WInter Again

The weather last week was just out of hand nice, 60-70 degrees and beautiful. We ordered Chinese on Sunday night and I almost lost it when I opened the front door to a snow covered delivery guy. The snow is good for us as our snow pack is looking good and getting better, ideally we'll hang onto it for another 3-4 weeks and lose it in May.

I guided Monday on the LM from Cherry Crk to Greycliff. The day started off perfect for me with a trip to the car wash to get the snow and ice out of the boat. Thank god for hot water!

Fishing was actually very good from the boat, which surprised me. Dead drifting a crayfish with a SJ Worm behind it found 20+ hungry fish in the buckets. The best fishing was between Blacks Ford and Greycliff. With the Rainbows now on the redds in full spawn, we mostly caught browns that were 14-16 and one that was a shade over 19. The bets fish of the day spit up a 6" sculpin as it came to the net. Saw plenty of midges, but no BWO's yet.

Wee Dries Rock

Alex and I went over to the LM today and floated from Blacks Ford to Greycliff in about 2 hours. It started raining and blowing as soon as we got on the water. Not the best conditions for a 10 year old who just got the latest Pokemon game an hour or so earlier. Nevertheless, we did get a few fish without trying too hard. I think I'll take my trip over there tomorrow.

Heres a pic of a 7.5 banger from the Oreti. I got 2 of these that day and Jones got his 9.75. I think NZ is the pinnacle of all trout fishing. Sight-fishing to extraordinarily wary and large trout in water you can drink (but don't). There is no experience in fly-fishing like seeing a 6 pound plus brown trout slowly open its mouth to eat a wee dry on a 15 foot leader. Couple that with 6x tippet and the experience is unlike any other on earth! All fishing is good or great,

 there is something special about the way it happens in NZ.

March Madness

I have no idea what's going on with the NCAA tourney, but it seems like it's he time of year when the phrase above is heard everywhere.

I guided on the upper Mad yesterday between Varney and Burnt Tree. With very clear water and bright conditions, the catching was not that great, especially between Varney and 8-Mile. My hunch is that the fish were probably pretty spooky given the conditions and are mostly still in the holes. So, unless you could get a good drift 30-40 ft from the boat; it wasn't going to happen. Our best luch of the day was hitting the shallow buckets between 8-mile and Burnt Tree. 

I was surprised at the number of anglers, both guides and "freedom fishers" (a term I learned in NZ this year) seemed to be all around. Several anglers were walking right through the buckets that I wanted to fish and I saw a couple guide boats just go bouncing right over them too.

The rainbows are starting to get their spawn on as well, so bugs are less effective than protein flies right now as well. Hopefully they'll get Ennis or Valley Garden open soon to take some of the pressure off that stretch. The river changed dramatically this year between Varney and 8-mile...more so than I've ever seen before on that stretch. This is due to the way that the ice jams form and break up. It looked like there was more and better buckets in this stretch than before.

I'm back on on Monday and hopefully will get in on the LM for the day.

A New Day

I ended up taking it ez today, awaiting the results of my cat scan yesterday. Everything turned out fine, the pain in my side is due to a kidney stone that has yet to make it out of my kidney. So I have that to look forward to which is much better than the alternative that i thought I was dealing with!

I did manage to fish for an hour on the Upper Madison, nothing crazy but got out for a little and got a few fish around Burnt Tree. I'm guiding tomorrow and Saturday and planning on heading that way at least one of the days. It's getting that time of year when those bows start to head for the redds, I heard that they are already on some in the Beartrap. Hopefully, we can find some that are still in the buckets and not squirting eggs.

One of the highlights of the Chile trip was fishing for sea run rainbows. These aren't like steelies that head up river to spawn, these are fish that move in and out of the estuary and lower ends of rivers to feed with tidal changes. I had an afternoon of catching 3-6 pounders, one after another while sight casting to them with a small Hare and Copper (my favorite nz nymph). It was fantastic fun to watch them motor on over and hammer the nymph and then take off like a rocket once hooked. I actually had to walk away from the run because I knew it would end if I pushed it much more!

Catching Up

Alright, my world travels are over and its time to get back into the grind of things. I'm supposed to guide the next few days, the first trips of the year for me. I've been feeling kind of crappy lately, so I might have to have someone else take care of these trips.

I'm kind of a hypochondriac and have been having some pains in my side and abdomen. Long story short, I had a cat scan today so we'll see what shakes out. In the meantime, I'm trying to focus on all the good things, one of which would certainly be spending a day on the water.

I just returned from an amazing trip to Chile with my dad. We were on the Nomads of the Seas trip which is essentially a gluttonous fly fishing adventure into some of the least spoiled trout waters in the world. Helicopters, jet boats, and ceviche while using a 150 foot yacht as the fishing cabin. The fishing was not as good as we hoped for, but we still had a couple really good days, a few alrights, and only one that kind of sucked.

To be totally honest, the bets part of the whole thing was just spending time with my dad. He wasn't caught up in the market and i wasn't worried about being anything that I'm not. I was reminded once again by how lucky I am to have had a great guy as my father, someone that I would like to be more like. The scenery and fishing were all wonderful but when I look back on the trip, I think its the fact that my dad and i go to hang out as friends for a week without the distractions of life.

I plan on staying up on things for awhile now and will be putting more nz and chile pics up over the next week or so.

Thoughts on Rubber

It's been a pretty quick 10 days or so since I've been home from NZ and I'm leaving for Chile tomorrow. This is sure to be an amazing trip as I'm going on the Nomads of the Seas trip with my dad. I'm sure the fishing, scenery, and service will be spectacular but I'm really looking forward to hanging out with just my dad for a week.

Anyway, I've been thinking about the hype over rubber soles as of late. I think the wading shoe companies are the only real winners in this revolution of sorts. The pros of rubber soles are environmental in that they are easily cleaned, thus making it less likely for travelling anglers to pass nastiness around different watersheds, countries, etc. The negatives are not talked about as much but the reality is that the mfr process involved in making rubber soles is nasty in itself, rubber does not give as good as traction on slippery cobbles as felt, and everyone needs to get a new pair of boots.

The various govt. agencies and wading boot companies are putting the burden of spreading things like Didymo and Mud Snails on anglers. They don't address all of the other potential ( and more likely) vessels such as wildlife, livestock, birds, and vehicles. So, I think it's a "feel good" attempt by evil footwear empires to bolster sagging sales. That's my thinking anyway.

Rubber is fine for pea gravel riverbeds and spring creeks, but it just sucks on cobble or larger rocks with algae which are found in most western rivers. I don't think banning felt is really going to solve any of these serious issues, but rubber soles definitely have their place with anglers that do a lot of hiking or winter fishing. So, tone down the rubber rhetoric as the salvation to all foreign invaders is my only point.