Giant Trevally

Someday...

Sometimes you just have to laugh

While fishing on the Metolius the other day, I found some rising fish.  After several failed casts, I thought I figured out the fly that I needed.  Sure enough, on the second cast I fooled what I thought to be the biggest of the bunch.  I was feeling pretty good about myself and took note of just how smart I was.  After a short struggle, I had the rainbow trout almost in.  He decided to swim towards me in a last ditch effort to get free.  I stepped back in hopes of keeping the line tight and I succeed in doing that.  I also succeeded in having my feet slip out from under me and go crashing to the ground.  I somehow managed to land on my line and the fish quickly broke the line.  So, I tied on new tippet and a new fly.   I hooked another, much smaller fish and had it at my feet when the fly popped out and somehow flew up into the tree behind me.  It was higher than I could reach and I had to break it off.  All I could do was laugh at this.  The fish had won this round.  I was no longer feeling so smart, but that didn't really matter as I laughed at this misfortune.  I'll be back again and next time I'll try to find more solid footing and I know what fly to try again.

Getting in the holiday spirit

This is impressive

Penn State Christmas 2012 from Robert Witt on Vimeo.

Happy Halloween

Britt's latest creation.

Brown Trout

I did a good job with my camera and got a poor picture of the smallest fish I caught.  Better than no pictures, right?

Fawn Lake

Economics and Fly Fishing

This is a conference for me.

Last Pictures

Our competition on the Madison River:

The view of Henry's Lake from the cabin:

Lamar River Valley

Moose

Slough Creek Wildlife

Pronghorn buck

Pronghorn fawns

Black bear cub

Slough Creek black bear

Here are some "friends" that we made around Slough Creek. We saw the pronghorn family most of the mornings. The black bear and her cub came to visit as we were packing up camp. I can see why teddy bears are so popular. It's always nice to see bears when you can easily get into your car for safety. (For the record, this is no the pronghorn that tried to commit suicide by van. It's a good thing they are fast.)

Saw this on TV the other day

Makes me want to travel. Here's the full video that the commercial comes from:

Matt Heron Reels in a Gigantic Brown Trout from Filmed In Tahoe on Vimeo.

In the Land of the Cutthroats

In the Land of the Cutthroats - Trailer from Reel Escape Films on Vimeo.

Gallatin and Madison Rivers

To close out the fishing on our trip we fished the Gallatin River (inside the park) and the Madison River (outside the park).  I thought the Gallatin was a perfect little river in the park but it's very close to the highway, which is unfortunate.  I caught a nice rainbow and westslope cutthroat (third subspecies of the trip).  On the Madison we were mostly foiled.  With both of us hooking nice fish, but only keeping them on momentarily.  We were a little disappointed in the fishing, but if we had caught one of those big fish we might have felt differently.  (To be fair I caught a couple monster whitefish.)

Madison River at dusk

Yellowstone National Park

Lamar River cutthroat

Lamar River

Lamar Valley

Slough Creek cutthroat trout

Slough Creek cutthroat trout

Slough Creek cutthroat trout

Slough Creek cutthroat trout

Lamar River cutthroat

Bufflehead family on Slough Creek

More Slough Creek

Slough Creek

Slough Creek is probably my favorite place to fish.  It's sight-fishing with dry flies for native cutthroats.  How can you beat that?  Oh, and some of them are rather large.

We didn't run into an epic grasshopper day like last time, but we did catch quite a few nice fish.  The camerawoman even got into the action.  After some frustrating misses and small fish, she finally caught a really nice fish.  And then another.  I think the pictures tell the whole story.

Yellowstone River

The Yellowstone River inside the park has a certain allure to it.  Historically, it was one of THE places to fish.  Unfortunately, due to a Lake Trout invasion (for more info and to donate to the cause, click here) and whirling disease the run of fish from Yellowstone Lake is not what it used to be.  However, there are still a few large trout that run up the river to spawn and hang around to feed before moving back into the lake.  These fish are survivors who have overcome long odds and the harsh realities of nature (as well as the man-made curve balls).

Thanks to Britt's spotting and ML's spot picking, I got an opportunity to cast to one of these trout.  At first she was cruising around and ignoring any offerings.  (Prompting someone, who will remain anonymous, to refer to the fish as a "jerk.")  As the daylight faded, this fish took up a feeding position at the edge of the current. I placed a cast to drift my fly at the edge of the current and it was fish on.  A few minutes later and the largest cutthroat of my life was in the net.  What a beautiful fish.  Clearly an old hand who had seen many tough Yellowstone winters.  (After seeing how pretty the fish was, she was no longer considered a jerk.)  As I let her go, I hoped she will be back a few more years.  Hopefully, several of her offspring will return in the future.  Maybe then there will be more cutthroat in the lake and river.

Grey's and Blackfoot Rivers

We just got back from a trip through fishing paradise with Britt and my parents.  I put 2,341 miles on the rental van (perfect for 4 people, fishing and camping gear, but lacking in a tailgate for changing waders) and spent over 53 hours driving.  It was worth every hour driving as we had a great trip.

The first fishing destination was the Blackfoot River in Idaho.  It was much lower and warmer than last September.  Trout were not in the same spots.  I tried but did not catch a fish.  I only saw a couple trout and a lot of suckers.  I'm guessing this will not be a banner year for the river, but I'd be happy to give it another shot when it has more water.  (I also failed to reconnect with my dog friend I met there last year.  I'm sure he's happy somewhere, hopefully getting spoiled.)

The next destination was the Grey's River in Wyoming.  It's a very pretty river, but very popular.   There were campers up and down the river.  It was good to get out on the water and catch some fish on dry flies.  The fish were not big but they were fun to catch.  I took pictures of one of the fine spotted cutthroats I caught, but it's a little blurry.  The pictures from later in the trip are better and I'll get those up later this week.

Saturday Hike

Deschutes

The other side of the Cascades is a different world.  We left behind the green Willamette valley in order to camp and fish along the Deschutes for the weekend.  The river has a certain rugged beauty to it.  For one thing, there is a lot more brown and a lot less green.  It is easy to find where the river is since it is surrounded by a strip of green.  The area has  different feel to it.  It feels more "Western."

The river was certainly pumping out a lot of caddis.  Every time I bumped into a bush a swarm of caddis would fly out.  These caddis apparently provide a good meal to the fish (and other insects, as I saw more spiders in 2 days than I have in the past year).  The fishing Friday was good for lots of smaller fish.  Saturday did not provide the steady action of the previous day, but had an exciting ending.  As the shadows grew long, the fish became active.  Rising consistently to the hatching caddis.  I managed a couple smaller fish (including my first pikeminnow) when my fly disappeared in a boil.  My reel sung as I began to see parts of my fly line I hadn't seen in a long time.  I managed to gain some ground when the fish made another long run.  I somehow manage to avoid any snags and he didn't head into the main current.  I managed to turn him around and started to regain some of my line.  I felt his head shake and then there was no resistance.  Later, I got some redemption landing a nice, fat fish.  There were still fish rising, but it was getting late and this seemed like a perfect way to end the day. 

Metolius

Thought I'd share some pictures from my overnight trip to the Metolius.  There was an osprey nest across the river from where I camped.  At dusk, one of went flying up river.  About half an hour later, he came flying back with a big fish in his talons.  He circled around the nest and flew by me a few times.  I think he just wanted to show off his catch like all fisherman want to.

Backcountry Lake

What is this?  A blog post?  With pictures?!?!  Life has gotten in the way of having fun recently.  Britt and I went for an overnight backpacking trip.  We didn't expect perfect weather or solitude, but we were hoping for a little.  Unfortunately, the lake was crowded and the weather on Saturday was miserable.  Seeing how it snowed there the night before, it could have been much worse.  Sunday morning was beautiful.  The lake was calm, the sun was out and we got a great view of Three Fingered Jack.  I managed to catch some fish (and get a little too much sun).    I'm feeling a little sore today, but am looking forward to the next adventure.

Spring is here

The weather was too good this past weekend not to get out on the water, even if the water was higher than I would like. Managed a few small cutthroat yesterday in the afternoon. Looking forward to getting out some more and hopefully having better luck.

Metolius

Made an overnight trip this week to the Metolius. It was rather chilly at night, but there were some periods during the day when the weather was perfect. The fish were quite active, but didn't seem to be looking up. I had good success nymphing and even hooked a big bull trout momentarily. He decided to get back at me by attacking the fish at the end of my line minutes later. The biggest fish of the trip was caught "properly" on a dry fly. That was a good way to end the short trip. I drove home in a downpour. Looks like the rivers will be in flood mode for a while around her, but that's okay since school is starting back up so I'll be short on time

Underwater