Day 2 - Salmonflies and Cicadas and Drakes.. Oh My....

It was dawn when the alarm started its irritating beeping noise…well, not quite dawn yet but close enough. I have been sitting at my desk with one eye in a full deep sleep, when I heard Nate's truck coming down the street in the early silence of the morning. Yesterday was a long day, today is going to be the same…although I don't mind long days and to clarify a bit, it was actually a long epic day. The drive to the Salmon fly oasis once seemed like the longest redundant drive ever. Nowadays, the two and a half hour-ish drive goes by pretty quick and today it was flying. The thought of casting big foam flies didn't help with the uncontrollable anxious feeling that I am having. Top water action is one of my absolute favorite ways to catch fish... many hours have been spent day dreaming of this scenario, and I'm sure I'm not alone on this one. Today is one of those rare days where it actually might happen, again... yes I am a bit spoiled but many days go by that are not so kind. One out of many isn't too much to ask for.





The river was an empty playground; once again nobody else was around. We picked a spot, rigged up and headed to the water. I am not all that prepared today. I've neglected my fly supply and haven't had a chance to make it to the shop. Yesterday I ran out of all my mid-sized Salmon fly patterns. I had no choice but to stop at Cabelas, as they were the only shop open that late. To my surprise it was doom at first glance into the lonely fly bin containing a less than par Salmon fly selection, one pattern is all they had. It wasn't like they were out either, it appears that they just have a poor selection…I wish Fish Tech was open 24/7. I had no choice but to tie on the foam thingy in disgust. Nate on the other hand has a sick pattern he tied last night, a low profile foam body with all the right characteristics. I on the other hand have a box full of Montana and Idaho patterns that are way to big for these little guys and a half dozen overpriced excuses for a pattern.



The fishing was fantastic. It was one of those days where everything just worked out. My six flies that I bought at Cablelas were gone in less than an hour… Chewed to pieces, literally…. OK, I broke one off, maybe two. A fly would last a few fish before the body and bullet head were totally obsolete. So there I was starring at my box, full of flies that are way too big for these fish, when through dense dense hackle, buldgingfoam and poly posts I saw it. Cheech's science experiment was staring at me, it was the right size and the right colors. That fly took some names that day, not that I was surprised though. I have learned that when the man says, "try this" you take it. Sometimes they look a little out of the ordinary but they all have their place when the time is right. Today was one of those times and I was again grateful to my friend and his tying disease. The fly held up for the remainder of the day, there is something to be said for quality. Nate's pattern worked just like it was designed to, awesome. After catching off the top on the big deep holes, Nate tied on a little something-something. Low and behold a fish, then another. So at each hole we'd fish the top and toss the something-something. It was interesting to see the difference in taste of these little Browns. Each big hole produced a few on top and a few underneath. Rather than rigging a full nymph rig, we'd tie on a big heavy nymph and fish it like a streamer/nymph/Czech/whatever-you-can-think-of. It was entertaining to say the least, sure am glad I'm fishing with Ralph. He's a pretty smart guy with interesting tactics. I have much to learn.

Even though the fishing was off the hook, no pun intended, I was focused on snapping some pics. The light was good, big bugs were out and Nate was killing it, there was a ton of different stuff to choose from so I tried my best to take advantage of it. The practice is good form me and I really enjoying trying to "get the shot"…. But seldom do. What I do get is a ton of practice in learning, which I really enjoy. Today I learned a ton about taking pics and even more on how to fish by observing Ralphy through the lens.

Salmonflies and Cicadas and Drakes.. Oh My....

The three-hour drive to the water went by faster than normal. My thoughts were filled with Salmonflies, fish and more Salmonflies. My buddy DK from work came along, he's just getting back into the fishing thing and with the big bugs popping I figured there is no better time to hit the water

Arriving at the river things looked well, flows were high but nothing to fret and everyone is concentrated in the upper stretches of the river system, perhaps they don't know. Just when we started to look for the big bugs one hit the windshield, alive and well it tucked itself between the windshield wiper blades and enjoyed the free ride down the canyon. Driving down we encountered a few more, drove down some more, and observed some more … but where to start? So many times this year I have miscalculated the hatch. I'm either too far behind it and the fish are already stuffed to the gills or I'm in it and the fish are not keying in or I'm too far ahead and I spend the rest of the day driving up and down the river searching. So this time I was a bit cautious on the entry point, we decided to take our time and inspect the entire river. After who knows how many stops, a few u-turns, a phone call or two and possibly too inspections,we narrowed it down to a few miles. Then we finally just picked a spot and hoped the stars are aligned; by this time we just wanted to hit the water, so if this isn’t it, then oh well.

Pretty much right out of the gate it was crystal clear that we were right where we should be, smack-dab in the middle of the hatch with the fish on them. So you known what that means, no dropper, no weight, no two-fly tangle rigs, just one beautiful size #6 dry fly, or should I say foam fly. For the rest of the day it was just good fun fishing. Golden Stone's, Salmonflies, and Drakes were all coming off and Cicadas were filling the backgrounds with powerful sounds of natures finest music… it was loud to say the least!

The water was a bit high and somewhat turbulent but the great fishing out weighted any insignificant complain. It was actually a fun challenge; sometimes the only way to make it up river is to use the nearby trees/brush as a "helping hand". Basically, you hold on to the vegetation and pull yourself along until your at a save spot, usually a lone rock somewhere in the mix of the white water or a small indentation on the bank…. And try not to think about "what if the branch breaks".... So far, so good.

By mid afternoon the fishing went from great to all time. Now the fish size here is not of "trophy" status but who the hell cares anyway. These 8 - 16" fish are fat and strong, so healthy and they put up a burly fight… they have the home court advantage and school you from time to time. Slapping the water in any pocket got a direct response and it kept the leapfrog game moving at a fast pace. Who knows how many fish were caught, nobody was keeping track but the fast fishing was very welcomed and the large flies were a sensation. A day to remember…funny though, I forgot to get pics of fish, I had bugs on my mind I suppose ; )

Cicadas, Cicadas, Cicadas

Andy called and wanted to head out. It's been awhile since we had fished together, I was looking forward to it. Although, we chitchat about fish, areas and patterns, it's just not the same. This trip a few others joined us, Nate and Spice Boy and down the trail we went. I guess it was more like, down and then up, up some more, with a sideways twist through some brush to a little gem with fun fishing.
Mid -way through the hike Ralphy stopped, so we all stopped. Then it hit, man it was really, really loud. Cicadas were everywhere, not just a few here and a few there but far and wide they could be heard. One shake of the tree and a half dozen would take off. The grass, willows and trees were buzzing with life; it was exciting…spirits were high. As the morning heated up they took flight, very cool to see.



We did notice a few different bugs. For one, there are two different sizes and colors of Cicadas. The smaller of the two is light black in overall color with more of a yellow/red rather than red/orange or orange/red markings overall. The larger of the two is dark black. But there seems to be numerous color variations of this one. They were either black with orange or black with red on top. Then there is the underbelly. Some had a red underbelly with black segmentations, some were black with red segmentations and there was also an all red and all black one. I did notice that the "tail" (?) color seems to differ as well… red, black, orange and something that I only saw twice was white. The wings are very translucent and surprisingly colorful in a prism sort of way. A few of the larger ones had an odd marking right on the shell of the head… red half moon shapes with a few dots, its very cool looking. Holding these things is like holding a small, um, shaky thing that’s quaking uncontrollably fast like some sort of wind up toy. At this point, I am sure everyone was thinking that nature is astonishing and very imaginative… and I'll add bizarre to say the least. At first step the water was a bit temperature cool, I was wet wading, but for the rest of the day it was perfect. Rigging up its fascinating to see what everyone is using. I love flies so seeing a new pattern is very entertaining for me. Andy's nymph got a few looks, not because it looked good but more so because it looked, well, "special". He just started tying last year but what he came up with was essentially imaginative. I'm no great tier but I know what I like. Spicy harassed him and said that it wouldn't work but he put it on anyway. Andy and Spicy had on a dropper and Nate and I stayed with a single dry. We took turns playing the old "baseball fishing rules". It keeps things moving rather quickly…. everyone unfortunately had three strikes on a single small fish at some point in time, it's always a bummer when your "out" due to a small fish that's spazzing out on your fly. But it keeps the smack talk going.

At first step the water was a bit temperature cool, I was wet wading, but for the rest of the day it was perfect. Rigging up its fascinating to see what everyone is using. I love flies so seeing a new pattern is very entertaining for me. Andy's nymph got a few looks, not because it looked good but more so because it looked, well, "special". He just started tying last year but what he came up with was essentially imaginative. I'm no great tier but I know what I like. Spicy harassed him and said that it wouldn't work but he put it on anyway. Andy and Spicy had on a dropper and Nate and I stayed with a single dry. We took turns playing the old "baseball fishing rules". It keeps things moving rather quickly…. everyone unfortunately had three strikes on a single small fish at some point in time, it's always a bummer when your "out" due to a small fish that's spazzing out on your fly. But it keeps the smack talk going.





Hitting the water with the old fishing partner was great. A little bit about Andy… he has been fishing only once or twice until a few years ago. Andy was hired on as a sherpa for our winter projects. Mainly because he is very avy savvy, he gots some serious skills and he can pack a ton of weight while hiking uphill in the snow and faster than most. Spring came and snowboards were traded for fishing rods and the exploration has never stopped. At that time it was hard for me to find someone to go with that wanted to take brutal hikes into an unidentified area just to see what the water looks like, so I didn't mind trying to teach him what not to do. It's been such a cool thing watching someone learn how to fish. The progression and ideas are awesome àSpin to fly and then of course, fly to tie. Almost everyday for a full year we hit the water. Now, I am no teacher nor will I pretend to be one as I am still a student myself. But the fact is it actually helped me out just as much, if not more. Going back to the basic fundamentals was a great thing for me as I had to re-teach myself, a few times, in order to try to explain things… then the questions poured in, so many questions, how am I supposed to know even half of em'. If you know Andy, you know he is a meticulous guy about what he does and how he does it, he's always making changes to his gear from Hockey to snowboarding and now its fishing. Genius ideas really, should be doing that for a living. In order to make those changes, for good or bad, you have to understand a little too much about… um, uh, well, lets just call it stuff. What I am trying to say is, all the questions were technical and I had no clue what the answers where, most of them I still don't. I probably said something like its not that tech, fish are stupid or something along those lines. Over the past year I've really enjoyed trying to educate myself in order to answer them, after all I wanted to know as well. So today on the river it was great to see what he has learned on his own and I think we all commented on how fast he learned it in such a short amount of time. I suppose that like anything, you don't need a lifetime of practice to progress at a fast pace. Just look at the snow kids shredding in the park, their only 10 and they posses more skill than 90% of people who have been doing it their entire life. You got or you don't but the main connection is to have fun and progressing is just one small way to keep things fun. Some steps are easy, some take a few tries and some take years to master. Yes practice makes perfect but sometimes people just get it, in my opinion (whatever than means), Andy gets it. The funniest thing happened, Andy's stupid fly absolutely slayed it… it's now called the "Raggedy Andy" after the messy tie and interesting shapes. I was proud of him.





During the day I found myself off in my own world most of the time, seemed like Nate was too. Somehow we were always behind the others wandering around with our cameras observing the little things. From time to time I would here someone shouting my name from upstream, it was my turn at "bat". After it was right back to the camera. The day couldn't have been better, fishing was fantastic, the picture taking options were endless and nobody else was around. Even at the end of the day the Cicadas were signing at full bore, what an amazing place.

Stillwater Sight Fishing - Cicadas and Cutthroats

Got the good word from Ralphy that Cicadas were being taken without hesitation on a local stillwater... thanks man!! That made it easy to decided what to do for tomorrows adventures.... Mike D. was down... we headed out bright and early armed with a hand full of Rainy's Criss Cross Cicada patterns.

photo courtesy of Mike Doughty

Hiking to the water and staying high on top of the bank/cliffs I have a great view of whats going on down below. The first glimpse was a bit too much, need to focus, wow. It was surreal, hundreds, yes, hundreds of fish swimming everywhere. Bait balls of all size, shape and age class were swirling about. Fish in the 12-16" range were thrashing through these tightly formed swirling balls of joy, braking them up for a split second before they returned to formation. On the outskirts of all the commotion were the big fish. Waiting patiently for anything to show signs of an easy meal. Closer in, about a foot or less off the rocks, are larger fish chasing each other at a fast pace up and down the shore line, not interested in anything but they were big! Focusing back to the main canvas I scanned for the feeders. For a minute there I was thinking that this scenario was something that only happens on the Ocean, or at least that I had seen, I have never seen anything like this before in fresh water. It was so bleeping cool and I was stoked to be able to see it with my own eyes.

With a birds eye view the trick is to find the larger fish that is in feeding mode. Once you have a lock on your target, you hike down and make a "leading" cast without spooking them. These fish were not picky what so ever and the second the big foam bug hit the water the fish were immediately on it. Swimming over at a good pace with white mouths open there was zero hesitation for the, I love this part, gulp. Watching a large fish sip your fly is nerve racking, especially here. Most of the time your 10-15' about the water, so you need to wait even longer to set the hook. It felt like eternity until the head turned down. Each time, for a split second, I always remember all the fish that I had lost because I was too impatient... or not well seasoned enough to know to wait or just sucking as usual, but sometimes the excitement is still too much and I blow it.

After I got home I couldn't get my mind off the sight fishing, the white mouth cutts and the anticipation of the take. I decided to head back out again. Well, I was there, same time, same place, but the fish didn't get my memo. No bait balls, no schools of small bows and no cruising fish. Although, the larger fish chasing each other around were still there... and still not interested. I did manage to pick off a few on top, I was stoked about that. But at least I know, it would have killed me to think that it was going off while I was fishing somewhere else, especially if it was slow. So now, I am kicking myself for not going to the somewhere else ; )

Korkers - Torrent Wet Wading Shoe

Korkers - Torrent Shoe



The Torrent combines the breathability and the lightweight comfort of a sandal with the support of an athletic shoe. With a closed toe and protective heel counter the Torrent is built for action. Sporting quick drying Dri-lex tm breathable air mesh, the torrent excels on trails and in water, and everywhere in between. Regardless of the activity, the torrent will keep your feet feeling cool and fresh all day, despite warm temperatures.




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Nick@Korkers was kind enough to send a pair of Torrents to me last week .... Thanks! I was stoked to finally start "wet-wading" this summer, well see what happens. It's been unbelievably hot and hiking in waders = not fun! The first trip I got a good idea of what kind of overall set-up I want.... A burly hike over yak hill in the morning heat led me to a beautiful stream with big ol' Cicadas. (trip report coming soon) From there is was through trial and error that I began to dial in my wet-wading set up.

My gear so far consisted of a pair of Korkers Torrent's, a pair of quick dry pants and a calf-high pair of SmartWool socks. In no time the pocket knife was out and I cut the sock down to a comfortable ankle high temperature. I found out the lack of elasticity on socks is not a good thing, so I tried bare foot. Well thats not really smart move with a brand new shiny pair of shoes but I had to know. The end result after 3 days and 12+ miles is that these are really comfy, a pair of light weight ankle socks (not cut) is a must and a pair of quick dry convertible pants sweetens the deal. The only thing right now that I do not like, is the fact that I didn't do this earlier!

The shoe has a built in "cuff" which fits around your ankle. Its accommodated with a strap to tighten when desired. I really like this feature. The cuff is awesome, its non-restrictive, the height and stitching caused me no irritation and it keeps sticks and rocks from finding a way in. The strap is ideal for water walking, its snug enough to keep sand and smaller objects from making it past the initial barrier of the cuff, yet its not a nuisance. I also liked this feature for when I was hiking up and down sand/gravel trails... a bit of added protection from unwanted freeloaders. All good things. There are no laces, instead there is a bungle style lace system. One pull and it tightens...easy and simple....So far so good.

I will be updating the progress in a month or two.