7-27-10

I got out of work a little early tonight....The world had some daylight to spare....Off to my resevoir .....It felt good to throw a line in my local water...It's been six days since I fished a warm water location.....Only 30 minutes or so...but a few fish in hand.....

Montana

Montana......Where do I begin.....Well, let's start out by saying even though I brought a rod with me it wasn't a fishing trip unfortunately....My girlfriend is from Missoula and one of her very close friends was getting married so off we went. I did get to do a little fishing, but nearly as much as I had hoped. Over the five days I spent maybe 4 hours on the water, in town, from the banks....A little challenging to say the least, but at least the line got wet.....

Our hotel was on the banks of the Clarkfork....A three minute walk put me in the river from our room....The day we arrived, sleep deprived and hungry, no fishing occured....Friends were met, laughs were had, beer was drank, food was consumed, the sleep deprived got to rest....I did manage to sneak off to a fly shop to purchase my permit and some flies of the season....Yellow Sallies, hoppers, PMDs, some caddis and a few select streamers....
The morning of day two....6:30 am.....Off to the water....Walked up and down the bike path until I could find an area suitable to climb down and attempt to fish....Found my path....Fish are working, little puckering rises everywhere....A side note on Montana weather.....The mornings are cold....50 degrees or so....I wade into the water, shock rushes through my body....that water is freezing....A few false casts with a yellow stimulator on the line, a nice drag free drift and bam....Fish on....for about 1/2 a second....I had 4 more like that....Took the fly and threw the fly.....Then I landed the 6th....A small Bull Trout.....about ten inches...Beautiful fish....I would show you a picture but my cell phone with camera fell in the water.....Fishing was then done for the day....

First day on the water lessons.....Leave cell at home....The waters here are very technical....Perfect presentation, no drag, even a little tiny bit of side motion or drag puts the fish down.....The water is freezing, so is the morning, it stays light until 10:30 pm, hatches occur around 8 am when the sun comes up over the mountains, and again in the evening....


The next morning, same scenerio.....I head to the water....This time there is a person sleeping on the banks where I need to be....Missoula has a lot of transients, the politically correct term for bums....I had to proposition this bum to get to the spot I needed to fish....The deal was part of my catch, or breakfast as the bum stated, and I could pass to the water...Little did she know that I catch and release.....Well....I managed to miss two fish before people walking the bike bath decided to let their dog come running down to me and leap into the water that I was fishing.....Fishing over....





Lessons from day two in the water.....Need to get further away from town and people, bums are funny.....
Misty woke up and went for a walk with me the third day..We hiked the banks to where the Rattlesnake dumps into the Clark....The big boys hang in this area...The guides told me no one fished there but a few in the know because it's in town and people swim there.....The locals actually jump off of the bridge there into the deeper water....I cast a few streamers into the current seam.....Something big latched on....It took my fly and headed straight towards the faster current....The beauty jumped into the air, and my fly came straight out of it's mouth and headed towards mine.....I lost one more right after that....Back to the hotel...We drove to the Bitter Root later that day, beautiful river....I did not fish it, but it was magnificent to stand in front of....




We went to the a hiking path following the Rattle Snake the next morning....I fished for about 15 minutes....I managed to miss two cut throats in a row....They came up on PMDs, grabbed it then headed straight to the current....Pocket water fishing in this area....It was a struggle but watching them rise was exciting enough....





The locals don't see there water as being sacred trout waters....The activities of choice in the rivers include, tubing, kayaking, bridge jumping and swimming....The rivers that East Coast Trout Bums dream of, are little considered by many that live there....It's a strange thing to me....We all did swim in the Bitter Root one afternoon...I went hiking a bit up river....Dodging tube floaters and bridge jumpers, only to find bear prints and some other huge print in the sand that I couldn't identify....
Montana is a majestic beautiful place.....There is not enough time in a life to explore all of it's magnificent waters....My next visit will be more fishing related...As an East Coast warm water fly fisherman, I was pleased to know that I had the dry fly skills necessary to fool these educated fish....I only had about 4 hours total on the water....Just being there and absorbing the scenic beauty, the friendly vibe, hip people and great atmosphere was enough this time round.....Keep a sharp mind and a light step.....

7-21-10

Heading out to Montana for a few days, leaving 6am...should be an amazing trip....packed a 9 ft 4 weight.....trout on

7-20-10

So this morning I let my Sage rod down.....I gave it my all, but could not hook up on any monsters....Beautiful morning....got some photos of a few landed, baby fish....lost 3 others before the pic...spiny, feisty little bastards....I think between the extreme heat and on and off rain, low water and a little slow moving...the fishing is a little off....Thankfully small mouth don't live in ugly places....A warm weather tip....The only places that I hooked up were fast moving water...The heads of pool, the tails of pools....Just before or after a good rocky, riffle section.....Slack water was unproductive....Maybe when I get back from Montana it will be back to normal.....I did however have some brainstorms on new fly creations...stay tuned for that....tight lines

7-19-10

wanted to go out on my creek tonight....After watching the weather report, severe thunderstorms, high winds, rain...blah blah....It never actually did storm by the way, a little sprinkle then sun...I decided it would be better to not be in a kayak floating with a 9 ft lightning rod whipping back and forth over my head...I went to the resevoirs....Hit some nice gills, a few baby smallies....and myself...Yup that's right....Three years fly fishing and I have not had any severe hooking incidents...Until today...A little dragon fly nymph got caught up around some weeds...I went to grab for it, simultaneously pulling at the fly and the leader to pull it through the leaves. Well, the fly slipped and drove straight through the tip of my pointer finger. Now I usually pinch all of my barbs down...This happened to be the one fly that I missed with the pliers....All the way through, barb shining in the sun.....So....Hook in my finger, fly rod in other hand, still tangled in the bush....I break the branch off, walk up from the bank, untangle the line from the weeds....Now at this point why I didn't just clip off the leader, I don't know....But in my scattered thought process I couldn't figure out how to get my book bag off my back while having a fly stuck in my finger...So one arm goes through the straps, and dangles from the other....I grab my pliers only to find that the gap is not large enough to get the pliers in to cut it....I push the fly with all I have and compress my finger tip and somehow manage to get the barb clipped....Out comes the fly and I begin bleeding bubbles of blood out both holes....I packed it in for the night.....

7-18-10

Did a little fishing over the last two days.....Sunday I met up with a friend of mine to explore a lake that he knows very well and I have only been on twice before. DEC claims the NYS record Tiger Muskie should be coming from this lake this year. We went searching....I drove 4o minutes to meet him, 5:30 am...On the water by 6:15...At the starting spot by 6:45.....Beautiful lake, beautiful day, not a fish to be found....We fished hard, I mean really hard...At one point I had to stop and just rest because my arm hurt so much from casting...They call Tiger Muskie the fish of 10,000 casts....I think I put in 5,000.....At least....We ended up with one bluegill, one perch, one pickerel, and one nice smallmouth by John...Fishing ended about 3pm....We went to a small pond on the way home after ice cream to replenish sugar energy.....Slammed bluegills and a few large mouth....Great day, little fish...That's why it's called fishing and not catching.....

7-16-10

So..I go to work everyday at about 12:30pm and I work until around 10pm....I like the fact that I can fish most days in the morning before work. I am fortunate in that the area that I live in offers a wide array of water....I try to make the drive to my morning trips less then 20 minutes one way....This puts me at one of three resevoirs near my home frequently....There is an amazing population of small and large mouth bass, big panfish and some trout at these....There are also HILLRODS.....Now let me explain that word....There are times when I look at the people where I live and just shake my head in amazement. If there was a missing link to be found, I do believe that it may be here.....I'm not sure exactly what happened to some of the people in my town, mercury in the tap water, lead paint chips, dropped on their heads...Who knows...The clothing style seems to run one of two ways...Either excessively skin tight or falling off....I'm not sure which is better. If you have a gut so large that you can't see your feet, you should not where a shirt that lets your slab of fat hang out from under it....Ever...Period....There is just no need...Nobody wants to see it...If I can catch a whiff of you from across the lake, there may be a problem with you hygiene....If you have some kind of mixed up southern accent that sounds like you've taken too many downers, but was born and raised here....in the north,....there may be an issue....

My point to this introduction....I try to avoid people of this kind as much as possible...In my day to day working life, as I do work with people, and on occasion during a fishing outing I do have encounters with them........Today was such a day.....

I go to the resevoir. There are a couple of old timers sitting on buckets waiting for their bobbers to bob...Head nods and the usual small talk....I reach my destination and begin to fish....I fish my way around one resevoir only hitting one small mouth....To the next one...I begin fishing in the next resevoir and first cast I hit a nice smallie....I hear voices from the far side of the water..."Lookie there he got one"...."looking like a small mouth".....I return my catch to the water and move a little over....I cast two more times and nail another one...."Fucking asshole got another one"....From across the way....So I think to myself this should be good....What we have here is HILLRODS....I move over little more and catch another one....Again the commentary continues from across the way...."What the fuck he done got another".."Asshole"....So I decide it's time to go I need to get ready for work anyway...I begin walking towards my vehicle. As I approach the HILLRODS begin to approach my car...Wonderful I think to myself....This should be great. Now I am for the most part a peaceful individual. I am however prepared at all times to defend myself and my loved ones. There will be no good coming out of this encounter....So as they approach I remove the hatchet from my trunk and place it on my bumper in an obvious loud way. I look at the men...."Gentlemen, can I help you?"....HILLRODS...."UHHH, UHHH, you're a pretty good with that whippy thing there....UHHHH, I'm gonna go have another beer"...and off they went.....I love my town.....9:00am....

7-14-10

Finished the propeller flies for my swap....

7-11-10

So it's been a bit since a post...I have been fishing a little local resevoir a lot lately...It is my new favorite frustration....There are some of the largest small mouth that I have ever seen cruising the shallows and not one will bite at a thing that I throw at them...I have been tying all sorts of buggy/fishy deliciousness to toss to them...but nothing successful yet....A lot of blue gills lately as well...Tonight was a great night for the gills....Some pigs by all standards...I actually caught 28 fish in totol today...15 assorted bass,...2 large mouth and 13 small mouth...All were pretty small...under 10 inches...The heat has been killer, we have had no real rain, the streams are low and the water is hovering at 80...Not much action from the big boys....Daves Hopper was killer with the gills tonight.....Swimming nymphs in olive were the only things I could get to work in my creek for smallies...No pics of any fish.....

Here are a couple of dragon flies I have been working on....

7-6-10

So....I felt the calling of buckets today....Up at 6am, on my way....I arrived at one of my favorite lakes only to find brown, stagnant, smelly water to welcome me...I think we might need some rain.....No buckets, only a couple of gills, and I had to work for those....A little disappointed to say the least...If I was a fish I wouldn't want to eat out of that water either....



Here's some pics of a bald eagle from two days ago....Beautiful animal...

7-4-10

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!!!!!! I took my step father out today for the first time on the kayaks. A little background....He can't swim...He's never been in a kayak....Ok, no worries..ha....I decide on a nice calm section of stream to bring him down...A little small action for the big day out....We fish and fish....Slow action, no problem...I teach him how to get in and out of the yak....how to stear, balance....the whole nine...We make it down some rough sections with rocks and faster water...takes it like a champ...We each caught a few fish...Nothing huge, but fish hands never the less...The bald eagle was perched on his tree as always....Now on the way back...A majority of the water I fish is 1-3 ft deep....There is one calm pool that reaches about nine feet....I'm about 20 feet in front of him, I hear GAAAABOOOOOOOSH....Splash....Oh shit.....I flip my boat around to see his kayak flipper in the water and no him....Then his head comes popping up.....He found a boulder that just got his head out of the water...I paddle over, he grabs the back of my boat and I paddle him to shore....I went back out to get all of his floating items flowing downstream....I paddle my boat while trying to push the other kayak in full of water...We get it to shore flip it, drain it....The only loss was his new ultra lightweight rod...A small price to pay for not drowning....Scary...But all was well, so lots of laughs were had in the end....How did he flip in calm water do you ask?...Well, there was a little current, his boat was drifting a bit, so instead of paddling he used the paddle like a rudder on the side of the boat...The current was strong enough to puch the paddle head under the boat causing hin to roll and catapult out of the craft....All in all, it turned out ot be a good day and believe it or not he's looking forward to the next trip...There is a bit of a learning curve with kayaks...So be careful out there and paddle with some one that is experienced....

7-2-10

You're stripping in your fly...A nice 3-4 inch streamer....Giving it some jerky erratic motion...THWUNK!!!!....It stops....Then all you feel is line going out heading straight to the bottom.....A little flash here and there if you can muscle it up....Then straight down again...There is no tail walking, no jumping, a little surface splash here and there...This is a pure muscle fight....Then it surfaces....Glowing eyes....Big ass teeth.....You go to net this creature of the dark....The fight resumes...Now the splashing begins....Twists and turns....Water everywhere....Lift it up....Now you can remove your fly using hemostats from the giant Walleye you just landed on the fly......That's what I'm talking about....


Oh yeah....Caught a few smallies, then moved to some panfishing with a hopper.....