The boys and I are on spring break this week! Too bad Del isn't and we've had to spend a bunch of money the last few days for the upcoming move. That means staying close to home and doing everything as low budget as possible. For the first few days of the break I stayed home, tied flies, and listened to the rain outside. That just made my back hurt and my cabin fever reach dangerous levels. Today the sun was shining and the trout were calling.
The initial plan was to take the DSLR camera and try shooting some video of the boys fishing. Didn't realize that I'd forgotten the SD card until we were already on the stream. Oh well, there will be other days to shoot video. The water was a bit high and a little off color so Atley tried a black woolly bugger to start.
Surprisingly, the fish weren't interested in the bugger so I threw a dry dropper rig at them. On top I had a pink Indicator Chernobyl and hung a flash back Hare's Ear down below. I was just about to hand Atley the rod when the ant went under and it was fish on. Soon a solid fish was in hand.
Not sure what put the huge hole in her back, but if it was a fish I'd like to meet him. With that in mind I handed Atley the rod (Caden wasn't too interested today) and hoped that there was another fish in the pool. Several casts later without any luck and I started thinking about getting down a little deeper. So I added some tippet below the Hare's Ear and tied a San Juan Worm on. Took a cast to make sure it wasn't going to be a constant tangle before handing it to Atley and of course a fish decided to take it. Right away I knew this was a really solid fish that was pretty insistent on staying at the bottom of the pool. Once I coaxed him out with as much pressure as my little 4wt fiberglass rod and the 6x tippet would allow we saw that he was a big fish. We had to follow him down to the next pool and hope that the connection would stay through a couple of good leaps and runs. Luckily, Atley is a great net man and he got as much of the fish that would fit into the net!
The boys and I were all pretty excited about this beauty and Atley called first dibs on the next hole. Didn't take him long to get his own fish to hand, and while it wasn't a hog I was pretty proud of how independent of a fisherman he's become.
Seeing how we had done it, Caden wanted his turn and I tried to help him as much as possible. Once we had a fish hooked, all he wanted to do was be the net man and he did a great job.
The boys realized how hungry they'd become despite us only being on the stream for an hour or so, and I knew that no matter what I said they had decided it was time to go home. So we headed back home with memories made in a short trip.
Hope you're as lucky,
Kidder
It seems like when the weather turns warm I always start fishing more stillwater. Too bad I suck at it. This weekend I decided to break out the kick boat and go for some chunky rainbows. What I found was a beautiful backdrop to a serious skunking.
The plan was to do some fishing while waiting for my Dad and his wife to show up and join me. But by the time they had made it down and set up their 5th wheel trailer the wind had kicked into overdrive. So we went out for lunch and talked over some possible house plans for my upcoming build. Once the options had been exhausted we hatched a plan for the afternoon fishing.
We thought that we could reach a different lake in the area for a change in fortunes. The nice weather had convinced us that it was later in the year than it felt like, but the snow on the road reminded us that it was still early.
A beautiful place, but a frozen lake waited for us at the end of an interesting ride through the snow and mud. This is definitely a place that I'd like to revisit in the coming months and do some camping, fishing, and hiking. Soon...
Hope you're luckier,
I've been tying a lot of flies lately. It's a good way to have some quiet time and think through things when I can't be on the water. I also listen to the Orvis Podcast with Tom Rosenbauer while tying, it's a really good way to learn a bunch about fly fishing and I highly recommend it. One thing that really got me re-thinking the way I do things was Tom really pushing barbless hooks. I've smashed the barb down from time to time, but I've never been too concerned with it. Which is surprising considering how many times I've hooked myself! I'm sure it won't make up for all my iniquities, but I've made a resolution to smash the barb on all my flies for the next little while to see if my catch rates go down.
The past few tying sessions have been dedicated to filling my nymph box. With our house on the market (we've already had one offer!) I'm not sure if there will be much time to tie in the coming months. Which means I'm going to need lots of Hare's Ears, Prince Nymphs, and Pheasant tails in all the variations I like to fish.
When I was told about a last minute showing of the house for Saturday afternoon I took it as a sign to stop tying and go check on one of the local streams. Upon arrival I spotted a couple of fish rising inconsistently. There were quite a few midges around, but with the infrequent rises I figured it had to be the few Blue Winged Olives that the fish were after. It was at this point I realized that my dry box hadn't made the drive with me! I made due with an Orange Asher I happened to have in my drying patch, and while it wasn't what they really wanted I managed to start the day off with a fish caught on a dry fly.
Unfortunately, not many fish were willing to eat a fly they didn't really want. So as I made my way to the next hole I switched out the Asher for a Tri-Colored Nymph under an indicator and picked up a few small browns right away.
Working my way upstream there were more fish to be had with the nymph rig, but whenever I spotted a rising fish I switched back to the Asher to give it a shot. I managed one more on a dry, but most fish came on the Tri-Colored. The best fish, the prettiest fish, and the last fish of the day came just before dark and was my only Cutthroat of the day. I'm so glad there are Cutts in this stream! They are always a treat to catch and break up the usual browns. The Utah Division of Natural Resources should be commended for their efforts to restore these native fish back where they belong.
I did lose a few fish, but no more than usual and not one that I could honestly say was a result of my smashed barb. Maybe this won't be so bad...
Hope you're as lucky,
Kidder
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| Bead Head Hare's Ear |
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| Baby Damsel |
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| Tri-Colored Nymph |
After a bunch of work and cleaning, our house is now officially on the market (you can see the listing Here). Today was the first showing with the realtor which meant that our family needed to vacate the premises while this was happening. So we grabbed some guns and headed to the hills for a little target practice.
The first thing that shocked us was the huge amount of garbage that people had left up here. I've never been able to understand how someone can just dump garbage out in random places and forget about it. Maybe it's just me, but making the places that I want to play look like a dump just doesn't make sense.
After shooting the pistols (a .22 and a 9mm) the boys wanted to shoot the .22 long rifle for a bit. Atley is quite the old pro at this, but Caden still needs to get used to a rifle. He'd better hurry though, because this year he'll be taking Hunter Safety.
After shooting we spent a few minutes picking up what garbage we could, though if we spent a month cleaning there'd still be more to do. It was still a great time spent with the family.
Hope you're as lucky,
Kidder
The initial plan was to take the DSLR camera and try shooting some video of the boys fishing. Didn't realize that I'd forgotten the SD card until we were already on the stream. Oh well, there will be other days to shoot video. The water was a bit high and a little off color so Atley tried a black woolly bugger to start. 
