The Journey: part II Montana and Beyond

The last post I wrote came from a couch at my buddies house on some borrowed internet, now this one comes from my own house, looking back on one of the coolest trips I have ever been on.  After Utah, I headed strait up to the Beaverhead valley to fish none other than the Beaverhead river.  I desperately wanted to find remote water without any people, but unfortunately the Beav, or most major rivers in southern Montana, was not the location.  Despite the people and proximity to a town and freeway, I fished it for 4 days.  Seems that sighting multiple fish over two feet will change your idea of a good time.  I fished under an indicator and with streamers.  The best fish came under the bobber, which ended a few times with a nice bow in the net.  On of them was a solid slab of chrome, almost thought I had a steelhead on minus the size, fight, and location.

The most fun fishing was swinging streamers through big runs at dusk.  Camping right near a river pretty much allows you to fish until it is too dark, too cold, and too creepy to hang around any longer.  My most fun night on the Beav. came when I fished until 9 pm, well after sunset.  Almost every cast I had a hit on streamers, and occasionally a hook up.  At one point I landed 4 fish in 4 casts, all of which were decent browns.

There is something awesome about casting a line it total quiet and dark, listening solely to the sounds around you and waiting for a tug from the other end.  I remember listening to a beaver gnaw away at stumps, sounding much more like a typewriter than anything else.  I guess its memories like that I was looking for, more than just the quest for hog johnson.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the arrogance of fish, I wonder where a 6" fish gets off thinking he can swallow a 4" streamer, or for that case a 4" fish chasing a 6" streamer.  I will say that a productive streamer fishery is awesome!! and for those of you who are looking for a place like that, head up to the Beaverhead.

After my stay near Dillon, I headed north to the Bitterroot just in time to meet up with a god forsaken cold front blowing in from the freaking tundra.  Going from 70 degree days to 40 degree days with lows in the teens really screws with morale, and more importantly the fish.  The fishing slowed down dramatically to where we were catching only a handful of fish a day.  I still learned the basics of rowing and had some great experience on a drift boat.

After I was chilled like a piece of meat, I finally got out of the cold and headed down to the Owyhee.  This was by far the best fishing I had.  This was the first time I had ever fished for 20+" fish with dries, which gave me memories I will never forget.  It was basically sight fishing in off colored water, look for a massive dark spot and watch them precipitate into fish as they nosed the surface, then cast to it and if the presentation was right... sluurrp, the fish would nose up just enough to suck the fly off the top.  It was really technical but absolutely amazing.

If you can believe it, both these fish ate a sz 16 cream humpy.  What a way to end a trip.

The Journey: Utah

For a long time now I have been dreaming up a great fishing adventure; in search of not only pristine wild trout waters but also of adventure.  I am exploring rivers in some of the most renowned fishing states: Idaho, Montana, and Utah. Last Thursday I packed up nearly everything I own, threw it into my truck and trailer, and headed out east to Utah to begin my trip in some of the fine trout streams of the Uintas.

In typical WTW style, my long time fishing buddy Ross and I found a blue line on a map and pointed the car in that direction.  Our first stop was a place some refer to indiscriminately as "fish creek" and it had some of the finest runs that I have ever seen in a small stream.  We found a series of runs, one with a school of 12" browns stacked up in a dark mass that looked more like a bait cloud than a bunch of feeding trout.
The excitement was hard to contain as we threw everything from stoneflies to midges at them, all with moderate success.  Much of the fishing was textbook, spot a nose break the surface, figure out how to limit underwater landscaping, and drift a fly through the zone.  Ross was the first to pluck out a nice fish, I have to add that he did so using my set up!  The excitement of that fish apparently made Ross hungry and soon after and he attempted to eat a can of chili by pouring it all over his face.

Although we spotted a lot of nice fish, the packed down trails along the waters edge and the bait chukars near the dam gave us the message that we needed to get to a more remote spot, we soon found ourselves camped out under a bridge next to railroad tracks, and we found ourselves enjoying the cool utah night.  We felt like trolls, eating food like barbarians while living under a bridge, and most importantly guarding the gateway to pristine water.

The limited pressure worked in our favor and we kept plucking fish out of every single bend in the river.  We came across some large pools where we even got some fish to chase streamers.  Fish seem to love the streamers that are ginger/white, much like a juvenile whitefish or brown.  I like to fish them on a sink tip and a switch rod.  Streamer fishing can require patients but on this trip the extra patients paid off.

Despite great fishing we wanted to explore another river, Im not usually one to leave a good time for a good time, but our move was wise and we got into some great fish.  Both on streamers and stoneflies.

Tomorrow I will be heading north, I pray the wind is at my back and fish stay hungry.  Wish me luck and stay tuned for my Montana update.

Good Times Are Coming

The river here in Nevada seems to always get a lot more popular towards early fall, to be expected though.  When the summer days start to cool, big fish start moving around and fall (in my opinion) is the best opportunity you will have to land that big brown you have been dreaming about.  In the past few weeks there have been numerous big browns landed, I've seen two at about the 30" mark and plenty more two footers.  The key to this time of the year is to know your runs.  Deep pools hold fish, but they are impossible to get a perfect drift.  Fish the dark riffles that are 5-6 ft deep, that way your drift can properly be presented.  I caught this guy in a 5 ft pool under a riffle on a stonefly, the same stone that has been picking up big fish for me all year.  Truckee river trout LOVE stoneflies.

When I hooked this guy I fought him in a pool of slow water before he decided to run me down river through water that I would never wade through on my own.  It was a whitewater boulder field with waste to chest deep pockets that sucked me in like black holes, then spit me into large greased up boulders as if I was a pinball.  Using the current, the fish took me into my backing leaving me no option but to basically swim down river after him.  Many people say that browns don't fight that hard and bows are more fun to catch, but this was the best fight of my life.  It took me a handful of minutes to get him into the heavily covered shore and before my buddy could make it there with the net.  What an awesome fight!  Like I said, there are some awesome fish to be had in the river right now, and as it cools off more, the browns will be looking to spawn and the fishing is going to explode!

After I landed this big guy we fished some pocket water for a little bit.  Rumor has it that slower pocket water is the place to yard out some trophies right now but it is very technical to fish.  My buddy Dave pulled out this nice bow just behind a boulder in the river.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you out there!

Finally a Real Break

Taking some time off the water then getting back to it can sometimes be difficult.  The last three mornings on the water have been slow for me.  I have spent a lot of time walking the river and exploring what's around the next corner, even running in to a little unexpected wildlife in some trees near I-80.

As far as reasons to why I had slow fishing... First the water was high/ muddy as all hell, then as it
cleared the fishing seemed like it would improve but never really did.  I think my main problem was that I was still set on using the flies that were successful for me three weeks ago.  Thats one thing about summer time fishing here on the Truckee, the hatch is always changing.  I had been using a cray and a stone which was killing it for me a few weeks ago, but lately hadn't accounted for any fish.  I switched my pattern up to a stone and a hares ear grub (great go to fly and very easy to tie) and that seemed to do the trick.  Today I finally caught a break while nymphing a HUGE pool after I spotted some fish rising.  My drift meandered along next to a foam line in the water and then, after two tries, my indicator went down ever so slowly.  I set the hook sofly out of instinct thinking it was just hung up on the bottom but as I did that I watched a big old flash shine through the water like a underwater camera taking a photo.  That made my heart race.  This brown had some great colors and I am pumped I got a good photo of him.  Look for the fishing to steadily improve through september.

A break from the Truckee

A few years ago a friend of mine inspired me to go out on his hunting trip with him, shortly after I decided I wanted to give it a try and I went and picked myself up a bow.  Now every August I spend 2 weeks in the desert chasing animals and working my ass off, usually gaining no more than the unforgettable memories, but this year was a little bit different.  I drew an archery antelope and deer tag in the northeast corner of the state.  For those of you who haven't been there, that region is amazing.  The Jarbidge range is much like the Sierras, only less people and much more wild.  The hundred of creeks that carve out the thousand foot deep canyons have the only bull trout population in the state (southern most population that exists) and plenty of rainbow, brook, and red band trout too.  The water is crystal clear and you can watch springs pour water out of the ground in many places.  The fishing can quite literally get boring with the over abundance of small fish that ferociously attack dry flies, nymphs, hoppers, and basically anything else that comes drifting their way.  To keep things interesting my friend and I like to see what kind of things we can catch fish on.  Last year he caught a fish using dental floss, a hook made from a beer can, and a grasshopper caught on the shore.  This year we spent a little more time hunting animals than goofing off on the river, and it paid off.

I shot this antelope at 42 yards from behind a blind you might say.  When I tell people about it and they ask if it was on water or spot an stalk... I say yes.  My friend and I were building a blind when he spotted some lopers coming in to water, we hit the ground and I crawled 10 yards to the truck.  Then, using the truck as cover, I got the shot off.  So basically it was a road buck, shot on water from behind a blind after spotting and stalking ha.  But in all honesty, I got very lucky with the opportunity and none of it would have been possible without all of the help from my friend Ross.

After I shot the buck, we had a few days to relax before deer season.  We spent this time fishing and driving around exploring.  We found a series of beaver ponds that looked amazing to fish, and sure enough... they were.  My very first cast tricked a small brookie in a matter of seconds and we continued to find hungry fish for the rest of the morning.

Like I said, after a certain amount of catching we were satisfied and started looking for new means of entertainment.  We set the camera underwater to try and capture some of the fish that we saw in every single pond we walked up to.

TU's message really hits home once you see how productive of a fishery untainted waters can be.  I hope to find more spots like here, hopefully with some bigger fish too!

New Fishing Buddy

I have been wanting to take the plunge for a real long time now and I finally decided I could handle the commitment and responsibility of getting a pup.  Heres a photo of my 12 week old Drahthaar, Watson. He likes fish even more than I do, anytime a fish jumps on the end of my line I have to fight to keep him out of the water.  Its pretty exciting watching him grow and learn.

Know Your Options

When you fish the Truckee, or any popular river in the summer you have to expect to run into people on the water.  Also, people usually plan on fishing the same runs too because there are a lot of popular holes.  Places that get hammered are in Mogul and all through Verdi in the trophy section (improperly named in my opinion).  When you fish those areas, expect for anglers to be up in your cool-aid, particularly if you are there on the weekend.  When there are people in the run you were planning on fishing, keep moving! It might be a blessing in disguise.  I have had days where I was gung ho about a certain run I was convinced would hold a pig, then got there to have someone already fishing it so I moved down or up the river and got into way more nice fish.  Not to mention a lot of holding areas get overlooked.  A perfect example of this was yesterday.  I got to mogul to see three anglers rigging up their rods in the parking lot.  I was all ready to fish but I asked them where they had planned on fishing before I walked to the water.  The guy told me the run that I had in mind which bummed me out but I let them have it anyway, after all they were there before me.  I walked 200 yards upstream and landed an awesome brown in a run I watched another two anglers walk right past.  You got to know your options on the Truckee and be willing to move.  If I am fishing a run I have never fished before I will move on if I get 10 perfect drifts with no bumps.  If I have gotten a fish there, seen nice fish landed, or heard a story of a big fish there I will give it more time, but in my experience, good drifts don't go unnoticed and no takes time after time usually means that you should move.  Know where to go next.  I like to head to the water with a plan of fishing at least three large runs.  This way I don't get bogged down in one too long.  As I walk from one run to the next I high stick the pocket water in between, again with only a few drifts.  The biggest key to this time of year is weight.  I fish a heavily weighted craw with a lead wrapped stone below it.  You might have a great drift, but if there isnt enough weight, then your flies wont be deep enough in the water column and they will go right over all those nice fish.