Laegreid Outdoors

That's right, folks, 2015 marks the year where L.O. travels across the pond to visit EUROPE! The wife and I have left our jobs and are cleaning out our Washington apartments to start a brand new adventure, and we'll be taking you along for the ride. There will be scenic vistas, lots of hiking, new and interesting people, and perhaps even a little fly-fishing if I can figure out the regs. We'll be starting our trip in Iceland, land of hot-springs and volcanoes, where, if the weather permits, we'll try to catch our first glimpse of the Northern Lights. In addition to the Aurora, we'll be checking out Reykjavik and perhaps doing some hikes in the wild and wonderful countryside. Before we get there, however, there is still a lot of moving and packing to be done and some quality time in Wyoming to be had. This may include some ice fishing, painting, and shooting of paper targets. Once we're over in Europe, posts will come in when internet is available, so keep ...

The paintbrush, that is! Since I don't have the pictures ready for the post I had wanted to do this week, instead you all get to see my wee paintings. They are  wee, too, the longest being just under six inches. So, without further ado, here is the cream of the crop from my return to the wide world of watercolor: School of fish Spotty Bow Troot Head Eel (watercolor & pencil) Squad of Squid Chinook (watercolor & pencil) And that's that for now; next week will bring a post with some more meat!

I'm not sure where the superstition came from, but apparently bananas are bad luck while fishing. Try to bring a banana on a charter boat and you may well get tossed in the drink. You can imagine my reservations, then, about buying a vessel that looks like a ten-foot long, overripe banana: the Intex Explorer K2 inflatable kayak. As of yet, however, most outings in the banana boat have resulted in at least one fish brought to hand, so perhaps the superstition only applies to fruit. Lets run down the specs! Dimensions: 123 x 36 x 20 inches Weight: 36 lbs Seats: 2 Chambers: 5 total; the sides and floor that make up the body of the kayak, and the two seats are also inflatable. Comes with: 2 paddles, detachable skeg, hand-pump Pros: Easy to set up and take down. The pump that came with the package seemed flimsy at first glance, but is surprisingly efficient. Total set up time is between five and ten minutes, depending on how badly I want to get on the water Comfortabl...

Graphic in the way that flowcharts are graphics, of course! Instead of a photo-filled post, today's post is some fishing-related graphics I've done recently. I've already shared my Annual Fishing Goals graphic; let's dive into a few others. Note: If you follow Laegreid Outdoors on Facebook and Twitter you might have already seen these, but I think they're cool, so you get to see them again. Yay! The Salmon ID Flowcharts Salmon are amazing fish. They're strong, they're delicious, and in saltwater, they all kind of look the same. This is the issue my brother-in-law had when he moved from Oklahoma to Washington. With the regulations as they are in Washington, it is very important to be able to distinguish between the different species while they are in their ocean phase. The WDFW provides a nice pamphlet (from which I nicked the photos. Thanks, public domain!), but I felt it might be good to have a helpful guide to aid in identification.  There ...

Oh wow, hey everybody! It's been a while since I've posted, but it's been a busy busy time. I am now a happily married man, and all the work that my lovely wife did along with our family and friends culminated in a spectacular, wonderfully simple wedding; it was the perfect start to a long life of love and adventure. To keep this post on an outdoorsy theme, here are some of the boutonnieres I made for the men in the wedding, groomsmen and I wore blue, the fathers of the bride and groom got the orange ones: I wore this one! For those of you thinking about tying your own boutonnieres, I recommend it. Not only do they look great (we got lots of compliments), but they will make you appreciate tying flies on hooks that don't have a sharp bit hiding on the side you can't see. So! Coming up soon from this wee blog there will be: 1: A review of the Intex Explorer K2 inflatable Kayak 2: Night fishing for Salmon in Puget Sound 3: A review of the ...

I've been distracted with things, so this week's post is a photos! The fiance and I camped in the Olympic National Forest this past weekend. It was beautiful, sunny and quiet, and just what we needed. So without further ado, here are some photographic highlights of the trip: This not-so little millipede had some striking yellow spots; I'd not seen one like it before.  These flowers were all over and very pretty. I'm pretty sure they're Trillium, but I could be wrong. If so, feel free to correct me in the comments! The Caddis hatch was on! What's camping without a good fire? The Peninsula was full of spiders sunning themselves, but this little fellow was the only one kind enough to hold still for a photo. See you next time!

March 29 The day dawned comfortably grey and rainy as I sneaked out of bed. My fiance slept soundly as the door closed behind me and I began the two-hour drive to Rockport, Washington and the gorgeous Skagit River. When I made my usual pre-drive stop at Cowgirls Espresso, the barista asked, as per usual, if I was going fishing. "Not today." Now, sane people usually don't drive for hours to prime steelhead water specifically not to fish, but then, those who pursue the grey ghosts are not well-known for their sanity, and the event I was driving to was created in protest of laws that make little sense. What Laws? To avoid writing a book, lets break it down to its simplest form. Laws regarding wild steelhead are, in the opinion of the Occupy Skagit (OS) movement * , a wee bit wonky.   All wild Puget Sound steelhead are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act . This would be great, if all Puget Sound steelhead populations faced the same pressures and ...

It's that time of year again. Baby salmon are swimming out of the rivers en mass, the days are getting longer, and Sea-Run Cutthroat trout (SRC) are reappearing in Puget Sound. This past weekend I was able to connect with one of these feisty fish on a beach in Marine Area 13 , also known as the magical South Sound. There are a few great things about this fishery; the first of which is the quarry. The SRC's are amazing trout, powerful for their size, aggressive, gorgeous, and elusive. They provide one of the Northwest's most unique fishing experiences, and oh man am I glad to be able to take advantage of it. Image borrowed from the Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife , since I have yet to take a good picture of one. The second great thing about the SRC fishery is the location. I love Puget Sound, from Deception Pass to Budd Inlet, but good SRC beaches are my absolute favorite. They are full of life, from weird little crawling things scooting between barnacle-cove...

Happy new year, dear readers! Last year I decided that fishing was too much fun, and I needed to give myself some goals to strive towards. This ended up being even MORE fun, and I recommend it to anyone who angles. So, on this first day of the New Year, I've decided to share last year's goals and results, and tell you what I'll be chasing this coming year. First: The old! Gooooooooaaaaaaaaal! Well, I got a few of the fish, and a good portion of the places and other goals. I'm blown away that I didn't make it to the ocean once; also that I couldn't catch a shark. Dogfish (sharks) are known as a nuisance to people who catch them while salmon fishing and don't realize how neat they are. I never even tried for the chum or sockeye salmon, so no surprise that I didn't catch those guys. Those goals that weren't met this year get to go on to... My goals for 2014! The new colors are luckier. Probably. So we've seen a few of those goal...

One of my more successful casts. The day before Christmas, Christmas Eve-Eve, if you will, my father and I decided to chase after the wily Steelhead trout. Armed with my 13' fly rod and a burning need to try it out, we ventured forth under gray skies. After getting our eat on at the Mountain View Diner in Gold Bar, we started to drive, trying to find a place to fish. Unfortunately, the river was high, fast and muddy, and while we were driving, the weather set in. Now, when you go fishing in the winter in Washington, you expect to get rained on, so when it started to rain a little we weren't too concerned. We became worried when the rain got heavy, and then downright concerned when the hail and lightning started. The one bit of luck we had then was that we hadn't gotten out of the car yet since we hadn't found castable water. So we drove around a bit more, marveling at the hail and high water. This is a chart depicting river flows. We fished the day highlighte...

It's happened. I've lived and fished in the Northwest long enough and have heard enough testimonials to have finally entered another part of the fly-fishing world: that of the two-handed fly rod. For those of you who aren't aware, most fly-fishing is done with a single handed rod, using some variation of the standard cast. The rods are anywhere from six to ten feet, and are, obviously, held with one hand. This is what I assume a majority of people think of when they hear fly-fishing or casting: Two handed fly rods are a whole different ballgame. Ranging from eleven feet to fifteen on average, these rods are big. There are rods that are even longer (twenty feet!) but we won't go into those today. The two-handed rods originated on the river Spey in Scotland, and the technique of casting them is called Spey Casting.  Spey casting doesn't require as much space behind the caster as regular, single-handed casting does, so in places like Washington, where there is...