February Thaw

Well now . . . 10 days out of the icebox and into tarpon heaven makes another cold winter month whizz right by.  Boom!  February is history.  I need to do this in January too.  Now I just wish I was still there, or going back soon.

Campeche never gets old.  We fished mostly the same areas I've come to know, but every day is still different.  The wind blew every day from start to finish, but mostly from the east and southeast.  It prevented any offshore fishing, but the mangroves and certain coastline stretches were protected.  Extremely low morning tides early in the trip gave way to perfect falling water the last three mornings.

The week was highlighted by pure fantasy fishing from first light to sun-up on three consecutive mornings.  Tarpon rolling all around us, just begging for a white gurgler to chase and slurp down.  Pop-pop, slurp-slurp!  Just wow. Silly-good.  The shit dreams are made of.  It couldn't have been better, 70-80 minutes of mayhem. We were squeezed out of the islands after a couple of fish on the final morning, but those first two . . . wow.  I'll always want more.

The rest of the fishing followed how these trips go.  A dead first morning, a couple of good steady afternoons as the water came in, a couple of good days fishing the creeks and lagoons, random fish along the coast most days, and a couple of long-ass boat rides for nothing (that still make me scratch my head).

I got lazy with the camera and played with the Go Pro.  The captures from video just don't cut it, at either 60 fps or 120 fps.  The lens is much too wide.  Maybe next time.

Rumor has it the baetis are popping good on the home river.  It's gonna take some time for my mind to get back in tune for wrist casts, trout sets, and 6x.  I'll try.

Hot Fly!

Chewed Gurgler 

What a Guy Will Do . . .

 . . . Just to catch a few trout on a dry fly.  The longest, coldest month of the year, which seemed like 45 days instead of 30, is finally history.  No appointments or work today.  Sunny.  Temperatures in the mid-30's.  Warm before the storm.  Guess that's a "go," in spite of the odds.  Plus, I had something to test.

The sun still isn't very high, and there's only a few hours of direct sun in the lower canyon, and a very brief window just below the dam.  I want sun on me this time of year.  And then there's the stupid-ass "double peak flows" that the bureau of wreck-the-rivers does to generate power.  I know, the dam was put there for electricity, not the fish.  But still, its rediculous what they've been doing in recent years.  Today, the discharge was 1100 at 6 am, up to 3020 at 8:30 am, back to 1300 at 1:30 pm, and cranking back up to 3000 by 4pm. 

I went down river late morning, and the water was raging at just over 3,000 cfs.  Nothing doing, so up to the dam for the hour or two of sunlight there and lower flows.  It was just starting to drop rapidly when I arrived a little after 1:00, and as soon as it dropped about a foot and a half, the fish all came up.  Wasn't much for bugs, but they ate any and all they could.  They probably know the flood comes back in a couple hours.  The window was short, as it always is in the deep canyon there.   All little guys up by the dam, but it was ok.  I suspect not many people in the whole country caught a dozen trout on dries this afternoon in the wake of the polar vortex, I mean, a typical winter day in Wyoming.  More cold and snow is coming, in 48 hours.  80 degrees and Campeche Tarpon in 15 days!!!

+3,000 cfs in a normally great run.  Not a fish to be seen. 

Only the little guys up

Chewed Transitional Midge

Some this color too

The gravel bar now showing.  Notice the little dry spot on top.

CDC on a hook, visible in the dark after 2:00

Water all the way down, making a nice pool and riffle. 

They rose all up and down this bank.

Here's the two-foot drop between 1100 cfs and 3100cfs.  

THIS IS THE SHIT I'M DEALING WITH!

The test?  I had been reading rave reviews about Rock Treads, some "overpriced" studs a bit different from the rest.  Guys on the Roaring Fork in Colorado said they were awesome.  I haven't had anything but rubber soles in many years.  I do miss the felt, but those aren't good in the winter either, and they weren't ever any kind of magic.  Everybody said Rock Treads were different, far better than Korkers, or slip-ons, or any of the simple screws you screw into the soles.  What the hell, they were less than a tank of gas, and I ain't getting any more stable on my feet.  I bought a set, drilled out my new wading shoes, and bolted them in.

All I can say is I tried and tried to find a rock to slip and slide on, but they wouldn't do it.  The Green doesn't have many greased bowling balls quite like the Madison or Big Hole, but I waded out into some riffles with mossy rocks, and I couldn't get either foot to slip.  The places I've nearly face planted on many times are the mossy, slippery concrete boat ramps.  I walked and shuffled my feet on two of them, and never slipped an inch.  These "studs" were amazing.  The only place they were a little slippery was on some ice on the trail.  Anything slips on that though.  They were fine in the snow, and awesome in the river.  I can't wait to step foot in the upper Madison in May! 

Aluminum discs bolted right through the sole of the shoe.  Smooth on the inside, grippy on the outside.

No slip on the mossy concrete boat ramp.

Year End

End of another calendar year.  Days are getting longer, and colder.  (Funny how that works).  Working to pay for my summer and fall semi-retirement months.  Counting down to Campeche (47 days and a wake-up), a mid-May quickie week (136 days), and the Ranch opener (166 days).  Baetis and midges whenever it warms up a little in the next 60-90 days.   Lots to ponder over the rest of the winter too.  Floating or sunk tippets? (No brainer, I tested it!) Do we need tails and shucks?  Soft hackle dries are the secret weapon.  So are furled leaders.  Should flies even have stiff hackle or stiff tails?  The real bugs don't, they are soft, fragile, and move.  Oh, I've got more hair brained ideas turning, and plan on spending some time at the vise on these and other such heresies.  Gotta have new or different bugs for the season.  Gotta organize all the boxes in a different manner for the new season.  I'm thinking there's really only 6 or 7 different "flies" for imitating mayflies.  They're all just variations of a few basic patterns.  "Life-cycle" variations.  Maybe I'll build another rod I don't need, for a different feel. 

One thought today to end the year though.  How the hell did I even catch any trout this season?  My truck is not even a fishing vehicle.  It was the outcast everywhere it was parked, and got stares from all around before being ignored as just a passing tourist.

Get this, I don't have one fish, fly fishing, or "brand" sticker on my truck.  Nothing.  No Sage, no Ross, no Trouthunter, not even a tarpon.  I do have a Henry's Fork Foundation sticker on the door of my trailer, so maybe that counts for something.  The truck is bare, and staying that way.

I also don't have personalized license plates like "Dryfly," "Fishon," or "Slvrcrk."  Suprised the truck even makes it to a river.  I think Montana has more personalized plates per capita than any state in the union.  I have "cripple," plates, but not in a flyfishing way.  Parking is easier though.

And, I take my two-piece rods apart when I leave, move, or store them until the next spot.  Must really look like a dork.  I don't have a rod vault made of PVC, metal, or other nano material straddling my truck and topper, covered in aforementioned stickers, so I can just put 4 strung-up rods inside like the cool guys.  Shit, it takes me all of about 10 seconds, at most, to pull my rod apart to put inside the truck, or in one of those short cases that holds the rod with reel attached.  It probably takes nearly 30 seconds to put the damn thing back together again and be ready to fish!  Losing all that time, its a wonder I got to the river at all.

Happy New Year.

Tarpon Time at Tarpon Town

Over eight months seemed like a long time to get back to paradise, and while Campeche had it's moments, it was only stellar in brief windows.  The typical 7-day trip.  A couple of shitty days, 3 average ones, and two magic mornings.  We didn't really get "cold fronted" until just before the last day, though claims were made of a "stalled" front the day we arrived.  The first and last days were the shitty ones, so maybe so.  And a cold front?  Ya, it dropped from mid to high 90s down to around 90.  Overnight lows plummeted into the mid 70's one night, so I hear.  It was hot and sticky.  Just what tarpon are supposed to like.  Tides were good early in the trip with good morning falling water.  We were able to fish more outside water than mangrove-choked backs of the tiny creeks, which is a good thing.  I missed crossing the street and stepping into the boat as soon as I woke up to fly out on the last morning.  I have February to look forward to, cards willing.

The highlight was that last hour just before the front passed on the morning of our second-to-last day.  We were surrounded by rolling and feeding tarpon in open water.  Dream paradise. There's no place else in the world I where wanted to be.  Like the frenzy in the diving birds a few years ago, only no birds.  We could have fished a bit longer, but I'm not into lightning and wind, and neither was my guide Juan.  We quit on the highest note possible after multiple double-hookups.  Hope they're on the outside of the mangroves come February.

More Gurgler love this trip.

Juan seemed to grab more bulky flies from the box.

My guide Juan.  Fish spotter, boat positioner, and fish handler.

White, yellow, and tan were the colors.  No black?  Didn't fish it much.  

The storm coming in the mid-morning frenzy

More lead eyed flies this trip in the "deep" 3-5 foot offshore water

As we had to leave, with fish rolling all around us!
Lots of video on my youtube page.  Good shit.  Best is last:
Big one that got away
Hooked up!
THIS is tarpon!
Don getting it done.
Bloopers!
Tarpon FantasyLand. 9 Minutes of Valhalla.