Fishing in the Desert

I have a tendency to hole up when it is real hot or real cold. Soon it becomes a habit, and in no time I am sitting on my butt a lot more than I am happy with. Yeah we walk each morning, and I do manage to go flying when the winds and weather is just right, but still, I should be more active.

I decided today that I was going to go fishing for the first time this year. I haven't been down on the river yet, for one reason or another. Mostly the water was too high until just recently. Then I keep forgetting to call the landowner the night before to ask permission. Again just sheer laziness. I did roll the plane out for a flight to check last nights light show. We had thought that there was a small fire on the Desert between us and the Whitehorse, but I could find no sign of one. I was surprised to find at least three of the playa ponds were full of water from the recent storms.

I went into the shop and drug out a float tube that we had bought years ago, and used perhaps twice, filled it with air, went digging through my fishing supplies trying to find something that would work for trout. I am more set up for Bass and Catfish, but I was hoping that either plastic worms or some spinners would pull me through.

The big problem with the pond that we went to is that it is almost covered with weeds, the aquatic kind. I knew that there would be no way to fish from the bank. I still had a pair of swim fins that I had bought more than 20 years ago, and really never used either.

A ten mile drive across the desert brought us to the pond. It had dried up several years ago and really not refilled before the last couple of years. The BLM stocks year around ponds with Lahontan Trout which can live in warmer waters.  Prior to its drying up, it held some really nice trout. I was really sad when it dried up. Now I had heard that the Trout were back and of catchable size.

The outside temps were running near 100, and I found all kinds of excuses to sit in my chair. Finally shame got me moving. Karen and the Dogs however were ready for some diversion.

Upon arrival, the dogs and I went around the pond to check things out. There was a long narrow area that Trout or fish seemed to be rising for something edible. As I figured there was no way to get a fish in past the weed beds even if I could catch one. I went back and got all my stuff, stripped down to my tidy whities and started trying to put my flippers on while sitting in the tube. Not happening, so I got out, put the flippers on and managed to get into the tube without killing myself, or falling into the water.

I first tried the plastic worm, and didn't get any indication that any thing out there was interested. I tied on a really small black Mepps spinner, and started casting to  where I thought there was a clear patch of water. On about the third cast, I got a hit, but missed it. More casts in that area finally yielded a hard hit. After carefully fighting the fish, I managed to pull into the tube with me a truly magnificent Trout about 18 inches long and about 6 inches deep. I managed to land four of the nicest Trout I have seen in a long time. I could have taken one more, but four of these cuties was enough for at least three meals for Karen and I.

I was so confident of my chances for success that I had made no provision for transporting any fish home. Karen had packed some stuff in one of those cloth shopping bags, so we dumped all that out and put the fish in it.

Just the other day Karen had mentioned that she wished she had some Trout to eat. I dug out some Catfish and Bass that I had caught last year and we had them for dinner. They were good, deep fried in sourdough beer batter, but still not Trout.

Well today we made up for it and had two of these babies. I liked the others , but the Trout tasted as only two hours from water to frying pan can get.