Green River

I took my friend Charles to the DH section of the Green River today.   He had never been fly fishing before, but he picked up casting very quickly.  In fact, he landed his first fish (a rainbow) and lost two more.  That's saying a lot since they were generating from the tuxedo hydro station and the water was pumping strong.  I picked up a few fish too.  One nice brookie and the others were browns. I missed landing to nice browns that spit the fly after a fight. We were swinging big stone flies, streamers, and san juans.  We saw some big browns sporadically feeding on top water, but couldn't ever get a fish to rise to our dries. The temp was in the high 70's, breezy, and mostly sunny.  I only managed one pic on my on my cell, and I dropped Charles' first trout before we could snap a picture.  Party foul.  All and all, it was great to be out and I was stoked that Charles landed a trout his first day out and felt a nice and felt a good size fish put a bend in his rod.

Green River brown trout

Fly Tyer

I subscribe to Fly Tyer magazine, and actually have some cool old copies from the 70's.  Here is a quote from an article in the spring issue of Fly Tyer  along with some pics of some of the old Fly Tyers I have.

Isn’t it sad how we pity ourselves when it has been too long since we last fished? Why do I not also feel for the trout, never free from predation? They never get to sleep, and they risk everything anytime they eat. They never get a reprieve, and yet here I am, chubby-cheeked and quite content as I plan their demise. I tell you, things should be different. Asking so little, trout deserve to have it easy; expecting so much, we should have it so hard. But there you go: Life isn’t fair and we don’t want it to be. Not when we have wicked plans.  -Bill Logan

 Just a few of the retro Fly Tyers

 $2 for this '79 Spring issure. I might tie up that soft hackle

 The greatest fisherman of all time resides over my tying desk

Dam Nation

It cost a lot of money to get rid of dams, but this is a very educational video about the negative impacts these dams have.  I didn't realize how many dams were in the US until I watched this video.  Thanks Worth for sharing this video with me.

The Promised Land

Recently, two friends were kind enough to invite me to fish a private stream with them.  They were so kind, that they even paid my rod fee for the stream.  They wanted me to enjoy a pre-baby fishing excursion (My wife is due in two weeks with our first).  Well, I was MUCH obliged!  The night before I was like I kid before Christmas.  Dreams of catching 100 fish,  some of those being world records, wondering what to do when I out fished my generous friends so not to crush their kind spirits.  We hit the water at 8 am, and behold! A 24 inch behemoth from the bowels of the Davidson River's private section!

Look at it when compared to those arms!  It's a massive beast!    Before we went, I had NEVER caught a fish that size. The girth on the thing was ridiculous! The fish pulled 100 yards down stream, over a couple of slippery ledges and into a deep run up to my chest.  Let me tell ya, I was tired after finally bringing this lady to the net..It was proabably a 20 minute fight....for Mason, by buddy. I netted HIS big fish. And another 20 incher HE caught... and an 18 incher my BUDDY Alan caught.  THEY caught about 12 fish between them.  Josh 'the fish whisperer" Jones only manged two fish to hand.  One massive 5 inch native rainbow, and another hawg of a 7 inch horny head sucker.  PS.  If you havn't figured it out yet, I still havn't caught a fish the size of the one pictured above.

Ain't she a beaut!  Thats what I produced on about 8 hours of private water fishing. Wounded pride.  Last night I noticed there was a fly fishing show on the dvr.  It lead off saying that this particular show was going to be designated for beginner, and even an intermediate fly fisherman wouldn't learn anything.  I watched it all.  Intensely.

Net Boy, signing out till next time!

Notice.  That's not me.  If Alan sends me his picture, I'll give him some face time too.

Simms Headwater Waders Review

I kind of lucked into a pair of Simms Headwater Waders.  I bought some close out patagonia waders off of e-bay for a great deal. They retailed at $300, but I got them for $190, which still seemed like a lot of money to spend on waders.  Waders cost too much in general these days.  Well, they sent me a women's pair of waders.  I was flattered, but not interested.  I contacted the vendor, and they apologized and I reordered.  The vendor contacted me a few days later and apologized again because they didn't have my size in stock after all.  He then offered me the Simms headwater waders (another $300 pair of waders that is NEVER on sale) for the same $190 price.  I gladly excepted his offer.

Here's the skinny. Simms are made in Montana. Check.  These headwaters are gore-tex. Check.  They are anatomically cut, have super tough reinforced lower legs, thinner but tough neoprene booties, and a really cool micro fleece lined hand warmer pocket. Check, check, check, check.  Another sweet perk lies in the leak detection department.  If you have a pinhole leak, you can blot rubbing alcohol around the suspected area inside your waders, and the waders will appear black around any leak area.  This prevents having to fill the waders full of water to look for a leak, which in turn stresses out all the seams from having gallons and gallons of water weight in the waders.

I really like these waders after a few months of use.  I feel confident bush whacking through the woods with out worrying about ripping the waders due to the tough "chaps" on front.  I love the way the fit too.  I'm 6 feet with a 33inch inseam and size 10 1/2 foot, and these fit like a glove.  I don't know if I would spend $300 on any pair of waders (that's just a lot of money), but I feel good about the $190 on I spent on these.  They should last a long, long time. 

*After a year i still dig these waders and the are doing great! 1-4-2013

I know, gear reviews stink compared to pictures of fish.  I'm going fishing Tuesday and hope to have a good report with good pics.  Salivate.

Back in Action

After acl surgery in early December, the doctor banned me from the river for 3 months. This past Saturday, I got back in the water for the first time. It was about 27 degrees on the Davidson river at 7:30 Saturday morning. After fishing for about 20 minutes, listening to what I thought was sand and grit grinding through the guides on my fly rod, I looked up to find those guides covered in ice. The guide at the tip was completely full of ice. Ice on guides equal awesome.

I knocked the ice out of my guides, and was rewarded shortly after with a 17 inch rainbow. And another one 5 minutes later. I then handed my buddy Brandon one of the blue micro eggs that I landed the two bows on (I enjoyed that too) and let him back in the honey hole.

(micro egg I tie)

We moved upstream, the day warming nicely after the sun crested the ridge, and we fished the "TU Hole" and "Humble Hole." The water was up, but clear, from the recent rains we have had. It was running 300 cfs instead of the more typical 150 cfs. The fish where really stacked up in some of the oxygenated water, actively feeding on midges. Brandon and I picked up 5 or 6 more fish over the course of the morning, but I was broke off at least 5 times on big fish. Some I didn't finesse, some were just beasts, and I lost one to a bad knot.

(size 22 red midge)

I only managed one pretty crummy picture of a brown I caught. I know I need to step my photo game up if I'm going to blog!

It was good to be back.  I tried out some knew waders I will review on the blog soon. Peace.

Mouse Hatch

My friend Worth showed me this preview for a fly fishing film from New Zealand.  Apparently some years beech trees have a bumper crops of flowers and seeds.  The abundance of seeds increase the food supply for the mice near the rivers, which in turn, increases the mouse population.  Then all the trout get fat off of eating mice that fall or swim in the drink. Years when this happens are called "The Year of the Mouse."  Leave your midge box at home. This clip shows a trout that has about 8 mice in its belly.  Real ridiculous.