Location X, June 2010

In the interest of confidentiality, there will be no fish tales.  Only pictures.  In two days of fishing, I boated 3 tarpon and jumped a fourth.  This year was a great success.  All fish were in the 80 - 100 lb class.  Thanks to my lovely wife for joining me in the boat on the second day.  The second day had the most action (landed two and jumped one).  Without her, I would not have these fabulous pictures taken on her new camera.  For that matter, without her I probably would never have found Location X.  Thanks also to my guide who will remain nameless.   

Fish #1 (jumped):

Fish #2

You'll notice 3/4 of my rod in the water on this one. Luckily, we were able to run this fish down, re-attach the three sections of my rod that came off, and land this beauty.

Fish # 3

Current River 5-24-2010

Contrary to the fishing report, contrary to the water level report, contrary to the guide reports, and contrary to the weather reports, we decided to hit the river this past Sunday.  The water was up, to say the least.  It was the dirtiest, the highest, and the fastest I've ever seen the Current.  We paid for it with blood, bruises, broken rods, and big browns.  It was a day to remember. 

John ("JD"), Joe ("Trip"), Johnston ("Stone")  and I hit the Current this past weekend.  Armed with sinking lines and huge streamers, we went for the big dogs.  Our 2.5 hour drive to the river at 6 a.m. could have turned out to be completely worthless but we needed a fix.  I needed a fix.  It's been since March since I've caught a trout and I didn't really care about the conditions.  We rolled out with hopes of hitting it big on heavy tackle and really, really large streamers.  We were pleased with the results, despite sacrificing a little bit of ourselves and our equipment to the river.

Turning the corner and dropping down that familiar decline into Montauk, I couldn't believe how off-color the water was.  I have fished the river as high as 1.9 on the gage at Montauk.  I'd never tried it at 2.4.  The clarity was like watered down chocolate milk that had settled for a day or so.  On the banks you could see the bottom but places where the water was more than a foot deep were lost to the heavy colored flow of runoff falling down out of the hills.

The river was moving.  Enough to the point where US Forest Rangers were patroling in a 16 foot john boat powered by a jet outboard keeping floaters off the water.  In fact, a large group of floaters (15+) who had come down for a week long float had to delay their departure from Baptist when the "fuzz" motored up stream as they were about to put in.  I felt bad for the group.  I couldn't imagine anything worse than being forced to delay an amazing float simply because Rangers didn't think it was safe........Oh wait a minute, their layover was on one of the best trout rivers I've ever known.  Beats sitting at a gate in the airport. 

When we arrived, we decided to stay as far upstream as possible.  The thought was that there were fewer tributaries and drainage ditches dumping muddy water into the river.  It was a complete gamble.  Stepping into the water, I was seriously nervous. I basically convinced these guys that it was okay to go.  To spend an entire Sunday fishing on a river that was borderline unfishable.  I jumped into lead water thinking that if anyone knew where the fish would be it was me.  I wanted to break the ice so everyone knew that we had not made the drive in vain.  I casted and casted.  I had two pretty sizable fish roll on my streamer, but I didn't land anything.  After 200 yards or so of ripping streamers with a couple strikes, I decided to change flies and run the same stretch again.  I slid up river past the boys, and Stone and Trip leap-frogged me.  That's when the first good strike of the day came.  Bang!! Stone was on the board with a good brown.

 Trip hit next as JD and I hung out up river enjoying our surroundings.

As the day progressed, JD and I got more serious about fishing.  It did not pay off.  Stone and Trip kept landing fish. 

The day proved to be particularly bad for me.  Despite landing some non-picture worthy fish, I ended up losing the magnet for my net, breaking my 6 wt., and taking a fall so hard on my knee that I missed two days of work this week.  Strangely, all of this happened in the same spot on the river.

After the morning, we moved the car and fished down stream.  About 200 yards from the car, I was adjusting my net and the magnet fell off into a heavy riffle.  Gone instantly.  About five minutes after that, my fly got hung up on a log across a very deep run.  When I gave it good tug (and I had 1X flouro on) the fucking rod broke in three places.  Must have been a manufacturer's defect right?  I scooted back up to the car, grabbed a spare rod, and we fished down stream quite a ways. 

At one of Stone's favorite spots, down from my hell hole, he managed to land several fish including this big 20 inch female.

In light of Stone's pig, he and I volunteered to run upstream to shuffle the car so JD and Trip could streamer fish their way down another mile or so.  It proved to be pretty productive for them--not so much for Stone and me.  We were in a hurry because we both wanted to get another hour of fishing in before we had to go home.  We were trucking through the woods.  When we got to a place where we had to cross the river, I jumped out in front charging through the water like a fucking grizzly bear.  Apparently, I'm not a grizzly bear.  I took the digger of all diggers.  I tripped on a submerged log and when I fell I threw my hands up in the air so as not to destroy another rod.  This caused the entire weight of my body (215 lbs) to land on my knees; specifically, my left knee which happened to fall squarely on a pointed rock.  I ripped my wading pants, split my knee open to the point where it probably should have been stitched, and I bruised my knee so bad that I couldn't walk for the next two days.  Guess where all this went down?  The same fucking place where I lost my magnet and shattered my 6 wt.  I think the Current River Gods are telling me there's a very serious fish I need to catch in this hole.  Wishful thinking right? 

Anyway, I iced my knee on the way home and, as of now, I should be ready for my tarpon trip this weekend.  Back to Location X.  I'm really pumped.  Hopefully, in a week or so I'll have forgotten about my knee due to a few 100 + lb tarpon on the end of my line.  

P.S. Never under estimate the power of the Current River.       

Bass Weekend at Sayersbrook

I need to make this quick because our tech guys at work finally limited usage of personal websites.  This will be a short one.

Last weekend Stuart and I headed to Sayersbrook Bison Ranch in Potosi, MO for a bachelor party weekend.  Activities included fishing, shooting, and golf.  I was pretty much in heaven.  Here are some shots from the weekend.  Stuart ended up catching two bass on frog poppers that were upwards of 5 lbs.  My big fish, caught on a spinning rod, weighed in at 4.5.  Great weekend and a good opportunity to catch some large mouth. 

April 16

Well I turned 30 today.  I had to update my profile description which formerly said "...an attorney in my late twenties."  I don't feel older.  I sound older.  I still don't think of myself as an adult.  Is there something wrong with that?  All I want to do is fish and hunt and sometimes play golf.

I was trying to remember if I had any goals I wanted to accomplish by the time I was 30.  Only one thing came to mind.  I used to tell myself that I wouldn't get married until I was 30.  I guess I screwed that up.  Oh well.  Getting married at 29 was one of the best decisions I've ever made.  I think I found the perfect match.

Who needs goals anyway? 

I'm gonna leave work today and go fishing.

In Need of a Quick Fix....

Unfortunately, my chances of hitting the river this weekend are dwindling.  I really want to float and camp but all my so-called "fishing buddies" have bull shit to attend to.  I've been trying to satisfy my craving locally after work.  Thank God for bass and golf course ponds!

March 2010

March was a good month for me.  Including the weekend discussed below with Joe, I was able to fish every weekend of the month!  My wife is pretty damn cool.  Each trip was a little different.  I had sunny days and rainy days; warm days and cold days; low water and highwater.  I floated and waded; I fished the Current and the Meramec; and I caught fish on dries, droppers, streamers and nymphs.  All were great trips. 

The second weekend of March (13th-14th), I floated the Current with Eddie.  The weather was beautiful.  Sunny skies, mid to upper 50s, BUT, we decided to throw streamers anyway.  We fished hard and put some decent fish in the boat.  In my new favorite spot, Eddie moved two real nice browns--one on a streamer and one on a caddis dry.  We each ended up in the double digits after the float.

At the end of the day after the float, we drove upstream to see if we could catch an evening caddis hatch.  We did.  We fished for about 30 or 40 more minutes and dominated fish on dries.  Nothing super big but we had excellent numbers.  Probably a dozen fish each in that short stent.

March 20th the weather was supposed to be nasty.  Highs in the upper forties and an 80% chance of rain.  Joe and I decided to try streamers on the Meramec.  The river looked great.  It's changed quite a bit over the last few years and there appears to be a lot more good trout habitat.  All MDC needs to do now is change this to a Blue Ribbon stream so there are a greater number of fish.  Joe and I fished hard, sticking several fish on streamers.  For example: 

As always with streamers, you find yourself trying to make the perfect cast--under logs, over rocks, and on to the bank.  These risks do not always pay off.  Don't try this at home.  This is a good way to end your day quickly:

 When the rain quit, we switched over to nymphs and the bite picked up signficicantly.  Joe stuck this beautiful bow in a familiar spot:

All in all, it was a good afternoon on the Mac. 

The last weekend in March, my boy Doug and I hit the Current to wade fish.  This was the worst weather yet, or at least it was supposed to be.  The forecast called for heavy rain and storms Saturday night into Sunday morning.  We were risking a blown out river by going but I figured rising, chalky water would be good for streamers.  We decided to leave a little later in the morning (6:45) to see how much the USGS gauge at Montauk would rise over night.  At first glance in the morning, the river looked like it didn't come up at all.  Maybe it didn't rain there?  It was pouring at my house.  Doug and I went for it anyway.  The guage never lies right?  About an hour and a half down highway 44, I realized that the USGS website was down and it hadn't been updated since 10 pm the previous evening.  Considering it had rained all night, I thought we were fucked. 

When we arrived, the river was up probably 6 or 8 inches higher than it had been when I was with Eddie.  The water was also slightly stained which was perfect.  The risk paid off.  We absolutley dominated fish on streamers.  It took about a half hour to find out what was hot.  Once we did, each of us fished the same fly all day.  We caugh fish steadily and managed to land a few that pushed the 18 inch mark.

It was really one of the best days I've had streamer fishing on the Current in a while.  I moved at least two fish that were huge (i.e. 22 +), and stuck probably 30 or 40 on the day.  Doug, who is relatively new to the sport, really took to streamer fishing.  He smoked this 17 inch rainbow all by his lonesome and I think he had a career changing day. 

At about 4 in the afternoon the sun came out and Doug and I switched over to dries.  We stuck a few on top to close out the day and hit the road.  What an awesome day!  What an awesome month!!

Current River 3/7/10

This past Sunday was a perfect day for fishing.  It was a beautiful day, the water conditions were excellent for dries and droppers, and I had good company to fish with - Mr. Joe Scott.  Check out this tight loop:

Being that it was the first weekend of trout season, Joe and I decided we'd float to get away from the crowds.  It was the right call.  We did not see a single fisherman the entire day.  I really couldn't believe it.  It was also nice fishing out of the boat because we were able to haul our cooler, lunch, lots of tackle, and about 6 fly rods.  I love not having to re-rig every time you want to change techniques.  We fished with dries, nymphs, streamers - we even through some sinking lines. 

The morning started out pretty slow.  We caught fish on varrious patterns but couldn't seem to find the magic bug.  The caddis were coming off pretty good and I managed to stick one small wild rainbow on a dry, but the fish did not seem to be into the caddis, or at least not the adult caddis.  We tried caddis worms, soft hackles, pupa, emergers, dries - nothing was consistent. 

I spent a significant amount of time checking to see what was going on under water.  Turning over various rocks revealed caddis worms, several different colors and sizes of mayfly nymphs, stone fly nymphs, sculpin, scuds, etc.  I love the fact that Current is such a clean, healthy stream.  I also saw a lot of crawdads.  This guy was right next to the boat so I decided to snap some underwater shots:

The coolest bug I found, and this is only the second time I've seen one of these on the Current, was an acquatic worm (i.e. the San Juan Worm).  Check this sucker out:

I don't know why, but I've always felt like I'm cheating when I'm fishing San Juans.  Something about throwing a fluorescent worm just screams trout park.  Now I won't feel as bad when I tie one of these on.  If this is actually part of the fish's diet, and not just some powerbait-esque attractor, I'll be down to fish it more often.  I wonder if I could throw it as a dropper.  That would be cool.

Anyway, the further down river we floated, the better the fishing got.  Perhaps it was just a time of day thing beause I know the holes in the upper section can fish well, but the fish started nailing caddis and steamers down river.  I couldn't believe they were hitting streamers on a bright sunny day with clear water!  I was not complaining.  

We stopped and spent the majority of the aftenroon in what I think is my new favorite stretch of river.  No chance I'm sharing the location.  We ended up netting probably 25-30 fish in the afternoon.  Mostly browns but, unfortunately, none were real big.  Our largest was probably around 14 or 15. 

It was a really cool afternoon because it was pretty much all sight casting with dries and droppers.  The fish were going ape-shit over the fly too.  It would hit the water and they would almost fight each other over who got to eat it.  They were very active.  I was really digging it. 

Great day on the water.  It was my first time back to the Current in quite a while.  I didn't realize how much I'd missed it.