Bahamas Blue Hole

Two weeks on Andros

Just returned from spending two weeks on Andros Island in the Bahamas. Andros is the largest island in the Bahamas, yet one of the least populated. Much of it is wild, unsettled country (mangroves, swamps, forests, etc.) with a few tiny “towns” thrown in for good measure. It’s known as the bonefish capitol of the world and expectations were high as we stepped off the small charter plane at Andros Town Airport.

friends on charter

A group selfie as Kieno flew us from Nassau to Andros.

I’ve fished the Bahamas many times over the years and love it! Fish are good size, flats are white sand and the people are super friendly. It was good to be back on Andros after a great trip to the northern tip of the island last year. Joining Jamie and I were our great friends, Kurt, Kelly and Connie. We rented a nice house a few miles south of Fresh Creek and had a blast. Kurt and I were particularly excited about the fishing potentials since the house was situated on a bay with flats as far as the eye could see. Unfortunately the fishing was a bit of a bust. Each day we walked the flats and saw very few if any bonefish. Waters that looked like they should teaming with fish were empty. Empty not just of bonefish, but seemingly all life, save sharks and the occasional barracuda. It left us scratching our heads and drowning our tears in Kalik and spiced rum.

Kurt with bonefish

Kurt showing off a nice bonefish.

andros watercolor sketch

I took my watercolors and did quite a few sketches. This one is of the beach in front of the house.

Never before have i experienced such a beatdown on the flats. Now we did manage to catch some bonefish, all of whom were big and angry. In fact, Kurt caught a huge one in a mangrove-choked area behind our house. I also found a few mutton snapper who were hungry and harassed some boxfish. While we did get a few shots at fish here and there, most of few fish we saw were super spooked and moving fast across the flats. Locals told us the recent inconsistent weather and cold fronts sent the fish to deep water. It did seem like the shallow waters were chilly and maybe that does explain the empty flats. In any event, it was a hard two weeks of fishing in paradise. The good news is that we got to fish in paradise for two weeks and had a blast!! I can’t wait to get back!

nate with bonefish

Me with a bonefish. On this particular day, we found a few fish and hooked them!

mutton snapper

I love the mutton snapper! They are beautiful and pull some line. This guy’s a smaller one, but equally cool.

uke jam at the airport

I also took a uke with me and played quite a bit. I decided to give an impromptu concert while waiting for a hotel taxi in Tampa on the return journey

ladies at blue hole

My favorite pic from the trip. Jamie and I Connie are exploring and snorkeling a blue hole that was near our house.

Cigar Box Guitars

Longer days, decent fishing

Sorry for the radio silence. Since the holidays, we’ve been dealing with some fairly heavy stuff round here. Long story short, my dad has liver disease despite never drinking. This has really taken a toll on him and over the holidays his condition worsened greatly. He’s on the transplant list and we’re hoping he gets the call soon that they found a liver for him. In the meantime, I’m in the process of possibly being a living donor. So needless to say, things have been a little stressful round here.

Now for more upbeat things! Days are getting longer around here in Wyoming and fishing is improving. I’ve had the pleasure of guiding some folks lately on the Snake, introducing visitors to winter fly fishing. Some days have been tough, while others have been pretty good. We had some pretty great dry fly fishing with small midges one day in particular. I expect things to improve each week. Typically March and early April offer up some of the best fishing of the year. Huge midge hatches often bring all the fish in the river up to the surface to feed followed by the spring skwala stonefly hatch.

My favorite winter dry flies fresh off the vise…

mid-winter midges

If anyone’s going to be out here in March or April and would like to book a fishing trip, give me a shout. I’d love to show you what later winter/early spring fly fishing can be like. If you really want to have some late winter fun, consider an overnight trip to my fishing cabin in Dubois. While there you’ll experience some warmer temperatures, good fishing on the Wind river and also the option of doing some fun cross country skiing!

I’ve got an art show going at the Snake River Brewery through the end of March. You’ll find a bunch of cigar box guitar built by yours truely…..

nate's lone boulder guitars

merry christmas

2018 tff merry xmas

December

Well here we are in December, getting ready to close out 2018. Fly fishing-wise things are a bit slow at the moment here at Teton Fly Fishing world headquarters. Jamie and I took a nice road trip vacation a few weeks back, visiting friends in California. We had a great time and I managed to sneak in a day of surf fishing around Pismo Beach. Unfortunately the ocean was angry that day and I didn’t have much luck. I definitely should have had a fast sinking salt line on my reel instead of a floating line. I wasn’t able to get the fly down on the bottom due to the pounding surf. Oh well, live and learn. Overall though it was fun trying some new fishing and even more fun spending Thanksgiving week with great friends at the beach!

Since getting back home, I’ve been building cigar box guitars for christmas. My woodshop resembles Santa’s workshop (minus the elves, although I could sure use them!) with wood, guitars and tools everywhere. Last weekend I took newlyweds, Nick and Aaricka out fishing for a few hours. Conditions were tough for these novices, but they picked up casting like champs and didn’t complain at all about the temperatures. In the end, we had great day!

Aaricka learns to cast while Nick watches…. Fun day in the sun fishing the Salt river for these two newlyweds.

newlyweds winter fly fishing

Me and some of my cigar box guitars at the Jackson Hole Christmas Bizarre

me with cigar box guitars

Lu and a Grand Teton Park Bison engage in a staredown….

staredown

End of Fall

Well another fine fishing season is winding down around here at Teton Fly Fishing. Many thanks to all the fine folks who fished with me this season. There were a lot good days on the water!

I just did my last float trip of the season, floating Dave for a few days around Western Wyoming. We had some pretty good dry fly fishing, landing some nice cutthroat trout on October caddis and BWOs. The best part was that the temperatures have held and haven’t been too cold.

I’ve got plans to fish on my own the next fews days along with my buddy Seth. Hoping to find some nice brown trout, but will settle for anyone looking to eat my fly.

Dave hooked up on the Salt. We caught a beautiful late fall day filled with rising trout!

dave hooked up

Always a great time when the Weavers come and visit. While the weather wasn’t the greatest, we had a blast! Kurt and I got to do some fishing.

fun with the weavers

Streamer fishing for Browns, kurt landed a nice one! Gotta love fall

nice fish kurt

Marti and Rico came over the hill and joined me for a day on the Snake. Marti walked away with the fish of the day; a nice snake river cutthroat trout!

marti's fish

August is for dry flies

Seems i’ve fallen behind on this blog. My apologies. This summer has been BUSY! Fishing folks nearly every day leaves little time for updating. Good news is the fishing out here in Jackson Hole has been really fun for guests. I’ve been mixing it up with folks, floating the Snake, Green and Salt, as well as hosting some folks at the fishing cabin. We’ve had some good days out there (and some days like yesterday where we had to “work”). Below are a few pics from the past few weeks. enjoy.

Mark shows off a nice backcountry cutthroat trout

mark with nice cutt

This beautiful little rainbow fell for an attractor dry somewhere in Yellowstone Park

rainbow loves dry fly

Hooked up on the Salt

hooked up on the salt

Portrait

close up

Did i treat myself to a new ukuele? You bet I did! This is how I wind down after a day on the water…..

new uke!

Firehole and the likes

I continue to spend time up in Jellystone as of late. The Firehole is clear and fishing pretty well, making it well worth the drive. Guest have enjoyed the park and the feisty brown and rainbow trout that inhabit it’s waters. Yesterday hatches of PMDs, BWOs and Miller caddis were all coming off in the morning. When surface activity slowed, soft hackles and nymphs brought a few fish to the net.

Snow continues to melt around here and I’m pretty certain area waters have peaked and it shouldn’t be long before great dry fly fishing sets in. I expect to start floating the Green this week in addition to Yellowstone waters.

Mike braved the cold and wind and experienced the magic of the Firehole River. Here he is hooked up with a nice rainbow…

Mike hooking up

He seems excited!

mike's all smiles

Gary shows off his first ever fish on a fly rod. Not bad for a guy use to ocean fishing!

Gary's first fish

Yellowstone

Lately I’ve been fishing some great folks up in Yellowstone National Park. The weather has been spectacular and the fish have been treating us right. The Firehole is always a favorite place this time of year; feisty browns and rainbows, geyser activity and wandering bison make for a great day. The water’s running a little high, but is clear and in great shape.

Leland and his wife found some fish the other day. All fish were caught on nymphs and wet flies, but i suspect the PMDs and Miller Caddis will start hatching any day now.

Fishing in Yellowstone among the Bison

Leland hooked up on an unnamed stream in Yellowstone Park. Bison approved!

Lake fishing…

Late May can be a tough time to find fishy water around Jackson Hole. Temperatures have been warm and snow melt has made most of our favorite trout waters high and unfishable. Time to get out the extra spools of sinking fly line and boxes of leeches and wooly buggers.

I had some fun friends join me last week for a few days of lake fly fishing. We headed south, taking the drift boat out and targeted cruising browns, rainbows and lake trout. While we didn’t catch tons of fish, we did hook up enough to stay interested and managed a handful of pretty nice size trout. Olive, black and brown beadhead leech patterns worked best (great spring lake flies!) but we also threw some streamers with a little more flash and got some aggressive takes too. Each day ended with beer, whiskey and grilled meat. Not a bad way to enjoy spring. The guys got out of town just in time for more rain and snow; the makings of which made it easier to hunker down and replumb the fishing cabin.

Seth B with a nice brown trout

seth and brown trout

Raph with one of his chunky rainbows

raf and rainbow

In the coming days, i have a few fishing trips on the books. We’ll most likely continue to target still waters with leech patterns.

Spring adventures in fly fishing

It’s May and I’m getting excited for fishing here in Wyoming! Seems like we didn’t have much in the way of pre runoff fly fishing the past few months. Weather was lousy and then when things got nice, the water came up and dirtied. I did get out a bit, floating some great folks on the Snake before things went down hill. A lot of time over the past month and half though was spent pursuing bonefish in the Bahamas; first on Abaco, then on Andros.

Unexpectedly, I got a last minute invite from a friend to join him and other friends at the Abaco Lodge for 5 days. I jumped at the opportunity and in less than 24 hours was on a flats boat looking for bonefish. I’ve never been on a trip like this- guides every day, meals, drinks, everything taken care of. It was incredible! The best part of the trip was the group of guys I was with; just top notch folk, all appreciative and enjoying the special trip we were on.

The guides and staff at the lodge were fantastic and worked hard to put us on fish. The highlight for me was fishing with Marty Sawyer, a character and expert Abaco guide. Marty was full of stories, area history and fishing passion. His enthusiasm was contagious and my boat mate, Jim, and I had a blast!

Kurt hooked up on Andros

Kurt hooked up with the first bonefish of the trip. 

Oh barracuda

I love the toothy critters! Barracuda are a fun fish to target with the fly rod. This guys ran like hell and jumped like a brown trout!

andros bonefish

Nothing better than hooking one of these guys while wading white sand flats

After returning from Abaco, my attention focused on Andros, a trip in the making for a while. Jamie and I flew to Nassau, met up with our good friends Kurt and Kelly, and flew in a six-seat Piper to North Andros. Once there, we settled into island life, renting a house on a protected cove and generally having a blast. Kurt and I fished hard everyday on the vast white sand flats, catching some nice bonefish and other species. We also all went snorkeling and kayaking together, spending the evenings cooking and drinking too much Kalik and Rum.

While always hard leaving the Bahamas, it is nice coming home to Tetons and the many trout waters here in western Wyoming. I can’t wait to get out on them!

april hookup on the Snake river

Tyler hooked up on the Snake pre runoff. Conditions were good but we had to fight or our fish.