Fly fishing "life list"

[Caribe]

I caught my first chinnok salmon and hooked my first steelhead on my fly rod last week. I only started fly fishing 5 years ago so I have alot of catching up to do. Thanks to FAOL, I have learned so much about the sport that I feel confident enough to go after any species. It seems like the more I fly fish, the more I want to catch different species on my fly rod as opposed to "just the biggest". When I only spin fished I didn't seemed too concerned about the species I caught. Some of my nature loving friends are bird watchers and they keep a "life list" of the different species of birds they have seen. I am considering doing this with the fish I catch on the fly rod. Does anybody out there keep a "on the fly" Life List?

caribe

[Flyandtie1]

X

[Flyandtie1]

Most do, I think.

Mine contains:

Rainbow trout
Brown trout
Brook trout
Large mouth Bass
Black bass
Carp
Bluegill(Also Includes pumpkinseeds, redears)
Catfish

[peregrines]

Yup, I do too. Here's a partial list:

Sugar maple
Fruit bat
White Birch
Silver Birch
Cormorant
Horseshoe crab shell
Plastic bag
Beaver dam
Oak leaf
Bridge piling
Blue flannel shirt from LL Bean with occupant
Coil of monofilament with rusted hook
Brown stick
Green bush
Red channel marker

peregrines

[tailingloop]

I keep a list.

72 species of fish at least on the fly so far. 42 of those in California of which 32 were caught in Southern California Waters south of Los Angeles. The majority of the California caught fish were saltwater species but include 12 freshwater and 2 anadromous species. I only counted the various varieties of rainbow and cutthroat trout that I have caught as 1 species each . 26 species were caught on one three week trip to Australia. 4 species on one trip to Canada.

I think the most species I have ever caught in one day was 7 - on San Diego bay

There are at least another dozen species that I could expect to catch in southern California that I have not caught so far including bluefin tuna, dorado, white sea bass, carp, smallmouth bass, redear sunfish and others

There has also been fair hooked mollusks (squid, clams) , crabs, and crayfish.


I have been flyfishing for 15 years.


The number of species I have caught is just a reflection of where I have fished and not the result of any sort of goal. I started tracking just to show people how diverse our California fisheries are. I don't consider this race. I have seen some pretty cool fish though.

If all I ever caught was bluegill, I'd still be happy.

[Flyandtie1]

If all I ever caught was bluegill, I'd still be happy.

Very nicely posted.

Yup, I do too. Here's a partial list:

Sugar maple
Fruit bat
White Birch
Silver Birch
Cormorant
Horseshoe crab shell
Plastic bag
Beaver dam
Oak leaf
Bridge piling
Blue flannel shirt from LL Bean with occupant
Coil of monofilament with rusted hook
Brown stick
Green bush
Red channel marker

peregrines

LMAO

[Caribe]

peregrines,
I love your list. You need to send me the patterns for the flies that can catch such a diverse list. I have found grasshopper and ant patterns very effective on oak leaves.
caribe
PS Tailingloop... You have an amazing list. Having access to saltwater is can really add the variety, but, I love your blue gill comment.

[peregrines]

Caribe,

Try to keep it under your hat, but in saltwater I?ve had pretty good luck with sparse Lefty?s Deceivers on large whistle buoys at the mouth of inlets, regardless of tide. Size 2/0 blue over white, with a little pearlescent crystal flash in the tail seems to be the ticket.

Your thread got me thinking, and on reflection it?s the fish I haven?t caught yet that stand out?. Golden Trout, Coho, Smallmouth and Muskies in particular. And though I?ve caught ?bows and winter steel, I?d love to land a McCloud rainbow or a Skamania (summer) steelhead on a dry fly. Some exotics like Mongolian Taimen or huge Nile Perch in Africa that I?ll never get to, also fire up the imagination

Tailingloop, great list, and you?re right about those bluegills.

peregrines

[Joe Valencic]

Hmmmmm...it appears I'm the only who has caught "self" with the fly rod, and I've done it on more than once. Does that species count?

Joe

[Kaboom1]

I started my list last year at the Michigan Fish-In. First on the list was Luba . Marco has the pictures to back me up.

Brad