With our fill of hard fighting Tiger Trout and Native Col Cutthroats. We decided to switch things up and try a piece of  stream that we hadn’t tried. It was a nice change to switch from stillwater Chrono’s  to a clear mountain stream with healthy dry fly eating browns. The fishing was just a bonus to the adventure of the unknown and the beautiful scenery that surrounds this remarkable canyon. Plus did I mention that we caught fish out of every run and fishy piece of water.

Jordan’s First Cast, Hook-set, Fight, Net and Brown on this wild river… See the Pic line below.

So in the next few days I am going to compile, research and then try and post up something that makes sense.

Here’s a sneak peak:

Question One: Fishing or Catching/Slayin or Chilling?
Question Two: Fishing for Pre or Spawning Fish?
Question Three: Fishing Methods?
Question Four: Picture or Not?
Question Five: Who decides what is right and wrong?

Honestly the more I think about all this the more I realize it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that I am happy in what I am doing at the moment.

Travis

On Top At Daniels
We Started the trip with a little stop-by at Daniels Res. (Hoss’s Idea) The plan was to fish for about 30 mins and see if we could get at least one good fish before we got to Rexburg and Rainbow Lake. My first thought was it was going to be tough to hook up from the shore with not much cover and not much room for a back cast. As I worked down the dam I noticed in the far corner some rising fish and a big fallen tree in the lake. From up high I could see a nice bow working on the edge of the fallen tree. I casted my bugger in front of it and just like a shallow wise fish it gave me the fin and was gone. After the wind died a little I noticed some gulpers about 20 yrds in front of me. Knowing it was already time to go and everyone was at the truck. I dropped my gear and ran to the truck to get my floating line set up. I told them I might have them figured out and ran the 400 yrds back to my spot. On the first cast with my midges a big 20 inch bow grabbed my emerger and I was into my backing within seconds. After getting my line over the fallen tree and running to the far corner of the dam I was able to bring the beautiful bow to the shore on 6X tippet. It was a great way to start off the Frenzy!

Chubbs Monster
As Hancey, Hoss and I approached a wet, cold Chubbs on the South Fork. He didn’t say hi, but asked us in a weird voice “Hey you guys caught any big fish?” I don’t no if we were shocked by the question or what, but we all kinda mumble yeah, we’ve done ok. Then out from behind his legs came a Monster Fine Spotted Cutthroat. We were like what the heck is going on is this a dream or something… We measured the Cutt to be a true 23 inch with a 12 inch girth with a head the size of Jay Leno. It was a true monster of a Cutthroat and the largest Fine Spotted I have ever scene. The Story behind this fish is that Chubbs had spotted a nice gravel bar behind some fallen pine trees. As he approached the hole he saw this fish flash. After switching set ups the toad hit a glow bug and the fight was on. Nice Fish Chubbs you deserved it bro.

Hoss’s Big Brown Caught in the Shallows

 

I don’t have a story to this except that he caught it on a big ugly articulated streamer on the South Fork on a rainy overcast day. Sweet Fish Jake!

Night Fishing

Caught out of Chubbs Victor house pond. Chubbs first caught Rudy in the eye lid then landed this big 22 inch cutt to finish off the night.

A Float to Remember

Dave and Mikey floated together from Veron to Chester on the Henry’s Fork. When the rest of us were catching average bows these guys were rassling some beautiful HF bows. Mikey said this was his trip highlight.

Hoss’s Hog

 

 

Dr G vs Mr Brown

You know there are those stories that get told over and over again, but they never seem to get old or lose their appeal. Well this is one of them. It all started on a little known stretch of the Henry’s Fork that the locals call “Bubbleland”. The water was raging almost three times it’s natural flow and to top it off it was as brown as chocolate milk. The final obstacle was the wind. It seemed to be jealous of the raging river and added it own rage. I remember saying to myself, why are we wasting our time when there are some many other places close by. Since the main river was basically unfishable. I focused my attention to a smaller tributary that looked at least fishable. After catching a white fish and a giant sucker in the only fishable water. I decided that I would head back to a spot that I had wanted to go to earlier but was taken, by Dave and Hoss when we started. Mikey, Dave and I got there about the same time. I decided to take the lower run and Mikey the upper. After a couple casts I hooked up with a 4 inch little brown that I didn’t even know I had until it was lanched on my back cast. (Top pic) The next cast Dave said “Get it out to the middle seem” It took me a couple shadow cast with the wind, but it was in the perfect spot. As my indicator drifted by me I noticed a twitch, my instinks set in and I set the hook. I felt presure but wasn’t for sure what it was. Then it gave that glorious head shake and I knew I had a fish! It didn’t do much at first except move back in forth in the fast run. I knew it was large, but didn’t know if it was another sucker. As I put more preasure on the fish it took off like a Christmas sale at Wal-Mart. I remember thinking no way is it a sucker its way to fast, more like a bow. It ran straight up stream trying to lose me under the diversion dam than across and finally it gave me a chance to have some control, but it didn’t last long. It was wise and it knew what it was doing. It wizzed by me and straight down stream in the main current. I’ll I remember thinking is I am going to get spooled. After 50 yards into my backing, I said to Dave we have to chase him. As we ran after the fish we had to cross the fast run and luckily Dave was there to keep me balance or I would of been a goner for sure. I’ll I could think as I was running was try and stop the fish before it is to late. So I tried one of the oldest tricks in the book. I released line in hopes the fish would think he was free and swim back up the current. It worked long enough to make up the 100 yrds of backing and get back up some of the fly line. As I applied presure once more to make sure it was still there. It went on another 50 yrd run and about 20 ft from haunting my dreams forever. I told Dave you have to get behind it. So as the athlete he is, he jumped over logs and rocks and got into our last poistion to net the oversized fish. When he saw it for the first time he yelled in excitement and I knew it for sure wasn’t a sucker. But then I started to shake and the presure was so tense I was shaking from head to toe. Dave yelled “You got to get it over 5 ft” I said ok and started walking to the side. When it was finally close enough Dave reached out and netted it on the first attempt! It was over! It was like a worldseries game 7 and the Mets hit a walk off home run. Everyone yelled with excitement. Which brought everyone on the river over to see what all the excitement was about. It was truly one of the finest feets I have ever witnessed and experienced in my life.
Everyone was living in that one moment and was so excited to be part of it. My Brown measured out to be 25 inches and between 7-8 pounds. As I poped the hot pink san jaun out of its mouth I stopped and thought “This is what fly fishing is all about”.

Since these past 6 days have been filled with so many experiences and stories it is hard to combine them into one without missing something. So I think the best way to capture the memories is to break up the Frenzy 09 into a 4 chapter story.

Chapter 1: Big Hoss’s Day Journal

Hoss gave a great summary of this years frenzy on a daily basis as the events happened. Each night after fishing for 10-12 hrs Hoss would post each days events and feelings on the frenzy site. It is a nice way to look back at what happened and how the attitude was at the moment as a tired fishermen tried his best to share the excitement to the world.

Click here to see Hoss’s Posts: www.flyfishingfrenzy.com

Stay Tuned For The Rest of the Story
Chapter 2: The Frenzy Went Big in 09…Best BIG Fish Stories
Chapter 3: It About the Little Things…Things that are small, but mean a lot to the Frenzy
Chapter 4: The Whole Truth…The Complete Write UP of Frenzy 09
Appendix: What, Its Over? Lets start planning next years

I go fishing a lot. Most of the time I fish I’m solo. Its usually easier and it gives me a chance to practice my own skills instead helping develop others all the time. And just maybe my long hours in the coldest crappiest conditions don’t excite too many people either. There are times when I am the luckiest man in the world and my beautiful wife joins me for a day on the river. (That gives me an idea about my next blog rant, Fishing with Girls, Wives, etc…) In this particular case Liz and I made a deal. If I worked out and ate healthy with her all week, she would come fishing with me on Sat. I didn’t even second guess myself. That Monday I was already planning on hitting the Green or the Berry if the ice was still around for the weekend. As the weekend grew near the Green was looking hard to beat. So on Sat morning we packed up the Jeep and headed northeast in search of hopefully some BWOs, Midges and most importantly some good quality time together. There is something special about going on trips with Liz, the lunches are always 100 times better, plus she makes the experience fun and alive. (She is that kind of person) As we got to the river around 10am I was shocked to see a half full parking lot, I guess the economy is even affecting some peoples time on the water. Today’s fishing trip was going to be a simple easy going outing, but as we started our float I notice a couple fish rising across the stream. Better go see what going on I though, as I finally got over to the opposite side of the river I notice fish scattering everywhere. I said in an excited voice “Liz check out how many fish there are in this run” I think she was shocked to see so many fish in such a small area.

It was this Big!

We could have stayed in that area and caught fish all day, but with two hours of non-stop fish we decided to move in search of other fish and a new scenery.

The rest of the float was was as I had planned, simple, easy going with a fish or two in each area I decided to get out and fish. I was hoping for a good hatch, but with the constant breeze and bright sun it just didn’t happen, until the sun went down and we were just about off the river. Oh well, next time I’ll stay out past dark and just kill them, but this time it wasn’t about the fishing it was about spending time with my real true love, Liz.

Waking up at 5am calls for a mid day nap on the water.

Why do you think my last name is GILLespie

So made the rules about throwing and rolling rock at people and lesbows? Just wonderin

Knowing that “ice off’ doesn’t stay around for long I made it a priority to get up and fish the berry as much as possible. Within 3 days the ice had peeled back 30 yards making it harder to fish from the shore. Knowing that I would have to fish blind, I decided to change that. I hiked up the side hill until I had a good look at the water below. Within seconds I spotted two very large cutthroats cruising the shore line. I sunk down the hill and with perfect conditions. (A little breeze picked up and put a riffle on the water covering my shadow casts) I stripped in and as my bugger approached the shore, I saw a big silver flash and a large cutthroat had rolled on my fly feet from the shore. I set the hook and with two head shakes the hook was loose. WOW, I though, that was sick! In hopes that the second fish was still there I casted out again. Strip, tick, hook set and a miss. One last desperation cast I thought, count to 5, strip, pressure, hook set, fish on! This fish was nice, it rolled, shook its head and tried about everything it could to brake me off. After the tug a war the beautiful 24 inch Cutthroat can to hand. After the sun went behind the mountainside my spot fishing came to an end. the remainder of the night was given to slot cutties and watching the amazing sunset finish its day with a masterpiece.

Messing with colors….

Fins of Fire