Winter 2011 Fishing

It's been a while since I've updated the blog hasn't it -

Well, here's a quick update on 2011 so far ...

My first fishing trip of 2011 was back on January 29th.  I woke up late that Saturday morning planning on hanging out around the house.  Heidi suggested however that I get out and fish for a few hours.  I thanked her, quickly packed, told her "Thank you" once again, and headed up towards the "local" small streams, which are only about 1-1/2 hours away.

Last year I had set the goal to fish at least once a month.  Unfortunately, I fell short of my goal missing out in June and December.  I wasn’t really planning on setting the same goal this year, but if I was going to get out fishing before the end of January, well maybe I’ll give it another go in 2011.

The weather looked pretty good, but I was a little concerned about how frozen over the stream would be.  I didn’t have to worry.  Sure, there was a fair bit of snow on the ground and ice at the edges of the stream, but most of the water was open and very clear.  It was actually warm enough that I didn't have any trouble with my guides icing up.  The fish were very spooky given the crystal clear water and low winter flows.

With small black stoneflies crawling out of the water and small midges and mayflies hatching, I was able to catch my first fish on a little surface action.  An unseen rainbow shot up out of a knee deep run to take a size 20 snowshoe hare emerger.  With my first fish of 2011, we both took home souvenirs.  I managed a quick picture just before my tippet frayed and the fish took off with my hook.  Fortunately, the CDC emerger I tied on next worked just as well, bringing another rainbow and two browns to hand.

Last weekend I went back up to the same stream with a friend.  The morning started off at a brisk 23 deg when we got up to the river at 7:30.  My fingers were anything but nimble when tying my flies onto my tippet, but I was looking forward to fishing again.  I took my Tiger Eye 2wt rod once again.  I normally use a 2wt DT line, but this time I decided to try the rod out with my 3wt WF line.  Instead of respooling the line onto my 3100 reel, I left the line on my OB-4.  I really like my OB-4 reel, just not on my 6’6” 2wt rod.  Still, casting with the 3wt line was really smooth.  All the short casts I needed to make were a breeze with the heavier line, and the rod was still able to cast out to ~40 ft when I wanted.

I remembered all the small black stoneflies I had seen back in January and put a size 18 black copper john about 24 inches beneath a small dry fly.  A couple fish took the dry fly, but the copper john did most of the work that morning.  I managed to catch 8 fish with a good mixture of rainbows and brown trout.  It's been a week since this fishing trip, but I'm still pretty pumped up about that day and these beautiful fish.  I hope you enjoy the pictures.

  

Cutthroats

While up in Utah visiting family last week, I snuck off for a few hours of fishing on Thursday and Friday.  My wife will tell you it was the better part of two days, but you can decide who you want to believe.  On Thursday, I went and found a small stream, hoping to catch a few Bonneville cutthroat trout.  The first part of the stream I stopped off and tried to fish was flowing pretty fast and had a lot of cover.  Both made it difficult to fish.  Still, it was beautiful scenery and I was thankful to be out there to enjoy it.  I started out using a big dry fly and a weighted dropper to see if I could find any fish.  I fished this stretch for about an hour without any sign of success, casting wherever I could along the brushy stream.

After walking upstream around some especially thick brush, I found a nice spot to climb down the bank back to the stream.  Unfortunately, I didn't see the largest ant hill I've ever come across.  I sat down and began to slide down the bank to the water.  That's when I felt the ants start to climb all over my hand and arm.  It felt as if there were hundreds on me as I jumped the remaining distance into the middle of the stream and began stripping off my clothes and tossing them onto the opposite bank.  I'm glad no one was around to see me thrashing around half-dressed while slapping at the remaining ants crawling over my body.  I only had a few ant bites when it was finally over, but I could still feel them crawling on me for hours.  Since things weren't exactly going my way, I decided to pack up and move farther upstream.  A couple of miles further up I found a nice beaver dam.

The dam had created a small pond that looked promising.  As I carefully approached the water, I saw a couple of small trout sipping tiny insects off the surface.  I tied on a size 20 comparadun BWO and began to stalk a nearby trout.  Crawling on my hands and knees to get close enough to cast through the bushes, I finally presented an acceptable offering and was rewarded.

At first I thought I'd caught a rainbow, but the small, faint orange stripe under its jaw gave its identity away as a small cutthroat.  After a quick picture, the little cutt was off and I began untangling my line while waiting to see if another fish would begin feeding again.  This was only the second cutthroat I'd ever caught and I was anxious to catch a few more.  I spooked a nearby fish and thought I'd be done for a while, but moments later the nose of another, larger fish came into sight again and again.  By now, I had my casting figured out for this spot, so it didn't take long for me to catch my 2nd cutthroat of the day.

This was a pretty nice sized fish and it gave a good fight on my new 2wt.  I was ready for more, but the mosquitos and flies encouraged me to leave the stillwater behind and go down below the beaver dam to see what I could find in the moving water.  There was a perfect spot just below the dam holding several good sized cutthroats.  Standing behind the bushes or kneeling in the water beneath their branches provided some good cover while casting. 

I could see several fish feeding and chasing each other around in the feeding lanes.  A soft and gentle cast was all that was needed before the first one took my fly.  It was great to watch the fish see the fly and then turn and follow it downstream for a split second before taking it emphatically.

After catching a few fish on the comparadun BWO, I decided to switch out my fly for another small favorite, a size 20 Quigley Cripple.  You can see it did just as well, catching several more cutthroats.  The color on these fish was amazing.  I love the bold spots back along towards the tail.  The orange slash is definitely a highlight as well.

That little spot just below the beaver dam was a perfect place to catch some eager and beautiful fish.

A couple more came from some nice pools and pockets a bit farther downstream, too.  I had such a blast catching these awesome fish on my newest rod -- a great way to spend a few hours on the stream!

April 2010 Provo River

I found a few pictures taken while fishing on the Provo River back in April.  I had a really good time up there that day.  It was the first time I'd experienced a hatch that resulted in a lot of rising fish.  One minute the water was calm, the next it was practically boiling as the fish suddenly started to rise and take midges just under the surface.  It was a lot of fun to fish.  Of course, I spent most of the hatch pulling wind knots out of my line.  Still, I managed to catch a few on my size 20 comparadun BWO and midge flies.

May Fishing

I took yesterday afternoon off work and headed up to the Jemez area for some fishing with my friend John. It was kind of a rough day fishing. I caught one, had another two shake loose after a few head-shakes, and missed another 3 or 4 strikes. Still, it was a beautiful day to be outdoors, hiking and wading along the river. We had hoped that the stoneflies would be hatching, but we could not find any evidence of them. Perhaps in another week or so they'll show up. The fishing should be great by then with the runoff continuing to come down, too.

A 2wt of my own (Rod Build #4)

Here's my first rod building project for 2010.  I finished up a 6'6" 4pc 2wt Tiger Eye for myself. I'm pretty excited to finally have it completed. It's taken me quite a while to get it all put together. Now I just need to find some time to get up to the mountains and try it out.

This is the second of these blanks I've built. The first was for Mike (see here). I wanted to have my rod "match" his, but still be a bit different. I used the same colors and patterns, only I slimmed down the trim bands a bit.  The grip is a bit different as well, both in the type of cork I used as well as the size.

I couldn't help but put a trim wrap just ahead of the inscription area, 15" from the end of the reel seat. It's my goal/dream to catch something that big with this rod!

Here are the details:

-- 6'6" 4 pc 2wt Tiger Eye (tiger eye brown color)
-- Struble U-27 dark nickel silver uplocking slide band reel seat with teak insert
-- Grip made with burl cork with burnt and rubberized cork trim and sealed with Tru-Oil
-- Dark nickel silver winding check
-- Black nanolite ring lock stripping guide (one size 8)
-- Black H&H single foot standoff fly guides (one size 2, seven size 1 guides) and tiptop
-- Gudebrod chestnut thread with Sulky dark copper and light copper trim
-- Pheasant and jungle cock feather inlay

I'm getting a bit more comfortable with my growing rod building skills, but I recognize that I've still got a lot to learn and improve upon.  I had a lot of fun trying out new things and just generally practicing with this rod. I'm still working on my feather inlay technique, but it's getting better. I was more successful this time getting the pheasant feather to lay down (around) on the blank. I used three jungle cock nails to go with the three dark bands in the grip and three metallic trim bands. Finally, maybe I'm crazy, but I think that turning the rod by hand while the epoxy hardens helps keep the excitement and pride of a new rod going for a few extra hours.  (I turn the rod rod for 3 to 4 hours for each coat of epoxy, usually 2 or 3.)

I'm looking forward to fishing this rod a lot over the summer. Mike prefers a 3wt line for his rod, especially for close in and small stream work. I'll start out using a 2wt DT line on mine, but I won't be surprised if I end up also going to a 3wt line.

I can't wait to get back out on the streams!