Back in my groove.....

So life has been a little crazy the past few months. Time seems like a distant dream. In my spare minutes here and there, I find myself web surfing and reading articles , trying to absorb as much relevant info as possible for the upcoming year. I must say, I have read a lot and I feel like my knowledge continues growing exponentially as far as destinations, techniques, and BIG fish are concerned. I've met and talked to a ton of sweet peeps whose mountain of knowledge continues to impress me. This year, I hope to put some of that info to good use. Typically at the beginning of each year, I make these silly goals pertaining to flies, fish and destinations. Last year I accomplished most of my goals and a couple that I hadn't planned on tackling. First and foremost,...... I caught some DANG nice fish on a MOUSE!!!!.....To me this truly was "the year of the mouse" and one of my greatest fly fishing highlights of all time.....The crazy thing is, as I run the past year through my head, many other fantastic trips jump out at me. I figure I would throw out some other crazy goals for 2010 as the semester comes to a close and I feel I will be able to finally wet a line...

(Disclaimer: I know it's April and the year began more than three months ago, but for those who really fish, you know the "real" fishing year begins when Scofield begins to thaw and the river.......begins to flow....)

1) Tiger Musky AND N. Pike on the fly. (Newton and private pike pond)
2) Fish a streamer A LOT! (SculpinZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ BABY!)
3) The Green River (Can you believe I've never fished it?!!! I can't!)
4) Steelhead in Idaho (This would have been done this weekend if it weren't for a test...ARRG!)
5) Chinook in the summer (I love Idaho... Did I mention I love it?)
6) 24 inch brownie ("Alright I didn't mean it but...Yes I did, I said it!"
7) Enjoy watching my Daughter reel in innumerable fish on the fly (Gunner, you'll soon be old enough buddy)
8) I almost forgot, an 8lb largemouth is also on the agenda :) (Oh yeah baby, I made battle with her last year and she conquered.... She's mine!)
9) Brownie on a mouse (Go ahead and check 22in Cuttie off the mouse list.... I'm still smilin)
10) Remain sane as I try to juggle life, school, work, an obsession, and most importantly, my FANTASTICLY SUPERB family.

Ps.... I recently accepted a job at Rainy's Flies taking care of business as their "in house" sales rep for Alaska, Canada, BC, and some eastern states around Virginia..... I'm still learning the ropes, but talk about an atmosphere! I get paid to talk to guys about flies and fishing! WHAT? Good times.........

Winter in Idaho and Montana.......

So I figure that I would write a little about whats been going on the last little while. I haven't been fishing hardly at all due to the FREEZING weather around here. Last weekend however that all changed as we packed up and headed to Idaho and Montana for a little winter fishing. Rich and I fished just below the dam on South Fork for a few hours on Friday morning. It was somewhere in the ballpark of 20 below zero but we still managed to pick off some nice fish. Rich battled with a 21+ inch cuttie but lost it due to the lack of a net. (Joe get on it) I landed a monster brownie and many 16-18in cutties and bows. We then headed to Henries Lake to stay in the cabin. Snowmobiles were on the agenda and we had a good time. He headed up to Montana on Saturday morning to fish the Madison and as soon as Rich found the bows we slayed em consistently for an hour or two before we had to head out. We had a bunch of doubles and of course, Rich lost the big one......thanks Rich for a good time.


Remember..............snow and lethargic trout are only temporary......

Egg MANIA: Lower Fish Creek

Joe and I hit Lower Fish Creek (Saturday Oct. 10th, Low 30's in Morning, High 50's in the afternoon) for one last fly fall HOORAH. The flows were lower than optimum, but reasonable. The browns were spawning and there were redds everywhere! The fish were aggressive and eating eggs like mad. We caught some really nice browns and bows. The fall leaves and spawner colors were AMAZING! Thanks Joe....

Another sweet flick.......

Mice.........

Logan River revisited

I went up on the Logan this week with my brother-in-law Jesse. We fished somewhere above the third dam.......???I think?(I'm still getting this place figured out.) Anyways, we fished a couple hours with hopper/droppers and I tried a new fly...... Turks Tarantula. It did awesome! I missed MANY and somehow managed to grab a few cutties and browns off the top. It was a fun day and it ended with a great big splash. Literally.... a double slip, fall, wet, cell phones, full waders..............you get the picture. Good times. Thanks Jesse.

I forgot my net.....

I jetted out this morning to explore new lands..... I ended up at the east fork of the little bear river. The section that I fished is a tailwater to Porcupine Reservoir and WOW was it ever a sweet spot! The little reservoir is a sight to see and is chuck full of Kokanee salmon. The run is just beginning so the inlet is closed until the end of September. I parked the truck at 6:30 am just a few hundred yards below the dam and started getting ready. The water looked good and I had high hopes for the morning fish. My pole was already set up with a nymphing rig so I decided to throw it for a while. Nothing happened for a couple minutes, but then I hooked up on a nice little bow! Next cast I hooked a nicer brown and lost him trying to rush him. After moving about 100 yards upriver, I saw a couple fish rise. I decided to switch to a hopper dropper. I tied on an olive rainy's hopper with a rainbow warrior dropper. I casted against the bank about 10 yards straight upriver into a slight pool. I watched the hopper float slowly back towards me. I was "feelin the money" and I stripped the slack slowly with anticipation. The hopper suddenly went under and I lifted the rod just as a really nice bow errupted out of the pool and bolted into the riffle. He ran downstream about 25 yards and set on the bottom. After a couple minutes, he tired and I had him in my hands. He was CHUNKY! I love fat bows. He had a sweet pink-band and really sweet spots. I fished the rest of the way up to the spillway without so much as a nibble. I decided to go back downstream, re-rig with a nymphing rig, and fish some of the lower stuff. ( I hadn't realized I was so close to the outlet when I started the morning)

While I was walking down the banks of the river I was noticing some of the nicer holes that I would fish on the way back up. Just then I spooked a little 7-8inch fish out of a hole. He swam slowly downstream......then............out of nowhere came a MONSTER brown that proceeded to MUNCH THE EIGHT INCHER! He had the helpless trout in his mouth crossways and was headshaking it like crazy! I think my jaw hit ground and my eyes popped out of my head! Just then the big boy noticed the bystander, let go of his meal, and bolted into a large tree covered hole. DANG!......... That would be my last hole to fish on my way back up to the truck. I backed up and looped down a 150 yards or so. I spotted a nice bow facing downstream on a back eddy. I reached out my 9 footer and dropped a lightning bug right infront of his nose. He casually swam up to it and ate it! I set the hook and quickly stripped him in. He was no more than 12". My next cast into a spillway produced a nice little brown. I moved up fishing some other nice holes and caught a couple more bows, one that was quite nice.

Finally, I reached the "tree hole". I snuck up to the side of the hole and casted my nymph rig upstream. I then allowed the whole rig, indicator and all, to flow under the branches of the overhanging tree. The indicator stopped.............and.........SNAG! DANG! Just then, the monster brown exploded out of the water, up into the entanglement of branches! It wasn't a snag! The fish was ON!!!!! I held on tight and grimmaced as the fish jumped three more times, each of which, tangled up my fly line more and more in the branches! I decided to feed slack and try to spook the fish out of the back of the hole. My plan worked and the fish moved to the tail-out of the hole. My fly line was still WAY tangled in the tree so I set my pole down and grabbed the line coming out of the tree at the tail end of the hole. The fish was basically beaching himself in the 5-6inch deep water infront of me. I scrambled down the line and tried to tail the fish. He wouldn't allow it and just as I had a hand on him.....he broke my line! Time stood still as I struggled mentally.... I instinctively dove on the fish, soaking my whole upper body in the icy cold tailwater. The fish struggled to escape! I held on tight, but just as I thought I had him............!!!......... he slipped out of my hands and raced back upstream into the darkness of the hole and out of my life forever. There I sat in the freezing stream, water dripping and running off my face and sunglasses.................. completely awestruck that this had all just happened. The fish was probably one of, if not my best brownie of all time. He won. I lost. I sat thinking to myself,....................why in the world did I forget my stinkin' net?!!!!!