The weather lately has left many of us in Jackson Hole scratching our heads. The past couple of days feel like spring; temperatures have been hitting 50 and the snow in the back yard is melting quickly. Heck, we had happy hour beers on friday outside on the deck at Hayden’s Post. Naturally, the warm weather has folks with fly rods itching to get out on the water. I gave into temptation today, hitting up a stretch of the Snake river. There were quite a few folks out with the long rods. The warm day got a good midge hatch going and I saw numerous fish rising in slower water. I managed to catch a couple of nice cutthroat trout before the sun dipped behind the mountains.

A nice cutthroat comes to hand after falling for a midge pattern. Warm weather has fish feeding

This nice side channel along the Snake held a couple strong cutthroat trout today

Well, winter seems to be moving right along. I haven’t
been able to get out fishing the past few days; it’s been pretty
cold and I’ve been substitute teaching. Instead I’ve been doing
a lot of fly tying. 

A view of my fly tying bench. I try to keep it pretty
organized but after a few dozen flies, things start to get out of
control. I recently got a new vise- a Regal Medallion with
stainless steel jaws. It replaces a Renzetti I tied on for close to
20 years. While I have no complaints about the Renzetti
traveler, I love the new Regal. It holds all hook sizes securely
and doesn’t need to be adjusted at all when putting differet size
hooks in. Just squeeze the lever, insert hook and you’re good
to go. Plus, no plastic pieces to fail. Most flies I tie are trout
flies in the size 6-16 range. I do however tie plenty of
streamers (#2,4s, etc.) as well as smaller dry flies, nymphs
and midges (#16-24). Any size I throw at is held in place like a
champ.

Winter fly tying is a great way to scratch the fishing itch
when you can’t actually go fishing. Patterns coming off the
vise this week consisted of some big, articulated streamers
and classic nymphs. I’ve begun organizing fly boxes too, both
for the boat and my vest.

Here’s a completed Zoo Cougar streamer (non articulated).
I really like these and they’re pretty easy to tie. The duck
flank feather really makes the fly look good in the water…

.

I splurged and bought some new thin orvis boxes for my
nymphs in hopes of simplifying selections for carrying. The box
below is getting filled with my go-to patterns for fishing the
waters here in Jackson Hole, Dubois etc. There’s a ton of
patterns out there, but I always go back to the basics- Hare’s
ears, phesant tails, princes, copper johns and peacock soft
hackles. I like to tie all these both with and without weight
(beadheads or lead wrapping.) In addition to this box, i’m
planning on having a box for tail-water specific bugs (scuds,
rock worms, etc.), a box for still waters (damsel nymphs,
chrionomids, scuds, etc.) and a box for the Firehole river. This
way I can grab the right box for the situation instead of
carrying everything with me all the time. Ofcourse my boat
box will be stocked full of everything so no matter where I’m
floating; Snake, Green, Big Horn, etc. I’ll have what I need.

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.

Like a lot of fly fishers I know, I love “off the beaten path” trout waters. Fortunately here in Wyoming, we have a lot of them. I’ve been fortunate over the years to share some of my favorite “off the beaten path” trout waters with guests. Yellowstone and the surrounding national forests have a tremendous amount of diverse fishing options. Often the hardest question is figuring out what kind of fishing you’d like to do. Want to fish for Yellowstone Cutthroat trout, Rainbows, Browns, spunky Brook trout? How about Grayling in the high country? The options are endless. About this time every year I start daydreaming about places to fish next season; remembering secret haunts, all while putting together adventures for next year. It’s only mid December, but it’s never to early plan right?  

Yellowstone Cutthroat trout are abdundant in many high country streams and lakes..

Pure Wyoming trout wilderness….