-
Eight Species in an Afternoon
I’ve moved farther south along the Rio Grande and have set up shop for a while at Caballo Lake State Park. Yesterday I fished the river below the dam, which has almost zero flow coming out of the lake, so it is a series of ponds, really. The one closest to the dam was packed…
-
Fly Tying Friday
Let’s take a look at my San Juan flybox from my recent not-so-stellar visit to the northern New Mexican tailwater. About half of the flies in this box were tied while camped at the Crusher campground at the end of the “Quality Water”. The holdovers from previous trips include the terrestrial patterns in the lower…
-
The Ugliest Trout That I Have Ever Caught
I fished the San Juan river in New Mexico for two weeks last month, and I came away kinda disappointed. Not with the quality of the river, but with what results from the intense pressure it faces from the fly fishing industry. It’s the dark side of catch and release. I’ve caught plenty of trout…
-
Doin’ the San Juan Shuffle
The San Juan river in New Mexico, below the Navajo Dam, is one of the more frequently mentioned tailwaters in the country when it comes to fish size and quantity. I’ve heard some people even assert that it is the best river in the whole country, if not the world! There are supposedly around 10,000…
-
Big Hoppers in the Nevada Desert
A Trip to the Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge On my way north from So Cal heading back to Montana, I stopped at a BLM campsite in the Owens river valley that had a tiny blue line running through it on the map. I walked for a couple of hours looking for gaps in the…
-
Another June Day on the Henrys Fork in Idaho
Some Fish, Some Bugs and a Bugatti When I only have to go back three posts to find last year’s story about brown drakes on the Henrys Fork river, it’s a pretty clear indication I’ve not been keeping up with the demands of my little stake on the Internet here. Well, I’ve been busier than…
-
Brown Drakes on the Henry’s Fork
A few days chasing brown drakes on the Henry’s Fork near Last Chance, ID.
-
Fish of the Day: 06/27/2021
Here’s a lovely brown trout from the Madison River in Montana, near the Ruby Creek campground. I remember that day well: salmonflies were popping, the caddis were hovering, the Goose fire had not yet started to darken the skies… This fish deserves her own gallery…
-
Henry’s Bugs: Opening Day at Harriman Ranch, Henry’s Fork, Idaho
I’ve turned over a lot of rocks in the knee-deep waters of the Henry’s Fork, the famous Snake River tributary that flows past Last Chance, Idaho. There are long stretches of time where there are no rising fish to be spotted, and my curiosity leads me to wonder what they are eating when they are…
-
Boondocking for Flyfishers: Steiner Flat, Trinity River, CA
In the winter of 2017, I attempted to catch a California winter steelhead on the swing. I spent three months on the attempt, and did not succeed… though I did get one under a damn bobber with an egg pattern (but that’s another story). That winter, the long drought broke, and all of the rivers…