Fan Mail

Not very often, but occasionally one of my +/-8 Unaccomplished Fans Followers will send me a photo depicting one of their angling accomplishments. While perhaps not, I’m fairly certain that they do this for the sole enjoyment of seeing me retreat further into a state of angling despair.  Whatever the case may be, recently I received an email which comes on the heels of a recent steelheadless trip to Catatonia where I may have mentioned that Great Lakes “steelhead” are not real steelhead:

Dear Unaccomplished Angler,

You suck. I know that this is not a real steelhead to those of you on the left coast because it came out of Lake Ontario via the Salmon River, but I have to say it was pretty darn exciting when we finally got this guy (35 1/4 inches…) in the net. The day started at 20 degrees but it had warmed into the 50s by the time I landed this fish @ 3:30 in the afternoon. I had 2 strikes all day. Missed the first one at 6:00 am, so it was great to have redemption later in the day…

-Bob

Bob, that’s a beautiful fish–I’d be proud to have caught something so nice.  Amazingly, with it’s chrome sidewalls it looks just like something fresh out of the salt! Thanks for taking the time to write and share the photo of your nice lake run rainbow trout. By the way, the weather looks balmy. The Catatonia River is now completely iced over.

If any of my other 7 followers have a photo of a nice fish and want to gloat, please feel free to email me:

unaccomplishedangler (at) gmail (dot) com

4 Comments

  1. Dave Carpenter

    Kirk,

    Feel free to re-post any of the photos from my blog post earlier this week (http://blog.riverwoodfliesonline.com/?p=1282). I will understand if you choose not too. Afterall, these are left coast fish that are born inland, are swept gently to the pacific ocean where they vacation off the California, Oregon, Washington and BC coast for a few years. These whimps have had such a fun life – playing hide and seek with gill nets, playing tag with sharks and sea lions, and racing with Orcas. Then they lazily swim 100’s of miles back to the place of their birth over waterfalls, up fish ladders and dam bypass tunnels.

    I realize that they don’t rate anywhere near those Great Lakes Steelhead that navigate treacherous gravel bottom rivers for 1,000’s of feet and spend a couple years dodging vicious preditors (muskie, pike, bass, asian carp?), only to struggle back upstream a few 1,000 feet to their home waters to begin the circle of life again. 🙂

    Maybe you could caption my photos with the latin name instead of calling them “Steelhead” and avoid offending the true steelhead anglers from the Mid-West.

    All joking aside – Bob, that is a beauty of a fish and I too would be extremely proud of the catch. Doesn’t matter to me where you catch your “Oncorhynchus mykiss”, they’re still a thrilling fish! Cut the UA a little slack and forgive his suggestion that the fish you fellas catch up your way aren’t “real”. Sadly, he is influenced by the ultra-sensitive, neo-nazi, skinhead, society of steelhead elitists that populate the western coast of the US. As that great american Rodney White put it – “Can’t we all just get along?”……..

    • Kirk Werner

      Dave, I couldn’t have said it any better myself…and glad I didn’t because then I’d have to run and hide!

  2. Dave Carpenter

    Oops, sorry for bringing gasoline to the party. I was just having a little fun.

    • Kirk Werner

      It’s all in fun, Dave…nothing on the UA is taken seriously, that’s for sure!

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