Great Fishing

I just hate to see an empty spot when there is an opportunity to talk fishing. One of the great things about the United States (and there are many), is that most of the water is considered public. We have so many lakes, streams, and rivers that we can fish, not to mention the oceans. One of the things that I would like to accomplish in my life is to fish in all 50 states. I am only about half way there but I plan on hitting it pretty hard when I finish college (July 12th, 2009). I'm one of those folks who qualify for their degree and AARP at the same time. One of my favorite fish to catch and eat is crappie. I think my favorite catch and release fish is trout. I love to flyfish and trout seem to live in my favorite kind of places. We have some pretty big catfish and spoonbill here in Oklahoma but it reqires some effort to get the big ones and I'm not as hungry as I used to be. I have fished in the Atlantic and the Pacific but my favorite saltwater fishing has been in the Gulf of Mexico. If I had to pick a few of my favorites I would choose trout in Wyoming, smallmouth bass on the John Day River in Oregon, spring time crappie in Oklahoma, and blackfin tuna in Louisiana.

jaustin................well my wife and I are also ardent fly casters. Like you, we probably spend more time fly-fishing for trout than anything else, and that is not too surprising since we grew up in British Columbia. However, we also really like to fish for walleye when we want to eat a mess of fish as it is our favorite fresh water fish to eat.

Catching big northern pike on a fly is a lot of fun, steelhead on the Pacific Coast is another of my favorites, as is bucktailing for Coho salmon in September.............then there is also fly-fishing for Arctic grayling and a streamer or light spinning tackle for Arctic char.

We are pretty lucky in that we have several great lakes near our ranch with exceptional angling. There is a world class trout lake for fly-fishing a couple miles away that has rainbows and browns from 24 - 32 inches, several others with brook trout, lake trout and splake, another about a mile west with walleye and yellow perch, a supper lake in the national park a couple miles north for huge pike, and a very large reservoir west of here a few miles with walleye, yellow perch, pike, rock bass, black crappy, carp, mooneye and smallmouth. On the Red River south east of here the catfish grow big and can go over 80 pounds.

I usually get my salmon fix when we visit relatives in BC and I guide up north so manage to always get in some quality time with the grayling, lake trout, whitefish and char every year during June and September.

I have to admit I never go fishing south of the 49th as a destination, but I have done some fly-fishing near around Yellowstone a couple times when I was down there antelope hunting. Nice country!

I have done very little deep sea angling, only tuna so far and an unsuccessful attempt for sail fish. Maybe next winter when we take our snowbird vacation.

We have a deal in our house, I do all the reloading and my wife does all the fly tying.

Hey guys! I'm a doryman. We launch directly into the surf & come in at about 25+ kts and slide up on the beach. I catch salmon, albacore tuna, halibut, ling cod, seabass, and various other groundfish.

Here's a nice photo of a Peacock Bass that one of our customers sent in...A beautiful fish.



Peacock Bass..jpg