12/16/14

Happy Holidays to everyone. Its been over two months since I've posted, but that doesn't mean that it hasn't been a busy fall. We had some excellent fall fishing, both great river fishing and stellar lake trout fishing on Jackson Lake. The river fish were all incredibly healthy given the solid water flows of the past year. We should have very good survival rates this winter and some very large and healthy fish in the rivers next summer. We had some great streamer fishing, I've got a particularly heavy streamer that was killer as long as you could throw it without hurting yourself, and I worked hard learning how to nymph more effectively on some of our smaller creeks that we can only float. Nymphing small rivers from a boat is a very difficult skill, but can be quite productive once you get it dialed in. I really got into elk hunting more this year than I had in the past. This year I actually spent more time fishing than hunting during the fall season. We saw elk almost every time we were out but had difficulty getting one of the right gender into shooting range. It seemed like every time we got into a shooting situation it was either bulls in a cow only area or cows in a bulls only area. I finally did get one a few days ago. It was a large cow, finally in a cows only area, and wasn't until 1pm on my final hunting day of the season. It was really an 11th hour elk. I don't have a picture to post of it because both my hunting buddy and I dropped one at the same time so we had a ton of work and hiking to do to get both elk out before it was pitch black. Despite all the frustrations it was a really great hunt and they were good clean kills. As much as I do love hunting I hate to see the animals suffer so a good quick kill always makes me feel a little better. A buddy and I did take a trip down to the islands during November. The fishing was really good the first day because the weather and the wind cooperated but it was pretty tough after that. It essentially blew a constant 25-30mph with gusts 35-40mph and rain/clouds every day. Those conditions made for very difficult flats fishing. We had planned to camp for the week but after a few nights of waking up, laying in standing rain water and being molested my sandflies, we decided to bag it and stay in a hotel. We actually saw a fair number of large bonefish but with the conditions we wouldn't be able to see them until they were right next to us. We caught some large triggerfish, caught some bones (not many), saw a permit, hooked numerous sharks, caught a few snapper/grouper, and actually had the best success with some large tarpon. It was a fun trip but the fishing could have been much better if the weather had cooperated.

10/8/14

Fishing has been as good as you can imagine recently. Most all of the rivers in the area are fishing very well. The Snake River has been dropped down to its winter flow levels and is fishing very well in the low water. We're getting some great baetis and mahogany hatches on the Snake and have had excellent midday dry fly fishing. Just the other day I did have a client catch a massive 21 inch cutty on a dry fly, this was one of the fattest, healthiest fish I have ever seen in the Snake River. Streamers have also been very effective on all of our rivers if you can fish them properly. Some of our other smaller rivers are also fishing very well, low water just becomes an issue on these rivers this time of year, especially if you need to float the rivers. The guiding season has begun to fall off as it usually does in October so some of the guides and I have been fishing a little bit more. As long as the weather continues to hold and be beautiful the fishing should continue to be excellent.

8/17/14

I'm sorry that it has been so long since I've posted. I've been extremely busy and the fishing has been on fire. I haven't seen the Snake River fish this well in a number of years. The Snake River is currently flowing at 2000cfs out of the dam, for comparison, this time last year the Snake River was flowing at 4500cfs. The Snake River fishes best at lower water levels and the past few high water years have created some very larger and healthy cutthroats in the river system. The dry fly fishing has been excellent and we have been using some nymph droppers to pick up some of the pickier fish. I haven't been off the Snake very often recently, but I do hear that both the South Fork and the Salt river are fishing quite well. I was down on the Green river a few days ago. It fished well for us but it did require very precise casting with reach casts being key. We caught a number of very nice fish but it was tough work and did shut down later in the day.

7/17/14

I'm sorry to make this brief but I haven't had much time to post recently because I've been so busy. Fishing in the area has been stellar, we've had great dry fly activity and I haven't had to use an indicator nymphing rig in quite a while. Most rivers are fishing well at this point, the Snake has been very good up near the dam and is clearing up further down. Here are a few pictures from the past week, some of the larger fish are up to 21.5 inches long.

&/11/14

Fishing in the area is finally starting to catch fire. The South fork is fishing very well,The Salt is excellent, the Green is on fire, and the Snake is finally starting to clear and fish. There are some many options at this time of year... its truely one of my favorite times to be guiding. We've had some excellent fishing days recently and caught some great fish. I was on the Salt with Lew Ofstein and caught some amazing fish entirely on dries. I've also had some excellent fishing on other rivers the past week or so. Take a look at these two pictures and the scar on this 21.5 inch rainbow's tail... think it's the same fish? This same client also landed a 23.5 inch rainbow, the second time I've landed this fish, but unfortunately droppped the fish before a good picture was taken. I've included a picture of the fish being netted, Kirk trying to lift the fish, and what the fish would have looked like. Its a shame we didn't get a good picture but with was still and amazing catch! I hope to have the next day or two off here so hopefully I'll get to go spend some time fishing with friends. Hopefully I'll have some good new pictures in the next few days.

July 5th, 2014

Things are picking up here in the Jackson area. The Green and south Fork have both been fishing very well with good hatches of just about everything. The Green has yellow sallies, grey drakes, golden stones, caddis and PMDs. The South Fork has all of those same hatches but also has salmonflies. Unfortunately the South Fork has been fishing better with nymphs than with dries and has been very crowded. I just had a great two days with some folks that flew down from Big Timber, MT. They were great company and some very good fishermen. Here are a few pictures from the past few days, the largest fish is a rainbow that was a little bit over 21 inches, caught on a greay drake dry fly pattern.

6/24/14

The fishing has been picking up in a serious way here recently. I've stopped fishing the Firehole at this point because of warmer waters and because the rivers in our area have begun to fish better. The Snake is beginning to clear and fish with the Snake right below the dam pretty clear at this point in time but the lower river getting the better hatches. The Green and South Fork are also fishing well, primarily with nymphs and streamers but with some dry fly fishing starting to pick up. A buddy of mine caught this massive fish on Sunday while we were floating. The fish initially looked at his indicator then dropped down in the water column and ate his nymph.

6/13/14

Sorry for the long time between posting. Unfortunately we're dealing with high water conditions in the area so there hasn't been a whole lot to write about. There has been some great fishing on some local lakes, ones that can't be guided on, but the rivers are still very high. I've been guiding on the Firehole up in Yellowstone quite a bit, the fishing has been excellent up there but the weather has been pretty poor. I was supposed to be up there today but the forcast was for sustained heavy winds with gusts up to 37 mph so we decided to cancel. When the weather has cooperated, the dry fly and nymph dropper fishing has been excellent for the browns and rainbows in the Firehole. The prime fishing window has been from about 10am until when it tapers off around 2-3pm. The Green, New Fork, and South Fork should be fishing here shortly. The flows are dropping and the rivers have begun to clear. It won't be long until we're having excellent fishing on those rivers. I'll try to keep you all updated as that happens.