Most Memorable Fishing Photo of 2020

[flyrod]

For many of us 2020 will go down as the hardest year of our lives. I thought it would be nice to post a few pictures of our most memorable 2020 fishing photo.

Because of not being able to travel to trout fish this year, mine is a photo of me reconnecting with pond fishing for bluegill.

[chsparkman]

Travel was a pain, but I got to go to Alaska back in August to fish for coho. Trip of a lifetime.

[kevinhaney1]

Since I just recently got into the fly fishing game, the below picture is from this summer and is my first trout on the bamboo rod. They say you'll always remember your first...



P.S. How do you post a full size picture and not a thumbnail?

[Brooks]

This year the camping, getting out of quarantine, meant as much to me as any fish I caught.
A nice camp with my wife, near The Ranch, Henry’s Fork.

[mcflyfish]

My son and I made it to Chile in Feb before things got bad...really am at a loss for words to describe it. Been flyfishing for nearly 50 years and nothing comes close. These fish were taking dry beetles in crystal clear water...could see them coming from 'a mile' away...just had to let them take it. I am embarrassed to say how many we got that day! Best part was to be there with my son!

[para_adams]

First outing with my recently acquired EW Edwards DeLuxe 8-1/2' 5 weight. Nifty rod for a summer day on the St Joe.

[Brian Shaffer]

Looking good Stan...

[DaveNJ]

My first great wild Catskill brown on a dry fly on a relatively unknown part of a major river.... Stunning fish just under 20"s, caught beneath an eagle's nest. My childhood best fishing friend snapped it. It would be the last time we would ever fish together as his drug addiction make him untrustworthy at best and fairly dangerous at worst. While playing the fish he said some pretty horrible things to me out of jealousy. It was a very difficult moment and it's memory remains for mixed reasons. I honestly may have thrown it out. If it still exists it's in a box in my parents' attic.

I'll never forget it.

[carl otto]

[PYochim]

COVID didn’t change much of what I did because I am already a reclusive reprobate.

Little Goose Creek, last fish of a very good season. This guy was taken on November 25 on a Griffith’s Gnat, size 14.

[DaveNJ]

COVID didn’t change much of what I did because I am already a reclusive reprobate.

Little Goose Creek, last fish of a very good season. This guy was taken on November 25 on a Griffith’s Gnat, size 14.

Love Chris Barclay's rods. Very nice pic.

[snorider]

Taken on the 4th of July in a creek I visit only once or twice a year. This fish was in a deep pocket, in a shallow 6-8' wide creek and he made me work to keep him out of the driftwood, best fight of the year, even hit the air a couple times. 7'3" Winston penta prototype 4wt and a 3 1/8" perfect.

[PYochim]

DaveNJ, thanks. The rod is a 7'9" five weight three piece. It is one of his earlier fiberglass models. The reel is a 2 7/8" Winston Perfect. Line is a Rio DT4. It is a delightful combination to fish.

[Caneghost]

It was a memorable year in many ways, both good and bad. My favorite photo was taken when my best friend took a very nice rainbow when he finally was able to come up and fish for a couple of days at the end of summer. We fished apart out of necessity, and conditions were tough. He was working over a trout without a mouth it seemed while I landed a lovely 19" brown on a little size 22 Flick style BWO. I walked up to him after my release, cut my fly off and handed it to him at arm's length. He tied it on and well... Now if I could just get him to fish his bamboo rod!

[CDCdun]

My sons first steelhead. Swung fly. Great day.




My first permit. A bucket list fish for me. The first of three landed and hopefully more to come.

[GerardH]

In this most unusual of years, I had a rather incredible trout season as chronicled in earlier threads within this forum. A last look at one of my boyhood brook trout streams the closing weekend of season in October taken in the gloaming (I was shooting with a fast lens) that I hope will find me fishing its pocket water this spring with a new PHY Midge clone.

[headwaters]

A beautiful shot! Thanks for sharing.

[Short Tip]

It was a hard year, but a great one for fishing. My fishing friends and I mostly chased native brook trout, so we don't fish "together", but we try to eat lunch together. Socially distanced of course. When winter approaches, the lunches become more elaborate as the fishing slows a little. Here's one from December. That's Rupert (Headwaters) on the right. Menu was Polish Hunter's stew and hot biscuits. These gatherings helped to keep us sane.

[McHull]

One of my favorites from 2020. Not only because the photo is kinda came out alright, but more because it’s a pic of my Dad fishing the Yellow Breaches. After the pandemic calmed down in our in area, SCPA, my Dad and I and sometimes my nephew made it a ritual to meet up weekly, usually on Thursday evenings to fish.

We would meet at the “Run” parking lot and cook up a shore dinner and share a few beers. Sometimes before we fished, sometimes after, depending on what hatches were coming off.

This continued throughout the summer and into the very early Fall, until the pandemic started heating up again and we decided to retreat back to our bubbles.

I’m so looking forward reviving our ritual, hopefully one day soon.

[Flykuni3]

From two weeks ago, shot of my fishin' pal Marcelo working a stretch of the Lower Owens river in the Eastern Sierra region of California. Absolutely perfect winter weather, no wind!, but the expected BWO hatch never came off...for three days. We were puzzled. We caught fish, but it coulda been far, far better.

This will be my favorite shot because we've reconnected after a 24 year break in our friendship, circumstances of which had to do with a theatre dispute so personal we were out of touch for over two decades. We are, thank god, friends again. This may have been the best thing in this past, completely sucky year.

For you who don't know the region, behind Marcelo are the White Mountains, where the bristlecone pines live, oldest living things on earth. Beyond that is famous Death Valley (we are in the Owens, a parallel valley, created in the "stretching" of the West going back in geological time; and nearby was the huge Long Valley supervolcanic explosion, second only to YNP. It's fairly quiet, thanks god2). Behind me would be the mighty Sierra range. Oddly enough, we are fishing on LA City property over 200 miles from the city limits, the land and water rights bought up long ago when the City looked north for water (the movie Chinatown is a great movie, but a poor representation of what actually happened.)

This river has a year-around season, and we'll go again sometime soon. With covid, we went carefully: Marce did all cooking in our motel room, he loves it, and we didn't interact with anyone, staying by ourselves and fishing in the great outdoors.