Species: Red Irish Lord (Hemilepidotus hemilepidotus) Location: Off the coast of Brookings-Harbor, OR Date: September 14, 2011 I began this blog with the first story I ever recorded. That story took place in 2004, and I wrote about it afterwards in a spiral-bound notebook by hand. My last story from those hand-written journals takes place seven years…
Species: Calico Surfperch (Ampistichus koelzi) Location: Chetco River South Jetty, Brookings-Harbor, OR Date: September 12, 2011 Misidentification is to fishing what the New England Patriots are to football: an unfortunate everyday reality that can’t be ignored. Fortunately, just like tonight’s Patriots’ Super Bowl loss, good can get a foothold in the fight against evil and make that unfortunate…
Species: Speckled Sanddab (Citharichthys stigmaeus) Location: Myers Creek Mouth, Gold Beach, OR Date: September 9, 2009 After an eventful day, today paled in comparison. My friend Ben Blanchard and I tried fishing the Rogue River Jetty in Gold Beach, but the sea lion sirens were deafening, so we didn’t stay there long. *** On the drive back to…
Species: Redtail Surfperch (Amphistichus rhodoterus) Location: Winchuck River Mouth, Brookings-Harbor, OR Date: September 8, 2009 From a journal entry of a same date: “With careful planning, and about $220 apiece, Ben (Blanchard) and I got to go on an incredible trip. The drive was full of conversation and excitement. The worst part of the drive was the last…
Species: Brown Bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus) Location: Topsy Reservoir, OR Date: May 29, 2009 If pigeons are rats with wings, bullheads are rats with fins. For whatever reason, Brown Bullhead catfish have established themselves as the invasive every real angler loves to hate in almost every major basin across the country. Oregon is no different. Why someone would ever decide…
Species: Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus) Location: Lost Creek Lake, OR Date: July 27, 2005 Every day, we woke up and went on a run. We’d come back, grab breakfast, do some sort of running game, take a break, and run again. Lunch would come around, we’d have a short reprieve for the afternoon, then we’d go on an evening…
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: 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…
