Trip to November 16th 2008

Strawberry, 7,600+ feet elevation. Home to Bear Lake and Bonneville Cutthroat, sterile Rainbow, and Koke. Got to the Lake Sunday Morning around 9:30. Air Temp was in the upper 30's and water temp in the mid 40's. A little alarming on the weather being mid November:

Beautiful day, with no wind.....until.....WE hit the water. Thinking the fish had moved into the shallows by now, and could be a bit lethargic, we went in slow and easy, plus 10' to 20' of water. A few bumps here and there, and finally a few to the net:

Did okay for about an hour then it died off. I headed back towards the dock in an attempt to go to the other side where there had been boats and tubers earlier. When I got over to the ramp, I noticed everyone was gone. Thought to myself, this could be a slow day…..I was now in 40+' of water and BAM! Fish on, and on, and on. I was catching one right after the other. I was using very FAST sinking line, a weighted fly, and with the wind pushing me, plus the long strips, a VERY fast retrieve.

Killed my first idea about the fish being sluggish and shallow.

Fly of the day was a #4 Chub Pattern introduced to me by Jason Haslem:

The fish mutilated this fly.

Final count for the day (9:30 to 2:00) over 30 fish in the 18" to 24" range.

Great day! The trip home down the canyon was very similar to late September landscape:

Relaxing trip to local pond nets amusing surprise...

On lazy days I frequent a local put and take pond, however I never take. Just a little casting practice and fly experimenting. Got out for an hour or two this past Friday as a storm was moving in. The fishers already there said it was very slow, but I had to try. I threw out the old indicator and Chironomid twins at about 6' deep. Missed a bunch but landed a few. Here is a nice couple of bows:

Then something amusing happened. I went to roll cast, but the line would not come out of the water. I thought maybe I had gotten fouled up on some weeds or something so I stripped the line back in to clean the hooks (I was fishing two different Chironomids at about 3' and 6' ) Looked down and no weeds, but these two little guys:

Notice the different colored flies:















Overall I had a very relaxing time fishing with an amusing surprise at the end!!!!

Our Annual Henry’s Lake Trip for 2008 (August 30th – September 5th)

We arrived at the Red Rock campground on the early afternoon of the 30th.

There was strong wind and the lake was choppy, so we set up camp in the hopes the evening would bring a calming....but it didn't……

So we got up Sunday morning and hit the lake for a couple of hours. Again the wind picked up and blew us off the lake. Sun was out, but it was cooling down.



We fished as long as we could, then the waves came and was hard to hold position. So, we packed up and headed to West Yellowstone for some shopping and early dinner.

The next three days were cloudy, cold, wet and windy, with periods of sun to tease us

Thursday was a fair day and allot of fish were caught, but again the wind kicked up.

Because of the cold, wet, and windy weather Baxter only made a couple of trips out onto the water with us, but, he made new friends anyway…

Mountain Fishing

I got out this morning on Millcreek and had a great day! In fact in Baseball terms it was "A GRAND SLAM"!! I caught 4 browns, 3 bows, 2 brookies, and ONE cutt. Didn't get a picture of the brookie, but here are the others:

RAINBOW FATTY:


BROWN:


CUTTHROAT:


These three were all caught on a #16 Olive Cripple.

URBAN CITY BONE FISHING

With gas prices going off the charts, we are now forced to look for closer waters to fish.
This opens the door to new species also.

There is a major river that runs through town within walking distance from my home. I began to walk the river always looking for movement under water. Finally, last year I noticed a rainbow moving about in the water. I ran home and grabbed my gear and headed back.

The trees and bushes, plus high banks does make fishing with a fly rod a challenge.

But, as they say, where there is a will......

Hanging with my left hand from a branch of a tree, I flung my line out the best I could. On that outing I landed one sick looking carp and Crappie and a White Bass.





Then this year, I returned but to a different section and found a honey hole. So far, I've caught small carp to 30", several at a time.

These are Grass Carp, so a heavier weight rod and line are required.

And the Koi do add color:

The two specialty flies I use come from the "RAINY'S CARP COLLECTION".

The POPCORN BALL:

The CARP HEX:

I think I have found a new species of fish to go after and a good way to save some money as well.

They Still Like My Flies (8 July 2008)

I had to work the 4th, so we went up North Saturday and stayed until yesterday morning. Damsel flies were every where, but the fishies still preferred my Chironomids. Water temps are getting up there so, it was all very quick releases for the fish's well being.

This lake is stocked with Kamloop and anyone not familiar with this breed, they are a very fast growing trout, and fight better than just about any trout out there (except maybe Tiger). Massive numbers of fish taken all day with 18" to 22" being the norm with the majority measuring in at around 21" average.

On Strawberry this past weekend

My brother in law was in town and wanted to go fishing. We rigged him up in the H3 and the Hubby and myself in the NFO Navigator II (I say NFO cause there is another Navigator II that is a "U" tube.....not even close ) We got on the water about 10:00 am. It was a little breezy, but not too bad. We launched at a tributary of Indian Creek Bay.

We had to kick out quite a ways to get out of the Tributary since it is not open to fishing till July some time.

I got out into the bay first. To start off I used a depth charge line and a crayfish imitation. As I was floating I noticed on my sonar that several fish were hanging about a foot off the bottom (around 16'). Since nothing was happening I figured what the heck and threw on an indicator and a black and red chironomid.

The guys didn't even bring their floating line as we never deep nymph there.

Well despite the full moon, fishing was very good for me:

Fish on !!

The first of what ended up to be many fish
to be brought to hand:

Safe Release:

This is my third one.. where's yours:

Hey!! are you guys actually fishing..

or just talking to each other??

Yet another beautiful fish caught and released
safely:

Just another day of fishing on the Strawberry:

I dont think I could do what I do without my
faithful companion and fishing buddy...
Baxster :-)



I did miss several, but it was steady action for about an hour or so. Once the action died off I went back to a full sink line and the crayfish imitation. I was able to land a very nice 24". To put it into perspective the fly is 4" long.

Overall it was a GREAT DAY! for me. The guys had one fish each, but only with
my guidance. :-)

Mojo's 26" beauty: