Felt like spring today. Rain and boulders crashing into dams has made for some decision making in the mornings. So, today, like yesterday, we settled on the lesser of all the evils and headed for upper paradise valley. Greeted by a howling wind and unsettled weather, the rise was infrequent at best.

So, we do as we do and accept that it is what it is and go from this to that. The good thing was that there were a few fish here and there eating streamers and we did end up getting onto a few pods of rising trout late in the day. BWO's, pseudos, some caddis, and some Red Quills. I think if the wind would not have been our friend, the dry fly fishing would have been pretty good throuhgout the afternoon. The river color is good. May end up down low tomorrow as my plan A for tomorrow is still on the upside of the downhill run. Jihad mofo.

Oh, and it snowed again in the mountains last night and was a peachy 42 when I left the house this am. We're hammeren on hoppahs!

Rain, Weeds, and Boulders

Arrived to the lower earlier today to beat the crowds. Just a couple of boats got to the boat ramp right after we put on. Into fish right away and the first couple of hours were good. The river came up, got very weedy, a little drity, and the bite went off. Things just seemed weird and then I got to Canaday and there's a massive contraption of some sort spread about halfway across the water.

So, we fished on with a few here and there. It was cold and wet anyway so an early day was ok. Got back to the shop, checked the flows, they didn't make sense, and then it all made sense. http://chronicleoutdoors.com/2010/08/30/massive-boulder-collapse-causes-damage-to-madison-dam-north-of-ennis/.

This should be fun.

Interesting Things

Nothing like starting off the day with meeting the clients and noticing thatyour trailer wheel is about to fall off in the parking lot. The good guys at Tire Rama played like a NASCAR pit crew, replaced the bearings and had me out the door in 20 minutes. Impressive! Ended up on the lower Yellowstone, decent hopper bite, decent nymphing, pretty weedy on that particular stretch of the river though. The day started off clear and warm, ended cold and wet. All in all, a very good couple of days with Dent et. al as usual.

Back to the lower madison today. Got a late start as not too may people have been fishing it and it's been fishing well enough that a mad bomb down the middle has been working just fine. Well, we got to Warm Springs about 9:30 were the first one there, there were 9 other rigs there about 10 minutes into the ordeal so I went elsewhere. I guess everyone was expecting crap weather and a short float today.

Fishing was different today, not much love on the big stuff but the small flies were working very well. I finally gave up on the cawdad after lunch and just fished 2 small nymphs with a size 8 split shot. It worked well. The fish are eating some Pseudos and lots of Black Fly pupae right now, but they always have some crayfish in their mouth and crap this time of year too. You can tell I have a good day over there when my boat looks like it ran through  Red Lobster.

One of the guys I fished with today snuck a Tenkara rod onto the boat this morning. These are a Japanese thing that is picking up some traction here in the states with anglers looking for something different and a new way to fish overgrown, small streams. The rods telescope, have no reel, use a tapered mono leader with some tippet on it about 20 ' in length. A few guys around town have them so I was familiar with the game plan when he pulled it out. Plinkin buckets with the rod made sense but I think it would be pretty tough to successfully land fish much over 15". I'm sure it's been done plenty of times but it would require some skill and more luck. (You gots to love the rod in mouth here!)

Great Day

Day one with the Dent guys was a great success on the Lower Madison. The fish were all over Fins & Feathers Fly Guru Rick Weisend's mad creation of what I like to call a crayfish inspired zirdle or Rick's Zic . It's the perfect weight and color over there right now. A size 16 silver lightning bug helped the rest of the time. A very good crawdad bite today, so we really didn't mess with hoppers too much. Lots of fish in the 14-17 inch range pretty much all day through.
The real highlights of the day, however, usually has nothing to do with the fishing. One of the guys fell chest first out of the boat and onto a weed bed while Ben was coming over for lunch.  (It was only 2 inches deep so he was fine)In doing so, he crushed the 966 Tip Flex Helios he was ranting and raving about during the morning. Something to the effect that this rod changed his life as an angler. As we laughed about that one of the other guys gets up and stumbles in his fly line and ends up destroying his sage z-axis. Funny ha ha as he rags on Orvis rods for breaking all the time. I haven't broken or seen a broken one all year until today and the sage was definitely weaker in all categories (as measured by me).

Esoteric Cutties

Had a play day today with a couple of buddies that used to work for me. Kind of strange how that all works out, but it seems like it usually does. We fished the upper Yellowstone for a change of scenery and with the hope of catching oodles of cutties on dries. No big fish expectations today, just a good time fishing, joking, and casting dries.

Well the bite was slower than expected, we boated 6 or 7 decent cutthroats and a pile of dinks. A lot of fish would look real hard but not eat, which is pretty typical of Yellowstone Cutthroats. I did catch one that I messed with for a half an hour or so that was sitting on the bottom in a big eddy. Just kept throwing my dry over it until it finally saw it and said hello about 4 feet away.

Today was one of those days that reminds me of why I love fly fishing so much. The catching and conquering is always great, but the amazing outdoors with a cold stream running through the day with some good friends to bs with is really what makes the deal for me when I'm just out having fun.

I get caught up in numbers and size, but that's what people hire me to do in addition to the bs and "ambassador of the sport" and local naturalist guide. But the reason I love to do what I do is best summed up in the hooplah that Jimmy Houston makes whenever he hooks a bass. That's pretty much how I feel whenever I get to be on the water and today just reminded me of that great feeling once again!

New Water

It seems like I've been living between Big Timber and Columbus all summer. The fishing has been good though so I won't complain too much.
But, I am a fishing guide and that's pretty much what we do. Too windy, too hot, too cold, too many bugs, too many boats, no fish, too may small fish, too many whitefish, gas is too much, client can't cast, client couldn't buy a dead drift, too many weeds, too many tubers, too much sun, too many full moons, too much dirt, too much weight, not enough weight, fly sinks...and it goes on and on. Fortunately I usually work hard and get good tips so I won't complain about that.
Fished the Lower Madison today and was pleasantly surprised. The bite went off early afternoon but we had decent hopper fishing most of the morning and early afternoon. Dead drifting sculpins, crayfish, and small nymphs worked well too. The floating grass has cleared up quite a bit and we had few issues with the weed situation. Got a nice 16-18 fish, a few dinks, saw a couple big browns, and overall did really well. So I'm upbeat about having another good option around town once again.
Also, we raised another $275 for the pink boat today thanks to a couple more mail in checks. That's over $3000 we raised in just 2 days with the pink boat! Thanks once again to everyone that contributed and we'll do it again next year!

Fall is Coming

Well, it's supposed to get back up into the 90's by the end of the week, but the days are getting noticeably shorter, nights cooler, and the water had cooled down as well. So much for all that worrying last winter about not having enough water.  It snowed in the mountains the night before last and I wore waders yesterday.
Fished the lower Yellowstone the last two days. Yesterday was windier than hell but still managed some fish on nymphs and hoppers. Today was better nymphing than hopper fishing for whatever reason. Starting to see some more bugs out again, the banks are full of midnight stone shucks, saw some PMD's today and a few fish were eating spinners mid-day. A lot of the grass is dying off as well so hopefully those weeds will be gone in a few weeks.
Not sure what the plan will be tomorrow, but the forecast is great and the Madison should be predictably crappy.

Catching Up

The last couple or few months has seemed like a whirlwind. We spend all winter waiting and waiting for the season to get here, then it's here and we have no idea how the hell we got here so quick. I think that I'm over my mid-season burn out, thanks to a couple of days off to get caught up and see the family a bit.

Hopper fishing on the Yellowstone has gotten pretty consistent over the last 4-5 days. The key is to be persistent and somedays they eat 'em all day long, others it's here and there. Patterns in light tans and yellow have been the best for me. Also, I think it helps if you can not be the bazillionth boat coming down a stretch of river.

I ended last week with two days on the Bighorn. The surprise (especially given my luck this year) was that there were hardly any weeds over there at all. Crazy I tell ya. I stuck to the lower river as there were 2 Bazillion boats form afterbay to Bighorn. I guess the whole things is fishing really well though. I had to play around with bugs quite a bit as it seemed like we'd get 'em on something for an hour or two, have a little dry spell, switch it up, get 'em again. Squirmy worms, Little Green Machines, PMD Wondernymph, Cream Sparkle Pupa, and some fish on sowbugs too. Better dry fly fishing up higher I believe. The word is that afterbay to 3-mile is very weedy though and things should be getting sloppy over there in the next week -10 days if the heat stays up there.

One funny thing that happened is that I got check by the Dept of Agriculture for invasive aquatic species at the rest area in between Hardin and Billings. Funny as I was slightly ranting about this in my last post. I asked them if they've ever found anything during their inspections...they said no. Seemed like a good use of govt. money though. I got a nice flyer and a little inspection sheet saying that I'm clean! Not sure what they actually did though as there were 3 of them and they all seemed to be talking to me while filling out my inspection sheet. I'm not making light of the severity of the implications of aquatic nuisance species but rather the way that those in charge go about handling it.

Baby Tarpon Day

Spent a good day on the lower Yellowstone again. Had some good hopper fishing in the afternoon and good/sporadic nymphing in the morning. The black and orange rubberlegs has been working a little better for me the last couple of days for some reason. Lightning bug droppers.

The lower Yellowstone is a diverse fluvial ecosystem. As the longest undamned river in the lower 48, it has a special place in the hearts of both anglers and all lovers of the outdoors. There has been a lot of talk and publicity the last year on the threats on invasive species to our waterways. NZ mud snails, zebra mussels, exotic plants, and even other invasive fish species. A lot of this concern has been "hyped" up by wader manufacturers looking to boost sales through the introduction on rubber soled wading boots. Today, everything came together for me though and I am now on the "band wagon."

I read, a couple of weeks ago, that there is great concern in the Great Lakes region regarding the impending arrival of asiatic carp which have moved up the Mississippi River system. Apparently a few...maybe more have gotten through a series of electric barriers and now may be in Lake Michigan. We have a similar threat here in MT. that has been completely ignored by government agencies, environmental groups, and sadly...sportsman's groups as well.

While our state fish and game agency, FWP, has been fishing the good fight by poisoning Cherry Ck for the last  several years. The intention is to rid this relatively inaccessible trout stream of wild trout and create an isolated population of native cutthroat trout. They recently overdid the deal though and managed to kill pretty much everything in the entire creek, even the fish well below the experimental region. I haven't been following the issue that closely, but reports in the paper indicated that FWP was not to blame, they simply were misguided by the direction on the poison bottle. I'm not one to cast blame...oh wait...I am that guy.

Anyway...so we caught a Baby Tarpon on the lower Yellowstone today. It was more out of a hunch than anything. We saw some fish rolling, I thought they looked like Tarpon. So I rigged up leader with some shock tippet and a Bimini, and had my guys throw some Deceivers into the daisy chain. We ripped this bad boy right out of the pack, in the middle of the Yellowstone River!

That got me thinking about the absence or rare reports of Tarpon in Louisiana. Maybe they headed west in St. Louis and the Carp headed east? That seems logical to me.

Tarpon trips in MT for only $450 a day and the guide provides lunch! Where in the world can you catch rainbows, browns, whitefish, the odd cutt, channel cats, stone cats, smallies, and Tarpon! It's here for the taking.

Down low again tomorrow and then to the Bighorn Thur and Fri. It's a Gold Eye, it's native, and this was a big one. All the rest(except the Cherry Ck  and carp thing) is pretty much bullshit that rolls around in my head as I drive home every night.

werkin

From the stone to the beav to the mo to the stone stone stone and then horn horn home. Seems like month since I've been in the shop but thankfully the guys are keeping the empire alive and well. I think that we've had a recent rush of seasonal highway workers spending their hard earned share of the stimulus money. They must have time to fish as they only seem to pave one lane of the roads around here.

The yellowstone continues to be the most consistent thing going around here. The LM is still a weedy cesspool, the upper continues to be inconsistent, and wtfk about the gallatin. I've been continuing to stick down well below Livingston, getting on the water early to avoid the other guide boats. The last couple of days have been good nymphing but I haven't messed with hoppers too much as the nymphing has been reliable. Stoneflies and lightning bugs all summer long. It's pretty weedy but more of the string variety than the cotton candy type. I love weeds.

Two more days around here and then I head over to the Bighorn for a couple of days of fishing black fly pupae which everyone assumes are really black caddis pupae. But Rick lined me up on that one years ago so we'll just leave at that. It's supposedly fishing well and not too weedy.

Weed again

Just got back from a couple of days up on the Missouri with one of the guys I see every year. He's 84 this year and says he wants to do one more year. I hope I still love to fish as much as he does when I'm 84.

Anyway, the Mo is weedy. Not so bad that a really good angler can't deal with it so long as they clean their flies every cast. The weather was crap for hoppers and the rise was sporadic at best on Tricos and PMD's. The first couple miles below the dam are the least weedy and most crowded. We got a few good fish both days but had more dry spells than hot ones and pretty much found weeds of some variety on just about every drift.

The weather the last week has kind of thrown everyone a curve ball with it's unsettledness but things should get back on now that the fish and temps have settled back into a norm for a day or so. That's a round about way of saying that fishing hasn't been this week and I don't know why.

Fishing With Alex

Summer is always busy and I hardly ever seem to have time for the family. I ended up having the last two days off so I took my 11 year old son, Alex fishing for the first time this year. Our intentions were to go to the Beaverhead yesterday, fish and camp. Well, it was raining and storming like hell over there yesterday so we ended up spending the night at Fairmont Hot Springs instead. Woke up early and headed to Dillon this morning. It was great to just hang out with Alex for a couple of days, just the two of us. He ended up catching some fish too, which he was very jacked up about.


The Beaverhead is running high around 800 at the dam. Not very weedy, relatively speaking, crowded in the upper section, fishing well, and lots of bugs. There were lots of PMD's, Sallies, and Caddis out juts about all day long. Only irritating thing bout it was the way the guides anchor right in the middle of the river to fish a run. Made it hard to pass them early on when we were just kind of floating and fishing half-ass. Saw a lot of people hooked up, I lost a very large fish (seems like a trend for me), and Alex caught some so they must've been eating pretty good.

Feelin Mo Bettah

Had a great day 2 in the Pink Boat today on the Yellowstone. The bite was so so, but the company and time on the water was great. Not sure why they weren't eating so well, maybe something to do with the persistent and consistent wind, maybe a drop in water temps, or the river was clearing throughout the day. Whatever, I thought they should've been eating better. Still managed to make a good day out of it and get some good fish too. Stoneflies and Lightning Bugs, no hoppahs.

It was a real treat to have the Pink Boat today as everyone on the trip appreciates the efforts and the cause. We raised $1875 today to go directly to the Susan G. Komen BC Foundation! Our guests for the day were uber generous, we had some more donations from other clients and family as well. Ben Jantzen and I both donated our guide fees as well today.

There is a stretch on this piece of water where the river bends to the south and the Crazy Mountains are behind us. I was walking the boat back up this run the spring after my mother in law passed away from cancer, and tears came over me as I thought of her and how amazed she would be if she was there that day. Don't know why I thought of her then, but I did and I think of her every time I go down that run and smile to myself because I know she would be too. Today was very a special day for me for many reasons and I'm very glad to have spent the day trying to do something good for the world and to think of Carol often. Cancer sucks. Thanks to everyone that has helped fight the good fight with their generous support.

Therapy Needed

Today was one of those days that everyone always asks about. You know the question...that one that you just hope and pray that you aren't "that guy." If I drank booze, I would be on my second bottle of Mad Dog and deep into a six pack of King Cobra Tall Boyz! But all I have is my wife and Rick to vent to...and you.

Oh my my.

But tomorrow is with the Amero's and company which is always a great day. Also, it's my 2nd day with the Pink Boat. The day hasn't started and we've already raised $700 going into it. Come on Ameros...show the Pink some love!

This season has been very good to me. Lots of great people in the boat, nice weather overall and pretty consistent fishing more days than not. Sure, there are some days when the bite is great and I've got a couple of great stick in the boat, but most days are somewhere in the middle. Most people just dig being on the water and catching some fish. Everyone wants to catch more and bigger fish, but most people are happy with what their skill, the conditions, the river, and what the guide all bring together. Some days it's a few fish and a moose, some days its 3 fish over 20, sometimes its 15 4 inchers and whitefish or two. The most satisfying part of my job is seeing people appreciate the hard work with some laughter and a sense of awe at the surroundings and experience.

A guide trip is an expensive proposition for most folks. $450 for a day of fishing is a lot of money and I think any guide...even the crappy ones...recognize that people are shelling out good money for a float down a river so I think everyone tries pretty hard to bring it all together. Some are better at it than others and that's what results in repeat customers. I like to think that I'm pretty good at as I have a lot of repeat customers, but who knows...maybe they just don't want my wife and kids to starve!

So, to all of my repeat clients and new folks this year that read this silly thing...THANK YOU! Rest assured that you are not "that guy"...maybe one of you is but that's a seperate issue...you're just neurotic as am I.

Muncie...where are you...we need to have a do over...on me.

What did I learn today?

Good day on the upper Madison today filled with lots of small trout, a couple good ones, and plenty of hawg whities. Today I learned that whitefish can jump really high. Also I learned that a lot of my favorite holes up there are now filled with whitefish. I learned that weather predicting can be inaccurate at times.

No hopper love today, a few small fish tried to eat an elk hair, saw a few spruce moths out, lots of very small PMD's, a few tricos, and a bazillions micro caddis. Most of our fish today were on a size 16 TH Soft Hackle PT. It was reliable enough to the point that I had to dig into the fly cluster box to sort a few more out.

I will put a pic of my cluster box up tomorrow. It's kind of a mess.

All in all, a good day on the UM, with the exception of a very timely afternoon thundershower. It was more like hell unleashed the hounds for about 45 minutes. So windy I couldn't keep the boat off the bank. SO much lightning that I was hugging the ground with my ass. I was almost asleep on the bank when one of the guys throws out an f-bomb, I think he must've seen some lightning hit close by but he was screaming because a snake just crawled across his shin. heebee jeebies all around.

Off Today

Back on the Yellowstone yesterday for some very solid action up above Big Timber for a change. Hopper fishing was probably pretty good, but the nymphing was really good so we just stuck with it. We were into fish pretty much right out of the gate right on through until the boat ramp. Must have been some heavy rains to the north on Thursday as all of the creeks coming in from that side of the river were puking mud into the river. It was fine down to Otter, but am betting it was pretty bad past that for quite away. Good for the river though as the weeds have started to get pretty bad and hopefully a day or two of dirty water might kill some of them off.

Had the day off today which consisted of lots of family time including a trip to Sweet Pea, some Tennis, and friend's wedding. Back at it tomorrow.

I did get stung by a wasp yesterday at the takeout. My stretch marks swelled up on my stomach, making it look more like a jellyfish sting than anything else. Ended up going to Urgent Care and paying $60 for the doc to tell me it looks like it hurts pretty good...which it did. That's pretty good for me though to make it until August without any trips to the doctor all summer!

Pink Day 1

Fished the Jefferson today in the Pink Boat for Rowing for the Cure. Fishing was pretty Jeffersonian in style...a few fish here and there. Great group of clients though that were happy to be apart of the Pink Boat thing and to donate to the cause. We raised $850 today, thank you to everyone that donated $$$, it is truly appreciated. I have the boat again on 8/10 and hope to be at least as successful in raising some donations...then I will leave everyone alone.

The Jefferson...beautiful river, good fish, and a highly unlikely probability of catching very many of them. Zero hoppertunities, rubberlegs and worms.

Pink Boat Tomorrow

Another good day on the Yellowstone with a couple of my favorite and longest clients. Fish are still eating stonefly nymphs, not so much on hoppers today but it was pretty cloudy and tough to see much on the surface other than a big pink thingamabobber. Tried a sculpin most of the afternoon, hooked one Rainbow on it, everything else on the lightning bug. Nothing big but lots of decent rainbows and even a few whitefish just to keep it interesting.

Tomorrow is my day with the Rowing for the Cure boat. The purpose of using the boat is to try to raise some money for breast cancer research. I will be donating my guide fees ($450) for the days I use the boat to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation of Montana. In addition to this, I hope that some or all of my clients and friends will show some support as well. Checks can be mailed to Fins & Feathers of Bozeman, 81801 Gallatin Rd. Bozeman, MT. 59714. Please make checks payable to the Susan G. Komen Foundation of Montana. We will forward the payment along and send you a receipt for your charitable contribution. This issue is very close to me and my family, please help with anything you can afford.

New Scenery

Went to the Upper Madison today hot on the heels of some smokin' reports of big fish going nuts on hoppers. Whatever man...come on it's the upper Madison we're talking about. Had lots of fish come up to the hopper, swat at it, reject it, laugh at it, fin us, and a few even eat it. Sporadic periods of brief flurries of a quickly fading bite would be more appropro to describe the UM bite these days. I remember when it was smokin' good up there, but it wasn't yesterday or any day this year or last.

Typical UM day. Start off drifting sculpins with a nymph, hoping for the bite to be on. It never is so you switch to stonefly and bh, catch a few then nothing. Try dries, miss a few, get one, think it's on. Go a mile with nothing. Back to nymphs, this time smaller tippet, get one, go half a mile, get one, then miss 6 in a row 4 of which were actually the bottom. Eat lunch. Dries again, get 1. Go a 1/2 mile and add dropper. Lose rig on rock 50 yards later. Nymph, get on, get one get one, lose both rigs on rocks. Try dries go 300 yds, get one, miss one miss one miss one, stick one. It's on...nothing for 2 miles. And it goes on and on. In the end, you get some fish, see some pretty scenery, and all in all it's a good day but it just doesn't make sense how you got there.

Now for important stuff. I'm rowing the "pink boat" in support of rowing for the cure. I've got the boat on Aug 5 and 10. Check out this article in the Bozeman Chronicle and the facebook (search rowing for the cure on Facebook)site for all the details about the boat and the cause. Briefly, it's a pink drift boat that some ff industry folks and RO Driftboats are using to raise money and awareness for breast cancer. The boat spends some time in different areas with different guides/outfitters using the boat with the intent of "rowing for a cure." All money goes directly to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation of Montana. Donations can be deposited directly into the boat or mailed directly to the foundation. I'll put more info up on this tomorrow.

Quick bit of "what's in it for me." My mother in law, Carol Foreman, passed away a few years ago after battling this insidious disease for well over a decade. She truly was an amazing person and I think of her often when on the river. I took her floating once on the Yellowstone, it was too high and dirty to fish, and honestly she was probably to weak to do it at the time anyway. She enjoyed life, brought happiness to everyone around her and smiled all through her life. So, I'm looking forward to spending some time on the water in the pink boat and hope to do a little bit to help raise awareness and money for the cause. I will be donating my guide fees to the cause for these days as well as pestering my clinets throughout the day to throw some coin in the lock box. I'll post more details about how to donate tomorrow

Small Things

Another day on the lower Yellowstone with a good bite pretty much all day. Very consistent on the nymphs with some sporadic hopper activity in Charlie's boat. I stuck with the nymphs as it was working pretty well. Great group of guys we're with the next few days. We're going to go get our asses kicked on the Upper tomorrow...can't wait!

The two trees in the pic above are just up from Reedpoint. They're very cool and have always had a big lean to them over a skinny part of the run. I don't know what it is about these tress, but I've always gotten a good feeling looking at them, wondering if they're going to be there next year. They've been there a long time, but one of them lost the battle in the last couple days. Things are always changing and I guess I'll be able to say I remember when there were two trees there instead of one.

Stuff I Use Everyday

Another good day on the lower Yellowstone, all nymphs all the time. Double Rubberlegs found some fish all day long. River is getting lower and weedy, we need a couple days of dirty water to kill some of the weeds. Lots of decent Rainbows, nothing too big or too small and ez fishing.

One of my clients asked me last week what my favorite Orvis product is, not including the Helios rods. I had to think about it awhile as I like just about all the Oshow has to offer. Everything has it's place and purpose. But, as I'm in the middle of my guide season and fishing just about everyday, I thought more about the essentials of what I really like that I use everyday. My list would also include the new Orvis Mirage reels, Sonic Seam Waders, Riverguard Ultralight wading boots, and Orvis' sunglasses with the vermillion lens color ( we don't sell them but they really are the bomb) when it comes to things that I prefer for fishing on my own.

The Helios and Hydros rods are great and easy to cast well, regardless of your skill level. So, these rank up there as being pretty essential in my list of must have's.

Rio Flouroflex Plus is my tippet of choice. I've used it for years and have messed around with just about everything else out there. I like it's stiffness, strength, and the way it cinches when making knots. I've been a big believer in flourocarbon for years and I do think it makes a difference, that's why I use it.

Dinsmore egg tin split shot. I guess I've been using it for so long that I just know how much I need to use to get the flies to do what I want them too. I like the cushioned coating as it's ez on my teeth. I always have BB, AB, and #1 in my bag.

Dr. Slick Split Shot Hemos. A must have for getting dinsmore off the leader, life is much easier this way! Plus they work great as conventional hemos.

Aquel and Shimazaki. These are my choices for gel and powder floatant.

Pat's Rubberleg, Worms, Lightning Bug, Tan Foam Hopper, Royal Wulff, Little Green Machine, Hare & Copper, Zonker. Can pretty much catch trout everywhere I've ever been with one of these flies.

Thingamabobbers in the ginormous size. They work.

Sunscreen

Rio Gold fly line for my 5 weights and Grand for the 6's. Awesome lines that last longer than they should and float well for even longer.

Buff.