|
The quiet jolt at a perfect site for fly-fishing
It's that moment when a trout grabs your dry fly. It starts when you see the trout rise before you feel the grab. A millisecond later, the trout jolts you, and it's almost an electric sensation, as if you are wired directly to the fish. For a lot of people who fly-fish, it's the single most exciting moment in all sport. This is better than watching any sport because here you are the participant, not the observer. And the way you take this to the highest level is by casting a dry fly to wild fish in a pristine wilderness stream. That is what has always led me back to the Middle Fork San Joaquin River, high in the Sierra in the Ansel Adams Wilderness, the best place in the West to try and catch the grand slam of wild trout in a single day: rainbow trout, brook trout, golden trout, brown trout and a strange-looking hybridized mix I called the "golden-brook." Even though the trout are not large here, you have a chance to get 20 to 50 grabs in a day.
Fishing for trout in the Androscoggin River
GORHAM, N.H. - The little 7 1/2 foot, 2-wt. rod bent to the task as the 12-inch rainbow headed back behind the rock from where he had darted to take Steve's fly. The reel complained in a high-pitched squeal about the line being stripped from it's spool. My companion had to be very careful as we fished with only two pound test tippets that can break if you breathe on them wrong. He had set the drag so that the slightest pull would take line; when fishing with such light equipment, the contest becomes art and finesse not horsepower. The small fish was not going to give up easily. Several times he broke the surface of the stream, shaking his head and tossing rainbow-ladened drops of spring-fed water side to side. With practiced ease Steve let the trout tire himself out and then slowly brought him to bay, his handmade catch net with the rubbed finish twinkled in the sunlight as he slid it underneath the waiting fish.
Fishing is escape from war
Von Hagen spent a year as a civilian contractor stationed in Iraq, where he refused to let the fighting disrupt his fishing. His favorite fishing hole? One of Saddam Hussein's private lakes. "I was stationed in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown," said Von Hagen, 38, who attended Hillsboro High and Western Kentucky University. "When I arrived, I discovered three fairly large lakes in a walled-off compound that contained about 30 of Saddam's palaces. Being a fisherman, I immediately checked them out and found that the lakes were full of big fish, mostly carp and shad." Von Hagen wrote home, asking for his fishing tackle to be shipped. "The biggest fish I caught weighed 25 pounds," he said. "I caught it on spinning tackle. Then I started fly fishing, catching fish weighing three, four pounds.
|
|
|
|
|
Bookmark
(Ctrl + D) |
|
