Water’s Bounty

During the warmer months fishing helps to fill our larder with trout from our local lakes. Some fish are rainbow, others are cutthroat, and many are hybrids. These fish were caught in an alpine lake about an hour drive from EEC. Live worms from the compost, with a fly or spinner lure dropped down deep worked on this trip. Sometimes the fish are kissing the surface, and it’s better to fish on top of the water with floaters. Weather, temperature, light, insect hatches, underwater topography, season, lure type, bait choice, and casting preferences all come into play when fishing. Because of all the variables, there are days of great success- like my partner and I catching our combined limit, or days with no catch at all. Most of the time there is some success, but especially at a new location, it often takes a few visits before familiarity sets in and the fish are found.

Fishing is a wonderful first step into wild food you can harvest yourself without too much trouble. Any line and pole will work as a basic setup, but I recommend some kind of rig which includes a reel. You can still find basic setups for under $40. Hooks will cost another $10 (you’ll want a pack of several), and lures can be bought for under a dollar each, or you can by the parts and make your own. I grew up using a bamboo stick with line from a spool and a pack of hooks. I’d take the stale bread Mom would leave me, and head to my local park to catch carp and catfish. It was a very primitive setup, but I caught and released a lot of big fish. Sometimes I’d have to get creative on the go- with just line and a paperclip bent into the shape of a barbless hook- or my bare hands if necessary. Metal pipes are perfect hiding places for catfish. Tip the pipes into a bucket and you have a nice meal.

As a child, I did not take home my urban fish, they were released back into the waterways where I found them. Only with my Grandfather would we keep and eat our catch. His tutelage on the water was priceless, and I learned how to operate a reel- push button, then flip cast. I learned about setting trot lines, hooking a minnow to catch crappie, and what lure to use on the surface to catch bass. My grandfather showed me where to look along the shore for good casting grounds- overhangs, the lake’s inflow source, or rocky points. Fish gather in schools around good feeding spots with shelter above, like under a log, where lures have trouble reaching without getting hung up. Grandy didn’t always explain why did what we did, but I got the general understanding when I’d catch something.

Today I continue my passion for flat water fishing. The lakes here in Western Washington are smaller, but full of wonderful trout ever eager for fresh worms and a good spinning action through the water. Even when there is not a fish on the line, the location out on a beautiful alpine lake or on the edge of an old mill pond in mossy woods invites patient sits within nature, harvesting good food from the source of all life, our sacred waters. So much gratitude for those who continue to teach others to fish, to the scaled ones who continue to thrive where they can and still come onto the line and into our larder to nurture continued cycles of birth and death to survive and thrive. May we all continue to stay connected to the waters and their crucial place in both the food chain and greater ecological act of potable drinking for all.