Last year, high gas prices dominated the “I usually go fly fishing this weekend, but now I’m staying home” discussions on the Trout Underground.
This year, we’re facing a cratering economy, yet the Underground’s hearing words like “epic” and “slabs” used in relation to the McCloud and Pit Rivers right now. And while those poor schlubs near Yellowstone are seeing off-the-chart flows, other parts of the country seem to be looking pretty good.
So who’s going fishing?
And because the Trout Underground has decided to become the National Blogospheric Leader in Scientifically Laughable Surveys and Sociological Analysis, we’re crafting a simple, two-part test for our lab rat readership the Undergrounders:
- Part A: Are you staying home this Memorial Day Weekend, or taking a trip?
- Part B: Is the economy affecting your Memorial Day plans?
As always, the Undergrounders are expected to ace the multiple choice (the poll) while still excelling in the essay section (the reader comments section).
What’s the gig, Undergrounders. Do you stay or do you go?
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
Friday I’ll be shad fishing with a certain someone who would only agree to join me if I promised him there was absolutely no possibility of snow.
Sunday I’m fishing with Craig Nielsen, location yet to be determined.
Am I excited? You bet. I’m expecting something epic. And slabs. Lots and lots of slabs. SMJ(Quote)
Excellent essay response. Not only do you work in a jab at Singlebarbed, but you also manage to subtly taunt me with a local reference. A+ Tom Chandler(Quote)
I’m staying home because the two rivers that are experiencing fantastic sulphur and caddis hatches are 10 and 20 minutes from the cave…….I don’t dare call it the man cave, lest I procure some bad karma with the woman side of the cave and then find myself begging for an evening on the water.
Normally, we trek up the Delaware system (2 1/2 hours drive), but the powers that be have been royally mucking up the flows from the dams and hatches this year have been unreliable. Matt G(Quote)
Now that our rivers are starting to come down from the nearly 8 inches of rain we’ve gotten in northwest Arkansas in May, we’re going to float a great little Smallmouth Bass creek that’s still high enough to make for easy/fun floating but is clearing up enough that the bass (hungry after weeks of high, muddy flows) can see my flies and, therefore, eat them. Steven Jarvis(Quote)
The bugs are out, the water is warming, the weather is not too bad (in my neck of the woods), and most importantly the fish are looking up. I’ll be fishing this weekend, but it will be local. Day trips to a couple of waters nearby. Is the plan effected by the economy? Not really, though I don’t really have the scratch to spend on a trip right now, anyway. The real reason is good water is close and that allows for some quality time with the family too. And saving a few bucks doesn’t hurt. Tight lines to all. The River Yeti(Quote)
The economy sucks, and so does my job….I have to work on Memorial Day (all you who go to the movies that day….think of me).
I might end up fishing Friday and Saturday, about 6 miles from home.
(man…my essay sucks….surely gunna fale da test) Oatka(Quote)
Ok, I usually am the one to be extremely jealous reading posts about where people get to fish (mostly because all the rivers here are blown out, even the Pan), but now its my turn to make everyone else jealous. I’m with the economy be damned group since I am headed to Roatan, Honduras to bonefish for a week!!! Have a blast in the states suckers. http://www.mangocreeklodge.com/ Kara(Quote)
I’ll be defiling that hidden brown trout stream you depicted earlier, I’m bringing a load of laundry and detergent with a half life akin to Uranium. No worries, it should be clear again in about a week. KBarton10(Quote)
Sadly, not going. I gave the Poudre River a try yesterday – just too much water barreling down right now, and the Canyon is teeming with rafts and tubes. Can’t imagine the crowds that will be up there this weekend. Looks like I’ll have to be patient for a month or so. John(Quote)
I’ll open the store on Sat so I’ll be working one day. We have a very low tide Sun so I’ll be out with the posse digging up a mess of geoducks and eating well that evening (sliced thin and marinated in citrus like ceviche). Mon will be my day of rest. Scott(Quote)
no fishing for me this weekend. I will be hunkered down in mommy-mode with Little Chick, bumming around the TX hill country and playing with her friends at the pool.
But don’t cry for me argentina because I am headed to Montana one week from today!!! Fly Fish Chick(Quote)
I going to go hide in and around the Black River looking for smallmouth. As far as I know, the economy doesn’t know how to get there so I should be safe. Fat Guy Alex(Quote)
Gee, I hope you make time to remember it is Memorial Day Weekend. And there is still time to mow the lawn and play with the kids, fish, or wish you were..
Enjoy the USA cbchandler, cb(Quote)
Cool, so far it looks like people are going places despite the economy. Good on ya. Tom Chandler(Quote)
Stayin home…got to rest up for a week long trip north…McCloud and Rogue, promised Dave Roberts a work out on the sticks so I’m spending the weekend packing on some more weight …homemade Macroni salad,BBQ ribs and fresh lemon pie should put a little more strain on his arms and back for awhile.
Although I probably will sneak up to the American and slam a couple of shad.
Monty samistopdog(Quote)
Since every river in TN is blown out, we’re trekking east to the salt in search of reds. Hello, flood tides! Rottn Cottn(Quote)
haha- I am the campground. I’ll probably stay off the water for the weekend though- there’s plenty of huge trout left for the weekdays.
Funny thing- we’ve noticed that during hard times it seems like the volume of campers increases…seems to agree with the poll results. I guess people just want to get out! Ed Palma(Quote)
I’m sure the fishin will be great up around Dunsmuir, but i’m not dealing with all the traffic. Instead i’ll be off to Kona Hawaii for a few days of sushi & sex with the little lady.See ya on the river some other weekend. Loren(Quote)
I’m staying home and BBQin, finally some time for the grill!
Thou since I am in orlando, skipping out to hit Mosquito Lagoon and catch a few reds sounds nice too!
-Mus Muslickz(Quote)
So I’ve just returned from my trip to my special Brown trout stream. Only problem was there were no Browns, and only one rainbow. A nutrient rich stream, but no bugs, no hatches; finally found some Caddis nymphs ( I think they were Caddis; they were strongly cased). I’ve never seen little short orange ones before. None looked ready to come out. Found something that resembled a combination of the orange pupa and a soft hackle, and that did the trick. Of course, it’s not dry fly fishing, and therefore doesn’t count. Kentucky Jim(Quote)
I have been warned!…If I so much as even glance at my pontoon boat I will have my summertime honey do list increased two fold, and that would mean no fishing for BULLS on the Elk in BC and no trip to the Bitterroot in September. Thom Schwabauer(Quote)
Tom, I voted that I’m staying home because of the economy. Like an idiot I chose to be a musician so I got a couple gigs over the weekend and because my economy sucks, I need the money! Why didn’t I think of being a clever writer dude who lives where the fishes do? Go ahead, give me my D-, I deserve it. See you on the bandstand. Alastair Ingram(Quote)
Tom,
I’m staying home because the 3-day weekend will let me get my house into the final condition to put on the market (been working on this since February). Yes, I’m a purple moron (maroon), for selling now, but I don’t want all my fishing equipment going out with a forclosure sale.
However, the reason why I can give up a 3-day fishing weekend is: starting next Saturday I have the summer off (science teacher), and will be spending 10 weeks in my trailer (33 foot with 11 x 22 addition, deck, storage shed, air conditioner, large fridge and freezer) at Pine Cove Marina, fishing Lewiston Lake all summer (midges and more midges), and maybe shooting up to the Upper Sac for some real trout fishing.
Crud – got to go to class lol. Good luck all Shane Feusier(Quote)
Supposedly, I too will be fishing for shad with a certain someone, except on Sunday.
Having never done this before, I just don’t understand the gear list I was supplied:
Rescue rope.
Walking stick.
Life jacket with strobe light and GPS Personal Locator Beacon.
Food and drink for “him.”
I just never know if I am getting a fishing lesson or just there for blog fodder.
Should I be worried? A. Wannabe Travelwriter(Quote)
I’m fishing, albeit locally. Unless the Lakers are on. You see, I’m a fan. The round ball beats the rainbow. Flykuni(Quote)
I sincerely hope that everyone has a great weekend, but let’s not all forget the real meaning of this holiday. Rememberance of our fallen soldiers. I’m planning on viviting a cemetery and placing flowers come Sun. Monday, however, will find me up in the Sierras working the East Carson! Good luck to you all! Guido(Quote)
…Hmmnpf!
My economy has been in a whirlpool drain ever since I blew out the two discs in my back, because the crummy local municipal government entity that I am employed by will not allow my return to the workforce, even though they have federal government flyers that hang smugly on the walls of the building in which I worked, that says they aren’t allowed to do what they’ve done to me.
I’m dragging the little boat to my daughter’s house tomorrow, (about 35 miles from here), which will cut down on the fuel usage over the holiday weekend. (It’s about 8 miles from her house to Willow Slough, aka JC Murphy Lake, Morocco, In.)
I’ll be trying out a new floating spider, fishing for gills and crappie with the flyrod, and I’ll probably put out a trot line for catfish too, and in between I’ll also be utilizing my old 10″ rubber worm stand-by for bass while I’m there.
I’ve got the ultimate package, I’ll be all by myself, (except for everybody else that’s out looking to be all by themselves), I’ll be there just for fishing, (eating samples of every cookout I can mingle into), and I’ve already forged the perfect signature of my wife, for the note that gives me her official okey-dokey to go fishin’. themaninthemoon(Quote)
I came back Saturday night, as most of Utah was underwater this weekend…We arived at the tailwater creek I had planned on fishing well afterdark in the wet. We rank Buffalo Trace Bourbon and joked until after midnight. I Woke up with my tent floating, and found the creek fast and muddy. Waited out the day running our boy into a town on the rez for chili dogs ( sorry, eastern Utah hasn’t any clue of Slaw Dogs… actually- they wouldn’t even sell us a “jumbo” with chili on it- seems that they’d have to do MATH to get the chili figured in- a nonstarter…) . by the time we arrived back in camp the road was getting almost “too muddy”.. and we gathered some wood and napped, until it became apparent that if we were going to get out of the canyon on the clay road before next week we were going to have to leave…On the way home we tried our traps for crawfish in Strawberry reservoir….We were skunked on the crawfish too, which I’ve never experienced before. (too cold?…Ice off was only within the last 2 weeks…) I’ve never seen our SubaruOutback/Teardrop Trailer rig as muddy- spent 5 bucks on tokens for the car wash on Sunday morning…and made sure the attendant wasn’t looking before pulling in… Fishing isn’t everything- I still had a good time.. Brett from Utah(Quote)
Wow, what a weird weekend. I didn’t leave out until Saturday afternoon. Put up the tent @ my daughter’s place, and the temp was kicking my (fat) butt, had to take a break when I got through about an hour & a 1/2 later. (Don’t ask, cause I did everything bass ackwards.) Her small country neighborhood was like a ghost town, really, nobody home anywhere, and they had went to the son-in-law’s folks farm about three hours south of there, and didn’t come home till late last night.
I got to Willow Slough about 5pm, and wasn’t on the water 30 minutes when a 20″ bass hit my fake rubber worm. Put up a good fight for about 5 minutes, then came right to the boat. A hundred yards the other side of the deep hole were two guys catching bluegill on a fly, and they were complaining about a Northern stealing their catch before they could reel them in. This is the same location that I caught a 38″ Northern in last year, while fishing for bass with a real rubber worm. It was about a quarter to nine when it seemed like every type of fish in the lake just up & quit hitting, very unusual. Everybody was also coming in at the same time, and a sign near the boat ramp/camping directional sign said that the campground was full, and that all camping spots were paid for the whole weekend. Took me an hour just to get my turn @ the ramp to drag the boat out. Sunday morning I got up grumpy because the temp had dropped to about 52 degrees during the night, and I had left the coffee pot sitting on the table, with the coffee grounds, creamer and sugar right there with it. Fishing there Sunday afternoon was a blowout, the cool weather had also ushered in the wind at a steady 15-20 mph, with gusts up to about 35. At least 10 different people that I talked to said nothing was hitting, and several others just sat on the shore, hoping that the wind would die down eventually. I spent three crummy hours fighting the wind for control before I gave it up and just came on in.
There were still plenty of weekend revelers partying in the campground, but I didn’t stick around to look for those I knew were there.
Another cold, restless night in the tent, though it seemed that the night before had been colder, the wind had died down around 2am Monday morning. I smiled as I got about 4-5 miles from there because it started raining and I was glad to have gotten everything packed up & put away by 8 am this morning.
All in all, it was a (just barely), good weekend, not great, but not all bad either.
Hope everyone else got to enjoy at least part of the holiday.
I did say some silent prayers for our troops that are in the service of this great land. I hope you did too. themaninthemoon(Quote)
(Mostly) survived shad trip with Singlebarbed.
http://sanddollaradventures.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/my-wet-crotch-wasnt-my-only-complaint/#comment-891 A. Wannabe Travelwriter(Quote)
Any trip with Singlebarbed you walk away from is a success. Tom Chandler(Quote)