My humble $.02…

Get a decent setup (great advice already posted) and focus on learning to cast properly. This way you won't develop bad habits right from the start. A lesson or two is probably...

Congrats!! You will have a blast. Getting the right drift for your fishing friends is much more of an art than simply navigating down the river, as others have said. That's why some guides...

Many new boats come with a lifetime warranty, not an insignificant factor... Just something to think about. I would go low profile no matter what, unless you are really going to go crazy. Have...

Weather report was favorable for a cool front, so we hit up one of the three lakes in NM that is stocked with Tiger Muskie. Lake levels are low, water is pea soup green, and tigers were swimming...

Make sure your Korkers fit properly - mine ran bigger than the Simms for sure. I didn't love them at first, but they are growing on me slowly but surely (with thicker socks). Interchangeable soles...

With my newfound love of streamers I can't wait to lose 5 of these casting against submerged trees!

Rio Grande is at a pathetically low level for sure. However, South Fork and Creede could sure use some business so if you do go, buy some beer at least!

High country lakes are an excellent idea...

Somewhere away from the fires...

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Wire leaders / Toothy Critter is the way to go for big pike, but big musky can be caught just fine with 40 lb leader. We have 2 lakes with trophy-sized musky, but I'm sure they are more pressured...

Doesn't get any better than that. Old school! The past several years I have found some picky bastards, mostly in lakes, that won't go for anything else than an Adams.

Beautiful colors on that fish!

Nice HI Stoke! Same experience on my part from shore (including the many missing flies and coronet fish). Now I did meet some locals that were fly fishing from kayaks, that looked very interesting...

29 1/2 Rainbow caught & released in Eagle Nest lake this Sunday by my buddy! No picture, he did the right thing and revived her instead of fumbling around with his phone. He was trolling for pike,...

What the heck, maybe we'll get more participation. I'll offer that while everyone is salivating over caddis action in NM, streamers have been off the chart for me. Browns are hammering sculpins,...

Because of this thread, I actually went to the Chama 3 weeks ago before the flows went up, but didn't have any luck. Fishing below El Vado can be very good at the right flows for big browns, there...

Great TR! Humuhumu catch and release - nice work!

Offshore ocean raping is a sad deal... Fishing out the entire ocean is going leave an awful world for the future.

Fishing and rafting on the Rio Grande are pretty much mutually exclusive... Fishing can be fantastic, but it's a wild river and flows need to be lower than 500 cfs for the best fishing (fall &...

Lots of good guide choices, I have never used a guide on the Juan so I can't say one way or the other. I'll just throw out there that the river is very low right now, and will be for the foreseeable...

Strong work YoungMan!

Drift boats are actually pretty damn resistant to rocks - I know, I have hit a shitload of them. At least right up until you crack it in half. I would hazard a guess that gelcoating this bad boy is...

Yeah, it was unbelievably cool. I've wanted to try out the fly rod on billfish, but Hawaii really isn't the place to do it! The other marlin I didn't get around to reposting here would have...

Back on topic, I personally like basing out of Pinedale. You've got the goldens (which are probably a big commitment backpacking-wise), but for the self-motivated, there is the Green, Gros Ventre,...

Point taken about guiding choices. Frankly, there are more than a few really good guides on the San Juan. However, the river is very changeable (as all rivers are) and it's funny to me when people...

That's what I was hinting at... Much better said Gretch.

On the other hand, if you're an old fart and all you want to do is get up early, eat a green chile breakfast (Fishheads), drive 10...

Regarding the San Juan, it's definitely a great river, but uncrowded it's (usually) not... There are a hell of a lot of large fish. Don't stay at Abe's IMO - there are better options. Guides /...

Last trip this year, had to come up big. And we did.

Again had great luck with the live bait - we filled the jacuzzi with mackerel before 8 am.

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Indeed, we all have at least thought of giving that a go at one time or another...

Stumbled around a lot of shoreline with the flyrod... Conditions aren't great right now imo. I definitely gave it the go, and have many wounds like this to prove it:

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Yes, I understand about trolling through some dolphins for tuna (spotted, by your expertise). Suffice it to say that these weren't those kind of dolphins. And sorry, pics aren't coming because this...

I always figure that's good luck!

Could very well be. I'm just going with the captain, and I'm sure non-target species differentiation isn't high on his list of priorities. I would have to disagree about them hammering the tuna -...

PREQUEL 1

So I started this Kona fishing business by having to go to Hawai'i in September of 2008 for work (yeah, yeah). We traveled to five islands over two weeks training water & wastewater...

It does suck. I think Patagonia has declined across the board, their stuff may be greener and more "sustainable," but the materials are nowhere as good as they used to be. I have a museum's worth...

FWIW, I beat the living piss out of my Simms waders for 6 years, sent them back on a whim when I returned my Dry Creek boat bag (zipper sucked), and they replaced them with brand new Freestones for...

What the hell. Although you really should pay me to wear your shirt! :biggrin:

Shit, if that's all true that's seriously fucked up.

Wow - sweet! Thanks. Lots of good beta here, although I will definitely be using bigger flies, leader and rod...

Seems like the kid has a lot to learn - I don't think morality has anything to do with it, but ethically it looks questionable. Part of being a good sportsman is not *appearing* to be unethical to...

Well shiznat, no love for the trip report? I see you even switched beers - there's no pleasing some people.

Nice pictures - looks like you definitely went some places and caught some fish

So I have spent the long summer working on my house, moping around town, and sad to say, working my ass off. Fishing has become a distant memory, sometimes surfacing in my dreams as long-ago trips...

Sounds like an epic in the making... I have also had that conversation many times - the rower is lower and mostly out of the wind, it's a sweet seat even if you are being blown back up river. The...

Ho-lee-shit - nice brooks!! Definitely keep that locale on the down low. On a completely unrelated matter, if you are ever in NM I'd love to swap stories over 3 bottles of Four Roses bourbon...

It's hard to call out people based on a photo when you don't know all the facts - I feel the same way, but I learned to hold my tongue unless I witness it. Water temp is a huge factor. However, the...

+1 If you do handle them, wet hands are a must! I see lots of people (including fishing buddies) forget about this rule. Down here we catch mostly browns and rainbows, I don't think handling them...

Great pictures! The B&Ws are Ansel-esque. I have never been to Montana - I need to put it on the short list for next summer.

Good thread!

My two cents is that there is a real art to landing fish quickly, and then as you mentioned it can be difficult to calm down a "hot" fish enough to remove the hook. I think this is...

That blows - bad karma for somebody. Kids seem like a good bet - hope you get it back!

Well done! Great pictures. Somewhere in one of those a huge fish is hiding...

Good sportsmanship!! So many dudes would have just thrown that damselfly in the cooler... Reminds me of the time I hooked a bat and had to do the same thing. I pinned him down on a rock and we...

What kind of whiskey??