28 inch wild rainbow

Here is a monster of a fish that my buddy caught on Wednesday of this week on a zebra midge. We got him in on 4x and an 18 foot leader. We got a photo and released him.

He said he is in big fish debt to me now. ;)

Good fish Marty!

Henry's Fork Ranch

Fished the Last Chance area since the last week of May and the Ranch section almost every week since it has opened and this was my best week so far. Hooked and landed a 20 incher and a 19 incher. Hooked the 20 incher from the bank on the third cast. The 19 took me 100 yards upstream, a great battle on 6x. Went back the next day and found the 20 incher feeding in the same spot. Fished to him for 40 minutes and he finally took a floating nymph first cast and he broke me off due to a failed leader/tippet knot. What a crapper. The Ranch is fishing hot with Flavs coming off and huge spinner falls at night.

Jackson Lake

Fished Jackson lake again today and was once again skunked. I fished a green and white streamer and had one bump on that. I haven't been fishing with a sinking line so I went to the shop and put an old line onto an un-used reel and will perhaps go at it again tomorrow. I have seen some activity on top with fish chasing baitfish with style so have been experimenting with my retrieval speed. I'm not much of a lake fisherman when it comes to trout and the limit backcast makes it difficult to reach the deeper water. Perhaps tomorrow will bring something different. I've also been noticing quite a few midges flying around. Not sure if the fish in the lake like them or not but I will definitely be keeping an eye out for midging fish.

Also seen quite a bit of wildlife the last few days. A couple of Foxes or Coyotes not sure...Black bear of pretty good size and lots and lots of prong horns. And one baby moose. Be careful out there and keep your eye out for animals.


see ya.

In Jackson Now

I'm in Jackson now and have spent a few days at the shop working. Hopefully getting integrated. Got in town Thursday night. Went fishing Saturday and Sunday. Sunday I got chased off the lake by high winds and cold temps. Didn't catch anything...bought some more streamers today and am gonna hit some lakes tomorrow and friday, hopefully catch some fish. It's a great town, right now I'm using Albertson's as my internet connection. More later...

Made it to Oklahome safely. Have the Sub packed for the most part and will leave here wednesday mornin'. Gettin' into town Thursday evenin' sometime. See ya!

Leavin' Town

Leavin' town tomorrow afternoon sometime. I've never seen a civic so loaded down in all my life. Got so much junk in there. I've been callin' my renters in Jackson and the line has been busy all day...geez I hope I didn't get scammed. Should be in town by Thursday...at least I got my car and a tent. Soon there will be mountains on the horizon! I'll be drivin' about 36 hrs and around 2400 miles so if ya think about me throw up a prayer for safe travels. Take care all. See Jackson soon!

One More Week

Just one more week until I head to Oklahoma to pick up a new vehicle and then head on up to Jackson. My wife and I have stuff all over this apartment, trying to figure out what needs to go and what can stay. Some friends of ours are throwing a 'mandatory' good bye party next Friday and once that is over the reality will set in a little deeper. Saturday will be spent packing up the civic as much as possible. I'm really not sure how everything is going to fit but all it's gotta do is get to Oklahoma. Depending on how I feel I might be leaving Charlotte next Sunday evening and driving through the night. Hopefully I will arrive in Tulsa sometime Monday night or Tuesay morning and get some rest. From there a larger vehicle will do the trick and get everything to Jackson in one piece. I am checking the weather daily and looking at the town pictures on jhguide. The traffic has definitely picked up in the last week or so and the days seem to be getting warmer. I'm super excited and look forward driving into town in another week and a half. My first day in the shop at Jack Dennis will be sometime before Memorial Day. Rock n Roll!

I am officially part of the team at Jack Dennis Sports! Be there soon.

Fishing in the Philippines

A friend of mine is over in the Philippines right now in a remote village and had some pictures on her blog. I asked her to send two of them two me. This is remarkable...Just imagine tying up a caterpillar with a salt water hook. It's HUGE!!

She said what the men do is take these really long spears and go under water. They hold their breath and find the eels and spear them. Bring them up and then eat em. Not sure if I'm up for that.

This other picture is of some crawling machine. The kid might be small but the bug is gigantic. We think the women scream now?




Lord willing, I will be in Jackson Wyoming by the end of this month and wait for the pictures to begin.

Catch Mag number 5

Catch Magazine

Check it out.

I'm also trying to find relatively cheap rent in Jackson Hole. Let me know if ya know of some.

Va Tailwater few weeks back

This is the other report I said I was going to have. This was a few weeks ago. The day started out super slow. I had caught 1 fish all morning and Larry had caught 2. The hole we had fished a few days prior was completely non satisfactory. The fish were not there. We hopped around and the rain began to come down. I caught my first fish after the rain and that was it until about 3 o clock. We walked about a mile down river and hit the hole. We were in some still water and the fish were rising to something. Second cast into the still water, largest brown of the day. I took a picture of him and put him back. Not 5 minutes later Larry catches the largest brown of the day. Few minutes later, one was on my rod, not as large as his but another nice one. I thought the fish were hittin midge pupas and we caught a few on them but they were also hitting something on top big time. I was changing every 5 casts while Larry messed around and told me I was changin' too much. Eventually I put on my cdc deer hair emerger and started missing them left and right. It wasn't exactly what they wanted so they were just grabbin' it. This was in the riffles and I thought I saw some Sulfurs comin' off...but it was the first of April and I thought it couldn't be. Well sure enough it was sulfurs comin' off about size 16 but the fish weren't payin' much attention. I must have caught 10 or so in a matter of 30 minutes with about 10 missed. Larry starts changing bugs and gets one. He probably caught 15 or so soon after that. Our day turned from gloomy to fantastic in a matter of 30 minutes. What a day. We must have ended up catching 30 or so fish. Incredible!

This is before the rain...



Beautiful brown after the rain.


Brown of the day number 1


Nice brown Larry!


How about a double!


Larry ended up catchin' one more on the last cast.

What a day on the water.

Progression on the storm front. The move to Jackson is speeding up faster than ever. Could be within the next month now. I will miss fishin' with Larry, what a good man. Hope to have one more good outting with him before we head out.

What a day...

Jackson?

All I gotta say is that I could be in Jackson Hole by August...that's whats up!!!

Virginia Tail Water

Got to go fishing last Monday for the first time in 09. Went up to a Va tail water that holds wild browns and stocked rainbows. Met up with the only fishin' buddy I got around here and after stoppin' in at Bojangles for some biscuits and coffee we got to the stream at around 8am. The water was released at 6am and was running until 9 so we fished down river a little while. The rain was coming down and the water was really muddied up. The usual combo of flies is a dry and a dropper of some sort. I threw on a cdc/deer hair with a midge and didn't have a strike. He caught 1 on a midge dropper in the first 30 minutes. The fish weren't cooperating at first. I had one nice brown roll on my dry in the riffles and that was it. We decided to head up toward the dam and wait for the water. At this point the rain had stopped and the pulse had cleared up the water nice for us. We got in the water and I had a few fish on my midge dropper. It took me a few minutes to realize I wasn't fishing deep enough so I put on a larger dry with a tungsten dropper and a smaller midge under that. I started hooking up almost immediately. He wasn't hooking up so I showed him what I did and he started hooking up. In this one hole we must have caught 35 or 40 fish combined. The fishing slowed down once the wind picked up and we headed back down river. I caught one more nice brown on a white hackled Royal Wulff and we called it a day. This is a river where a lot of people can't catch more than a few.A lot of people say there aren't any fish in the river. It's a tough river but they almost all fish the same. We had a great day indeed. I caught all but one fish on my midge dropper.

The fish definitely worked with us that day, Friday we had a tougher day but it ended up just as nice. I'll have a report of that soon. Life doesn't get much better than this!

Blessings.

Been sick the last week or so. I'll get a report up soon.

In the mean time, catch some fish for me.

Peace.

Catch Mag.

I saw this on Dave Wiltshire's blog and I gotta share.


Catch Magazine

I've been there before but thoroughly enjoyed it this go round.

If you are a fan of photography or fishing, this should do you right. This is a combo of the two and greatly done. Next issue will be out May 1st.

Fishing Addiction or Somethin.

Oh by the way, I wanna go fishin'.

Like I really neeeeed to go fishin'.

I haven't been fishin' in so long that I forgot what it's like.

Ok that last sentence was a lie but really...

I gotta go soon.

Is that too much to ask for?

I don't care if I lose all my flies.

I just wanna go fishin'.

I don't care if it rains.

I just wanna go fishin'.

I don't care where I go.

I don't care what I catch.

1 week till I'm done with school and then...

I can go fishin' anytime I want!! YES!!

Royal Wulff

It's been raining here for about a day or so, maybe more I can't remember. The rain storm from the Rockies is supposed to head this direction and get here tomorrow night sometime. I've got 1 week of school left. I've got a few more pages left on this research paper and I'm done. Just another week and I can go fishin'. Expect a fishing report soon.

I've been working on these Royal Wulff's. I don't have enough money to buy any brown hackle so I'm using what I have. I've had a few tutorials and 'lessons' from one of the best, if not the best dry fly tier in the world and I'm coming along slowly. He says that the Royal Wulff is in his opinion the fly that teaches you the most. So I heeded his advice and have tied up quite a few. I'm nowhere near his level but it takes practice. I'm posting up the one's I have tied this week. A bad day at tying beats the heck out of working on a research paper. Once the verdict comes back, I'll probably destroy the bad ones and keep the good ones. Take the good ones fishing in the next few weeks.

So far I'm having a difficult time getting the post to sit straight up. On all of my flies I seem to have the post pointing too far forward. I also can't seem to get the deer hair to cooperate so I've just settled with the Moose mane. I've also been working on the proportions and the head. Thanks for lookin'.


A little scary...


Gaining some weight in the mid section...


This is a tad better...


Gettin' there...


Definitely not perfect...



Last one...

Gloves for Cold Weather

These wool gloves from Barbour kept my hands warm in Michigan this past fall, nice and dry in mountain rain and even somewhat toasty on a windy 20 degree snowfall morning. This is my second pair. I was so confident in their warmth keeping powers that I gave my last pair to a homeless man on a cold rainy day. Hopefully they kept him warm on the cold windy days here in town...and hopefully many more to come.

I keep these in my fishing bag at all times and wear them anytime it's raining or somewhat chilly outside. With the fingerless style, I can fish easily and the nice thing about these gloves is the fact that they don't have a flap to cover the fingers. I always found that it just gets in the way, line gets hung on the velcro or something else. If it is really cold outside I sometimes put my Patagonia liner gloves underneith but for the most part, these gloves do the job on their own. I'd definitely recommend them for next winter's fishing trips or for some that are in the Rockies...I'd recommend them right now. Haha. They are a great deal at 18 or 19$. You can order them from Orvis and sometimes find them in your local outfitter. I could be mistaken but I believe they only come in Medium and Large and 2 different colors, grey and olive. I have the olive version and they are almost identical. They aren't itchy and they keep you warm. What else could you ask for?

What is the worst thing about these gloves? Well most people think they are ugly and look like a homeless persons glove, which they do. If you have friends that aren't into fishing or hunting, they won't understand, but then again..they probably don't understand anything else you wear either.

India Fishin'

My friend Anand lives in Southern India and came over to visit 2 months ago. He asked me to teach him how to fish and to take him to buy fishing lures. I told him I would try my best as I had never been to India to fish. He also wanted to buy a rod and reel for under 60 dollars. I told him that it was almost impossible to get all of that for under 60 bucks but he is pretty willing. So I took him to all places(fly shops don't have the proper equipment) BPS. We went over there and shopped for a good hour or so. I took him directly to the soft plastics, jig heads and like. He kept asking me what he could catch and how to fish the lures. Then he'd ask me if he could fish sea or whatever and I said, I guess so, I have no idea Anand. It was quite funny as I was just guessing what the fish would take. I grabbed him some jig heads, soft plastic curl tail jigs, plastic worms and a few road runners. After we got all that, he got the rod and reel craze again and we went looking around. I showed him all the expensive stuff to try and steer him clear, hoping he would get something over in India or order online. He also kept saying he would go to Cabelas in Chicago, maybe his sister would buy for him. I said that sounded like a plan. We kept looking though and he liked the telescope rods but they weren't strong enough for what he wanted. He wanted the rod like his friend had...no such thing.

Got home and I had to show him how to tie knots and drawings on how to do so. I also drew him a picture of how to rig the lure onto the hook, the bead and weight(carolina style) for the ocean. Guess it worked.

Anyways I told him that he had to send me some pictures of the fish he caught and he finally sent me some pictures today. He called it a Corp fish and Snakehead. Pretty sure he meant Carp, too bad it ain't a Pink Carp and this is a small, he said 12" Snakehead. Glad my lure choices were good.

Great to spread the love of fishing over to India. Thanks Anand!!

How bout' some Art?

Some boring days here in the Carolina's. I've got 4 papers to finish for school that I'm really not in the mood to work on so I spent some time drawing and since I haven't been fishing in months, I decided to draw some fish, boats and...eyes. Hopefully I'll have some fishing updates, clothing reviews or other things for you in the next few days. In the mean time, have a great weekend.

Wyoming Day Dreaming

Whafeesh!

Thank you so much to all my new veiwers!! All around the world, literally. It means so much to me and it is so wonderful to know that people are reading it in all areas of the world. I'm doing my best to improve my blog weekly so that it is an enjoyment you all. If you have any questions or need anything please send me a message via my blog. Thanks again!

Brawnie

Patagonia Guide Jacket

I could live until I die and never need another jacket but Patagonia got the best of me again with their Guide Jacket. This quality jacket caught my eye at the store, sitting all by itself. I said to myself, it couldn't be my size...and it was. The first time I noticed it, it was regular price. I went back a few weeks later and got it on sale. All in all with the sale and a store gift card I got it at a steal: 75 dollars compared to it's retail price of $175. Well worth it to me. Another piece of clothing that I will most likely own for life. The fit was nice. Good fit in the shoulders, maybe a little tight when arms are crossed but not too bad. For my short stature, the arms were a tad long but I settled with it. It's got a nice soft shell that claimed to be "highly breathable and water resistant." So far the highly breathable has lived up to it's name, the water resistant part not so much. But don't let that stop you from buying. I bought this jacket for daily wear as well as biking and for a layer in my cooler weather fishing arsenal. The bright red isnt' a good color for spooky fish but neither is my yellow hat. It's a super comfortable jacket and I'm glad I purchased it. If you need a comfy, versatile jacket, take a look at the Patagonia Guide Jacket.



It's a regular fit jacket with a short body length, which works well with my height.



The sleeves have a nice velcro strap to keep the water or snow at bay.



The large chest pocket is big enough to hold a good sized fly box, wallet or phone.


Retail Price: $175
FAbric: 92% Polyester, 8% Spandex
Made in Vietnam

Patagonia Guide Jacket

What Lies Ahead

Though I'm not on here much to update, which I hope to change soon, it's exciting to see the visitors to my blog. I'm sorry to those of you who have visited, whether it be once or 20 times. I hope to give you better reading in the not too distant future. I appreciate your views!

Ever since our honeymoon, my wife and I have longed to be out west. It was our first times out there and unfortunately for us we didn't get much of a taste, just a teasing of the palet. We were very fortunate, and I mean very fortunate to have an amazing older couple offer us a trip out to Idaho and spend the time out there as long as we wished on their dime and come to find out later...on their time. We took the offer and spent a week in Idaho Park. I was excited, especially since John took the time to book us a trip in the Box. I spent the entire summer before going, researching the area, excited to fish the streams in and around the Park. If we only knew what lie ahead...