Reflecting on another fishy year

Hope everyone survived (is surviving) the holiday
madness. Around here, snow’s been falling, temperatures
dropping and a lot of relaxing has been occurring. We’ve had a
nice Christmas; meeting up with some friends and spending a
lot of time just lounging around reading and tying flies. Jamie
surprised me this year with a lifetime Wyoming fishing
license. While putting it in my wallet, I took out the collection
of wrinkled 2014 fishing licenses I acquired and they got me
reflecting on this past season. (hey isn’t this what people with
blogs do this time of year?)

I was fortunate to fish a variety of waters, accumulating
quite a few licenses; Wyoming, Yellowstone, Reservation,
Idaho, Colorado and Utah. There were a lot of good days spent
casting flies to trout in the locations and I look forward to
2015 and the fishing adventures that await. Currently in
addition to the usual haunts, there are plans to visit the Green
down at Flaming Gorge this winter, the Salmon in search of
steelhead, and a Bahama bonefish reunion tour among others.
Thinking about all these different waters and trips also
reminded me how much I love my home waters of Wyoming.
It’s nice to have so much trout water in one state and some
unbelievable country to explore within an hour or three of
home. And while I fish quite a bit, it seems there is always
more water to explore; whether it’s a new lake or river, or
water higher up a drainage that gets fished often.

Below are a few notable highlights from my own personal
fishing adventures. Enjoy and here’s to making some more
great memories in 2015.

Fishing the Wind River Indian Reservation gives up
some lunkers. This guy was sipping midges in the
spring

Idaho Steel. Jamie and I got around to steelhead
fishing in ID last spring. It was an honor to bring two of these
guys to hand. Hundreds of miles from the ocean and beautiful!

My friend Kurt joined me for a few days of Wyoming
fly fishing this spring.While spring can be a bit of gamble for
those casting the long rod, there are some awesome
opportunities One of the days we floated the Big Horn outside
of Thermop. Everything was perfect; the weather, the fish and
the company wasn’t bad either..

The highlight of my summer came when I got to
take my 86 year old grandfather fishing on the Snake. He used
to fish out here often, but hadn’t been out in a few years. I’d
say he still has “it”.

Here’s Jamie as we decend into the Black Canyon of
the Yellowstone river in YNP. We spent a few days in the fall
fishing and camping in the park. Couldn’t have asked for a
better time..

While Ruby James’ time on earth was short, she
brought us A LOT of fun and happiness. She was on her way to
becoming an excellent companion and fishing dog. We miss her
a lot.