Annual WY Trip
Feb 6th
Every July my in-laws plan a fishing/camping trip to their native home waters. Its one of my favorite trips of the year. How can you beat casting size 2 terrestrials at slow rising native cutthroats in one of the most beautiful backdrops in the world? You can’t. And on top of that you don’t see another soul, the weather is perfect and wet wading and minimal gear is the only way to hike around in this back country. This year I took out my brother-in-law and his two boys who have never fly fished. We all had a great time and the boys can wait for next year. This is a special bonding trip for the whole family and a chance for boys to become men and for fathers to bond with their sons. I can’t wait to take my little baby once he or she turns 1 next in a couple yrs.
Flat Summer Day
Feb 6th
Anticipation, excitement, and wild brown trout filled the Denali as I picked up my friend Jeff and his son Sam. It was summer and the big bugs were out and the fish were on them. I had fished an out of the way stretch of river the following week and couldn’t wait to show my friends the kind of fishing it offered. 25+ miles on a rocky dirt rode and we were there! Instantly we got set up and were off in hopes of out smarting a brown or two. “WAIT!” Jeff said, as I was walking down to the river. “Do you hear that”. “Nope”, I said as I was focused souly on fish. Then can the second worst situation a fly fishermen can experience on a beautiful summer day.(Getting a call from ur significant other saying you need to be home, being #1) ”Hey, ahhhh. I think your getting a flat” Jeff exclaimed. ”What!” I yelled as I ran over to check things out. To my surprise I wasn’t just lucky enough to get one flat rear tire, but BOTH rear tires were loosing air and fast.
Birthday Week 2010
Dec 2nd
Everyone who knows me knows that my birthday is the best day for the year. (At least for me it is) I am free to go and do anything thing I want, which always ends up with me going fishing with my beautiful wife. This year I started the celebrations off a little early and spend the week leading up to the big day, having a good time.
With work taking me up to Coalville, I spent the afternoon on a local lake catching Rainbows and Browns from the shore, stripping buggers. Ended the day on the river without any love from the bigger streamer eating browns that lurk in its undercut banks.
Guides Day Off
Nov 16th
It was a hot late August day, the only thing on my mind was browns, terrestrials and the Green. Having my younger brother as a guide gave me all the more reason to get away and spend three full days in search of a good time. Since I had some flexibility in my schedule I chose to by-pass the weekend and fish mid-week, when I could take advantage of a free guide on his days off and no crowds. The trip started with a quick A, that produced lots of takes on oversized terrestrials, but too many failed hook ups on my end. Tired, beaten, and out smarted by picky trout. I vowed to regroup and up my game for tomorrow. The morning found me alone at one of my favorite riffles below little hole as Jordan and his wife Sarah had some work to do before we could take off for our next adventure. The riffles didn’t disappoint as many trout fell victim to my PMX and midges. I even managed to hook and land a nice 18″ Bow that spit my hook the day before. It was sweet revenge. By late morning we were on the road and to the C. I was really looking forward to floating this section as the fish are said to be bigger and harder to find. A perfect match for a couple adventure junkies. The legend didn’t disappoint as the fish were as beautiful as the surrounding and eager to munch a big hopper along the bank. We had our chances at a couple fish of the year(In fact back to back casts), but 4x just won’t cut it Jord! I hope you get your voice back from yelling/cursing at yourself and the fish. You can’t beat big bug eating browns, great weather and not another sole on the river. It was close to the perfect day off. All we needed was to land one of the two 27+ inchers, Jord… It hurts.
Utah Stream Access Coalition Files Suit
Nov 14th
See the SLT write-up: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50666012-76/access-public-utah-act.html.csp
Powell 2010
Nov 5th
Our annual September Lake Powell trip was better then ever. (It even felt more like a vacation than a trip) The weather for the most part stayed awesome giving us lots of glass for wakeboarding, surfing, sking and of course chasing boils. The main focus of the trip was water sports, since Liz and I had just picked up a Mastercraft X-30 the week before the trip. The ole Glastron was great and treated us well, but lets be real. Its not even close to as nice as an X-30. With our new baby, I spent most of the off time checking out how things worked on the boat. (like the shower, bilge pump, ballast tanks, speakers, etc…) The rest of the time we hungout on the houseboat playing cards, eating, laying out, watching movies on the cliff walls and catching bass and carp that patrolled the houseboat. One of the best parts of the trip was that we didn’t have to go out side of our cove to find great fishing. The cove we stayed held lots of shad and where you find shad you find ambushing strippers and bass. So every morning and evening we listened for the boils and when we heard them its was an all out stampede to get to them before they stopped. In all it was a little piece of heaven on earth. There are few other things that rival a 7 day vacation to Lake Powell durning the first weekend in September. Its a magical place to say the least. The pictures will help tell the rest of the story…