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.

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?