Way Home

 

Left BC early this am to start the trek home, made it to Canmore tonight, should get back to the Bozone by tomorrow evening. It's been awhile since I've done a marathon drive and XM makes it a lot more interesting while allowing me the opportunity to hear minute by minute news developments. Also, apparently I need to get into gold, drink some smoothies to lose weight, plus viagra is only $3 a pill...proof that radio advertising works!.

Trip went well, got a lot of photos and caught my first pacific steelhead. I ended up getting 5 steelhead, but other than one big sum bitch, they others 4 were in the 22-24" range. Strainer and Curt each got some nice fish too and they have another week up there. Weather as great, will wrap it up later, but it was good. I'm looking forward to getting home and getting back to work.

Day 3 BC

Day 3 in BC was everything that the promise of western steelhead brings. Good water and some nice fish. We ended up in someplace a long way away from where we are staying, alone on a beautiful river. Strainer got 5 and I ended up with 2 to hand. Curt landed 2 the day before and I had 1 that day. Books have been written about the mental games that you play when swinging flies for steelhead. Cast after cast of nothingness and the shear joy that comes along with the tug when it happens.

So, mission accomplished for me. No license today, just the camera and hanging out on the river with friends. Heading home on Monday.

Day one CA

We ended up making up to the “holy water” of western Steelhead fishing after about 22 hours of driving from Bozeman. Steelhead fishing, specifically Pacific steelhead, is characterized by hours and hours of nothingness accompanied by cast after cast of nothingness. Kind of like fishing the upper Madison, except the steelhead is going to be little bigger and a lot stronger than anything you’re likely to find on the Madison. Anyway, so here I sit, waiting for the sun to come up.

Yesterday was a mini-mess in getting started, as we didn’t have a place to stay for the next several days, needed to get licenses, and some gas before we headed out. So we didn’t get onto the water until around noon. River looked in good shape to me and we had reports that there have been some grabby fish. I’m here more to try to take some pics than catch fish, but I really want to get just one of these MF’s and do it “properly.”

I’ve made a few trips to the Clearwater over the years but those days were before the started seeing the big runs of the last several years. I’ve hooked one western Steelhead for about a nano second in my life. I’ve caught sea run Rainbows in Chile, and Great Lakes Steelhead, but the fish here are the real deal. They swim a long way up these rivers to get it on and then go back to the ocean to eat for another year to several years before they come back to their birthplace. I’d like to just meet one on their terms. After that, eggs.

We stuck 4 yesterday, lost them all and I was not involved in any of those altercations. I did bang a Dolly and the drainer put the hurting on a 14” Rainbow. I gave into the draw of the two handers yesterday so hopefully the fish gods will throw me a bone and some good shots to go with the game.

 Woohoo, made it up to wherever the hell we are about 8:30 tonight from Canmore last night. Beautiful drive for most of the day and things warmed up the further NW we went. Fishing tomorrow. Long drive to the holy land!

More Work

In Canmore this morning as we work our way to the holy water of NW BC. Heading up with the Drainer and another dude, and then meeting some other folks later in the week. I think we are aiming for somewhere around Smithers, but as I am only driving...I have no idea where we are actually going. A map probably would have been useful.

Anyway, picked knucklehead up in Craig yesterday and we finally hit the road around 1:30, made it here around 10:00 last night and we have 12-14 hr day ahead of us. Probably much longer as I hope to get some photos along the way. The drive was fine other than the fact that I'm towing a little red jetboat that wobbles at about 72mph, so it's slow going. We were planning on getting to Banff but we ran into some ice on the roads last night so decided to get off the road before we wrecked as I was distracted listening to the Rangers game.

So, I'm looking forward to seeing some new country today and the drive ahead. Fishing trips are always kind of fun. Unfortunately for me...it's all work.

The End My Friend

Last trip today. Where did it all go? Is it really already almost November? Seems like just yesterday I was driving around BFE looking for some clean water and hoping for hoppers. Ok, no it really doesn't. It's been a long season and I'm looking forward to not rowing a boat for awhile. Looking forward to doing some fishing, photo taking, family time and shop time. Any trips I do the rest of the year will hopefully be from foot and not for a few weeks.

Was a great day to end the season though with one of my longest "tenured" clients on one of my favorite stretches of river around here. The bite was so/so but we landed one really nice fish, lost some good ones, got some ok ones and some dinks too. Swung some streamers with little love but the nymphing kept it interesting and gave us a enough of a tug to make it good day overall. Yeah the fishing was ok, but the day was great and made for a great way to wrap things up.

Start packing and sorting crap tomorrow, heading to BC on Monday morning.

1020

Back from the Bighorn and doing some catch up work around the shop today. The horn was surprisingly good despite the water being off-color and having to battle grass and weeds on just about every drift. Best part was the lack of other anglers which made it possible to get into some relatively clean riffles and have some great wade fishing. While I'm all about the row around, it was nice to not have to do that all day on the river.

Seemed like the fish were just eating pretty well as mixing up flies didn't seem to really matter too much. I did do pretty well on a little wondernymph in the riffles in the afternoons, but other than that...just worms and sowbugs.

1018

Made my way over to the horn yesterday, got the chance to go our and fish for a couple of hours all by lonesome. No boat, no camera, just fishing. Fish were eating well and it as beautiful afternoon all alone at 3-mile. Fished a bunch of different bugs and got fish on everything so I think that they were just eating pretty well. The river is off color and pretty weedy, but it's fishing well and there are a lot less people around here than many other places right now.

Guided today and found plenty of fish on the eat between 3 Mile and Bighorn. The wade fishing in the riffles is really good right now, the boat fishing was so/so. Got fish on worms, sowbugs, and some little bug I picked up at the Bighorn Trout shop. Some little tan pseudo nymph that they ate real well later in the day. Things slowed down around 5 or so, but other that, it was pretty good so long as we could keep the flies clean.

What did I learn today? Fishing is better than golf. 3 AB's is a lot of weight. I am dependent on my cell phone. The Bighorn is a pretty good place to be right now.

What would I do?

I'm lamenting the fact that I can't go and fish the next few days and feel like I've been tied down to the desk for far too long already. That cortisone shot was magical and now I want to go throw a line...pain free. But, Christine is out of town foe the weekend and I'm on daddy daycare duty X 2. My life is so difficult...no one knows my pain! O.k. I'm kidding...it's pretty good.

Been ordering bugs like crazy the last couple of days. Found some pretty cool new patterns that should be very solid in the bins next year. We rearranged our bass/pike/saltwater/steelhead/salmon stuff which had the added benefit of freeing up a whole lot of bin space so I've been pecking away, trying to find some weaknesses in our selection and adding to it more. I'm a long way from being done, but I did wrap up the biggest of the orders today so that is one less thing to worry about.

So, I've got some family time coming my way this weekend with the boys. Getting some stuff organized for the horn next week. Looking for weedless worms mostly.

If I was fishing this weekend where would I go? Early rise and go fight the crowds on the Madison in YNP would be first option. Wade fish around Varney. Bucket bounce on the lower. Swing junk below Big Timber. All good full day options. If I only had a couple hours to kill...probably a couple holes on the lower would be the first choice but the EG has been fishing well and that would probably win out in the end. Actually, come to think of it...I'd go throw streamers on the Jeff up around Twin Bridges.

And another

Had the day off today so Neuman and I headed to the upper to see if we could find some glory. Should have known better. Nymphing was slow but we did find some fish and I ended up losing a very nice fish and getting a few on streamers. Pitching 250 gr depth charge with some articulated junk and some split, slow swing but fish are finally getting interested.

Back to playing with spreadsheets tomorrow and getting fly orders sorted back in the V-room. Less and less folks around now, amazing how fast the season went by. I went and got a cortisone shot the day before yesterday to help me out with tendinitis in my elbow. Should have done that awhile ago as it is amazing how much better I feel. Today was the first day that I was able to actually fish for more than a few minutes without being in pain. Pain free is awesome!

109

Almost done for the year in terms of guiding. Wrapped up the last run of several days yesterday on the upper Madison and found some good fish starting to eat little pink flies pretty well. Fall like conditions seem to be improving things around here.

Day before yesterday on the lower was not very good but we had rising water to deal with which definitely made for a tougher bite. Couple that with an inexperienced angler and a crapload of floating weeds and the chances for success weren't great.

Have a lot of minutia to attend to this week and then head over to the Bighorn next week for the grand finale. Looks like I'm heading to BC at the end of the month to try for some steelhead somewhere around Simthers. Expect to do more photography than fishing up there.

108

Lower Madison today and it was  a wee bit tough. Increased dam flows started yesterday and the river was steadily in the rise today. Odd for this time of year to see trees and shrubbery floating down the river.  So, just a few fish but a good attitude and time was had by all. Should be good once things settle over there. Upper tomorrow and then that's about it...just a few days on the bighorn next week.

107

Another day of fall has come and gone. A fresh dusting of snow in the mountains and the need for gloves and a hat were welcome reminders that the so called Indian Summer is over. All good things must come to an end and it was great to get some decent fish today to eat bugs that they ought to be eating this time of year. Things seemed more familiar the last couple of days than the last few weeks.

Fished the "black ops" section of the Madison today. How gay does that sound? One of the guys yesterday got a text from a guy that was fishing the "black ops" section of the Beaverhead yesterday. Cracked me up and sent me off on a bit of a head tangent last night. I was wondering how long I could go before calling something the "black ops" section of a river...made it a day.

Anyway, had a good day today with a pretty steady bite on the upper Madison. Fish were eating stoneflies and pink flies. Something seems to have finally switched on as we saw some browns with good colors and got a dozen fish or so in the 16-19" range.

On a non-angling note and lesson for the day...I learned about black cats and cardinals today. BAM doesn't necessarily mean bam. Neoprene waist high waders can be sexy. Teal is still a fashionable color. Gink turns orange after 6 years of sitting in a closet. The Dead made zingers at one point. Duct tape does not work well in rain and is absolutely worthless when it comes to trying to repair a winston. Great day with a good dude.

106

Down over there today, found some fish on the eat but mostly smaller fish. Wind picked up in the afternoon and made for a tough go later in the day. All in all, good day though. Feels like fall is here, supposed to get some snow in the mountains tonight.

Upper tomorrow. Feeling optimistic? Hardly. Hopeful? Always.

Guys I fished with today just came over from someplace else in the state. Had some good talking about how they do things over there and the "I'm pretty cool because I'm a fishing guide" thing is to be found other places as well.  The egos in this business/lifestyle can be a little overwhelming, even embarrassing to watch at times. I'm as guilty as the next when it comes to talking egos, but come on dude...we're just some fishing guides trying to teach folks a thing or two and catch some fish.

One thing I've learned is that I really am not as important as I think I am. The world isn't going to end if the fish don't bite and I'm not the one that makes them bite. There's a whole lot of room in the middle of those two ends of the spectrum, plenty for me to stay in the middle.

105

The season is winding down and a long with that will be a wind down on the blog for awhile. I'll still update it a few times a week, but my daily discipline will probably be less consistent than it has for awhile. I enjoy the blog and know that quite a few others enjoy reading it so it's not going away anytime soon...I just don't think I can keep it up at the pace it's been going. I have a lot of gobbly goop in my brain and this has worked well as an outlet over the years. I wonder how much money my parents could have saved on shrink fees if only blogging was around back in the day!

Fished the stone today with Steven and John down low. Day was mostly, partly sunny, with the clouds settling in late afternoon. So, same old story as it seemed more like hopper weather than streamer weather but we mostly fished nymphs and found some trout and lots of honkies. But, the weather is now here and things should get streamerlicous very soon. Plan on working it hard tomorrow and maybe look for some heads along the way. We'll see what the wind man brings us to determine the game plan....but hoping to find some chasers in the am.

Steven caught a rainbow today that had some type of nylon netting material around the fish,. At first glance it looked like partt of somebodies net, but it may have been a type of gill net someone was using in the river.  The material had actually cut well into the fish and had been there awhile as the wound was starting to heal around the net. The cut on the fish looked very similar to that of what sometimes happens to a whitefish when other people foul hook them in the gut and then rip them across the current, only there was netting hanging out. Never seen that before and I've seen come crazy shit! One winter, I caught 2 rainbows on the Missouri by the swivel of a bait hook that they had swallowed. But never seen netting growing out of a fish.

Better Day

Very different day today than yesterday....thank God! The bite was good for most of the day, nothing huge but a dozen or so 12-16" and another 10 or so smaller. Didn't have to work it too hard either. Had some wind, but everything was good in the end.

Around 3 or so I went to my happy spot where I can hardly believe that I actually do this for a living, I had flashbacks of yesterday though and came back to reality. I have no idea what happened yesterday and that's probably the most maddening of it all. Wasn't just me though, so that helps a bit. Just hard to deal with when you have good anglers, no the bugs, and where the fish are. Ahhhh...move on I say!

In the shop tomorrow and then going to get after it through the weekend and then just a few more days on the books.

Pink Boat is Here

Another Sunday come and gone on the upper Madison. Lyons - Pal, 20 boats, 15-25 mph wind, good anglers, 3 fish. Awesome.  Fished little bugs, bug bugs, sculpins, even threw some dries. It just wasn't right today and I don't know why. Some days you're the hammer, some day you're the nail.

October is breast cancer awareness month and I have the Pink Boat for the week. Was thinking about trying to raise some money through some sort of trout pledge but after today...I'm probably doing more harm than good. It's a much bigger and heavier boat than I'm used to so I won't be taking it back out unless the wind settles...So, hopefully later in the week will do the trick.

We raised something like $2500-$3000 in the Pink Boat just a few days. All the money we raise with the boat goes directly to the Susan G. Komen foundation of MT and is all used to fight breast cancer. It's an insidious disease that has impacted my life directly through the loss of Carol Foreman, my mother in-law.  I know it's affected lots of folks that read this and that I have the pleasure of fishing with during the year as well. So, keep it in mind as I'll be throwing a pitch out to you all in the next day or two and ask that you please join me in donating to the cause..."throw some dough...and I'll row!" It's late, I'm tired and that's the best I got tonight!