Update from Ohio

I've been in Ohio with the family for about a week now.
I had intentions of fishing NE Ohio for steelhead a couple of days but the weather was junk for the days we had available. I ended up going up to the Muskegon and PM in Michigan with my brother in law for a couple of days instead. The weather was crap, our guide was super crap, and the bite was even more crap...on the Muskegon anyway. The PM was nice, fished on our own, caught a bunch of small trout, dodged pine cones and falling trees in the wind, saw some steelheads and lots of salmon near death.
We're heading home tomorrow and I'll fill in the holes in the story next week.

Ice Fishing in Hell?

Don't know what to do or say...the Texas Rangers are going to the WS? I'm going to Cabella's in Michigan and dropping some Benjamin's on some ice fishing junk. Augers and tip tops are in order because Hell has froze!

A few less whitefish!

Pertinent stuff. Last day of the season today on the Lower. Beautiful day and a good bite early and then late. White zonkers and LB's in the morning, worms and eggs later, zonkers and worms even later. Periods of nothingness when the sun was out, pretty good with shadows and clouds.

Fished Lyon''s yesterday and it was reasonably good. 10-15 fish, a couple around 18, the rest 12-16. Worms and worms, a couple on zonkers. Saw a girl in her underwear that she said was a bikini. My rig didn't get moved, so they gave me a ride back to my truck. Better fishing was by getting out and working some pockets of slower water with a little depth.

Heading to Ohio tomorrow for some downtime and family time. Guess the Steelheading has been OK, but they need some rain to get the fish up the rivers. It will probably rain like hell the next day or two and dirty all the rivers up, hopefully not.

I guess summer it's time to get back to summer again. This weather has been crazy and I'm starting to feel like I'm developing an early version of SAD. I'm ready for some snow, clouds, ice...I don't care. I've had enough of 70 degrees and sunny. Done. If I want that, I'll go to Texas.

Fished the Yellowstone yesterday and it turned out ok. Nothing to brag about but we managed some decent rainbows, some dinks, and some piggy whitefish. It's amazing ow many weeds are still in the river and that the whitefish are still spawning...both of which don't get me jacked up about dredging the river bottom. We wanted to fish streamers but it was just too bright to give me much confidence that we'd get ver many chases. Other plan was to throw some 300 gr shooting heads in some of the big pools and swing buggers, but the weeds made that one pretty difficult. Should have wade fished the boulder and stuck with worms. Great guys though and beautiful weather.

One more trip on the books, go to Ohio for a week on Saturday, going to do some steelheading and photography there. Lots of work in the shop this week with orders and inventory reconciliation.

More Worm Ramblings

Feels like Fall again around here, but don't know how long it will last. Nice rainy and overcast day without the wind for a change. Headed back to the Upper Madison again and had much more success than a few days ago. Boat fishing was slow, but we did well getting out and fishing the side channels and various buckets. The worm and egg bite is getting pretty good.

I love worm season. I know I shouldn't, but there's just something about it that makes me feel dirty in such a good way. A rising fish is nice, a streamer grab always gets the heart going, but trout either eat worms or don't. When they do...it's pretty good. I think the worm has been maligned by too many fisherman for too long. The same guy that turns his nose up at the worm is the same guy that scoffs at drift boats, shuttle drivers, recoil guides, thingamabobbers, and barbed hooks.  Are you that guy? No...that guy doesn't read this. Embrace the worm, drop an egg off it, enjoy the fall colors and sounds, catch some fish.

The lower and a bit of wind

I don't know how windy it was today, but it was closer to 40 than 20. Glad I didn't put the boat in for sure. Ended up just wading around  hitting buckets and holes between Canaday and Black's Ford most of the day. The bite was surprisingly good, mostly dinks but lots of them. Had the guys just fishing a wire worm all day as anything more complicated would have been a disaster. Just glad to have an easy day and some clouds for a change.

The next couple of days look good in the weather department, hopefully we find a streamer bite and a BWO hatch somewhere. Fishing with the Brooks' this weekend so hopefully I don't run out of worms!

YNP

Headed for the Madison in YNP around 5:30 this morning...mad dash to get to a hole to stake our morning claim. We were successful and were rewarded with a good bite for the first few hours. Once the sun got up overhead, all bets were off as the fish were spooky as hell. A mend was enough to send a dozen fish fleeing for their lives across weed beds, under stumps, and generally out of there. The ones that had nowhere to hide just swam around in circles. There were folks in every hole, on every corner and in every run, but there are a lot of fish in the river right now as well.

UM huh

Back from hunting yesterday, never did get much better. I did get some good blisters, missed some more easy shots, and screwed the pooch on a couple good fish on the Marias with hoppers. Good time anyway and hope to get out some more this year once things cool off as there are plenty of birds around.

Fished the upper today and it was back to its typical self of mile after mile of nothing. It was very bright and calm today, so I wasn't too surprised. Fish were spooky and not being very greedy at all. We gave it hell though, squeaked a few out and all in all had a pleasant day. I'm going to go fish in YNP tomorrow for the first time in years, should be very cold, crowded, but maybe a big fish is to be found.

Pheasant Opener

Today felt more like a good day to fish hoppers than shoot pheasant. The weather was beautiful up here on the high line, a little warmer than we would have liked. Pretty tough to keep the dogs out more than half an hour or so once it started to warm up. Seems like plenty of birds around, we just had had a hard time finding the right places to hunt them.

Did have one of those moments this afternoon that is kind of like one of those "lifetime achievement" moments. We were running the dogs through some cover we had hunted in the morning so our expectations weren't too high. Dogs were doing well, made a couple false points and started the creep, but then got off the the birdiness. Tao (my dog) went on point, my buddy is telling me my dogs on point but I was sweaty, tired, and assumed it was another false point. Anyway, found Tao locked up and I crept up behind him and a beautiful rooster cackled and got up about 10 yard a away. What a moment it was! My dog locked up on a rootie that is holding, the Rocky Mountain front is in the background, sun to the side, I can see every feather on the bird's head. I emptied my gun and not a feather was to be found. Typical.

Fall Again?

Today was the first day in awhile that actually felt like Fall. Overcast skies with intermittent drizzle and surrounded by the changing colors in the Madison Valley. Perfect streamer conditions in the morning to be followed by a BWO hatch early mid-day. We're talking about the Upper Madison though.

Fished today with a couple of guys from Orvis (the regional rep and his boss to be exact) on the UM from Lyon's to Palisades. The bite was actually reasonably good on dead drifted zonkers with a small BWO nymph behind it. Got some dinks, but mostly 14-16" and  a good number too. Kind of bizarre if you ask me. Tried stripping streamers...it wasn't on. Fished two little nymphs and hooked dinks. Switched it up late morning and started getting 'em pretty regularly the rest of the day. Nice enjoyable day on a busy stretch of water without it being busy with a couple of good guys and a decent bite.

So...what did I learn today? You can probably see the new parking lot at Palisades from Google Earth without zooming in. Good God, the thing is bigger than the mall parking lot here in Bozeman. Gots to be loving that 3% Mr. BLM/FWP. And whoever said that the government doesn't know how to add value?

New Stuff

Attended the Orvis dealer meeting today here in Bozeman to take a look at the new gear for 2011 and to get an update on Orvis things in general. I'd already seen a lot of the stuff, but it never hurst to take another look as the next time I will see most of it is next spring in the shop.

They really have a great product development team of fishy guys that are in their 30's and have been in the industry for a long time. They've had a few grand slams in the last couple of years with the Helios rods and the Mirage reels this year. Orvis has come a long long way from 10 years ago in terms of putting out some really top notch products.

Some great new things fro 2010 include a new line of mid-priced performance rods called Access (name leaves something to be desired) but at $350 they really are the best at that price point. The large and mid-arbors are both being retooled with improved drags, lighter weight and improved anodization. A couple new wading boots with both runner and felt sole options. Also, Orvis gained a patent on their welded seam technology for waders which has been really successful in terms of durability (apparently I am the only person to have destroyed a pair).

With all good things comes a few duds(in my opinion). Wasn't impressed with the redesign of the Safe Passage line of chest packs and luggage. The fabric just looks like something out of LL Bean to me. They have a new model of wading shoe made by Korkers that will sell for $225 (about $75 too much). 

All in all, lots of good new gear that should all help anglers get more bang for their buck and hopefully a little more enjoyment out of the sport. We will start bringing in some of the new stuff in November, but more so in April/May

Anniversary

Today was Christine and mine's 6th wedding anniversary. As we went fly fishing on our first date, it seemed like that would be a good choice for our Anniversary. Beautiful weather and great friendship on the water. We even brought Matty along to keep it interesting. The bite was good on the Gallatin and the another spectacular weather day.

Rowing For The Cure

It's breast cancer awareness month, I was reminded of this fact today when I picked up the morning Chronicle and it was printed on pink paper. A lot of us in the area have tried to bring some attention to this disease by rowing the beloved "Pink Boat" named Judy. Judy was the mother of Ian Davis, who is one of the owners of Yellow Dog and former owner of Breckenridge Outfitters. Not sure how much money we've raised this year so far, but my guess is that it's a lot more than was expected. This disease has touched so many lives that it's not hard to find people willing to chip in with hopes of making this thing just go away someday. So, if you see the pink boat around this month, please think of someone you know has fought the disease and honor them with a small (or large) donation to support this great cause. Thank you to everyone that has donated this year and please continue to support the Susan G. Komen foundation through trips on the pink boat.

We miss you Carol.