Noice evening fishing.

gitano · September 06, 2009, 10:08:17 AM

Got out last night with my fishin' buddy for a few hours on a local lake. It's Labor Day weekend, so there was lots of activity 'til abbout 8 PM. We caught a few rainbows and had an all-around good time. Here's a pic of the biggest fish we caught. (For those interested in "the stats", it was 21.5" long and weighed just under 4 lbs.) The picture taken with my cellphone. :)

Paul

davidlt89 · September 06, 2009, 10:10:46 AM

I don't know lots about rainbows, but I believe that is a nice fish!!!! Just perfect for the oven!!! Glad you got a chance to relax! God Bless.

gitano · September 06, 2009, 10:12:28 AM

Here's a picture of the 'countryside' once the speedboats got off the lake.

Paul

gitano · September 06, 2009, 10:17:50 AM

David,

It is a 'nice' fish, and it was a relaxing evening. I always have a good time when I'm out with this fellow. We fish from my little 11'6" Coleman "Crawdad". It's about 30 years old now, and showing its age, but with a little MinKota 30 on it, it gets around the local lakes pretty well. We paddle it around most of the time, but the little electric motor is good for getting us from one end of a lake to the other, and some occassional trolling.

About 8PM what little wind there was calmed down, and it was flat-calm 'til we got off the lake a little after dark.

Paul

rockinbbar · September 06, 2009, 11:05:00 AM

Nice trout!

One that long will put a smile on someone's face for a long time to come.
Let us know how it is in the frying pan as well.

Barry

gitano · September 06, 2009, 11:39:13 AM

Actually, I turned it loose. These trout are not native, meaning ultimately they came from a hatchery stocking, (albeit in this fish's case at least a couple of years ago), and their taste is mediocre really. It put up a really great fight though, getting airborne at least 4 times, and making three great runs that took a lot of line off the spool. :D This fish has greater value to me as a potential future catch than as a short-lived meal.

My buddy and I are planning a trip to a lake I have fished since I was a kid. Not a local one, and not one stocked by ADF&G. There we will be catching lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) and arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus). We're planning a 'bankside meal' as well as bringing some home for future meals. These will be great-tasting fish.

Here's a picture from "long ago and far away" of a couple of lakers and a grayling I caught while I was doing some field reasearch in the hinterlands of Alaska back in the mid '70s.

In Great Slave and Great Bear lakes in Canada, lakers exceed 30 pounds. In the lake we're planning to fish, 10-lb fish are nice but not unexpected, and 20-pounders come out every year. For the fly-fishing nazis out there, these fish were caught on a #8 Montana Stone, (the fly with which I have probably caught 90% of all of the fish I have caught on a fly rod), a 6-lb test/8-foot leader, and a WF sinking-tip 5-weight line.

Paul

bowhunter 51 · September 06, 2009, 01:31:40 PM

"YOU TURNED IT LOOSE!"....Oh Paul....:undecided: ....I would've ate it....
them lakers too...but I don't know 'bout the grayling....it's a strange look
about him....

but, it looks like you had a nice time of it....the waters pretty, not muddy
like it is here sometimes and/or loaded up with duck weed and various
algae, lilly pad and such....we don't have trout this side of the Tennessee
River...never caught one in my life...........................................................BH51..

davidlt89 · September 06, 2009, 04:27:14 PM

I release most of my fish now, I usually only eat a feed or two and then just go to go. our fish contain high amounts of mercury, or so the state says! I find fishing really relaxing, especially on a lake that does not have a stitch of wind on it like the one in the pictures. I still find fly fishing one of the more exciting things a man can do. I can't imagine having something 4lbs on a fly rod, let alone bigger! I have caught all my lake trout on rods or ice fishing. We call them togue in these parts. It is not unusual to get them 10lbs, it is common. I got one 14lbs in 97 and most likely will never get on that big again. they do get some every winter and spring that exceed 20lbs, but I have never heard of anything over 30lbs. looking forward to some pics of this next trip Paul. God bless.

gitano · September 06, 2009, 10:14:54 PM

Quotenever caught one in my life.............................................. .............BH51..

Come visit and I'll make sure you can never say that again.

Paul[/SIZE][/FONT]

recoil junky · September 07, 2009, 11:34:48 AM

Nice fitch Paul.

I myself have never caught a grayling, but my sons (at ages 6 and7) have in a little spot of water called "Oxylotil Lake" near Ennis MT. (we lived there a long time ago) Sadly we had to turn them loose as well as the 18-20" native cutthroats.

RJ

sakorick · September 08, 2009, 05:58:08 AM

Those are beauties, Paul. I got a chance to fish the Chena river East of Fairbanks one year. It was catch and release only so I had the river to myself. My biggest was a 16 inch Grayling and all the others were over a foot long. Had a blast. Regards, Rick.

Hunterbug · September 10, 2009, 11:47:16 PM

Very nice fish Paul. I'd have let it go too. And exactly who are you refering too when you talk about flyfishing nazis?

:D

buckshot roberts · September 12, 2009, 07:55:26 AM

Paul nice fish, I never caught a trount that big.........Ron

gitano · September 12, 2009, 08:59:49 AM

QuoteAnd exactly who are you refering too when you talk about flyfishing nazis?

Who here are THL could possibly be a FFN?:lipsrsealed:

jesusgecko also comes to mind I think.

Thanks Buckshot.

Yeah, Rick, I lived in Squarebanks for about 6-years, and spent an hour or two on the Chena as part of my "official" duties for ADF&G. :) It's a GREAT grayling river, and has some nice salmon too even though it runs right through the middle of the second largest city in Alaska.

Paul

drinksgin (deceased) · September 18, 2009, 12:36:57 PM

Nice fish, I have eaten rainbow, once. Store bought, supposedly unfrozen, at Casper.
Tasted like dog food smells.
I do use a fly rod some, mostly ultralite spinning.
I have a 9wt. salt water rod and a 6wt. bass rod with either level or wf floating lines.
Most places I fish have no room for the back cast, so do a lot of roll casting.
A school of lady fish, miniature relative of tarpon, is about as much fun as an old man can stand.
Ribbon fish, aka cutlass fish, a very toothy mackerel up to 5' long can get to be work, quick, too.
Do you have perch there, real perch, yellow and walleye?
Do cutthroats occur in Alaska?
The only known trout native to Texas was a cutthroat in Mc Kitrick canyon, then in the '70's someone put some rainbows in and shortly the cutthroats disappeared.

gitano · September 19, 2009, 08:00:09 AM

QuoteDo you have perch there, real perch, yellow and walleye?

Nope, although some idiots in ADF&G want to stock them.

QuoteDo cutthroats occur in Alaska?

Depends on what you call "Alaska". For me, Alaska ends at about Wrangle. That's where the "Panhandle" starts. As far as I'm concerned, we should give all of that to Canada in exchange for an equal area of land along the "straight" border between Alaska and Canada. But since that ain't gonna happen, Alaska "proper" extends almost all the way to Washington, with Ketchikan being the southern-most "city". That being the case, cutthroats technically can be found in "Alaska". However, none are found naturally north of the Panhandle.

Paul