Fishing Journal 2017, 2018, and 2019

 Fishing Journal 2017, 2018, 2019

Fishing Journal-  2017

3/25/2017- I got free of basketball and other things like cold weather that had been holding me back and went to Mossy Creek. It was a partially cloudy day in the mid 70s with wind in bursts.
Having thought about what fly to use for months, I put a prince nymph on with a bobber.
On the upper section, in the "pond" like area above the wood bridge, I caught a couple of 11-12 inch browns. A very nice feeling- the first fish of the year!
On the lower section below the culvert, kind of in the middle, I caught another 2 of the same size- perhaps fresh from the hatchery.
The day only cost 3 flies which is way below average. I raised a few more with my trusty crayfish but no strikes.

3/26- On the next day I went to Lickinhole for some pond fishing. It was cloudier, cooler and windier. The farm, which I haven't visited in more than a year, looked like it had not figured out that spring has sprung. On the other hand there were no ticks.
My mistake right at the beginning was to walk out on the smaller of the 2 piers, and I put my foot right through the gap between shore and the first wooden slat. No broken leg but it could have been. After catching one small bass and a small bream I walked around to the side of the pond where the fish structure is closest to the shore. There it was one fish per cast with the spinning rod for a while, all bass except 2 very nice silver perch.
A short but good couple of days with something to show for each day. Bring on shad season!!

April is shad season

Fishing Journal-continued

4/19/2017- Jay and I went out for our second of two shad trips this season with Mike Ostrander. We also went last week on the 11th.
The 11th was a warm clear pretty windless day with the temperature in the 70s. It also was a knockout day for fishing. We stayed in one place the whole time, near the outfall, and probably caught 70 shad and a whole lot of white perch, mostly on the fly rod. I can't imagine how it could have gotten any better. Water level was 6.8 feet at the Westham gauge.

The 19th was rainy and very cool (50s). The sun never came out. Although the river was 2 feet lower due to lack of rain from the 11th until today, the water looked brown and dirty. Fishing started slow and never got great. At one time I thought I knew where the fish were and what I was doing when I caught 4 shad on 4 casts with the Wetsel rig (instead of a weight three feet above the shad dart, we use a plug without the hooks but with a baffle up front to hold it down) but that did not last. Jay caught a nice blue catfish, we each caught one striper, and we caught lots and lots of white perch. The wind kept blowing the boat around so we had to change fishing spots a lot. In the end we probably caught about 25 or 30 which counts as a decent day.
I am not sure whether the run is winding up or if it was just the fish could not see what we were throwing because of the brown water.
4/24
Gordon and I never got to go this week- the fishing slowed up but more importantly the rain hasn't quit for 6 days. Like with baseball, there's always next year... Working on picking the dates now.

Fishing Journal- May 22-26, 2017 West Andros Island

May 22-26, 2017 West Andros Island

West Andros  Island, Bahamas May 22-26, 2017 with Dad, Matt, Connie, and Beth; Shawn as bonefish guide.

We arrived on Charles' seaplane after John, Sam, and Joe P had the first trip. The weather was mostly cloudy, hot, and windy.
The water also was too warm in the afternoon but the fish had mudding and mating on their mind.
 The short day of fishing was not the greatest. I had 3, Matt had 2; Dad broke a couple off. The next day was more of the same with very tough wind. I tried the paddle board in the morning without luck. Beth caught 1, Matt 5, I had 1, and Dad broke a couple off. 

Then it really got windy, making the water murky. The tide (near new moon) and wind combined to flood the flats giving the fish plenty of extra places to hide.  Luckily I had a good morning with Shawn and got 14, Dad got 1 and Matt broke a couple off. For the next day the wind picked up even more after a storm during the night. Shawn said the wind was blowing about 30 mph. I caught 1 and that was the production for the day. For the day we returned home, the breeze, of course, dropped out. I had a superb morning fishing with Dennis. We needed about 30 to get the trip back to normal, but 16 cooperative fish were enough to put me back in good spirits. With no wind the heat was borderline dangerous and the horse flies were hungry.

Beth taught me to "catch and release" the doctor flies. The problem with that is that you let more in when you are trying to do the release.

Birds- white crowned pigeon, kingbird, sand hill crane, flamingo, roseate spoon bill, least tern, willet, reddish egret, blue heron, great blue heron, green heron, double crested cormorant, laughing gull, white ibis.

Stillwater trip 2017

Stillwater River Lodge trip July 2017

I am writing this on a United flight from Bozeman to Chicago with a sore right hand. I am happy to say it comes from casting all day long for 5 days at the Stillwater. 

As is usual in Bozeman lots of people are getting on the planes carrying fishing rod holders. Some usually ask where did you fish and how did you do. I have been saying I fished the Boulder River outside of Big Timber and did very well to keep the secret of the Stillwater a little longer.

Friday July 7- Va. Beach to Bozeman via DFW. I met Richie in Bozeman after arrival. Our plan was to fish in the Bozeman area on Saturday and then go to the ranch on Sunday, possibly stopping to fish along the way. The plan also originally was for me to meet Rich and to ride with him in his somewhat remodeled 1978 Chinook RV to the ranch and then to ride with the rest of the guys and Mike H to Billings on the 15th to go home. Anticipating problems with the Chinook I rented a car in Bozeman for the week.

As it turned out Richie did have some Chinook problems that started in Idaho crossing the mountains on the trip up from Newport and they persisted. 

When we met he had made an appointment at the Bozeman Ford place to have it looked at while we were at Stillwater.

After the obligatory trip to the fly shop I was pretty much ready.

One other small thing about our stay in Bozeman- it turned out some part of the state baseball or softball championships was going on this weekend so hotel rooms were scarce. Luckily we got a 2 queen room for the first night but then Richie slept in a Super 8 the next night.

Saturday July 8- Thru the help of Gordon's friend David Thompson we lined up to fish Willow Creek which is private water 5 rods per day limit with Zach Neville. Willow flows into the Jefferson down near Three Forks and was about 45 minutes out of town and then on very rough roads. It comes out of a spillway from a lake but since it is on a working ranch was not the classic "gin clear" stream.

We first got out downstream in the valley and as soon as we got out Zach reminded us "this is rattlesnake country". Zach went back and forth between the places he wanted us to fish. It was tough going but we got the hang of it. Toward the end in the valley part while Zach was off helping Rich, I hooked a very nice rainbow and fought it about 20 minutes. It needed a net and a photo and there was no one but me holding on for dear life to catch the fish, net it and take the picture. I managed to work the fish upstream a bit to where Zach had left the net on the bank, caught the fish in the net, took a terrible photo but did not lose the fish the net or drop my phone in the water.

After that we moved up to the dam area. There we caught a few, probably 7 or 8 total each. At the "honey hole" as we were getting ready to go Zach told me to cast right next to the new depth marker, which he said had somehow changed the fishing in that spot. What Zach didn't know and what I found with my cast was a very fine loop of wire right on top of the depth measuring stick. At least my fly is there to help identify the wire for future fishermen. 

The temperature was in the 90s and the trail down and up to the dam was extremely rugged and steep. It was taxing to say the least.

All that was left to do for the day was to make another trip to the fly shop and have dinner at my favorite Montana Ale Works.

Sunday July 9-

We took it pretty relaxed today. We had to drop Richie's Chinook at the repair shop (and somehow between the Hampton Inn and the Super 8 he also got a flat tire) and then took a look at another Chinook in the lot along with 2 or 3 models of R-Pods which are these light weight towable campers that Rob Welch has.

Our first stop on the road was in Livingston to get some lunch for later, to look at the quaint western town which was pretty much buttoned up on this Sunday morning, and to visit Dan Bailey's fly shop for some local advice on where to try to fish.

We had a map and some directions which were a little confusing to me and set off for the Boulder River outside of Big Timber. We went upstream on some gravel roads (not "off road" because I promised National Car Rental I would not do that) along the Boulder, East Boulder, West Boulder, and Elk Creek. The property owners there have all the stream access locked up. Eventually we got up into the National Forest and found a totally vacant campsite right on the river. The water was "gin clear" here, and COLD. Rich caught a couple and I caught a beautiful 10 inch brown trout, but an oncoming storm forced us to leave there early.

Next stop was the corny Fort convenience  store in Big Timber. It is a classic Montana road side store with enough weapons to support the D Day landing, a combination of fly supplies, boat supplies, spin fishing supplies, food and drink, and cheesy gifts like wall plaques that say "Grill Sargeant" and "If it's not one thing, it's your mother".

We pushed on to Columbus, Absarokee, and then the ranch. Luckily Rich and I got there just ahead of the other guys and claimed the stream side tents. I look forward every year to the cool nights in the open air with the river as white noise to give me some of the best sleeping ever.

The group this year consisted of Richie, me, Gray, Mike Contino, Gordon, Dick Banks (glad to say Dick is back after missing a year on medical leave), and two new fishermen- Mike C's son in law Jordan, and the Cali guys' friend Mark- neither of whom have fished before.

At the ranch there was Mike H, his son Kevin, and then the guides were Mike Mullet, Andy (new to us, but a top 25 caster from Red Lodge), Rod, and Matt.

This is a salmon fly on my pants hanging outside the tent:

Monday, July 9-

I fished with Dick and Andy. We started upriver near Nye and floated all the way back to the lodge. This section was very high and very fast- I would guess significant stretches of class 2 and 3 rapids.  Mike said it was flowing about 3200 CFA's and falling and rising on alternate days. There was still a lot of snow way up in the Bear Tooth range. This is the section where I found the pistol on the rocky beach fishing with Mike H a couple of years ago, but that site was covered with water.

The fishing was slow then hot for a bit right after lunch then cold. When there was a little cloud cover fishing picked up. A short thunder storm came on at the very end.

Andy's dog Berkeley along for the ride every day:

Tuesday- Mike C and me fishing with Mike Mullet even higher up river from Buffalo Jump to Moraine. There was periodic rain. The fish, while fewer in number so far, seem to be bigger than in years past. About 8 for me, many more than that for Mike.

Wednesday- Richie and I fished together with Matt as our guide. We did the Nye to camp float again. This is the day that got my right arm sore from cross throwing to the right bank and my hand sore from catching fish. We each caught about 15 high quality fish- in addition to browns and rainbows I caught 2 cut bows. The successful fly we have used the last two days is the chubby, pink on the bottom with Mike M and tan on the bottom with Matt. 

Thursday- Gordon and me with Mike H. Same float. The river was noticeably down. The fish were smaller but much more plentiful. I would guess we each caught 20 or so. Mike likes to use the bullet headed squalla bug, so I was fishing that while Gordon was hunting with a very lethal white streamer then hand colored by Mike with a sharpie. Missed a lot of fish. 

At one spot there was a pool at the end of a riffle which we approached from shore. You could see about 10 or 12 very large rainbows working in the pool. Mike added a beaded prince nymph to my set up and I very quickly caught 3 of them. That spooked those remaining enough that they did not respond to Gordon's streamer. (On the way thru the same spot Friday we wanted to do the same thing with Gray but the rancher approached us. There was some discussion about the high water mark and we conceded.)

I am slow but finally figured out that a brown really attacks the dry fly while the rainbow is more likely to have a slow take.The rainbow seems more likely to jump after being hooked.

Rich and Dick fished with Mike M this day:

Gordon brought his drone along and gave everyone drone envy:

Friday- I fished with Mike and with Gray on the same stretch. It alternated slow fishing then hot a couple of times. Lots and lots of misses. In all we each caught about 10 but as with every day the scenery was great, the white water riding was great, the sleeping in the tent by the stream was great, the camaraderie was great, the food was great, and we also caught a lot of fish. And 90% on dry fly and no whitefish!!

Friday night Richie and I drove back to Bozeman so he could attend to his RV. We got a complimentary room at Hilton Garden because they bumped me from the Hampton Inn. On the ride as Rich was explaining to me again all about his being sued and his pending arbitration, the other guy sent in a settlement offer. If that holds, no suit, no arbitration, a huge relief for Rich who had been advocating that for a long time, but unfortunately it has cost Rich a ton in legal bills.

Early flight home to Va Beach via Chicago. On time.

Birds- Swainson's Hawk in Bozeman; cedar waxwing on Willow; red wing blackbird; western meadowlark; black billed magpie; yellow warbler; gold finch; eastern kingbird; Bald eagle majestically flying along the stream on Thursday and then a pair in a tree watching the world on Friday; wild turkey (a pair of moms near the illegal trout pool); merganser; night hawk; killdeer; white pelican; Great Blue Heron; osprey in a nest along the road; sand hill crane = 17 species plus robins and Canada geese.

Smallmouth Shenandoah

Fishing Journal

August 28, 2017- A new place for me- Shenandoah River float from Elkton to Shenandoah Va, fishing with The Judge and guided expertly by Brian from Mossy.

It's a two hour drive from Richmond over the Swift Run Gap (Spotswood Trail discovered in the 1700s) to Elkton.
A cool day (60s) with a little cloud and erratic light winds. The water is pretty clear but Brian says it will clear as the sun gets higher. The river runs along limestone bottom here with riffles (kind of shallow right now in places where Brian has to get out to get the raft off rocks), some sandy bottom and many boulders and shelves.
We are fishing for smallmouth bass. I was surprised that Brian uses 8 weight fly rods but he's right.
We start off with a hellgrammite pattern and Jay is nailing them from the start. I add the same thing and catch a few. Then with the day warmer and the sun higher, I switch to a floating sinking frog.
It keeps getting better and better.
During the paddles for places while we aren't fishing Brian teaches us so much about the local geology, farming practices, bugs, hydrology, and how the fish behave. I felt like I had taken mini courses in all those subjects and more.
Of course, the proof is in the pudding and here are my two best fish for the day:

Here are our flies:

In total we probably caught 50 fish, about evenly split between the frog and the hellgrammite, which is what Brian predicted we would catch, and we had a fantastic time. This float will become another annual event.

The Arc September 2017

Fishing Journal

The Arcularius, September 15-17, 2017

This was a quick trip out to the Arc.

Sat by an older fellow from Hawthorne CA on the way out from DFW. His Dad had a pack station in the national forest where he worked as a college student. He knew all the lakes and trails and had a great time identifying where we were from the air. I kept pointing out places to him and he would correct me. I thought he was losing it a bit but on the drive from Reno he was right and I was wrong. 

It is amazing how much the ranch seems to have come back from last year's fire. As I walk around I see sprouts of new pines and willows popping up. Scott says he planted some grass to prevent run off but on the whole it seems to be recovering quite well. Wildlife is back too- deer and coyotes especially. 

Fishing- a terrible start, lost a whole Tenkara rig down near the culvert. After it warmed up and I regrouped on my equipment it turned into a great day, fishing from the culvert up to Greta's, then from the picnic tables up a little, then the irrigation ditch down by the big meadow, and lastly up near the cabins and lodge. I probably caught 25-30 fish, all on Tenkara, vast majority on hoppers of different kinds and sizes. Most were little but I saw two huge fish, one right below Greta's, and I caught 2 definite Club size fish- one rainbow about 16 inches and one brown about 20 inches. I had one other that might have been a club contender.

One observation about the fish from the picnic tables to the culvert- they are now using a very soft, slurping strike that keeps you on your toes.

Sept. 16- 36 degrees this morning but crystal clear. Greta, Jean, and Helen Carter are off this morning on a big road trip to a park in Utah and then to Colorado. Three of Addie's Davidson friends left this morning for a day trip to Yosemite. I will be the only one fishing today.

I decided to fish all day up at Alpers, on the river first then the creek.

I had a pretty good morning going. It was about 36 degrees at first but things warmed up. The fish started biting at about 10:30. I was using my Tenkara with a hopper on it. I caught maybe 10 little ones and one club size fish.

In the words of Lloyd Bridges from the old tv show, "then it happened": first I clipped of my best hopper's leg while releasing a fish. I kept going with him for a while, mostly to see whether the legs mattered on a hopper, and I continued to catch fish. Then I threw a cast into what my guide friend John Roberts in Lexington calls spooky water and another club size fish took a bite. I raised the rod to set the hook and wham! I broke my Tenkara in the middle.

I found what was left, with the one-legged hopper still attached. Since I parked the ranger up near the waterfall, I decided to keep fishing with one leg and the stub of a rod (what's left is a little bit taller than I am) until I got to the ranger for lunch and the rod I borrowed from John's garage.

And I kept catching them including one almost club size fish.

So then I caught up with the real rod and started at the Alpers bridge on the creek. At about the second deep area an unbelievable streak of 9 club size fish in about an hour started. They ranged from about 18 inches to 22 or 24 inches, a mix of browns and rainbows with one huge rainbow so big and beautiful it could have been in an advertisement for a fish market.

Add one more club size fish late in the afternoon down by the picnic tables and this amounted to quite a day.

Thank you John, what a place!!!

Sept. 17- After yesterday today had to be a little disappointing. I lost a lot of flies to sticks and logs but also lost 2 club fish to logs. The fish were not as active today ; that is understandable for the spooky holes where I caught the big ones yesterday, but they seemed quiet all around today. There was no change in the weather other than it was a little warmer. 

I fished the upper Owens from the Arc into Alpers and even found some areas I haven't tried. Right below the big lake, kind of near the cookout spot or a burnt down house, I hooked a huge one but lost him to a log.

All in all today, maybe 10 fish with 3 club size. The last fish and last club fish I caught on a crayfish behind the pumping station back at the Arc. At the moment, I have no grasshopper flies left. I wish I had remembered to try a dragon fly fly.

Even allowing for some exaggeration and poor counting, this was a great trip. However my cracked fingers couldn't handle another day (and I only touched about one fish a day).

Fishing Journal 2018

2018 is open for fishing, at last

March 29- Technically it is the start of shad season but today the water and air were just too cold for us to go out with our guide. The water was about 50 degrees. Although there is a debate about whether it is time of year (ie length of days) or water temperature above about 55 that makes the shad, rockfish, herring, and perch start to move upstream to spawn, the opinion for today was that it was early. There had been no reports from my shad buddies of numerous catches.
Then the day turned very nice- it seemed like the first day of spring and so I couldn't resist. I went down to the usual place under the I95 bridge and tried a while with lots of tackle mishaps and no fish. Then I moved down to Ancarrow's Landing, now also called the start of the Slave Trail, and found an open spot just down from the boat landing, across from the UofR rowing storage shed. In about an hour I caught 8 shad, all on my friend Jay's Wetsel rig. The season was open and first fish of the year.

April 11- Gordon, Evan Williams and I went out with our guide Mike at 5:45 am, water temp 50, air temp 37 (!!!), but it was a perfect day, with no wind. Gordon and Evan fished a spinning rod and I mostly fished  my fly line. Evan started off trolling up to our special spot near the outfall and caught a rockfish. From then on it was nothing but hickory shad with a few American shad to make it interesting. Evan actually counted and ended up at 50. I figure Gordon and I added another 30 or so so each so it was a banner day.

West Andros Island May 2018

With Dad, Michael, Jeanie

Fish- 0 bonefish the half day when we first arrived; 31 with Benry; then 7 with Dad and Dennis; then 18 with Dennis inside; then 8 with Benry before the rain, including two very nice ones.

Birds- osprey; white ibis; reddish egret; great blue heron; blue heron; great blue heron; green heron; brown pelican; roseate spoonbill; gray kingbird; eastern phoebe ?; mixed wing blackbird; Kirtland’s warbler; least tern; willet; marsh hen, AKA clapper rail; gull or tern with swallow tail.

Lemon shark drama with Dennis; dumb move with water bottle and two knots in the line. Wonder how many bonehead moves John makes each day fishing.

Last night the lights at the back of the boat attracted a magnificent demo of flying by the warblers and minnows with hound fish in the water.

Here is one of the very tired Kirtland's Warblers on his way from wintering in the Bahamas to his summer home in upper Michigan pine forests, but confused by our lights, liking the insects they drew:

Megantic June 16-20, 2018

Megantic

It is a long way from Boston to Megantic. On the way up it got longer because we got faked out by one of the GPS mapping apps, then we stopped at the NH line for a mega alcohol purchase, then stopped at LLBean for some supplies and some "chowda", then gas at the Canadian line. Wow.

In addition to my friend John whose guest I was, my other friend June from UR and WLU was there for breakfast on our first day. She worked long and hard on the "Megantic Way" book and did the drawings in the book. June pushed on me to join but I said with so many friends in the club why join.

The camp was lightly occupied at first, probably because of Father's Day, and then it gradually filled over our couple of days. Bill K, the member who gives the annual fishing report compiled from all those sheets of paper you turn in, was there with his two sons and some friends. I think he stayed in the Bull Moose cabin.

Speaking of Father's Day, I found an article in Down East magazine before we left about black flies, and, luckily for us, it said black fly season ran from Mother's Day to Father's Day. Then they go away? Well not quite but I really did not have as much trouble with them as I did last time- only one bite. Lots of mosquitoes, but with the way I cover myself up and with the improved technique of wrapping rubber bands around each wrist and each ankle, even they were only a nuisance.

As for fishing, I wish I could remember the names of the ponds I fished. Our guides were Andy and Russell- he was a sub from the Maintenance Dept but is a good guide, certified in NH but not Maine, and more familiar with river fishing. I know I fished El in the morning and the evening of the first day, which was beautiful. I was a slow starter, trying to learn how to catch them but I got a total of about 12 the first day, the largest being maybe 10 or 11 inches. For the afternoon I fished Massachusetts bog. Then the next day we got off to a slow start because of rain and thunder but it improved. We went to Northwest Pond and had a picnic over there with a couple of grilled fish (John suggested they grill them in olive oil instead of bacon grease for health reasons). I caught about 10 in the morning. At lunch the skies opened and the afternoon was nap time for most. The wind was blowing about 25. I went off by myself to the far docks looking for a lee shore to try my Tenkara rod but had no luck. After dinner the wind was still blowing but we gave Big Island on the left a try without luck. On the third day, with perfect weather except for gusts of more than 25 mph, I started off at South Boundary and had a great time. We caught about 10 each but nothing big. We had another lunch at another pond near there and then I walked thru the woods to Grant Pond where we had another 10 fish session for each of us. Again, no size, maybe 8 with the largest 9 or 10. That night the wind dropped out and it was gorgeous. I went solo to Rock Pond with Russell. We struggled until right as the sun went down and then the middle of the pond came to life. I caught a 13 1/2 inch one followed immediately by a 15 inch fish and then a 10 inch fish. The 15 incher had this black spot disease which I need to look up to see what it is.

All that brought my total to about 50 and about 175-185 for our group of 4 over 2 1/3 days.

At 6 am the next morning we left for a straight drive to Boston and the plane home to super muggy and hot Virginia.

Smallmouth time

August 28, 2018
Jay and I met Brian at the confluence of the North and South Rivers where they form the Shenandoah for a day of fishing. It was a steamy hot day in the 90s but the water temperature was 71. Fishing was hot. I can't say how many we caught but it was up from 30 or 40, mostly small but hungry and lots of fun. A great way to spend a day at the end of summer.

Arc and Clark Fork Sept. 2018

Arc: Sept 12-15

Yesterday (the 13th) was a pretty good day of fishing out here. It was kind of a warm up. I am using only my Tenkara rod, and I fished a stimulator, then hoppers, then a squalla (Montana name for a Chernobyl ant with a hunk of fluff on the back).  I caught about 20, of no size, lost any number of flies due to wind and other stupid moves. I think I made most of my mistakes all in one day.

Today (the 14th) started off very slow. Nothing was biting anywhere and in desperation I went to a naked nymph. Then back to the stimulator. Size started improving from 6-8 inches yesterday. When I hit about 30 at lunch, I went up to Alpers for some big game hunting. The guy at Trout Fitter said not to use hoppers because it was getting cold. I am seeing them all over though and tried for the big ones with one of the hoppers Larry left me. They would eyeball it, splash their tails at it but no bites. That was fishing upstream. Then I decided to work my way downstream going extremely dark side with a gold CreelX. I figured it might look like a crawfish or just a big minnow. I was just fishing those dark holes that my guide in Lexington calls “spooky”. It is more scary than spooky to hook up with a 20 inch rainbow on the Tenkara rod. I caught three of those up there, all on the CreelX. I got a good 5 or 6 jumps all the way out of the water on the first one.

I had a little more time so I came back and fished between the lodge and the bridge at the other gate. I just wanted to catch a few more little ones before quitting. But dern it, in that nice pool to the right of the bridge, I caught another 20 inch one.

The 15th was a short day due to the drive to Reno. It also was frustrating. About 5-10 fish total. The best part of the day was hooking another huge fish in the pool near the rock cliff just upstream from John's house. I fought him a while but then he just dove and the line broke. Goodbye golden CreelX.
One of the best parts of this trip was that Beth came by the Arc as part of her extended RV trip out west. She has rediscovered her camera and got some wonderful night time photos.

Clark Fork 70 miles from Missoula: Sept. 16- 21


Guys- Jay, Gordon, Doug, and Tom

Lodge- 2 bedroom downstairs with 2 singles each and a bath, one double up some steep stairs with the bath downstairs (need to be agile) (we put the C-Pap guy up there); wrap around porch where we ate dinner; great fire pit; splendid view of the river with an occasional bald eagle in a tree directly out front. Great food  from Mike as usual- Mac and cheese with Morelle mushrooms; venison; antelope for tasting. Cool brown trout looking dishes and cups from BH&G.

Mike and I agree 5 is the ideal number so someone gets to fish single each day.

Guides- Sam, Jeff, and Max; all super, personable, not grumpy and tolerant of my flawed technique; they work well as a team. Sam- slow, methodical, targeted fish stalker; Jeff- competent, friendly, willing to experiment; Max- excitable, always joshing, but a great fish finder.

River- in our 5 days we did three runs on the Clark Fork, one run twice and the one run on the Bitterroot. It was an bigger effort but a change of scenery was good. One run had one set of brisk rapids but not a drop of water taken on. You could also go to the Blackfoot but it would be an even longer day than the Bitterroot. The Bitterroot has fewer fishing areas and some long runs of paddling between the fishing spots, but a good chance at casting to dry fly sipping fish. You don’t want to be the third of three boats going thru. I hear higher up the Bitterroot is smaller and more technical. BTW, Clark Fork runs into the Columbia.

Fish- rainbow, cutthroat, whitefish, squawfish (bottom sucker like), and rarely a brown. Tom caught our only one.

Fishing- all from the boat, no wading, no reason for boots. We used hopper droppers, dry flies solo, naked nymphs, nymphs with bobbers. The best was spotting sipping trout in a feed line and trying to get them to eat. We used chubbies, hoppers, pheasant tail nymphs, ants, midge clusters. 4, 5, or 6 weight rods are fine. River fish are good fighters. Tenkara was new to the guides but worked like a charm the two days I used it.

Weather- 30s-40s in the morning to 60s in the afternoon. Colder than I expected or was hoping for, but tolerable. One drizzle one morning, rest of the time- no cloud.

Numbers- I had about 10 the first day, about 25 the second day on Tenkara, 20 the third day on Tenkara, 5 the fourth day at the Bitterroot, and 10-12 yesterday- all on dry ant or midge cluster= Wonderful. Many whitefish naked nymphing the first Tenkara day; mix of rainbows and west slope cutthroat most days. Dry fly sippers the last day.

Wildlife- this area is having a huge plague of yellow jackets!! I didn’t get stung but had to watch every bite at lunch.

2019

Tuesday April 9 was our second Shad trip. On Monday evening a severe storm came through with high wind and pelting rain for about 20 minutes. Thank goodness it did not last long enough to taint the water or raise the river level. Monday night was also the NCAA basketball championship game between UVA and Texas Tech. The game started at 9:20 and I watched half and recorded the rest. I had to be up at 5.

Mike ran into a tricky fog bank on the way up river to meet us, but the temp was twice what it was last week (64) and there was no ice on the docks or the seats.

Jay started off super hot on the spinning rod. I switched to the fly rod and started catching fish. Then Jay switched too.

By 7:15 we had caught so many I lost count.

We stopped at 11:30. I am pretty sure we had at least twenty double hookups and probably 60 or 70 fish each. It was totally amazing.

Further note: I caught one on the Tenkara and then broke my Tenkara rod on a second one.

I avoided email, newspaper, and conversation and did not find out about the game until I watched the recording Tuesday night.

May 15-20 West Andros Island

My group, John and Deborah, Gordon, Beth, and I, followed John D. Dad decided at the last minute not to go because he had been twice to Key West plus the two weddings and was worn out.

The weather was spotty for John D., and for us too. The first full day it rained torrentially in the morning and we really didn’t fish much that day. On each other day the mornings were ok to brilliant but then a storm would come up that would threaten the fishing.

Dennis and Shawn Leadon were our guides.

Shawn gave John a great lesson that I learned a lot from. John put it to good practice the next day and caught 2. Then on the last day we fished with Dennis and John caught two again very quickly. So rewarding to see him catch fish.

The count for me was 3, then 1, then 5, then 8, then 6 including one on the paddle board in the lagoon.

We watched some golf, some lacrosse, had great conversation, slept well with the rocking boat, flew the drone, watched the full moon. So even if the fishing wasn’t great (however Gordon did have a 20 fish day and a 23 fish day), we enjoyed ourselves. The crew knocked themselves out for us, and as usual Drew’s cooking was Michelin 5 star.

Stillwater July 15-20

July 15- beautiful sunny mid 70s day in the morning. Last week the water level was about 3000 but because of big storms it zoomed up to 4200. So today we fished higher up the river, starting at Castle Rock and getting out at the Lodge. The group this year is Richie, DIck Banks, Mark Schultfuss, and me. Gray who usually is part of this group is laid up from a back operation and Mike Contino is in Europe.

I used Mike H’s six weight large arbor rod. Fished with Dick today with Mike as guide.

I think I caught about 10, a mix of rainbows and browns, mostly rainbows.

In the afternoon a storm came up that slowed things down a lot and dropped the temp.

Last night we all had to stay in the bunkhouse because of a tornado warning, but tonight I am in the tent.

July 16- it rained a good bit of the night. I learned it can get colder in the tent than outside.

The day started off beautifully with temps in the 70s and clear skies. The water is high and about 55 degrees. We floated from the lodge to Johnson Bridge.

Today I fished with Richie with Tony, a new guide for me. Matt from prior years is Tony’s best friend, now has 2 children, has moved to Kalispell and sells real estate. Ron from old times here for some reason isn’t guiding for Mike any more.

Mike gave us all Stillwater buffs today.

It was a slow day on the dry fly. I caught 2 and Rich caught 3 in the morning. We switched to nymphs and a good afternoon, each ending up with about ten or so fish. After one pm the rain came hard and when lightning started about 3 we got off the river.

I headed for the dryer and some hot chocolate from Richie’s RV.

July 17- a day with no rain.

I fished with Dick and with Andy (and his dog Berkeley) as guide. We went back to start at Castle Rock. The river seemed a little lower. In all I had about a 10-12 fish day with a mix again of rainbows, browns and whitefish.

July 18- another day without rain!!

I fished with Mark and with Tony as a guide. We had a really slow morning- I only had 2 whitefish. We tried dry flies with no luck and then went to the dark side. After lunch we stayed with nymphing and I had a very good afternoon except the count was 10 whitefish and 2 or 3 rainbows. Neither Tony nor I could figure out why no trout.

July 19- third day without rain, at least while we were fishing

I fished solo with Mike H from Castle Rock down to the lodge today. Beautiful clear sky, water a little cool at first. The river was rocking and rolling. We hit a few boulders that gave my core quite a shock.

We had a great morning using only the squalla dry fly and had 15 by lunch. After lunch it ran slow for about an hour and then got going strong again. I ended the day with about 25-30 fish, all trout, with one cutthroat in the mix of browns and rainbows, and I finished up with a nice brown on the last cast right at the takeout. It couldn’t have been better, unless you worry about the 10 or 15 strikes I missed.

Shenandoah River 12 mile float with Jay and Brian for smallmouth- July 2019

This one day trip was unbelievable. For once we were the guys the guides talk about when they say "You should have been here yesterday!". We must have caught 40 or 50 each and for me this included about 6 on the Tenkara. Hope to try it for more of the time next year.

The Arc August 18-22 , 2019

3 fish at the picnic area on arrival Sunday.

Monday- 34 fish day, 2 club fish, one in the pool below the culvert and one further down. Megantic guide’s fly put me over the top. 16 before lunch and 18 after. First fish at 9:21.

Tuesday- mosquitoes, serious tangles, nettles to the right hand, lost quite a few flies, hard time tying knots with the wind and mosquitoes, only 12 fish. On the bright side, 4 club or near club size fish with the Tenkara rod, including a very lucky 3 big ones on 3 casts using a chubby.

Wednesday- very slow day. These fish have mastered the soft strike and I am not quick enough. The Tenkara leaves too much slack to pick up to hook the fish which adds to the problem. I need to figure this out. 17 fish total with no club qualifying fish. First fish at 10:30 + or -.

Thursday- a great morning. It was clear, warm but not overwhelming. First fish at 9:30. Mostly fished Alpers from the old Arc border to the bridge at Scott’s house. Total for the half day- 15 fish, all beauties, very colorful, healthy. One club fish in the mix, a first- at the Alpers bridge on the Arc side. As I was fishing I started wondering what got us (JD and me) interested in big open air experiences like out west. It wasn’t Scouts, it wasn’t our trip to Pocahontas State Park or camping with our parents. I think it was the two trips to Jackson Hole with them that got it going and then the R Lazy S later that sealed it.

Birds this trip- western bluebird branch to grass to branch like a flycatcher; western bluebird in the scrub watching me watching him; golden eagle; marsh hawk by distribution and low flying activity, Harris hawk by size and by working in pairs; osprey; white pelicans in Washoe Lake near Reno.

Clark Fork of the Columbia River September 2019

This trip was with Jay, Tom R., and Bill S., all from Winchester along with me.

Mike met us at the Missoula airport and drove us the 70 or so miles to his cabin. It was a clear warm day with the temperatures up into the 80s. The yellow jackets were out in force on the porch before dinner.

Each day we fished the weather was in transition between summer and fall. It got a little colder and a little more cloudy each day with drizzle or rain on 3 or 4 of the days. The last day we fished it started off at 37.

Fishing was not as good as last year this time. The cloud should have brought on the hatches but did not. The water, at 3300 cfs, was at a good level but the fish were not feeding actively.

The first day I caught about 5, the next 6 or 7, the next 3, then 10 or 12, then 5. There were a couple of very nice cutthroats or rainbows in the mix each day, and I only caught 1 brown and 1 whitefish the whole week.

The camaraderie and the stories made up for the relative lack of fish. Tony (from July at Stillwater) and Mike were the guides and Kevin was on hand to take care of all the support. The food as usual was excellent.

Two new bird species- black cheeked chat and a dipper!

Oct. 27- Mossy. After a weekend at W&L for Law and Literature, a short stop by Mossy. It had been raining in the morning but then clear. The water was a little cloudy. Perfect temperature. Stiff wind at times from the NW. Browns are spawning and not eating. I used prince, hare's ear, crawfish, and creelx. Saw 5, hooked 2, caught 1 rainbow, about 15 inches.

This is probably the last of the fishing for 2019 but it was a great year.