Species: Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu) Location: Lost Creek Lake, OR Date: July 26, 2005 Cross County Camp was great. I mean, apart from running 80 or 90 miles in a week, it was awesome. We always stopped and ran along the highway before we even arrived at our destination: Lost Creek Lake. In those days, I was a…
Species: Pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) Location: Lost River, OR Date: June 18, 2005 Lost River is so named because it bubbles up out of the ground, wanders around for 60 miles, then goes back into the ground not far from its origin. It is rumored to have once held a great Redband Trout fishery, but those days are decades…
Species: Lingcod (Ophiodon elongatus) Location: Brookings Coastline, OR Date: May 26, 2005 It had started the day before. My first time on the ocean, I rode out in a small Bayliner in the afternoon. The handful of students and three chaperones who decided to brave the afternoon waves thought it would be worth it. The newness of the experience…
Species: Blue Rockfish (Sebastes mystinis) Location: Brookings Coastline, OR Date: May 26, 2005 This part of the trip was uneventful. After catching several of the larger Black Rockfish, I pulled up a much smaller fish with a bluish tint and faint stripes on its face. I was told “That’s just a small blue,” and I should “throw it back.”…
Species: Black Rockfish (Sebastes melanops) Location: Brookings Coastline, OR Date: May 25, 2005 Elementary school was terrible, junior high was better, and high school was all right. As a freshman, I was awkward in the way most freshman are, but I was also extra awkward in my own, special way. I’m not sure I really knew what I wanted,…
Species: Black Crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus) Location: Hoover Ponds, OR Date: March 22, 2005 Geez, I didn’t fish much back then. I hadn’t wet a line since the previous October. In my journal, a 14-year-old Luke wrote: “I fought the fish close to shore. Thinking it was a perch, I didn’t pay much attention to it; however, I soon saw…
Species: Brown Trout (Salmo trutta) Location: Confluence Hemlock Creek and Little Deschutes River, OR Date: August 28, 2004 Boats have nightmares about this place. Hundreds of sun-bleached lodgepole pines crisscross the small stream, connecting two grassy meadows split by the crystal-clear water that gives life to an otherwise desolate place. Native Bull and Redband Trout have long since been…
Species: Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides) Location: Hoover Ponds, OR Date: July 31, 2004 Bass fishing is the closest thing the fishing community has to professional sports. A handful of the top competitors even make a living off of it. The millions of dollars spent on endorsements, the fact that people actually watch it on television, and the sponsors lining…
Species: Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens) Location: Hoover Ponds, OR Date: July 31, 2004 The Bluegill were lined up in the shallows, but slightly larger, more insidious fish skirted the edge of visibility, feinting in and out of the shadows in a cruel tease. I had no idea what they were, but Dad thought they might be perch….
Species: Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) Location: Hoover Ponds, OR Date: July 31, 2004 Baseball is like Trump’s Twitter: hard to watch. For that reason, I decided to take a break from my brother’s game in White City to walk around. As I neared the back fence, I caught sight of a pond. It wasn’t large, but I saw…
