Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you…

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I was hoping to have some exciting fishing pictures to share after a
few outings on the water lately. Due to laziness (sometimes, I’d
rather just fish than worry about taking pictures) and some slow
fishing, I have nothing to show for myself.

Jamie and I got out on the Snake recently, taking advantage of
beautiful weather. We caught some fish and had fun. It’s a great
time to fish the Snake as large cutthroat are hungry and stoneflies
can be found scurrying along the banks, etc. I expect good fishing
to continue as long as the water clarity holds up. The Hoback has
been cloudy, cause water clarity to drop below its confluence.

Saturday I spent the day with a great client of mine. Looking for
something different, we took the boat down to Pinedale, WY and
floated the New Fork river. The New Fork is a small, mellow river
known for it’s challenging fishing for BIG brown trout. I was
excited, happy to have a good angler in the boat and hoping to get
into some fish. One problem though, when we reached the put in,
the water was muddy; quite a surprise. The 30 mph wind didn’t
help us either. At the end of the day, we got skunked. Yes,
skunked. It hurt our egos and left us searching for answers, but at
the end of the day, we still had fun and realized sometimes “the
bear eats you.”

Spring’s springing

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Boy, spring isn’t wasting any time making its’ presence
known here in Wyoming. Temperatures lately have been
hitting the 50 degree mark and local fly fishers are taking
advantage, both wade and float fishing local waters. I can’t
remember a time when boat ramps were accessible so early
in the season.

I spent the last week or so back east in PA visiting family.
While it’s always good to see folks, it’s nice to be back in the
Rocky Mountain west. While back, my brother Pete and I
manage to sneak out for a few hours in search of brook trout.
Unfortunately waters were high and off color, making small
stream fishing tough if not impossible. Still though, it was
great getting on the water with him.

The next week or so around here has some fishing in the
cards. Jamie and I are headed out on the Snake tomorrow to
take advantage of the great fishing. We’re hoping to fish dry
flies; small black stoneflies, midges, BWO, etc. If nothing else
we’ll have some fun on the water together. Then, I’m headed to
Dubois to check on the cabin and fish the Wind and Big Horn.
Folks are starting to book fishing trips for the upcoming season
and I can’t wait to get back on local waters with guests.

Pete fishing

My brother Pete casts to a plunge pool on a small PA
stream. While this small water is known to hold wild fish, we
didn’t see any. Pete swears he’ll go back and see how it fishes
in warmer weather…

Skwala dry fly

I spent today tying some Skwala stoneflies. Skwalas
emerge in the Spring on Wyoming waters like the Snake. A
big, size 10 fly drifted and twitched along banks often produces
violent strikes! Yes, that is bear fur for the wing.

On the road; Utah, CA etc..

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I finally have some time to update a few things around here. The long silence was in part due to some time spent traveling. Jamie and I headed to California to visit friends, enjoying some warm weather and poolside lounging/beverages. Upon returning to Jackson, I turned around the next morning and headed down to Flaming Gorge Utah with Matt for our annual fishing trip down there. Add in some substitute teaching, drawing lessons and some days in Dubois, and you can start to see why there has not been much activity around here lately.

This years Flaming Gorge trip was great as usual. Matt and I spent four days fishing to the lower Green River’s resident (and large) rainbow and brown trout. This year was a bit more challenging due to big flow releases coming out of the damn. Morning arrivals at the river had water levels nearly overflowing the banks. However by mid afternoon, water dropped by 2-3 feet making for a much mellower river. Because of the flow fluctuations, fish were spooky and hatches not as consistent as years past. We did pretty well though fishing big streamers, switching to 6X tippets and size 22 midges when we found rising fish.

hooked up

Hooked up below Little hole; fish were hungry for midges

Nate with brown

The result. We took a few from the slow pockets and seams along the banks

matt with fg brown

Matt got his streamer fishing on! All hail the Black and Red!

A view from the water

After hiking down to Grasshopper Island, we surveyed the scene and tried to break the ice off our guides