The fish you see when you close your eyes, my top ten list, part two.

Note, the first two paragraphs of this blog, are basically the same preamble as yesterday, so if you read yesterdays, scroll down.

It's no secret I like to fish.  I picked up a fly rod for the first time at the age of twelve, I'm now fifty three, and I'm not even close to tired of it.  And thinking about fishing, while not as fun as actually fishing, often brings a smile to my face.  In fact, I have even discovered that thinking about fishing can be highly useful!   As I've gotten older, I don't sleep as well.   I never have problems going to sleep, but I sometimes have problems staying asleep.  So, when I wake up (usually between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m.), I've learned a technique that helps.  I choose some of my favorite fishing moments, and think about them, and soon enough, I'm drifting.  Sometimes, I try to make a list of the most memorable fish I've ever caught.  I usually only get a few fish down the list, and I'm sound asleep.

Today, I'm fully awake, but mostly homebound, trying to do my part and stay home.  I'm a little restless, I've got some time on my hands since the real estate market isn't booming, and if there were ever a time to make a list, this is it!  Although there are other things that make fishing trips memorable, the company, locales, food, etc., the fish are still the stars of the show.  These are ranked in no particular order.  I'll start each by giving the species, the size, the day they were caught, and if they were a quest, a target, or a surprise.  A quest is a fish you have pursued somewhat obsessively, a target is a fish that happened to be what you are actually fishing for, but the particular fish caught that day stood out, and a surprise is one of the wonderful fish that come like a bolt from the blue, that you could never have planned for.  And yes, as you scroll through, you'll notice this turns out to be a top twelve list. (Note, as this blog was written, it turned out to be a two parter, today, I'll share the second six.

Fish #7   Brown Trout, Sheboygan River Wisconsin
Date:  November, 1996
Size, 36.5 inches long, 21.5 inch girth,  aprox. 22.4 pounds
Category:  Target

To tell the truth, brown trout, in the fall in Wisconsin are a bycatch of swinging for steelhead, but they are an expected bycatch, some days you catch far more browns than you do steelhead, as was also the case this day.  Before I had left the house, I had my daughter show me how to use the timer on my point and shoot camera, (remember this was 1996), in case, in my words I would happen to catch the "biggest trout of my life".  It was a bitterly cold day, so much so, that I had the river almost entirely to myself.  When you steelhead fish, you are casting, allowing the fly to swing down and across, and then taking a step and doing it all over again, until you finish the run you are working.  On this particular day, about once an hour, I"d get a strong pull, and land a brown trout from five to twelve pounds or so, it wasn't surprising when near the middle of a hundred yard long run, in one of the sweet spots, I felt a fish nip at the fly a couple of times.  I just let it continue to swing and the fish almost took the rod out of my hand.  Lots of slow head shakes, and powerful runs back and forth near the middle of the pool, like most lake run browns,  it was not inclined to run far.  When I got my first glimpse of it, I realized it definitely was not like most lake run browns.  It was a beautiful male brown, long, but also thick, one of those fish that carry weight from their shoulders all the way through the tail.  In my mind, the mark for these browns is twenty pounds, and although I had already landed a couple of twenty pound fish in past years, I knew this was the largest.  Some quick measurements, that put it between 22 and 23 pounds, and a quick picture with the point and shoot camera, and back in he went. And it remains, 24 years later, the largest trout of my life.

Fish #8  Dusky Shark, Jupiter, Florida
Date:  July, 2019
Size:  300 pounds
Category:  Quest

I love sharks.  I've been fascinated by them since I was kid.  And since I've been fishing offshore in Forida for false albacore, I've been trying to figure out how to get the large sharks that are a constant presence around the boat, to both eat a fly, and once they eat, to land them.  The second part is more challenging than the first, most of sharks around the boat are in the 200-500 pound range, we're fishing in over 100 feet of water, and the first thing they do when you hook them is dive.  But, with lots of trial and error, I ended up with the right tackle, the right flies, and the right rigging, and began to have success slapping fish alongside the boat.  (not in the boat!)  Had a wonderful take from a giant right at the surface, got to watch it  slide past the fly, turn on it's tail and engulf it, and then with some good boatwork from the captain, and some hard pulling on the 16 weight, actually had the fish tired, and at the surface in about thirty minutes.  My guide called it at 300 pounds, obviously no measurements were taken.  Interestingly enough, in the picture you can see a hook in the corner of the mouth, but that's not mine, the fly is on the other side, and also a green tag. 

Fish #9  Snook, Jupiter Florida
Date  July, 2016
Size  41 inches and change
Category:  Target

Walking along a beach, in the sun, wearing only a pair of swim trunks, and casting to snook is about as good it gets.  Every summer, the snook, during their spawning time, swim parallel to the beach, often only a few feet off the sand.  It's stunning, visual fishing, at the best of it, you pick your fish, make the cast, watch the fish react to the fly, and sometimes, they will track and eat with the leader literally in the guides.  Not so on this day.  The water was murky, the surf was big, but there was a gigantic bait pod between the beach and the Jupiter jetty, and the snook were taking full advantage.  I made a long cast down the jetty, came tight, and the guy at the end of jetty, who with the advantage of elevation had seen the fish eat, called out, and said, "dude, that's a BIG fish!"  Nothing spectacular, the snook headed south, running parallel to the beach, not out.  Not in a hurry, but not letting itself get any closer than about 50 feet from the beach either.  The longer I walked, the bigger the crowd following me down the beach got, soon I had a group of about 30 people following me, plus a teenage boy in the water that was shooing swimmers out of the way.  To this point, I had never landed a really big snook, and when I finally was able to muscle it in on an inbound wave I about passed out.  40 inches is kind of a benchmark for snook even for the bait guys, a 40 incher on fly is a big deal.  This one stretched out the tape between 41 and 42.  The next couple of days, I even got to hear discussion about "the guy from Iowa" who had landed a big snook the other day. 

Fish #`10  Sawfish, Everglades
Date  July 2016
Size  Not really sure
Category:  Biggest surprise of all time

Walking the shoreline in Flamingo, after a good day of fishing the Glades.  Saw a fish that looked to be about three feet long approaching, looked exactly like a small shark.  As it approached, I dropped the fly to the side of it's head, twitched it, and when I did, it swung it's SAW at the fly.  I let the fly fall to the bottom like a wounded baitfish, and the craziest fish of my life, just sucked it up.  It was a little hard to release, because I just wanted to hold it and stare at it, even then, was pretty convinced that I would never have the opportunity to hold one of these again.

Fish #11  Northern Pike, Devils Lake, North Dakota
Date  May, 2018
Size:  40.5 inches
Category  Target

When I was growing up, northern pike carried a mystique.  They were full of teeth, known to eat baby ducks and muskrats, and could actually hurt you, if you weren't careful handling them.  They are actually named after a weapon.  My grandfather, who was both a fishermen and a storyteller, had lots of great fishing stories, and many of them involved pike.  Over the years, I had landed many pike on fly, both targeting them, and as bycatch, but Iowa isn't exactly a pike hot spot, and big ones are very uncommon here.  With that in mind, I headed somewhere with a bit more of a reputation, Devils Lake, North Dakota, which is absolutely loaded with pike.  The plan was to fish two days, and my hope was to land a forty inch fish.  On the morning of the first day, casting a large, chartreuse over white ep baitfish, it happened.  Nothing dramatic about the strike, or the fight, but somehow holding the fish, and then watching it swim away, it filled me with memories of chasing these fish as a child, my grandfathers stories, throwing the big wooden, tooth scarred plugs.  And you have to admit, although you might not call them pretty, a darn handsome fish in their own right.

Fish #12  Peacock bass, Agua Boa River
Date:  January, 2020
Size: 17 pounds plus
Category:  Target

Peacock bass are everything you want in a gamefish.  They are beautiful.  They love to eat flies.  They jump.  They pull so hard in the first thirty seconds or so of the fight that it's a little terrifying.  Joseph, our guide for the day, navigated us through a narrow creek off the main river, until it opened up in to a large lagoon.  He made eye contact, and said, "Check leader.  Big fish here."  And big fish there were.  In a short amount of time, I landed six fish over ten pounds, the biggest at fifteen.  But on the very last shoreline, just as my fly was swinging behind the boat, I saw a fish tracking it, and had just enough to think, "that's a BIG fish", when it surged forward and crushed the fly.  All peacock bass are great, this one was just a little extra.  I had never had one battle quite so hard, and wasn't particularly surprise when it also turned out to be my biggest.  And what made it a little sweeter, I took the family big peacock title (a mythical belt) back from my wife, who had landed a sixteen pound fish the year before.

And there you go.  Hopefully, some of these fish will be replaced in the coming years.  Or, I'll just have to make my list longer!  Would love to hear about some of years.  If you are interested in an Amazon peacock trip, contact me!

The fish you see when you close your eyes...my top ten fish of all time.

It's no secret I like to fish.  I picked up a fly rod for the first time at the age of twelve, I'm now fifty three, and I'm not even close to tired of it.  And thinking about fishing, while not as fun as actually fishing, often brings a smile to my face.  In fact, I have even discovered that thinking about fishing can be highly useful!   As I've gotten older, I don't sleep as well.   I never have problems going to sleep, but I sometimes have problems staying asleep.  So, when I wake up (usually between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m.), I've learned a technique that helps.  I choose some of my favorite fishing moments, and think about them, and soon enough, I'm drifting.  Sometimes, I try to make a list of the most memorable fish I've ever caught.  I usually only get a few fish down the list, and I'm sound asleep.

Today, I'm fully awake, but mostly homebound, trying to do my part and stay home.  I'm a little restless, I've got some time on my hands since the real estate market isn't booming, and if there were ever a time to make a list, this is it!  Although there are other things that make fishing trips memorable, the company, locales, food, etc., the fish are still the stars of the show.  These are ranked in no particular order.  I'll start each by giving the species, the size, the day they were caught, and if they were a quest, a target, or a surprise.  A quest is a fish you have pursued somewhat obsessively, a target is a fish that happened to be what you are actually fishing for, but the particular fish caught that day stood out, and a surprise is one of the wonderful fish that come like a bolt from the blue, that you could never have planned for.  And yes, as you scroll through, you'll notice this turns out to be a top twelve list. (Note, as this blog was written, it turned out to be a two parter, I'll share the first six today.

Fish number one:  Payara, Agua Boa River, Brazil
Date:  January, 2019
Size:  Not measured, maybe seven pounds
Category:  Surprise!

I've always been fascinated by the payara, or as some people call them, vampire fish.  It's not an original thought, but you can't help looking at that mouth, and just staring at the huge canines.  The fish actually have holes in their head that the teeth fold in to.  Last January, my wife and I were fishing on the Agua Boa River in Brazil.  It's a peacock bass destination, payara are quite uncommon there, and when they do show up, usually tiny.  But one day, my wife was retrieving her fly and there was a silver flash behind it.  The guide called out, "payara", and in her next few casts, she caught one.  It turned out there was a huge pod of them, and we hooked a couple dozen, although only four were landed.  They were amazing gamefish, each one taking to the air several times, so much like baby tarpon.  You might think the visage on these would give me nightmares, but thinking about them makes me sleep like a baby!

Fish number two:  Grass Carp, Hannen Lake, Iowa
Date:  April, 2001
Size  56 lbs, 11 oz
Category:  Definitely Quest

When I moved to Iowa, I devoted a lot of time trying to figure out how to get these guys to eat flies.  I couldn't find much information, and what I could find didn't translate well.  Once I did figure it out, I decided, for once, to get in "the book", the official record book that the International Gamefish association keeps.  The record for six pound tippet was approximately 25 lbs, I decided to wait until I got one that went over fifty and turn it in.  On a warm night in late April it happened, a giant sucked in the dry fly I was throwing, and when it went on the official scales, (three days after capture) it weighed 56lbs 11 oz and is still the record to this day.  I've caught some bigger ones since, but once through the somewhat tedious process that you have to go through to submit a record was definitely enough.  Grass carp remain the most difficult fish to entice to eat a fly that I have ever fished for.

Fish number three:  Striped bass, Lower Illinois River, Oklahoma
Date:  Summer 2018
Size  41 inches, somewhere between thirty and thirty one pounds
Category:  Target

In late spring, the striped bass move out of the main stem of the Arkansas River into the Lower Illinois, attracted by the cold water (The Lower Illinois is a tailwater), and probably, the huge stockings of catchable size rainbow trout.  Stripers are beautiful, hard pulling fish that whack flies aggressively, and I can't get enough of them.  Typical size is 3-12 pounds, but there are plenty of larger fish, and a few MUCH larger fish.  On an overcast day, I was chucking a large, eight inch, ep baitfish pattern, much like I would throw to pike, up against the far bank, letting it sink a bit, and then ripping it back fast.  A couple of strips in, I got whacked hard, the fish screamed up the river parallel to several snags, running beside them, but making no effort to get in them, reversed course and screamed downstream past several more, ulitmately choosing to slug it out downstream in a deep, snagless pool.  As big fish sometimes do, when it got close, it seemed to double in size.  Pulled my sewing tape out, and got a quick length girth measurement, before sending it on it's way.  Still gives me the chills thinking about it.

Fish number four:  Black drum, Hopedale, Louisiana
Date:  February, 2020
Size:  Bigger than 45 pounds, less than 50
Category:  Target

I had never caught a black drum, or even had the opportunity to throw for one.  Left the dock on this trip with the hopes to get a shot.  It turned out to be a brutal day of fishing,  windy, cold, cold water, and most disturbingly, muddy water,  and we poled all over, but in the first six hours of fishing had seen exactly zero fish.  The most exciting moment had been spotting a mudcloud where a fish had recently been.  But at 2:30, it happened.  In three feet water, the biggest tail I had ever seen protruding from the water in my life.  No heroic casts, but when the fly came close to the fish, it just ate.  And yes, I know it's ugly.  But...what a fish!  And what a way to salvage a day when you only see one fish!

Fish number five:  Steelhead, Kewaunee River, Wisconsin
Date, October , 1997
Size 39 inches
Category:  Quest

Steelhead are my favorite freshwater fish.  I love the way they hit a swung fly, I love what they do afterwards, and I love the way they look.  Half a lifetime ago,  I was on a quest to catch a 40 inch steelhead, something that in Wisconsin might be like looking for unicorns. ( I do know of one that has been landed)  On a cold, numbing, snowy day, I was swinging a small wet fly called a Night Dancer, through the gut of a deep pool.  Felt a pluck, another pluck, and then that wonderful, solid pull, that only those who swing flies can really appreciate.  The fish fought deep, with big headshakes, and no acrobatics, as is often the case for large bucks in deep water.  But when it finally hit the bank, it was a marvel.  Not a 40 inch fish, (an inch short), not the girth to be a twenty pound fish (probably a little over 18), but remains my best, and one of my best memories.  So long ago, that for the blog, I had to take a picture of the picture of the picture I have blown up in my den.

Fish number six:  Red tailed catfish, Agua Boa River Brazil
Date, January 2020
Size:  20ish pounds
Category:  Huge surprise (mostly)

I'm fascinated by red tail catfish, and really wanted one of thse beautiful creatures on flies.  But they are a VERY uncommon catch.  I happened to talking with my guide, and as we were floating in a lagoon, I asked how many red tail catfish had been caught on fly in his boat.  He said none.  He had guided this river for 12 years, 5.5 months a year, about 2000 days.  It didn't sound like my odds were good.  Two minutes later, he said, there's one!  And sure enough, there was one fifty feet out, two feet under the surface of the water, slowly swimming right at the boat.  Dropped the fly in front of it, gave it a couple of slowww strips, felt a pluck, and on the next strip he slammed it.  Yep, nothing amazing, pretty much just caught him.  But one of the very first fish that comes to mine, when I think about memorable ones! 

This is long....so I'm going to make this a two part blog.  Feel free to send comments or questions.  I still host a trip to the Amazon yearly and would love to chat about it with anyone that is interested.  And remember, if you have trouble sleeping tonight....think about your own top ten list!