Fishing

T-48hrs.-A

Hearings Offer Slim Hope For Fix In Klamath Basin Here’s the deal at the Underground; I provide an inconsistent stream of quality, family friendly (lately) fly fishing content (maybe), and every once in a while, I ask you to send an email. Today, I’m asking you to send an email here: Klamath@energy.senate.gov Senator Wyden of Oregon is finally holding hearings about Klamath Basin water issues, so tell him you support the Klamath Basin Accords, which offer the only realistic (to me) route out of the fighting which has gripped the Klamath Basin for decades. As always, if you just want to send the email and get on with your day, the short info is below. If you want the whole story, ready The Larger Picture section. Easy as pie. Here’s What You Tell Him Dear Senator Wyden: It’s time to fix the Klamath Basin water issues using a comprehensive agreement negotiated by the stakeholders themselves. In this drought year, we’re getting a glimpse of the chaos that will occur if the KBRA/KHSA aren’t passed. Remember, in 2001, water to irrigators was turned off to protect fish, and economic upheaval and violent protests resulted. In 2002, the water to irrigators was turned back on (ignoring science in favor of politics), and the result was the West’s biggest fish kill. With the KBRA and KHSA, we’ve got a chance to put that kind of history behind us. The Larger Picture As fly fishermen, we tend to fixate on dam removal and the health of the fishery (and the head-exploding steelhead population that would result from an additional 300+ miles of steelhead spawning habitat). But the KBRA and KHSA provide a way forward for everyone — commercial fishermen, irrigators, ranchers, the tribes and even PacifiCorp. The Klamath Basin — and the Klamath River — have long suffered under the weight of four lower Klamath River dams and a wildly overcommitted water supply. In 2001, the water to irrigators was turned off to protect endangered fish, and the economic effects were unpretty. A few fairly threatening protests resulted. In 2002, water was returned to irrigators (with the help of Darth Cheney), and the result was the West Coast’s biggest fish kill (some estimates say up to 60,000 salmon died). After those sorry events, many of the local groups got together, and — despite a fair amount of prior animosity — negotiated the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA). The KBRA and its governmental equivalent (the KHSA) have been largely stalled in congress by Tea Party groups, who can’t actually tell us why they dislike the agreements without resorting to making up all sorts of weird, tinfoil hat shit. Now — with the Klamath in the grip of a drought year and a decades-long water adjudication awarding senior water rights to the Klamath Tribes — we’re getting a little glimpse into what the future holds for the Klamath Basin should some sort of agreement not fall into place. For example, the Klamath Tribes just issued a water call in an attempt to protect their long-foundering populations of endangered suckerfish, and watermasters are now telling irrigators to stop taking water from tributaries upstream of Klamath Lake. It’s likely that several agriculturally dependent communities will suffer economic hardship, and there will also likely be blowback against the Klamath Tribes, despite the fact they’re exercising a legal right and trying to protect a fishery they haven’t been able to access for 27 years. Meanwhile, coho salmon populations continue their downward spiral towards extinction, and even “record” returns of Chinook salmon in 2012 only approached 1/3 of their historic populations. Standing in the way of fixes for these problems are fools waving myths (U.N. Agenda 21, “coho aren’t native,” etc…) Tellingly, a group of ranchers — many of whom have vehemently opposed the KBRA — tried

Wolf River, Winneconne, Winnebago, whatever you call it, this was the site if of the 2nd BFL of the Great Lakes Division as it usually is. This is a system that I have fished a few times in the last 5 years or so, but either way it is a solid 5 hour drive from my home, so I don't get there often and you don't run over for a quick prefish the weekend before.With that being said, I left Wednesday afternoon in a driving rain that lasted pretty much the entire drive and I had to wait out a thunderstorm at the boat ramp until 7:30pm just so I could spend an hour or so on the water Wednesday night. I caught a couple smallies in Lake Butte Morts on some rip rap, but nothing too promising.Thursday was a new day, with a decent breeze and sunny skies. I launched north of the river on Winnebago and began my search there. My main focus was largemouth and I was bouncing around between shoreline cover and transitional areas hoping to find some concentrations of fish. At first it was a fish here or there, but I finally ran into a large group of fish on a transitional area fishing soft plastics on the bottom and some on a swim jig using Evolve DarkStar swimmer as a trailer. I was able to expand on the water and duplicate what I found for most of the day, eliminating some water and adding other. By the end of the day, I would've had around 13lbs.Kompak Craw & Tungsten Jika RigOn Friday, I launched further south on Bago looking to repeat pattern and expand on water. The wind was blowing a little more from the East in the morning, I got on quite a few short fish early firing square bills around shallow areas. As the morning went one, the wind laid down and I was able to find a few more areas I felt good about, catching and pulling on what felt like quality fish. Around 1pm, I trailered over to Rainbow Park to find some stuff I could fish on the way back to Winneconne ramp, just a few short fish. So I called it a practice and got my stuff ready for the next day in the Walmart parking lot. I drew boat 68 out of 125 which was middle of 3rd flight. My partner co-angler that I drew seemed like a nice enough guy, so we had a quick discussion about my plan to fish Bago all day.Tournament morning brought a light drizzly rain, light winds and overcast conditions, felt like one of those days that the fish would be crunching. After the fairly long journey of slow wake zones out to Winnebago from Winneconne, the wind was a little stiffer then forecasted and straight out of the East. There was a boat on the area I wanted to start on, so I pulled into a secondary area, where we both caught a few shorts. We moved around a bit and ended up hitting my starting spot which was not as hot as I hoped it to be, producing just two shorts. I decided even though the wind was hitting it pretty direct to try to some more main lake stuff I had. It turned out to be a pretty good decision as I picked up two nice largemouth keepers on a 3/8oz BassTEK Tugsten flipping jig, having that tungsten really helped as the wind and waves made it difficult to keep my feel with my lure.I then ran a short stretch of docks and put my 3rd keeper in the boat on a Kompak Craw on a 3/8oz tungsten Jika rig. After running that stretch we returned to an area that was covered with boat early, shortly after I pulled in I hooked a good one on a Baby Ring Fry on a mojo rig, it ended up being my big fish at 3-10. We worked this area hard for awhile, catching a few shorts and my partner losing a couple decent fish. So that gave me 4 fish with one good one at 11'ish, so I thought if I was ever going to run south, now was the time. I was actually feeling pretty good, as I thought I could catch 2lb fish pretty easy and getting one close to 4 would be the trick of they day.We ran a bunch of water, it produced mostly shorts and areas that already had other boats on the spots I wanted to fish, but we each scraped one keeper by 1pm. I had a decent limit, but largely because I had tha

Caught this guy a couple of weeks ago. His jaw was just starting to hook. I hope to meet up with him again next year and check on the progress. Tags: Water on the Brain

Swing the Fly has recently welcomed another notable to the fold – Editor Zack announced last week that Rick Kustich has joined the team as the Great Lakes section editor. Rick has a damned impressive resume in the industry – he’s just published his 5th book (Advanced Fly Fishing for Great Lakes Steelhead), has spent time as a fly shop owner, outfitter and fly fishing book publisher. He is an accomplished tyer and popular on the seminar circuit. And he wanders across big fish now and again. Tags: Swing the Fly

Dear Readers: Please visit and bookmark my new web site, LangdonCook.com. The site, though still in its first iteration and without any fancy design, is a big improvement on the blog in several respects. It now gathers together in one place information on foraging and cooking classes, writing workshops, talks and lectures, books, and other stuff—plus it has a complete archive of the Fat of

Shaky heads and Texas rigs catch a lot of bass off ledges in the summer and even though they have some of the same components, they provide two totally different looks when they get in the water.

"FIRE" HOLE FOR A REASONUp The Hot Staircaseclosure may be early this year-------.. We're watching the spikes on the Firehole River:==> JUNE 15 = 75° F,==> JUNE 16 = 76° F,==> JUNE 17 = 77° F,==> JUNE 18 = 76° F... Them's a bit warm for this part of June. The extended forecast is for continued warming. The near term outlook is for moderating temperatures in the mid- to high 60's... Fish now is the consensus.-------

Do you have that passion that goes unfilled and eventually, when enough time passes, the gnawing dissatisfaction commences? Satisfaction is required! Mine is fly fishing. Yes, I can dream of the next time for awhile. Old pictures suffice for a time. Picking random dates in the future as possible outings seems great until those dates pass by as missed opportunities. So, now, I am drifting into that very antsy mind state of twitchy, itchy, distracted grumpiness. I need to fish! Odd how this mind state often coincides with life’s blizzard of obligations, commitments and dutiful events…especially for me in June/July. Many birthdays, graduations, and very nagging tasks left undone. The truth, seems to me, not escapism from life’s stressors, as much as a graving for that joy of the outdoors, and especially wetting a line.  Well, I thought I might feel better to write this, but I don’t. When?! outdoors, photography, SwittersB, nature, fly fishing, hobby, recreation, obligations, life, duty, humor  Filed under: Fishing, Life, Outdoors Tagged: duty, Fishing, fly fishing, hobby, Humor, Life, Nature, obligations, Outdoors, Photography, Recreation, SwittersB

Crawfish tails. Photo: Brian O’Keefe On a late May afternoon that got cut short by a thunderstorm, Andros South guides Sparkles and Freddie chatted us up about their other favorite pastime: Crawfishin’. Bahamian Spiny Lobster (crawfish on the island) are abundant on South Andros. In August, the season opens and many of the guides spend their days free-diving for the local delicacies. Grouper, snapper, conch and crawfish are captured and sold to local markets in Nassau. It’s great sport and provides a steady income while they wait for Andros South to reopen. All the guides have their own secret crawfish hot-spots. They free-dive areas of rocky formations and coral heads off the East Shore of Andros, oftentimes at depths upwards of 40 feet! They find the crawfish by looking for ‘the whips’ – the Spiny Lobsters’ long front antennae. Once the whip is spotted, they maneuver into position and use a traditional sling & spear mechanism to get them. A good crawfish spot can yield close to 200 pounds of deliciousness, for which the markets in Nassau pay handsomely. More on South Andros Island The Shell Man Blue Holes Land Crabbing