Wyoming Invasive Species Stickers

The state of Wyoming is now requiring all boats to have a sticker on it indicating you have been educated on preventing aquatic invasive species from entering the State of Wyoming. It is very easy to get the stickers. Simply go to the Wyoming Game and Fish Website at http://gf.state.wy.us/fish/AIS/index.asp and buy your stickers. They will mail them out to you very quickly. The stickers are $5 for non-motorized boats and $10 for motorized boats. The money goes to staffing check stations around the state where rangers will inspect boats and clean any boats that need it.

Zebra mussels, Didymo, and New Zealand Mud Snails are just a few of the species found in the waters of Colorado and Utah that we are trying very hard to keep out of Wyoming. "Clean, Inspect, Dry" is the catch-phrase the game and fish department wants people to remember and apply to boats. Any time you are moving your boat from one watershed to another, please Clean your boat. Inspect it for mud, water, and algae. And allow your boat to Dry thoroughly.

Enjoy,

David Ellerstein

Jackson Hole Anglers

The beauty of "Easy Fishing"

So often in fishing, we focus on going after the ultimate prize, or test our skills against a wary adversary. Whether it be stalking 25" Brown Trout in a small spring creek, swinging flies for a steelhead, or wading the flats in search of a willing permit, there is a great joy in accomplishing a lofty goal.

Other times, however, it is great to just go out and catch a ton of fish. Today was one of those days. After a long winter, where fishing is next to impossible here in Wyoming, all you really want is to go out an catch fish. I wasn't looking to descend an impossibly steep canyon. I wasn't looking to change flies 8 million times to fool a wary trout. I wasn't looking for that "fish of a lifetime". I was looking to bring them in hand over fist.

After spending the morning in the office, I finally escaped at about 1:30pm. I headed down to a spot on the Snake I knew was loaded with trout waking up from a long winters slumber. I parked my truck in the pullout, put on my waders, and tied 2 flies onto my 9 foot 5X leader. The top fly was a size 16 Parachute Adams. This was meant to be an indicator as much as anything. About 8 inches below it I tied on a size 18 Griffiths Gnat. After a short walk through the willows with the obligatory "hey bear" I arrived at the river's edge.

At first look I didn't see any fish working the surface, despite an abundance of midges along the banks. I cast out onto the seam line between the fast and slow water. Nothing. Then I saw a small rise a bit upstream from me. I took a few steps up and saw Trout feeding aggressively just below the surface. I cast my flies into the feeding zone and wham. Fish On!

Soon it was fish after fish after fish. This was perfect, just what I needed after 5 months in ski boots. Over the course of 1 hour I landed roughly 20 fish. Only changing my dropper fly once because the original was mangled from fish. At the end of the hour I decided not to push my luck. The memory was perfect as it was and I headed home.

This day will not rate as a qualifier to make me a great fisherman, or a cagey fisherman, a smart fisherman, or even a lucky fisherman. This day made me one of the most important things of all: A happy fisherman.

Enjoy,

David Ellerstein
Jackson Hole Anglers

Day Off

The heart of the 2009 guiding season has been extremely busy. Most of our guides, including myself have worked between 20 and 25 trips each over a 25 day span. Make hay when the sun is shining.

I did have this past Saturday off, and it was a great rest. I awoke to a beautifully cool morning with a fresh dusting of snow on the mountains. After a leisurely breakfast (eggs, bacon, juice) I decided to head to a favorite honey hole to spend an hour or two fishing for myself. There was a bit of wind and no bugs on the water. After a while drifting dries and emergers over a normally productive run, I decided to go subsurface. Just as I finished tying on a small woolly bugger, a family of merganzers ran through my hole. Squawking and splashing. I cursed the merganzers for a second then threw my fly under a deep undercut. I let the fly start to swing. The line tightened and there he was, a big cutty thrashing about. After a short battle I had a gorgeous 21" Cutthroat Trout resting in my hand. The fish's colors were spectacular and I quickly released him back into his run. I fished a bit more, but that fish was my day.

I returned home and settled into the couch to watch the Yankees / Red Sox game. I half watched the game and half napped on the couch. Me dozing, the Yankees winning, what a great way to spend a lazy afternoon.

Soon a friend called with an offer to go to the lake for an evening waterski session, accompanied by putting back a few brews. By the time I got off the couch to start getting ready, some rain had started and the plan got cancelled. Bummer. What to do next? I decided that I would head down to a local tavern that has a poker table in the back.

I walked in and there was one seat left at the table. I sat down and cashed in for $100. After a couple of hours my stack was $800. I bought a round of drinks for the table, cashed out and headed home. Sleep came quick and deep and the day was done.

We don't get many days off in the middle of summer, but it is good to take full advantage of the ones we get. This one, was a good one.

Great Day on the Green

For the past month we have been putting hundreds if not thousands of miles on our trucks, driving all over the west to get to fishable water. Tired of all this, we finally decided to fish one of our "home rivers" today and boy were we pleasantly surprised. After the relatively short drive to the Green, we were greeted by high, murky water. Murky, but with about 2 feet of visibility, which is enough to fish. Shortly after putting on the air was filled with bugs. Stones, Drakes, Caddis, and more. The day was looking up. We spotted some fish rising in an eddy and quickly put a few small Browns into the boat. One neat thing about the day was that each fish got progressively bigger. 10 inches went to 12, 15 went to 17, and by the end we had caught 4 fish over 18 inches including our final Brown Trout which measured out to 21.5 inches. Heck Yeah! It felt so good to be back on the rivers that we know so well and to see them fish well and produce big healthy trout. You can travel the world over, but you will find few places as awesome as this amazing place we live.

HOORAY SUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a month and a half of near solid rain, the sun has finally come back out. For two springs in a row now we have had a cool wet spring. Around town, people were pretty grumpy. It's amazing how the weather effects peoples moods. Everywhere you went, folks were grumbling about the rain, saying things like "isn't it great here in Seattle", and more. But now the sun is out and people are smiling and out enjoying the natural world. Every other car you pass has a bike on the back, a kayak on the roof, or a boat in tow. People have been jonesing to get out on their toys and now they are in force. Hike, bike, fish, golf, paddle, swim, ski, fly, whatever your passion or passions, get out there and do them. Welcome to summer in the Hole.

May Fishing

May is always a fun time of year to fish around here. Lots of driving to different rivers. Lots of different hatches. Changing water levels. Melting snow. And so much more. Some days you can drive 2 hours just to find the river too muddy to fish. Other times you are rewarded with the first Salmonflies crawling onto the bank. It is always an adventure. What I like most about May fishing is the variety of different rivers I fish this time of year. In the past two weeks, I've fished the Snake, South Fork, Henry's Fork, Gros Ventre, and Fish Creek. Before the Month is out I will hopefully add the Firehole, Maddison, Lewis, and Smith Rivers to the list and maybe a few others. During the summer we often get into the routine of fishing our home waters. I truly cherish the shoulder seasons when we get to explore the waters outside ouf our area.

Making a 4 piece rod into an 8 piece rod

Florida Fishing, Day 1.

After a long Wyoming winter, I often take my family on a warm weather vacation to warm the bones a bit. With my daughter being 6 years old, any vacation we took had to involve a trip to Disney World. Disney means Florida, and Florida means fishing. Good for kid, good for dad, good for everyone.

I woke up on our first day in Florida and went straight to a kayak rental shop and got a kayak rental for the entire week. I threw it on top of our rental (a Kia Rondo) and drove straight to a kayak launch spot along the Intercoastal waterway. While launching my kayak I noticed a dolphin working the bay I was in. Not great for the fishing, but very cool for sightseeing. I paddled out to the dolphin and was thrilled that she was not afraid of me. She continued to swim around and under me, often coming within my reach. After a few minutes of this I decided it was time to fish. I began paddling North along an old railroad bridge. Much casting produced nothing but one chase from a Red Fish. After an hour or so of this I realized I had been going with the fairly strong wind and should start paddling South again.

It was a long hard slog back against the wind, but I finally made it back to the bay I had started in. The dolphin was gone, but it had been replaced by a Manatee gently swimming around the bay eating grasses and such. Know as being gentle creatures, I paddled right up to him. Apparently, he did not see me coming. I paddled right above him and surprised him. He was so startled he thumped my kayak quite hard with his back as he freaked out and dashed off (surprisingly fast for such a sluggish looking animal). Jostled but upright, I continued on my fishing adventure.

I now decided to explore South, so I would be able to paddle downwind at the end of my fishing day. I rounded a point, then crossed an open windy bay. A came to a wall of mangroves, sheltered from the wind. The water was knee to thigh deep. I hopped out, tied a rope to my kayak and strapped the rope around my chest so I could keep my boat with me while I waded. As I approached the end of the line of mangroves the water began to get deeper. As soon as hopped back in my kayak there was a huge disturbance in the water. A large push of fish was swimming right towards me. I cast my fly to the advancing fish and let it sink. Once they got to it, I gave a few strips, but got no action. I tried again, but still nothing. As they swam by, I could see that there was a large school of fish 12 - 20 inches being chased by something much bigger.

The school split in two and I made a cast into the boiling water that was closest to me. While stripping my fly I saw that something was making a huge swirl in the group that was a bit farther from me. I tucked my rod between my legs, made a few paddle strokes to get within casting distance, then sent my fly into the maelstrom.

Strip, strip, FISH ON!!!!!! I set the the hook hard and the the fish took off. My reel was screaming as the fish took off towards the mangroves. I let it run, but I didn't want to let it get into the roots where I would lose it. I started to tighten my drag and palm the reel. It worked! The fish slowed, then turned. It made a hard left and started heading out to deep water. I removed my palm and lightened the drag a touch to encourage this direction. The only problem was this fish was heading so far out that he could go through all my backing. I tightened up a bit and the fish began to drag me. As the fish headed out, he was pulling me and my kayak upwind and out into the big, deep water way. The fish was a 100 or so yards out from me a pulling me along at a steady clip. I was a bit worried about the 20 pound tippet and hoe long this battle was going on. I hung my legs over the sides of the kayak to increase the drag on the fish.

For a long time the fish continued pulling me out to sea. At first this was great fun, but the further I got from shore I began to get a bit nervous. I was increasing the drag to slow him down, but if I didn't land him, or at least turn him, soon I would be forced to snap the line for my own safety. As I was reaching the breaking point, he turned and started to swim back towards shore.

I gained back quite a bit of line at this point, but he was still too strong to start to bring in. I decided to let him pull me for a while before engaging in the final fight. Throughout this process, my right arm had grown very tired and I had to occasionally put the rod in my left just for a breather. Once I was back to a comfortable distance from shore, I started trying to gain line again. Long steady pulls, then giving him line when he would shake his head, and I slowly got my backing on the reel. All of this pulling and torque. I kept thinking about my knots, my tippet, etc, but it was all holding up. Unbelievable. With my backing back on the reel and the fish within 50 feet, he started doing slow circles around my boat. I kept up the pressure and worked him in. I still hadn't seen the fish, but was starting to wonder what the hell I was going to do with him. I had this Old Man and the Sea image of pulling him up alongside me and him being bigger than my kayak. I figured I would run my hand along his back, then set him free. Stop thinking, back to working.

The fish was obviously exhausted now (as was I) and I kept reeling him closer. Finally, my leader was visible. Slow and steady I brought him in. He was right below me. I got the end of the leader to the tip of my rod. I so wanted to see this fish. I raised my arm up and pointed the rod straight up to get as much of the leader out of the water as possible. Jesus, this fish is heavy. As my arm strained to lift the fish, my 8 weight rod was bent over double as the beast was right beneath me. Suddenly, CRACK!!! My rod exploded, shattered into pieces. The line went slack. I quickly grabbed the line with my hand but it was too late. 40 minutes of the most epic battle with the biggest fish of my life, and it was gone. I sat there, drifting alone on the ocean in my little kayak with my shattered rod in my hand. Half laughing, half crying, wondering what day 2 might bring.

Enjoy,

David Ellerstein
Jackson Hole Anglers