Wyoming Fly Fishing Blog: Seasonal Fishing Guide - Page 14 of 30

Kicking off May

May 8, 2015/0 Comments/in /by testing

Looks like we made it through another winter here in Jackson Hole. Spring came early this year and overall the weather has been pleasant. Currently area waters are running high and muddy with melted snow pack. I expect that we’ll be fishing rivers earlier this year barring some crazy May weather. Right now, unless you’re headed to a regional tailwater, the best fishing’s gonna be on area lakes. Most are free of ice and the ones that aren’t will be soon.

Over the past week I spent time teaching and fishing. My friend Matt and I did a cool illustrated poetry contest with the middle and high schoolers in Dubois; a great experience. Being the smart guys we are, we also allowed ourselves a full day there to fish. Hitting up some lakes, we pitched streamers to brown and rainbow trout. I can’t say that the fishing was exceptional, but we did catch some fish and the weather was beautiful; what more could you ask for?

Matt ties on a new fly in perperation for fishing the outlet of this beautiful wyoming lake.

Then, this past weekend, my friend old friend Brandon, came up to the cabin for a quick reunion fishing trip. Brandon and I have been friends since 8th grade (i think), playing together in a HS band we called Fuzzbox and sharing a love of fishing and music. Fortunately we’ve stayed in touch, and with him and his family residing in Colorado, we manage to hook up ever now and then. Knowing we only had one full day of fishing together, we managed to rally, waking up at 5:30 (after a long night of whiskey inspired electric guitar rocking) and hitting the road for the Big Horn river in Thermopolis. After a slow start, we switched to nymphing with leech patterns and began hooking nice rainbows. Throw in a great BWO hatch and we had the perfect day on the water together. Hope we can do it again.

Brandon shows off a pretty Big Horn rainbow. Afterword, he asked, “are there any small fish in here?”

Working a streamer along a pretty band of red rocks. If you look closely you’ll see a horse watching us..

Bahamas and back

April 26, 2015/0 Comments/in /by testing

We’re back. Back to the snow (although it looks like this
week’s gonna warm up nicely) and trout streams of the mountain
west. Jamie and I spent the better part of the past two weeks
down in the Bahamas, relaxing and fishing. We met up with our
great friends, Kurt and Kelly for a reunion trip of sorts, renting a
house within walking distance of a big bonefish flat. Naturally we
fished a lot with a little snorkeling thrown in for good measure. For
sustenance, we ate conch, fish and washed it down with Kalik and
rum. Naturally with bonefishing, there were high points and low
points, but the high certain outnumbered the lows. It was really
great to walk the flats with my friend Kurt, taking turns casting to
the grey ghost that seemed to disappear as quickly as they
appeared.

Me and Kurt about to walk the beach flat in the
morning. Kurt and I have been fishing together for A LONG time
and have had many memorable trips together.

On one particular flat we fished, there were lots of these
beautiful red/orange starfish amongst the dead coral and
turtlegrass.

My most memorable bonefish of the trip. Caught this
guy in super skinny water one morning.

Jamie and I did some exploratory snorkeling out in front
of where we were staying. There were some cool coral formations
to see; lots of colorful tropical fish… Needless to say we needed an
underwater portrait to document. In another area we snorkeled,
there were several turtles that allowed us to swim with them.

Most days Kurt and I fished this area; White sand flats
with BIG bonefish. The fishing is very tide dependent, so we
planned our days based around the tide chart. While the fish were
big, they were really spooky and required precise casting and
properly weighted flies.. We didn’t catch many fish each day, but
the ones we did get were nice! Also saw 2 big permit one day and
got some casts to them. One admired my merkin pattern before
winking and slowely moving on….

Here’s Kurt with a nice bonefish. We fished this different
flat one day and did well. The fish here were much more
aggressive, eagerly eating our flies. I think this was due to the
rocky/turtlegrass bottom that was teeming with life. Made it harder
to spot fish, but when we did, they cooperated.

After dropping Kurt and Kelly off at the airport, Jamie
and I headed west and stayed at a nice little place that offered
great snorkeling and fine bonefishing on the incoming tide.
Unfortunately the weather pattern changed, bringing lots of clouds
and rain. It’s really hard to spot fish without the sun. That said, I
managed a few and truth be told, it was kinda nice to have a rainy
day. We layed around reading with cold beer.

This is the last bonefish of the trip. Fished on the
incoming tide and despite the clouds, I stumbled upon a small
school of hungry fish. Shortly after this guy, I cast to a big
barracuda who ate my fly and took off for open ocean. I was
undergunned with my 8weight, knowing full well that it was only a
matter of time before he broke me off. Sure enough, after battling
for a bit, he severed my line. A fun experience.

Jamie and I enjoying a Kalik while looking for
bonefish.

So that’s a quick summary of our time in the Bahamas. I gotta
say, the Bahamian people might be the nicest folks around. Their
hospitality and the natural beauty of the islands make me eager to
go back. And while the fishing was certainly fun, the best part of
the trip was Jamie and I getting to spend time with Kurt and Kelly.
It’s hard living far away from such good friends, but cool that we’re
able to rendezvous like this every now and then.

Now that we’re back in Wyoming, my attention turns to the
upcoming fishing season. Client, both new and returning are
starting to fill up my calendar and it won’t be long until we’re
casting to rising trout. I’m headed over to Dubois this week to
teach an art project with my friend Matt. While most of our time
will be spent in the classroom, I’m sure we’ll sneak in a little time
on the water…..

Ice off Rainbows

April 7, 2015/0 Comments/in /by testing

Easter weekend usually means fishing for Jamie and I and this year was no different. We headed to our fishing cabin outside of Dubois Wyoming, armed with fly rods and DVDs to watch. After a little debate, we decided to tow the drift boat to a favorite lake of ours not too far away, hoping to find some hungry trout.

Our decision payed off. We spent the morning and early afternoon casting leech patterns to hungry rainbow trout. Thrown into the mix for a little diversity were lake trout and brown trout. The fishing was pretty good, both of us hooking some nice fish. I caught one super long Brown trout that would’ve been something else had it not been so skinny…. Overall, a fantastic weekend.

Jamie shows off one of the nice rainbows she caught on Saturday. Black n reds and rusty woolly buggers were the ticket.

I even got to throw some flies!

The weather this week has turned back to typical Rocky Mountain spring conditions- cold, grey and wet with intermitant snow and rain showers. I may try to sneak out on the Snake today for a few hours of wade fishing, but we’ll see what gets done around the home. We’re headed to the Bahamas this weekend to relax and look for bonefish. I’ve tied quite a few patterns for the trip, but it seems like there’s always one more fly to tie (even though I’ll probably use a fraction of the patterns in my box).

Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you…

March 31, 2015/0 Comments/in /by testing

I was hoping to have some exciting fishing pictures to share after a
few outings on the water lately. Due to laziness (sometimes, I’d
rather just fish than worry about taking pictures) and some slow
fishing, I have nothing to show for myself.

Jamie and I got out on the Snake recently, taking advantage of
beautiful weather. We caught some fish and had fun. It’s a great
time to fish the Snake as large cutthroat are hungry and stoneflies
can be found scurrying along the banks, etc. I expect good fishing
to continue as long as the water clarity holds up. The Hoback has
been cloudy, cause water clarity to drop below its confluence.

Saturday I spent the day with a great client of mine. Looking for
something different, we took the boat down to Pinedale, WY and
floated the New Fork river. The New Fork is a small, mellow river
known for it’s challenging fishing for BIG brown trout. I was
excited, happy to have a good angler in the boat and hoping to get
into some fish. One problem though, when we reached the put in,
the water was muddy; quite a surprise. The 30 mph wind didn’t
help us either. At the end of the day, we got skunked. Yes,
skunked. It hurt our egos and left us searching for answers, but at
the end of the day, we still had fun and realized sometimes “the
bear eats you.”

Spring’s springing

March 19, 2015/0 Comments/in /by testing

Boy, spring isn’t wasting any time making its’ presence
known here in Wyoming. Temperatures lately have been
hitting the 50 degree mark and local fly fishers are taking
advantage, both wade and float fishing local waters. I can’t
remember a time when boat ramps were accessible so early
in the season.

I spent the last week or so back east in PA visiting family.
While it’s always good to see folks, it’s nice to be back in the
Rocky Mountain west. While back, my brother Pete and I
manage to sneak out for a few hours in search of brook trout.
Unfortunately waters were high and off color, making small
stream fishing tough if not impossible. Still though, it was
great getting on the water with him.

The next week or so around here has some fishing in the
cards. Jamie and I are headed out on the Snake tomorrow to
take advantage of the great fishing. We’re hoping to fish dry
flies; small black stoneflies, midges, BWO, etc. If nothing else
we’ll have some fun on the water together. Then, I’m headed to
Dubois to check on the cabin and fish the Wind and Big Horn.
Folks are starting to book fishing trips for the upcoming season
and I can’t wait to get back on local waters with guests.

My brother Pete casts to a plunge pool on a small PA
stream. While this small water is known to hold wild fish, we
didn’t see any. Pete swears he’ll go back and see how it fishes
in warmer weather…

I spent today tying some Skwala stoneflies. Skwalas
emerge in the Spring on Wyoming waters like the Snake. A
big, size 10 fly drifted and twitched along banks often produces
violent strikes! Yes, that is bear fur for the wing.

On the road; Utah, CA etc..

March 9, 2015/0 Comments/in /by testing

I finally have some time to update a few things around here. The long silence was in part due to some time spent traveling. Jamie and I headed to California to visit friends, enjoying some warm weather and poolside lounging/beverages. Upon returning to Jackson, I turned around the next morning and headed down to Flaming Gorge Utah with Matt for our annual fishing trip down there. Add in some substitute teaching, drawing lessons and some days in Dubois, and you can start to see why there has not been much activity around here lately.

This years Flaming Gorge trip was great as usual. Matt and I spent four days fishing to the lower Green River’s resident (and large) rainbow and brown trout. This year was a bit more challenging due to big flow releases coming out of the damn. Morning arrivals at the river had water levels nearly overflowing the banks. However by mid afternoon, water dropped by 2-3 feet making for a much mellower river. Because of the flow fluctuations, fish were spooky and hatches not as consistent as years past. We did pretty well though fishing big streamers, switching to 6X tippets and size 22 midges when we found rising fish.

Hooked up below Little hole; fish were hungry for midges

The result. We took a few from the slow pockets and seams along the banks

Matt got his streamer fishing on! All hail the Black and Red!

After hiking down to Grasshopper Island, we surveyed the scene and tried to break the ice off our guides

Cree Hackle; the mythical beast and a hackle shootout

February 11, 2015/0 Comments/in /by testing

Cree Hackle shootout….

Hackle participants

Here’s my collection of Cree and Cree related
Hackles; how do they stack up against brown and grizzly?

Cree Hackle is a mythical beast; one feather that does it
all and is as rare (and expensive) these days as a a white
buffalo. For those fly tiers out there who aren’t familiar with
this rare colored rooster hackle, cree is basically a grizzly
hackle with brown and ginger mixed in, making it, in theory,
perfect for tying Adams/parachute adams or any other dry
flies that require the magic mix of brown and grizzly hackle.

I tie a lot of flies and am somewhat of a hoarder when it
comes to dry fly hackle (both rooster necks and saddles).
Additionally, like a lot of anglers, the parachute adams dry fly
is one of my “go-to” patterns, both for personal use and when
guiding clients on rivers like the Snake here in Jackson Hole. I
tie a lot of them and am always looking for a quicker way to
tie. Last year I set out on a quest to find cree hackle to
incorporate into my patterns. After talking with the good folks
at Whiting, I learned that they don’t even offer Cree necks
anymore since they are so rare and demand so high (i’m sure
someone gets the rare one now and then, but not tyers like
me). They did recommend and send me a barred dark ginger
cape though, saying it’s a good cree substitute. I also ended
up ordering a “chili pepper” cape from Clearwater Hackle in
Idaho; their version of cree. Then I hit the jackpot. While
shopping in Idaho Falls, I came across four Metz cree capes at
Sportsman’s Warehouse. FOUR! I did what any self-respecting
fly tier would do and bought three; figuring such an
opportunity might never happen again. After tying with them
on and off for a while now, I thought I conduct a little
“research” to see how my different hackles stack up, and if all
or any of them are a true substitute for the tried and true one
grizzly/one brown hackle.

All flies were tied parachute style on a size 12 hook.
Here’s the subjects, the results and my thoughts…. Sorry for
the lousy photos.

Fly 1:Traditional parachute adams tied with both a grizzly
and brown hackle that came from Whiting rooster necks.

killer combo; brown and grizzly hackle Traditional parachute adams

My Whiting brown and grizzly rooster necks; the
standards for which all are judged.

Fly 2:tied with a barred dark ginger feather from a Whiting
neck.

Barred dark ginger hackle parachute adams with barred dark ginger hackle

Whiting recommends this color hackle as a close
replacement for cree. On the neck I have, the larger size
feathers definitely look to be cree. The smaller sizes however
are primarily of the brown/ginger barring, lacking the black.
Overall though I would agree that this is pretty close to cree
and I bet if you found a few to pick through at a retail shop you
could get one pretty close to your objective. When tied, I
found that the hackle on this fly was on the lighter shade-
more ginger in color and lacking darkness. Overall though it
looks buggy and is great for certain patterns…

Fly 3:tied with a cree feather from one of my Metz necks.

Cree
hackle Fly
tied with cree hackle

These feathers are the real deal and are what I’m judging
all others on. I was pretty pleased with how this fly turned
out; definitely had the black barring and buggy look. The
browns are not quite a prevalent compared to using two
hackles. These feathers make tying small adams, caddis, etc.
easy.

Fly 4:tied with a chili pepper feather from a Clearwater
hackle neck.

Clearwater Hackle Fly with chili pepper hackle

Clearwater’s a newer player in the hackle game, but do a
nice job. Their necks are affordable, have lots of feathers and
the customer service is great. Their feathers are much shorter
than say Whiting and remind me of the old dry fly necks I
started tying with years back. The chili pepper color is their
version of cree. The neck I was sent doesn’t quite have the
black barring found on cree necks, but overall it ties a pretty
nice fly; albeit lighter than the traditional tie. Definitely worth
checking Clearwater’s inventory as their chili pepper necks
vary a bit in shading and color…

Fly 5:Grizzly hackle colored brown with sharpie marker.

Fly with sharpie colored griz hackle

This final parachute adams was tied with a grizzly hackle
from a Whiting neck. I partially colored this feather brown
with a sharpie to see how it would compare to the naturals…
It’s not as sexy as tying with the other natural colored
feathers, but it does a damn nice job imitating both brown and
grizzly with one feather and could certainly work well for tying
with one feather.

Overall, I don’t think anything beats the traditional use of
one grizzly and one brown hackled mixed together. However
cree comes awful close and as I mentioned, it makes tying
tiny flies that call for griz/brown hackle easy. I do think all
these colors and variations look better (darker and colored) on
the cape. Once selected and tied, they all are lighter in color.
So there you have it. Hopefully that cleared some questions
up regarding cree hackle and substitutes for the elusive beast.

Results top view

Winter thaw

February 8, 2015/0 Comments/in /by testing

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

Back on the sticks

January 30, 2015/0 Comments/in /by testing

Perhaps suffering from a bit of cabin fever or perhaps just
wanting to get out of town, on Monday Jamie and I hooked up
the drift boat and headed to the Big Horn. What is the Wind
River through the Wind River Canyon, the river emerges,
changes its name at the Wedding of the waters and flows north
through the town of Thermoplis, Wyoming.

Jamie looks for risers. Despite a few midges on the
water, rises were few and far between

I’ve floated the BH a few times but this was Jamie’s first
on this great tailwater. I’ll be honest, expectations were high;
we hoped to catch some of the large rainbows and browns that
the river is know for. At the end of the trip though all we had
to show for ourselves was one feisty ‘bow. Oh well, such is
fishing in January.

Taking out as the sun goes down; nothing a few tow
ropes can’t solve.

The real excitement took place at the takeout where a
truck taking out ahead of us got stuck in the warmed snow.
Fortunately there were two older guys and their Ford Bronco.
Action based on years of experience was taken and eventually,
with the help of some tow straps and a surprisingly powerful
old Bronce, the truck got unstuck and pulled up the ramp.
Seeing this production, I decided it best not to back down to
the boat, instead attaching the tow straps to my winch and
cranking the boat up the snowy slope. Jamie and I left smiling,
proud to live in a state where strangers still happily help
strangers and no one gets stressed because things are running
a little behind schedule….

Tying

January 23, 2015/0 Comments/in /by testing

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.