Fishermen have devised many methods to catch one of the world’s most popular game fish, the elusive trout.  But none that I know of have even attempted to master the “no tackle” techniques that I have developed.  That’s right; rods, reels, lines and lures are not necessary when you have mastered the skills of catching trout with “no tackle”.

I caught my first “no tackle” trout while my wife and I were acting as tour guides for two young men from the Netherlands that were vacationing in the U.S. for the first time.  We were preparing to have a picnic lunch on the bank of the crystal clear Jemez River that flows out of the Jemez Pueblo, an Indian reservation in the Northwest part of the state. 

It was July, and the weather was mild & pleasant in the canyon, but as we walked up to the riverbank we noticed that the water level was only about 12 inches deep and about 40 feet wide, as the snow runoff had ended in early June.  I said to our guests, “it’s too bad that the water is so low, I was planning on going for a dip”.  Then without hesitation one of my Dutch guests said, “Vell vee’le build a daam”.  For a moment I forgot where these two young men were from, of course, the Netherlands, where dams, levies and dykes protect the entire country from flooding.  Dam or (daam) building was a part of their DNA.

So under their direction, we waded in and began stacking bowling ball size boulders in a straight line across the little river.  After a couple of hours stacking smaller and smaller rocks on top of the large boulders, the 4 of us had created a pool of water about 2 feet deep with the makeshift dam that spanned all the way across the small river.

We enjoyed relaxing in the water for a couple of hours and then we ate our lunch and prepared to leave. Then I realized that any trout that wanted to navigate that stretch of river wouldn’t be able to get thru our dam because the boulders & rocks were fitted too tightly together for them to swim thru them.  So I asked my guests to wait for just a minute so I could open a channel for the fish to move up and downstream.  I went to the edge of the dam and moved enough rocks to allow a channel of water about 5 inches wide to run around the rock dam. 

As soon as the water began flowing around the dam a beautiful native rainbow trout about 12 inches long began struggling upstream against the swift current in the small channel that I had created. When it reached the point where I was standing and admiring its stamina, I slid my hands under it and lifted the extremely colorful little guy out of the water.

The 2 Dutch boys went nuts!  They screamed for me to hold on to the fish while they raced back to get their cameras.  And after they each took several pictures, I released the little rainbow and he continued his journey upstream.  The guys had never even seen a rainbow trout before, and I am sure that they told the story many times back in Holland about the crazy fisherman from America that caught a rainbow trout with his bare hands.

My second experience catching “no tackle” trout occurred while my son Mark and I were fishing the famous San Juan River that flows out of Navajo Lake near the “Four Corners” area.  The “Four Corners” area is famous because it is the only place in the United States where 4 states come together at one point.  You can stand on one foot and be in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado all at the same time.

We were a couple of miles down stream from the bridge near Abe’s Motel & Tackle shop and were catching & releasing trout like crazy. We were standing almost shoulder to shoulder wearing chest waders in waist deep water when Mark shouted “dad, look at this!”  He was pointing down into the water just a couple of feet upstream from where he was standing when I saw what he was so excited about.

A snake about 4 feet long was swimming straight toward him.  It swam directly past Mark passing right in front of him and it was on its way to me when I noticed that it was holding a small trout sideways in its mouth.  I quickly turned and dropped my rod on the bank right behind me, and after I spun back around I reached down and captured the little snake, much to his surprise.  He was wiggling and squirming attempting to escape when I reached toward his head and got a grip on him right behind his head.  When I squeezed lightly he dropped the small trout in my other hand, which I had placed, under his mouth.  To my surprise, the trout was still alive and doing pretty well considering his recent experience.  I gently lowered the little trout toward the river until my hand filled with water.  I could see his gills flaring so I lowered him into the river, and to my surprise, he rapidly swam away.

I decided to take the snake home and place it in the pond we had in our back yard, and he lived there for some time.  But just imagine the tale the little trout could tell his friends & family about the giant “no tackle” trout fisherman that freed him from the “jaws of death”.