Week One, May 17th through May 21st
My Senior project, in conjunction with Jed Whalen Stewart and Kellen Woodcock, is going fishing. It is, admittedly, a quite simple idea for a senior project and it almost sounds like a weekend trip instead of a project. But, while we made the idea of our project "fishing" the greater purpose around it is to learn about different aspects of fishing and different ways to fish. Currently, we are planning on going fishing, of course, but we also plan on learning important fishing skills, such as tying flies or different fishing styles, as well as trying to learn about and help out with the conservation side of fishing, whether that is helping out at a fish hatchery or helping restore streams and rivers in the Portland area.
The Fishing Friends before our preliminary excursion on the Clackamas River
This is really a passion project for the three of us, and a good opportunity for us all to hang out doing something we all really enjoy. When we first heard that we could do a senior project with a group of up to four people we immediately grouped together and started trying to think of things we could do, and finally, we settled on fishing, partially because we all enjoy it, and partially because it was the only one that had a chance of getting approved. From there we began to create ideas for what we were doing, we started with the basis of fishing and slowly added things on, and sent our project to the committee, and got rejected, so we just added more and more on until, finally, we got approved. (On the basis we catch something from Corkrin pond, a nigh-impossible task unless you are trying to catch geese.) 
Kellen with a fifteen-foot rainbow trout caught on the Clackamas
This week we spent a lot of time planning and practicing. Monday through Wednesday was spent planning our fishing trips later in the week, and we settled on a trip to the Clackamas River near Estacada, and the Sandy River near Sandy. During this planning time, we also grilled some amazing burgers. We also practiced our fly casting during these three days, going to a local park and working on our casting technique without flies on our lines.
On Thursday we got up and planned on meeting at 9, however, one of our group members who will remain nameless overslept their alarm making the meeting time more around 10. This wasn't a problem though as we got out to our fishing spot by 10:45 and were on the river by 11. We fished for about an hour and a half before taking a break to get some lunch, at which point Jed continued to fish all through lunch. We then got back out on the river and fished until we got tired. At that point, we walked back to the car and headed home. I wish I could talk about our experience on the river Friday, however, I felt really bad when I woke up and told my teammates that I would not be coming to fish. So if you want to hear the Friday fishing report I would suggest visiting either of their blogs.
Hi Braden - Sounds like you're having a lot of fun. I'm wondering: how do you practice fly casting? Is there any particular trick to it? Are you aiming to cast a long distance? Did you catch anything aside from Kellen's monster haul?
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear you weren't feeling well on Friday. I tried to read about the fishing adventures on your compatriots' blogs... alas, neither has posted anything.
Do you all have a plan for next week? Looking forward seeing what you catch from Corkrin Pond!
Hi Kym,
DeleteWe practiced fly casting by just going to a public park near my house and "dry casting" which is where you go through the casting motions in an open field instead of in the water, while also working on the accuracy of our casts. The main thing we were trying to practice was the timing of it, you have to flick the rod back and forth while keeping steady rhythm or else the line will go all over the place and often times get tangled in itself. Jed and I also caught a few fish that were about the same size as the one Kellen caught.
Hi Braden! I want to know what you're going to do with the fish once you catch them. Cook them over an open fire? Catch and release? Please elaborate!
ReplyDeleteHi Elizabeth,
DeleteSo far we have only been doing catch and release as none of the fish we have caught have been big enough to eat. We are also probably not going to keep and cook any of the fish we catch because none of actually like the taste of the fish we can catch.
Thanks for the update, Braden! I'd love to see some casting videos of you in action! Can you describe what "casting technique" even is? I have many questions similar to Kym's on this topic.
ReplyDeleteHow much fishing experience do you already have? Those fancy pants make it look like you really know what you're up to, at least sartorially speaking.
Hi Veronica,
DeleteCasting technique is a number of different things, including the angle at which you swing the rod, the timing of the rod swings, and the how you release the line. What we were mostly practicing was our timings, but we were also practicing a roll cast which is where you flick the end of the rod to move the fly slightly in whichever direction you want which is helpful if you are fishing somewhere where there are a lot of bushes on the banks making it hard to do a full casting motion. We all have enough fishing experience to know what we are supposed to be doing, we just aren't very good at it.
We miss you in theater tech! Maybe we can build you a cabinet to 'pose' your biggest catch in - a little taxidermy in the project?? I will be very interested to see some close ups of any flies you tie. Make sure to take lots of pictures!
ReplyDelete