Bad Water Levels, Great Results

Upon arriving at Lusby Landing, Ryan pointed out that the water level was the highest it has been in 30 years. . . . great. That's exactly the reason we came here instead of Saratoga. I have to say I was a little skeptical. It didn't last long though. 3 minutes into the float, I was into a fish. Ryan had warned us that most fish were lost because anglers didn't allow them to run right from the get-go. This in mind, I let this guy do his thing. It wasn't much at first. I think it didn't realize he was hooked or it was just still sleepy. Eventually though he took the line and ran. I was impressed but the guide just nonchalantly called it average. I mentioned I would take average all day if it fought like this. I brought it in after awhile and was thrilled to know I wasn't going to be skunked this day. It was 17 to 18 inches. I'd take it.

Right around the bend I got into another. This one was bigger, about 18 inches plus. A fat hen too. She fought about the same way, still a little sleepy at first but soon got angry. Another boat floated by as Ryan netted it for me. The excitement shown in their eyes as we told them it was our second already. I was ecstatic. I was two fish up on my father-in-law! That's a first.
There was a nice stretch of about 100 yards right below where I caught the first two. This proved to be the perfect stretch. Not only did we have two doubles here but caught lots more the next day and the next while wading. I got into my third fish while Howard had his first on. . . . our first double. Howard's fish was a good one and mine was "too big for his britches." It was amazing too. He jumped about eight times before I got him in. A couple jumps nearly saw him in the boat. I never would have thought a trout could clear that much water and look so graceful doing it. It got 6 feet out of the water at times and soared perfectly while in air. Amazing!

As we neared the end of the run, Ryan would say" get you lines up and clean them off perfectly. I'll take us back up." He did this a half a dozen times here and added "Why leave fish to go find fish?" a great point I thought. We found a few more spots like Lusby along the way. I got one on the line that took me almost to the backing on my real. I got this one under control after about 10 minutes. I finally muscled him in after he bull dogged at the bottom for a while. This big boy was just under 20 inches. He had great color and a long crooked jaw too. He did happen to poop all over the boat while a held him up. It got all over Ryan's water jug too (as tough as he seemed to be, He wanted no more water out of that jug the rest of the day.) This guy could be my favorite fish of all time. A great specimen. Ryan even said that it was the type of fish that brought people to the North Platte. I'd take that one too!
I later caught another big male that had a broken jaw. Amazing it could still eat. It was a funny looking thing. I remember laughing hard during the picture. Howard caught a nice little brown. This was a big deal because they make up less than 3% of the population, a real trophy. He always manages to find brown trout.

We pulled into a nice picnic spot for a chicken salad wrap, chips, cashews, coke, and fruit. It was refreshing. After lunch I got into the back so Howard could man the front for a while. We caught a bunch more. Every once in a while Ryan would ask if the water seemed dirtier to me. It did actually. Before long, the water was mud and the fish weren't biting at all. By this time it was getting on to 5 and we had already been worn out with fish. I bet we caught 30 fish between us. Howard had a couple small ones but my smallest was no less than 17 inches, amazing! They took all three flies but seemed to key in on the red San Juans. Ryan gave Howard a handful of flies afterward for us to try the next day while wading. He gave us his card and invited us down to the river after dinner. His buddies were camping right below the dam. That's about all there was to do in this town, fish and drink afterward. It was a great float. We later found out that we had the most success out of all the guided floats that day. Not bad. I'd take that too.

Day 2, Preparing for the float

We had to be down at the Grey Reef Fly Shop at 7:30 that morning for our guided float. We had no problem getting there on time. It seemed to get light outside by 5 in the morning. We also learned that morning that our shared bathroom was in high demand by the guides. Anyway after some shredded wheat we made our way down to the shop. We met our guide as he was getting the boat ready. Ryan is his name and he looked the part, very grizzly. He told us that we didn't need our waders. We didn't know what to think here because we had ideas of pulling over at the good spots. He informed us that with the high water, wading would be tough and he would keep us in good spots with the boat. Howard wore his anyway but I left mine in the car because its neoprene and heavy and uncomfortable. He rigged us up at the boat with a 3x leader, with 3x tippet. He put on a red San Juan Worm, a red midge pattern, and a brown leach. Wyoming allows 3 flies. We were going to float from Lusby Landing to Sea crest. We piled into the Tundra and headed to Lusby. On the way I noticed two things. One, Tundras have huge cabs, and two, a pheasant. I have seen them in South Dakota before but that's all. It was neat. Anyway, it was a good start to an awesome day.

North Platte River 2010 Day 1

This year Howard took me to Alcove, Wyoming to fish the Grey Reef Section of the North Platte River. Originally he wanted to go up-river to Saratoga to float that canyon in the mountains but that section of river was seeing record levels due to the run-off. That will have to be for another time. The Grey Reef section was supposed to be more fishable.......and it was!

We left at 8:00 on Tuesday and drove the 6. hours to Alcove. We basically back-tracked on I-80 to Rawlins, WY and drove north to just below Casper. We stopped at Independence Rock along the way, very neat. We got to the great city of Alcove around 4 or so. The sign on the main strip of the town read "Alcove, Summer population 20,000. Winter population less than 50." It had a handful of old hotels and cabins, a gas station, marina, The Grey Reef Fly Shop, and of course the Bar. Our cabin was run by the owner of the bar so that's where the "office" was. It had dollar bills taped to every inch of the walls and ceilings. Not the best decor but for 50 people, who is there to impress? We got checked in and unloaded. The cabin was real small, functionable, and nice. It could accommodate up to four in bunk beds and a pull out. Perfect for the two of us.

We could see the river from our cabin and it was high but not all that off color. We were excited because most of the rivers we had passed were nothing but mud. We decided to head over to below the dam to investigate. We suited up and familiarized ourselves with the area. We tried our luck in a few spots but didn't spend too much time. We caught nothing but we saw some other anglers catch a few real nice ones. One particular man was up to his armpits in water trying to keep a fish on. We realized this would be a tough place to wade. He did however land the nice rainbow. We asked what he was using and he said a rock worm, a size 8 red midge really. Interesting......

We hit the marina along the reservoir for dinner, the bar being the other option. I had a bacon cheese burger with fries and a coke while Howard had ribs. Both of which were delicious. We were pleasantly surprised. We decided to drive around a little more and then get to bed early so we would be well-rested for our guided float in the morning. Our goal we came up with in the car on the way over was to catch the biggest trout of our lives thus far and so far the area looked very promising.

It's got to be a bluegill

A few days ago I was able to get some more fishing in at Grandma's. I did some yard work in the late afternoon and decided to get the fly rod out. I was using the minnow that I made and had some luck with before. Sure enough I was able to get a bass pretty quickly. I moved over to the far side of the pond and cast out away from the bank to about 10 feet out and let it sink. I got a bite as soon as I stripped it in. Right away I knew it had to be a bluegill. They always use the shape of there tall bodies to apply more pressure and fight than you would ever expect. They also tend to swim toward the shore at an angle. The pond has plenty of bluegill of descent size. This was no exception. It's just the second type of fish I've caught using my own hand-made fly. I hope to make this list a whole lot longer in the near future.

Oh how sweet it is!

Well I did it. I caught a fish on a fly that I made myself. It really is a neat feeling to accomplish that. I finally made it out to my grandma's house on an absolutely perfect day. It was about 75 degrees with only a slight breeze. The sun was out in full force but it doesn't seem to spook large mouth like it does brown or rainbow trout. I even took my shirt off to get a nice little sun burn. Andrew was with me today and he was a little impatient but it worked out in his favor. On my first cast with my favorite homemade clauser minnow, I landed a nice little bass.

I chose to go with a minnow with green, yellow, and white buck tail with red flash. It was a size 6 hook with yellow eyes. I cast it along the dock and pulled it in rather slowly and evenly. I figured the fish would still be a little slow because the time of year. I got the strike right off the bank. It put up a bigger fight than I expected which is always a good thing, but I had no problem pulling him in. I was using a 4 weight tippet so I was a little concerned.

It was a great feeling. I then cast about 25 feet down the bank a few times and caught another. Andrew liked this one because it was "widdle" like him. He even helped me throw him back.

We walked around the pond a little bit, scaring off a couple of Canadian Geese until we got to the two pine trees that grow just feet from the water, a pretty consistently good spot. One good cast 15 feet down and 6 feet from shore and I got another strike right on the bottom. It hit hard and as it rose I saw it was a bigger fish than the other two. I took my time with it just because I had a light line on and was in no rush. Like I expected, the fight didn't last too long (the water is still very cold) I bent down and grabbed him by the jaw to bring him up. He was the biggest fish I've caught in a while out of the pond. Great fish, great fly, FANTASTIC day.

After this nice fish, Andrew was bored so we took a walk in the woods. He was thrilled. He even found a walking stick. As we walked past the dump in the back I pulled out my old plastic spring horse and big wheeler. Neither is in working shape but Andy sat on the horse while I held it and he did the same on the big wheeler. Those toys are 20 plus years old. Time flies. I pointed out the old swing set and walked him down to our old fort. It is fallen over and dilapidated but he could tell it was something out of the ordinary. It was then I started to wonder why Grandpa dumped so much stuff in the ditch in the woods instead of taking it to the curb. Andrew had fun and I had a blast with him. He may even want to do it again.

New Hobby!

It was a loooooooong winter this year. I wasn't able to fish at all since November. So.....I got restless and decided to pick up the next best thing.......fly tying! I bought a simple starter kit that included a vice clamp, couple of bobbins, an array of colored thread, a bodkin, whip finisher, hair stacker, hackle pliers, a video, and a rather large set of materials. I also bought a tool box to keep it all in. As I made a few flies and discovered flies I wanted to make and use, I needed to buy more supplies. I found out that this hobby is not a cheap one and contrary to what I thought, I'm not so sure I'll be saving money in the long run either. Oh well..........regardless, I now have a hobby.

I made an assortment of woolly buggers in black, yellow, olive, and brown. I made them in size 6 and 2. I decided that I enjoyed making these and other large flies more than I do the super small ones for obvious reasons.

I then made some Adams Flies in size 12 and 14 sizes. I'm not up to making any smaller than that just yet. It gets tricky. I really like how these flies turned out. They are aesthetically pleasing and actually look like something real. There is satisfaction in that.

I then decided that I truly needed to learn how to make some nymphs so I chose to start with the pheasant tail nymph. I made quite a few in sizes 10, 12, and 14 sizes. I think they turned out pretty good and I might even make a few in size 16-20 in the near future. I seem to lose lots of these so the more the merrier.

I also made some hare's ear nymphs in 12 and 14 sizes. These were a little trickier but turned out pretty well too. I'll make a bunch of these too.

Well after tying a bunch of nymphs I decided I needed some caddis flies. I made a bunch of these Elk Hair Caddis Flies in a couple sizes. They were tricky at first. All these flies required different techniques and tricks. This one was no exception.

Here are my favorites! Flying ants and regular ants are easy to make and look like an actual bug! What more can you ask for? These terrestrials were tied on size 12 and 14 hooks and I'm excited to use them.
I also learned how to tie streamers, spiders and stone flies. I'll blog these flies in the near future.

I've seen enough!

I've had a severe case of cabin fever this winter and because of the amount of snow we've had, I haven't been able to get outside to Grandma's much at all. I caught wind that a local state park was being stocked with trout so I made plans to check it out. I took Nick out first to stake out the lake. We bought some night crawlers and found a nice spot all by ourselves. It was a great day, about 60 degrees and over cast but we caught nothing. We only spent about 3 hours fishing but I was frustrated. Nick was crazy bored so we left to meet the girls and Andrew for dinner. On our way out we stopped by the other end of the lake where a ton of cars were parked to further investigate. We saw a guy pull out a 12 inch rainbow. I asked what he was using and he showed me a can of whole kernel corn. These farm-raised trout were used to what they were fed before they were released into Lake Isabella. How boring! These guys were all using corn and bobbers! Anyway I took notes and left.



Two days later I heard they were bringing more trout in (750 lbs) so I took Andre and Lilly down to watch them release them into the lake. I even brought corn! We casually fished from the dock for an hour before we saw the truck pull in. It was going to release the fish into a cove about 50ft by 75ft. All the way around this cove, standing shoulder to shoulder were retired, old, over-weight, bearded men. They all were loaded down with power bait and corn. Even at the end of the cove was seated four men in boats just waiting to cut off the freed fish. It was pathetic! As soon as the trout were dumped into the lake, one net full at a time, bobbers and spinners would fly in from all sides into the area the size of a hula hoop. There were multiple tangles and cussing going on, some guy was chucking corn kernels with a scoop into the water, and I was told to get Andrew away from the fisherman so there would be no accidents. Talk about grumpy old men! I saw one guy catch one of the fish (that wasn't floating upside-down or barely moving) as soon as it hit the water. He cheered and put it into his bucket. The fish was only in the lake for like 5 seconds! That's not fishing! I could have grabbed my limit of four with my bare hands and been home for lunch in 20 minutes. I was embarrassed to be there and said I have seen enough. The kids and I left before all the fish were unloaded. They enjoyed seeing the half-dead fish but were soon as bored as me.


I decided to leave Lake Isabella to the grumpy old men for now. Maybe I'll take the kids back there in the summer to fish from the docks when it gets warmer but until the bluegill, bass, and crappie start biting, I think I'll pass on the trout. The whole experience was a bit too corny for my taste.