San Juan River, Nicaragua (Tarpon and Snook)

One thing that I like to do is serve other people. My work gave me the opportunity to volunteer in the building of a foot bridge in Nicaragua. During the rainy season the rivers flood and the villagers cannot get across. Working with Bridges to Prosperity we built on of these bridges in the Estelle region up north. The other thing I like to do on these service trips is take a few extra day to go fishing. While building the bridge I got to go spear gun fishing in the near by river. With weight belts, home made spear guns, and funky goggles we would swim big pools at night with a flashlight looking for resting fish. The locals were crazy good at this but I did get to shoot a couple.

Anyways at the end of the trip I ventured off on my own to San Carlos where I stayed at the "Tarpon Fishing Nicaragua" lodge on the opposite shore of town. An all inclusive fishing trip the food was amazing and the fishing was rememberable. In the morning we would go troll some spots close to shore known for Snook. Catching two each morning was a great way to start the day. We ate some for dinner the first night and gave some of the other meat to the riverside villagers that would make us our mid day lunch. Everyday you we would stop for an hour or two down river from the lodge at a small village, eat, take a nap, and then go back out fishing.

The first morning tarpon fishing we hooked an lost one that was probably around 30 kilos. In the afternoon we hooked and after a 90+ minute battle landed the giant pictured below that was estimated to be at least 80 kilos (200lbs). Met a Bosnian in another boat and together we landed the fish. The second day we hooked an lost one late in the afternoon that was about 40 kilos and overall it was a great trip. The lodge also offers peacock bass fishing but I passed on that opportunity. Talking with the Bosnian the fishing at the mouth of the river is much more productive but almost all the "big" fish are in the 30-40 kilo range. If you want to catch the big fish you want to fish high in the river but your catch rate will go down substantially. A fish a day up here is a good average.

Summary:
Location: Fished down river from head waters of Lake Nicaragua
Time: All Day
Rod: Bait Casting Rod
Gear: Pulled plugs at a troll
Fish: 1/3 Tarpoon 4/4 Snook
Biggest Fish:80 Kilos Tarpoon
Smallest Fish: 4# Snook
Rating: 9/10

Quillayute River, WA

"When Uncle Dan calls and tells you to come fish, you drop what you are doing and go fish." explained my roommate Dustin on a Friday. Unfortunately we still had to work so we came up Saturday instead. Being so low in the system the fish move through this area fast and when the conditions are perfect. Which finding those windows when the nets are out is rare to none. Though this would be the case this weekend. Dan told us that we missed a ridiculous day Friday but there were still plenty of fish to be had. Now I've only really spinner fished for salmon in Alaska so it took me a while to get going. Dustin shot out with a bang catching I think 3 fish before I landed one. However by the end of the day we had caught 8 fish between the three of us and I lost a ninth as we were cleaning up.
Sunday was a little different and really slow. No one was really hooking fish. We moved slowly down river as the tide fell all day until we came to a nice hole that seamed it would hold fish. Using a pink flash and glo Dustin was making smart as remarks about I hooked the first fish and landed about a 18# King. We had caught no kings the previous day. About when we were going to call it quits in the hole I caught the toad pictured below. We were mostly geared for coho so after a good chase and fight we finally got this guy to the boat. Dan had told Dustin not to say anything about how big it was while I was fighting it because he wanted me to remain focused. Picked up a coho as we road the tide back up to the launch.

Summary:
Location: Quillayute River
Time: 8am - 5pm
Rod: 10-20lb spinning rods
Tackle: Orange, Purple, and Chartreuse #5 vibrax spinners and pink flash and glow with pink hoochie skirt at hook.
Fish: 8/9 day 1 and 3/3 day 2
Species: Coho and Chinook Salmon
Biggest Fish: 34# Chinook
Smallest Fish: 8# Coho
Rating: 9.9/10

Satsop River, WA (Steelhead/Coho)

Sometimes you just want to get out and float the river. I don't particularly like floating the lower Nooche and with limited time after work the Satsop is a nice quick float. No luck but hey at least we tried.

Summary:
Location: Satsop River from mouth of Middle Fork to Hwy 12 bridge.
Time: 12pm - 6pm
Rod: Medium Bait Casting Rods
Tackle: Various Kwikfish Plugs
Fish: 0
Species: Searching for whatever!
Biggest Fish: N/A
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 2/10

Pacific Ocean, Westport, WA (Coho/Chinook)

One of the nice things about working on a large project in Aberdeen is someone has to have a boat and that person was my coworker and friend Nik. Having missed an opportunity to go out earlier in the week because of work I was excited to go today. Launching out of Westport we trolled mostly by the casino. I only ended up with the one King although they had killed it a few days earlier. We also found a floating moon fish which was pretty cool.

Summary:

Location: Pacific Ocean near Quanault Casino
Time: 7am - 7pm
Rod: Gear rods
Tackle: flashers and bait
Fish: 1
Species: Coho and Chinook Salmon
Biggest Fish: 18#
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 6/10

Metolius River, OR

After staying with my mom for a few days at eagle crest and getting some golf in, I headed to the last stop on my Central Oregon tour. My favorite place in the world to fish the Metolius River. Boy was I glad I made the stop. The fishing was crazy good and I landed almost everything you could think of though I did loose quite a few fish. Most my takes were indicator or euro nymphing but there was some action on late stones. The rainbow pictured below took a pats stone and the brown trout below took a blue psycho prince.

Summary:
Location: Blue hole to Gorge Campground.
Time: 9am - 8pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 black stone nymph, 12 rainbow warrior, 14 zebra midge, 12 copper john hybrid, 10 Rogue Stone, 8 black and brown Pat's Stone, 14 blue psycho prince, 14 hot wire
Fish: 4/13 on trout + white fish
Species: White Fish, Rainbow, Browns
Biggest Fish: 16" brown
Smallest Fish: 12" rainbow
Rating: 9.5/10 (lost more fish than I ever have before. 

Crane Prairie & Wickiup Resevoir, OR

Some other intel I had gathered was fishing Crane Prairie and Wickiup Reservoir. Crane Prairie was burned before the reservoir was filled. So scattered throughout the lake are a bunch of dead, burnt, limbless trees. The method I was told to fish was called the crono-bobber method. Basically fly fishing with a bobber or in this case a 9' 6x leader, Ice Cream Cone midge and a strike indicator at the leader not. Was told to use extremely light tippet as the fish were leader shy but if I was successful the fish were to be monster rainbows. I was also told that the best fishing is from the second you can legally fish in the morning until the sun hits the water and no later than maybe 9am. So with my pontoon and crono-bobber rig I set out and tried my luck. Just as the sun was coming over the mountains my indicator went down. The fish looked close to 20" and like any rainbow in the lake had a pot belly to go with it so I would estimate it was over 4lbs. Unfortunately it wrapped a tree and broke off. I stayed out until 9am but then packed up and headed over for Wickiup.

Wickiup was a whole other ball game. Here you are fishing for monster brown trout eating tiny flies. Recommended at this time was and 18 or 20 callibaetis fly. I saw several fish sipping on the surface and a few more below as the lake was low and gin clear. Was not succeful in hooking up and mostly fished the intake portion of the lake as this is where I was told to go.

Summary:
Location: Craine Prairie Resevour and Wickiup Resevoir.
Time: 7am - 9pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: Ice-Cream Cone midge, and various callibaetis patterns.
Fish: 0
Species: Rainbow and Browns
Biggest Fish: N/A
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 6/10

Upper Deschutes, OR

So on my way out the last time I was tipped off that there is a way to catch big brook trout where I like to fish on the Upper Deschutes near the blue holes. I even found a fly fishing video as evidence that there were a lot of them. So this trip I was looking for the big brookies. When I say big the larger ones average 18"+. To target them you want to swing a size 10 or 8 brown crystal wolly bugger under every fallen tree and there are plenty of them. Swing you fly and if it doesn't get eaten or snagged cast again until one of the two happen. If the later happens and you get snagged, then simply walk down to the tree, unhook your fly, drop it on the other side of the log, and swing the next fallen tree. Eventually, you are destined to hook a crazed brookie. For me this happened on the second tree I cast after the three blue holes. It was crazy! If I haven't painted the picture there are a lot of fallen trees including the one you just swung him out from. So a good part of the battle is keeping him out from the trees which means putting him in the riffle. One of the coolest fish I have caught in my life. I dont know where the picture from the camera is but I took a picture on my phone to sent to friends.

Summary:
Location: Near the blue holes
Time: 11am - 8pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: Brown crystal wolley bugger size 8/10, 14 parachute adams, and 14 brown elk hair caddis.
Fish: 20+
Species: White Fish, Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 17" brookie
Smallest Fish: 3" rainbow
Rating: 10/10