it was a live one.

That would make for an interesting experience. My original point that you missed was that my scuba buddy had dived the river below the dam before, and had scored some brand new expensive gear, not old worn-out stuff. His thought was that a lot of the people who take the guided boats down the river likely picked up some really fancy rigs just for that trip, and some of them either get a snag and lose the gear or get frustrated and toss it overboard.

[Paperback Writer]

I am going backpacking next week. One of the guys plans to fish at some of the lakes we are by. They have golden trout in them. Should be interesting. Look like really pretty fish.

Every few years I backpack the Cloud Peak Wilderness in the Bighorns and always fish some off-trail, high alpine lakes that have golden trout. They are a beautiful fish. For that reason, I've always done catch and release with Goldens.

[Flystripper]

My son caught this guy in Hidden Lake near Elk Lake in Montana. It looks a bit like a golden but I believe it is just a rainbow that has been isolated for many generations. There is a ton of genetic diversity in the rainbow trout species.




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[Non Sequitur]

I'm headed to Bear Lake Friday. Are there any fish in that pond?

[Northwestcoug]

Finally had success on the Metolius River this weekend. For those of you who don't know, it's a unique river whose headwaters is a spring. The geology is such that both the river flow and temperature are relatively constant throughout the year. The lore of the Metolius is how hard it is to catch fish there. The water is crystal clear and deep. I tried a couple of times before, getting advice from the local fly shop about what gear to try. No dice. But this weekend we spent a few hours and finally got lucky.

It is easily the prettiest river in Central Oregon. Mrs. NWC tries to camp there at least once a year. Here she is practicing her roll cast:

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My first catch:
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Honestly I wouldn't have been terribly disappointed had I not caught anything else. At least I could have said I've caught something on the Metolius! I caught one white fish the next day, and since my dad had a hatred of white fish while he was alive we shall not discuss it further.

Finally I hooked a nice one. This really made my day:
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I'm sure I looked like a noob almost losing my net downstream after unhooking this one, but no matter. Now I can play the expert on the Metolius next time someone asks me how to fish it

By the way, I think I mentioned previously how I really didn't like using nymphs. I am now a solid convert. More than half the time I will drop a nymph from behind a dry fly, and that will be the one that usually gets the action. Apparently there are wild hatches on the Metolius that you can get great dry fly action, but I didn't even try with that. I was using an indicator with two nymphs. Good stuff.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Beautiful fish. That looks really fun.

Nymph fishing can be a blast.

[Flystripper]

Awesome NWC! Nymphing almost always works even when everything else doesn’t. The only fish I caught yesterday on the strawberry river were on sow bug nymphs.


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[Northwestcoug]

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Awesome NWC! Nymphing almost always works even when everything else doesn’t. The only fish I caught yesterday on the strawberry river were on sow bug nymphs.


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This more than any other nymph pattern has worked for me. Recommended by the fly shop. I had to look up the name: perdigon. I’ve tried larger ones like stone flies but they keep going for the smaller fly, the one I just caught included.

[The_Tick]

Tying flies are on my list after I finish grad school. That and learning how to play the piano.

[Copelius]

Tying flies are on my list after I finish grad school. That and learning how to play the piano.

22 years after marrying a piano major, I am still too lazy to practice enough to have her give me a second lesson. Oh well, she says she is too intimidated to have a first voice lesson from me.

[BigPiney]

22 years after marrying a piano major, I am still too lazy to practice enough to have her give me a second lesson. Oh well, she says she is too intimidated to have a first voice lesson from me.

I would be up for voice lessons if I was closer.

[falafel]

I would be up for voice lessons if I was closer.

Yes, me too. I want to rock my stake choir!

[USUC]

This summer is more than half over for my son. We had planned on doing a couple of overnight camping and fishing trips. But stuff has happened with my mom and my wife messed up her back and it just sucked up all my time. We had property above Fairview that I used to go camping on, but we sold it last year. Now I kind of don't know where to go.

Some of you that camp and fish regularly might have some suggestions. Are there any camping spots that:

-Are within an hours drive of the Salt Lake Valley
- close to good fishing
- forested
- not crowded

I'll probably take a day and a half of from work in the middle of the week. I'm looking around a but but it seems.most camping grounds are pretty crowded now.