Epic Road Trip, July 2017 photos

[Natural Lefty]

These are photos of some of the many fish that we caught on our recent trip. We fished in Alabama, Colorado and Utah.

1. Zunliang with a small Freshwater Drum at Ditto Landing in Alabama (a first for us)

2. Zunliang with a small White Bass at Ditto Landing in Alabama (another first for us)

3. Channel Catfish at Madison County Public Fishing Lake in Alabama

4. Zunliang with a Bluegill at Madison County Public Fishing Lake in Alabama

5. Me with the 12 inch Grayling that I caught at Joe Wright Reservoir in Colorado. I also caught a smaller one. These were my first two Arctic Grayling.

6. Catch of the day Brookies from Sprague Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park

7. A Walleye that I caught at Loveland Lake in Colorado. I caught another one later, around dusk.

8. A large Yellow Perch that I caught the same afternoon at Loveland Lake.

9. Zunliang with her first Walleye, at Starvation Reservoir in Utah. She caught a larger one later.

[CHUCKY]

Awesome report. Love the pic of the fish on ice. Utah is bad *****

[TUNAVIC]

Very nice,looks like good times and good memories!

Cya Tuna Vic

[sodapop]

Love the report, my family and I
took are first trip to Eastern Sierra
great trip but thought nobody would be
interested in are fishing adventures.
To leave a report on here.

[Natural Lefty]

Thank you, Chucky, Tunavic and Sodapop. Of course, there was a lot of driving and sightseeing too, in addition to our low budget fishing, and it all worked out really well. Utah and Colorado are both great places to fish. Fish aren't hard to catch in Alabama, either.

I used to write long reports, but then circumstances made it difficult for me to fish much for a few years, and this time, I decided to do it with pictures. :)

[teejay]

That's quite the variety of fish!

[Natural Lefty]

That's quite the variety of fish!

That's what happens when you drive to Alabama and back on a fishing trip. LOL

[Fishtee]

that looks fun. nice photos

[Natural Lefty]

, Zunliang wants to go to Florida this winter for a vacation. At least it's not hurricane season. LOL

[etucker1959]

, Zunliang wants to go to Florida this winter for a vacation. At least it's not hurricane season. LOL

It's an interesting vacation. If you go up to Orlando it's very similar to Orange County CA. lol The keys are very nice and the fishing around Key Largo in the tidal flats is definitely worth doing!!! (Key Largo is the first Key and Key West is the last Key) I told my buddy we couldn't go to Key West. It would be too much of a temptation to take one of the descendants of Ernest Hemingway 6 toed cat's home. lol We did fish out of the landing that is at the end of the Everglades National refuge. We caught a huge variety of fish, Red fish, Snook, you might even get a Tarpon, Sharks and plenty of Sea Trout (aka Brown trout that lives in sea water) and Sail Catfish. A Channel Catfish that evolved into a Salt Water Catfish with a huge Dorsal fin that looks like a Sail! Me and my Buddy Alan C&R over 120 fish on a 3/4 day trip with a guide. The Mosquito's are thick on land but when you get over the Ocean their not there.

You might be a little old for South Beach but it's Spring Break there year round!! I did have the best meal of my life there, a fresh lobster tail with all the trimmings!!! Yum Yum!!!

[Natural Lefty]

If we go to Florida, I plan to take an airplane and rent a car. We will definitely go fishing but I don't know where or for what. The fishing that you described sounds excellent, Eric. We might go freshwater too. We don't really have heavy equipment for larger saltwater fish, especially that we could put on an airplane. By the way, "Sea Trout" are really a type of croaker. They are nothing like real trout and the water is much too warm for trout in Florida.

Zunliang also has mentioned wanting to go fishing in Alaska, and I sure hope that we will. Another, closer to home idea that I have is going on a field trip fishing places that have or might have Sacramento Perch, a primitive sunfish which is a very unique and tasty California native of the central valley whose status is rather insecure, except for having fortunately been put in certain high elevation waters such as Crowley. And that would entail lots of trout fishing too. (The Sacramento Perch fairies apparently have been busy stocking them in other waters, or they have made their way on their own, plus some places were stocked with them by fisheries biologists long ago, so they may be present in more waters than the large majority of us realize.) And of course, we would like to do more Golden Trout fishing, another unique California native that Zunliang mentions. (I took her to a nice, easily accessed place that has lots of them a few years ago and we caught some, which remembers vividly.)

[etucker1959]

If we go to Florida, I plan to take an airplane and rent a car. We will definitely go fishing but I don't know where or for what. The fishing that you described sounds excellent, Eric. We might go freshwater too. We don't really have heavy equipment for larger saltwater fish, especially that we could put on an airplane. By the way, "Sea Trout" are really a type of croaker. They are nothing like real trout and the water is much too warm for trout in Florida.

Zunliang also has mentioned wanting to go fishing in Alaska, and I sure hope that we will. Another, closer to home idea that I have is going on a field trip fishing places that have or might have Sacramento Perch, a primitive sunfish which is a very unique and tasty California native of the central valley whose status is rather insecure, except for having fortunately been put in certain high elevation waters such as Crowley. And that would entail lots of trout fishing too. (The Sacramento Perch fairies apparently have been busy stocking them in other waters, or they have made their way on their own, plus some places were stocked with them by fisheries biologists long ago, so they may be present in more waters than the large majority of us realize.) And of course, we would like to do more Golden Trout fishing, another unique California native that Zunliang mentions. (I took her to a nice, easily accessed place that has lots of them a few years ago and we caught some, which remembers vividly.)

My bucket list for fishing has gotten pretty small now a day's. For catching an eating a little closer to home you have Salmon fishing in either Monterrey CA or San Francisco which still can be excellent. (San Francisco had a banner year this past season) The Steelhead fishing in Southern Oregon on the Chetco river is very teacher friendly. The Christmas Holiday was always a good time to give them a go. For C&R only the Mexican Largemouth Bass fishing is out of this World!! My very Good friend at Bob's fishing tackle host several trips a year to Lake Obregon and the numbers and quality can't be beat. That's one that I want to do very soon. I'm biased against Alaska, it not the same as it was 20 years ago. The Salmon fishing is the same but the other species which were my favorite are now so regulated it doesn't seem worth it to me any more to go.

[steelhead]

That is quite a trip Lefty, how many days did your trip take and did you camp along the way or stayed in hotels? Also it looks like you kept your fish. Did you eat it along the way or did you pack it home?

[Natural Lefty]

Zunliang and I are not picky, Eric. If we can catch fish in Alaska, we should be happy. LOL By the way, the future trips that I listed are more like plans than a bucket list, Eric. LOL

We stayed in relatively inexpensive motels and avoided eating in restaurants very much, although we did go sometimes, Steelhead. We ate what fish we kept (a lot were released too), plus lots of stuff that we brought with us. The trip was from July 10 to July 31, as requested by Zunliang. Her goddaughter came from Taiwan with her two children shortly after we returned and stayed for a couple of weeks here.

[steelhead]

Now that's a trip! I was thinking it would take a good three weeks to give yourself time to see the country and if you wanted to stop and fish along the way. I'm going to have to plan a cross country myself in the near future. I had actually mapped a route to cross to Florida by way of southwest, texas, LA and into Florida and planned for a good two weeks but it would have been rushed as the plan was to drive 3 days straight back home on the return trip. Good stuff.

[Natural Lefty]

Yes, I think you need at least around 3 weeks, Steelhead, plus good planning, and some flexibility for a cross country and back trip.