All i Could Handle

Scott took me on a hike that will take me a good week to recover from. greyling was the target for the day and greyling we had. it was a 5.5 mile hike in and it was about 90% up hill. on top of that carrying a fully loaded pack (50-60lbs), it was as much as i care to handle. i am just not in that kind of shape. it was a good trail 1/2 the way then the trail that we had to take kind of disappeared and it was all climbing over downed trees, over rocks and thru some brush. we started hiking at 8:15 and got to the lake right at about noon. after a quick breather, we were rigged up and the clinic began. scott started with a black dry and i went with a small krystal bugger. i think i landed a dozen fish before scott landed any. the fishing was fast and furious for the first couple of hours, a fish every couple of casts, then it kind of slowed a bit to a fish maybe every dozen casts or so. as we hiked around the lake we came acrossed some gear that some one had left, small back pack with some clothes, sleeping bag pads and a box of bear rounds. we found that interesting and kind of creepy. as we began our hike out we came acrossed some more gear that was dropped off kind of randomly. couple of sleeping bags including a huge old style one with the flannel lining on the inside (who in the hell would want to pack that thing) a hatchett, a bunch of AA batteries and a box of .357 rounds with 1/2 of those spilled all over. again kind of creeped us out. we did finally make it out just shy of dark and scott did call the rangers office, who also thought the left gear seemed kind of odd, so they said they would go check it out. thanks scott for a great, although an ass kicking day.

                                                           photo by scott dickey

photo by scott dickey

        photo by scott dickey

The Ranch

I took dbone over to some private ranch access that i have for a little fishing. july is the earliest time of the year that ive fished it. the water was twice as high as i am used to up there and had a slight tint. i don't if that affected the fishing at all but it was pretty slow. i usually fish up there in august, the water is half the size and the hopper fishing is off the hook. right away the squeeters were wrecking havoc on me. but me and dbone forgot our bug spray but at least he had pants on and not shorts. we walked quite a ways down stream, getting eaten alive. when we started fishing up dbone makes a comment suggesting we just walk back up to the jeep and got to town for bug spray. shortly after that the bug feeding frenzy throttled way back so we toughed it out and kept fishing. that was the most mosquitoes, stateside, as i had ever seen. the fishing was pretty slow going up, picking up only a small few fish. the decision at that point was to head to town and get some bug spray. also at this point my allergies were puttin a hurtin on me. of course it figures that the flying j was out of spray and that was the only store in town. i did manage to get some claritin and at least take care of one problem. we drove down lower to a section i had yet to see. looked exactly like the rest of the river, a lot of big holes, sweet runs and s curves. seemed like about this time that a few more fish were looking up. still small numbers but  some healthy fish. my body is itching today!

A Cutthroat Short.....

Of a trout slam, but whatever. the day started off slow but once the temp's started to heat up so did the fishing. not only did the fishing heat up but the fish were quality as well, some toads for that water. i took only my 5th tiger trout out of there and my first rainbow as well. some real nice browns were had to add to the mix. for the most part i threw a sgt slaughter cicada with a beetle dropper all day and they both performed well. i started the early morning with a streamer but didn't see a fish.

Beetle Mania

Me and pat hit some uncharted waters today. we started in a section that we had fished before but were cut off by people so we only fished about 1/2 way up. we walked back to the truck and drove upstream. it seemed like every swinging dick was out today. this was water that neither of us had fished before and finding a little solitude was taxing but we finally found a little piece and a nice piece it was. the fish weren't as big upstream but it was non stop action for those cutties. we both ended up settling with different beetle patterns since the fish seemed to be going crazy for them. most of the fish were in the 10-11 inch range but a few 14's were had. the day started off slow down low but really picked up once we drove higher.