11/23/11-Fishing Trip

Today, Kelly and I hit the Weber river, between Coalville and Wanship.  Over the years I have gotten to know this section of the river fairly well, between Hobson and about a mile west (up river) of Creamery Lane.  I was a little disappointed.  I fished some water I haven't seen in over a year and with the high run off we had this past spring and high water levels all summer, this pretty much washed out some great fishing holes. 

Today fishing was slow to fair.  In years past, during this time of year I would expect to catch 20-30+ fish.  Granted, 80% of the fish are white fish, but still, a fish is a fish, right?  With Kelly's 2nd or 3rd cast,  fish on!! He's finally getting the hang of all this fishing stuff.  With a few little reminders on knots and setting his pole up, he's got it all figured out.  After I yelled, fish on! the fish threw the hook.  Not sure what it was, but K said it felt nice and fought pretty hard.  It was pretty windy today, so a lot of frustration with getting tangled up, breaking lines and snagging.   With the frustration setting in, Kelly decided to hit the road only after fishing for about 1 hour and 30 mins.

I decided to head up river where I've hooked into some nice trout before, 18"+ range.  This is where it really started to get frustrating for me.  Some deep runs I recall fishing in the past where gone, flatted out by constant high water.  I was hoping to track down some 20" browns through this section, but just hooked a few white fish.  I  did notice some smaller baetis starting to come off and thought I would hit one section where I knew some cutthroat's always like to feed in some back eddies in the foam.  Sure enough, just as I started to study the water, a nose here, a fin there and it was time for me to tie on size 18 emerger.  These were tough casts, you have the main river flowing down stream and the eddie heading up stream.  You need enough slack in your line to compensate the faster water moving down stream while getting your fly to catch the eddie and go up stream.  The 1 out of 10 casts when you get this to happen, pay dirt!!  I hooked into 7 fish and only landed 5.  All cutthroats, 14-16" range.  And of course, the 2 I didn't land, seemed stronger, ran faster and I'll say were closer to 18";)     

Over all, a so, so day.  We both started out with sow bugs (blondie and brunette) and dropping some egg patterns.  I didn't land a single trout nymphing and whities seemed to take both combinations, really 50/50 on sow bugs verses my egg pattern.  This was a great way to start my 4 day weekend, catching some decent fish and being on the water on this beautiful day.  Hope to see you on the water soon, Fish On!!

~Arch



Wednesday, 11-23-11: Fishing Anyone?

Thanks to my company, well... my parent company, Access Development, I only have to work a half day on Wednesday, 11-23.  With that being said, I might as well take advantage and go fishing in the afternoon.  I plan to hit the Weber, one of my most favorite places to fish in search of some spawning browns.  So far, I have a few commitments, KP, Jason and Dee (that is, if he hasn't been in Vernal all week) anyone else is more than welcome to come.  We should be on the water before 1 and will fish til' dark.  I'm excited to try out my new fishpond, Waterdance Guide Pack.  I'm retiring my "old" Orvis Chest Pack that has served me well for the past 17+ years, good bye old friend! 

Hope to see you on the water, Fish On!!

Updates

As promised, here are some updated photo's from this past summer and fall. The fish to right is nice 15" cutthroat out of the South Fork of the Ogden. I caught a number a smaller fish, 10-12" range, all on dry's. It seemed any attractor fly worked, Royal Trude to Royal Wulff and any stimulator I threw at them. This was a fun quick trip.


This was a rough outing, mid July on the middle Provo. All of the water was blown out, murky and so high and swift. You had to fish the edges in search of any trout. I hooked into a few fish that I never landed, this was the only guy that came to net. It was still fun, any day on the water beats a day at work, or at least a short day at work! Thanks K for taking the pic and lending a hand to land him!

*Madison River- 9/23/11: Below will be a number of fish we caught this fall up on the Madison with Jason and Dee, this is starting to be an annual trip we take each September for my b-day. Thanks to Dee and Jason for the all of the fun memories. It's great to fish with people who love the sport and are wanting to learn from each other.
One thing I love about the Madison, all of the fish are healthy and strong. Most of the better fish we caught were all on top with ant patterns and small attractor flies. We were hoping to float 2 of these days and do some stripping. One of my good friends, Dave Bess who guides all summer on the Madison needed to head home this weekend and take care of some business at home. Next year Dave we will slay them and you'll teach us the ropes about chucking some meat!!

Now this is a funny story. We had been on the water for 3 days, we were sore and all looking forward to the hard spring beds back at the cabin.

Jas said, "I'm done, I'm heading back". 2 casts later, as he was wading through a slow riffle, he hooked into this beauty of a brown right along the edge. Jason was surprised and shocked this fish was there. After we landed him, he couldn't believe his eyes. This 19" brown was the fish of the trip and Jason was grinning from ear to ear. What a fish and a memory!

It's Been Toooo Long!!

Well, what can I say.... nothing! There are no excuses, I haven't updated this blog in over a year and a half and it's about time. Maybe, it's because I haven't been fishing as often as I would like, but that shouldn't be my excuse. I will post some pictures to get you all up to speed starting with our annual Challis trip back in the spring. A few photo's through out the summer of 2011 and my most recent trips this fall, the Madison River in Sept. and a local trip to the Weber last weekend with my bother-in-law Kelly, that's Kelly to the left with his beautiful 18" rainbow from Saturday.

It's good to be back and I look forward to posting more of my trips from this fall and winter. Fish on!!

Up and RUNNING!!!

Sorry for the delay, we have just settled into our new home and now I can get back to updating this blog on a regular basis. Last night I was able to get my office together, that means my fly tying bench and internet are set up and we are good to go. I haven’t been out on the water in close to a month and I really need to get out.

We’re planning our annual “Montana” trip. We will be leaving June 14 and will be back on father’s day. In years past we have stayed on the Madison River at Campfire Lodge. They are under new management and with new management that normally means jacking up prices! Of course, prices have gone through the roof. We love the area, atmosphere and the memories of years past. Thanks to our realtor and friend Danny Kettle, he has offered his father’s cabin out of Island Park, ID. We will be staying in a 4 bedroom newly finished home for the week for the same price we would have paid for a little 2 to 4 hundred square foot cabin’s for 5 days. We will be closer to West Yellowstone, which will be good and have the chance to learn the Island Park area for fishing. We will take a couple of days and head over and fish the Madison, but I’m looking forward to learning Island Park.

I’m going to be sitting down at my bench for the next couple of weeks tying like crazy. I hope to get out at least once before we head to Idaho, but with all of the little projects I have sitting around home, it’s not looking good. We will see what this weekend brings I might be able to break away for an afternoon.

Don’t be afraid to head out and fish the rivers right now, the water may be high, just be careful when wading!! If the water isn’t murky the fish are still hungry and fishing should be fair to good. Change your tactics, don’t fish your normal holes, fish the edges more and look for slower water. Fish bigger attractor patterns, this is a good time to fish streamers. Good luck and hope to see you on the water!

Snow, Wind and Rain!

Today Jason and I headed up to the Weber River by Coalville. By the time we parked it was getting closer to 3:00. We ended up at the “Bridge”, there were no other vehicles and we really didn’t want to deal with any crowds. The clouds were dark and looking pretty scary. The water levels looked pretty good, little higher than normal, but not murky. I set Jas up with a Chartreuse C.J., size 14 and dropped a Blondie (sow bug, size 16). I started off with a size 16 Green Arrow and dropping size 20, BWO-Barr’s emerger.

Right off the bat we were both catching fish, mainly whitefish. Jason is now known as, “The Whitefish Slayer”!! It seems where ever we go he only catches whitefish, if it be the Madison to the Weber, they just seem to love him! Jason seemed to catch all of his fish with Blondie and Brunet sow bugs, it seemed better for him to stay with a single fly set up, 2 heavy sinkers and keeping his rig on the bottom. I used a few different set ups. I stuck with the Green Arrow as my attractor fly and dropped everything from BWO-Barr’s emergers, sows bugs and a red serendipity. I caught my 17” brown with the serendipity and my smaller trout with the Green Arrow and sow’s. I too was heavy, heavy, being on the bottom. All sets seemed to be on the lighter side, but I would say the day was a fair to good day of fishing. The weather played the fair part of our trip from snow, wind and rain. The sun did break out for a little while and that’s when we seemed to get into the fish. Until next time, go out and wet your waders!!

Challis, ID.- Steel Head

This past weekend a few friends (Mike, Jason, Kendall) and I headed to Challis, Idaho to try and get into some steel head on the Salmon River. Past fishing reports were looking promising and we were all very excited. I had been fishing once a few years back with no luck and I myself was very excited with anticipation with the number of fish that had been reported.


We arrived late Friday evening and our first stop was to an old friend Carla Young. Mike has known Carla for years now and she is the kindest person I have meet in quite some time. Her home is always open and the weekends the steelies and salmon are running her basement is full with fellow fishermen. Thank you Carla (and Jim) for your hospitality, knowledge, advice and yes the legend is true! This year I had Carla sign my hat, which did pay off for this trip and hopefully for fishing trips to come.

We started our day early and we were on the water by 7:00 a.m. We had permission to fish on some private property, Thank You Allen, by the time we had our rigs set up Mike was in the water and with his first cast, fish on!! This brut was the biggest fish of the trip with a big old hook jaw, very think and heavy. My best guess would be 30 to 32 inches and a good 10 to 12 lbs. He was a native male that we released, not after taking a few pictures. Not long after Mike hooked into his fish, with a few words of advice and demonstration it was my turn. I hooked into my first steelie, a nice 23” hen and she too was a native. Over all the day was GREAT!! We were all able to hook into fish, bring some home and release a few, not to mention, we could have feed an army with the number of sucker fish we caught! I caught most of my fish with a green butted skunk fly and dropping a gummy egg pattern. We had luck with all sorts of salmon flies, but it seemed the black flies caught more steel head.