Laegreid Outdoors

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!

Laegreid Outdoors has covered squid jigging, and we've covered fly tying, so I figured, what the heck, let's mash 'em both t ogether. This was the result: Do squid like fuzzy things? This one looks highly effective. Now I don't know about the semantics, so I'm not sure if we can call these squid flies until they've been fished off of a fly line; for now they are squid jigs. Someday (when I acquire a boat) they will be fished off a 5-weight and a sink-tip, for now they'll be riding fluorocarbon into the Salish Sea.   There are a few reasons I tied these: I've had most of my squid-success on small jigs; these are smaller than my small jigs. We shall see if that makes a difference. There are some instances where fish will hold on to a lure longer if it feels more natural. Since my squid jigs were all hard plastic, these will let me find out if that holds true for squid as well. I like making weird things. So these little guys are...

I am one of those people who doodles. Doodling is like art, but quick and dirty and usually not shared.  It's a good way to pass the time in hours-long meetings or while on a flight with crummy movie choices. After not fishing for a while, doodling can be a quick outlet for fishing-frustration when you can't get home to fiddle with your gear. Meetings can be productive I do also create some art, which is slower and fancier and often shared, but obviously doodling happens more often. So Since I'm a blogger now I guess, you can look forward to more of my outdoorsy-type doodles and arts. Heck, I might even post some photographs every once in a while! For now, have fun with these few images, these introductions to my doodly, arty brain; hopefully they'll help you through a meeting or long day away from the water like they have for me. Steelhead! Squid! Brook Trout! Since you made it this far down the post, I hope you like what you've seen....

Since moving out to Washington from Nebraska, I have had many new fishing experiences, from steelheading in the S rivers to salmon fishing from Puget Sound beaches.  The most unique experience yet, however, is squidding. Squid fishing is far different from the bass fishing in Nebraska, which we did under the sun on warm mornings, stalking along the edges of sand-pits and casting plastic worms to fish we saw cruising along the bank. The season starts to heat up in October, as the first large schools of squid start to make their way south into Puget Sound. Those brave and/or stupid enough (i.e, me) to pursue the wee cephalopods in the cold and damp must wait until after the sun sets to head out.  The anglers go and stand on a dock or a pier that has lights; squid like to hang around the fringes of the light, darting in to grab shrimp and small fish feeding on the plankton drawn to the illuminated water.  The anglers use long, whippy rods to lob their multi-p...

Life is full of firsts.  Some are important; first car, first house, first steelhead, first fish on a fly, first day of hunting season, and so on.  This is the first post of the Laegreid Outdoors blog, which is a big first for me. I am Peter Laegreid, an avid angler and semi-competent artist; I pose as a marketer during the work week. That last name, by the way, is Norwegian in origin, and I pronounce it lay-Grade. Others pronounce it la-Greed, lag-reed, I've even heard it pronounced LaGreen. You can call me Peter. Now that we're on a first-name basis, I should probably tell you that this blog is going to be just chock-full of outdoorsy stuff. I'm based in the Greater Seattle area, so if you don't like hearing about anadromous fish, you may want to check out some other blog.  If you are looking for a place to hear about salmon and trout and steelhead fishing, weird bottom-fish I accidentally hook, squidding, hiking, environmental issues, and maybe even some hunti...