Archive for April, 2009
2009 Drift Boat Makeover
Apr 27th
Being a drift boat owner is something that a small percentage of fishermen ever get to experience during there life as a fly fishermen. Owning a wooden drift boat is an even smaller percentage. There is something special about taking care of a classic wood boat. Its almost as if one takes care of it as there on child. For example: They take special care to keep it safe away from any harm, they spoil it and spend countless dollars to keep it looking good, they spend hours with it to make it better and most of all they love their wood boat and would never give it up no matter what. To me owning a wooden boat is a whole nother level of fly fishing. I am still learning to be a better craftsman, but time is something I have to share with my little baby.
I am always thinking of new ideas to help improve and customize my boat to fit most of my wants on the water. This year I have finally made a list of “Must Does”, so here are a couple of my latest “Must Does” that have finally made it off the list.
My Boat is a 16 ft Greg Tatman Kit
1. LineX the bottom-This was a pretty easy project. All I had to do was remove the plastic bottom that was attached. (about 100 screws) and take it to LineX of Sandy. Ask for Kelly, he is the shop owner and will take great care of anyone he works with. (Great Guy!!!) They are a top notch LineX Dealer and I would recommend them to anyone that is thinking about putting LineX on their boat, truck, Jeep or anything else you want to protect. They did all the prep work needed and sprayed on the LineX. I love this stuff. It is tough (lifetime guarantee) and it looks great. Don’t have to worry about a leaky bottom any more. Also you can tell them how you want them to spray it. For me I had them spray 4 inches up the sides and up the back in an oval shape for the anchor and up the front to give it a balanced design and rock protection.
For more information about LineX of Sandy check out the link below: http://www.linex.com/ or call Kelly direct at: (801)255-5591
After 
Things to come:
Green River Part 2
Apr 27th
In a rush to get my last post out before the feeling of the trip faded. Which it does if you wait too long. Its not so much that you forget, but it is the little things that get forgotten. In my rush I neglected to get some of the best pics of the trip from my friend Wayne. So here is another look at the trip from Wayne’s prospective.
Late Night at “The Wall”. To give Waynes fish justice the smaller brown in the pic is 17 inches 
Second Wall Hog in 5 mins
What Rain?
Finally A Bow!
Annual Green River BWO Trip
Apr 21st
Every year it’s tradition for me to plan a trip to the Green River during the famed Blue Wing Olive Hatch. Its the one trip each year that I am so excited about that I am thinking and planning for it all year. In a way its an adults Christmas. The first trip I took was a little crazy. We caught more fish than I have ever seen caught in one day on bwo’s and ended up with $1000s of dollars in tickets and fines. (Stupid Obstructing Justice Rule) Another memorable trip was the first trip with my boat. We we floated 3 days with great weather and the rivers resident big browns would not leave our PMX’s alone. But just as time changes all things, this years trip ranks up top as my new favorite bwo trip. The trip started well before the scheduled date of April 17-19th. During that time flies were tied, the boat was refinished and customized, needed gear was bought, and people that swore they were going to be there dropped like flies. We started the trip with only 4 of the original 15 group members. (Weather, wives, dogs, girl friends, money, jobs, and everything else seemed to be an excuse. I guess its all Obama’s fault) So with Gunner, Mallary, Wayne and myself, we set off for the Green and in search of a rising fish.
Day 1 (Friday 17th)
After a snowy drive we reached the red rocks of the Flaming Gorge Valley. Its always a warming feeling when one descends down the windy path and reaches the clear cool water of the green. The days fishing was red hot from the start. Mallary caught one of the two fish caught with a nymph rig the whole trip as we launched the boat. After that I noticed midges everywhere, so we hit up a couple of my favorite scum lines and had a blast, as we fished little midges for rising trout. The fishing turned up another level as we zeroed in to what they were really wanting and how they were wanting it. The fly of choice was a customized Orange Asher that I created on a wim. (I am sure glad I did) The scum suckers wouldn’t leave this fly alone. It caught fish all day for us. By the end of the day and after a trip to “The Wall” we were about 50 flies short and 25 of those were ashers. 
Highlights:
Waynes and Mallarys huge browns at “The Wall”
“Spread Eagle, I mean bald eagle” good one Mal (What was that eagle?)
Frozen Hands, Feet
Last ones off the water, floating the last mile in the dark
Staying in a warm condo and not camping
Tying flies watching AEG-New Z
Day 2
With a better idea of the fishing and the bugs. We started the day with a better idea of what we wanted to do. We started off with dries and never looked back. Midges and BWOs were the flies of choice. We only fished areas that held rising fish, which wasn’t very hard to find. With ideal weather the fishing was off the charts. It rained for about 30 mins as we had lunch and then after that the fishing was even better than before. In places the midges were so thick that it loked like their was sand on top of the water. On the way down “The Wall” produced right before dark with bwo’s. If Mallary didn’t fall in and get all wet, I would have been able to catch even more than 3 fish in 5 mins that she gave us. It was an amazing site to see hundreds of rising fish in the shallow water run. That night we met up with the rest of the crew Jeff, Laura and Addie. (The Family) They had a nice warm dinner ready as we got off the river and back to the condo.
Highlights
“I love your boat” Happy B-Day Tristen
Meeting Scott and his girl
Trav and Mall fishing together-just killing it
Watching the Rocker
Day 3
Bright skies, warm weather and rising trout is a good way to sum up our last day on the river. We fished our favorite spot from the last couple days and it produced like we knew it would. The fish were a little picky, but a size down or 5 was all one needed to temp them to take our little midges. As the afternoon fell upon us, I noticed bigger fish were rising in a fast water seem. I studied the water and noticed the trout were only talking the emerging bwos. With this in mind I hooked and quick released the largest fish of the trip. Guessing it would have pushed 25, but who knows. I was able to pick up a very nice 22 to end the trip and fill my pot for another year. We rowed down the rest of the river fulfilled. As we reached little hole we were greeted with another prepared lunch and a chance to share our days stories, before we had to call it quits. In all it was some of the finest dry fly fishing I have experienced, as well as great company and experiences that will teach us for a life time. 
Highlights
Osprey catching fish
Warm Weather!!! not for fishing
Addie first float
22 inch brown on 28 midge
In Search of a Blue Wing Olive
Apr 12th
Late March and into April means one thing to me…Its BWO time and I better start my annual migration to “The Middle” of no where. I don’t know why I act the way I do, it just happens like a goose flying 1000s of miles ever fall and back again in the spring. There is no where I would rather be than on a familiar stretch of trout water, as an rainy overcast sky invites 100s to 1000s of little olive bugs to start and fulfill their life’s purpose. It is truly a magical time to be a fly fisherman. On this stormy cold April morning, I found myself fitting the pieces to the trout puzzle more than usual. Even though it is supposed to be the best fishing of the year it doesn’t mean you will still catch a single fish. To be successful one must be one step ahead of the prey. For example: Today was a prefect bwo day, overcast, rainy, and just a little cold, but I didn’t see a bug until 2pm. In the mean time when all 7 guys around me were using bwo dries to the rising trout. I was catching 99% of the fish in the area on tiny midges. It was fun to watch them all in amazement asking “What is the hell is he using, that is so good?” I just keep quit and landed, sipping brown after brown.
After I had fulfilled my taste for shallow sipping browns on light technical material, I switched locations in search of my days quest. As I walked the small stream I noticed the trout feeding was more war like, then I saw it, floating like a sailing ship in the Caribbean. It was my first BWO encounter of the season and I was stoked to find a pod of rising trout. After scanning a productive location I found just the spot and the fish were thick and shopping for a meal like it was their first of the year. After an hour of non-stop enjoyment, the rain and the dropping temps pushed me off the river shaking with only my light shirt on and back to my life. 
So if the BWO hatch is so great, why can only a handful of anglers on the river really enjoy its bounty it provides? I guess it all lye’s in the eyes of the beholder…fish or not I will always love the bwo hatch no matter what, it is part of me and my culture.
Gear Review
Apr 8th
I don’t know about the rest of the world, but every fly fishermen I have ever met likes to take pictures and usually has a little point and shot camera with them on every trip. One of the great things about having a camera is to, 1 show off your big fish, 2 capture the experiences and 3 act like your important enough to post them on a blog. (like myself) The down side to carrying a camera is that where you fish has water and water and cameras just don’t play nice together. In fact I would have to say this is one thing I am a specialist at, I have successful donated $1000s of dollars worth of electronics to the water. So after all the pain and verbal abuse I have gotten from the wife and family. I have finally learned my lesson. This weeks product review is on my brand new Olympus – Stylus Tough 10-Megapixel Digital Camera – Orange. This camera is a fisherman’s dream come true. It is water proof and it can be dropped and still hold up. After using this camera for the past two weeks I have been very happy with its performance. The first week I was in Mexico on a cruise testing its ability to withstand hours of saltwater and snorkeling. See the results:
The next test was last night I decided to take it to my home trout stream. It took a couple cool pics and once again I drooped it in 4 ft of water, (Gotta get one of those foam things) but when I picked it up it was still on and ready to take another picture.
I am still figuring out all of the different settings and which works best for what, but for only $299, I would recommend this camera to anyone who has lost a camera to the water demon or who can’t take their camera to the river because the wife doesn’t allow it.
1 lithium-ion battery, battery charger
USB cable, A/V cable, microSD adapter
Wrist strap, Olympus Master 2 software
Owner’s manual
Product Features
10-megapixel CCDCaptures high-resolution images up to 3648 x 2736 pixels.
3.6x optical/5x digital/18x total zoomFor precise zooming and accuracy.
Dual image stabilization Minimizes shake and vibration distortion.
Face detection technology Tracks faces within the frame and automatically focuses and optimizes exposure.
White balance modes Include auto and daylight, overcast, tungsten and 3 fluorescent presets.
Built-in auto flash With red-eye reduction, fill-in and off modes.
Panorama mode With image stitching for creative landscape photography.
Scene modes Including portrait, landscape, night scene, night and portrait, sort, indoor, candle, self portrait, sunset, fireworks, cuisine, documents, smile shot, beach and snow, snow, precapture movie, underwater snapshot.
Also includes underwater wide 1, underwater wide 2, underwater macro and movie.
Special effects Include red-eye fix, shadow adjustment, beauty fix, cropping, resize, black and white, sepia, calendar and saturation.
42MB internal memory Supports xD-Picture Card and microSD cards with an adapter (media not included).
USB interface Connects to your PC. PictBridge-enabled to connect your camera to a compatible printer and print photos directly without using a PC. Olympus Master 2.0 software helps organize and add special effects to images.
Durable, sleek, all-weather design For great pictures of your on-the-go lifestyle.
Free Fly Fishing Weekend Give-A-Way!!!
Apr 6th
The Development is a 27 Hole Johnny Miller Golf Course with many ponds around the development stocked with Native Cutthroat and Brook Trout. I know that for many of our readers/subscribers it might be a ways to travel to Victor, but the journey will be well worth it.
The area is ripe with great fly fishing. Not only will you find trout taking flies on the ponds surrounding the golf course in Teton Springs, but here are a few rivers/creeks that are within a short drive:
Teton River
Bitch Creek,
South Fork of the Snake River,
Henry’s Fork of the Snake,
and many more.
Jackson Hole is a short 25 minute drive over the pass and the nightlife over there is much better than in Victor. You definitely will not be disappointed.
Enter your email below to subscribe to our blog (make sure it is a valid email and one you use because that is the only way we will be able to contact the winner) and we will do a drawing on April 20th 2009 out of the list of current subscribers at that time.
The winner will be announced on our Blog that day.
The winner will need to send over 2 – 3 potential dates that work for him/her and we will get it on the calendar.
We will not use your email for anything besides sending you notifications of new blog posts.
The cabin is a 4 bedroom 4.5 bath. It is 4000 sq ft and is fully furnished. Here are a few pics.
ENJOY!
