Published - Korkers: "Where to Know Episope"

The guys over at Korkers published a "Where to Know Episode" on their site. I am really stoked! Its a great opportunity for the masses to read my poor spelling and horrible grammar... but hopefully one person will be stoked enough to get out and fish. Nick C. is an exceptional guy with a honest drive to make a better product. Stay tuned for some cool stuff coming out from these guys.


This project had enabled me to meet many great folks. One of them is Scott over at Cutthroat Stlaker. He helped me edit this piece, along with my other writing (or my attempt to write) has answered all my dumb questions and given me many great suggestions. (Thanks Scott, I really appreciate all your help and patients.) I'm not a scholar nor do I pretend to be and my goal is to just have fun with it., see where it takes me and for the most part, keep it entertaining... if only for a laugh.


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Back to Paradise

I don't get up to Logan much, but every time I do its to see "The Wizard" (Nick Jones) and his better half Steph. Each time I can hardly wait to see what he has tied up or what material he has recently skinned..er...Steph has skinned or what new place I need to explore. The tying materials never seem to end at the Jones house and the ideas on how to use them are also endless. The Wizard has produced some great patterns and I have enjoyed them as much as the Trout have... or thought they were going to. I always find myself super stoked on a new target of sorts after leaving. With a new purpose (usually afish of sorts) to fill my time for the next month it gives me something new to learn and I enjoy every minute of it. The Wiz has also been a great resource for me, helping me on my path to who knows where.. but most likely to fish . So making a trip up north is always a great thing.








Spicy and I headed up to do some separate business and a little bit of fishing. The Wizard got us a slot on the ranch, woo-hoo. Now knowing this ahead of time I came prepared with one of his "Hopper Head" or "Legless Beetle" patterns. In one particular area this is a must have... if you want to have a ton of fun. We poked around fishing a few ponds, tossing new inventions and testing old faithfuls onfeisty Bows. I decided to toss Cheech's "Snorkel Hopper" and was happy to see theat stillwater fish also appreciate a drown hopper. Spicy was tossing his brand spanking new Gallup trailer fly with great success. The Wiz was tossing a Caddis dry before going to the "hole". The call literally came in to head over. In one pool sits about 30 fish of all sizes - small ones and very large ones. We spent a few hours tossing "Hopper heads" and "legless beetle" patterns to over eager fish. You could honestly pick it out.. or at least try to...out of the crowd, that was the game. Slapping the fly on the water created an frothy uproar, the water filled with explosive color. Every fish in the run was making an attempt to eat it before the next guy. It created for some awesome takes. More than half the time you'd pull the fly off the water because a smaller fish was going to eat it. (funny isn't it, trying not to catch fish) Doing this over and over (pulling it away) you actually miss the one you were targeting, accidentally pulling it out of its mouth due to repetition of yanking it away from the smaller fish. It was an amusement park ride filled with pure untainted fun and Adrenalin to say the least. What a blast.




Leaving the area we headed down stream. Everyone was hooking fish and just relaxing. No hurrying, no need. It was a much need fun trip, better than being a kid at Disneyland and leaving always comes too soon. We stoped in at the local restaurant for some home cooking before hitting the road home. Gotta be up early (to fish) and we still have a few hours drive home, tomorrow is going to come early.

The Dungeon Master and the Prince

Fall is coming and I can feel it. The river is misty, it sets the tone for the day. Overcast sky's and cool temperatures mean on thing to me, a chance to toss some streamers. Locked with a heavy grain sink-tip and an olive S.Dungeon I'm hoping for one nice follow...and a take. The past few weeks...er, I mean... months of oversize-d terrestrial fishing has been above average so it was an easy choice for MFRW and DK. They both opted for a hopper/dropper rig.


A brief jaunt down the path leads to the days playground. In no time MFRW (Chris) was tight at the back the run, a feisty foot of a very healthy Brown Trout...then another. Drew stepped up to bat to take the head of the run. One minute I was fiddling around in my pack and the next DK is tight. A admirable fight brought a beautiful Dark Brown Trout to hand. By this time I was frantically trying to change lenses that I forgot to take my time and get a good shot. (Its out of focus a bit but you get the idea... and besides, I'm not a pro-tographer. )






OK, I had to know... whatcha using?
MFRW - Prince
DK - Prince
Dang, maybe I should change over.

By this time a few Prince Nymphs found their way to the corner of a few mouths. "You going to switch over yet" they yelled over at me in a snickering tone. "nah, just waiting for my hole". By this time I hadn't even made a cast, I was content trying to shoot a few pics and watch some friends get into action. A few more, this time MFRW stuck one on top. OK, I'm in the game now.



Taking turns up the river we all managed to bag fish. Streamer fishing was great, very visual and the action was nonstop. We rounded the bend where the water widens and runs fast with pockets. This was an entertaining obstacle to fish. A ton of flashes, follows and even a few takes. Boulders and drift wood crate an interesting array of casting techniques... especially the huck it and unstuck it (hang up - wiggle tip to free fly) . Ahead you can see the river takes a major left hand tun. Here lies the first of a few large deep pools. A few casts into the run you could tell it was deep. A few more casts later and a worthy specimen was getting slapped around by the articulated madness. DK grabbed my camera and snapped of a few shots while I negotiated the angles... he snapped some great pics.





The day ended and the long walk back to the car is feeling... well... long. We all had a great day and two different flies and tactics worked. Dk is moving right along and getting the hang of all the madness involved in fishing. Off to Logan tomorrow.

The Headwaters

If you fish with me you know that I can never make up my mind, too many places to session and oh so little time. Talking with MFRW (Chris) doesn't help with the decision as he has is also on a quest to hit every nook and cranny searching for new adventures and it just adds more waters to the already long list.... but that's not always a bad thing either. After a few phone calls and some Internet weather searches the choice was made to venture MFRW's home water and its tributary's. It been awhile since either of us ventured up that way, I was looking forward to seeing an old friend and I'm certain Chris was too.


The drive is a quick one compared to the 4-6 hour drives I have been on lately... and with MFRW at the wheel time really flies if you know what I mean. One the way to the destination we pass a ton of water, its hard to pass up all this pristine water with nobody around, we keep with the original idea and keep moving. Arriving at the spot it was awesome. The colors of nature are changing and right before my eyes I am witnessing a transformation of one beauty to the next, I love the fall. I couldn't help to think that this was a good call, I was glad we came.

A little walk through the colorful forest was required to get to the small stream, followed by a brief down-climb into the canyon. The pallet of nature weighed heavy on my mind, so did the anticipation of finding the small Cutthroats, I felt alive. While walking deeper into the headwaters I couldn't help to think of how amazing the forest really is and of how there is no way I'll ever be able to capture this beauty with my camera...but I'll try and if it sucks, I'll use photoshop....if that sucks, I'll use the delete button, I've pretty much mastered that function.

Looking at the small fast water stream its hard to believe that there are large fish up here. But to those who know this gem, its hard to land them. The larger fish turn and run down stream through rocks, snags ans pools. More often than not I never land them. But I get to observe them feeding and doing whatever fish do before they take my fly. My heart is always racing before I cast to the 16" trophy, it skips a beat when I hook into it and bursts when I loose it. Although some dandy fish were hooked, none of the bruisers were landed. Although, twice the fish that broke us off was landed. This happened to Chris first then a bend later it happened to me. I had been fishing a Red Grand Hopper lately with good success and dropped a bead head off it. The fish took my dropper and snapped me off faster than.. well, I don't know.. it was just fast. Then I noticed my red hopper "swimming" upstream and holding in a shallow seam. I walked over and the hopper moved upstream again. Sweet! As I reached down to grab the fly I thought about the hook and how I was going to grab it quickly and hold on tight without getting hooked. I slowly moved my hand to the fly and felt the foam and tried to pinch it on the side. The fish took off and moved between a rock and a hard place... perfect! In my mind I said screw it and just went for it, lucky I got a good hold of the fly and far away from the hook. Miraculously, I landed the fish. I laughed out loud for I don't know how long, what a hoot! This small fat fish has left a lasting impression in my mind, I will forever remember that little guy.... and the beast MFRW lost, er, broke off, would loved to have seen that beauty.





A few unidentified bugs - yeah one is a bit out-of-focus... seems to always be the case with me, especially lately. Oh well, live and learn I guess.

The Proving Grounds - Testing, Testing, Testing

Cheech called, he wants to go catch some Trout.... I know this sounds odd but the bass are getting a day off. Called Ralphy and set a date.


With the summer ending and fall around the corner now is the last chance to test out any last large new patterns and/or see if the tweaking on others pays off. Heading out with Cheech is always great time, his boxes are full of creative creations and I always find way too many that I'd love to fish. Today was hopper time and the new"stonedflopper" was already in use so I opted to toss a new 2009 Rainy's pattern, the "Mudfoot"... but did manage to get my grubby hand on a "snorkelhopper" for later use.


The day was fantastic, a long walk in and a longer walk out created the perfect place for not seeing another soul. Some large fish were taken... and lost. I couldn't land anything on to save my life and it didn't take long before it was daily joke. The boys on the other hand landed most of theirs. I'm not sure how many different patterns Cheech tied on but its usually alot. You never know what might work. Ralphy for the first time in a long time actually fished a pattern that he didn't tie.... it didn't seem to interfere with the catching. A few never before fished patterns produced nicely. I have been fishing them for a while now with great success but I'll leave it up to Cheech to spill those beans. The patterns that I received from Rainy's fished really well, it just that the reel man sucked. But the hopper action was extremely plentiful and that's never something to complain about.