2018 tenkara logbook

[plugboots]

I didn't. The wind was blowing pretty good and I tried casting from the SUP but I was spooking more fish than I was actually getting shots at. They were all backed into this muddy, shallow bay making it really hard to see them so I got off and walked around trying to be more stealthy.

I always think those SUP’s need some way to stake them so that you could get in a good position, stake it, and then cast to multiple fish? Or is an anchor practical?


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[neckdeep]

[dfinn]

I always think those SUP’s need some way to stake them so that you could get in a good position, stake it, and then cast to multiple fish? Or is an anchor practical?


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Something like that would be really handy. I tried using the oar stuck in the mud to hold me in place but trying to hold onto that and cast took more coordination than I possess, I have a hard enough time just casting from dry ground.

[2FUNKY]

Floated the Clark Fork around Superior pulling streamers for trout. Found this guy instead.

[plugboots]

Floated the Clark Fork around Superior pulling streamers for trout. Found this guy instead.

The pike I catch there I throw on the bank.

Something like that would be really handy. I tried using the oar stuck in the mud to hold me in place but trying to hold onto that and cast took more coordination than I possess, I have a hard enough time just casting from dry ground.

I fished for redfish near NOLA, and the SOT kayaks we used had a hole that we stuck a pole through and rammed it into the mud. Worked great, my kayak has them, (drain holes), as well, but I use my kayak where it's too deep for this.

[2FUNKY]

The pike I catch there I throw on the bank.



I fished for redfish near NOLA, and the SOT kayaks we used had a hole that we stuck a pole through and rammed it into the mud. Worked great, my kayak has them, (drain holes), as well, but I use my kayak where it's too deep for this.

Ok. Not sure why you wouldn’t keep and eat them since they are delicious. I don’t like them in there either.

[neckdeep]

Ok. Not sure why you wouldn’t keep and eat them since they are delicious. I don’t like them in there either.

Because it's not a good idea to eat large predatory fish caught from a river with a long and extensive history of mining waste contamination. Yer fishin' below multiple EPA superfund sites!!! That fish probably has more mercury in it than an old thermometer.

[plugboots]

I caught my first one in the Clark Fork ages ago and it was on a guided trip and the guide recommended throwing it on the bank, (which is definitely not my style), but I get it. As soon as it hit the bank, birds came down and started going after it. So I keep doing it. I grew up in the Midwest and caught shit tons of Pike and I actually don’t like their taste, or walleye pike or any of those basically fry ‘em up kind of fish.


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[2FUNKY]

Yeah, they have been in that system for a looong time. I get it. Other animals need to eat and they won’t go to waste on that bank.

Eating one small pike, yes that’s a small one, from that river would be fine and have extremely low mercury counts. Nothing to freak out over.

[east or bust]

I caught my first one in the Clark Fork ages ago and it was on a guided trip and the guide recommended throwing it on the bank, (which is definitely not my style), but I get it. As soon as it hit the bank, birds came down and started going after it. So I keep doing it. I grew up in the Midwest and caught shit tons of Pike and I actually don’t like their taste, or walleye pike or any of those basically fry ‘em up kind of fish.


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What were you fishing with that accidentally caught you a pike instead of a troot?

[2FUNKY]

Imma guess a streamer like I was using. I’ve had them eat big nymphs though.

[Cruiser]

Sweet Dfinn. Did you hook any while on the SUP? What was landing the fish like?

Cruiser...you should maybe go back to fishing the gulf. Hate seeing C&R fish treated this way, but the subject has be beaten to death.

Oh dang. I'm such a jong. Somebody point me to some info that will allow me to catch and release trout into small Colorado streams without feeling badly about some unknown transgression after mentioning it to acquaintances on the interwebz.

[neckdeep]

Eating one small pike, yes that’s a small one, from that river would be fine and have extremely low mercury counts. Nothing to freak out over.

Whatever, bud. That's not what your state agencies have to say about the subject. It's right there in the regs booklet: recommended total avoid on pike of all sizes.

The fish in the Clark Fork River are toxic, and three state departments recommend Montanans find another source of protein and omega-3s.

Montana’s departments of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Environmental Quality, and Public Health and Human Services are advising people not to eat fish from a 105-mile stretch of river between Missoula and Paradise, Mont., after research showed high levels of dioxins, furans and polychlorinated biphenyls in rainbow trout and northern pike.

Carol Ballew, senior public health epidemiologist with the DPHHS, said long-term and heavy exposure to toxins like the Clark Fork fish can lead to cancer or nervous and immune system problems.

“We put a consumption advisory out when we don’t think it’s safe to eat fish and especially in the case of the northern pike,” Ballew said. “We don’t think it’s safe at all.”

FWP fish biologist David Schmetterling said northern pike live longer and prey on other fish, which means toxins accumulate more in the species. Because they grow bigger, they’re often the ones that people keep to eat.

The advisory includes northern pike and rainbow trout between Missoula and Paradise, where the Clark Fork meets the Bitterroot and Flathead rivers, respectively.

[plugboots]

What were you fishing with that accidentally caught you a pike instead of a troot?

We were targeting them. This was near Petty Creek, frog water, and we took a swing through to see what we could see. We saw one, grabbed the 6 and put on the wire w/ streamer, etc. There were prolly 6 that we saw back in one slough, and this was 15? years ago? I gotta post some pics from my way back, (analog), machine, from my MN trips.


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[2FUNKY]

Whatever, bud. That's not what your state agencies have to say about the subject. It's right there in the regs booklet: recommended total avoid on pike of all sizes.

A: I’m not your bud.
B: thanks for the info. Good to know. I don’t fish that system much anymore and don’t eat trout. Rarely fish for them anymore, to small and boring.
C: Not sure why you have to come off as such an asshole on here all the time.

[east or bust]

We were targeting them. This was near Petty Creek, frog water, and we took a swing through to see what we could see. We saw one, grabbed the 6 and put on the wire w/ streamer, etc. There were prolly 6 that we saw back in one slough, and this was 15? years ago? I gotta post some pics from my way back, (analog), machine, from my MN trips.


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Targeting them to throw on the bank? Damn. I guess if they're invasive you gotta do what you gotta do. A lake by me has a major white perch problem, at least they're tasty, and good to use as bait for musky bucket fishermen.

The fish in the Clark Fork River are toxic, and three state departments recommend Montanans find another source of protein and omega-3s.

Montana’s departments of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Environmental Quality, and Public Health and Human Services are advising people not to eat fish from a 105-mile stretch of river between Missoula and Paradise, Mont., after research showed high levels of dioxins, furans and polychlorinated biphenyls in rainbow trout and northern pike.

Carol Ballew, senior public health epidemiologist with the DPHHS, said long-term and heavy exposure to toxins like the Clark Fork fish can lead to cancer or nervous and immune system problems.

“We put a consumption advisory out when we don’t think it’s safe to eat fish and especially in the case of the northern pike,” Ballew said. “We don’t think it’s safe at all.”

FWP fish biologist David Schmetterling said northern pike live longer and prey on other fish, which means toxins accumulate more in the species. Because they grow bigger, they’re often the ones that people keep to eat.

The advisory includes northern pike and rainbow trout between Missoula and Paradise, where the Clark Fork meets the Bitterroot and Flathead rivers, respectively.

So sad what we've done to our waters. Every day I drive over the cesspool that is the Susquehanna and wonder what it must have been like before molestation by man.

[plugboots]

Targeting them to throw on the bank? Damn. I guess if they're invasive you gotta do what you gotta do

Pike suck where they don't belong, unless you're a stupid redneck, then you dump them where you want them.

[2FUNKY]

^ Agreed. Bucket biologists piss me off.

[thebirdhunter]

Oh dang. I'm such a jong. Somebody point me to some info that will allow me to catch and release trout into small Colorado streams without feeling badly about some unknown transgression after mentioning it to acquaintances on the interwebz.

Don't sweat it. Next time just tell that whiney little twat to stfu.

[snapt]

Dfinn, the local spot we fished last year is really good right now in case you have any inkling...

[skifishbum]

nice cutty @snapt

I got a loaner SUP to play around with for a couple of weeks. Took it to a carp spot and chased them around last night. It's pretty damn fun.

nice ya need a stripping basket i like cheap light styrofoam cooler
much over 5mph and the sups a liability mornigss ar almost always better
i got a spare mnt hippie power pole aka basketless ski pole that i tie off to the rear leash that works better than an anchor
although hooking and unhooking it is harder than yad think
in open waters getting towed around is fine
in tighter waters i spend a lot of time with the rod in one hand and paddle in the other keeping em outta the game ending lumber


got out sunday
pegged somes



a lill gill

sums poopers


and managed to score some pussy

on the fly

cant believe day use/launch for a non motorized vehicle is $20 now
and fuck fat people on jetskis

[neckdeep]

A: I’m not your bud.
B: thanks for the info. Good to know. I don’t fish that system much anymore and don’t eat trout. Rarely fish for them anymore, to small and boring.
C: Not sure why you have to come off as such an asshole on here all the time.

Sorry, bud, next time I'll be sure to stroke your ego after you defensively tell us it is ok to eat toxic fish. I tell you something really important, a well known fact concerning angler's health; you argue about it. No, you don't bother to look it up. You'd rather argue. Now I got to take the time to correct the misinformation you are spreading. Then, you hum and haw and make some backhanded statement about how the trout most of us are chasing are too boring for the likes of you. Nice of you to work that in, even though that wasn't the subject. I'd guess that makes you the asshole in most people's book.

[gretch6364]

Oh dang. I'm such a jong. Somebody point me to some info that will allow me to catch and release trout into small Colorado streams without feeling badly about some unknown transgression after mentioning it to acquaintances on the interwebz.

https://news.orvis.com/fly-fishing/p...-a-trout-right

A lot of us fish these Colorado streams and in general, they get hit hard and those fish get caught a lot. Anything we can do to lower mortality rates benefits us all, even if it seems small and silly. Throwing a trout on a bank for a picture is pretty tough on them.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Remember when the fishing fourm was chill? Put fishing on the "I used to do it all the time but nowdays seems like just run into a bunch of choads so I don't get out much" list. In other news, when it's too hot to fish, don't fish. Thanks.

High stream temps prompt closures of Fraser, Colorado Rivers for first time in two decades
Lance Maggart
July 31, 2018
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Courtesy of Breckenridge Outfitters
A dry winter and an early summer has left trout struggling in warmer water across the state.

Colorado's cold water fisheries are experiencing something close to a crisis this summer as anemic stream flows and consistently high temperatures threaten the survival of trout and other sport fish across the High Country.

The situation in the rivers and streams of Colorado's Rocky Mountain region has gotten so bad this summer that Colorado Parks and Wildlife has begun voluntarily closing rivers and streams to fishing, for the first time in at least two decades.

"We are experiencing one of the hottest, driest years in decades and with that we are experiencing stream temperatures that are too hot for the survival of trout," said Kirk Klancke, president of the Colorado River Headwaters chapter of Trout Unlimited.

Parks and wildlife officials announced July 27 that they would be closing down a pair of rivers in Grand County, with the Fraser River now closed from 2 p.m. to midnight, from County Road 8 to the confluence of the Fraser and Colorado Rivers west of Granby, and the Colorado River closed to fishing during those same hours, from Windy Gap Reservoir downstream to the confluence point of the Colorado and Williams Fork River near Parshall.

Klancke explained the simple science behind the problem that trout and other fish that live in the high Rockies are cold water fish. They have evolved to survive through both the frigid winter months and the relatively mild summers experienced in the mountains. The fish, however, rely on dissolved oxygen in the water to breathe and the warmer water becomes, the less dissolved oxygen there is available.

"At stream temperatures above 65 degrees, enough dissolved oxygen can escape into the atmosphere to stress trout," Klancke stated. "At temperatures of 74 degrees, trout can die."

Average river temps
Infogram
Afternoon stream temperatures on the Fraser River are reaching 74 degrees and up to 72.5 degrees on the tributary streams that pour into the Fraser, according to Klancke. Both Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Headwaters Chapter of Trout Unlimited were already recommending that anglers halt fishing operations in the afternoon before the state announced local river fishing closures.

Jon Ewert, aquatic biologist for Colorado Parks and Wildlife in Grand County, closely monitors river conditions on the Fraser River and the upper Colorado. Ewert said 2018 represents one of the worst years, in terms of stream temperatures and water flows, that he has seen during his 12 years in Grand County.

"It is really a pretty poor year," he said. "The only other year this compares to is the summer of 2012. But in 2012 we had good consistent monsoons. The cloud cover helps a lot, but we haven't had much actual measurable rainfall."

Ewert said concerns about the lack of summer monsoon rains helped prompt the decision to institute voluntary closures of the Fraser and Colorado Rivers in Grand County. This year marks the first year that parks and wildlife has instituted voluntary river closures in nearly two decades.

"We were really close in 2012, but the monsoons came around," Ewert said. "We have to go back to the 2001-02 drought, the last multi-year drought, when we did a big spate of these."

Stream flow levels recorded on the Fraser River near Tabernash and on the Colorado River near Windy Gap place this year in the bottom 25 percentile of all years for which data has been recorded, according to Ewert. Officials measured stream temperatures on July 14 as high as 75 degrees in the Fraser River at Kaibab Park in Granby.

"Trout are seriously stressed at 75 degrees," Ewert said. "If you catch one at that temperature chances are very good that fish will die, whether it swims off or not."

Recent calls for water downstream on the Colorado River has prompted the release of water from Williams Fork Reservoir, Wolford Mountain Reservoir and Green Mountain Reservoir, Ewert indicated, shifting the dynamic in stream temperatures and helping to cool portions of the Colorado River near Kremmling and at points further downstream. Though the reservoirs that are currently helping cool the Colorado River in western Grand County play no part in stream temperatures further upstream. The Colorado River receives some help from releases of water from the Three Lakes region, but the Fraser River has no such repository from where cooling flows can be released. Water diverted out of the Fraser River, instead, is largely transported directly under the Continental Divide from the streams and creeks that crisscross the valley.

Denver Water, the entity that oversees diversions out of the Fraser River, is aware of the ongoing concern about stream temperatures, explaining that there is a program of selective diversion in place to address such issues.

"When we have temperature issues affecting fish, we try to use flexibility in the reservoir collection system to try and alleviate the problem to the extent we can," said Dave Bennett, director of water resource strategy for Denver Water. "We try to get water to streams to help alleviate high temperatures. We have limited flexibility this year, but we are bypassing some additional water to the Fraser and I hope it is helping."

In the process, developed through the Learning By Doing adaptive management group, stream flows that would have otherwise been diverted to the Front Range are instead bypassed and sent downstream into the Fraser River. In the same fashion, the water releases from local reservoirs help cool temperatures in the Colorado River. The process employed by Denver Water is meant to lower stream temperatures in the Fraser River and its tributary creeks.

Once Denver Water completes the Gross Reservoir expansion project, according to Bennett, 1,000 acre feet of water will become available for the process in the future.

"In the meantime, we are voluntarily working with Learning By Doing to use the system flexibility to the extent we have it," he said.

Despite a potential effect on their business, local anglers support the decision to implement river closures.

Andrew Herst, a fly-fishing guide at Devil's Thumb Ranch Resort & Spa in Tabernash, said he believes the decision to institute voluntary closures of the Fraser and Colorado Rivers was a prudent decision.

"I think that is probably the best way to go about it," Herst said of the voluntary closures. "At the end of the day it is still public water and it should be used within limitations. But as far as the fish go, any time you catch them and fight them in water over 65 degrees it is unhealthy for them."

Herst and other guides at Devil's Thumb carry thermometers on them while guiding, and fishing trips are called off any time the water reaches 65 degrees. Devil's Thumb is pushing clients to start their fishing trips earlier in the day to overcome the issue.

Herst, who has been with Devil's Thumb for the past three years, said stream temperatures have historically been an issue of concern for himself and other guides in late July through August.

The stream temperature issue isn't only in Grand County. At the same time of Grand County's closures, Colorado Parks and Wildlife also announced plans to close segments of the north and south fork of the White River. These recent closures followed another round of closures that were announced in mid-July. Parks and wildlife closed the section of the Colorado River running from State Bridge to Rifle along with segments of the Eagle, Crystal and Roaring Fork Rivers.

[Cruiser]

Good stuff on the Orvis video...

Fwiw, I used a barbless hook for about half the weekend and pinched my barbs on the other rig. None of these fish were out of the water for a whole minute and most were out of the water for