Archive for year: 2015

With a lull in client activity this past week, I was able to focus on spending time with lulu, catching up on chores (i won’t bore you with details) and family fishing. My Mom, Dad, brother and Grandfather came out to visit. It’s been good seeing everyone and naturally fishing came up. My Grandfather, Don, taught me to fly fish and tie flies when I was young and first introduced me to Wyoming’s trout streams when I was 12. Over the years we’ve fished a lot together but being 88 now, he doesn’t get out like he use to. Fortunately Jamie and I were able to talk him into a float on the Salt river. It was a great day having him in the front of the boat; casting hoppers to eager cutthroat trout and telling stories about fishing Wyoming waters in the “old days”. Jamie and Lulu held down the back of the drift boat and we had a fun time on the water together. When it was all said and done, Grandad caught a bunch of cutthroat trout (as did Jamie) and we had a streamside visit from a beautiful horse…

Lulu keeps an eye out for rising trout while Grandad works a hopper along the bank

Grandad, Jamie and Lulu; I could think of a better way to spend an afternoon

Jamie, Lulu and I also managed to get out for a few hours the past couple days. The idea was to explore some new waters, and we did. However the fishing left a little to be desired. One stream was just too low to hold much of anything of size and another turned out to be mostly fenced off and private. The bit we fished on Forest Service land did yield some cutthroat (a few nice ones) but we both walked away wishing it was a bit better. I promised Jamie no more exploratory runs when we fish together (at least for a little while….)

Jamie works a run waaaay up the Hoback river. Despite beautiful looking water, fish of any size were lacking. Could’ve been due to low late season water levels….

Needless to say things have been fairly crazy around here.
Guiding has been keeping from updating this humble blog. And
truthfully, if it’s between being out fishing folks and writing about
fishing, I’m going to take the real thing every time!

Susan put on a clinic on the Green River. Nice Brown
trout!

Overall the fishing here in Jackson Hole this summer has been
good. Swings in the weather though have kept me and my anglers
on our toes. One day big foam patterns are bringing fish to the
surface and the next day the fish want nothing to do with them but
are happy to sip small emergers. We’ve been using LOTS of
different flies depending on conditions and I believe my knot tying
speed has risen to another level… I’ve had anglers on all different
waters the past few weeks. Most trips have been on the Snake,
but I’ve also spent some days on the Salt river, up in Jellystone
and on Flat creek on the Elk Refuge.

Great time fishing with Blake and his dad for a few days.
Always fun to see those guys and even more fun to watch Blake
work a streamer under the brush piles!

After a 20 plus day stint guiding folks, I had the weekend off. I
gotta say, it was pretty nice to catch up on things that have been
neglected- cleaning the house, finances, fly tying, yard work, etc. I
also got to spend some quality time with Lulu. We hit up lower flat
creek Saturday evening for a sunset caddis hatch and then headed
to a small cutthroat stream yesterday with my friend Matt. Lulu
continues to grow and crack us up. Spent today with Dave and
Jean from Maine. Gotta love getting out on the water with great
folks. Unfortunately the fishing on the Snake was a bit tough. We
caught fish, but it was a battle and bigger fish weren’t very active.
Hoping tomorrow will be better.

Dave and Jean; couldn’t imagine spending the day with
sweeter people.

A day on the water with Lulu! At 14 weeks old, Lulu’s
growing like a weed and learning the ins and outs of life as a
fishing dog.

The summer weather around here continues to keep us fishing guides on our toes. For a while there, things were getting hot; fishing was good in the morning and slowed a bit during the afternoon heat. This week however a much cooler, wetter trend took over. The wet, cool weather should help keep local water temperatures in check and make for better fishing throughout July and August.

I had the pleasure this week of fishing several repeat anglers as well as few new ones. We fished the Green and Snake rivers, finding fish in both. The Green has fished well lately with Dry (big rubber-legged stoneflies) dropper rigs. Today, with fishing slowing due to rising water levels, we switched to streamers a caught some real nice browns. Like the Green, our Snake river cutthroat trout have been falling for yellow sally patterns and small chernobyl type flies. A lot of smaller fish are taking dry flies with the occasional bigger cutt coming to the surface.

Derek shows off a nice Brown from the Green today.  This guy feel for a Black and Red streamer.

The past week had me out on the water with various anglers from across the country. With Yellowstone National Park waters clear and fishing well, it was only natural we headed north. The Firehole is a fun place to be casting a fly as David and Ken of Florida learned yesterday. Both guys were able to catch some spunky brown and rainbow trout. Other anglers lately have fished the Lewis and upper snake with me. Both are fishing well and offer up some different water than typically fished around Jackson. I also took Tom out on some lakes last weekend while he was in town. Boy did we have fun catching rainbows on leeches and wooly buggers!

Ken works in his first Yellowstone Brown trout. Swinging soft hackles is always a good way to fish riffles on the Firehole..

Overall fishing conditions are improving here daily. Driving home from YNP yesterday, it seemed that a lot of tributaries to the north (buffalo fork excluded) have dropped and are clear or very near clear. Looking at river flow charts, it looks like most rivers have peaked and are now falling. It won’t be long before we’re floating big waters like the Snake. Hope everyone’s enjoying the sunshine!!

Return client David T. shows off a fine Firehole Rainbow. Trout in the Firehole may not be the biggest, but they do tug on a line!

Tom McCoy is in fish heaven. He claimed our lake fishing to rival any of the “gold medal” waters of CO he use to fish!  

Spent the past weekend traveling around Yellowstone National
Park and the surrounding area. Every year about this time Jamie
and I make a run north, spending a day or two in Yellowstone
together before the summer gets nutty. This year we added to the
getaway and drove over the Beartooth Pass, spending a night in
Red Lodge, MT, before returning through the Lamar Valley and
Mammoth Hot Springs.

We had a great time, and in addition seeing lots of wildlife
and cool country, we also managed some hiking and fishing. We
hiked to two lakes in Yellowstone. One skunked me. I saw plenty
of fish, but, save one, they wanted nothing to do with my flies.
Too make matters worse, thunderstorms rolled in and forced us to
retreat down the mountain.

The lake we fished today though treated us much better. We
decided on a lake that holds Grayling; a rare treat for a fly angler.
I’ve been fortunate to have caught grayling before (there are some
accessible lakes around if you know where to go), but I’m always
excited to pursue this rare Salmonid. After a good hike, I strung up
my rod and began casting. As you can see from the pictures below,
a few fish were caught. 

One of several Grayling fooled today with a leech
pattern

Jamie standing along a small spawning stream. No, we
didn’t fish the stream, just observed.

Close up of some of the many spawning grayling in this
tiny stream. It was really cool to walk this stream that was all of 3
feet wide at its widest point; like a big aquarium. It’s finds like this
that make backcountry fishing so cool!

Close up of another fish.