When I was 8

Spent the night in this restored tour bus

Fishing in Iowa 30 years ago -Tillamook Bay this July - On Not Forcing It ? 

Formative Moment ca. 1980

I wanted to talk about a "formative moment" that I had while fishing as a kid in Iowa. Formative moments are where something really clicks - like an epiphany I suppose. This particular thing seemed like magic to me when I was about 8. 

 We used to go to the Mississippi River only occasionally to fish when I was a kid. (usually we went to these really cool sand lakes called "the gravel pits"). My parents nicely gave us a lot of freedom at an early age - and we were allowed to ride our bikes a few miles from home by ourselves to fish and swim. 

Tillamook Bay at high tide

Jetty fishing with blue curl tails

Black Rockfish

The Mississippi - It was a kind of rare treat where you could catch some big weird fish that did not live in the ponds and sloughs we normally fished. (Flathead Catfish, Walleye, Sauger, Northern Pike, White Bass, Drum, Paddlefish, Longnose Gar ) Sometimes there were Sea Gulls there. There was an extensive rocky levee along the entire town and at certain points water pipes or effluent pipes poured water into the river. In the Spring these
were attractive to the fish as the industrial wastewater was often warmer than the river at a time when fish were spawning and looking for warmer water. We were fishing and a guy near us caught a fish I was unfamiliar with but had heard of ---- A

Walleye. He also caught this fish very close to shore on a lure. That lure was a bucktail jig that at the time my dad called a Doll Fly. It was white deer hair with a pink head. I had no idea what a fish would think that was. But the fact that you could walk around with one of these in your pocket and then catch a fish on it seemed amazing to me. It meant no more catching or buying bait. Suddenly fishing became simpler. My dad mentioned that he had caught fish like that right next to the bank and I was intrigued. I of course prior to this thought you also had to cast far out from the bank to catch fish. This guy caught the Walleye by just dragging the lure in a couple feet of water next to the bank. I went out and bought one of those jigs immediately. And later in high school caught several nice Walleye and big Largemouth Bass just like that. 

Sign at Nehalem Bay

Flash Forward to present:
Tillamook Bay 

Naomi and I went on a camping trip in July and had a true blast. 

We had the privilege of spending the first night in a cool old restored school bus made into a tour bus at 46 North Farm in Olney, OR. (Blind Pilot and the Nurses practice in the big neat barn here).  We first put the kayaks in on the Young's River. The Youngs is a short river that flows into the Columbia up by Astoria. And old timer at the boat ramp  tipped me off that supposedly some 25lb. female Chinook were already in - and he gave the boat ramp 45min. of casting an Orange Black Mepps before giving up.

Sand and Quiet at Whalen Island

 I asked him if any Sea-Run Cutthroat ever came into the Youngs and he said "rarely". (And so continues my search for the mythical Sea-Run Cutthroat). I hedged my bet and put on a #3 spinner small enough for Cutthroat and yet big enough for a potential Chinook. Unfortunately the river was filled with really aggressive tiny Steelhead or Chinook - that hit on every few casts. Seriously these youngsters were hitting a #3 spinner .....  I kept hoping to see one of these early- season salmon roll in the river but never did.

Meanwhile, Naomi was getting very close to some cows in her kayak and saving a wet and drowning honeybee from certain death at the hands of the ferocious baby steelhead. 

The Big Blast of the trip - 

I finally got out to Tillamook Bay and hit it just right. This is the biggest estuary in Oregon and has 5 rivers flowing into it. Consistent with the tide chart -  It seemed like it was high tide as the water was not moving and started moving out towards the end of my session. (reminds me to finally get a fishing thermometer also)  I had been there 3 years before in October and caught one Black Rockfish from the opposite shore.
(In this post I am going to use the term Sea Bass and Black Rockfish interchangeably though Black Rockfish is the more proper name.)

water loaded with baby fish

  So I was a bit encouraged that there could be fish there. In my first couple of sessions there had been trying to fish the really pretty flats there by wading on foot with no kayak assist and catch nothing or really small salmon. This bay looks so awesome with the clear aqua water and weed beds I sort of did not even mind going fishless for a few sessions in the spirit of experimenting. And the 4 mile hike each way along the south side is also incredible and we never see very many people on the trail or on the water. I was trying to force this West Coast bay to act like an East Coast one. As near as I can tell not even juvenile Halibut come into these bays and feed shallow. ? Maybe spawning Surf Perch earlier in the year?

I was fishing a 3/8 oz. blue purple 4" curl tail. Never fished Blue before!  (I'm fishing curl tail grubs or jerk shad  these days - when i'm not fishing a spinner.) The Sea Bass were hitting close to the rocks...but not so shallow that I could see the take in the 15' or so of water. They fight well and remind me a lot of small Grouper. 

Cape Falcon Kayaks Barn

But still fairly aggressive strikes with the jig still sinking on the drop. I like the curl tail jigs as the tail swims on the drop.  I kept moving East along the bay and finding and losing fish for a couple hours.

Meanwhile, Naomi hiked 16 miles!!  Someday we will get to this spot in the morning and get to spend the day out there (no camping allowed, though we usually are there til dark and then go camp at Whalen Island or Ginger's farm). Due to the busy season at our shop I have never been out there in the early spring when supposedly the Lingcod are in close.  

Further South along the Coast ---

Naomi in Nehalem River in Cape Falcon Boat

 We also got to kayak in Sand Lake near Whalen Island. This is actually a mind-shakingly pretty tidal bay with a great snaking sandy channel at low tide filled with baby fish, lots of wading birds and no people. Be Aware: at Low low tide it is impossible to get the last 1/4 mile to back to the boat ramp.  It was loaded with baby Surf Perch and Sculpin and a black damselfish looking fish that I have yet to identify. Out where this bay meets the ocean the confluence is pure sand...but I did catch a bigger sculpin on the jig-behind-popper rig. (This is a variation on the popping cork or Cajun Thunder rig).   This area also has a great lesser known county campground (Cape Lookout is closer to Bayocean, but very packed in summer, fun in winter).  Outgoing tide would make for some great snorkeling in some spots. 

Prepping Pad Thai in our outdoor kitchen at home 
(it's serious business)

For our last 2 days out we stopped at our friend Ginger's farm R-evolution Gardens in Nehalem.  Naomi got to try a handmade Kayak made by Brian Schulz at Cape Falcon Kayak. Nehalem Bay looked great but was too windy to kayak. We don't fight a crazy wind in paddle craft anymore if we can help it. So Naomi settled in for a good yoga session in a nook of trees. I cast a Jerk Shad for a while across the Seaweed beds hoping for an early stray wandering Chinook on the flats - (a very low percentage fishery...) This jerk shad actually too big of a lure for anything else at 6" - but it casts really far in windy conditions and is the best for shallow water and did not get hung up on all kinds of structure that I reeled it through. It has been working pretty good on Willamette Smallmouth. I actually only have the jerk hooks in 4/0 and 5/0 and really need to be fishing a much smaller plastic with the smallest jerk hook they make - the 2/0 - which isn't weighted... and they don't sell in Portland.  Tiny estuary Steelhead did patrol these shallows and chase lures.  But alas... as I mentioned before I have yet to find big fish shallow in Oregon bays...

Naomi is inspired by Ginger's to make a solar powered outdoor shower and our claw foot tub with greenhouse plants (they built an incredible bathhouse which is part of the Japanese Forest House Brian built, rentable on Air BnB) and we're finally capping our toilet and in the process of building a composting double seater and pee diverter yep, lookin' at you Ginger, Jeff and Carri @ Pitchfork and Crow, catchin' up.

End Note:

 ImNotCuttingMyHairUntilICatchASteelhead.

Local spots by my house + San Diego trip

Willamette River between home and work.

Enter the Realm of true fishing Nerdom. 

Of Pikeminnow, Bass, Shad and Corvina

Western Red Cedar log made into a Canoe!

Bass on Popping Plug.

 June has been very good to me. I have had an opportunity to get down to the Willamette River near my house several times early in the morning. The warmer water of the last few days of June has the   Smallmouth really active - crushing jigs and jumping into the air.  I had my first really good Willamette session with lots of bass hitting a white curl tail at a shallow water spot that I usually overlook. (For about an hour this spot on the Willamette acted like the Jon Day River.) Went back the next morning and got one on a small Hula Popper! (The river had risen about a full foot overnight.) I was more than thrilled. Also caught a White Crappie which is a first for the NW for me.

3 people were taking this canoe from Bonneville to St. Helens

  I have also had a short session on the Cowlitz River in Washington on the way back from a conference, and had the privilege of fishing  few places in and around San Diego where we went for a wedding.

Northern Pikeminnow in Cowlitz

Naomi and Binga at Elk Rock

 On the way back from a work related event near Seattle we stopped a random spot where the Cowlitz River runs under I5. It is a sluggish slow slough like river here except for one spot where a smaller slough runs in and I could finally see current and rocks and weeds in the main stem. Being crazy ignorant about Sea-Run Cutthroat I thought I might actually have a chance at a trout.  I was using a green/gold #2 spinner. (thanks Jed Davis)  Within a few casts I hooked a fish that ran a bit… but turned out to be a Pikeminnow.  I stayed a bit too long and ended up landing 2 more. I love this fish.  Don’t expect topwater strikes or sightfishing but they hit lures and run a bit.

Ideas for a new name for this fish includes:  Goldies, Gold Bullets, Willamette Ladyfish, Fish-the-color-of-Pancake.

Chinook Salmon caught while Shadfishing

Female American Shad

dudes who taught me Shad

  Mid-June I decided to hit a spot a few miles further south on the river that looks good for bass - visible current and rocks. It resulted in finding a spot where the American Shad run stacks up a big school of fish that are accessible to the shore angler. This is a fish that has been introduced from the East Coast and has done very well here. (Some would say too well).  I had never caught American Shad before and this is a really fun fish.  I used a 1/16 oz. chartreuse curl tail with a full 3’ of fluorocarbon leader and a ½ oz slip sinker above the leader. (pink jigs also worked, white ¼ jigs did not work, shorter leader did not work)  They are suspended in 10’ of water or more --- so you won’t get topwater strikes but they do hit hard and often and run well.  (One day that week alone 212,000 shad passed through Bonneville Dam Ladder - the next day it was 175K fish and so on... you get the idea. )This is the fish of the future. This is the fish of the Apocalypse. 

Mission Bay Corvina

Mom and Me and Naomi

San Diego

  Kurt Vonnegut said “Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.” We never would have chose San Diego but my awesome cousin was getting married there and it was a chance to hang out with family so…

Naomi at Mission Bay

  Highlight of the month was this new SoCal new fishing experience. I have never fished San Diego and had no real information to go on. But had this goal in mind of catching a Corvina.  I had little nuggets of time to explore whatever water I could near the hotel in San Diego we stayed at for a wedding.  Fortunately for me Naomi loves to walk and the solitude at good fishing spots makes for good yoga as well.   I first got to fish a bit of Mission Bay during the middle of the day.  Mission Bay looks terrible – flat bottom, sandy, no current to speak of, tons of people. The water in one area was off-color and tons of tangly filamentous algae on the muck  bottom – so I fished a 1/16 oz. chartreuse jig about 2’ under a hookless  Hi-Roller popping plug to stay just above the algae. (This is a really fun rig to fish in the right conditions)  After a few casts I landed a small Corvina. My first one so I was thrilled. This was really the fish I wanted to catch here.  Hooked and lost another shortly after that.  

Jellyfish?

   I also got to fish in the surf near Torrey Pines where a trickle of freshwater flows across the beach into the ocean.  I ended up hooking a nice Spotfin Croaker here and losing it. (this fish looks a lot like the Redfish we have on the east coast !) The only other guy fishing there told me at dusk the night before the Spotfins were blitzing on sand crabs and racing up into the creek with their dorsal fins sticking out. This spot looked great on incoming tide and I had some kind of long  Sand Bass? chase my lure. I also saw a 4’ Guitarfish which was quite a thrill. Wish I could have fished the Incoming at dusk.

Balboa Park Koi

Surf Fishing at Torrey Pines

  We then did a 4.7 mile walk each way from Hotel to San Diego River Delta – which is not much of a delta because of the general lack of rain -  but it does have some mud flats with patches of grass. This spot looks awesome even at low tide which is what I got to fish. Again I hooked and lost a nice fish on a 6”green Mann’s Hardnose Jerk Bait.  Saw lots of people fishing bait from the opposite bank and 3 guys casting soft plastics when I was leaving. Following the rising tide up into the “river”and the falling tide back out in a kayak would be a great way to fish here if that is legal? I did not see anyone doing this. This spot made me realize SoCal actually has a decent shallow saltwater fishery… to my surprise. Yee haw Go San Diego!

Back Home with Jeff

Back Home in Garden

Spooky Hawaii Unfiltered

Gad dang pretty water - North Shore 

We went to Kauai in January - Hawaii is pretty dern awesome.

Naomi and I may be the only people we know who had never been to Hawaii - so we went for 2 weeks.

The hiking and snorkeling were really really good. If the water is clear I would even say Snorkel instead of Fish as you will learn a lot more.  And since mid-day fishing is so so sparse and so random due to the clear water and lack of structure that I would say hike all day instead - and fish LATE afternoon and or dusk if you can familyman. Thats pretty much true most fishing places in fair weather... unless you need the water to warm up or you have day-active open-water fish like Mackerel or Bluefish around. But with Hawaii clear water and your target species being very transient mobile blow-by predators it seemed even more true in Kauai.


….so here's the fishing report....

I fished all saltwater - mostly the North Shore of Kauai and a little bit on Ohau.
The North Shores are getting the bigger surf in winter - so I had that as a factor everywhere.

Dark day had the papio inside a walled lagoon

I did manage to land a few Papio - the local word for juvenile Giant Trevally.  Papio = juvenile Giant Trevally and Ulua = Big Giant Trevally.  The adults (over 10 lbs. or so) they call Ulua. The typical macho way to fish for the really big ones is with live or cut bait hucked of a cliff on a big surf rod still-fished with 50lb. to 130lb. mono. They fish the cliffs so they can access deep water from shore. GT’s are eerily similar to the Jack Crevalle that we have on the East Coast of the US. - except they get a lot larger in Hawaii -  50 lbs. is really big in Florida but in Hawaii they can run over 100 lbs.!  I fished for big fish like this a few times in FL in 2002 but I don’t enjoy this type of fishing anymore.

Now I use a variety of artificials on a 6’6” 4 piece travel rod rated for 6-12lb. line. It is the beefiest 4 pc. travel rod Cabelas sells and it will fit in carry-on luggage.  For gear on Kauai - Hanapepe General had a lot of decent spinning gear and lures and their prices were good. I wish I had found them when I broke my reel on day 3!  I ended up fishing most of the trip with a lousy chinese reel - that in all fairness lasted almost the full 10 days that it needed to.

A coral head teems with life - South Shore 

Bobby Menks - a  local kayak fisherman recommended a lure that I am very familiar with called the Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow - and yo-zuri lures are beautiful and well designed but I am pretty much done with the multi-treble hook lures that can end up in a hooked fish’s eye or cheek - too many hooks. Moving away from hardbaits in saltwater altogether.

The highlight of the trip was a Papio in the shorebreak on a popper at first light !!
(The same wooden Hi-Roller popper I caught my biggest snook on in FL)

Butterflyfish

And then I got into them with a chartreuse curl tail in a laggoon on a cloudy day in the rain with discolored water. And if I were to go back I think the grubs would be the lure of choice for most conditions.  The locals fish a Carolina rig with a weight a couple feet of leader and an unweighted hook in a curl tail.   A fellow fisherman named Jerry on Ohau actually gave me a super cool homemade popping plug and some clear metal flake curl tail grubs as his secret weapon for Ladyfish.  Which intertestingly that lure with multicolor or “clown” flake is what sometimes actually is said to work on Mutton Snapper in the Keys - a fish notoriously hard to impossible to get on lure or fly. It wasn’t clear if Kauai has as many Ladyfish as Ohau...?? I did not see any Ladyfish while sorkeling or fishing on Kauai.  Flyfishermen reading this who are not familair with how awesome Ladyfish are - please go find out how hard they can pull !!

Lawrence Kansas on a clear day 

Jerry also told me they get small Amberjacks in the lagoons in summer - wow that would be cool!

I saw Mullet of various sizes and Needlefish school up in the lagoons in late afternoon in small schools of 20-30 fish or so but never any getting blitzed.

They also have an extremely pretty Trevally in Hawaii called the Bluefin Trevally which I was told fights even harder than the GT’s.  And a Surfer at the Surf Shop in Kapaa showed me a photo of 10lb. Bluefin he struggled with on a bass rod.

Apparently they eat Trevally in Hawaii ? Years ago I tried cooking a small Jack Crevalle that I had bled and iced right away after catching  - based on a recipe in Florida Sportsman - it was edible but not good and I would never kill one again unless starving. 

Amish man with perfectly ripe Breadfruit

In Hawaii with lures from shore you are pretty much fishing for Trevally or Bonefish or Barracuda. You kind of have to decide what you are targeting as the Bones are not much of fish eaters right? and the Cuda can bite through any leader material except steel wire.  I feel like the only roll-of-the-dice you have for the Trevally is some reef structure or drop off with dawn or dusk lighting and/or murkier water and false dawn/cloudy stormy day and/or all of the above.  The few sessions I had with them they blew through really quickly. I would only hook 2 or 3 and land 1 or 2.  In Florida we would get them to hang in a small basin on low tide and hammer almost any jig thrown in there for 15 min. sometimes.  Maybe Bonefish are more actively feeding mid-day on certain flats.. but alas Kauai has not many flats to speak of...that I saw at least. Anyone feel free to inform me on this Bonefish stuff.

A good spot on the East side Kauai

You just don’t have Snappers or Groupers here in Hawaii - which in Florida are your more resident inshore predator and associate with structure.  According to my hawaii fish book they do have a fish called a Grey Snapper or Uku on Hawaii that looks like an awesome gamefish - it occurs in 80 - 300’ of water!  I did see the largest species of Goatfish - the one with the spot - foraging on the bottom in 10-12 feet of water much like a bonefish.  I also saw a massive slowly cruising Bonefish while snorkeling in about 4 feet of slightly milky water.  And I saw a single specimen of the introduced Snapper while snorkeling at Lawai.

Napali Coast 

Small Barracuda zipped right through 55 lb. flouro leader 8 times in about 30 minutes one morning when I left my steel leader in the room ! Rookie mistake or Florida Cuda teeth are not that sharp! dang!  In fact I only landed 1 Cuda the whole trip. But if you put on steel in that clear water you can expect less hook ups from bigger smarter leader shy fish.  A spinning strategy for the Bonefish would be to put on a Skimmer jig that matches the sand and fish it so that it kicks up some clouds of dust. (more of this next time....) Note: Bring lots of small tan jigs!

web photo of the introduced Peacock Grouper

Thats pretty much it form shore - you got those 3 choices. I did catch a Manybar Goatfish and one Peacock Grouper.
The 9” grouper hit hard and fought really hard briefly as they do ...but this non-native species of grouper does not get very big and a 16” fish would be a big one.

What Hawaii does have a lot of is what a redfisherman would call “Crust” - or plenty of surface ripple to hide your presence. Gin clear water everywhere but never glass calm.

The Dance Macabre Giant Trevally 

I have a newfound respect for Lizardfish and Cornetfish which patrol the shorebreak well and peg any rubber lure not moving fast enough. The Lizards peg it in the head - whether they could fit it in their mouth or not. Lots of rubber lures came back missing tails from small Cuda or Sergeant Majors?  The Cornetfish with its long Seahorse style tube mouth - they are stealthy and don’t miss much either. You will learn to love / hate this fish if you fish lures or flies close to shore in Hawaii. I hooked one that pushed 4 feet and took line for a minute like a real fish. I don’t strip fast enough to avoid this fish so they had no problem slamming 5” soft plastics w a buried single hook. This fish is  a challenge to dehook.  Another reason I fished the soft plastic jerk lures as you can bury the hook completely in the body of the lure and avoid snagging coral or sea turtles which were feeding on the bottom in shallow water most places I fished.

why do i like this ? 

I saw very few people fishing - ?? Hmmm... why is this. I’ll confess - It is hard to fish here from shore. Maybe because the better season for fishing is March through September.  The first mate on the sunset sail we went on out of North Shore Ohau said most of the bait balls happen in August.  On the sail in 250’ of water they were dragging a spoon on the top of the water and hooked a 15 lb. Aku or Skipjack Tuna!

Napali Coast velvet mountains plunging to sea

Mahalo!!

The last morning I was there Naomi and I hiked to a quiet beach in the pre-dawn darkness.
I was fishing my red 'n white popper in the dark and between casts - out where I was casting I saw what looked to be 2 or 3 Trevally blow by and and pop and bust the surface and create some big swirls in a few feet of water in the way that fish with big foreheads can....but before I could land a second cast it was over and they were gone.

On Breaking the Oregon Curse

We got a series of Time Life books as kids. Awesome large wildlife picture books. One of these books was all on fish. One of the essays in one of these books was about Steelhead. The full page photo to the left of the essay showed a Steelhead leaping up a huge grey metallic waterfall.

The title of this essay was Excalibur: The Steelhead

It might have even started then a bit. More on this later.

Oregon Coast Surf Perch

On Breaking the Oregon Curse. Since my last post I have gone to the Oregon Coast and caught saltwater fish in the surf on lure. A small river poured into the Pacific through the sand on a beach - and the Redtail Surf Perch were killing white curl tail jigs.  Not little ones either.  This is big. No Boat, No Bait, No Crowds. This means the code has been partly cracked. ever so partly.  Naomi and I took our first multi-night trip in three years to the Southern Oregon coast. Opening the Farm Store has been great but murder on fishing time. For the most part I am still comparing it to epic experiences I had fishing the spring and fall movements on the East Coast.  This Blog is going to be about transitioning from East Coast to West Coast fish. We have been working a lot of overtime since moving here and just now starting to get out and do some real exploring.

A River Flows Magically Across the Beach

This Blog is going to be about spin fishing with atificial lures. Mostly jigs, jerkbaits and spinners and definitely in saltwater when I can.  Weedless Jerkbaits were introduced to me by an East Coaster named Phill Knoll.
This guy really showed me how to catch Striped Bass. Spinners I fish only when the predominant fish is trout or steelhead.  Spinners are new to me - and currently I am deciding that they aren't stupid and do catch trout. I used to think they represented white bait aka a minnow lure - but now am more in agreement with Jed Davis that they are an "attractor". This probably has something to do with triggering aggression strikes.

On the Rogue River Trail with Black Bears

The Northern Pikeminnow in Rogue

Rogue in the Rogue at Foster Bar

 Last few weeks I have been lucky enough to fish a short section of a Northern Oregon coastal stream, a pool on the Umpqua River,  a section of  the Rogue River on foot.  The Rogue was clear, low and warm but still had small trout hitting small spinners.  As the day grew hotter in the afternoon I switched to fishing the deeper pool water and hooked into a Pikeminnow.   I am moving away from hardbaits - aka plugs and lures with multiple treble hooks. I have spent a lot of time fishing bucktail jigs and grubs - both in New York and Florida. I always had 2 rods rigged on my kayak - one with a white jig and the other with a sliver plug ...? The yo-zuri plug was for throwing right up against the mangroves - in Flamingo FL  lingo they call this "banging those edges".  I had the white bucktail or grub on for deeper water so I could bounce it off the bottom. In the winter in Florida I had some good sessions with a simple gold Johnson spoon - but it would mostly be marauding Ladyfish - which I do really like. So my preference is shifting to rubber single-hook jigs. I have been lucky enough to hook a lot of Tarpon at night on my old standby the white curl tail grub. So I will be looking for a way to fish that lure weedless. 

Naomi Demonstrates

  This blog may at some point be about transitioning to fly fishing or some flyfishing. Im not sure. I have so much spinning gear .... and - for the most part where I fish - the big ugly parts of rivers near Portland the fly rod is not the right tool.  Or at least I deem these murky Portland waters to be plenty challenging even with quick sinking jigs. Though my dad has loaned me his 5 wt. indefinitely as encouragement to join the dark side.

For the fun of it - here is a list of the types of fish I have caught  - lifetime - not all on lures and  not really in any particular order but favorites mostly at the top - 

Jack Crevalle
Tarpon
Striped Bass
Snook
Redfish
Spanish Mackerel 
Smallmouth Bass
Chinook Salmon (Lake Michigan)

Shadow of the Rogue River Yoga Vampire

Bluefish
Goliath Grouper (formerly Jewfish)
Black Grouper 
Mutton Sanpper 
Mangrove Snapper
Lane Snapper
Yellowtail Snapper 
Bonnethead Shark
Lemon Shark
Porkfish
Southern Stingray 
Seatrout
Flounder
Scup
Margate
French Grunt

Baby Porpoise Skeleton in the Dunes

Pompano
Barracuda
Brook Trout
Rainbow Trout 
Blueback Herring
Mayan Cichlid
Oscar
Largemouth Bass
Northern Pikeminnow (formerly Squawfish)
Ladyfish
Florida Gar
Longnose Gar
Shortnose Gar 
Needlefish
Blue Runner
Crappie
Bluegill
Rock Bass
White Bass (known as "stripers" in Iowa)
Warmouth

Back Home Drying Laundry with the Hens

Sauger
Walleye
Channel Catfish
Flathead Catfish
Hardhead Catfish
Gafftopsail Catfish
Black Drum
Sheepshead (Florida Saltwater type)
Freshwater Drum (Iowa type)
Yellow Bullhead
Carp 
Stargazer
Sea Robin
Bowfin (known as Dogfish in Iowa)

I grew up in Iowa on the Mississippi River in a town called Muscatine. My early fishing experiences took place there on the river and in the sloughs and gravel pits mostly on the south side of town. I liked fishing the River a lot because it seemed like anything could happen.  Through a chain of post-college events I had the lucky misfortune of living in Miami, Everglades City and Brooklyn NY. I got to learn how to fish for Tarpon, Snook, Redfish, Jacks, Ladyfish, Seatrout, Snapper and Barracuda in Florida. I fell in love with Naomi in 2003 and moved to NY in 2004. I was skeptical that Striped Bass could be anything as good as Snook. I was wrong. Striped Bass are really awesome.
I ran into a guy named Phil on a jetty on Long Island and he showed me a lot about Striped Bass.

Living in Oregon now and trying to figure out this part of the West Coast.