where in the world are the wmgwalds: May 2024

Fishing Journal 2012- 2016

Fishing Journal: Chilean Patagonia Jan 8-13, 2012

Big brown in the slough

Casting the dry on the lake shore on a cold windy day

Sight casting on shore with a Fat Albert dry

Jan. 7- We all left Galapagos to Guayaquil and the Hilton Colon. It was a hanging around kind of afternoon for all, with everyone catching up on emails, packing and repacking, trying to figure out whether to eat dinner or lunch or what, or other things. I was the only one to actually move on on Saturday. I flew 5 hours with a cold coming on and amidst screaming kids and a mom directly behind me who was sneezing all night.

Jan. 8- Santiago to Balmaceda- We landed in Santiago and, after clearing customs and moving bags along, I had about a 4 1/2 hour wait for my next flight. Priority Pass did not work for me but I bought a day membership. Later I learned all I needed to do to activate the Priority Pass is buy a day membership with my Amex card. Catch 22 of course is that I decided not to bring my Amex because Visa is honored in more places abroad.
Eduardo, aka Tolin, my guide, and his wife Vali met me at the airport and took me to the hotel in Coihaique, which is about 2/3 of the way down Chile. We decided to try a half day of fishing on the Simpson River.
I will go ahead and say it all at once here but note that every time I turn around on this part of the trip I am reminded how much the terrain here in this part of Patagonia resembles Montana and how much the fishing turns out to remind me of trout fishing in Montana, bone fishing in the Bahamas, and then small mouth bass fishing in Maine (the lake fishing).
It was cold and raining hard on and off. I caught a few smallish brown trout.

Jan. 9- The Emperador William River, named after Kaiser Wilhelm. The daily schedule is pick up at 8:30, drive for an hour or so, fish until about 2 pm, take a lengthy lunch break and back to fishing. Back to the hotel between 7 and 8. This was the best day in terms of numbers. I caught about 25, again mostly 10-12 inches, mostly browns, but a couple of nice ones in the mix too.

Our first stop to access the river involved crossing a bridge just wider than the SUV, which looked like it had carpentry scraps of assorted sizes for a surface, most of which had been crushed or otherwise damaged. I was worried but not too much since the gorge the bridge crosses, while about 80-100 feet deep, was only so wide, so I figured if the bridge broke we would only fall about 10 feet before getting pinned.

The worst part of the day was the weather which steadily worsened by getting colder and wetter. Luckily I brought 2 more layers to add but by the end of the day I was pretty miserable.
A brief digression to note birds seen- the first morning I was awakened by those noisy Southern Lapwings that we first saw in Uruguay and then at Andres' Cuban missile crisis house near Santiago. While fishing, quite frequently we saw those Black faced Ibises we first saw in the national park near Ushuaia. I saw a beautiful red breasted kingfisher whose official name I don't know yet and many Chilean Swallows, which are related to our tree swallows and just as beautiful. On Wednesday at the lake I added an Ashy faced goose, an Earth Creeper (?), and Andean Condors (!). I also saw a hawk of some kind, moving too fast to identify, and Tolin pointed out a Peregrine Falcon but I did not turn fast enough.

Jan. 10- Rio Norte and an adjoining spring creek- today's first stop was a "spring creek" which really was a slough, kind of like JD's former place in Montana except much, much more of a swamp. We waded into weeds and soggy ground much like Alaska and tried to sight cast to huge browns using fat Alberts and dropper nymphs. I caught 3, all very large, but then they were on to us. So we hiked over a little rise and waded the Rio Norte. There I caught about 8 or so 10 to 12 inch browns, all on a hopper, almost all at the end of the swing.
We set up picnic lunch in the back of the farmer's house and then came back. It was raining hard on and off, windy, and my cold was peaking.

Jan. 11- I checked out of the hotel today (which was new, comfortable, adequate food, and mostly quiet except for neighbors, their alarms, and the squawking lapwings), met my new guide, Andres, also known as Chino, and we drove 2 hours north to Tolin's cabin and farm on a lake. There we met Tolin and Juanpablo Costa, my friend Andres' brother in law (married to Rosario), and Carlos, a friend of his. Let me just say JP is crazy. Enough.
Chino is a very good guide, speaks good English, is pretty patient with my tangles and hang ups in the weeds and branches, and tolerates my poor casts. I tried all the time to make 2 casts in a row where he would say "good cast". Once I even got 4 in a row. Chino is from Vina del Mar and works half the year managing a North Face store there.

The wind was howling and Chino and I went out in a Montana like inflatable, trying to cast dry flies along the rocks of the shore (Montana meets Maine). I had every layer I brought with me and still needed to wear a life jacket for more insulation. This is where we saw the condors both days. It was a miracle but I caught a couple and then we decided to get out of the wind and sight cast to the browns in the shallow water. Got a couple there too.

I have to salute Chino here. He is a small guy, probably 4 or 5 inches smaller than me, solidly built, 26 years old. He had a hard time holding the boat in position with his oars in the raging wind that was pushing us down the lake (I would say the wind was about 35 miles an hour, right behind us, always pushing us beyond where we wanted to be, and kicking up white caps on the lake) (the lake was about 4 or 5 kilos long and maybe 1/2 to 3/4 km across with a couple of wooded stony islands in the middle and sheer cliffs on the sides), but he somehow got the job done.

A typical day at this cabin is breakfast of eggs from the chickens walking around, toast, juice, coffee at 8, talk a lot, fish from 9:30 until 2, go back for lunch at 2:30, still not sure what the meat was, talk more or siesta until 5, go out and fish until 9 or so, and then dinner at 11pm. The second day we had half a barbecued lamb pampas style for lunch. JP would talk crazy about anything such as his medicines to take his mood and parts in different directions, Carlos would sit quietly, and Tolin would supply the ribald jokes.

In retrospect I was woefully unprepared for this weather. I should have brought a much thicker rain jacket, my fleece gloves, and another couple of pairs of better pants and flannel shirts. My stocking cap would have helped too.

Jan. 12- It was warmer today but no less wind. I found myself peeling layers. We started with the sight casting and I got another couple. When we tried the float boat again the wind cranked up. I caught one nice sized one which struck in deeper water and actually charged the fly.
After the lamb we went out again for a little bit but it continued to be very, very slow. When we quit, Chino had to load the boat on the trailer, so I went back by myself to the sight casting area and actually managed to catch one more without a guide.

Other comments- we had lots of discussion about the planned dams to bring power to Santiago (talked about in that movie 180 Degrees South). Everyone knows it will change things but did not express to strong opinions in favor or against. It though is definitely on everyone's mind- posters up on the roadside, window stickers etc.

Jan. 13- back to meet Connie in Lima for our next phase, on the Amazon. 4 hours in a middle seat- no fun.

Then it's time for shad-

March 31, 2012

40,000 people in Richmond ran the Monument 10K today so traffic was very confused, but somehow my friend The Judge and I found our way to the river below the fall line in the morning after breakfast and tried for some shad. Our previous effort together had not been too succesful.
The weather was cloudy, with intermittent rain and high 50's low 60's temperature. We parked under I-95 and watched as the game wardens took pictures of a guy who had made the mistake of trying to sneak off with some spawning rockfish. I imagine the rest of his day was spent drinking beer.
There were not very many boats out, probably a dozen motor and kayaks within sight up and down the river. The water was high and murky, but not so high that we couldn't have put our kayaks in. Instead we fished with spinning rods from the bank.
I caught 2 hickorys on my first 2 casts and figured it was going to be a pretty good day. J pretty quickly caught one. It was sporadic on and off after that. I had one that got wrapped around the line from a fisherman on one of the boats- he did me a great favor and cut my lure off and kept it.
I fished until about 11:45, maybe an hour and a half total and caught about 10 including a couple with some size, all hickorys.
J called me afterwards to tell me he caught a few more where we were and then went up to another place and added another couple. He told me that he and his son in law went the next morning and caught about 20 each, fishing next to a guy and his son who must have caught 100.
I think the tide needs to be rising or just after the turn of the tide. It makes sense that with the rising tide the fish get a little extra help trying to get over the rapids.

Fishing journal- More on the shad season

Yesterday was April 2, and it was clear and in the low 60s but very windy. After work I went down to the I 95 bridge as the tide was about halfway to low. The shore was muddy and I slipped pretty fully a couple of times. I also managed to hang my Muckboot on a branch and the whole bottom separated. For a moment I was walking around like a clown with a flapping shoe.

Anyway there was no one fishing that stretch and there were few boats out. In about an hour I caught about 5 or 6 including this one, all on my short ultra light spinning rod.

Today it was a very nice mid 60s low 70s with not much wind. Again the tide was falling was fuller but still falling. I got a parking spot at the canoe parking on 14th Street and went right down to the flood wall hoping to get the primo position. No such luck. I watched a guy pull in about 10 fish from that great spot while I didn't get a nibble. It's all in the position for this shore fishing.

I moved down toward the I 95 bridge. There were many more fishermen out on shore and in the boats today. When I got into my preferred position for that area, it started off slow. I was using my light spinning rod and changed rigs a couple of times and then caught one on a big gold spoon. From then on it was slow, I'd fish a while and then change lures, catch one and the cycle would repeat. Most interesting of all was when I put shad flies on with a bullet weight and catch fish. Total for the 2 hours was about 6, with the best fly being a golden retriever "second" from Jim Finn.

Fishing Journal: Buffalo Creek: May 3, 2012

Hot spring day on Buffalo Creek in Rockbridge County, Virginia. Clear, temperature in the high 80's, wind- none. The wildflowers were blooming and even hoppers were out, though not too near the water. John Roberts, my intrepid guide and river keeper for this section, and I hit the water at about 1:45 pm. The water felt really good on our waders especially given the hot air temperature. We immediately saw lots of fish rising in the brownish but clear water. Pretty quickly I caught a 12 inch or so, good fighting rainbow. It was a healthy fish but it was missing a small section of its right gill cover- predator or genetic? That one was on a caddis drifting just sub surface. Then we caught a couple more, maybe slightly larger on a nymph and then on a drifted green streamer. At this particular spot there is a ledge on one side dropping off into deep water and then a more gradual shelf on the other side. The fish could be seen coming out of the deeper water and up either to feed over the deep or up onto the shelf. Lots visible. One of the ones I caught was picture worthy but as we were getting ready for the photo op, I inadvertently let him swim out of the net.
We moved onto the next spot and got some nice bites and picked up a couple more, especially by letting the fly (streamer) fall between 2 rocks that are very close with deep water all around. In the middle of the deepest part here with a prince nymph I caught my first Buffalo smallmouth, and it was a great fighter.
At the third spot we tried we saw a few rising at a distance but could not quite find the ones who were biting, then suddenly I hooked into a really nice one. John, normally not one to put added pressure on his anglers, kept telling me he was worried about my letting the rod get too low. Obediently I followed his advice. It was a long fight that wore out my right arm holding the rod, but we caught the fish and it was picture worthy- maybe 17 inches, but all fight.
One more spot, a deep pool with a swirling hydraulic that looked like it could hold some monsters. We got some nice bites and I caught one more, foul hooked, but landed.
By this time it was 4:30 and time to head home for my anniversary. (I would have made it on time too except for a big car/truck wreck on I-81 just north of the Route 60 entrance to the interstate).

I can't wait till my next Buffalo creek outing!!

Fishing Journal: Williams Island 2012

Williams Island May 22-25 2012

This is a picture of John Miller with Benry and John's big bonefish.

Our party was John Miller, FDG Jr and WMG. When we tried to take off from RIC, it turned out all of the Jacksonville area air traffic control was out of service for some reason so we had a delay. Then when we did got over the San Andros airport we couldn't find the runway because of low cover so we went on to Nassau. After a while we rearranged the sea plane to pick us up on the lake in Nassau. We finally did get to the boat about mid day.
It was very overcast but we decided to go out in the afternoon anyway. Dad went with Dennis, John went with Benry and I went out on the paddleboard. I saw nothing, Dad and John each had some luck.
The next day John and I went out together and Dad went out with Benry. John and I each caught 3 or 4 including this nice one. I think John was liking it. Dad also had some luck but we were all rained out in the afternoon.
Bruce and Nancy and some of the boys were also at Williams and they invited us over to dinner that night. The French chef laid it on thick and we had a great time visiting the Nifty Nance.
The next day did not help us out weather wise. We sat around watching the gray skies and episodic rain. Once in the afternoon it broke for a bit and I went out but we saw little and the rain never stopped howling. We kicked into Plan B based on the weather report and decided to set things up to head home a day early.
That night we reciprocated with Bruce and Nancy and Bruce Jr as guests on the SB. I think we matched the excellence of the meal.
Next day, home; very frustrating trip regarding the weather but we had a great time.

Fishing Journal: Megantic June 2012

June 12, 2012- I went to Megantic as the guest of John Barrie who was on the FPC/ Salisbury trip to Israel along with Bob and Dick Crews. The flight up thru Phila. to Portland Maine was uneventful except that US Air lost my luggage. Usually this isn't too much of a problem but we were going to drive 200 miles to the Canadian border to reach the fishing camp.
When you come up just short of the border crossing at Coburn Gore Maine, there is a gate which is staffed part of the time by a man in a small log cabin with an outhouse. From there one drives in about 8 miles on a gravel road and then catches an outboard which the gate guy called ahead for. The boat takes you across Big Island Pond to the main camp.
We got there in time to get settled in our cabin (the whole place was very reminiscent of a boy scout camp) (2 beds in the living room and 2 in a separate bedroom with a nice new bath room). Obviously it didn't take me long to get settled. I used the camp phone to try US Air again and gave them directions on where to deliver my bag. Then to dinner and bed. The black flies were out but not too bad. No mosquitoes until July.
The camp was pretty lightly populated, perhaps 12 fishermen that first day. The way it works is that the member (John) talks to his guides and then signs up on a chalk board for which of the 10 or so club ponds for us to fish over our time there and on which days we want a cookout lunch. There are at maximum 3 fishing sessions per day- morning, afternoon and evening. The ideal situation is to be there for a brown or green drake hatch, which is when the dry fly fishing is absolutely the best (we saw some drakes but did not hit the hatch).
Our guides were Dell and Andy and both fit my image of a pretty crusty Maine fishing guide- good sense of humor, classic NE accent, full of good fishing stories, always helpful, and a pleasure to be with.
June 13- The weather was cloudy, windy and rainy and kind of cool. With borrowed gear (a jacket from Dell, rain pants from my W&L/UofR friend June Aprille, and a rod and reel from Bob and day old clothes) I went out into the black flies to try for some brook trout. It ended up being a slow day for me, mostly trying to get the hang of the weather and the fish, but I caught a couple of pretty nice ones- 12-14 inches. I also ended up with about as many black fly bites as fish. It was amazing how they found the vulnerable spots to take a chomp- a perfect circle of bites around both ankles where I only had socks for protection, couple around the wrist, one in the middle of my forehead, and one on the back of my neck. It was also very interesting how the bites would seem to rotate which one was itching the most at any given moment.
June 14- A much better day weather wise, perhaps 48 at night and then up to 70 in the day, with some wind but clear. This was definitely the best day of fishing and the evening session on Long Pond was about the best hour and a half of dry fly fishing I have ever had or could imagine. Total for the day was about 30.

June 15- Same weather as the previous day; we fished different ponds. It was a much slower day- 3 or 4 in the morning, 3 or 4 in the afternoon and 3 or 4 at night. The best part of the day for me was the rest period between the afternoon fishing and dinner when I stayed right at the dock to fish for about a half hour and caught between 10 and 14 brookies from 6 to 12 inches, depending on whether you count the ones that the strike pulled up onto the dock.
This was really a great fishing trip. It was nice to be roughing it a little in some new country and it was nice to be catching some quantities of fish after my recent slow spells at home.

Tchaikovsky and Trout

You can barely see it but this was my big trout from my superb 2 hours of fishing in mid week when I cut class to fish Buffalo with John Roberts. We caught about 8 or 9 rainbows , one on a black ant and the others on prince nymph. This one which was about 18 or 20 inches ripped off about 30 or 40 yards of line and headed straight down stream. It took a lot of luck and John lifting a big overhanging branch out of the way but we caught him.

Bozeman, June 2-3, 2012

Connie and I went to Bozeman to "help" Leesa move and to say goodbye to our base in Montana. On June 2, I went up to Hyalite Creek to see what I could find on my own. I had a brand new 3 weight packable rod to test out. I found a spot to pull off on the road up to the lake (I actually went all the way to the lake and saw some paddle boarders in bathing suits even though it was cloudy and in the low 50s) and started catching small rainbows when the lightning started cracking, so I came on back.

Fishing Journal posting for October 20, 2012, Mossy Creek Va.

I have been very frustrated with fishing here lately (perhaps the last 5 or 6 times). It has seemed like either the fish just weren't there or they didn't like my flies or I couldn't hook them on the rare occasions when they would be attracted to my flies.

This weekend we were invited to the Thalhimer's place at Wintergreen and since I was more than halfway to Mossy, I decided to give it a try. (3 weeks ago I had no luck at all.) It was a partially cloudy day, with the wind gusting at times to perhaps 15 mph, and the temperature in the low 50s. I parked at the culvert and went to the fast water right there with my 3 weight Scott rod from 1996 and a golden retriever streamer. Immediately I caught 2 12 inch browns. (I kind of think the Mossy Creek guys must have recently stocked.) Mossy started to feel a lot better to me.

I went down to the north end of my property next. I saw a couple of fish, caught one more on a black streamer. I switched over to a hare's ear nymph dropped off an indicator. Between the fallen tree and the fast water I foul hooked a rainbow but the most unbelievable thing was while playing him a HUGE brown trout came up twice and looked interested in eating the rainbow.

So I backed off and put on something large to go for him again, but decided to work my way back to that spot by backtracking. I used a crawfish. Along the way back I caught another brown with the crawfish and raised another couple. Then I switched to a bigger streamer, but no luck.

I went to a grasshopper and worked upstream on the north end of the property. Above the bridge I got the hopper snagged and then it was having a hard time floating. Right by one of my stumps I saw a small brown hanging out on the surface and cast a bare black nymph to him. He did not spook and after a couple of casts he bit. That was a good catch to go home on, so I headed back to the car.

Then I noticed that Wendell's boy was cutting my grass really close to the creek and I went over to thank him and say hello. After that I walked along the picnic table area and noticed a pair of browns cruising upstream right on the surface. Of course that area is thick with saplings and I got tangled a bit trying to get a fly in the water. I just dropped a nymph in and let it float back toward the pair. The big one swam right up to it and sucked it in. It was an even better way to end the day.

7 trout, a couple of pfal fish, which I have to admit I like catching because of the enthusiastic strike, and my faith in Mossy restored. A good day.

Fishing Journal 2013

West Andros May 2013- Fishing Journal

May 16 (Thursday)- Ric to San Andros, San Andros to Williams Island via the Otter flown by Charles from Flamingo Cay. Connie and FDG Jr. Fished half day with Benry- turtles all day, many small permit, caught 7 bonefish; FDG caught 12 with Dennis; Hank and Gretchen Manly from the Escapade along with Captain Tony and Bahamian guide Shawn joined us for dinner. Shawn was taught to fly cast by Ted Williams and says that the only time here not to use a "Gotcha" fly is when you don't have one (his dad named the fly).

May 17 (Friday)- Fished with Dennis. Great morning- 21 bonefish by noon. Slower afternoon but we took the paddle board into the big creek on the northwest side and caught 3. It was complicated holding the board in place with wind and tide while spotting and then casting to the fish. Total today 28 for me. 25 for FDG with Benry. Bad horse flies (also known as doctor flies- they make house calls and give shots). Broke a piece off the proximal ferrule of my Orvis Helios.

May 18 (Saturday)- Fished with Benry in the new Chittum skiff with the cage. Stayed around Williams Island. Caught 20 bonefish, many just following Benry's directions. At the end of the day we went over to Billy Island to look for tarpon, saw none, picked up the bonefish rod, and then saw 7 nice tarpon just swimming on the surface a couple of hundred yards off shore. They aggressively charged the fly. On the third or so cast one sucked in the yellow frog fly, I hooked him, and he gave us a long fight with 5 or 6 good jumps. He was about 35 pounds. What a thrill! Dad added 9 bonefish.

May 19 (Sunday)- Fished with Dennis. Steady fish and good weather all morning. Then clouds, wind, and no visible fish. Saw an osprey and it was so quiet I could hear each beat of his wings. Missed a tarpon. Had a frisky porpoise tag along in the wake for a while. Saw a mystery fish- sea robin like but weirder. 18 bonefish total. Dad had 8 fishing with Benry. Broke another piece off the same Helios, and then broke the middle piece of a second Helios.

May 20 (Monday)- Fished with Benry. Slow start with many angler errors including catching the fly line on the reel knob for the first fish, then pulling the hook several times, and somehow getting inside a loop in the line. We also had some surprise shark drama. In the late morning we saw a permit behind a turtle so we paused to put a permit fly on. When we looked up the permit was gone but Benry spotted a big bone, which I hooked, and then as the line drew tight on the bonefish, two very big tarpon swam up to within a rod's length of the boat. I missed them but did catch the bonefish. Wind made the boat hard to handle, the fish were gathering into big muds to spawn and so things slowed as the day went on. Then we had a torrential downpour and went back the boat early. Total today 11 bones, Dad added 2.

Each day the weather pattern was pretty much the same- nice clear morning, then clouds building up over Andros in the afternoon. Fishing also better in the morning due to visibility and slacked off in the afternoon due to cloud cover, murky water from the wind and since it was getting closer to the full moon when they gather in the muds for spawning.

Total for this trip- WMG 84, FDG 46, so 130. Plus one tarpon.

Birds definitely identified- white crowned pigeon (new), red winged blackbird, osprey, white ibis, brown pelican, double crested cormorant, green heron (squawking a lot in the mangroves), Wilson's Plover (new), immature little blue heron, and least tern.

Fishing Journal: Arcularius June 2013

Thursday June 6- California trip to pick up Ravenna and bring back for Camp Granma and to meet the cousins.

Connie and I flew on a 6 AM flight to Houston and then split up with her going on to San Fran and Jill's house in San Rafael and me going on to Reno and then to the Arc for a couple of days of fishing.

While en route John forwarded me pictures of bears on the property and then Scott told me about the lion tracks.

I got to the Arc about 4 pm. It was somewhat cloudy, but the stream was flowing less than I thought it would be. Although about 100 in Reno, it was 75 degrees in the evening with a gusty 15 mph wind. I fished from 5 till 6:30 and caught 16 including one Size Matters Club rainbow, 4 to 6 throwaways, and the rest between 9 and 12 inches. One was one of those beautiful golden rainbows. All fishing with the Tenkara rod and either nymphs or a wet fly. Area- up and down from the picnic tables.

Friday June 7- today I started about 8:30 with no wind and the temperature about 60. In the morning I fished from the entry bridge up thru Alpers mostly on the newly created piece. I caught about 30, I lost count, mostly the snits, but several pretty nice ones. I was using nymphs, including a silvery one which will go to the Hall of Fame and a green flashy wet fly with the Tenkara rod.

In the afternoon it got hot, started to cloud up. I fished back at Alpers briefly and then around where the canoes put in. In the canoe area I used one of Dick's Sporting Goods Joe's flies- the bumblebee one, slightly modified, for some of the time, and the Tenkara. I caught about 10 more including definitely one and possibly two club size fish, one brown and one rainbow. The fly from Dick's helps you find every fish in the river but they strike a lot and don't get hooked.

Saturday June 8- weather is pretty much the same. I fished around the Lodge building in the early morning, caught about 8 or so, including one club size fish on the hidden bend downstream from the bridge near the Lodge, then I went down to the culvert and caught a couple more. I managed to have a very nice one on with an Adams out of the pool near the culvert when Richie drove up. It was difficult finding a fly that consistently produced bites . I had a rough time the rest of the morning as Richie joined me and we fished down near Greta's sweat lodges. After a break for lunch, the afternoon was even more difficult. During the after dinner session things got cloudy but also better with about 11 fish including the snits. All in all perhaps 50 for the day. Last session was all dry fly- Adams. I missed at least two more club fish.

Added two new species of birds today- a golden eagle (well maybe not, maybe a red tailed hawk?)and a yellow throated blackbird, plus an as yet unidentified flycatcher type, a dove, a quail. Regulars seen so far- great blue heron, red winged blackbird, bald eagle, sage grouse, bronze cowbird, Brewer's blackbird, cliff swallows, kingfisher. Mallards and another kind of duck (black?). No magpies yet.

Up at Alpers there was a little bird drama- I was fishing in the pool below the main bridge when I saw this female red winged blackbird diving into the reeds at the water's edge. I looked closer and there was a snake going into the reeds too, so I guess she was protecting her nest.

Sunday June 9- 50 degrees at 5 am, probably going to 89 or 90. The big deal today was catching two of those giant rainbows in the pond on an Adams dry fly. After that I went up to Alpers- it was easily a 50 fish morning, almost all on an emerging case Caddis, which will be retired to the Hall of Fame. Lots of enthusiastic but little fish. In the afternoon I switched to a parachute Adams, fishing on the lower part of the ranch in the big meadow. The fish were just as energetic but about 3 or 4 inches bigger on average. Many more browns than at the upper end. The wind was steady at maybe 15 mph and heavy cloud cover later made everything take a break. 21 was a reliable count for me for the afternoon.

All in all, this was a great fishing trip. I have never sent 2 flies to the Hall of Fame in one trip.

Addendum: email from Richie after the trip-

Billy--thanks for the invite, great to catch up on things and see you again. Dreadful about Phil.

I was going to leave when I got up today, but decided to fish the AM and then leave for home @ lunchtime. I walked over to the bridge in back of our cabin and tossed in an ec cadis and caught 2 nice fish. Then, I went up to the Alpers to the new water and caught a bunch of fish, some pretty nice, including a 14" 'bow just below the new bridge they put in last March. Drove back to the lodge and to the bridge by the front of the ranch, walked to the beginning of the Arc and fished there and a bit of the lower Alpers. Caught a lot of nice fish and of course, some small ones. I waded across the stream to try it from the road side for a change. By this time I had caught about 30 fish. I tossed in that pool right by the bridge a few times, and then hooked up a really big fish that I fought for about 10-15 minutes, finally landing an 18" rainbow. A real fighter--the fish I caught by John's was a little bigger but nowhere near the fight. By then it was time to go, so I went back, threw my stuff in the bag, and headed out. I stopped by the lodge to say goodbye to Scott, he says "sit down, have a burger!" He's in there cooking fresh burgers with the gang there, including John Arcularius. Gena came in about that time too, so of course I had a burger and then headed out about 12:30. Can you think of a better morning? Got home without incident, listening to the Nelson DeMille book.

Fishing Journal-

Montana with High Plains Drifter- July 13-20, 2013

Richard Burroughs invited me to join him, his sons, Chamey and Charlie, and son in law Hal Yuill to fish in Montana at the High Plains Drifter camp on the Stillwater River near Columbus Montana. Richard had previously told me about Mike Hillygus, the outfitter, and this camp a couple of years ago when I was looking for a place for the California guys to go out in Montana. Connie and I visited it early in the season a couple of years ago so I vaguely knew where it was. Richard goes to Montana to fish each summer and has been fishing with Mike for several years, including float/camping along the Smith River and the Missouri. I also found out Rhett Starke had fished with Mike up around Missoula about 8 years ago.

There was room for Gordon and also it worked out schedule wise for Gordon due to a job in Jackson and a wedding in Bozeman.

Background on the camp area- The Stillwater camp is located about 8 miles from Absarokee MT which is near Columbus, in the direction of Billings east from Bozeman. The Stillwater River runs out of the Bear Tooth range of mountains which is pretty high so the water keeps a good flow and stays cold. It runs into the Yellowstone at Columbus. From the camp one can fish the Big Horn, the Stillwater, the Boulder, and the Yellowstone. The Big Horn is 2 hours away but the others are easily accessible. The fishing has a chance of catching rainbows, brown trout, whitefish and maybe carp, but the 2 trout are the key. Fishing type includes dry, nymph, and streamer. The dry flies we used were mostly variants on the Chernobyl ant which mimics a stone fly and the Squalla which imitates everything. It was too early for hoppers and we did not use Caddis flies except when fishing 2 dry flies at the same time. All fishing was by hard skiff or float raft. The weather was 90s during the day and 50s during the night with some cloud cover on a couple of days. The wind whipped up at night but Mike said even though it was rattling the straps on my tent this wind was mild compared to winter. The sky at night was like at the Arc- Milky Way and a zillion stars. The days typically wrapped up fishing about 5-6:30, then the drive back to camp, and then late dinner (9ish) followed by bed. Coffee at 6 am or so. For better or worse phone and Internet service via wifi came and went. The other guys took cell phones with them and got better reception while we were fishing nearer town or the highway.

The view inside my tent and looking out from my tent:

Friday, July 12- The plan was for me to go Bozeman on the 12th and fish a couple of creeks before going to the Stillwater camp on the 13th. I got to the airport but the flight was running so late I could not make my connection and anything else would have had me flying around the country all day so I decided to reboot and try again the next day.

Saturday, July 13- This time it all worked like it was supposed to work. I checked in with Gordon and family and with Mike from the airport. After lunch and the obligatory fly shop stop (license etc), I met Gordon, Leesa, and kids at the Gallatin Mall for a quick walk thru a mini RV show that was going on. The kids were ready to buy every one of the RVs. The vendor from Missoula claimed it was going to sell 400 RVs in 40 days or something like that. Prices ranged from $12000 to $240000.

After visiting with them I took off for Stillwater camp, about 130 miles in the direction of Billings (ie east). I met the other guys and got settled into my tent right on the water with a view across the stream to an open field with a dilapidated pickup and some old tractors. Sleeping was going to be very easy and very deep with the sound of the water in the background, the cool temperatures and the open air thru the tent.

Sunday, July 14- the routine at this camp is a little different from most fishing trips in that the start is more relaxed and letter than usual. The fish need time to wake up and warm up, according to Mike, the high plains drifter. After a great breakfast (all the meals this trip have been exceptionally good- Mike is a grad of cooking school in addition to being a guide), four guides, four boats and four anglers rode upstream on the Stillwater to the Moraine landing to start our float. Mike was my guide the first day ( four anglers because Gordon did not arrive until Monday morning). The water was fast (class 2-3 rapids and a lot of rock dodging) and I had to get used to this fishing. I used my Tenkara rod while getting adjusted and that was a mistake. Then I switched over to my 3 weight. However I learned from the others that everyone had a so so day. I caught about 8 fish, with the largest being perhaps 14 inches. The run of the mill fish was about 12 inches.

In addition to the fishing the highlight of this day was finding a Rueger 38 semi automatic pistol on the shore. We later found out some not so smart guy put it on the rocks to dry. Mike plans to give it to the game warden and let him educate the guy on why it is not a good idea to leave guns lying around.

Today we stopped floating right at the camp and here's who met me along with a chick or two.

Monday, July 15- on this day we fished the lower section of the Stillwater and ended up on the Yellowstone. Gordon and I fished with Nate, a Wash U grad and artist when he isn't guiding. We both had great days, probably 20 plus fish each, with a true mix of rainbows and browns. The Yellowstone was a lot slower fishing wise and flow wise than the Stillwater and I only caught one there but it was on the Tenkara while all the others had been on the 3 weight.

Other than catching a ton of fish, this float involves the Bear Tooth Drop which is a pretty fast section for perhaps 1000 yards with big rocks and one 4 foot fall.

At one point I hung my fly in a tree and jerked to get it loose. I got my fly back and someone else's fly hung in the same place.

Tuesday, July 16- It was overcast and cooler (jackets and waders for warmth). We woke up early and went to the famous Big Horn River, actually pretty near the Custer battlefield. The water was 47 degrees since it is a tail water coming out of a dam. The fishing was odd and uncomfortable for me, involving a plastic bobber, then 2 nymphs about 6 feet down. The river had a lot of moss and we spent a lot of time getting that off the hooks. I fished with Richard in the morning and Ron as guide and then by myself with Nate in the afternoon. There were a lot of pickups stacked up at the launch but not too bad although Mike says at some times the wait at the launch can be 2 hours.

Gordon caught 3 fish in a row right out of the launch site. Richard and I struggled all morning, me more than him. I had only one fish all day. I think the others have more the hang of that kind of fishing and did much better.

The scenic Big Horn bank:

Wednesday, July 17- back to the lower Stillwater and a mile or so of the Yellowstone. This was my day. Gordon and I fished with Nate in the morning. I set a plan of catching 20 fish by fly rod and then switching over to the Tenkara. Nate wisely recommended that I change my rod to use of the 5 weight. Later he pointed out that he thinks my 5 weight is under lined (maybe by mistake I have 4 weight on that reel). At lunch we switched guides and I fished solo with Matt. Matt and I decided to go with the Tenkara even though I was a couple of fish shy of 20. We used dry fly, then nymph, and then streamer with the Tenkara and had a blast. We invented the Tenkara Trifecta which is catching fish by 3 methods and then 3 kinds of fish- brown, rainbow and whitefish. Probably the biggest was 16 inches. I ended with more than 30 fish total. Matt plans to put that he is now Tenkara qualified on his résumé .

Thursday, July 18- Gordon and I floated a section of the Yellowstone starting at Reed Point with Nate. The Yellowstone is big and wide, kind of like the Big Horn was. I fished dry fly on the 5 weight most of the day but sometimes using a nymph with it or using 2 dry flies. It was a fantastic day, 20 plus fish for me. Gordon stuck with the streamer all day going for the big fish and, for once, I think I may have caught more fish than he did, but it was close.

Friday, July 19- Back to the Stillwater and Yellowstone (but we were forewarned that a cliff fell into the Yellowstone way up in Gardiner and the river was expected to be chalky and not fish able. Gordon, me, and Nate. I used the Tenkara all day with all kinds of combinations of flies. We lost much of Nate's tackle today- lots of broken off flies. Gordon also broke his Thomas and Thomas rod. 23 fish for me and about the same or a couple more for Gordon. High point excitement wise for the day was when I caught a rainbow on the dry fly and had him in the boat but the he flipped out, pulling the nymph dropper into my finger further than the barb. Luckily that broke the nymph off so I kept the fish and fighting while I was cursing about my hurting finger. Today the fish just quit biting about 2 or 3 pm. The Yellowstone was chalky due to the landslide.

The three Desperados- Richard, Mike and me under cover at lunch:

For the whole trip, my biggest may have been 16 inches, Gordon's 19 and 1/2, and Hal had the biggest at about 20 inches.

Saturday, Back to Bzn for the return home. I ran into Teddy and AP in the airport on the way to Ruby.

All in all a truly memorable fishing trip. The group seemed to get along well. The evenings with the group, Mike, and Nate at dinner had plenty of laughs, misadventure stories, and tall tales.

Best T shirt of the trip said- paddle harder, I hear banjos.

Birds seen this trip- Western Meadowlark, wild Turkey (right at the landing the first day), Bullock's Oriole, Peregrine falcon, Bald Eagle, Brewer's Blackbird, Black-billed Magpie, Northern Red-shafted Flicka, American Goldfinch, Barn Swallow, Cliff Swallow, White throated swift (road), Northern rough winged swallow (river), Belted Kingfisher (in dead tree right across from my tent), Kildeer, Red winged blackbird, Common Merganser, and by sound- Sandhill Crane and Pheasant. Did not count Great Blue Heron and Mourning Dove.

November 1-3, 2013 Buffalo Creek near Lexington, Va.

Connie and I attended an Alumni College class on campus on David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars. It was part of the ongoing Law and Literature series- we have missed the prior 21 books.
It was a perfect fall weekend in Lexington. We stayed at Brushy Hill and the leaves were nearly at peak. It was in the low 60s with occasional gusts of some wind that reminded us that winter is coming.
After the class Connie went off to find her favorite knitting shop up the Valley near Brownsburg and I went trout fishing on Buffalo with John Roberts, my guide and friend in Lexington for the past few years. (What a great discovery John and Buffalo have been- I am grateful to June Aprille for introducing me and I only wished I had found John about 10-15 years ago.)
Buffalo was very clear and low. The fish did not suffer the stress from heat and low water this summer because we had about a year's worth of rain in June and July. However there hasn't been any rain for a few weeks so the water was clear and low.
I really wanted to try my Tenkara rod on the Buffalo rainbows. We had a few disorganized moments as we got started- the wrong leader, knot tying problems, a little problem moving the 12 foot rod to the stream and then dodging the overhanging limbs.
On the first cast I hooked a lively (actually all the fish in this stream are very lively) one and John looked at me and said "now what" since there was no leverage and no room to manoever around. I tried to catch the leader and bring him in that way but he was too strong and broke off. We went through a few flies (nymphs) but I did catch another one on the Tenkara and then we decided to go back to rod and reel.
The trout looked like they were aggressively chasing minnows but at times eating ants coming off leaves floating on the surface. We were catching them with nymphs, foam ants and the last one using a woolly bugger.
In about 2 and a half hours I caught 17 fish ranging from about 14 inches to 22 inches. Most of them were hardy jumpers, one in particular jumped about 6 times in different directions. The big one was particularly fun but the best of all was one where John asked me to drop the fly about five feet behind me up a small waterfall. I did and there he was- he swam down the waterfall and then back up it.
One last comment- the fish today reflected the season. We caught silvery ones withe characteristic pink stripe, some with pink cheeks, some that were more golden in color, all fat, healthy fish with a lot of zest.

Rose River- December 6

The Rose River is a small stream flowing out of Shenandoah Park northwest about 2 hours from Richmond. I lucked into an invitation to fish a private section of it owned by Stony Brook Farm. This piece of water is just upstream from a fish for fee place called Rose River Farm. To further locate where I was, this is very near Criglersville and Syria, Va.

I had planned to fish here over Thanksgiving but it turned out to be too cold (for me anyway). Then this week there was a break in the weather and the 6th was cloudy on and off , episodic winds, and temperatures in the 60s.

The section of "river" was about 20-25 feet wide in most places, with shallow riffles and then two or three deep holes. The total length to fish was maybe 1/3 mile, but most of the fishing I did was concentrated in two rather large pools separated by about 100 yards of rifles and flat shallow water.

I got to the river about 8:30 am and my host showed me the ropes and then he went off to work. I parked and got set up. My first discovery was that I had left the four leaders I planned to bring and the tippet in my fishing closet. Oops. So I went into McGyver mode to try to figure how to salvage the day- the nearest fishing store was probably an hour or so away across the mountain in Harrisonburg.

I started off with my Tenkara rod and I had a little piece of a butt section of about 0x monofilament that I tied a large nymph to. The 12 foot Tenkara rod was very hard to work thru the underbrush to get to the stream, but on the first cast I caught a brook trout. I thought this is going to be a piece of cake. Pretty quickly I caught a 12 inch rainbow and was feeling pretty good even without any leader.

However after that it got rougher. When I needed to change flies the butt section was too thick to fit thru any eyelet on my flies.

At this point I happened to have gone down to the end of the property near the fee fishing neighbor and there was another fisherman. I asked him if he had a spare leader and he did so I was in one leader's worth of luck.

I decided to cut the leader in half just in case of a big snag and a broken leader but kept on with the unwieldy Tenkara. My next adventure involved a big snag, as predicted, with my fly hung on a back cast in a sapling overhanging the river. As I bent the sapling over to unravel the loops in the tree, I managed to hook myself in my right middle finger. This was a big problem because I couldn't get enough slack to remove the hook, I couldn't reach the hook and my right hand with my left hand, and every move I made involving the sapling would drive the hook a little deeper. I was wondering if I would have stay suspended like this all day until someone came by.

Eventually I cut the leader further away from the hook and managed to ease off on the tension to get the hook out of my finger (love fishing barbless).

The cut leader left me with much less to work with and getting the Tenkara around the saplings and sticker bushes led me to changing rods. I decided to go with my 6 1/2 foot Abercrombie and Fitch fiberglass rod and my featherweight Hardy reel both purchased in the late 1960s.

Once I was back in action with them I quickly caught another 3 or 4 fish, one nice rainbow, one another brookie.

I kept recycling between the two pools. For a moment the sun came out and while at the lower end of the lower pool I noticed that a couple of fish were feeding on the surface. I reached in my Altoids can labeled Rapidan and Small Park streams and rigged up one of those size 22 Harry's specials or something like that and immediately caught two beautiful rainbows with the dry fly.

The day was getting on so I tried one last time at the large upper pool and caught my best fish of the day, a 17 inch rainbow on a black woolly bugger and headed home.

A very good day, and I am hungry to come back in the spring when there should be more dry fly action.

Fishing Journal 2014

Fishing Journal March 2, 2014

I have had enough of this winter. There hasn't been an available date with decent temperatures to get in any fishing for months. After thinking about tax documents all day Saturday, I got away to Mossy Creek on Sunday. The temperature started off in the 30s but was expected to rise to the 60s ahead of a bad winter storm which I can observe out my window as I write this.
The Creek was fairly low but not running clear. It was hard to see my golden retriever streamer until it was in about a foot from coming out of the water. The temperature did get into the 60s with wind and cloud building as the day went on. There were streaks of light rain as I was leaving.
The property looked great- the brush was cut back or dead along the edges. It has also been trimmed by the Mossy Creek guys. Everything was dormant- no real signs of spring. I think I saw one bug flying the whole time I was there.
The advice from Wayne at the fly fishing store was to use streamers and nymphs. So I started at the upstream end with a golden retriever. No luck at the far end but when I got to the picnic table area and could hide behind a fir tree I hooked a 14 inch brown. Right after that behind some other cover I caught an even bigger rainbow. Both fish were very healthy and strong.
I crossed the log bridge and worked my way downstream on the back facing Wendell's corn field. As I got close to the culvert I caught an 8 inch brown. I don't know if this was a baby that slipped into the stocking batch or if the browns are reproducing.
At the culvert I saw what might have been a couple of flashes but no strikes. The barbed wire was lower than usual and I sent a note to the Mossy Creek guys to tighten it if they can. I then walked all the way down to the border with Stump's property to try that concrete bunker area. No luck, which was somewhat disappointing.
Having gone thru a lot of golden retrievers and other streamers by hanging them up on trees, guide wires and other things, I switched to a prince nymph. As soon as the prince hit the water at that small bump out in the bank, I had another 16 inch or so rainbow on. I released him and put the prince right back to work in roughly the same place and got another 14 inch rainbow.
No other luck working my way up the side the rest of the way, but nonetheless 5 fish is a very good day at Mossy, especially in winter.

Sarah Beth in the Abacos March 24-28 with John and Deborah

Sarah Beth trip March 24-28, 2014 with John and Deborah

We had a short snow shower on Sunday March 23 and more snow was expected for later on Monday the 24th. However luckily for us, we were off to Treasure Cay for a few days on the Sarah Beth- a much needed escape from a dreadful winter in Virginia.

Dennis met us with a new taxi driver Vreeland at the airport. Sadly our usual driver, for over 15 years, Ruth, passed away a few months ago. Dennis noted that it was the usual weather for me coming to the Bahamas- cloudy and very windy.

After the skiff ride from the Cooperstown landing to the SB and getting settled, I went out for a little fishing while the others went for a little touring of the cays that form the alligator's head. Stiff wind, hard to find a lee shore, hard to see fish, harder to catch one. Total- 1.

Dinner was a salmon Caesar salad. Dessert- creme brulet.

Tuesday March 25- still at Cooperstown

For the morning John and Deborah went out to catch us dinner and brought in a load of hog snapper (which is really a kind of wrasse) and broke off a nice shark. Dennis and I went to the opposite side of the island near the anchorage and caught 2 bonefish.

Right as we got back to the boat for lunch, the heavens opened and it rained on and off most of the rest of the day.

Dinner was a salad made of crawfish and the wrasse beautifully presented. Dessert- Banana cream pie

Wednesday March 26- Brown Bar and the Marls

One would think that by now the weather would have warmed up and the skies cleared, but in fact it went the opposite direction with a cold front and more wind. The girls lounged on the boat while John and I tried the fishing. I waded a shoreline while John and Dennis tried for bones from the skiff. At the second place we tried, Dennis left me off to wade an area we call the trout stream and which is now marked by a huge but low osprey nest with a very watchful Momma osprey who did not really like my walking that area of the beach. John caught one. After lunch Dennis and I went back out to resume the struggle against the wind and caught one.

Turkey burgers from the grill for lunch and steak for dinner, after ceviche for appetizers.

Thursday March 27- Brown Bar

Weather- more of the same. I added one more bonefish. We then went back to Cooperstown in the afternoon.

Dinner- lamb with homemade sauce. Dessert- Molten chocolate lava cake (to which I added peanut butter and vanilla ice cream, and Drew didn't seem to mind). For breakfast John and Deborah had a huevos rancheros variant with ceviche juice on the side- a Latin American cure for hangover although not applicable.

Friday March 28- Cooperstown

We had a late departure because John was coming in after a meeting but then he decided to watch UVA play Friday night.

Dennis and I went out and caught 6. The best two were by wading near a cove on the ocean side near another osprey nest. The very best one was pretty big, in near the shore and after I hooked him, he broke for open water. Then he went back into the looped over mangroves. I had to feed the whole rod thru three different mangrove root loops but I got him.

Then it was time to come back to the boat for lunch, packing up and the wet skiff ride to the landing, Vreeland's cab ride and the flight home.

A really great trip, especially being with John and Deborah, in spite of the paucity of fish. The crew was super and Drew was definitely at the top of his game chef wise.

Fishing Journal- 3 in 1

April 2014

April 3- I had a shad date with Captain Mike Ostrander but Mike and I agreed recent rain had colored the water too much to make it fishable for shad. So we decided to try something new for him and for me- to fish a tidal creek down the James about midway between Richmond and Williamsburg. Its name will be not be revealed but it is publicly accessible- you just need to slip a few dollars into the outside grill of the homeowner of the launch spot (luckily no big mean dogs there).

It was a beautiful spring day. We did not know exactly where to fish but we had a couple of hints. One could really tell it was tidal, but much clearer than the James, just tannin.

We found a couple of different places where there was a drop off. We never did find any shad running upstream to spawn but we caught crappie, bluegill, lots and lots of yellow perch (my first ones), and some white perch. We were using a white plastic grub on a small lead head. As we were about to go we found a spot where something was chasing minnows right up the the shore of the creek. I managed to catch two very nice largemouth there.

As I write this, I realize now that on this day I caught the Springtime Virginia Minor Trifecta- crappie, bass and, bream.

April 14- Another shad fishing day with Captain Mike, and Gordon. The river was also high (7 feet at the Westhampton gauge) and murky. The run was in full swing and we anchored down a little from the I-95 bridge as our first stop. The fishing was on and off. It seemed like every time Mike would say ok we'll give it another 2 minutes and then move, one of us would catch something. Gordon had the hot hand on shad with the spinning rod and then with the fly rod.
The picture shows a very ambitious fish of unknown species. If you look closely you can see that his eyes were truly bigger than his stomach.

You can really tell shad are salt water fish at heart from the jumping, the fight, the bend of the rod.
I had the hot hand on white perch, mostly about 5 inches in length. However I did catch one rockfish at this spot and then another rockfish at the second spot.

Our second spot was on the north side of Mayo's Island near the out fall and near the kayak put in. Again Gordon had the shad retrieve going and I was zoned in on the white perch.

Added bonuses- a couple of bald eagles and several ospreys. A good day, and I hope Gordon is now hooked on shad fishing.

April 21- Between Gordon's trip and this one there was another pretty good rain so I was worried about the water level and clarity. On the 20th I went down to the 14th St. Bridge to ask the shore fishermen what was happening. The first guy I saw had the prime spot west of the bridge and he told me he had caught 30 as he was pulling one more in. I came back to him an hour later and saw him catch another one. However a little further down the flood walk I asked another guy and he said he had caught 4 and none of the guys on shore or boats seemed to be having any luck. The best part of this little exploratory mission was watching a bald eagle chase an osprey and make it drop the fish in its talons and then watching the eagle swoop down to pick up the lost fish- all within sight of the twin towers downtown.
So the trip on the 21st was in doubt for me.
Then I talked to Mike who had also spoken to a shore fisherman who also caught 30 (we tried to figure out if it was the same guy but I don't think it was.

I called Jay Wetsel up in Winchester to say the trip is on.

Clear, 43 degrees, a little wind at the start but rapidly warming. River level still about 7 feet and murky- I could see the lure when within 18 inches of the surface. Fish rising to the surface all over.

This time there were a lot fewer boats and we got into a deep spot about 75 feet off the south shore a little down from the outfall and from the railroad bridge. We were casting toward the rip rap bank.
This trip we both started off catching shad on the spinning rod. Jay had the hotter hand and was catching maybe 3 or 4 to each one of mine. During one of the lulls Mike put out a catfish line with a white perch head on it. In a little while we had something on that line and Jay pulled in a 25 inch or so rockfish- within sight of the Hunton Williams offices where his son in law works.

Later Jay and I switched places on the pontoon boat. I caught a shad or two and decided to try the fly rod, not expecting much. However it turned out we should have been using the fly rod all along. I caught 3 shad on my first 4 casts and it just kept going like that.

Being out on a boat for two days of shad fishing and watching the action makes me really want to send a GoPro down during a clear water day during shad season. Judging from the way we would catch a bunch and then they would pause makes me think the fish must stack up in certain deep areas very thickly (in fact so thickly, I wonder if the ones we see breaking the surface aren't forced out of position by the crowding) waiting to make a break upstream. Then the holding slot must be empty for a while until a new batch comes to fill it. Even more incredible to think about is that there is definite overlap between the white perch migration to spawn, the herring spawn, and the rockfish spawn. At times it must get really crowded down there.

Anyway, a great 3 days of fishing.

West side of Andros- May 2014

West Andros- Beth, Connie, Dad and me

Wednesday, May 7- Dad and Dennis- 11 bones; Beth and me in the morning with Benry-6 bones plus 1 for Beth, reddish egret, barn swallow; 1 more in the afternoon inside the lagoon on Williams Island.

Weather- clear and in the high 70s, wind about 15-20 mph. Regarding lines, I thought everything that could go wrong did, but...I missed a lot of fish because we could not slow the boat down in the wind, and I could not get the line tight enough to set the hook. Almost every fish was caught on a trout strike, which is verboten.

Thursday, May 8- Dad and Dennis- 7, including one on the first cast; Beth and me with Benry in the morning. Quite a wild morning- shark thrashing after one fish which managed to escape, fish caught in spite of knot in the fly line, and in spite of throwing off the end section of the rod, Beth almost stepping on a toadfish; Beth tried some casts with a fly rod and hooked one. Beth caught two on the fly rod after I hooked them. Caught about 6, lost 4 or 5.

Least terns.

Weather same as previous day but the water was murkier due to wind direction and due to bonefish spawning.

Added 5 more in the afternoon including one in the mangroves and also a big barracuda on the spinning rod.

Friday, May 9- wind unrelenting and a few clouds showing up. Dad and Beth went together back in the lagoon to the blue hole. Beth caught 2 on the fly rod (!!) and one more on the spinning rod. Benry and I caught 12 in the morning, then I caught a permit (!!) right front of Dad and Beth, and then I caught 3 more. The afternoons have been terribly slow. Two or three of my bonefish today very purposely rubbed their mouth in the marl to try to get the hook out and they were successful.

For appetizer we had mackerel spread on crackers using a mackerel Beth caught from the SB.

Saturday, May 10- Same wind, a few more clouds. Dad fished with Benry all day. It was slow for them and Dad said Benry kept postponing lunch until they caught a few. Total 7.

I fished with Dennis while Connie and Beth went with the crew to the wrecked plane for some snorkeling. They speared Lionfish and snapper which we had for dinner. No one was stung or poisoned.

The wind has been holding the Doctor flies back but Connie seems to attract them anyway and got a few big bites. I doubt she will come with me on this trip in the future or venture outside the SB if she does.

Dennis and I had 12 before lunch but only added 2 more. I lost two in the mangroves. I actually think we had 2 more in the morning. We ran past a tarpon and went back to look for him. He weighed about 50 pounds and was in the same general area where we had seen one on the previous days. I cast a yellow toad to him and stripped it to within about 15 feet of the skiff. I could see him open his huge mouth to suck in the fly and reacted too quickly pulling the fly out of his mouth. DG.

Home on May 11, Mother's Day. The sea plane ride was worth the trip- beautiful shades of blue, green, a zillion creeks and bays. Total about 75 bonefish. Good fishing and a great trip.

Fishing Journal- Escatawba Farms, Virginia

May 31, 2014- At the conclusion of our greater G family meeting, Gordon, Graham, and I went trout fishing at Escatawba- about 20 miles from the Greenbrier.

Weather was beautiful- mostly clear, high 70s, little wind. The water was a little more cloudy than usual, and we found out this was due to a focal thunderstorm sending a lot of water down the Dunlap Creek drainage before it goes into a cavern. The rush of water caused a collapse in the cavern which released a lot of particulate into the creek, the day before we got there.

We were running late, got there about 2:45. The cloudy water evidently hadn't messed up the fishing too much- we ran into a guy who came down from New Jersey and he had caught 20 by the time we saw him.

The three of us split up. I went to the top of the property and fished some riffles with modest depth, not any deep holes. I caught 2 river fish plus a redeye, a small mouth and some other mix which I didn't identify. The 2 trout were good, the first maybe 16 inches and a big fighter, and the second a little smaller. I then went to the ponds and caught a big boy there who didn't put up much of a fight and then another 16-18 inch fish which ran off a lot of line and knew how to use the sunken tree branches to advantage.

All in all, a short but good day.

Part Two- Fishing Journal Buffalo Creek, Friday June 6

There had been rain earlier in the week and John was a little worried about muddy water but it cleared as the day went on. John and I had our usual equipment problems as we got started- slipped knots, broken leaders, lost flies. I think I missed 20 fish, and, in a variant of Dennis' accusation that I missed the bonefish because of a "trout strike", John accused me of using a "bass strike". We tried 5 or 6 different spots on his stretch of the creek, including a couple of very deep holes, some ledges and some still water with success at every one. In sum, I probably caught 20 fish between 11 and 4 pm, all up from 14 inches, the biggest a good 22 inches, using nymphs and streamers.

I got a couple of bites on a dry fly but no catches. In addition I caught a few smallmouth bass, sunfish and a rock bass.

Key West- windless, hot and humid but lots of fun

Wednesday, June 18

It was an easy flight down. We met Tom Stribling on the plane in Atlanta- the connection was a little tight. He had two very talkative seat mates, one of whom was older (male) and one was younger and both very touchy freely and obviously very much in love. The man would need to be loaded to attract her (she sold million $ homes) but said he was with the FDA. Tom wasn't so sure. Beth and I had it very quiet comparatively.

Wednesday night Drew served us a great dinner of yellow tailed jack.

Thursday, June 19

Beth went out with Brad to an under water jetty which was like an aquarium full of fish, turtles, rays. She wanted to catch barracuda and saw plenty but none were biting. She got go pro photos of a pair of porpoises.

Meanwhile Tom and I went with Dennis and tried the tarpon fishing. There was no wind on this day and during this whole trip- totally unusual for when I come fishing. The first place we went was an area called seaplane flats and we did not see any tarpon but we saw several permit none of which were interested as usual. Then we went in a different direction out toward the Gulf Stream to a drop off and sandy flat. There we saw tarpon after tarpon, probably 30 or so in all, but none would even look at the fly . We then tried one more place but there was too much weed drifting through. We did succeed in losing the skiff's bright blue, new anchor.

Friday, June 20

We hired a wreck fishing guide and all three went with him and Brad out to the Gulf Stream to fish the Sargasso weed lines for dolphin. There we hit the jackpot and had a great time catching them on spinning and fly tackle. They were biting enthusiastically and doing a lot of jumping. Then Brian the guide took us to a reef to bottom fish for yellow tail snapper and grouper. Success there with the snapper and one black grouper. It was really hot out there on the water, calm as it was, so we came in early.

Beth wanted to walk to the southernmost point in the US and take a picture. There was a line, mostly families, Cuban and otherwise. We were behind a huge family of Filipinos taking pictures of all permutations of the family.

Brad and Brian cleaned the fish we caught and we had huge tarpon and a Goliath Grouper (formerly known as a Jewfish) under the boat while the cleaning was going on.

For dinner Drew fixed up the freshly caught grouper with snapper ceviche as appetizer.

Saturday, June 21

On Saturday we took a field trip to anchor out at the Dry Tortugas where Dr. Mudd, the doc who treated John Wilkes Booth after the assassination of Lincoln, was imprisoned. Fort Jefferson is the name of the actual fort which is of the same general mid 1800s style as Fort Sumter and Fort Wool in Hampton Roads. It took 16 million bricks to build. We walked around on the inside and saw the cannon placements (now I know what a bastion and a casemate are) etc. The exciting thing was that a boat of 24 Cubans had just made landfall and the Park Service officers were holding them in the fort. Their boat was a homemade job built basically of a huge tarpaulin stuffed with floating cushions and then attached to the bottom of a very old and rickety looking wooden skiff 20 some feet long. They had knocked out a hole in the bottom to sit an old auto engine for power. There was an assortment of life jackets including a child's swimming pool toy. We saw the Cubans in the back of the fort. The NPS gives each one a white paper suit of clothes to wear, a yoga mat to rest on, water, and Meals Ready to Eat from the service. Once it is established that no one is in danger, the Coast Guard comes and takes them to the Keys for further processing. The policy is that once a Cuban touches US soil (dry foot) he can claim political asylum. Once processed the US gives each one $10,000 to start a new life and wishes them well. I plan to send a picture of the boat to John and to Charlie because of the cross on the bow. The boat was full of water and if the weather had been anything they would have been really needing help from that cross.

After visiting the fort we went by skiff over to the next Dry Tortuga (Lighthouse Key) for Beth and Dennis to snorkel on a small coral reef called Little Africa. Tom and I watched from the shallow water. There were lots of species of fish we have owned back in the aquarium days. We met a young woman doing a lonely summer stint on the island as a turtle biologist (she must have been pretty brave or nervous or both when the Cubans landed there before being shipped over to the fort), and Dennis got in minor trouble for anchoring the skiff even though she said we did it in the best way possible.

As we were leaving we saw some tarpon and a cormorant swimming around the pilings of the small dock. Dennis then Beth and I went in to watch them and she got good pics of the bird, the billions of minnows and the numerous tarpon and snappers under the dock.

When we got back to the boat I went for a long paddle out to some flats which must be the birthplace of the Gulf's barracuda population- lots of them of all sizes. I also saw a sleeping nurse shark, a big loggerhead turtle and another huge nurse shark.

Dinner tonight was delicious conch fritters.

Sunday, June 22

The next day was back to Key West doing a slow troll hoping to find more dolphin, which we did. We caught them in large numbers with lots of acrobatics plus some bonitos. At one point Dennis stopped the boat because he saw a whale shark and everyone on board was ready to jump over and swim with him or her. Then we lost sight of him. Beth and I saw something large swimming off in the distance so they all kept gearing up to swim until we figured out it was a huge hammer head shark and then the enthusiasm for swimming quickly dampened.

Dinner was dolphin and disappointment as the US ended up in a tie with Portugal because of a last second goal by Portugal on an assist from Thomas Gregory's man, Ronaldo.

Monday, June 23

Home on Monday afternoon. The wind showed itself a little bit in the morning but still I don't recommend Key West in the summer- too much heat and humidity; I felt like taking a shower about every hour. Beth had fun with us geezers and finished the book about the defining decade. Tom had a great time, I really enjoyed seeing him in person after a few years.

New bird species- European collared dove and common ground dove in Key West proper; bridled tern/ sooty tern and black noddy in Dry Tortugas.

Mossy Creek and then The Arcularius

August 3, 2014- Mossy Creek- This was a cool day for August in Virginia with a little bit of cloud cover and not much wind. The fishing started with a bang and ended in a prolonged whimper. On my first cast at the northern end of my property I caught a 17 inch brown. I thought I was off to a good start. As it turned out, that was the last trout I saw all day. I did catch 6 pfal fish but that isn't much.

After the trip I found out my neighbor Wendell is possibly planning to put a chicken house on top of the hill to the east behind my property. I don't expect runoff due to the rules, it is supposed to be 400 feet back from the property line, and the engineer helping him with the plans is a trout fisherman so I am somewhat hopeful it won't be a problem. The one sticky point may be the odor from the chicken house. Usually the wind at Mossy is from the west to southwest which is the best direction. Fingers crossed.

August 9-15- The Arc- Connie and I flew out via a long layover in Dallas and then the 3 hour plus drive down from Reno. On the way to the Arc, we got a true taste of Sierra Nevada weather- we had sun and heat, clouds and rain, then sleet, then showers, then sun again. We got to the ranch in time for dinner but not in time for any fishing on Saturday. I was surprised by how many people were there besides us- Scott and Gina and Gina's niece Claire, the cook Fred who is retiring to Hawaii (building a house on the big island), Johnny, a couple of Addie's friends from Davidson, John, Meg, Addie, Sam and Emily, and then the Mathemagician from our family meeting at the Greenbrier along with his wife and two daughters. Later in the week Jill and family came and then Leesa and family and Beth came a day later.

August 10- I fished all day above the lodge on Arc property and caught a total of about 40 fish including the babies, all on Tenkara, including the first few on dry fly (adams) and then nymphs (copper john, prince, and pheasant tail). No group dinner (Fred's day off) so Connie and I went to town and had a great kale (??) salad at Nevado's.
August 11- Against advice from Sam and John I decided to try Alpers for fishing. After a slow start I ended up with about 25 before lunch and then fished from the picnic tables to where the tunnel stream comes in and added another 12 or so. All Tenkara, all nymph until the very end when I used a greenish streamer. Jill arrived. Group dinner of salmon with lamb as appetizer.
August 12- After a very short session from John's house to the culvert, I went down river where John and Sam said I was supposed to go to get Graham going and did ok- I think I caught 20 total. In the afternoon I got Connie to come out with me and she caught 2 and lost one very nice one. Dinner with Jill's family at Roberto's- way too much food and it had no appeal for lunch the next day.

August 13- I went back to Alpers for another dose. I have forgotten how many I caught but it was something like 18 for the day. This is the day Leesa and family with Beth arrived and it was also the night of the picnic with added guests from town including fishing guide Harry and his daughter.
August 14- Drive to Reno day but first Gordon and I helped Graham a bit and then I went to Alpers and then from the canoe area to the picnic tables. Added 25.
All in all a great week of fishing especially since it was all Tenkara and concluded with a total of about 5 club size fish. The week of fishing was made even better by JD and Meg's generosity in letting all my family come too. (Too bad Michael couldn't make it)

On the trail of the Atlantic Sturgeon

A short addition to the Fishing Journal- 9/20/2014

My Dad got me interested in work being done at VCU by Matt Balazik on Atlantic Sturgeon. I contacted Matt, helped him out a little, and basically pestered him to take me out one time when he is netting and tagging the sturgeon.
This day was a beautiful late summer day, clear, 70s- low 80s, with a nice 10 mph breeze. We left from VCU's Rice Center in King Charles County Va on the James and proceeded upstream just past Hopewell and right at the entrance to the Presqu'ile cutoff. That's where Matt set his nets. His cute wife came along to help him with the boat driving and the record keeping.
Late September is getting to the end of the season and the males are waiting around in low salt water for ovulating females. This year we haven't had any rain so the fish have pushed far up river and even been seen where I shad fish at 14th Street in Richmond.
Before setting the net Matt put his hydrophone in the water to listen to fish which had been tagged earlier. We could hear lots, some more clearly than others. When the numbers would show on the screen, I was amazed that Matt knew the numbers and tag history by heart. We did not find any of my tagged and named fish from the last couple of years.
We caught and tagged 3 in a short day and worked in a little outreach with folks who were visiting the nature preserve.

These males were about 5 feet 6-10 inches long. With these 3 Matt has tagged about 470 fish in all and about 75 or so this year. An excellent day.

Addendum- Dad named his sturgeon Annie Ruth. I named mine George McClellan because he got close to Richmond but never quite got there.

Fishing Journal October 2014

Mossy Creek October 10-

I had a weekend at home and it turned out to be cloudy and cool, ie the perfect day to try Mossy. The stream also happened to be pretty low and mostly clear. I started out at the upstream end with my Tenkara rod.

Up beyond the old skinny connection for Wendell's land to the creek, I saw an area that looked mossy close by but the seemed to be running deep on the far side. After clearing away a few potential snag sites on my side I made one cast and hooked up on a 20 + inch rainbow. He fought pretty well but then when I released him he just stayed in the water right where I let him go. I got snagged a few times and tried a few more casts but he stayed right there.

After fishing that section I went down below the road all the way to the end. There I caught a nice healthy 15 or 16 inch brown. Many snags, lost flies and near catastrophes with muskrat holes later, but still down from the road I caught one of this year's stocked fish- another kind of small brown. All 3 were on bobber with a nymph below. When I saw a couple of fish going for the bobber, I switched over to a crayfish and got a few strikes but no more catches.

First fish caught on Tenkara at Mossy and 3 fish for a couple of hours fishing = a good day at Mossy.

Buffalo Creek October 23

A beautiful fall day. Leaves changing, mid 50s- low 60s, wind maybe 15 + mph, water temp in the mid 50s too I guess- definitely glad to have waders, and not happy when I slipped and went in up to my elbows. John Roberts and I started fishing at about 1 pm. The very best fishing was under the sycamore tree that hangs out over the road side of the stream. I started off with a copper john on a bobber and a pheasant tail later. We probably caught 8 size matters club size fish in 15 minutes and then kept catching them with a foam ant.

A bit later we moved upstream and fished the fast water coming off the big gravel bar. Caught one club worthy fish there and a few of the rainbows stocked this spring.

Then we moved downstream to the double fall. In the deep water down from that there were a lot of fish feeding on something. The ideal target fish was a palomino or golden rainbow hybrid about 22 inches long. I couldn't get him but got another few of the recently stocked fish and a couple of more nice sized one.

We quit about 5 pm and I was asleep at 8. Grand total was probably 25 with 8- 10 little ones, 8-10 club size and the rest in between. Another in the string of fine days on Buffalo Creek.

Abacos October 27- November 1

For this trip I got shot down by Connie, then Leesa speaking for Gordon, then Rich Guess, Jay Wetsel, and Beth. Then Connie took pity and decided to come with me. 😄

Connie and I landed at Treasure Cay about 3 pm and got to the SB about 4. Dennis and I went out for about an hour and a half off the anchorage at Cooperstown. Fish were very scarce. We caught 1 and lost another in the mangrove roots.

The next morning we moved to Brown Bar. Sunny with occasional small clouds, high 70s, low 80s, wind 5-10 at first then closer to 15. The morning problem was that we forgot to move the tackle from the Cooperstown skiff to the Brown Bar skiff and we discovered it mid morning. The bonefish fly on my line was starting to unravel so we switched to the backup rod but I immediately broke that fly off on a fish or a mangrove, probably the latter. I somehow managed to get through the rest of the morning with the unraveling fly and then we went back to the boat for lunch and regrouping. The afternoon problem, in addition to the usual mangroves, trout strikes, poor casts, wind, and cloud, for this time of year is the low sun. Further we had a rising tide in the afternoon and most of the usual spots had too much water. Total fish count was 10 but the last one was at 3:10 and then it was poling and looking at the glare after that. A 10 fish day is a good day so no complaints.

The next morning we moved on to Chicken House. The day showed light winds, clear sky, hotter than the day before but only if one was out of the breeze. It was a great 10 fish morning with the usual mangrove snags and breaks and one fish needing about 20 casts before he bit. Back for lunch and out again into the rising tide and low sun. We added 4 more but they were hard work.

This is probably going to curse it but at this moment I have a fly on which has caught 10 fish and been thru a lot of mangroves. We'll see if it makes it to Hall of Fame status.

Birds so far- osprey, great blue and green herons, great egret, kingfisher, maybe a ruddy turnstone, and cormorants. Later I saw a reddish egret and a blue heron.

Dennis and I decided to stay at Chicken House over night since the fishing was so good. Yet when we went out the next morning, while the weather was about the same, and the tide was about the same, the fish were much more scarce. We caught 6 in the morning. Dennis said the fishing was actually better than evidenced by our count on Wednesday and worse than our count would indicate on Thursday.

Oh, yes, and I did lose the almost Hall of Fame fly on a fish that would have been number 16. Our last fish of the day was another rescue effort- he ran thru the roots of an upturned pine and then around mangrove roots.

A front came thru Thursday afternoon. We moved on back to the Cooperstown anchorage and tried fishing around there in the afternoon with no luck. Friday morning was the same thing although we found more fish, pulled the hook on one or two and caught one. I told Dennis he did a lot of poling for not much in the way of results.

Total this trip 32, mostly hard fought bonefish.

Fishing 2015

This update starts with April 6 and shad fishing on the James with Jay Wetsel and Mike Ostrander. The fishing wasn’t as good as last year when we went out but we each caught 10 or 15 shad. When things were really slow and we still had some time, we went downriver a little bit and caught some herring at the outflow of the sewage treatment plant.

Then it was my 45th reunion at W&L and a stay at the Georges. I also got an afternoon of trout fishing on Buffalo Creek in and caught between 10-12 rainbows and a small brown trout. I fought the biggest one I have ever caught there for about 30 minutes and got him to the net but I was too slow in telling my guide and friend John that he had spit the hook so we didn't quite land him. I can't forget to mention that the reunion weekend was also our 34th anniversary- I am a very lucky guy.

This was followed by a frustrating trip to Mossy where I moved about 10 fish, but was too inattentive to hook any of them.

On May 14 I had a meeting in Lexington and so I took advantage of it to try Buffalo again. It was a little frustrating in that the fish weren't biting as well as usual but I caught a few including two big ones. But I now know there are some extremely scary sized fish in that stream. We saw monsters coming out of the water to feed on things we weren't throwing.

West Andros 2015 official tally

Guides- Dennis and Shawn

Anglers- Floyd G, Stuart Lee, and Bill G

Weather- first afternoon and next two days very windy, 15 pretty steady, gusts maybe to 25. Then two almost perfect days.

Fish-

Tuesday afternoon- 3

Wednesday- 16

Thursday- 28

Friday- 43

Saturday- 30 plus Stuart’s tarpon

Sunday, 8 am- 9am- 18

Total- 138 plus the tarpon

New bird species for WMG:

White crowned pigeon

Bahamian Mockingbird

Better acquainted with-

Tricolor heron

Eastern Kingbird

Fishing Journal- Stillwater Ranch Lodge July 2015

Our group convened in Billings on the 13th and proceeded to the ranch in Mike's Silverado. The weather was clear and warm (70s). The river was very, very low- I think Mike said it was about 30% of normal for this time of year. The snow runoff was over but there wasn't that much snow. We all tried fishing around the camp that afternoon but no luck.

Our guides were Matt, Eric, and Ron- all great guys with much good humor, fishing knowledge, and great patience. The first day we fished from Jeffrey's landing to Fireman's on the Stillwater. It was a good day- I probably caught 10-15 fish, Rainbows, Browns and whitefish. It was very easy to lose count of the fish and I was getting reacquainted to casting with a bobber and double nymph rig. The gentle bug and either a worm or a hare's ear or prince seemed to work best with the lower nymph slaying the whitefish, which half the group agreed to call a trout related species and the others did not. Weather was warm again and clear.

The next day was the same weather except for a much needed thunderstorm at the end. We repeated the same stretch and then kept going 2 more miles into the Yellowstone. It was a much better day fishing for everyone; my count was probably 20 plus, but I was helped by a hot streak in the Yellowstone section while the other guys weren't catching them there. Go figure.

On the third day, all in the group except me went to the Big Horn and had a great day. Mike ran a bit of an experiment on me- I went off wading on some private part of the Stillwater way upriver, above the Platinum mine. Up there I succeeded in falling in totally at the beginning of the day (the third day in a row for this), and the water was 15 degrees colder than at the lodge. Hoping for a sunny day. I felt like I was in training to be a marine, with a stick in use to cross the river, crawling thru brush and along big rocks at the river's edge. But it was worth it. I had my best day with more than 25 fish. Torrential rain and a leaking radiator on the way back.

Then it was launching from the lodge floating down to Jeffrey's. Another good day, 15 or so fish. When I would cast behind the boat, my guide said "Bill, you're fishing in the past."
For the last day it was Jeffrey's to the Yellowstone again. Slow and steady catches, never boring. Total probably. 15 or so but I caught my best brown at the end of the Stillwater before going into the Yellowstone.

Our group was great. About 2/3 of the experience is the fishing and the rest is the ambience, food company, and staff at the ranch.

Mike, Chris and Kevin, Mike's son, took great care of us at camp, the sleeping in the tent by the river sound, the stars magnificent, food excellent. We met Mike's wife Pam who came in for a couple of days as did Jay, his other son.
17 bird species- magpie, bald eagle, cedar waxwings, eastern kingbird, horned owl, bobolink, violet green swallow, tree swallow, common yellowthroat, wild turkey, sand hill crane, yellow warbler, belted kingfisher, cowbird, osprey, ruffed grouse, and common merganser. Also robin, turkey vulture, red winged blackbird, and red tail hawk.
Gotta go back next year!

Fishing Journal 2016

SarABeth shake down cruise- Key West Feb. 2016

Guests- Jim and Nancy, B and C, Meg and Addie
Hosts- Floyd and Helga
Crew- Captain Dennis, Engineer Brad, Chef Christopher, Deckhands Ian and Josh, and Hostess Jody

We escaped the cold for a few days in Key West on the renamed SarABeth with Addie's name now included, and of course it warmed up in Richmond while we were gone.

The new SAB is extremely comfortable, so much so you don't want to leave. Plenty of places to eat, read, watch TV, just hang out. However, when we first got there, we did leave to make the obligatory trip to the southernmost point:

The second day we were there we all went on the Conch Train for a general orientation tour. Then Connie and Addie and I went to the Hemingway House.

This guy on the tour seemed oblivious to his look next to the EH portrait.

We also saw the 6 toed cats, all with female movie star names, and their little grave yard.

The last full day I got to catch the first fish on the new Helga G. We did the Key West thing of chumming near a couple of wrecks and caught a virtual smorgasbord of species- grouper, cobia, blue runner, triggerfish, bonito, barracuda, and kingfish.

The Helga G has wonderful gyros on it to stabilize the ride and the roll when fishing.

On Friday we came back to Richmond but the weather had warmed a lot. Great trip. The first time I can remember so many out together on the boat at once.

Mostly Fishing Journal- Shad fishing from Ancarrow's Landing with Jay Wetsel and Mike Ostrander, April 18, and Norfolk Forum April 19, 2016

6 AM is hard to do but we did it, and it turned out to be our best day yet. We each caught plenty of shad, all Hickories, maybe 25 plus each, and an almost equal number of white perch. Most were on the fly rod. It kind of dried up at about 10:30 and we switched spots and picked up a couple of American Shad each.

On Friday the 22nd, Jay and I went for our second trip this year. I didn't think it could get much better but it did!! This time we caught more hickorys, more white perch, added stripers and each caught a couple of American shad. Then as rain was approaching and we wanted to be near the landing, we stopped for herring and caught batches of them in singles, doubles, and triples. I had a white perch only day on the tenkara on Monday but today picked up 7 triples of herring in about 15 minutes. So 5 species, uncounted quantities- great day. And I think I know how to catch a shad on the tenkara for next year.

Fishing Journal- West Andros Island May 12-17 2016

The West Andros Island trip was special this year for several reasons- we were aboard the new SarABeth; we had Leesa and Gordon and John and Deborah Miller with us; and the weather was good. For this post I am going to let the photos tell most of the story, but

John caught several bonefish on the fly rod:

Leesa caught her first bonefish on the fly rod:

Gordon had a 33 bonefish day
I had a 22 bonefish day, and
I caught 3 bonefish back in the front lagoon off the paddle board:

We had five days of Drew's cooking:

We celebrated John's birthday in style:

And here is the rest of the story:

Fishing Journal- Stillwater River Lodge July 2016

I am typing this while I am in the Billings airport heading home. As you know the devices these days fill in words for you after you type a couple of letters. So I started this off typing "report…" and looked up to see my iPad had substituted "erotic on the Stillwater trip". Glad I caught that one- wouldn't want to give you the wrong impression. (It actually turned out that the electric plug in the Billings airport seemed to be sending intermittent electricity to the device and the device kept typing things by itself. Gremlins?)
This report is for those of you who couldn't make it and a scouting report for Richard Burroughs, who is on the way here in a couple of weeks.
The group this year was Gordon, me, Mike Contino, Gray Nesbit, and Gray's friend Jere (Jerry) from Memphis, who was in second grade with my W&L classmate Lee Moffatt.
Gordon, Mike, and I stayed in the 3 tents along the river while Gray and Jerry stayed in the cabin (Gray- "I am so over staying in tents").

Monday, July 18- This trip is already a success in that it has taken us out of contact with the news in general and with the Republican convention in particular.
This first day I fished solo with Mike H. and we went on his raft (he usually fishes his hard boat but fell in love with the rubber raft all over again) on the upper stretch of the Stillwater to see how navigable and fishable it is. The river apparently is very low and dropping this year. We found the upper river from Castle Rock to Cliff Swallow "bony" according to Mike. We got hung up only on one rock though and we caught plenty (15 plus), all on the Squalla bug dry fly. One was a West Yellowstone Cutthroat with the rest a mix of Browns and Rainbows, and a few whitefish to boot (a surprise to me that they were that high upstream).

As usual, it was great sleeping in the tent with the cooler evening temperatures and the rush of the stream, and great dinners and breakfasts- I could write a whole blog entry on the dinners (steak, salmon, lamb, shrimp; apple pie, berry pie, bananas foster) and the breakfasts (flaky biscuits and eggs, homemade granola). Mike and Kevin are great cooks and Costco a great provisioner. I put my Simvastatin thru the paces this week.

Tuesday, July 19- Gordon and I fished the lower section from Jeffries to Columbus with Ron while Gray and Jerry fished with Matt, and Mike went upriver. Ron loves the fluffy Chernobyl hopper as a dry and the gertie bug as the dropper. It was entertaining and we caught plenty of fish again (maybe a few more than Monday). At the end of the day it rained really hard so we did not fish the Yellowstone part of the section very intently.
The guides forgot the grill for lunch so we cooked the bratwurst over a fire on a forked stick.

Wednesday, July 20- This was the repeat of my fishing the very upper Stillwater with Mike Mullet, whose family owns the property about 9 miles further upriver from the Monday put in. Mike H refers to this as the Bataan Death March because you hike in and out thru pasture, scrub and streamside, and over barbed wire. Last year I fell in the very cold water right at the very first pool, but not this year thanks to the loan of a walking stick from Mike C.
Gordon came with me this year. At the first fishing spot we caught so many whitefish on dry and nymph that we lost count. It was great fun though Mike kept saying he did not want to be known as the “whitefish guide”. We then walked further up and split up. Gordon found a honey hole for trout and I picked up a few myself.

After lunch we went downriver a bit and split up again. While the fish were not as plentiful as the first stop with all the whitefish, the trout we were catching were all of better size.
Mike M., who reminds me a little of Wilford Brimley and has been guiding for years (i.e. he is about my age and remembers Bill Deal and the Rhondels from his youth in Hampton Va.), would leave me to go find Gordon tell me where to get off the river, and then just show up with Gordon ahead of me wherever I had moved to as if by magic.

Thursday, July 21- Mike C. and I fished together with Matt and the beat was an upriver stretch of the Yellowstone starting at Reed Point. It was extremely hot (98?) all day and slow fishing. The ones we caught though were bigger. I am starting to become the whitefish King.
The best thing about this day for me was actually at the launch site since there was a Lewis and Clark marker noting that Clark passed by that spot on his return trip 210 years ago this week. I enjoyed looking at the river and seeing what he must have seen.

Friday, July 22- back to the lower Stillwater into the Yellowstone section, with Mike C. and Ron as the guide. (Gordon must be the one who brings out the inner sailor in the guides- unlike Tuesday, Ron was very restrained in his expletives today, and Mike M. had been much more expressive when he had Gordon alone than when he was with me.) Since the morning was cloudy, the fishing was beyond great. No counting past 9:45 or so. In total I probably caught 15-20 fish, all nice size and continued my whitefish streak.

That's Gray, me, Ron, and Mike C.

As evidence of how low the river is, Ron bent his oar going solo thru the Bear Tooth drop. We walked around the drop with dry feet Thursday while on Tuesday we rode thru on the raft easily.
The day ended with a brief rain shower.
At night it was hot then super windy ( a chinook wind?) then very cold. As Rich would say "it was blowing harder than a ______ at an Elk's convention."

I matched this trip with a book by Dayton Duncan called Out West. It is about his tracing Lewis and Clark's epic journey in 1987 in his sister’s VW bus. Full of real Americans he meets along the road, little towns bypassed by the mainstream, modern day Indians, and very captivating stories of the Dakotas and Montana. Inspiration for our road trip to come.
Birds- nothing new, but bald eagles, Ospreys, sand hill cranes, a king bird, cedar waxwings, a couple or three sets of mergansers and chicks, cliff swallows, red winged blackbirds, American white pelicans, and two clutches of wild turkeys right at the lodge.
Also we saw a couple of minks slinking in and out of the rip rap on the side of the river!

Needless to mention, I think we all had a great time and will be signing up for next year, health and wives permitting.
After I wrote all this I found out my plane was delayed by lightning in Minneapolis so I missed the connection home. I stayed in an Embassy Suites in Mnpls along with half the population of America on vacation to shop at Mall of America. Woke up at 2:45 to catch the 3:30 hotel shuttle to the airport. The airport was full of little league baseball teams, little league ice hockey teams, and teens going on mission trips. I thought I was groggy at that hour but they all were more so.

Arcularius August 25- September 2, 2016- mostly a fishing journal

Arcularius August 25- September 2, 2016- mostly a fishing journal

Thursday, August 25

Long but uneventful flight to Reno via Dallas. Since we departed much later than usual, we arrived in Reno pretty late and had a long drowsy drive to the ranch in Addie's car. After the Walker Canyon, "Yosemite" was a welcome sight.

Friday, August 26

We caught up with Rich and Darla in the morning. Rich and I went fishing, first at the picnic meadow and then at Alpers creek. The meadow was in productive, but I did catch one club sized fish at the end of the day near a semi sunken log at Alpers.

Cindy from Pinion Point quail club, on loan to the Arc in the off season, fixed the four of us a great dinner.

Saturday, August 27

Still not quite understanding John's direction that Alpers was the place to be, we again went downriver. I tried the end of the property to no avail and then came back to the drainage ditch. There I caught a club size fish on a prince nymph.

I moved upstream to a couple of pools in the bends of the meadow and added 2 more club fish on my only Madame X hopper. I hooked two more and got lots of jumps out of them but the second of those took the fly.

Since there were more pools in this area, I switched to a heavy crayfish and, wham!, caught 2 more. I started to think the crayfish was the hottest thing going.

Rich and I took a break for lunch and then went to Alpers. Almost immediately I lost the crayfish and switched to another in spite of the millions of hoppers all around. I picked up 4 more to close out the day. The biggest measured 22.5 inches. I wonder where all the intermediate sized fish are.

After fishing the four of us tried the pool. I made the mistake of asking Rich about his legal problems with the ER contract. What a sad story for Richie about 10 days before he retired, a nuisance and time sink for Richie and a bonus time for the lawyers.

John and Deborah came in from their week in Big Sur/ Carmel etc.

Another great meal of salmon, steak, veggies, and peanut butter ice cream pie from Cindy for B&C, John and Deborah, and Richie and Darla.

Sunday, August 28

Richie and Darla had to go home in the morning. The Millers and the Gs went to town for food and for hopper flies. I also got 2 of the most outrageous looking crayfish flies I have ever seen (and I am going to trash them because they attracted nothing).

I fished in the afternoon at Alpers and added 5 more club fish, all in the 18 inch area, and all on hoppers. I also lost about as many hoppers as I had bought.

Monday, August 29

Alpers again. Hoppers again. 6 club fish- 4 rainbows and 2 browns. 4 were 20-21 inches, one on a nymph with bobber was 19.5. I even tried the bobber with a stimulator and hooked a very nice one. No more crayfish.

Greta and her friends came in today and we had one of Fred's great dinners in the lodge. This night was stories about Rick Sands night since his sister in law Julie came in. With Martha Tack there I also learned the lost details of the famous flipping of the Boston Whaler episode.

Tuesday, August 30

Today we took a break from fishing and knitting and lazing and went to Yosemite right past the Tioga entrance to hike to Gaylor Lake. It was a grueling climb but the view from the lake was worth it. If the ranch is at 7000 feet, and Tioga is at 10,000 feet, we climbed another 1000 feet in a mile (very hard breathing) and then steeply down 500 feet to Middle Gaylor. I wanted to fish for brook trout there but the wind was too much.

After the return we went to the Mono Cone for lunch and scrounged the lodge refrigerators for dinner.

Wednesday, August 31

After doing our daily walks around the ranch for the last few days, we decided to go to Mammoth Lakes for today's walk. We went along the town loop cross country skiing course which was different in that it was paved and not dusty. At the end we found the second largest skate board park in the US and had a pleasant conversation and demonstration from some boarders. Quite amazing. The guys gave us suggestions on our skate boarder problem at Virginia Beach.

We had other shopping to do so fishing started late but still was successful- Alpers, hoppers, 4 club fish, 2 rainbows and 2 browns. One was 20 inches.

By the way all these measurements are from measuring on my rod (the large majority of the fish were caught on the Tenkara) and then checking either with 8 1/2 by 11 paper or with a measured rod section.

I forgot to mention that I broke the Tenkara the first day but Connie was in town and picked up the repair section for me.

Tonight was Mexican night with Fred the chef- fajitas, enchiladas, and Bill Sands’ version of margaritas. It also was Virginia Beach stories from the 1970s night.

Thursday, September 1

Drive to Reno day for the flight home on Friday.

However I went fishing early to test two theories- one, that the big ones would be biting slow in the morning because they were still digesting their gorge on hoppers from the previous day, and two that I would need to use nymphs early in the morning. Well, the hoppers were out early, the big ones were quieter, rather kindly giving some of the smaller fish time to feed, but I still added 3 club fish on hoppers. 2 rainbows, 1 brown. Alpers, 17, 18, and 18.5 inches.

As I was fishing this morning, the skill and knowledge used in creating Alpers creek as ideal trout habitat dawned on me. I started to understand when I went to the pool that has a log across it and a careful arrangement of boulders in place to support the pool. Then I noticed the other pools and logs to create the right mix of shallow and deep, slow and fast water. What a privilege to fish here!

I had to quit about 10:30 to go pack.

Connie had picked up an Arc t-shirt for me at Greta's house but it was a woman's size so I had to go back to exchange it. On the road on the way there I saw two coyotes, one on each side of a deer in the road. They ran into the scrub and the deer followed them. Frying pan into the fire.

Drive to Reno with a stop at the Whoa Nellie, and the rest uneventful; flights home the next day on time.

A great vacation and fishing trip!!

Addendum September 18, 2016

Mother Nature takes a turn, and we are all grieving- The Owens River Fire, September 17, now at 6000 acres.

where in the world are the wmgwalds

Thursday, May 16, 2024

First World problems for 2016

Wednesday, May 15, 2024