Favorite Fishing Spots

In the late 80's my father and I took a guided fishing trip to northern Australia to fish the billabongs of Arnhem Land within the Kakadu National Park. The area that we fished (just east of the South Alligator River, and west of the East Alligator) had recently been acquired by the Park and was untouched and generally unexplored in a modern capacity: the maps were poor, the campsite just a clearing, and the travel was over road, then track, then make your way through the brush in the most expeditious way possible. Our Aboriginal guides picked up us in the morning, brought us to the billabongs to fish for Barramundi until lunch, prepared lunch, left us to fish again until sunset and returned us to camp. The camp was a joint hunting and fishing camp so our dinners were are remarkable combination of buffalo, snake, kangaroo, flying foxes, turtles, barramundi, and alligator. Other fantastic fishing adventures include muskie fishing on Lake Nokomis in the City of Minneapolis, tying into a school of cohiba in Tampa Bay for 3 hours, and (illicitly) catching a 9lbs largemouth bass on a private pond in a gated subdivision in northern Delaware. That Delaware bass was only one pound off the state record mark, even though I could never legitimately claim the catch.

I'm a terrible fly fisherman but enjoy it a lot, so my favorites tend to be more about the experience rather than the fish. And since I grew up near some of the greatest trout fishing rivers in the world, it's also about the trout. Brook, rainbow, cutthroat, and big browns which I prefer to bait fish for (I know, sacrilege!) but it's because I'm so awful with the fly. Anyway, at heart I'm a cold water fisherman. My absolute favorite locality is Yellowstone Park. It's the kind of place that to really fish it, and fish it well, you'd have to live nearby or in for a few years just to get a basic foundation. For the most part, I adore the rivers over the lakes, particularly the Firehole and Madison Rivers: Firehole right when the park opens, and both in fall. Nothing like early morning on the Firehole in September and October. Don't fish the Madison your first time there unless you're a pretty strong fly fisherman- it's not an easy river though its ease of access is tempting. There's some big fish in there which require some pretty technical ability, particularly if you fish it in fall when the browns are migrating. YNP is mostly catch and release unless you get an invasive like lake trout. I'm an ok midge fly fisherman (everyone likes midges!) so I go after the midge hatches because they tend to last all summer - but here is what's cool about YNP: as the snow melts rivers open up in a kind of order, so you can work you way up into the high country and back down again following the hatches. Beside trout you can catch whitefish and grayling. Grebe Lake is really fun if you just want to catch Arctic grayling. Upper Yellowstone fishing is not for the faint of heart - it's one of the least accessible rivers in the park, and in reality, you're not going to have a different fishing experience than most other places. But oh the scenery! The remoteness! The feeling that you're seeing the park totally untouched by people - it's amazing for that alone. I wouldn't recommend it until you've had some experience in YNP backpacking in the wilderness, though. Heart Lake in Yellowstone for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_cutthroat_trout Yellowstone Cutthroat are my favorite fish and it's always a delight to have one on the line, and Heart Lake is the place to get the bigger beauties. It's over an eight mile hike in, so you have to be serious about it; reserve a campsite in advance. You also have to keep one eye for your fly and one eye for bears. There's a lot of a romantic photos of fisherman on the some of the big valley rivers, but I dislike some of them solely because bison are more dangerous than bears, and there's a lot of bison in a valley. A few notes about Yellowstone: you need a special permit; each watercourse has its own regulations; people who die in YNP tend to do so by drowning; there's a lot of rules about tackle - no leaded tackle; and as a special plea from someone who grew up in the greater Yellowstone area, leave willows alone. Willows are just beginning to come back in some localities, and I've watched some careless fishermen just thrash through them on their way to somewhere. It's not a regulation or anything, but it's got a big back story that's related to wolf introduction I won't go into here - anyway, it's been a struggle. Other places: I grew up around the Bighorn River, and have a number of spots there, along with the rivers and streams that flow into it. It's called the Wind further south, and I have spots on the Wind, too, which tend to be near railroad tracks. There's also a few secret spots I have on small creeks that run from the Absaroka, Bighorn, and Wind River Mtns, and the Black Hills with (IMHO) some of the best fishing I've seen, and you wouldn't think it looking at these dinky little streams there in the plains and foothills. Some of my favorite fly fishing trips have been backpacking trips to small backcountry lakes all over the Rockies with grilled trout for dinner and grilled trout for breakfast. Nothing like a mess of brookies in the skillet! Lakes in the Gore Range in Colorado, the Winds in WY, and the Kootenai, Flathead, and Gallatin Forests up in Montana are favorites for this, although some places I catch and release because of bears. I'll be honest - some of my favorite fishing spots have been fishing for catfish on turbid little streams all over the midwest, where the main point is to sit on the bank all day with good friends and a 12 pack. You suspect you've been catching the same fish all day but that isn't the point. Canoe trip fishing on the Niobrara and Loup Rivers, too. Beautiful country, great canoeing, amazing variety of fishing. I love the Niobrara - there's game fish for every kind of fisherman from bluegill to catfish to trout. You can find trout where the cold water tributaries come into the river. I got to go fishing on a true chalk stream in England, and it was amazing, but a little different because we visually scouted out and stalked our fish of choice before trying to land it. Not sure if that's the norm or not. I've got a smile all my face thinking about all these great fishing spots, thanks!

My dad and I go up to the Niagara River, just down from the falls, for salmon and steel head trout. It's a 3 hour drive so we leave at 2 am to be there at the crack of dawn. When we arrive in the town we head to a diner and chat with the guides and other folks. The place is packed at 5 am. We hire a guide because it's not an easy river to boat in and it's a ton of work to keep going back up stream and avoid turbulent areas. We finish around 3 pm and catch a bit at a tavern--of course we get wings--and are home by 8. It's a long ass day but so worth it!

I fish often on Raquette Lake in the Adirondacks (NY). Won't tell you exactly where on the lake, but almost anywhere is pretty good fishing. Not much to do in Raquette Lake. There is a General Store and a bar. The bar is open 365.

Lac des Trente et un Milles (31 Mile Lake) and Lac Pemichangan near Gracefield, Quebec. We go there every summer. It's really the only place I've ever fished, aside from catching sunfish in my local lake when I was a kid. Crystal clear waters and plenty of bass. The traditional thing to do is get some bacon from the local butcher (yes, butcher, not grocery store), cook it up for an app, and then fry the bass in the bacon grease. You can find an island or campsite right on the lake (it's a huge lake) and cook it up over a fire.

Oh shoot, when I said you had to live near YNP to get a foundation, I meant more that it's rich and wondrous, not that only people who live there know it well - I hope I didn't come across as one of those snotty fishing jerks who I kind of despise, sorry.

Awesome! That sounds like a really great trip. I've gone up to Pulaski a few times on the Salmon River, The days are long, but can sure be rewarding ha.

Wow that's an extensive list there! I've been getting more and more into kayaks lately. I used to be a boat guy, but lately have found the versatility of the kayak very fun and easy. I've been eyeing one up at Dick's Sporting Goods made by Old Town. Has rod holders, tackle area, storage bins and of course, that all important drink holder....ha! I live in the northeast and would love to travel down to Florida to check it out, my cousin was down in Texas and Mexico and said the same thing, there are always fish! Believe it or not, I have never been to Erie, although it is close to me. I'd imagine the cold keeps a lot of people away making it a lot easier to go and do what you want eh?

Oh man. I'll post once more and then go to MeMail to make sure other folks don't get pushed away from replying. You should join us over at reddit.com/r/kayakfishing for a whole kayak community. I have a regular boat too, but the kayak is so much easier to deal with we almost never take it out. The Old Town is nice and a top contender in its price range, but there are a lot of others I'll consider again when I go to buy again. I totally forgot the trip we did this summer, possibly the most fun trip I've ever done ever. We went over by DC to Mattawoman State Park with our kayaks. The Mattawoman there has the second most biologically diverse population of any stream in the entire US. SO MANY COOL CRITTERS. It's also chock full of invasives. We went for snakeheads (and caught them, and had our minds blown), but we caught dozens of 2+lb largemouth across the couple days we were there. 40+ lb grass carp, massive snakeheads blowing up topwater, 40+ inch gar, invasive bluecats 30+lbs, and MOST of it in water under 5' deep. Cheap stay, although next time we'll spring for one of the tiny cabins so we can dry our clothes with the air conditioners and have a place to get out of the rain. I ABSOLUTELY cannot recommend this trip enough. Snakeheads are an amazing fish to target, and accidentally catching largemouth all day on artificials doesn't suck either, while paddling near Ospreys and Eagles and herons....so flippin badass.