End of Week at T Flats

Today is the last day of fishing in this holiday, Christine has three dives ahead of her. Looks like we are going cave tubing in Belize mainland tomorrow prior to flying back to Dallas.

This has really been a great trip, met some good people, have had a terrific time fishing with one of the best slat guides I've fished with. Dubs is his name and he likes to hunt Permit. Aside from knoing the flats and being able to see well, he has a vary calm demeanor that really helps for setting up a successful shot.

Yesterday was another day of looking for Permit. I fished with the manager of the resort, Cameron, and Dubs. The goal was more photography and a Permit...so we were doomed from the start Dubs poled all around the haunts but the fish were not showing yesterday. We ended up on the reef side of the atoll and found a few fish. Cameron got  a great shot and the fish followed but no eat.

The last place we fished was another long flat up against the reef. We pulled up to the flat near a cut in the reef and saw some parrotfish, as we were watching them..2 Permit showed...the current was too strong though and we drifted out pretty quickly. We fished that flat, and saw a couple Permit tailing but they were 200 yds away and we never saw them again. Diminishing light and an approaching storm gave encouragement to a speedy departure,
I asked Dubs to run back up into the spot where we saw the parrotfish and permit before the long boat ride home. He was happy to do this and as soon as we got in there...bam...permit at 15 feet, one roll cast out there, they didn' see my fly. Pick it up, fish turned, put the fly a foot or two ahead of them and wham! Fish hit it so hard going away, nearly lost my rod. My leader broke at my tippet knot...it was my knot. Honestly don't know that it was a bad knot, think it was more of a big hot fish going away at 3000 mph! Very cool though.

Driving back to the lodge, I was processing the whole thing in my head. What is permit fishing? Various lines in movies came to mind. One from Lord of the Rings seemed most appropro - the dwarf said something about little chance of success, near certain death, what could go wrong. In my mind the best description I could come up with now that I have payed some dues and landed one and hooked a few is this. Permit fishing, or the pursuit of Permit on the flats, is like going out and talking a hammer to each of the joints on the fingers of one of your hands. Purposely smashing each one to bits just so that you can get a shot of Demerol!

One more day.

Back to Permit Fishing

After yesterday - which was an amazing day following a truly crap day - I tried to keep my expectations in line with reality. Woke up around 5, walked out an caught a bone on a clouser cray again, life was good. Fished Permit all day, got some good shots at several fish but no tug.
There has been some large Permit on the flats in fornt of the lodge every afternoon but have not been able to get them to eat. They've been eating though and I generally get 5 ot 6 shots at them so maybe tomorrow.
This has really been a great trip so far, good to hang out with Christine (she's been enjoying some great diving) and stare at water during the day.
I really like the Helios 910 - been fishing it a lot, throwing heavy crabs in the wind and it's perfromed amazingly well. Check one out.

Day 3 Tflats Update

Day 3 at t flats was a great day. Started early for tarpon with no love. Spent the morning looking at nothingness, hoping for permit. After yesterday I was nit really looking forward to another day looking for permit. But, alas at noon we found a couple of feeding permit, got a couple shots and one ate and I landed it. It was 12 lbs or so and on a jerkins variation. I have terrible Internet here and am using my wife's iPad so that's it for today, but it was a good day.

Day one T flats

ay one at Turnefee Flats Lodge was a great experience. A steady gale blew from the se all day, but still managed to get some bones and a shabby shot at some permit in the afternoon. The bones are larger than I expected, got a couple yesterday in the 5-albs range.
Main difference from other places I've fished fro bones is the overabundance of turtle grass. This requires a different presentation and stripping of the fly. You really just want to get the fly near the fish and let it set, but stay tight to the fly, giving it a slow short twitch. That was a challenge with the wind as the currents on the surface are always moving the line which also slightly moves the fly inadvertently.
Fishing with a guide named Dubs all week and so far so good. I think the plan is for permit today but we do have some more clouds and the wind.

T-Flats Arrival

Christine and I made it safely down here to the lodge at Turnefee Flats, we're here through the week. Seems like a long way away from the winter that won't go away.

I got uyp this morning at 5 am to take some sunrise photos but got distracted by tailing bonefish. Grabbed the rod, walked out in fron of the cabana and made a few casts. Switched flies a couple times as it's grassy and shallow. We all know how I love playing in the weeds. Ended up putting a Clouser Crayfish on...4lbs bone to hand before 6.

It's windy as crap here but life is good right now.

On our Way

Arrived in lovely Dallas yesterday afternoon fresh off another Montana spring blizzard. Weather here is hot and windy, there are some massive fires to the west. Seemed like half of our flight from SLC was firefighters.
We leave for Belize in a couple of hours and I am cronked up. Taking a 7,8, and 2 10's plus my usual over-stuffed photo bag. No computer though...relying on Christine's Ipod for that part of life. I've heard pretty dismal reports from the part of Belize we will be traveling to the last few weeks so we'll see how it all shakes out. Supposedly the permit have been more cooperative the last week.

North Platte River - Grey Reef

Charlie and I just returned from the annual Orvis Guide Rendezvous which was held in Casper, WY this year. It's always hard to sneak in an extra day on these trips as it's a long enough day already and we basically waste 2 days with travel. However, we've always wanted to fish the North Platte as it's got a reputation for having lots of nice fish.
Our original plan was to maybe take a boat, maybe not, but just do some fishing on our own as it's really not that technical of a river. The problem with that plan was that Wy. has different stream access laws and we figured that it might be a little overwhelming trying to figure out where we were on the float and where we could anchor or get out and wade fish. The stream access laws are different there and the landowner owns the river bottom so it's considered trespassing if you even park the boat on some floating weeds or drop anchor. It is what it is and it seems far too complicated to work out on your own in a morning on a new river. So, we decided to get a guide for the day and let someone else deal with rowing in the wind that the area is legendary for.
We fished the Grey Reef section of the North Platte, putting in just below Grey Reef Dam and ended up floating down the river 10-12 miles to Governor Bridge. The upper 2/3 of the float had good tailwater character with lots of corner seams, drop offs, islands, and deep runs while the lower part kind of lost the character and was kind of straight shot. The flows were at 4500 cfs while we were there which is apparently pretty high (it looked like wading would be tough even if you were on public property) so overall the water had enough flows to keep it interesting.

There is a serious spawn going on up there right now so it's probably not the place to go if you're opposed to catching some spawners. We pretty much avoided fishing the redds and obvious spawning areas but the first 8 miles or so seriously looked like one giant redd! One good thing about the private property thing there is that those fish don't get messed with too bad on the redds as everyone just moves on through rather than anchoring or wading all over them.
We nymphed with a 3 nymph rig (egg on top with 2 different sized red worms below). Worked well enough but I didn't walk away wishing that was legal in MT. Overall I'd say that both Charlie and I had a great time, caught some nice fish, and we would definitely do it again sometime.
We ended up fishing with a guide named Greg Mueller from Wyoming Fly Fishing (an outfitter). They base out of the Platte River Fly Shop and I'd have no problem recommending him if you ever get that way.

The Teddy Bear that lives in the Teddy Bear Hole

Update from Casper

Been here in wonderful Casper, WY. the last few days attending the Orvis Guide Rendezvous with guides, fly shop owners, and lodge operations throughout the west. It's always a good event for in that it gives us some powerful insights into one of our largest business partners' plans, products, and services that we don't hear about everyday. Of the various industry things I attend every year, this is definitely my favorite.

Charlie and I ended up fishing with a guide, Greg Mueller,  out of the North Platte Fly Shop on Tuesday. He was referred to us by the Orvis endorsed operation, The Ugly Bug fly shop as they were booked up for the day. This was very cool of them as they still tried to make sure we were going to go out with a quality guide even though he doesn't work for them. I'm sure there are plenty of good guides around here and we probably would have done fine with any of them. Greg was great though and we couldn't have been happier with  the day. We got lots of fish and had a great time shooting the bs around the boat all day. Will throw some pics and more of description of this in a day or two.

The rendezvous has been great too, just seeing everyone from other operations and the corporate side of Orvis is enough to make the trip worthwhile. Orvis is often perceived as a corporate goliath but their fly fishing team is collection of very talented folks with a broad skill set in everything from marketing, mechanical engineering, and operations management. They put a lot of r&d into the products and are always looking to tweak existing products as well as bringing innovative goods to market.

A few really cool things they have coming out this year include the Superfine Touch series of rods, a couple new jackets, and a line of waterproof packs and bags. One of my favorite things that they've done in the last year is replacing the handles on their mid-range reels. The new handles are more in line with what you would expect from a trout reel. Rather than using the bulkier paddle of years past, the know use a shaped delrin handle which is less bulky and feels more natural in hand. Small thing but a significant improvement.

We've got some more meetings this morning and then head back to Bozeman. I fly to Tx tomorrow with Christine and Matty (turned 4 yesterday - Happy Birthday Matty!). He's hanging out with my parents fro the week while Christine and I take a week off to Belize for our 40th Birthday year vacation. Really looking forward to just hanging out with my wife without the distractions of normal life for a week, I may or may not also be looking forward to trying to land a permit too!

Lower Update

Guided yesterday on Warm Springs to BF and it was bleak. Water viz is good...a couple feet - maybe more. Lots of bugs both midges and BWO. Saw a few rising fish in the afternoon but it was windy and more sunny than cloudy so not enough consistent riser to get jacked up about.
Had very poor bite on everythign I tried which ranged from caryfish, zonkers, olive zirdles, rubberlegs, pinkies, eggs, prince nymphs, lightning bugs, worms, and a few small nymphs mixed in. Angler was good, so who knows why. Things looked good and should have been better. Thus is life on the lower.
Was great to get the boat out and only forgot my net on the first boat trip and it turned out that wasn't an issue.
I've been rowing a RO Deville for the last few years. It's far and away the best boat that I've ever owned and I've been reluctant to trade it for new one because of this, Hopefully I can get many more years out of it as it really is easy to row.
Heading to Casper today to attend the Orvis Guide Rendezvous. Fishing tomorrow with a Guide on the North Platte. Haven't hired a guide for trout in the Rockies in years so it should be fun. Forecast is for 20-30 mph wind and it will be nice to have that be someone else's problem for the day. The NP is known for having lots of big Rainbows and we will be fishing during spawnalooza so should see some pretty big fish if nothing else.

Today

The weather this past week varied from snowy and cold to a nice day in the 60's to mild and windy. Typical for this time of year and pretty much of all of 2011 to date. Looking forward to summer and the impending runoff.
I'm expecting a lengthier than average runoff given the high snow pack levels still accumulating in the mountains. It's always hard to say as things can change quickly if the weather warms and stays warm for a few weeks. Barring the unusual, however, I'm guessing that May and June will be tough around here on the big mountains. I'll be up on the Missouri during this time as it's less affected by the runoff in terms of water clarity and it fishes just fine during high flows so long as there is a couple feet or so of visibility which there is just about all the time.
I've been moving trips around this week because of the lower Madison's clarity issues and the wind, but going to give it hell today. The forecast is for mild wind and overcast, maybe some rain. The lower is in better shape and the water temps have slowly been on the rise. Water viz yesterday was about 18" on the green side so we'll see what happens. Hopefully it's not too busy out there but I have a feeling that there might be a few other folks with the same idea I have.

Texas Turkey Recap

Got back home last night after a quick and futile trip to Texas in search of some spring Gobblers. Had a great time, enjoyed some warm (hot) weather, saw some turkeys, caught some Bass, ate some crawdads, and made it through some pretty nasty weather too.

The turkeys were roosting in some trees in the middle of a small lake, they would gobble back at us while in the roost but just disappear once they hit the hit the ground, not to be heard from until the next morning. We did get their pattern sorted out and positioned ourselves where we needed to be on the last morning, but only hens were around that morning.

An incredible wind/rain storm came through that night and caused lots of damage throughout that region of Texas. It ripped a part of the tin roof off the house we were staying in. So, right in the middle of this storm we were staring up at the ceiling watching water come pouring out of light sockets. We turned the lights off, put some towels down and went back to sleep. The amount of damage that storm did was pretty amazing but we didn't realize it until the next morning.

Bass fishing was fun though. We fished a couple of small pieces of water one of which would be called a large stock pond and the other a small lake. Unfortunately the wind was terrible so we had a tougher time fishing the larger pond. This one is classic bass fishing with large submerged trees, lots of vegetation, deep channels...just lots of structure. We put an old school bass buster in the water with a trolling motor but just pretty much got blown around. I ended up fishing a baitcaster outfit and getting them pretty good on stickbaits and spinnerbaits. It amazes me that fish will eat that junk!

So we concentrated our efforts on the smaller pond which was more protected and ended up fishing really well. I mostly tried to take some photos as my buddy fly fished -(he would've used the baitcaster if he could've figure out how to do it without getting a backlash every other cast). But, the 8 wt Helios provided enough power to push those big hair flies through the wind and he ended up doing really well too. Swimming frog patterns and clouser minnows ended up being all we needed.

Anyway, back in MT. Supposed to do a couple trips later this week so we'll see how the weather holds. The lower madison is junkified pretty bad right now and the boat ramp at Ennis and VG are probably still inaccessible, so boat fishing will probably be on the stone provided the winds stay down.

I have to be honest and say that I kind of like going back to Texas and spending time in the Hill Country, but there is no place like Montana...happy to be home for a week. Off to Casper next week for the Orvis Guide Rendezvous and then Christine and I got to Belize a week from this coming Saturday.

'Tis the time of year when we are always getting some new stuff in the shop. As I order most of this stuff in fall, I've usually lost my sense of wonder about the new stuff by the time it arrives. Half the time I don't even remember what I was thinking when I ordered it but assume I had some master plan at the time! Sounds worse when I read that.

Flies are one of those things that can kind of make or break my business. If I order too many of the wrong ones...I get stuck with them and it's hard to liquidate flies that no one wants. But, flies are huge part of our business so I drill down the data every year, decide which patterns need to go away and how many of the good ones do I need to order, plus what new patterns should I bring in to replace the junk ones.  Doesn't sound too hard but when you start talking 1500 +/- a couple hundred bins of flies...you can see how it gets complicated.

Anyway, the point is that we really tried to do our homework last year and are making some significant changes in our patterns. We were able to whittle the junk ones away last summer and ended up with our lowest $$$ amount of flies at the end of the year in several years. That's a good thing for business as inventory turns are critical to my biz and flies have always been a tough thing to get more than a turn or so out of in a year. And I have a lot of new patterns that are starting to trickle in this month.

Anyway again, we got a few new patterns in today that reminded me that my season on the MO starts in just a couple of weeks! Looking forward to it!

Another Day in Paradise

Anybody else tired of winter? Had some guys want to do a float trip tomorrow and I tried to encourage them to book a wade trip instead. Highs of 38 and 15-20mph wind just didn't sound like ideal conditions to be in a driftboat...but what do I know?

I've been getting the photo bug as of late and have no photos. It's been a disappointing winter for me in that regards as I've traveled quite a bit...a lot more than I had expected...and have little to show for it other than a tan. I got worked over fishing in Mexico, Arkansas, and somewhere else that must have been so bad that I can't even remember where the hell it was! I saw the first flowers of the spring the other day and decided I'd try to get some low angle/rising sun/gel flashed/macro shots of the little yellow things this morning. Loaded up drove to the field, carried all my crap out there, the sun was just about there...no battery...awesome.

I'm heading to Texas on Friday for a quick weekend turkey hunt/bass fish - a different kind of cast and blast. Last minute thing that came up as a result of some screaming airfare and horny birds. Should be fun, haven't caught Bass in a couple of years and it's always good to get my "Jimmy Houston" on.

Costco Fly Shop

I was having a chat with some folks in the fly fishing industry today and was asked if I had gotten my pro deal put together at Costco. That took me off guard and the response was something to the effect of go google sage and simms and Costco. So I did and low and behold there it was...Costco selling Simms and Sage...wtf? A quick trip to the local Costco revealed the rod and some no name waders...I was dumbfounded.

Well, it turns out there is much more to the story than meets the eye. No...Sage and Simms are not the evil doers here. There's a very revealing story about the whole thing online through one of the fly fishing industry magazines. So, when you go to Costco and see that Sage Zero Axis...keep this article in mind before you buy.

I've done more than my fair share of shopping at Costco over the years but their action on this matter really brings to mind the kind of company they are and I don't want to do business with them anymore. I'll trust that everyone can read the article and draw their own conclusions here. I know that I won't be renewing my membership (which always drives me crazy anyway...paying for the ability to shop somewhere...whatever...done) and my dogs are going to have to learn to eat some other brand of dog food.

I know they have good products and bulk shopping is great for a lot of folks...but just imagine how nasty they must be to their suppliers and vendors if they would go to these lengths for a one-time shot at selling some high end fly fishing gear.

I wonder how they're going to handle rod repairs? If I were a Sage dealer...I would refer everyone with a broken 905-4 Zero G to Costco from here on out. But I'm not, but I'd think it would be worth the Sage repair fee to watch the customer service folks try to sort that one out in 3 years.

I could go on and on about this one for awhile. I'd like to blame Sage and Simms, but they really got screwed on this one and have handled it well. Simms especially should be commended for the way they've handled it...ouch. The retail world - especially in boutique businesses has really changed the last 5 years - it's refreshing to see a manufacturer step up to the plate for the good of their partners and customers and not look for some quick cash that ultimately takes value away from their goods and services.

New guage on Madison

I may have had my head in the proverbial sand while this was going on...but good news for all of us Boz Angelinans that head over to the Upper Madison on a regular basis. The USGS has a new streamflow guaging station near Varney.  I saw it in the Chronicle yesterday and checked online this am and it is up.

The significance is that we'll have a better idea of water conditions up there now. The current station we use is at the Old Kirby Place near the mouth of the West Fork. The problem for us has always been that the water up from there is generally controlled or more influenced by Hebgen Dam than the stretches we primarily fish. This is going to be most helpful during the runoff as we'll know be able to see the flow contributions coming in from the tribs like Indian Creek, the West Fork, Ruby and others. Before and after high flows...probably won't be too significant of a difference as these tribs have minimal impact for most of the year. It's good thing.

Fishing License Fees Explained

Retail can be fun and it can be...well...not so fun. The best part of the gig is talking with folks that come in the shop...I mean it's usually pretty simple stuff...just talk fishing. The goal has always been to try to make it low pressure and comfortable while not coming across like we know everything. However, folks come in because the are usually looking for help, be it with new gear, hot flies, advice on where to go, or they need a license.

Being able to sell licenses is not as easy as one would think. When we first opened our shop in fact, FWP wouldn't allow us to sell licenses. No shit here! We had people come in the first year that just got pissed off at us for not having licenses...a few of them irate. We had tried everything and finally ended up handing it over to an attorney in town. So, Rick and I, the attorney and one of his assistant headed to Helena for a sit down with the department head and a lawyer with FWP. Long story short...several thousands dollars later we were able to sell licenses. FWP had their reasons so they weren't totally off base, but they also had several options that allowed them to open more license agents in Bozeman which we all agreed upon and everything was fine in the end. This was back in the day of paper licensing too.

Soon thereafter, the state switched to online licensing and now license agents were to use computers to sell licensing. In theory and reality, it is much easier and allows for better tracking, issuing, budgeting, etc. It;'s a good thing.

As our license year runs through the end of Feb, this is the time of year when everyone is stopping in buying licenses. We get something like $.5 for every license we sell, it might only be $.25, but that's part of the deal and it's not something that license agents anywhere expect to make money off of - it is simply a service that we all provide. In order to provide that service, we have to have a high speed Internet connection, personnel, lease equipment (computer, monitor, printer) but these costs are pretty minimal in the grand scope of things and the per license fee typically covers those costs in a year.

The rub is with credit cards. Now that very few folks have cash with them...everyone wants to use a credit or debit card. So, most places that sell licenses tack on a "convenience fee" of a few bucks for cc transactions for licenses. This pisses some people off, but most are ok with it...its a choice that the consumer has. CC processing companies charge merchants a percentage depending on the card and there is generally not a "flat rate" of say 2%. The rate varies depending in the type of card so a Visa card with reward features is different than a Visa with a "cashback" feature. The list is staggering and the rates can vary by over 1-2%. That rate, along with transaction fees, statement fees, and equipment fees all costs money and we were in the place of losing money on licenses several years ago so we ended up deciding to charge a convenience fee as well. At first it was $2 but this didn't cover the cc fee on our end for transactions once you get over $70 or so. So, we've been at $3 the last few years and that allows us to pretty much break even on the whole license thing.

But this just really makes some people really mad as hell! Our response is usually something like...just pay cash! The last thing I want is to piss people off over licenses...so there have been times when I've toyed with the idea of saying cash only on licenses...but that just pisses off the majority of people that understand the real world and don't mind paying extra when they choose to do so. So, I think I'm going to put some bigger signs up in the shop that encourage people to pay cash for licenses. It's just one of those frustrating things that we really have very little control over and it's impossible to make everyone happy.

One interesting thing to me is that we only accept cash for YNP licenses and it's never a big deal!

April 2011 Digital Fly Swatter

The new "Digital Fly Swatter" is out an available online. If you'd like to subscribe, go to www.finsandfeathersonline.com and opt-in through the e-mail sign-up. We usually only send out one or two e-mails a month so don't worry about getting constant e-mails from us and it's a great way to keep up with what's going on at the shop and with our guide services around Montana.