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…
Species: Bull Trout (Salvelinus confluentus) Location: Various Southern Oregon Streams Date: May 29, 2004 This isn’t my photo. I desperately wish it were, but I haven’t captured a Bull Trout on hook and line since high school, and the few populations remaining in Southern Oregon are heavily scattered and/or inaccessible to anglers. Update: As of late 2018, I found a…
Species: Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) Location: Various Southern Oregon Streams Date: May 29, 2004 I caught dozens of these between my first fish and 2004; however since I didn’t keep records and don’t have pictures, I must defer to the journals I started in 2004 to determine species order. Brook Trout were widely introduced to Oregon nearly 100…
Species: Rainbow Trout (Oncorynchus mykiss) Location: Howard Prairie Reservoir, OR Date: Uncertain This is hazy. I’m not sure what day or even what year it was that I caught my first Rainbow Trout, but I have a picture, and I have a memory. My dad used to take me fishing with him, using an old canvas…
