April 2016 - Teton Fly Fishing

Back to the Trout

April 21, 2016/0 Comments/in /by testing

Great to see (and feel) the warmer temperatures the past few days! Lulu and I are over at the Teton Fly Fishing cabin getting it ready for the upcoming season. LOTS of cleaning and random maintenance stuff on the agenda as well as finishing a few painting commissions. Lu gave me the look (and bark) around 10:30 this morning, and while I had other things to do, I couldn’t resist the urge to go wet a line. We quickly hopped in the truck and drove to a nearby small stream that’s known to hold a few trout.

I rigged up my 8.5′ Winston with a small parachute adams and Lulu and I headed to the water. I immediately saw a nice fish holding in the gin clear water. Unfortunately Lulu’s excited state sent the fish running for cover. We’re still working on our training and despite being a great dog, Lulu’s fishing skills leave a little to be desired. At 11 months, there’s still no differentiating a trout from a bird; it seems both need retrieving….. Soo we moved upstream to the next hole and I manage to miss a nice strike. Another run up, I hooked a nice cutthroat. Lulu lost her cool and tried with all her might to get to the fish. In the battle with her, I lost it. Oh well, we’re training right?

So that’s how the next few hours went, a few fish were landed, numerous fish were spooked and one nice brown trout was retrieved and dropped in my net (and swam away)by an overexcited labrador. I can’t say that the time on the water was super relaxing due to my 4 legged companion. However it was nice to fish dry flies in a t- shirt and watching lulu leap and bound over the Wyoming countryside brought a smile to my face; even if she did spook dozens of fish!

A nice spunky rainbow put a bend in the rod!

Lulu on point looking for a released trout. I swear she can smell them; that’s gotta be why she swims around in all the fishy holes when off leash right? Ah, the training continues…

I love small stream fishing. It reminds me of my early days fly fishing in PA. Although I don’t think I’m as good at it as I used to be… Too many days on big open rivers. Definately fun though today. Some holding water I walked by, just observing the fish rather than trying to put a cast under all those willows

A good size brown for this small stream. I saw ( and spooked) some other nice fish, but a lot of the bigger ones were stationed up in root balls.

This time of year the water is LOW making it extra challenging. It’s amazing how fish can sense you and spook from so far away. I only had one cast per run and if I messed up the fish would let me know by shooting by.

Florida

April 18, 2016/0 Comments/in /by testing

After spending a week in Florida, I’m back home in Jackson Hole. Overall it was a fun trip. We met up with friends, Kurt and Kelly and their 3 year old son at the Tampa airport and then headed west to Anna Maria Island on the Gulf side. While this was more of a “family” trip, Kurt and I did do a fair amount of fishing but walked away a little disappointed, managing only a handful of sea trout and lady fish. Our main target, Snook on the beaches, never materialized. We talked to other anglers who reported the same thing. In addition to prowling the beaches, we were also treated to some days fly fishing in the shallow mangroves courtesy of our friend, captain Matt. It was awesome to explore the Bay and see the diverse sea life with an Anna Maria local. Matt isn’t a fly fisherman, but he’s damn good with a boat and was more than happy to push Kurt and I around in search of Snook. Things in the mangroves were quiet too, save the huge School of Mullet that I’ve come to hate (Mullet eat algea and don’t give two shits about a well presented fly!). By far, the coolest sightings involved Manatees and dolphins; some of which swam beside the boat! Enjoy some pics…

Kurt and I on the beach looking for Snook the first morning on Anna Maria. By all accounts, they should’ve been there. Unfortunately we never saw or cast to any.

Kurt shows off a nice Sea trout. Sinking line and a Schminnow proved effective, allowing Kurt to bring several of these guys to the boat. Thanks Captain Matt for finding them!

One evening while working our way through some channels, we were treated to a group of dolphins fishing and playing around us. Several times the dolphins surfaces right beside us. At one point I tried to touch them but came up short by a few inches…

A lone ladyfish one evening. I like the ladyfish. They fight and jump hard making for a fun fight

Some storms passed through our last day on Anna Maria. Here’s a shot of the Gulf from our beach.

Gotta have a family picture. The Bennetts and Weavers pre dinner. Always fun catching up with these guys!

A weekend of fish, both good and bad…

April 4, 2016/0 Comments/in /by testing

We had some nice weather here in Jackson Hole this past
weekend. Naturally the best course of action was to go fishing.
Saturday, Jamie, Lulu and I headed south to fish the Snake river
canyon. This was partly to get Jamie on her first fish of the year,
but also to do some dog training. For those that don’t know, Lulu
is our 11 month old Lab pup who has an affinity for retrieving
hooked fish. While you can’t blame her, the behavior isn’t ideal
and needs to be improved in order to make her a good fishing
companion.

We immediately found fish rising to midges and small black
stoneflies. Jamie caught one spunky cutthroat trout after another
while I worked with Lulu. After a while we traded off; more fish
were caught and Lulu got better with each fish. After about two
hours we decided to quit while we were ahead (plus Lulu was
getting tired and cold). We headed back to town, picked up
supplies for cocktails and settled in on our tiny deck with friends
for the rest of the day.

Sunday I headed over to the Henry’s Fork with my neighbor
Chris. We decided to float despite our late start. The weather
seemed perfect; partly cloudy, no wind and kinda warm. As we got
the boat ready and pulled on the waders we saw a few fish rise.
There were all kinds of bugs hatching- BWOs, midges, caddis, a
few larger mayflies, what you expect from the bug factory. Right
off the bat I hooked two trout on a skwala pattern. Seemed like
we were in for a good day. WRONG! That was about as exciting as
it got as we battled our way down the river. I hooked another nice
brown on a streamer and Chris managed a few fish on a dry-
dropper combo. I ended up with more whitefish than trout and a
massive sucker that I swear was a brown trout until he got to the
net…. The highlight however came in the last bit of water when I
got a solid strike on my streamer. Brown trout, nope a PERCH!
Yeah, I caught a perch on the most famous trout river in the
world. That summed our day. Oh well, they all can’t be diamonds
right?

Archive for month: April, 2016