Wind Rivers 2010 - Cold and Snowy

Anytime you hike the Winds in mid September there’s a good chance for bad weather.  On this trip Travis and I got it all, freezing temperatures, gale force winds, snow and a bit of sun.  Travis left Phoenix and 98˚ weather for Utah’s mid 70˚ to Wyoming’s mid 20˚.  Okay, so the hike in was great.  When we parked at the trailhead the truck was reading 64˚, you can’t get a better backpacking temps then that.   After a 7 ½ mile hike we made base camp, got camp setup, pumped water and got settled in. 

Day 2

Overnight the temps plummeted down to the low 20’s, with high winds.  The wind wasn’t howling to bad when we got to our lake, we made our way through a boulder field to our fishing spot when the winds kicked up.  I’m talking full on gale force winds, we hunkered down behind a massive boulder, found some wood and started a fire.  We spent the next 5 hours hunkered behind this boulder.  Travis was spinner fishing and I had my fly rod.  When the winds dropped down to around 30mph I put on a big old woolly bugger, climbed out on a boulder and let the wind do the casting for me.

I had barley started stripping in my line when I got my first hit, and then the second hit came from behind me.  Another gust of wind hit me so hard I was going forward heading for the water, somehow I stopped myself from going over.   I crouched down and continued to pull in the large cut I had on the end of my line.  That was my only fish for the day, the wind was blowing so hard by the time I landed this one fish.  After unhooking this big fat cut I had to run back to the boulder field to get out of the wind.  That evening we hiked up around a small stream by camp, in my river photos you can see the grass is swirling all over the place due to the winds.

Day 3

                We woke to a snow covered tent, calm winds and colder temperatures.  The sun was trying to make its way out.  We changed plans and headed off to a higher lake to fish.  The fishing was pretty good, I ended up using wet flies all day.  If I remember right, the morning of day 4 it was nice and sunny for our hike out.  We should have stayed another day.

Yellowstone - September 2010

This year I was accompanied by Boyd and Kory for a later then normal fly fishing trip to Yellowstone.   September this year was hotter than normal, the rivers were running low and slow.  That killed off most of the big holes, gravel, sand bars we fish.

We ended up fly fishing the Yellowstone River most of the trip, we hiked in to a few other spots to try our success.  The smaller rivers and low water levels produce fewer fish then were use too.  The NP website had major bear warnings for the areas we fish.  We had no problems with the bears this year.  Enjoy the photo tour.

 Kory - Streamer fish

 Ladd - Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout

 

Kory - Drifting a fly

 LBC and Kory

 Lunch on the river

 Yellowstone BEAR WARNING

 Breather - On the edge of the Yellowstone River

 Closeup on the Yellowstone

 LBC - Yellowstone Cutthroat

 Kory with another Yellowstone cut

 River Otters - Then next mile of river we fished was dead, I wonder why?

Common merganser family - Boyd trying to fish

 Boyd fishing the mighty Yellowstone River

 Ladd with another one on

 Kory - Checking out our next stretch of river

 Evening river shots

 Evening river shots - Last day, Fly Fishing Yellowstone

Yellowstone and Blacksmith Fork Canyon

Kory and I made it up to the park with the familys earlier in the month, this was a sight seeing trip more than anything.  We did manage to fish the north east corner of the park this year, we didn't land many fish and the two big ones we should have are swimming around with my copper john and Kory's elk hair caddis.  We took a quick drive up Blacksmith Fork Canyon for some fly fishing this past Saturday.  Lots of little browns, made for a fun morning.

Blacksmith Fork - Cache Valley

Kory fishing Blacksmith Fork

American Elk - Patriotic

Gallatin Creek - Trail head

Fly Fishing Yellowstone

Gallatin Creek

Old foot bridge

Clepsydra Geyser - Yellowstone

Mammoth - Pot Gut

Northern Utah Backcountry

After years of talking about it Kory and I finally hiked into this small backcountry river in Northern Utah. The hike starts off fairly steep through some bare cactus covered hill sides, both Wiley and Max found out fast what cactus is. Crossing over one of the ridgelines Max buried some prickly pear cactus deep into his paw. After a few stops to clean out the dog’s paws we dropped off the ridgelines to stay out of the cactus. Our hike in took just under an hour and a half to get in, for April weather we sure lucked out, we had to ditch our light jackets fast and start applying sun screen.

Right off Kory caught the biggest Bonneville Cutthroat Trout of the day, after that the fish didn’t get any bigger. As we started fishing up stream we noticed a few bugs skimming across the water, with in another 30 minutes two small hatches kicked off. This was one heck of a Saturday to get away, we both pulled out 12 Cut’s on this trip. In a way we lucked out, after this Saturday with mid 60’s weather we didn’t see much more of them for another two months. Northern Utah has had one of the wetter springs that I can ever remember.

 
 

New Years Eve on the River

With a slow workday today and temps above 2 degrees I thought I would take Max fishing down on the farm. The action started off fast, three brown's with-in 5 minutes. As Max and I moved on up stream the old boy decided to clear the river out for me, he jumped 7 mallards on the next hole. For the next five minutes he swam up current looking for more ducks, those darn labs just don't listen much when it comes to water. I decided it would be best to skip the next three fishing holes to find water Max hadn't disturbed. The next hole was uneventful, but the next hole would provide more action, not the action I wanted. After cutting up around the next bend I was cutting through a few groupings of dog woods and stepped out on what I thought was snow and rocks to find thin ice....oh yeah baby. I dropped right through a under cut, next thing I know is my thighs and feet are getting really cold. I think I sat there for 5 seconds before I knew what was happening. I grabbed a hand full of dog woods and pulled myself up out and ran for a log to sit on. I have never felt that kind of cold in my life! I then proceeded to pull off my waders and drain out 20 gallons of water. It was warmer having nothing on and the wind blowing across my bare feet then it was being in those waders. After ringing out all the water I headed back to the barn yard for warmer weather. Boy oh boy did the truck heater feel good!!!

















While I'm posting I better put a photo of the little treat I got under the Christmas tree this year. Erica hooked me up with this little beauty (Orvis Battenkill Mid Arbor).