Fishing With the Fam

The past weekend was absolutely beautiful around here, so Christine, Alex, and I got out on Saturday at Pine Creek and then we had a guys day on Sunday down below Livingston. The warm weather has been crazy, but it's back to snow the last two days.
Finally started seeing some BWO's and fish eating midges in the foam eddies. Streamer fishing was good on Sunday with the usual suspects of Bow River Buggers and Zonkers.
The highlight of the weekend for me was seeing my 9.5 month pregnant wife catch a fish and flash a big smile. Also, spending two days with my son Alex out on the river was pretty cool too. He' picking up the fishing, but seems to just enjoy being out there with his old man.
We should be having the baby in the next week or so.

Yesterday

We fished the Yellowstone yesterday down below Big Timber. The wind was ripping early on but let off later in the day. The flows are pretty low and the water is slightly off-color, but perfect for streamers and heavy nymphing. Ricky got a good one a red worm and the rest of us picked up some fish on Bow River Buggers, Sculpins, and teh ever popular worm.

It was a really great day out there yesterday as the compnay was good, fishing was pretty good, and it was just terrific to get outside. There were a few small fish rising in the shady spots along some quiet seams in the afternoon, but no sign of the March Browns or BWO's yet.

Spring Thing

Every year, once it gets nice, anglers head to the Madison in droves to put the whumping on some well rested fish. By well rested I really mean that they haven't been whumped on in awhile. Whumped refers to whacking fish in the faxe with various colors and shapes of rabbit tied on a hook with or without an oversized gaped hook to accommodate a way too heavy cone. That's my pessimistic side coming out again. Actually, it seems to be much tamer tahn I've described, BUT the droves are definitley there.
A couple friends and I went out yesterday in search of a nice Sunday outing. The day started off with plans to go on a pig hunt on the lower Yellowstone. That worked great until we called the shuttle guy and he informed us that SOCAL was sunny and warm on Sunday and he had no idea what the ice looked like around Reedpoint. So, that coupled with the extreme pregnanacy factor of my wife put us closer to home on the Murdison.
The day just wasn't going well..but we did have some killer breakfast snadwiches from Cafe Zydeco... and then Jared's Landcruiser decided that it didn't need oil about a mile from the river. So, we hooked the boat to the burbon and made haste to Warm Springs.
The wind may or may not have been blowing, but it sure did seem a bit gusty. I really can't complaign about the wind as it is my friend. But if I could categorize the conditions as being...blustery...in the whitecaps on the river sort of way.
The fish were eating Zonkers and San Jauns just fine, but we were having a bit harder time sticking it to 'em than usual. We each ended up with some fish in our 3 hour float. I got home to the wife in a reasonable time, Jared got his cruiser back to town before dark and Dane got his coffee cup back. All in all, not a bad day, I've certainly had worse.
Look for some risers over there though as soon as we get a non-windy and overcast day. The midges have been around long enough now so that some of the bigger fish shoudl be hunting them down in the weedbeds.

Going Home

I am getting ready to head back to Bozeman after a long weekend in Missouri. This past weekend was my uncles' fishing club's annual spring trip to the White River in Arkansas. After a month of fishing in NZ, I was just looking forward to relaxing one last time before life gets serious again.

Fishing in Arkansas is...different. The river flows change dramatically throughout the day depending on power requirments and generation schedules. By dramatic I mean 1000's of CFS in a matter of minutes!

Fishing this ttime of year is mostly nymphing with typical tailwater rigs including worms, midges, scuds, and sowbugs. I did see a couple of big rainbows, but the majority of fish are fresh from the hatchery and in the 10-12 inch range.

It's not a bad place to fish as the scenery is surprisingly nice, there is some amazing BBQ places for lunch or dinner, and the people are pretty nice. I get a kick out of watching the majority of the guides chumming with corn adn putting worms on their clienst' rods! Fly-fishing is not the most prevelant method down there and it probably does me some good to watch see some fish get thumped on the head.

Now it's time to get back to work, I need to hire some more help in the shop, decide if we should make some "strategic moves" at the shop, get ready for the arrival of our new child in a month, enjoy the time left with just Christine, appreciate the fact that my father is my hero, and keep it all in perspective. An 8+ pounder on a dry fly sure makes life seem a bit simpler.