Archive for year: 2016

Another hot week has come and gone here in Western Wyoming. Summer has come on fast around here and fishable waters abound, many clear and fishing earlier than usual. We’ll see how things play out down the road, but for now it’s a great time to be a fly fisher in Jackson Hole.

I spent the week mixing business with pleasure; both fishing with Jamie and Lulu as well as a number of great fishing clients. We ventured up to Pacific creek one day and wandered the water fishing yellow stonefly patterns to selective cutthroat trout. The fish were more moody than I remember from past trips there, but once bugs started hatching we found a few runs with hungry risers. Guiding-wise, I did both some float fishing and some wade fishing trips. In all cases, fish were caught and folks enjoyed themselves. Enjoy some pictures…

 

Kid’s got game- Tom shows off a small Yellowstone cutthroat trout caught in Yellowstone National Park’s backcountry.

We followed these grizzly bear tracks along the river. Seems this grizzly and I share an infinity for the same stretch of trout water.

June’s off to a hot start around here. After a mild spring so far, we’re seeing temperatures hit 80 degree here in Jackson. All of a sudden everything’s green; a pretty sight after months of white, tans and browns. It seems like this years runoff is a bit different; I feel like we had an earlier, first-part runoff, with all of the lower elevation snow disappearing. Now with 80 degree temps, the high elevation snow is melting quickly. This gives me a sneaking suspicion that things will clear fairly fast.

Right now much of the fly fishing I’ve been doing, both with clients and on my own has been occurring on our lakes, in the southwestern portion of YNP and in smaller, high elevation streams. The Green was fishing well too until a few days back. Now it’s big and dirty. I think this should get back in decent shape in another two or three weeks.

Matt heads down into a canyon stretch of water. While clear, the water was raging making wading tricky..

Spotted fever- A beautiful brown. I didn’t catch many fish, but the ones i got were stunning.

A few days back I got out with my friend Matt for some exploring. We fished a stream that was clear but definitely raging with water. Much of it was impossible to fish (and wade) but there were some good, slower runs and while we didn’t catch many fish, the one’s we got were nice. I stuck to a big red ant, remembering why i love dry fly fishing so much!

Got to take Joe on his first guided float fishing trip the other day. I debated where we’d fish prior to heading south, but after watching the level on the Green drop, I suggested we go see what’s happening. The water was in pretty good shape; off color, but by no means muddy. After helping Joe straighten out his cast and offering a few pointers, we begin fishing. Almost immediately Joe hooked into a big fish which ran him straight up river. Snap, fish gone but big smiles all around. Once Joe got comfortable fighting fish, he landed a few including a really nice brown trout. Countless other fish were lost and at times we donned raincoats to fight off rain showers. Overall it was a good day on the Green and one that Joe will remember.

Not a bad first fish on the fly rod! Nice brown Joe!

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.