Steelhead!
I love to fish. Unfortunately, after fish became my job, managing to make recreational fishing a priority amongst the demands on my time seems to have become more difficult. A couple years ago, I ran into an old grad-school chum, Mike Durkalec, at an Ohio Lake Erie Commission meeting. I'd lost contact for a few years. Turns out he had a nice gig as a biologist with the Cleveland Metroparks and was teaching biology part time at Cleveland State. Since that chance reunion, I'd been trying to find the time to fish for steelhead with Mike...and failing.
Steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus) is a subspecies of rainbow trout. Where most named subspecis of rainbow trout spend their whole lives in streams, steelhead live out in open water (the Pacific Ocean in their native range, the Great Lakes as stocked where I live) and begin entering rivers in autumn to spawn in early spring. Within a trout species, lake-/ocean-run fish tend to get much larger than their stream-resident counterparts.
Our calendars and decent fishing conditions finally came together on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I dragged along Karl, a guitar chum who has recently become obsessed with fishing. Drove to Mike and Robin's place Saturday night. Stayed up chewing fat until around 2 AM. Got up at 5:30 AM and drove down to the Rocky River with the intent to hit the water around 6:30. Well, recent precipitation brought some fresh fish in, and the fishing was on. The limit is two, and (not shying from eating fish, especially non-natives stocked to amuse anglers) I had my limit by ca. 7:30. Then came this guy, whom I released for some other angler to fight again:
Karl had trouble: too small wading shoes, decent socks but only one layer, leaky waders (it's cold out there, cold enough that our rod guides were icing)... He'd had many hits, even had a couple fish on for a while that threw his hook. Karl's morale was fading. It was Mike's and my afternoon-evening mission to put Karl onto a fish (and Mike, being one of the best at it, really helped). In the last hour of daylight, Karl landed this beautiful buck, turning his trip from one of relative misery to one of triumph. Woo-hoo!
When the fish are on, I can catch them pretty handily on the morning and evening bites. Nobody seems to have told Mike that there is supposed to be a lull in the bite during the height of the afternoon; he caught fish all damned day (that glorious bastard!).
I certainly recommend the experience. If you're interested in more, check out Mike's fishing report. Also, for somewhat more serious fish geeks, here's a text of which I am quite fond:
Behnke, R.J. (J.R. Tomelleri, illus.). 2002. Trout and salmon of North America. The Free Press, New York. 360 pgs.
My FlyfishOhio.com interview about all-things Lake Erie happened on 1 December. If interested, it's slated to be podcast around the New Year. I enjoyed doing it.
Fox 28 TV thing went OK in early November. We had seven segments and several "teasers" to plug the society throughout the program. Sean played baroque music on 5-course guitar and theorbo, I played 19th-c. guitar and mandolin, and Karl played the modern classical. It was difficult to "lose" myself in the music on cue for a 1.5- to 2-minute segment, but (as always when such stuff crops up) I do appreciate the plug.
Guitarist Thomas Viloteau performed here on 3 November. The concert and his perfomance were extraordinary, the program crafted much more for aficionados than the masses, but I like to imagine a few of us here in Columbus favor the former mentality over the latter. He was great company too, and I understand he is a respectful and pleasant house guest. Best wishes as he completes his GFA tour.
We'll be informally gathering/playing on 15 December, of course. See Columbusguitarsociety.org for detail.
Started rehearsing again today for a recording project of classical-era Italian songs. It has been on hiatus for a few months. It was good to get back to it.
Off to Ann Arbor, MI to review the internal research proposals of NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab 10-11 December. Should be fun. I am always honored to receive such invitations.
Got a grant from the Ohio Dept. of Ag. to collect fish and track the progression (if any) of viral hemorrhagic septicemia inland into Ohio from Lake Erie. First sample day went perfectly. The next is 12-13 December. Personally, I think there's more hype than terror to the recent outbreak, but I'm all for any hype that gets me out of the office and catching fish on the clock.
Etc...
...And how's by y'all?
Steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus) is a subspecies of rainbow trout. Where most named subspecis of rainbow trout spend their whole lives in streams, steelhead live out in open water (the Pacific Ocean in their native range, the Great Lakes as stocked where I live) and begin entering rivers in autumn to spawn in early spring. Within a trout species, lake-/ocean-run fish tend to get much larger than their stream-resident counterparts.
Our calendars and decent fishing conditions finally came together on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I dragged along Karl, a guitar chum who has recently become obsessed with fishing. Drove to Mike and Robin's place Saturday night. Stayed up chewing fat until around 2 AM. Got up at 5:30 AM and drove down to the Rocky River with the intent to hit the water around 6:30. Well, recent precipitation brought some fresh fish in, and the fishing was on. The limit is two, and (not shying from eating fish, especially non-natives stocked to amuse anglers) I had my limit by ca. 7:30. Then came this guy, whom I released for some other angler to fight again:
Karl had trouble: too small wading shoes, decent socks but only one layer, leaky waders (it's cold out there, cold enough that our rod guides were icing)... He'd had many hits, even had a couple fish on for a while that threw his hook. Karl's morale was fading. It was Mike's and my afternoon-evening mission to put Karl onto a fish (and Mike, being one of the best at it, really helped). In the last hour of daylight, Karl landed this beautiful buck, turning his trip from one of relative misery to one of triumph. Woo-hoo!
When the fish are on, I can catch them pretty handily on the morning and evening bites. Nobody seems to have told Mike that there is supposed to be a lull in the bite during the height of the afternoon; he caught fish all damned day (that glorious bastard!).
I certainly recommend the experience. If you're interested in more, check out Mike's fishing report. Also, for somewhat more serious fish geeks, here's a text of which I am quite fond:
Behnke, R.J. (J.R. Tomelleri, illus.). 2002. Trout and salmon of North America. The Free Press, New York. 360 pgs.
My FlyfishOhio.com interview about all-things Lake Erie happened on 1 December. If interested, it's slated to be podcast around the New Year. I enjoyed doing it.
Fox 28 TV thing went OK in early November. We had seven segments and several "teasers" to plug the society throughout the program. Sean played baroque music on 5-course guitar and theorbo, I played 19th-c. guitar and mandolin, and Karl played the modern classical. It was difficult to "lose" myself in the music on cue for a 1.5- to 2-minute segment, but (as always when such stuff crops up) I do appreciate the plug.
Guitarist Thomas Viloteau performed here on 3 November. The concert and his perfomance were extraordinary, the program crafted much more for aficionados than the masses, but I like to imagine a few of us here in Columbus favor the former mentality over the latter. He was great company too, and I understand he is a respectful and pleasant house guest. Best wishes as he completes his GFA tour.
We'll be informally gathering/playing on 15 December, of course. See Columbusguitarsociety.org for detail.
Started rehearsing again today for a recording project of classical-era Italian songs. It has been on hiatus for a few months. It was good to get back to it.
Off to Ann Arbor, MI to review the internal research proposals of NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab 10-11 December. Should be fun. I am always honored to receive such invitations.
Got a grant from the Ohio Dept. of Ag. to collect fish and track the progression (if any) of viral hemorrhagic septicemia inland into Ohio from Lake Erie. First sample day went perfectly. The next is 12-13 December. Personally, I think there's more hype than terror to the recent outbreak, but I'm all for any hype that gets me out of the office and catching fish on the clock.
Etc...
...And how's by y'all?