Some dead stuff on the stream bank.
We brought home some Lake Superior Coho.
And this evening the shotguns were exercised. The woodcock and the grouse remain unscathed.
Showing posts with label trout fishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trout fishing. Show all posts
Friday, September 26, 2008
Fall cast and blast III
Decided to flip the day and fished first and then did the bird hunt this evening. In an an effort to work on the south shore coaster projetc we went after the lake runs this morning. Hit one of the U.P. streams with one of the greatest stream names ever.
Some dead stuff on the stream bank.
We brought home some Lake Superior Coho.
And this evening the shotguns were exercised. The woodcock and the grouse remain unscathed.
Some dead stuff on the stream bank.
We brought home some Lake Superior Coho.
And this evening the shotguns were exercised. The woodcock and the grouse remain unscathed.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Fall cast and blast
under the "time to close the U.P. cabin" category I did the late night north woods run after work Tuesday. Headed out Weds morning with the dog and the shotguns, left the camera at home, and the hunting was good but the shooting was bad, which is our traditional family way. Spent the afternoon on stream.
a rock ledge in the cedar swamp off of the river, with a free flowing seep, and seep where it goes into the main channel.
some of the locals trouts.
a rock ledge in the cedar swamp off of the river, with a free flowing seep, and seep where it goes into the main channel.
some of the locals trouts.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Reflections on the Water: The Metaphysics, Sport and Literature of Fly Fishing
Steve Schoenwald of Hinckley receives some fly fishing tips at Wade Lagoon from Case Western Reserve University Professor John Orlock. Orlock is teaching a class on the sport - and art - of fly fishing.
To understand the great lit erature spawned by the sport of fly fishing - books written as long as 500 years ago - pick up a fly rod and learn to cast and catch fish.
So says Case Western Reserve University Professor John Orlock.
Orlock is teaching freshmen the art of fly fishing and quite a bit more this fall with his course "Reflections on the Water: The Metaphysics, Sport and Literature of Fly Fishing."
On Thursday morning, Orlock had a dozen young men and women waving fly rods and casting a small fluff of orange yarn into the still waters of Wade Lagoon, dappling the reflection of the nearby Cleveland Museum of Art.
"The course is an examination of fly fishing with an integration of academic skills, providing an introduction to outdoor life," said Orlock, who, not surprisingly, is an avid fly fisherman. "Fly fishing, like no other sport, has been responsible for a proliferation of great literature."
A part of the college's SAGES (Seminar Approach to General Education and Scholarship) undergraduate program, the course has been a collaborative effort, said Orlock. Molly Berger and Peter Whiting, deans of the College of Arts and Sciences, encouraged Orlock. So did steelhead trout fisherman Bill Siebenschuh, chairman of CWRU's English Department, as well as college librarian Bill Klaspy.
Klaspy, also a fly fisherman, is guiding the students through a wealth of literature on the sport.
Ray McCready, president of Orvis - a leading maker of fly tackle - donated rods and reels. The equipment prompted Orlock to offer the course twice each year.
Orlock pointed to Stephanie Jackson, a student from Moon Township, Pa.
"On Monday, she couldn't make a cast," he said. "Now, she's showing a lot of skill."
A great help, said Orlock, was a session this week with George Vosmik, a local master of fly casting and fly tying who has taught hundreds of people the art of fly fishing over the years.
A smiling Xi Chen of Solon, who had never fished before, was adeptly making roll casts.
"It's my favorite class," said Tyler Smith of North Ridgeville. "Maybe because it gets us out of the classroom. But it has been fun, learning to fly fish and reading a lot of great books."
The course reading assignments include:
Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It," which became a popular movie credited with rejuvenating the sport.
"Uncommon Waters: Women Write About Fishing," edited by Holly Morris.
And, of course, the ever-popular "A Treatyse of Fysshynge Wyth an Angle." The book, penned by Dame Julianna Berner in 1496, was the first on sport fishing.
"There is such emotion in fly-fishing literature," said Penny Tucker of Stanton, Tenn., co-instructor of the course, as she collected rods and reels at the end of the class. "It was hard not to tear up at the end of 'A River Runs Through It.' "
A burning question is whether a sport can be considered art.
Orlock has the credentials to make such a determination. The former head of the theater department at CWRU, he was awarded the Samuel B. and Virginia C. Knight Chair in the Humanities in 2000. He's also a playwright, whose works have been featured at such major theaters as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Play House and the Focus Theatre of Dublin, Ireland, among others.
"Fly fishing is like dance," said Orlock. He points out that the great fly fisher Joan Wulff was a dancer before she took up and excelled at the sport.
"I thoroughly enjoy fly fishing, and fly fishing literature," said Orlock. "Introducing both to students has been a terrific experience. I believe it is an introduction for them into a new and wonderful world."
from:
http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1221295087284330.xml&coll=2
Friday, August 29, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Wherein I teach ...
Two weekends ago I broke my long standing prohibition on teaching any one fly fishing. Being a fly fisher of modest skill and less success, and a caster who's talents lie on the border between bad and execrable I feel I am not really qualified to teach any one about this.
On the other, the brother in law of 30 years wanted to go to fly fish for trout on the family property on the Escanaba. He has demonstrated some proficiency withother loathsome arts a spinning rod and since he already occupied a position as a university professor and Dean of the College of Art and Sciences at Dominican University, I felt his basic life skill set was already as useless as one could possibly conceive so what difference did it make if he learned to fly fish poorly? you know, when you are at the bottom you can only go up right?
To his credit he did say he would use one of the broom handles that masquerade as resident fly poles as he didn't want to risk breaking one of my "good" rods. I gave him a quick casting lesson and after 5 minutes on the lawn at the cabin, I said why not try my Scott G2 8 foot 4 inch 4 weight ? after one bad false cast - he did agree to use that rod instead of the telephone pole he had been waving around in the air.
The man carefully positioned above the tailout of the big pool on the family water. This spot always holds a trout or two, except for those times when it doesn't. He's dropping a dry fly fished down and across in traditional U.P. style.
This time the tail out contained a trout. First trout on a fly rod and a dry fly.
He fortunately went on to get about another five trout to rise to the fly hooking several including one nice one, but failed to land any of them thank dog.
On the other, the brother in law of 30 years wanted to go to fly fish for trout on the family property on the Escanaba. He has demonstrated some proficiency with
To his credit he did say he would use one of the broom handles that masquerade as resident fly poles as he didn't want to risk breaking one of my "good" rods. I gave him a quick casting lesson and after 5 minutes on the lawn at the cabin, I said why not try my Scott G2 8 foot 4 inch 4 weight ? after one bad false cast - he did agree to use that rod instead of the telephone pole he had been waving around in the air.
The man carefully positioned above the tailout of the big pool on the family water. This spot always holds a trout or two, except for those times when it doesn't. He's dropping a dry fly fished down and across in traditional U.P. style.
This time the tail out contained a trout. First trout on a fly rod and a dry fly.
He fortunately went on to get about another five trout to rise to the fly hooking several including one nice one, but failed to land any of them thank dog.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Austria - yes that's right Austria
Report posted July 31 - but fished in Austria June26/27...
Burned a ton of miles and decided to get the kids some Old Europe culture.
This was the Fishing Hutte we spent a night in.
outside:
inside:
The back yard of the utte:
We hiked up the side of the valley to get a close look at one of the waterfalls coming down from the ice fields.
This valley is above the Krimml wasser falle - highest in Europe.
The kids at the top of the valley.
and there was trout:
The Krimml Achental is 14KM long, ending in a glacier at the head of the valley that is coming down off of Großglockner the highest montain in Austria. ( I think ). The fishing access is all controlled by the Braurup Hotel family, apparently they have been contolling it for the last 400 years or so. They issue daily permits to the 200KM of prime waters that they control, at 25 euros a day. The 14KM of the Krimml above the falls is in a preserve, that limits the rods to 10 a day, fly only, complete C&R. There were two other fisherman there for the two days I was there, I did not see them any near I was fishing, but I ran into them in one of the two "restaurants" that are up there. Basically old alpine farmhouses and the families that live in them sell beer, and homemade weinerschnitzel and milk and cheese made from the 8 or 9 cows they graze, and have on the farm, and I swear that the cream and cheese soup tasted like the wildflowers they were grazing on.
It was blazing sun while we were there with occasional rainclouds blowing through. So - by midmorning the river itself would be up in high runoff mode. I couldn't cross the river to get to this pool and big back eddy, but some monster trout were steadily rising to a grey and sulfer hatch beyond my ability to cast and mend and float a dry into this. These trout laughed and mocked me all afternoon.
The high water did bring up all the small feeders flowing in from all the waterfalls though and the trout did take refuge in these.
These were fishes that came from these feeders on dries of various types.
The second day in the evening I fished a different stream. Thom the guide at the shop at the Braurup sent me to it. I don't know what it was called. It looked like this.
Got a few from this stream - including the biggest fish of my two Austrian fishing days.
Had one on this stream at the base of a plunge pool that I never saw. It just broke me off after about 30 seconds.
Burned a ton of miles and decided to get the kids some Old Europe culture.
This was the Fishing Hutte we spent a night in.
outside:
inside:
The back yard of the utte:
We hiked up the side of the valley to get a close look at one of the waterfalls coming down from the ice fields.
This valley is above the Krimml wasser falle - highest in Europe.
The kids at the top of the valley.
and there was trout:
The Krimml Achental is 14KM long, ending in a glacier at the head of the valley that is coming down off of Großglockner the highest montain in Austria. ( I think ). The fishing access is all controlled by the Braurup Hotel family, apparently they have been contolling it for the last 400 years or so. They issue daily permits to the 200KM of prime waters that they control, at 25 euros a day. The 14KM of the Krimml above the falls is in a preserve, that limits the rods to 10 a day, fly only, complete C&R. There were two other fisherman there for the two days I was there, I did not see them any near I was fishing, but I ran into them in one of the two "restaurants" that are up there. Basically old alpine farmhouses and the families that live in them sell beer, and homemade weinerschnitzel and milk and cheese made from the 8 or 9 cows they graze, and have on the farm, and I swear that the cream and cheese soup tasted like the wildflowers they were grazing on.
It was blazing sun while we were there with occasional rainclouds blowing through. So - by midmorning the river itself would be up in high runoff mode. I couldn't cross the river to get to this pool and big back eddy, but some monster trout were steadily rising to a grey and sulfer hatch beyond my ability to cast and mend and float a dry into this. These trout laughed and mocked me all afternoon.
The high water did bring up all the small feeders flowing in from all the waterfalls though and the trout did take refuge in these.
These were fishes that came from these feeders on dries of various types.
The second day in the evening I fished a different stream. Thom the guide at the shop at the Braurup sent me to it. I don't know what it was called. It looked like this.
Got a few from this stream - including the biggest fish of my two Austrian fishing days.
Had one on this stream at the base of a plunge pool that I never saw. It just broke me off after about 30 seconds.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
More mining "truth" - if you call it that.
Well, I'm on vacation and the hdw-mobile blog has not been updated - so rather than write something new - I'm just plagiarizing quoting with extreme prejudice Troutunderground and Buster wants to fish, cause they both say it, better than I would anyway.
from the Troutunderground:
The Pebble Partnership’s hoping to reassure us sporting types that no way their giant open-pit mine - and all the toxic tailings associated with it - are going to harm wildlife in the area because, you know, they say so right in the ad.
Wow. If only they’d been this clear earlier, I’m sure the salmon themselves would have welcomed them with open arms.
My favorite line? “Pebble is just an exploratory project today. But already we’re setting new standards for environmental care.”
I’d like to point out that setting “new standards for environmental care” isn’t particularly difficult, given that prior open-pit mines have absolutely devastated the surrounding environment.
It’s a little like saying “Stalin set new standards in the creation of unpopulated territory” or “Donald Trump set new standards in hair styling.”
Meanwhile, the Sportsmen’s Alliance for Alaska continues its eBay fundraising auctions, so stop by and make a bid.
Until then, see you on the river, Tom Chandler.
From Buster wants to fish:
wherein we come to view the enemy’s face
The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.
–from the Chomsky/Herman theory of propaganda
from the Troutunderground:
The Pebble Partnership’s hoping to reassure us sporting types that no way their giant open-pit mine - and all the toxic tailings associated with it - are going to harm wildlife in the area because, you know, they say so right in the ad.
Wow. If only they’d been this clear earlier, I’m sure the salmon themselves would have welcomed them with open arms.
My favorite line? “Pebble is just an exploratory project today. But already we’re setting new standards for environmental care.”
I’d like to point out that setting “new standards for environmental care” isn’t particularly difficult, given that prior open-pit mines have absolutely devastated the surrounding environment.
It’s a little like saying “Stalin set new standards in the creation of unpopulated territory” or “Donald Trump set new standards in hair styling.”
Meanwhile, the Sportsmen’s Alliance for Alaska continues its eBay fundraising auctions, so stop by and make a bid.
Until then, see you on the river, Tom Chandler.
From Buster wants to fish:
wherein we come to view the enemy’s face
The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.
–from the Chomsky/Herman theory of propaganda
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
What we've lost - Michigan Grayling
If you want a really good read about what it was like in 1879 and what we've lost:
From the Cornell University "Making of America Project", a destination article about the fabulous Grayling fishing in Northern Michigan, for Scribners in 1879. The whole article is linked from the image above.
A determined and serious effort was undertaken to re-introduce Thymallus in the late 80's and early 90's - statewide, and it failed.
I don't beleive it can be conclusively said why the fish disappeared, beyond of course overfishing, destructive logging practices and introduction of exotics.
For me, this is what I think:
When the glaciers receded from Michigan 13000 years a relict population of grayling found a niche, that was allowed to gently and gradually evolve to fit an ecosystem that was unique, for them. This subspecies perfectly fit the rivers and streams that it had evolved into. Due to all of the above reasons, which simultaneously coincided with the widespread settling of Europeans in the area the fish didn't stand a chance. It was an ineffable expression of chance and evolution that is now gone - but maybe not for good.
At least with coming of the next ice age, which some say is imminent, the mile thick sheets of ice will come down from the artic in the next 5000 years or so, pushing the grayling in front of it, bringing it back to Michigan.
In 1920 on the Otter river in the U.P. an angler caught the same Grayling three times, and then no more, that was the end. That was less than 100 years ago.
So, the Michigan grayling is gone, but I think it is coming back. Maybe next time... things will be different.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Bluegs and troots
Memday trip to the cabin.
From last weekend - the boys trip to the U.P.
Yes - its a late recap post from last weekend.
But at least its being posted in the same month.
The seven year old is convinced he knows how to fly cast like a pro and can catch as many bluegs as he wants to prove it to me.
The 85 yr old man stayed at the lake cabin, l to r, the nephew, the dried out husk of his former shell recovering from calihanoichicagoU.P. jetlag, the seven year old, and the bro on the way down to the trout stream
Flinging that spinner on the family bit of the escy river
I can catch troots too...
Tuesday morning hard frost on the dock, after snow monday night
barefootin in the frost
From last weekend - the boys trip to the U.P.
Yes - its a late recap post from last weekend.
But at least its being posted in the same month.
The seven year old is convinced he knows how to fly cast like a pro and can catch as many bluegs as he wants to prove it to me.
The 85 yr old man stayed at the lake cabin, l to r, the nephew, the dried out husk of his former shell recovering from calihanoichicagoU.P. jetlag, the seven year old, and the bro on the way down to the trout stream
Flinging that spinner on the family bit of the escy river
I can catch troots too...
Tuesday morning hard frost on the dock, after snow monday night
barefootin in the frost
Sunday, April 20, 2008
2024/1494
So I've been ruminating about the vote last week. I was thinking about writing this and kept getting stopped looking for something better in it all and figured I'd just post the picks and bag the analysis as the best I could come up with is, its all about the numbers. These are from tax day April 15 2008.
I put the gear and the dog in the car before I drove up to Rock County to vote last Monday night but even though I was not planned to fish Tuesday the plans seemed to happen anyway. I was pretty sure that the vote was a lost cause, but nothing seems to attract me like a fight for a lost cause especially when its right. I heard a folksy and eloquent defense of the regs at the Janesville Moose Lodge and then voted and drove on to a cheap hotel on hway 18 in the SW. I knew that the place had wireless so I brought my compy only to find the laptop crapped out sometime during the drive. I ended up at dawn in the cold on one river. By about mid morning it had warmed up and I tagged a few.
It was the first 68 degree day of the year and the first caddis fly I had seen and the first trout on a dry caddis fly of 2008.
There was still some small snow patches on the north side of the hills.
At this point I didn't know that the vote had carried. I was just out enjoying the day, and the streams and the dog and the trouts.
Some recent habitat improvement that came through the floods last summer just fine.
The votes on the Prarie regs last lost year by a little less than 500 votes, they carried this year by a little more than 500 votes. Its all about the numbers.
I put the gear and the dog in the car before I drove up to Rock County to vote last Monday night but even though I was not planned to fish Tuesday the plans seemed to happen anyway. I was pretty sure that the vote was a lost cause, but nothing seems to attract me like a fight for a lost cause especially when its right. I heard a folksy and eloquent defense of the regs at the Janesville Moose Lodge and then voted and drove on to a cheap hotel on hway 18 in the SW. I knew that the place had wireless so I brought my compy only to find the laptop crapped out sometime during the drive. I ended up at dawn in the cold on one river. By about mid morning it had warmed up and I tagged a few.
It was the first 68 degree day of the year and the first caddis fly I had seen and the first trout on a dry caddis fly of 2008.
There was still some small snow patches on the north side of the hills.
At this point I didn't know that the vote had carried. I was just out enjoying the day, and the streams and the dog and the trouts.
Some recent habitat improvement that came through the floods last summer just fine.
The votes on the Prarie regs last lost year by a little less than 500 votes, they carried this year by a little more than 500 votes. Its all about the numbers.
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