Today, here in Idaho, I'm thirty minutes from a small reservoir with trout and warm water fish and barely a bit more from the Snake and Clearwater River steelhead, salmon, trout, sturgeon and smallmouth. Within an hour I've major lakes, and within three hours, my limit for day trips, I've the St. Joe River, Kelly Creek and other trophy waters. But the quality of fish available hasn't always been so. The access to fishing has, however, followed me across the world.
In salad days I lived in Berkeley and San Francisco and New York and elsewhere, but I always had fishing within half an hour. There are very, very few spots in the US aside from the arid Southwest where this isn't so.
Urban reservoirs are everywhere. Half the population of the US lives within 100 miles of saltwater. Denver, Reno, Minneapolis and a lot of other urban areas are sited on rivers. In the suburbs and rural areas farm ponds abound.
These waters deserve more of our time and can produce a wonderful variety of fish. My second largest bass came out of a golf course pond that we could only fish on Monday when the course was closed: it weighted 11 pounds 3 ounces. I caught a 10 pound rainbow out of the small reservoir near our pond, and a brown of almost the same size at near dark from the Truckee River where it runs through Reno.
Add striped bass from San Francisco beaches and Bay Area and Boston breakwaters, various tunas from Honolulu and, if you like, some rather odd-looking sole from Venice's Grand Canal. If you look there's always fishing.
So start with your local fish and game department for information. In most urban areas you'll find stocked "truck trout." Granted most of these die or are caught shortly, but if trout waters hold bigger fish like largemouth or pike you may find a trout finish lure or, if legal, a live trout or other live bait a key to action.
Once you know which species are where, and when, consider refocusing your sights. Bluegills, crappie, perch, various saltwater panfish, catfish, bullheads and even carp offer fun on appropriate tackle. Given decent water quality most eat well too.
Go To Page: 1 2
