NZ

I'm in Queenstown today, arrived a few days ago and have been down south fishing the last two days. Things are going well...the house we rented is ideal, the rivers are in great shape, not too many anglers around, and we've been getting some fish.

We fished the Mataura near Cattle Flats the first day and got some smaller fish on dries, broke off more than I landed. This section of the river is not known as having big fish, but good numbers of 2-4 pounders. I found that the 1-2 pounders liked my flies better than the 4-5 pounders! What a beautiful place.

Fished the Oreti yesterday with Selwyn. The light wasn't great and I had shaking legs the first part of the day. My nerves were a little on edge to say the least. My cast fely even worse than it looked. I decided that I will be nicer to clients when they can't get the cast done! Ended up hooking 4 nice fish on dries, landed two. Selwyn's net said 9.75 pounds on the one that he was there for, I questioned it, we checke the net and it was off! The fish was only 7.5 pounds. Pretty damn nice. Pual landed a 6.5-7 pounder as well. I don't thing we saw anything under 5 pounds all day. All in all, a great day. Here's some pics from the Oreti

Twas the Night Before NZ

It's 12:30 am, my flight leaves in 4 hours, I've packed, repacked, and then unpacked to repack several times in the last 24 hours. All of my bags are filled to capacityand my check-ins are right at the 50lbs limit. I have to spend the next 2 days in LA because of poor planning and frequent flyer miles. I can't buy anything there because I have no room for anything.

Oh well, I'm excited as hell about my trip and I can't sleep. I've always been this way though. I rememebr going Turkey hunting with my dad and his best friend when I was 14 or 15. I stayed up all night in the bathroom reading hunting magazines. I've been known to drive all night to get to a duck blind at first light . It's what I do.

I'll try to get some sleep so that I can watch some football at some bar in LA tomorrow!

It's Warming Up

It's getting a little warmer and fisherman are stirring around. I imagine that the Lower Madison still has some anchor ice and everything else is definitley still pretty chunky. I fit gets up into the 30's and 40's, things shoudl start to get better.

I did talk to some guys that were over on the Big Horn recently during this cold spell. The water temp was low 40's and the fish were still very active throuhgout the day. The Horn has been fishing very well for the last year and is a great winter choice. The crowds are much less of an issue in the winter, but expect to see some folks out if it's a nice day. Fish are eating the usual suspects including sowbugs, San Juans, and midges. Black and White Zebra Midges have been a guide's favorite over there, so don't leave home without them.
I used to love the Big Horn, but rarley fish it anymore jsut because of its proximity to Bozeman. I guided over there this past September and was amazed at how good it was. The guides over there were pretty non-chalant about the fishing as it really was..."stupid good" After 3 days, I was ready to go home and get back to more normal fishing! You know the type, maybe get a bunch, maybe get some, maybe fish dries, maybe streamers, maybe nymph, maybe the Stone, maybe the Gallatin, maybe the Madison....variety is the spice of life.

Man it's Cold.

Went to the bookstore this evening, it is a chilly -20. There's just no fishing to be had when it's that cold. BUT it was 80 in New Zealand and I'll be there in a little over a week.

Things have been crazy at work the last few weeks with preperations for being gone a month. Rick and I have been working on the computers all day for about 3 weeks now on the e-commerce part of our site. We added a lot of new products and went with a whole new platformfor ease of maintenance. I'll throw some links up late next week. Overall it looks good, is easy to use, and has a lot of product on it. I'm about halfway through the flies and will be fininshed by Tuesday.

I am packing this weekend so that we can get all my stuff out of my "office" at home which is about to be turned into a nursery for our April newcomer. That was one battle that wasn't even worth fighting!

So, I will be adding posts to the blog while in New Zealand...with pictures now that I have figured that out...it only took a year. There'll be a few more before I go. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail or make some comments on the blog and I'll get back to you when I can.

I get back from NZ on Feb 21 (the day before my brithday) and then head to Arkansas on Feb 28 to fish the White and Norfork with Gabe and my uncles.

White Midge

So, the Cowboys lost. Let's focus on fishing.

Rick came up with a great new Midge cluster pattern this year. I personally always go to a Griffith's Gnat, it works and I can see it . A lot of guys, however, can't see it. So, after playing around with a few patterns last year, he came up with a new cluster pattern and tied them up for the bins.

It's just a black dubbed body with white hackle palmered forward. The key is to use good hackle with stiff fibers and cram the body with lots of wraps. The result is an easy to see cluster pattern that works even better than it looks. Rick, if you didn't know, is an amazing fly tyer...the best I've ever been around (he never reads my blog, so I can say that) so the flies in the bins are super premo.If you're looking to try to get some of those fish on the Madison this winter on dries, pick up a few of these the next time out.
Ib

Go Cowboys

Alright, so I'm a Cowboy fan. One of my favorite lines in the boat is "So, you like football?" Me too, so who's your favorite Cowboy? Don't you know that the other NFL teams were "invented" simply to give the Cowboys someone to play with? Kind of like Eve. Alright...I'll simmer down now. They'll probably get their arses handed to them today anyway.

So why all the football talk? It's too windy to fish, ski, hunt, drive, or walk. I could tie some flies, but I think I'm going to eat some pizza and watch the game. Hopefully ski tomorrow and then get all of my stuff together for NZ starting next week.

What to do what to do?

Winter here isn't quite as tough as some might imagine. There is some great fishing to be had when the weather is cooperative (like now). The lower madison is fishing really good right now with nymphs like San Juans and Crayfish patterns. The spring creeks are always a good choice this time of year. Even a day on the Yellowstone is worth the effort so long as the wind isn't blowing too bad...granted it will be bad but you have to look for days that aren't too bad.

We've got another 10 days or so of duck hunting, uplands just closed but we still have "preseve" shooting for another couple of months. My setter is happy about this and I've discovered that it's actually cheaper than hunting wild birds.

Skiing isn't the best it's ever been, but it's still a good way to waste a day outside with my son.

So many people think it must be unbearbale here in the winter. I guess that's ok.