Crowded Hike

With the kids visiting their grandparents and the Wife at work I took the opportunity to head out fishing. I picked up Ross and his brother Luc and we headed to a stream that I 'needed' to fish before Summer was over. We got a bit of a late start and were disappointed to find two other fishermen just heading out on the trail as we pulled up. With a few miles worth of good stream available, we figured it still would be worth the effort and headed out. Once we caught up with the other anglers we stopped and talked with them for a moment to make sure we weren't going to mess up their plans. They were going to fish up stream from where they were, so we hiked in a considerable distance before starting to fish. 

I'm yet to see an elk here, but I won't be shocked when I do

Lucky for us my favorite part of the stream was down here, so it wasn't much of a sacrifice for us. This hike always gets me in the mood for hunting season which is right around the corner. Once we started fishing it set the scene for most of the day, we missed a lot of fish. I don't know if it's just because I haven't been fishing much but it seemed like none of us could make the connection. 

Lots of wildflowers

It's a nice place to be

I think he caught the most fish today

Big brother did okay too

Lil brownies

Finally we all managed to hook and land a fish to get the skunk off. They seemed more than willing to take a well placed terrestrial, or a BH Prince Nymph dropper. The fishing was definitely picking up until we reached the first waterfall, then it seemed like we couldn't buy a fish. 

There's a few of these on this stream

We kept on keeping on, trying some different flies and hoping that fishing would improve, when we found a place where a few active fish kept our attention for a few minutes. That's when a couple of guys came up from behind us. At first they seemed okay, asking what direction we were heading and if we'd had any luck, then they walked up to the next decent pool above us (yes, we told them we were working our way upstream) and started fishing. Rather than playing leapfrog for the rest of the day we elected to hike up and out of the small canyon to get way above them. We didn't see the anglers from the morning, but we went far enough up that we would've avoided them too. Our fishing luck didn't seem to improve, but Luc did make an interesting catch.

Not the funnest lil canyon to hike out of

Felt bad for this bird

Didn't even fish the beaver ponds this time

Luckily the bird was just tangled in the line, and not actually hooked. I was shocked that she didn't even peck at me while I was working to set her free. We managed to miss a couple more fish to finish out the frustrating day before making the hike back to the car. Once we were in sight of the parking area, we were spotted by the guys that cut us off. They quickly jumped in their vehicle and drove away. I'm sure they were trying to avoid some choice words that I'd saved for them. Oh well, at least we were able to get out and see some beautiful area. Hope you can get out, be safe, and enjoy nature.

- Kidder

Cool lookin' spring

I may have been a little distracted...