2023 Fish-Pic-O-Rama

[skaredshtles]

Couple of weeks ago a friend and I were chased off the Bighorn by flows above 6k out of Boysen so we punted and moved SW a couple hours. Found high water, but trout pushed up on the edges who were eating streamers at will!



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Dayum! Still so green in WY... very nice.

[Lumpy]

Big thanks to Bob for the hospitality in Boblandia last weekend! Fun to be on board when you hit the inaugural brown right behind the suspected rock! Great food as normal and thanks for the homestead tours Mrs. Bob gave! Flaming Gorge Resort "Pile O' Fries" and mozza sticks will rule.

[Rasputin]

Well it's been good to see some other folks getting their seasons going. great pics, and interesting presentations.

Yesteday I had to go pay rent, which is just a few blocks from the super secret spot, so I popped in there and found no one fishing. I got to work and had a fish on pretty quickly. I caught a couple more before a convoy of intertubers came down the adjacent side channel, when they saw me they apologized and started kicking their feet, where I'd just caught two fish, to get out of my way! I pulled out with mild disgust, intending to move down river a little and noticed that the drift boat which had passed by a while before had pulled out and it's occupants were fishing from the shore, another fisherman was walking toward me, two more showed up within fifteen minutes, and I decided to run away. But I caught this cutie:



Later, I went down to fish the Clark Fork where I'd caught my biggest brown trout a couple months ago, the water has been dropping, and I can now wade across the river. It being 7:30pm already, I rigged up a streamer, and started pitching it, after a number of throws I hit resistance and got to see the flash of the big fish I was yanking my streamer outta the mouth of. Sigh, I need to not get so excited.

Today I went down to the point. A drift boat was coming down the Bitterroot as I was rigging up a dry dropper. They decided to go up channel on the Clark Fork side, and ran their boat onto the rock/gravel bar between the two channels, which was exactly where I was intending to fish. Then to get unstuck, the guy rowed the rocks for a minute until the other guy in the boat got out and helped pull it over the hump. Oh well.

Later on, after I had swapped rigs to a yellow skwalla bug, with a golden stonefly nymph dropper. A big ol' fish surfaced ten feet from me, and ate the skwalla. He was big, but not all that lively, and he practically swam into the net once I worked him onto the shallow Clark Fork side of the bar. Then I looked at him, and was quite surprised to see, that he had the same darkened spot on his left shoulder as that big one I caught a week ago Monday. I also saw the wound from where I'd snag hooked him before, it was the same fish! I had this happen with another big fish last fall, catching the same fish on two consecutive Thursdays.

Undeniable marking:





He seemed to be smiling, he must like me:





Once again, my biggest trout yet!




Ten minutes or so later, I got a take while stripping in the same rig, I saw a big rainbow jump just before my line came back with no flies, due to a failed blood knot, oh well, at least it held for the big guy.

[John_B]

Rasputin, sometimes I've had good luck after a boat or tubers go though the spot I'm fishing. I figure that it moves the fish around and they might take a new look a my flies.

[Percy Rideout]

Fishing is picking up on the Roaring Fork as the water comes down.

Quiet evening until sunset, then every other cast there was a fish on. Dry dropper season has finally arrived up here.



Been catching a ton of rainbows on this stretch. Good to see a brown here as well. They were not interested in the elk hair caddis until dusk, but at that point that's all the fish kept hitting.



Guess it's summer here now.

[stapes]

Hot damn this thread is on fire!

Got out to some high country small water with the family last week. Great day.









This run was perfect..







Warm water interlude…



Before poking around a fave spot for a bit..

[stapes]

Grateful to have a buddy invite me and my son on a float. Tons of bug activity. Yellow sallies, golden stones, caddis galore, and then the big bugs. Picked up one on a caddis before realizing they really just wanted the cheeseburger. So fun. Beautiful area.











Almost had him convinced to eat it..

[Rasputin]

Nice pics Stapes! Cool that you got the youngling fly fishing already.

[L8APX]

Took a trip then back to the hook.

[Rasputin]

This afternoon I was unsure where I wanted to go, so since I am a spiritual something or other, I decided to pray. I picked up my Holy book, and held it one hand under it and one hand on it, and let my mind follow what ever came to it, I was guided to try something different, that I'd seen from a bridge in town. So I saddled up and rode my bike there. I worked my way to an area that looked good, and threw my trusty blond skwala which had caught the big fish the night before, and hung an egg sucking leach off'n it just in case they were hungry for that.

After a cast or two, I let it swing while I fussed with something for a sec, and when I started stripping in the line there was a fish on it, not only that, but the biggest rainbow I've yet to land (close to 16" not that it's that big, but for me it is, as of yet). This fish decided to swim upstream toward me, which made landing him pretty easy, though I would have liked a bit more of a fight, but it sorta made up for the one that broke off my flies yesterday.

After I set him free, I heard someone call my name. It was this friend who has been running a hobo kitchen around town, who I've helped move a couple times when the city forced him (and others) outta the latest place he was feeding people. I'd actually been looking for him since the last move. He told me he was planning to run for city council and run his campaign from the courthouse lawn, and told me where his latest camp was. It seemed obvious that I was sent there on a mission of happenstance for a chance meeting. Such is the life of a spiritual something or other.

Trout's fins t'wer a bit chewed up it seems:

[plugboots]

[Rasputin]

I like the looks of that creek. Funny, usually you post big fish caught with little bugs, and this is little fish with a big bug.

That looks like an old-timey bamboo rod.

[::: :::]

old-timey fiberglass

[Phall]

Cutthroat opener in UT did not disappoint as usual.





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[plugboots]

#eagleclawfeatherlight #betterthantenkara
#waaaybetterthantenkara
#cheaperthantenkara

[Talisman]

Finally got out for some fishing and I was not alone on the Madison, but the rainbows and browns cooperated. A pheasant tail nymph under a salmon fly indicator brought plenty of fish.

[swimmy]

[teleee]

It’s been a slog in our home waters this year. But finally things are starting to change for the better - waters warming up and the big bugs are starting to pop.





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[swimmy]

That first fish is so bright.

Nice.

[teleee]

It was good to finally get some eats on top! On a more sober note my neighbor flipped his boat, experienced rower, and him and his wife barely made it to shore. Sober reminder!



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[The Reverend Floater]

Oh shit!

So easy to get complacent out there, even experienced oarsmen. Glad they're ok!

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[tgapp]

It was good to finally get some eats on top! On a more sober note my neighbor flipped his boat, experienced rower, and him and his wife barely made it to shore. Sober reminder!



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holy shit Telee, what happened?

And, I agree with Rasputin, that first fish is brilliant.

Went out looking for greyling this weekend and caught over 100. Nice to get some eats on top, never thought I'd say this but I wish that they were just a little bit pickier and a little bit smarter. I'll put together a more thorough trip report if there is any interest.

[Rasputin]

And, I agree with Rasputin, that first fish is brilliant.

While I agree that big banana Telee caught is brilliant (they are all nice thick fish bigger than any I've ever caught, grats Telee), it was swimmy that said so first.

I went to the river and got swarmed by mosquitos, lost five flies, and landed a five inch rainbow. That's one inch of small trout per fly lost. However, before going out, my neighbor gave me a $5 Scheels gift card and I got two chubbys, so the total damage for today was actually 1 fly per 1.67 inches of small fish (who actually hooked himself while my fly was dragging in the water, as I was stepping down off the bank into the water). However, the griffith's gnat the fish took, is now coming apart, so that's almost like losing another fly. I was doing so well at not losing flies for a while there.......

Oh, and yeah, tgapp, more grayling pics! Tell the story!

[plugboots]

[Rasputin]

When I was a kid, my dad used to take me out fishing at a stream fed farm reservoir/pond near St. Paul Oregon. It was largely covered in duckweed, and featured copious amounts of dead trees killed when the creek had been dammed. We'd paddle through it in a 17 foot Grumman canoe and fish for bluegill. Dad would set me up with a spin-casting rod with worms under a bobber, but he'd fish a popping bug on fly-rod.

When I got into my teens I had become very bass oriented, and collected many of the famous bass plugs; among my lures was a weedless frog with a hollow rubber body. It was with this frog, out at the St. Paul pond with Dad, skating it across the duck weed, that I caught my biggest bass. This was largely due to my dad's skillful maneuvering of the canoe as the wiley bucket mouth tried to wrap my line around dead trees and stumps. Good times.