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

The Importance of the Mend

If you ask just about any fly fishing guide the word he says more often than any other word, I would bet that 9 out of 10 would answer: MEND. This is because mending is not only one of the most overlooked skills in fly fishing, it is one of the most important. While a great cast can get your fly out there, that fly is all but useless unless it is getting a good drift. And the key to a good drift is mending your line.

Mending your line is simply the act of adjusting your fly line to reduce or eliminate the drag it is placing on your fly. Sometimes you want to mend your line upstream of your fly, sometimes downstream, sometimes half your line up and half down, and sometimes it even changes during the drift. I realize this sounds complicated, but allow me to explain and see if I can simplify the matter.

Let's take a typical guided trip on a western river. You are in a drift boat, out in the main current with your guide back rowing to slow your descent down the river. You are casting a large grasshopper pattern tight to the bank hoping a large trout comes out and chomps it. When your fly lands close to the bank, your line is out in the fast current of the river while your fly is sitting in the slower water along the bank.

Option 1. If you leave this situation as is, the current will quickly pull your line downstream, and as a result your fly will start to drag downstream and eventually away from the bank. Result: poor presentation and short time in the strike zone.

Option 2. As soon as you fly lands next to the bank, you pick your line up (leader included) and move it upstream of the fly. This will result in your line slowing down, your fly facing upsteam (like a natural bug struggling against the current), and your getting a drag free drift in the strike zone for a prolonged period of time.


Next situation. You are standing in water below a large riffle. The water is flowing over a shallow gravel bar, then after the drop off the water makes a large bend to the left. You are standing in the eddy on the inside of the bend. Therefore, as you cast up to the drop off your fly travels on a large sweeping arc to the left. As your fly lands in the fast water coming off the rocks, your leader and fly are in the fast water. Most of your fly line is in the eddy with you.

Option 1. If you leave the situation as is you will get a descent drift for a second or two, then the line sitting in the eddy will start to drag the fly left and hang it up on the eddy fence (the line between the moving water and the still water. Poor presentation and only effectively fished the top few feet of the run.

Option 2. As soon as your fly lands, mend your line downstream. This will allow you to get a drag free drift right from the top of the run, all the way through the bend and into the deeper slower water below. Result: Good presentation and lots of water fished per drift.


Both the above situations are fairly straight forward as are many situations you will fish in. Sometimes it is not as simple. Often there are various speeds of water between you and your fly. This will require you to read the water and make multiple mends within the same drift. This can get tricky, but if it were easy they call is spin fishing (I'm sure I'll get "feedback" on that comment).

Another important thing to remember while mending is to do it the moment your fly hits the water (I sometimes even do it while the fly is still in the air). The reason for this is that you want to mend the line before it gets sucked beneath the surface tension of the water. Once it settles beneath the surface tension, mending becomes a bit more difficult.

There are many different ways to mend. I often see fishermen try to flip or roll their line to mend it. While this can work in some situations, it often only mends the part of the line closest to you. It leaves the tip of the line and the leader unaffected. I often prefer what I call a box mend. This is a slow motion where you lift your rod way up (thereby lifting all the line out of the water), moving your rod and line upstream (or down), setting the line down, then pointing your rod tip back at the fly. It has the look of drawing a large box with the tip of your rod. This technique tends to mend all of your line and leader, and leave your fly facing upstream.

One question I get often is "is it OK if your fly moves while mending?" The answer is yes. I will typically cast a few feet upstream and a few inches beyond the desired drift area. When I mend my line I can move the fly into the desired strike zone and place it perfectly on the right line. I do this right away, so when it's done the fly is just coming into the desired area on a perfect drift with a perfect presentation.

All of this takes a lot of practice, but will pay huge dividends in your fishing. Keep playing with it, trying new things, and above all, get out there and fish.

Enjoy,

David Ellerstein
Jackson Hole Anglers

Scratching the March Itch

After months of skiing, the days are getting longer and the sun is shining. I woke up the other morning to clear blue skies and temps around -2 degrees. As I skiied that day, I kept looking down into the valley, or more specifically, at the river. By the time I was done with work (skiing) it was 30 degrees and still sunny. My mind was on fishing, big time. I raced home and started to dig out the boat. A couple of hours later, there she was, ready for the water.

A few days later, the forecast said sunny skies with daytime highs around 34 degrees (nighttime lows still below zero). I knew that it was still too early, but I couldn't resist. I called up the boys and we planned to be on the river the next day.

We met at the boat ramp at 9:00am. Temperature, 5 degrees. We putzed around for a while trying to let it warm up a bit, but by 10:00am it was go time. We pushed the boat over the snow and ice and hopped in. Temperature, 7 degrees.

The surface of the river was a mix of water and slushy ice. Each stroke of the oars piled up snow-cone fixings. The bow of the boat had a nice ice coating on it, as did the oar shafts by the blades. We knew better than to try to fish yet, so we cracked the first beers of the young season and enjoyed the crisp air and stunning views of the Tetons.

After a brief adventure, we hauled the boat upstream out of a channel that a tree had blocked, we could wait no longer. 11:30am. Temperature 20 degrees. We put together some rods and started fishing. We talked about many ways to keep ice out of the guides, yet employed none of them. Opting to crack off the rime every 10 minutes or so.

We floated, fished, drank, and awed at the mountains for several hours. Enjoying every second. We even managed to catch some fish before the day was up. We knew we were way too early to be out on the river, but we just couldn't wait any longer. Now the boat is set, the gear is ready, and it won't be long until we're back on the water.

When are you getting out?

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