Storm After Storm

August 8-9, 2010

It isn’t easy rolling out of the sleeping bag when its 39 degrees in August. Yet that’s the exact temperature it was yesterday morning when Derek and I got up at 6 am. Why get out of bed at 6 am for trout fishing? Because Hebgen Lake often produces the best Callibaetis May Fly hatch you can imagine. The hatch typically occurs shortly after sunrise and brings big rainbow trout to the surface by the bucket load. I can honestly say that when I remember my ten best lake fishing experiences, most were early mornings on Hebgen Lake in August. Just the thought of another will get me out of bed no matter what the circumstance is for the rest of my life!

Despite the unusually cold morning, we got the coffee going ASAP. Meanwhile, Derek and I checked our leaders and tied on size 16 parachute Adams, one of the best Callibaetis imitations there is. Once the coffee was done, we filled our cups and made the short drive to Hebgen from our camp on Quake Lake.

We launched the boat quick and in no time were motoring to my favorite spot. The cold temps caused some major fog but it was starting to lift with the sunrise. I was surprised there were no other boats or float tubers. It made me worry that perhaps the fishing wasn’t what it’s supposed to be on a typical August morning. Once to my spot I cut the motor and Derek fired up my stove for another batch of coffee as we drifted and awaited the Callibaetis to hatch.

As we drifted along on the nearly calm Hebgen Lake we saw the occasional rises. They were one time rises not the typical “gulper” rises that rise continuously allowing you to get a cast to them. Although the rises caught our eye, they were not continuous enough for us to put down our coffees.

A slight breeze picked up so I tossed out the windsock to slow down our drift and started slowly retrieving Callibaetis nymphs. I prefer to do this with my Rio Aqualux on my 6-weight Ross fly rod but that rig is on the bottom of Quake Lake. Instead I used my floating line and 5-weight, but worried I wouldn’t get my nymphs deep enough. Derek randomly bounced his parachute Adams around hoping a fish would find it. Miraculously a small rainbow did but he missed him.

We drifted through my favorite area about three times and never saw more than a random rise. Then, just when I was ready to try another spot I saw a rise that continued – a true gulper. I still had my nymph rod in hand so I shouted to Derek. By then I realized there were several gulpers working towards my boat. Derek saw them and dropped a perfect cast. To my delight, Derek’s fly got sipped down by the lead gulper and the fight was on.

Hebgen Lake fish fight hard and are typically larger than the ones on Quake Lake. Derek’s fish lived up to its reputation and I broke out the net to scoop up the gorgeous rainbow. After a few clicks with my camera we released him. Moments later as we were kicking back in celebration, when only a short cast in front of the boat was another gulper. Derek looked to me to make a cast but my dry fly rig had a nymph on it so I frantically told him to go for it. He did and it was another good cast followed by another great eat from a slightly larger rainbow.

That would be the last fish of mention of not only yesterday but also today. Soon after Derek’s second Hebgen rainbow the weather took a turn for the worst. A gust of wind blew us off the lake. We took a lunch break in hopes things would improve but it got worse. Thunderstorms roared through with heavy rain, hail, more wind and way too much lightening to think about wetting a line. The storms lasted the rest of the day and all night. It was bad enough we had to eat our ramen noodles with forceps let alone in the rain. And we even awoke to a storm at our Quake Lake camp this morning. With the weather like this, another lake day was not in order. Instead we drove to the Henry’s Fork and waded the Ranch. Unfortunately by the time we got there the early hatch of PMD’s was over and then the storms moved in again. We each landed a couple of scrappy 13”ers and called it trip – and a darn fun one at that despite the weather.

It was and incredible three days of fishing and great to fish once again with Derek. Now its Granny’s days off and she has big plans to chase fish around some of her favorite haunts – stay tuned.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

May My Rod Rest in Peace

When the geese flew over my house early Friday morning I was a bit suspicious. They were in formation as if it were October – about fifteen of them honking away. But it’s only August I thought to myself. It’s just a fluke. It’s the middle of summer. Well, Derek and I froze our butts off from 4 pm until dark today.

Derek Mitchell is an old-time friend of mine. Derek and I met in about 1988 when he joined the fly shop team at the Jack Dennis Outdoor Shop where I worked. We fished hard together that summer and have done so many more since. We’ve traveled the world, smoked cigars and shared a six pack from time to time. And now, despite him having a family and living in California, we still manage to fish together at least once a year if not more.

Derek works for Mountain Hardwear. Yesterday afternoon he finished up working a trade show in Salt Lake City. The minute the show was over, he drove his rental to Victor to meet me for three days of fishing. He got to my house at about midnight. Rather than charge out the door at the crack of dawn today we awoke casually and I ran a few fishing ideas by him over coffee. We settled on some of my favorites, Quake Lake, Hebgen Lake and on Monday, the Henrys Fork.

You’d think we were getting old or something. We didn’t leave Victor Idaho for our two hour drive until 10 am. By the time we stretched our legs and drank a celebratory beer on the platform at the Last Chance parking lot on the Henrys Fork, visited with and got our Montana licenses from Kelly Galloup and then launched my boat at Quake Lake, it was 3 pm. Finally I fired up my 3.3 Mercury and putted us up the lake to my favorite spot. There was a light chop on the water and I was sure the fish would be rising. Well, they were rising. But as we pulled into the dead trees, a main feature of Quake Lake, the first of a weekend of thunderstorms hit and we had to beach the boat and duck heavy rain, hail and wind in the trees.

The storm lasted a couple of hours. The lake roared with whitecaps and high winds changed direction at least a 100 times. Safe drift boating with the 3.3 would have been risky and fishing would have been hopeless during the storm. Thanks to some good cigars and icy cold Budweiser’s the time went unnoticed as we remained ashore and caught up on the happenings in our lives. Once the weather settled we pushed the boat back out to catch the evening hatch.

Things didn’t start out so hot. The temperature dropped at least twenty degrees. There were no bugs and not a fish to be seen. While Derek twitched big dries at the base of the eerie looking 50 year old dead Quake Lake trees protruding from the deep, I prowled the area with nymphs using my 6-weight Ross with my intermediate sinking Rio Aqulalux line. Hand over hand I slowly retrieved my Ben Byng Damsel and an English Buzzer three feet below the surface. Neither of us touched a fish.

The temperature continued to plummet so much that I set my rod down and pulled my emergency Tupperware from under the boat seat to get out a sweater. As I was digging around I heard a strange noise. It was as if something was getting pulled from the boat. Unfortunately it was. My rod, reel and line were leaving the boat! When fishing Quake Lake I fish amidst the middle of the dead trees. Sometimes I tie up to a tree but tonight we were slowly drifting and bumping off the trees. Sadly, my second fly that was dangling hooked a tree as we drifted past and my outfit got yanked from the boat. I spun around just in time to see the outfit plunge.

Let’s go back two years. I was in Egypt chasing Nile perch and we got caught in a bad storm in the middle of Lake Nasser. As we sped for shore, my 10-weight rig got bounced out of the boat by a rogue wave. I instinctively dove out of the boat for it because the tip was still in view, slowly sinking between the huge waves. But because of the speed in which we were traveling and my inability to see a damn thing once overboard amongst the waves and wind, the rod was gone. I got tossed around in the waves so badly I nearly drowned during the time it took the boat to navigate back to find me in the rough seas. Worst of all, I had my camera around my neck when I dove so that was lost as well. There’s even another time in Panama when I dove for my 14-weight, but that’s a long story so we won’t get into it. Let’s just say, I don’t dive for rods these days.

So when I spun around on Quake Lake and saw my rod sinking, I had second thoughts about leaping aimlessly into the creepy dark water. Even though I literally had one foot on the edge of my boat gunnels and my weight leaned forward to make the dive, I didn’t do it. The rod sank too fast. And thank God I didn’t because I had my new Canon camera around my neck, my phone and wallet in my pockets and I was already cold enough. I also had on lots of clothes and a full rain suit. Swimming would have been difficult to say the least.

That rod was my 6-weight Ross FC. Although you may not suspect it by the price tag on this rod, it’s one of the best 6-weights I’ve ever owned. I have taken that rod around the world with me this year and taken over 25 different fish species on it since fishing Brazil last March. This was a horrendous loss. Not only that, attached to it was my Ross Airius Reel. This is my lake reel and I have five extra spools for the reel, each with a Rio line of a special sink rate. This was a disaster.

Shock hits you hard when you have such a loss. It wasn’t so much the financial loss but the sentimental loss. This outfit was an old friend. It went on every outing with me and let me tell you, that’s a lot lately. As I pulled out my 4-weight and tied on a parachute Adams, I was in a daze. I kept replaying my last glimpse of the sinking rod. Should I of dove or should I of not? Man it was brutal.

About that time I heard a slurp. It was nearly dark so seeing wasn’t easy. But indeed it was a feeding trout followed by another and another and in minutes the lifeless lake came alive. There were brown trout rising everywhere! Before I could clip the tag end of my Clinch Knot, Derek was hooked into a leaping 13” brown. From then until 10 pm in the pitch dark, Derek and I landed over twenty browns and one rainbow on dry flies. It was unreal!

There’s nothing like a difficult fishing day that starts tough but ends big. That’s lake fishing for you. Many times you get to a lake and nothing’s happening. You blind fish with every fly in your box but to no avail. Most anglers pack it up and run to the nearest river. But my advice is that if you plan to lake fish, dedicate yourself. Spend the whole day on the lake you chose. Because every trout in the lake must eat at some point and if you are there it can be incredible. Derek and I gritted out the pain of no fish and a lost rod, reel and line, but the fishing turned on and we were rewarded big time.

It’s now unbelievably cold. It’s easily in the thirties. We had big plans of burgers at the Grizzly Bar tonight but it’s too late. Plus we are exhausted and tomorrow morning it’s up before sunrise and off to Hebgen to see if the Callibaetis will hatch. A couple pieces of this wet fried chicken in the bottom of the cooler will surely cure our appetite. On that note, were sleeping right here at the Quake Lake boat launch.

Jeff Currier Global Flyfishing Web site

Pleasanton Fly Fishing Show

For me the show season comes to an end for winter 2010. Other than a club meeting talk I’ll give in Tennessee next month, the Pleasanton Fly Fishing Show was my last gig of the regular season. It’s been an action packed seven weeks of hard work and great fun, however now I will gladly take a deep breath and get ready for some hardcore fishing.

The Pleasanton, California Fly Fishing Show took place Friday, Saturday and Sunday this past weekend. It did not disappoint. In fact, it was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. The show opened its gates to a long line of enthusiastic anglers at 10 am Friday morning. Usually you expect a light crowd of retired folks on a Friday, but this was not the case. Anglers from throughout California took the day off and were eager to hear about fishing trips, enjoy the many presentations and meet the various vendors and celebrities.

I gave presentations twice each day. I presented PowerPoint shows, “Four Seasons of the Yellowstone Trout Bum”, “Warmwater Fly Fishing” and “Trout Bumming the World” at the Release Theater. Then during the afternoons I gave casting demonstrations on the indoor casting pond. I had a ball and met a lot of great people. My highlight of the weekend was catching up with old friends such as Ken Holder, Derek Mitchell, Ben Byng, Steve Potter and many others. In particular, I hung out with Phil Rowley of Canada. As you may remember, Phil and I worked together in Boise two weeks ago. Throughout the three days Phil took on several friendly bets on Sundays Gold Medal hockey game, luckily friendly bets is all they were for we all know the final outcome. You can only imagine the drama around my art table as we read the play by play on Phil’s cell phone. Fun stuff and my congrats go to the Canadians.

Another friend whom I rarely get to see was Gary Borger. As most of you know, Gary has been teaching the skills of fly fishing for decades. Although I have been doing presentations at shows and clubs for years, I always pay great attention to the true masters of our sport when they teach. I made sure to enjoy one if his great casting demonstrations at the outside pond on Sunday. Gary and I spent some time catching up and I listened carefully as he provided me a few tips to help me with my new career. We all can keep track of Gary because like many anglers, he too recently started blogging. Check out what he’s up to at http://www.garyborger.com/.

At last, my fishing travel begins. Although flying home from the show as we speak, Wednesday morning Granny and I will head for the Amazon where we will meet up with my group of peacock bass anglers. The long awaited trip that I am hosting begins in Manaus, Brazil on Thursday. We plan to rest up on the banks of the Rio Negro then head into the jungle on Saturday morning. Water levels are near perfect and when we return on March 15th we should have some great fishing to report. Don’t miss it!

Global Fly Fishing web site