Trout

From where I stood, on the bank of a small lake, I could see at least four good fish. Moving in and out of the weed beds, the trout were feeding, but I couldn’t tell what it was they were taking. It was the middle of the day and if I could see these fish…

Distant storm clouds filtered the afternoon sun. The wind blew a chop on the water and we squinted into the sunlit spray from the bow. A white pelican, wingtips lifted to catch the air, drifted ahead of us, riding the wind ten feet above the water. It was Perry Parmelee’s boat and his son Brent…

We pulled on neoprene waders and stepped into the icy shallows. The wind blew a heavy chop on the water and I tugged my hat down firmly on my head. There was new four pound test line on my spinning reel and a floating Rapala dangling from the end of the rod. I cast into…

For her fourth birthday we gave Jennifer a fishing rod. Tiffany, our oldest, had been fishing with her own for several years already. The three of us spent a few hours over the next month and a half, practicing for the trout opener. We went over the basics again and again. Pinch the line against…

Afternoon was slipping into evening as we left the truck and crashed down the hill. The Klamath River was down there in the gorge, still out of sight. I could hear the roar of the rapids below as we sought the trail we knew must be there. Heading straight down, we found the well-used path…

He is kneeling in shallow, wind-riffled water, holding a trout that, soon, he will let free. Laugh-lines crinkle at the corners of his eyes as he squints against the morning sun. Water is dripping from the fish’s broad shoulders and hooked lower jaw. A pale rainbow stripes the spotted flanks. The infectious smile on Denny’s…

Heading out to the highway with a fly rod in the rack? Try one of these lakes for great springtime trout action. When we planned our annual family camping trip last year, the easy part was deciding where to go. My new book, The Oregon Lake Maps and Fishing Guide was out and thumbing through…

When we set out to do battle with trout, we arm ourselves with specific techniques to handle typical encounters with our quarry. But often, our opponent has seen our stratagems before and is wary of taking the fly. That’s when its time to bend the rules of engagement. And time to adopt guerrilla tactics. Guerrilla…

To catch big brown trout, they say, you’ve got to fish very early and very late in the day or even all night long. Big browns, they say, come from big, deep lakes where they feed on kokanee and chubs. Furthermore, you need big baits to turn salmo trutta’s head. Well, they should have been…

The waters of the Klamath Basin in southern Oregon are legendary for big rainbows, but there is a trophy trout tributary to Upper Klamath Lake that is little known, lightly fished and miles off the beaten track. Clean, clear, low and shallow, up to 50 yards across, the creek empties into Pelican Bay in the…