Inspectre Rides Into Winter Mist.

Welcome to another edition of Neil Whitacre's travel and fishing blog. 

I got a chance to get back to Iowa the beginning of this month. And experienced the continued thrill of now looking at my home state with the eyes of a foreigner. 

I changed the name of this blog from Conflicted...       to Seagull + Fry    to more accurately reflect my feelings on the urban fishing experience.  A lone gull flies poetically through the fog somewhere and swoops for the tossed fry. 

                                                Spawned out Salmon on Eagle Creek.

 That painterly looking pink area on the head there is either fungal or crayfish plucking zone. It was odd and slightly disconcerting to see crayfish still very active and working on salmon carcasses in September. For one, crayfish are not native to this part of the country and they are probably pretty effective egg eaters.

                      The Blue Angel at the back of Greenwood Cemetary in Muscatine, Iowa. 

 She used to have a hand with a rose in it. We used to go into this cemetary at midnight on Halloween and hope to see her drop the rose. Instead what would happen is we would get chased out by the cops.

                                        Bri took me on my first visit to Mount St. Helens. 

Photo is of the cool 3D display to illustrate the path of the boiling river wall of mud and rock and trees that poured down the mountain that day.

                   Another doll house. This one is inside the barn at a home I was inspecting. 

         I suspect it takes more than a facebook level attention span to craft something like this.

Chicken Turtle shell found in Iowa. 

 My brother found this shell doing land surveying work in far Southeastern Iowa. A couple hundred miles north of its typical range.  The reptile nerd in me was thrilled at this anomaly. I called the Herp lab at Iowa State and left a message.

Sometimes there is fishing.  Sometimes fishing is all there is.

Bri and I continued our annual tradition of hitting the Icebreaker merino wool sale in November. 

 This one has a tarpon head on it. A face on it only the screech of your drag could love. 

                    A very recent drawing --  Life is Funny.                       

By this we do not mean funny. We mean all emotions all at once.  All the time.

I have been doing a lot of home inspecting and not a ton of fishing.  Thats how life is right ? We are all so afraid of being poor that all of us get out there and work almost every single day.  We might all mostly squelch our real talents for fear of poverty but maybe sometimes we don't crush ourselves with fear all the way. We are still an animal creature somehow. Sometimes inspiration creeps out. Forces itself out into the light of day. Or is it panic....that sets in. The feeling that I wont get to catch another Steelhead before death and we run outside and go fishing. Who can say.

                                   Mansion on the Mississippi River bluff in Muscatine, Iowa. 

I see seagulls in the flat mowed grass in the park across from my condo in portland - hunting worms.  I used to see gulls at the park that I would fish at in the 1980's in Musactine, Iowa. I am always impressed at gulls strange inland flyways - and where they will stop for food.  Even if that means eating parking lot fries sometimes.

                                                                      King Missile. 

Death of a salmon.  Big carcass providing nutrients to their future young in these cold clear nutrient poor rivers. It would be so much easier to spawn at sea like everybody else ?  I have no idea what the baby salmon - or alevins are eating to grow to 8" and then leave freshwater.  Seems miraculous to me that these young fish gain nutrients in these cold clear rivers. Startling to find out how much the nitrogen and other nutrients in the dead fish plays a role in riparian tree growth as well.

Godspeed Vincent

In May of 2003 I took a road trip up the east coast from Miami to New York stopping 6 or 7 places along the coast to camp and fish.  It was an ill advised trip as I had $500 to my name at the time and somewhere in central Florida I lost my jeep muffler on a mud road and put it back on with bungees. But the trip overall was a great experience. I have a many distinct memories of landing different fish on that trip. One that stands out is casting to these little mangrove snapper and sheepshead in a tiny mud creek through the marsh grass from my kayak and catching a Spanish Mackerel ! An electric blue fish of deep wide open salt water - waaaaaaay back up into a brackish marsh creek.  It is really for these kinds of impossible surprises that I fish.

                                                  Taking in some Portland Trailblazers

                                   A hero Bluegill locks eyes with a Snapper in a drawing. 

                             How we live now.  All 440 square rad feet of our tiny condo. 


                                       

                                                         
                                                    A creature of halloween dance party. 

                                          Forrest Sprite beast is serious about some shit. 

I have never had anything but positive experiences with octopi - with the 3 experiences I've had.  But this drawing needed conflict. But I hope no young landlubbers get the wrong idea.

I bought some egg pattern flies and am getting new waders and will be back in the river soon. Right now Portland is in the middle of getting a ton of rain. We are at 10.3" for just December 1 to 12. The rivers are all blown out and ultra muddy. The eggs laid in the fall wobble down in between the rocks in the river bed. Circle of Life dude.

          Left to Right: My Mom !  My Brothers sons - Woodson and Major - Bri  - and My Dad 

I will catch up with you all via this blog - WITH some fishing next time - the early part of next year.

Happy Holidays.

Neil

Slow Ghost Returns

I'm fishing again thanks to a slow and steady change of events and a very cool fiance.  

Fiance is just a fancy word for paella.  I've also become a licensed home inspector in the past few months.  And really,  I'm not conflicted at all about fishing. It may be the one thing I'm not conflicted about.  Cornbread also not very conflicting.

(I also now have a Bic inflatable paddleboard.  So now the goal for next is to catch a bass on fly on the paddleboard on the Willamette.  So hold me to that next summer please. )

Heavy Aqua Funk. Tetras and Swordtails in an aquarium during a home inspection. 

Flotilla of free rent - a living structure anchored in the middle of the Willamette River in Downtown Portland.  Always interesting to discuss the rental situation here in Portland.  We were lucky enough to purchase a tiny condo this spring to escape from the climbing rental prices.  

                                                                               

The mighty Bri Sabin at the confluence of Sandy River and Columbia.   They recently took out an earthen dam and allowed this channel to also flow to the Columbia.  So now Sundial Island is truly an island and supposedly salmon favored this channel in the past. 

Bri wearing out Howser.  East channel of Sandy River facing Sundial Island as seen from Thousand Acres dog and people park. 

Fish where you live.  Smallmouth Bass in the Willamette at Oregon City. I will go out on a limb and say that this fish is taking over the warming rivers along with the carp.  We can prop up the cold water Salmonid species as long as we can afford  - but these Bass do not need our dollars or help. I saw some Vietnamese guys catching them like crazy in deeper water than I would ever fish on Carolina rigs.  AND I also found a killer unconventional secret September bass spot for those who might want to go.  AND heard a rumor about a single huge Largemouth Bass in the Clackamas.  AND rumors ! AND heresay !

So you saw that I said "Fish where you live".  I'm also the wanker that will buy plane tickets specifically to go fish places. 

Always try to make time for a Herp Walk while fishing. This skink was sunning on some clay cliffs along the Clackamas River. 

I'm finding time to draw again as well.  I try to always have one drawing that I am working on.  I got into 3 shows this summer and was very lucky to sell several pieces. Bri has been very supportive of my drawings and I can't say enough positive about her influence on my life this past year. 

Miniature fireworks stand as part of a homemade dollhouse - seen while home inspecting.  

The quirk , the whimsy - let them wash over you. 

Hood Ornament.  Portland.  (See: Rumple Minze)

Remember that old anti-litter commercial with the Indian.  Drought conditions this year altered the entrance into Eagle Creek for returning Salmon. Typically there are 2 entrances. To the right in this photo is this big cauldron of scary spiraling current at where the Clack meets Eagle Creek. 

Eagle Creek at its confluence with the Clackamas - near that Cauldron. The lowest by far I've ever seen the water here.  I hopped across it.  The Coho plowed up it for several miles as evidenced by a few spent carcasses.  The run is likely peaking as I write this. 

A few Coho were spotted in Eagle Creek that were killed for just their eggs.  Really Stupid. 

Mountain Whitefish caught on egg pattern fly in the Clackamas.  Eggs are kinda the only hatch right now. So lots of fish become egg eatin' fools. 

Cave Bear skeleton at the new Cabelas here in town.  One of the saddest parts of fishing is getting that incredible rush when you go into a fishing store. As far as fishing stores in Portland - I highly recommend Northwest Fly Fishing Outfitters on about 109th n Halsey.  I always learn something when I go in there.  All the employees are also guides on local rivers so they are on the water a lot. 

Bonneville Dam fish ladder viewing window. Always worth a visit in September. 

Sturgeon in the fish ladder even. 

A great video on the damn and fish ladder by my friend David Barmon: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTe297gGeWg

More on the killer handmade dollhouse.


I did get a nice Coho Salmon this fall  - down near the mouth of the Clackamas.
But we are about to make a batch of Quiches from it to freeze for later.  To have with our Bourbons n Cocoa later this winter.  (Quiche is just another word for Egg Pie)


Hey!  Get out there and steelhead this winter. 

We ate this one. 

Phantom Railcar to the Delta

Exploring South Louisiana with my Dad.

Never underestimate the baroque power of a  chunk of Iowa woods. I met up with my family for 2 days in Iowa before driving south to New Orleans with my dad. This is an old wooden railcar we discovered in high school near a favorite swimming hole. We found cowboy toys and old record player and Playboys from the 50's. I returned 20 years later to find it sinking but intact.

Cray Cray.   In the Marigny, New Orleans. This neigborhood - just east of the French Quarter - is a delight to the senses. I highly recommend Mimi's bar and Bargain Center thrift. Both great recommendations from New Orleans resident Dulcie Dick via a good friend Amy Putney.

Every god damned square inch of the French Quarter...Just thick with it man.  Could not get enough on a quiet morning

Place d'Armes Hotel.  in pool....exhaling

Cypress Cove.  Saltwater gators are normally shy. So - Some gator sightings - maybe 10 the whole trip -  but we arrived 5 days after gator hunting season so they were extra shy.

Riding out to fish some vast expanses of really shallow water. At the edge of the Gulf of Mexico the Mississippi craggles out into an endless maze.  The water smells like green salt blood - all the nutrients of a nation dumping into the sea. Of course I felt really at home here.

Working boats everywhere.  Oysters, Blue Crabs, Shrimp. Often the food we had was astounding. Prejeans in Lafayette was incredible.

Brian Esposito's flats boat - with poling platform in back. This guide rocks. He is part of a group of 4 guys that come over from FL to guide on the shallow water bull reds from Oct 1 to Thanksgiving. Brian is booked solid the entire time.

Fly Sight fishing to Bull Redfish. Almost nothing better in fishing. Brain Esposito spots individual cruising fish at about 100 yards out. You wait to cast until you can land the fly directly in front of them and then generally strip as fast as you can. And then hang on and watch all of your stripped line bandsaw back out through your hand when they hit. Then the fish hits your drag and that sweet sound of a tortured clicking drag on a massive fly reel.  damn.

Better have a 9 weight rod. Brian said "50 feet at 9 O'clock !  Drop it! Pop it !"  And the water exploded as the fish pulled the fly off the surface and then a ton of line off the reel. These fish were busting on mullet and came ready to play hard and fast  - behaving more like a Jack Crevalle by running down mullet in open water. 

Huge huge  grasshoppers near the Halliburton compound at Venice. All of the areas we visited were basically just oil refineries and seafood production.

My dad trying boiled peanuts in a cemetery south of Houma, LA. Spanish moss dripping from Live Oak.

Star Destroyer. Working boats at Bayou Du Large, LA. Some of these rough looking guys told me they get 45 to 80 sacks - big burlap bags of oysters per day.... And the street value of those on Bourbon Street is $$$$.  It made me want to help them Unionize... hahaha !

That moment when you are electrified by a fish.

A rodbreaker..... the guides rod.... I guess honey badger better step up to meet the Black Drum.

Shrine at the canal. Bayou Du Large had 3 churches and no convenience store.

Swamp Lily. I'll have what I'm having.

Tagging Redfish with Captain Bill Lake.  Of the thickest cajun cracker accents in the world.

A Sheepshead caught by my dad at Grosse Savanne.  At 17,000 acres this private reserve moved with life all over the bay bottom unlike anything I have ever seen.  The guide - Mike - tossed a throw net and caught prawn-sized shrimp all over the place almost everywhere in about 5' of water ... solidly primeval.

Baby Gator Gar. still cute size.  And yes they will hit flies. 

Inside the railcar.

A couple more from the rail car. Ghosts of an old horse pen and an ancient Schwinn bike. And there was a plank that read "J & K Railway New Orleans, USA"

Hood of the low rider from my last post.  In memory of mother.

I'd hit that. Pulled this pinata out of an Iowa ditch on an early morning run. Interesting  thing happened to me through online dating... I developed a huge crush on someone I met right before I left on this trip. I was even accused in Bill Lake's thick thick cajun of being distracted from fishing by this girl's texts.

Exploring Grande Isle, LA.  Dolphins were working the mullet using synchronized feeding. A pleasure to watch but absolutely nothing more terrifying for fish than dolphins on the prowl. I've seen them jump into the trees in the Everglades to get away from dolphins. Fall had not really begun here yet.  The really big redfish had not moved into the shallows. But the big schools of mullet were doing their methodical migrations just beyond the shorebreak.

My dad and I played "Name that Tune" in as few notes as possible on the drive down. Ironic that I got Sharp Dressed Man fairly quickly but Wayward Son took a bit longer.  Cedar River Backwater, Cedar County, Iowa. Winchester 70 and fun with GoPro.

Fish No Demon Harder.  Fishing over for now.  Fishing go Bye Bye. We killed the fishing and it did it for me for a long time.  My dear awesome friends that are winter steelheaders... I shall live vicariously through you for the next few months or so.  The fishing monster that dragged on my soul slipped backwards into that gulf and closed it's eyes.