HIGH AND LOE GUIDE WON'T TALK ABOUT STORM, BUT HE HAS A GREAT DEAL TO SAY.Byline: Bill Becher Special to the Daily News Fishing guide Tom Loe won't talk about his experience surviving the Perfect Storm. But he will explain how he went from harpooning swordfish swordfish, large food and game fish, Xiphias gladius, of the warmer Atlantic and Pacific waters, related to the sailfish. It is named for its sharp, broad, elongated upper jaw, which it uses to flail and pierce its prey of smaller fish, rising beneath a school while hanging off the 40-foot plank at the end of his fishing boat 400 miles out at sea to helping fly fishers catch big trout on Crowley Lake Crowley Lake is a reservoir on the upper Owens River in southern Mono County, California in the United States. It was created in 1941 by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) as storage for the Los Angeles Aqueduct and for flood control. in the Owens Valley This article has multiple issues: * It needs to be expanded. * It may need copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. north of Bishop. My wife and I and a couple of friends had booked a day on Loe's boat over the Fourth of July Fourth of July, Independence Day, or July Fourth, U.S. holiday, commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Celebration of it began during the American Revolution. holiday. I'd been out with Loe before and knew that a trip on his fish magnet at Crowley Lake was as close to a sure thing as it gets for hooking some trout that will make your reel sing. My wife is so-so about fly-fishing, so I thought getting her into some Crowley monsters might fan her fishing desires. We met Loe at his specially outfitted flats boat at the Crowley Fish Camp Marina at 7 a.m. so the novices could get some fly-casting instruction before the wind comes up. The nice thing abut To reach; to touch. To touch at the end; be contiguous; join at a border or boundary; terminate on; end at; border on; reach or touch with an end. The term abutting implies a closer proximity than the term adjacent. learning fly-casting in a boat on a lake is that you don't have to worry about hooking a tree on your back cast. Soon the ladies had the hang of it and started watching the tiny foam indicator that suspends a midge midge, name for any of numerous minute, fragile flies in several families. The family Chironomidae consists of about 2,000 species, most of which are widely distributed. The herbivorous larvae are found in all freshwaters; the larvae of some species live in saltwater. pupa pupa (py  `pə), name for the third stage in the life of an insect that undergoes complete metamorphosis, i.e., develops from the egg through the larva and the pupa stages to the adult. imitation. Loe has developed Loespeak, his own specialized vocabulary for fishing. When the indicator moves a little, it's a drive by, which means a cruising fish has looked at your fly but not inhaled it. A really big fish is a Trouzilla. If you mess up your cast and tangle the line badly, it's a hand grenade. Loe was patient about untangling our grenades and soon had us all fishing. My wife hooked a big fish that pulled so hard her arm hurt. But she toughed it out and landed a beautiful 19 hen Kamloops rainbow. Loe released the fish gently and made sure it wasn't overstressed before it swam away. We all caught more fish, some taking spectacular leaps and long runs before we got them to the net. Loe, 42, grew up in Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. pedaling his bike to local fishing spots: Westlake, Lake Sherwood There are four places in the United States called '''Lake Sherwood:
At 19, he sold the business for $25,000, allowing him to buy his first commercial fishing boat, the Rambling Rose. Loe said the boat - a 42-foot Drake glass-over-ply twin diesel - was a piece of junk, but he and his friend Shawn learned offshore fishing in the Rose. Loe added that after a few storms, Shawn decided he wanted to live longer and retired early. Loe went on to obtain his captain's license and skipper other boats. He talks about the time he was sealed into the rudder compartment up to his chest in water during a spinner of a hurricane off Cuba, trying to fix the steering hydraulics. He tells the story of the time a shipmate fell off the wheelhouse wheel·house n. See pilothouse. wheelhouse Noun an enclosed structure on the bridge of a ship from which it is steered Noun 1. in heavy weather in the Straits of Juan da Fuca. Loe went in after him, but the crew member was dead by the time he hit the water. Loe's wife said she tried not to think about weather, ``most of the time I didn't know and didn't really want to know. I trusted Tom's judgment.'' Most of Loe's commercial fishing was ironing swordfish, spearing them with the iron shaft of a harpoon harpoon (härp n`), weapon used for spearing whales and large fish. The early type was a flat triangular piece of metal with barbed edges and a socket for attaching a wooden handle, to the , which paid big money, up to a $1,000 a fish. But swordfish are The Elusive Ones, with a great, big ocean to hide in. Loe developed a reputation for finding swordfish. When the 1991 season on the East Coast looked to be a winner for swordfish, Loe was hired by the captain of the Rush and moved back to New Bedford New Bedford, city (1990 pop. 99,922), seat of Bristol co., SE Mass., at the mouth of the Acushnet River on Buzzard's Bay; settled 1640, set off from Dartmouth 1787, inc. as a city 1847. , Mass., where he saw the Perfect Storm for real, not in a big tank on a sound stage. But you can only read the book or see the movie; Loe won't talk about it. His wife said he never thought what he was doing was especially heroic - it was his job. ``Loosing a shipmate on the Rush during the Perfect Storm adds to his reluctance to talk about it,'' she said. Loe does talk passionately about the changes he saw during his commercial fishing career. With all the technology, satellite imagery Satellite imagery consists of photographs of Earth or other planets made from artificial satellites. History The first satellite photographs of Earth were made August 14, 1959 by the US satellite Explorer 6. , GPS and Doppler gear that can measure water temperatures, the fish don't stand a chance. Commercial drift net and long line fishing are indiscriminate killers, according to Loe, and their decimation DECIMATION. The punishment of every tenth soldier by lot, was, among the Romans, called decimation. of fisheries helped form his decision to sell his boat and quit commercial fishing. ``It's been a karmic shift for me, after killing so many fish,'' said Loe. ``That's why I'm so adamant about catch-and-release. I figure I've killed enough fish for one lifetime.'' Loe launched his Sierra Drifters guiding business in 1999 - drift-boat fishing the Lower Owens River, something he'd been doing for years on his own. Local guides and tackle shops were skeptical at best; some were hostile to the new kid on the block. But Loe's success guiding clients to big fish on the Owens in winter was soon matched by his results fishing on Crowley. For those who haven't fished it yet, Crowley holds an abundance of large, feisty rainbow trout rainbow trout Species (Oncorhynchus mykiss) of fish in the salmon family (Salmonidae) noted for spectacular leaps and hard fighting when hooked. It has been introduced from western North America to many other countries. . ``So that's what backing looks like,'' say his clients when a big rainbow trout pulls all of the fly line off the reel. His trips average 35 fish to the boat in a day, according to Loe, with an average size of 16 inches and an average weight of 1 1/2 pounds. The largest rainbow caught by a client on Crowley was a 10-pound Alper's trout, the largest brown trout brown trout Prized and wary European game fish (Salmo trutta, family Salmonidae) that is favoured for food. The species includes several varieties (e.g., the Loch Leven trout of Britain). The brown trout is recognized by the light-ringed black spots on its brown body. an 8 1/2 pound beauty. Loe only keeps the occasional fish that he can't revive. ``I have nothing against eating trout. But I've killed enough fish. If I had to go back on commercial sword fishing, I'd do it, I enjoyed the hunt, but not the killing. I wish we could just find the swordfish, tag them, go nah-nah-nah, and collect a thousand dollars.'' But that's not likely to happen, so now when the clients get a little nervous as Crowley Lake kicks up whitecaps in an afternoon blow from the Sierra, Loe just smiles and heads back to the dock, happy with another day of helping anglers catch trout, knowing that a little wind is not a storm. And this day my wife was smiling, so maybe there is more fly-fishing in her future, too. TACKLE BOX Sierra Drifters (760)935-4250. Web site www.sierradrifters.com. Fishing tackle is supplied, all you need is a valid California fishing license if you are over 16. Crowley Lake fishing season is last Saturday in April to October 31. CAPTION(S): 3 photos, box Photo: (1 -- color) Jane Becher of Westlake Village works on her fly fishing cast while expert guide Tom Loe watches on at Lake Crowley. (2 -- color) Sierra Drifter Tom Loe helps an angler on flyfishing for rainbow trout. (3) Former deep-sea fisherman Tom Loe, who used to harpoon swordfish, now helps bring in rainbow trout at Crowley Lake. Tina Burch/Staff Photographer Box: TACKLE BOX (See text) |
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