Trip of Epicness 2010

Welp, I think it's official... I don't have fun fishing the E. Walker anymore... It's been about a 12 year long run on that river with some big fish..... but it's just not worth it for me anymore. Just like some of my other past favorite rivers, the number of fisherman on that river at any given time has exceeded the number of fish in the river.

They can have it!

When every fishable piece of water has someone  on it, standing thigh-deep right in the holding water, lookin' like he just fell out of a simms catalog... I'm out... To me, no fish is worth doing battle with a hundred dudes acting like they own the river. They can have it...

Instead, we figured we'd have more fun rattling off some rounds hill billy style at the local shootin' range. What camping trip would be complete without dispatching a few rounds from the ol' assault riffle?

Just holding that AR makes you feel like a boss

The runoff is comin'...

Sleep tight tiny dancer.

Here's some fallout from camping at 8,000 feet in the middle of May.

Gritty coffee and eggs cooked in bacon grease... breakfast of champions.

Like the crowds weren't thick enough on the first day... where did we go on day two?

Hot Creek....

Imagine a quiet piece of water where you can fish peacefully and you'd be surprised to see another fisherman all day.... now image the complete polar opposite of that.... that's Hot Creek.

I had never fished south of mono, so I had no idea what to expect. We got to the creek and looked down the canyon and I almost lost it when I saw a dude (and ladies) on every inch of that creek as far as you can see up and downstream. You've never seen so many cars worth more than $70k parked in the middle of nowhere. People were packed in there so close, that you had to be careful casting your fly upstream 'cause you were likely to hit the guy downstream with your back cast...

It might be hard to see without zooming-in, but there are 5 other dudes in this picture, covering no more than 150 ft of water.

Water to fish was at such a premium, that some people, once they got a hold of some water, didn't move ALL DAY. Or, sometimes it just felt like you were swapping spots with someone. You'd look up and the guy above you would start walkin' away, so you'd haul ass up to where he was to fish some new water, and as soon as you got to your new spot, somebody had already filled your old spot.....

How was that better than the E. Walker?.... well..... the 30+ fish days made it bearable, and that's only fish to hand. We lost as many as we landed. In spite of the fly fisherman circus, we were blowing up that river like hiroshima. Other people were catching fish, but not nearly as many as we pricked. For some reason we had the Hot Creek juju, cause we were hookin' up on every cast. I had a guy tell me that Hot Creek is one of the most technical fisheries he'd ever fished..... It would've been harder to NOT catch a fish. There had to have been an average of 4 fish per foot of river, because we would sit on a hole and catch fish nearly every cast... for hours.....

The first day, Cole and I didn't move for at least two hours, catching fish after fish.

We had double hookups, big fish, little fish, rainbows, browns. I even caught some cutthroats.

On the second day Josh, Cole, and I all posted up on a great hole under this huge overhanging rock and banged fish out of there all day.

Josh had a banner day with fish on back to back casts three or four times.

Josh had the hot brown trout fly, pickin' up browns left and right.

On the way out, Cole slid over to this tiny hole where I picked up a good fish the day before, and stuck the best fish of the trip right before we mounted up.

None of the fish we touched were very big (18-20" tops), but the numbers of fish caught made up for it big time. Great fishing, but still way.....WAY.... too many people around that creek to make it worth a trip back.

Extreme Skunk Repellent

Ain't no fool gettin' out fished on his birthday! I brought the good Truckee skunk repellent this time.

Sam may have crushed the will of this piggy little fish...

Booyakasha!

...but I made up for it in numbers.

Water was high, colored-up pretty good, and damn cold. Bite was off and we worked pretty hard for less than 10 fish between the three of us. I don't think it was fly selection, I took out every tool in the shed. I just think the flows have put the fish down for the most part. We probably left right as the flows were stabilizing in the afternoon, which I'm guessing was prime time... oh well... Lots of bugs... No fish heads. Just a couple of splashes that could've been anything.

I was eyeballin' Gregg's 5/6 switch rod as we were rigging up, wishin' I had one... winds kicked up around 11, and casting an indicator was like peein' in the wind. Nothing good ever comes from that...

Gregg was slicin' through that wind like Vader through Kenobi, while Sam and I hacked our way up and down the river. We may have caught more fish than Gregg, but I'm guessing his arms weren't fubar'd like mine after 6 hours of violent casting.

Next on the wish list... switch rod, 4wt, 11'6"....

Gettin' Ready for the Boogey Man

Flows are up, water is cold, and the boogey man creeps closer and closer...

Striper season on the American approaches as the cold winter weather has temporarily given way to some phenomenal spring conditions. 80's the last week, and after another small storm, 80's again. Something tells me that this won't be the end of winter just yet either. You may have heard of a "miracle March," but have you heard of "miracle May?!"... I have...

Time to start tying...

The Fish Cannon

Ever wonder where some of those huge trout in the E. Carson come from?...

Well, let me show you...

Swarmed...

Spent some time by myself this last weekend on the Truckee trying to clear my head after a pretty brutal week. Lots of things going on right now, some good, some bad, but seemingly all at once. I try to stay positive as often as I can, but some days are harder than others. I figured a little alone time on the river would help slow the thought process down, and it did. No distractions, no hustle, and just a good time to talk to myself about things that I try not to think about.

Fishing wasn't all that great with the higher flows and all, but at least I didn't see another person the entire day. Only one fish in the net, but I hooked several others that promptly came unbuttoned, which was encouragement enough to keep at it.

My golden stone pattern was the trick... too bad I only brought one that I broke off at about 11:30...

Weather was AMAZING! The total calm before the storm...

Ever had one of those days where suddenly, without much of a change in flows/weather/temperature, a hatch miraculously starts to happen? Well, that happened to me this last Sunday; except, it was this unbelievably profuse hatch of bugs just swarming around me, landing on my sunglasses, all over my waders, and up the entire length of my rod.

All mayflies. I counted four different species but I'm sure there were more, all at once. Duns, spinners, emergers, and cripples everywhere. It was like someone had hit the switch and the bugs just starting popping like popcorn... I looked down and there were at least 10 mayflies hatching on my legs as the current splashed them off, replacing them with another set of hatching bugs every splash.

I was standing in about shin-deep water at the head of this eddied section at the bottom of a narrow riffle. The water and air were pretty calm where I was standing and the hatching mayflies were sort of swarming in the still air. I could see nymphs swimming and floating to the surface just as they came rolling around in the eddy, just about to pop through the film. The wind picked up and the mayflies started blowing up the canyon like a fog along the canyon walls. I could see the wind shifts changing the direction of the mayfly cloud like sheets blowing in the wind. It was really amazing to see; something I've never seen on this river before.

Not a single fish nose the entire time...

Still an amazing thing to see.