Oregon Fishing Part I

I was determined to find some carp to catch while visiting my family in Eugene, Oregon, and so as usual, I began with a Google search. At the time, the only thing which popped up was a Youtube video of some guy bowfishing for carp in the Amazon Slough, a rather dirty drainage canal that runs through Eugene. Fortunately there is a bike path which runs along the slough for many miles, so I borrowed a bike and went searching for fish there. And I found them:I caught this fellow on a carp bugger at a not so secret spot. Anyone from Eugene would be able to find the bridge behind me...

My younger brother came fishing with me. I had him hide in the bushes and gently drop his fly in front of the carp basking near the bank (you can see them in the photo) but after I caught one fish the others got quite spooky and wouldn't bite.
I found more carp farther out along the bike path. Out there the water was cleaner - I saw herons, geese, and even a small otter feasting on the plentiful crayfish. As soon as I got down the bank I spotted a fish mudding in the shallows and cast my pink San Juan worm into the cloud of silt. The first fish didn't notice, but another carp stuck it's head out of the murk and dipped to inhale my fly. After a bit of a tussle, I brought it back and landed it on the bank for a portrait:It's been a challenge taking photos by myself, but I like this shot a lot. The yellow wild flowers complement the carp's coloring nicely.

Mirror Image

The day before I flew to Oregon for my friends wedding I went carping in my usual spot. I located a feeding carp in about two feet of water. It was moving directly away from me and I was having trouble putting my fly in it's path without lining it so I started to creep around to the side, trying to find a better casting angle. Due to the direction of the sun, as soon as I moved to the side the glare completely obscured the fish, but I kept creeping, hoping the fish would keep moving in the same direction. Fat chance. When I got about half way around I spotted the fish again, about 10 feet away and moving directly towards me! With as little movement as possible, I swung my rubber legged nymph and plopped it down in front of the fish which leisurely moved over and inhaled. I set the hook and the fish took off into deeper water.
When I finally lifted my net out of the water I was surprised to find a mirror carp flopping around with my nymph in it's lip. Now I just have to find a grass carp to complete the team...

Hawaiian Freshwater

Summer has been hectic with travel - from Southeast Asia we traveled back to Hawaii for a short visit, then returned to Tennessee. After only a week, I was off to Oregon to act as best man in my friends wedding. Now that everyone has said "I do," I am hoping to find some fish. Before I get too far behind on the blog though, I want to share a few of my recent fishes. On my last day in Hawaii, I was fortunate to get a call from my friend and Hawaiian fishing Guru, Kirk. He had been under the weather and we had canned our plan to either go ulua (trevally) fishing or flats fishing for o'io (bonefish) because even in the tropics, wading all day is cold and exhausting. Instead, Kirk suggested that we head to Lake Wilson, Oahu's biggest fresh water body, for a mellow day of tucanare bass fishing among the eucalyptus trees at Kirk's secret spot.

Tucanare bass are not actually bass, but the world's largest species of cichlid, and as I soon learned, they are voracious feeders, strong fighters and aerial acrobats. Kirk had the first fish, caught on live bait. I snapped off a good sized one, but after spooling on some 15lb test I managed to land my first tucanare. The fish wouldn't stop flopping around, and I dunked my shoe in the lake trying to get my camera out, but I think the self portrait turned out pretty good:

The fishing just kept getting better. We soon switched to a light tackle rod with a small minnow lure, and a flyrod with a weighted baitfish imitation.

At first we tried to be quiet when playing fish so as not to scare off the shoal that seemed to be right in front of us, but as our arms got tired and our fingers became raw from lipping big fish, we began to land and release fish with no regard for stealth. All of the fish that day were good sized tucanare bass except for two. Kirk caught a largemouth and I hooked a red devil, another species of cichlid which can sometimes be enticed to take a fly.

It turned out to be an epic day of fishing - perhaps thirty fish between the two of us.Although I have no idea how many pounds it was, I am certain I set my personal record for most pounds of fish landed in one day.

Southeast Asia

I just arrived home after almost a month of travelling in Thailand and Cambodia. Despite my best efforts, I was unable to do any serious fishing while I was there. There are many fish in the ponds around Angkor Wat. Indeed, I spotted some large carp tailing in the shallow water near the wall on the left hand side of the photo, and our guide said that large snakeheads are also found there. Unfortunately for me, the whole area is a national park and fishing there is prohibited.
After several days of touring the temple complex we visited nearby Tonle Sap, the largest lake in Southeast Asia, where I snapped a slide show of a local fisherman throw netting.