A few images from a fishy morning on Flat Creek. Flat Creek on the National Elk Refuge here in Jackson Hole, opened for fishing August 1st and will fish well through it’s closing October 31st. 

This guy loved the hopper. As the season progresses, the big fish that reside in Flat Creek will become less likely to aggressively take a hopper, instead opting for mayflies that match the hatch.

Minutes outside of town, Flat Creek is as pretty a place to fish as there is

Gravel bottom makes for easy wading. Most of the time however you’re better off staying on the banks; careful fo the holes and muck….

My weapon of choice, a 5wt Winston. A 4 wt is fun to fish too but the 5wt helps battle the big fish that like to run downstream and head under banks.

Who says you have to wear Khaki and camo while fishing the Refuge? I think fish like a little Hawaiian flare…

Pretty, strong fish- hard to catch but extremely rewarding

July has gone by with the blink of an eye. My updates here have been lacking, mostly due to long days guiding visiting anglers. Most of my trips have been floating the Snake, but I’ve also gone down to the Salt river, up into Yellowstone National Park and over to the Dubois fly fishing cabin. It’s been fun introducing new folks to our great trout waters in addition to fishing numerous return clients.

Warm temperatures (hitting upper 80s and low 90s) have meant getting on the water early, but so far the fishing’s been good with dry flies; both large attractors and smaller PMDs, etc. We also had a front row seat to the ever-growing Lava Mountain fire this weekend while at the cabin. So far the cabin is ok and the fire fighters are doing amazing work.

Tim shows off a nice Snake river fine spotted cutthroat trout. Small side channels can often hold some surprises!

Like father, like son. Mitch one-ups his dad, catching this nice cutthroat on a big stonefly pattern.

Chris got into some nice fish with me on the Salt river south of Jackson

John (chris’) friend came back this year to fool more fish. A good PMD hatch on the Salt gave these guys plenty of risers to target.

Fishing clients Jack and Bret got more than just a fishing trip. These guys got to see the Lava Mountain fire blow up from under 2000 acres when they arrived at the cabin Friday to 10000 acres when they left Sunday evening. Depite the fire threat, we fished some great water and the guys got into some wild Wyoming trout. We spent the evenings sitting on the deck, drinking beer while the helicopters flew overhead. As of today, Thursday, the cabin is safe. Crews are soaking our property and neighbors with a massive sprinkler system. Thanks to the fire crews for working so hard to protect structures. Here’s a view of the fire as we drove back from fishing Sunday. The fishing cabin sits below Hat Butte (seen below, center left).

One of two helicopters fighting the fire behind our place. As of now, the fire’s over 12k acres and growing….

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!