This steelhead from the Potlatch River was uncommonly friendly, letting me walk right up and take pictures. |
This year my field season was different in that I had to be away from home the entire time since I currently live in Washington and I needed to be in Idaho to tag my fish. I visited my home five or six times for a couple days each time, but by and large, I lived in a hotel near Lewiston Idaho for April and May, and in June I lived in a cabin in the woods near the Lochsa River. I won't get into how bad it sucked being away from my wife and kids for so long, not because it didn't suck - it did, but because that's another story entirely. This is supposed to be a happy story about fishing, so that's what you'll get. Suffice it to say that in my opinion my wife earned her sainthood over the last few months by holding things together without me, and I'm pretty impressed that she didn't run away with the UPS man while I was gone!
Before this story can go any farther, I need to introduce you to my good friend Brenda. My company hired her last year to help me tag our fish, and we were fortunate enough to have her help again this year. I couldn't have asked for a better co-worker or friend to work with. She's very proffesional and knowledgeable and all that stuff, but more importantly she's just as big of a fishing wacko as I am (and that's saying something)! Brenda is a little shy about having her picture taken, but she said I could post this picture of her since she was incognito:
Brenda got jealous of my having a beard, so we fashioned one for her out of some moss! |
We checked on the discarded beard several days after the previous photo was taken and it seemed to have taken on a life of its own! |
No species hunting contest between two fish nuts would be complete without some really tiny entries. A species is a species, and this tiny pikeminow is no exception. |
Here's a redside shiner, even though this particular one doesn't have red sides... |
And a trophy speckled dace! |
Of course we couldn't JUST fish for micro-fishies! We had to do a little dino-hunting, being so close to Hell's Canyon and all.
First Sturgeon of 2013 on the line! |
I swear he felt bigger than that... Not that I'm complaining about a spunky 4.5 footer! |
This big jumbo chicken-liver-eating perch is a nice fish, but it was not the 15 lb channel cat I was hoping for... |
Species #88! A cheerful yellow bullhead. I like it when they smile for the picture! |
A confused kitty! |
For the sake of brevity, I didn't include pictures of all my entries from the Lewiston area (your welcome...). I also caught: chinook and coho salmon (both smolts), bluegill, black crappie, smallmouth bass, pumpkinseed, carp, chiselmouth, and rainbow trout.
Keep scrolling down (or if your scrolling finger is really lazy, click here) to hear the conclusion of our contest after we moved camp up to the Lochsa River at the end of May.
* The little sturgeon in the picture above is the smallest one that I've caught with a hook and line, but check out these little beauties that we're raising in our lab!
Love it! A trip where you can catch both sturgeon and micros sounds awesome.
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