The number one question I get asked at shows is 'Did you catch all the fish?'. My answer is usually something along the lines of 'either I caught them or some of them are fish that a friend has caught'. For me, step one in making my original gyotaku fish rubbings is to catch the fish - no store bought fish, no trolling a fishing dock for other anglers catches. The reason I want to print fish I've caught, or fish that friends have caught is so I have some type of connection to the fish. There's a story behind each fish, here are some of them. I hope to add new stories on a regular basis.
Here's my latest (updated September 12, 2009)
Sean with 10 good toes
The Toe. Posted 9/12/2009 Some fishing trips are remembered because of the fish you caught. Some are remembered for other things that happened on the trip. I remember this fishing trip for a little of both. It was August 9, 2008. My friend Sean and I both found ourselves home alone, both our families were on separate vacations. We decided to make a trip to the Poconos for some mid-week, mid-summer trout fishing. We stopped first at the Lehigh River, above White Haven. Since it was mid-August, and the water was fairly warm, we both went in without waders. I had an old pair of hiking boots, Sean braved the slippery rocks and swift current of the Lehigh with just a pair of sandals. Big mistake. About an hour into the trip, after Sean had caught a couple of nice rainbows, he slipped on a rock and jammed his pinky toe. Really jammed it. Really, really jammed it. It doubled in size right away and look really bad. I offered to help Sean back to the car, willing to cut the trip short. Knowing Sean, I knew he wouldn't take me up on the offer. He said something along the lines of 'it will hurt just as much in the car as it will in the river, let's keep fishing'. We slowly fished a few more hours, hobbled back to the car for lunch and discussed our options.
Our plan was to head to a local tributary after lunch for some small stream fishing - hoping to catch some brook trout to go along with the two rainbows we kept for printing (one of Sean's, one of mine). I would have fully understood if Sean wanted to cancel, since the fishing on this creek required a good bit of hiking, but Sean was game. He put on his socks and boots to give his aching toe a bit more support, and off on part two of our trip we went. The creek is a spring fed creek, so even in the middle of the summer, the water was cold. That may have helped Sean's toe a little. The stream isn't normally stocked, but I managed to land a 15 inch brown trout that had no business being in this little creek in the middle of the summer. Perfect for printing.
Rainbow Trout Fish Rubbing from Lehigh River Trout
Brown Trout caught after the toe incident
Nice brook trout caught by Sean
Our ultimate destination was a pool at the top of the creek where this creek joins with another. It usually has some nice brookies in it, plus you can sit to fish it, if for example, you have a broken toe. Sean enjoyed a nice rest and we did quite well at that hole. I kept one of the brook trout I caught and Sean landed a good number of trout, including the one pictured here. After a good rest, we hiked back to car and Sean was able to rest his toe for the two hour ride back. Turns out, his toe was probably broken, but there isn't much you can do for a broken pinky toe. Good trip, good fish, good friend, good memory.
Brook Trout, Caught on the Nescopeck Brook Creek, June 5th, 2009
Brook trout. Posted 7/19/2009 I love brook trout. The brook trout is the state fish of Pennsylvania and is the only native trout to Pennsylvania (actually, it is a char, but....). Anyway, I can't catch brook trout around where I live, at least not reliably. There are no naturally reproducing book trout within an hour of Collegeville, and the fish commission doesn't normally stock them in any county in this area. Occasionally, I'll run across one that maybe got mixed in with a stocking of browns and rainbows, or maybe got stocked by a local club, but catching a brook trout around here is a rare occurance. When I need a brook trout to print, I usually head north to the Poconos, or west, towards Harrisburg, two hours in either direction.
I found myself needing a brook trout this spring, so I could have some brook trout for Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts (great brook trout country, by the way). I had planned to take a day off work in the beginning of June and had settled on Friday, June 5th. The closer that day got, the worse the weather forecast looked. It was supposed to rain Thursday night and then a big front was supposed to move in overnight into Friday. Thursday night, I followed the weather forecasts and checked the stream levels and realized that west towards Harrisburg was out - too much rain, streams were already up. North looked a little better. I got up at 4AM and weather.com said the rain may start in the Poconos by dawn. I decided on the Nescopeck Creek since I had fished it before and caught a number of brook trout, and since it appeared to be right on the edge of the storm.
I left at 4:15AM and drove up the turnpike in a driving rain. By the time I got thru the Lehigh Tunnel, the rain had stopped. I got to the Nescopeck after 6AM just in time for it to start again. I figured an hour of fishing, catch a few brookies, pop them in a zip lock bag, and get out of there before I got too wet. Fishing would have been great, if I was fishing for brown trout - I caught brown after brown. I did manage to land a nice brookie about 1 hour into the trip. I put it a bag in my vest and continued to fish. I figured 1 fish wasn't enough for 4 hours of driving. I did get a second brookie, but it was a native, or at least a wild trout, too small to print, so back in the stream it went. My third brookie was big enough, and would have ended my day, but it escaped as I was trying to put in in a bag. One last brookie was another wild trout, too small. All in all, I landed 10 browns and 4 brooks, along with a sucker and a few chubs. To top it off, aside from the driving rain (my poncho and rain jacket soaked thru after about 2 hours), I stepped into a hole that was about 2 inches deeper than my waders. I fished an hour with soaking wet pants, socks and waders.
After that hour, I started to realize that maybe 1 brook trout was enough, even for 4 hours of driving and 4 hours of fishing. I didn't bring a change of clothes. I did have a dry fleece and my shoes that I wore on the way up, so home I went in wet pants, no socks and a fleece. I got home by noon and printed the brook trout right away. I was happy the way they turned out and was able to bring 6 rubbings to State College.
Eight hour fishing trip, one printable brook trout. Like I said, I love brook trout.
