[pct-l] Let's Fish II

[Nathan Miller]

I'd like to echo Whiptail's advise.  I do have a
few comments I'd like to add as a lifelong
fisherman and one fairly new to flyfishing.
Regarding flyfishing, if you really want to do
it, practice A LOT before you leave, as
flycasting has in my opinion a REALLY steep
learning curve.  On the other hand, as has been
stated, there are plenty of streams in which
little or no casting will be necessary.  In fact,
casting may actually be counterproductive and
unless you have a LOT of elbow room, you're
likely to spend an inordinate amount of time
dealing with snags on brush and such.  You could
almost get away with tieing your line to a stick
a-la Tom Sawyer in some places!
With regard to spinning vs. fly, I think we'd all
agree that spinning gear is MUCH heavier than fly
gear.  On one trip I took, my little box stuffed
with various spinners and spoons (I like to have
options) weighed AT LEAST a pound, probably more!
 In truth, I could have been fine with just a
couple each of smaller Panther Martin and Mepps
spinners.  For the most part, fish are either
biting on stuff or they're not.  On another trip
in the not-so-high Sierra, cutthroat trout were
congregating at the inlet of a small lake, but we
couldn't get them to strike at anything.  On the
coastal rivers of the Northwest, this
all-or-nothing phenomenon is also prevalent. 
Now, I'm sure we've all ready a plethora of
accounts in various fishing publications about
die-hard flyfisherpersons who spent a great deal
of time and energy stalking fish and figuring out
what to present to the fish and how to present it
on any given day in order to catch fish.  Unless
you're taking a zero, I doubt you'll have more
than an hour or so available to work a particular
water in this way and you'll probably not want to
be hauling all that equipment anyway.
My mom and stepfather were vacationing back east
a few summers ago.  Somewhere in Missouri
(Mississippi River, I think), he was fishing and
happened upon a couple of guys using those
all-business catfish traut-line setups.  He
commented that he didn't think that was very
sporting.  One of them said, "well, that
depends...do you want to fish or do you want to
catch?"  You'll do well to keep this in mind.  As
a novice flyfisherman, I still spend an
inordinate amount of time with my fly hurtling
through the air, instead of having it in the
water, despite early advise that you'll only
catch fish when your fly/lure/bait is in or on
the water.  Also, don't worry if you look awkward
wrangling your fly gear, since there will likely
not be many people around to watch you.  I like
to go after salmon with my fly rod and I'm sure I
usually look like a total fool whipping my line
around and snagging stuff on grass etc. while the
spinfisherman nearby are hurling their egg sacks
and other twitchy-looking setups into the river. 
In stocked waters, you'll likely find that
hatchery-reared trout will take a salmon egg
every time (and you'd have to decide if you want
to tote a jar of salmon eggs all over the back
country, leaving a cloud of bear-attracting fishy
scent in your wake), although hatchery trout will
probably bite on just about anything anyway, so
you may as well use cheddar cheese (which often
works, BTW, and which you may well be already
carrying as food for yourself).
I guess the upshot of most of this is that there
won't be one method that'll work all the time and
you'll have to choose at most a half-dozen
possible approaches, one of which will likely
work at least 2/3 of the time.  You'll have to
weigh the trade-offs against each other.  The
times when stuff isn't working will probably be
when you'll be best calling it a day.  After all,
you're there to hike first and fish etc. second. 
As you pass through the Klamaths, you'll enter
country where the issue of wild fish vs. farmed
fish is important.  In some places, the wild fish
populations are in trouble, depending on species,
and you may decide to release your freshly-caught
fish rather than cooking it for your meal.  In
fact, fishing regulations may require it, so do
your research.  PDF versions of the current
fishing regs are downloadable at
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/ for Oregon. 
Washington and California probably have this too.

Nathan Miller
Newberg, OR



 
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