Repeat Today!

September 9, 2010

The 2010 Jackson Hole One Fly Contest is underway! The actual competition fishing part didn’t start yet (the fishing is Saturday and Sunday), but the stream of events started tonight. We had the kick off cocktail party and all contestants learned where they will be fishing, who their guide is and who they will be competing against in the boat. On Saturday I will be fishing on the Snake River from the Wilson Bridge to South Park Bridge. My guide is Charles Kempe and my boat partner is Joe Debryan. Although I’m not too excited about that stretch of river, both the guide and boat mate are friends so it should be lots of fun. On Sunday I’m fishing the Lower South Fork Canyon. I lucked out on my guide draw getting Mike Bean whom ironically Gary and I fished with today. My boat mates first name is Scott but I don’t know him and couldn’t not find him tonight. I’m sure he will be fun and we will have a great time.

Before the party, Gary Eckman and I fished together to get in one final practice day and to celebrate Gary’s birthday. You would never know it but Gary turned 70. Just like last week, Gary booked Mike Bean to guide us on the South Fork and I had the good fortune to go along. Since about the beginning of August Gary Eckman and I have fished at least one day a week on either the Snake or the South Fork rivers to sharpen our skills and get tuned in to what flies and tactics are working best this season. Some days we floated and fished on our own but the last three times Gary hired us a guide which I can tell you is quite a treat for me.

Today’s weather signals that fall is right around the corner. We awoke to a cold drizzle. Gary picked me up at my house at 7 and when we went over Pine Creek Pass it was actually spitting snow on top. All I could  think about was the fact that I didn’t bring my waders! Mike met us in Swan Valley Idaho and we were floating and fishing before 9. This was kind of a reconnaissance mission for him too. Guides also want to do well in the One Fly because they are awarded for having top scores from their boats.

I am torn on what fly to use in this contest. Remember, you are only allowed one fly each day. If you choose a lousy one you’re stuck with it. On that note, today I switched each hour to test a variety of bugs. I have come to the conclusion that as far as the South Fork goes I can fish a streamer, a size 18 PMD or even some type of Chernobyl ant and do well. The way the contest works is you really need to just catch six fish that you measure and get good points for. If they average over 15”s then you will get enough bonus points to  do well. I felt that today I could do that with any of these flies. Gary and I absolutely destroyed the fish. Honestly, I’ll bet we caught twenty fish over 16”s EACH! And several were over 18”s. Our scores would have been through the roof!

Today’s weather had a lot to do with it. It stayed nasty, cold and rainy all day. Really it was the kind of day most guide trips get cancelled. That’s a big mistake around here. Rainy weather always means good fishing in the Yellowstone area. The hatches today were the best I can recall and the fish were border line suicidal to eat any fly. The weather for the contest is predicted to be warm and sunny. Fishing conditions will be much different. However, I think that the Good Times Team is ready to rock and perhaps we can repeat today when it counts this weekend!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

Thirty Fish or More

Today is Granny’s day, again. Actually it’s mine too because we went to a place we both love very much, the Piniella River. It’s a river we like to float because there’s not much fishing traffic (although today we saw three other boats) and there’s numerous fish to catch on big stupid looking dry flies. I like to twitch the winged Chernobyl Ant in the seams and along the banks. Once again, this is by no means a location for big trout but the small ones are numerous. We get several species – brook trout, rainbow and cutthroat (both Snake River and Yellowstone cutts) and when you want them, plenty of whitefish.

This was a rest day after the hike of yesterday. Granny made us a heck of a lunch and even squeezed a couple of ice cold beers in my dirty cooler. The rowing is easy here so you can kick back and drift, drop anchor or just steer all while you are fishing. We picked a particularly long float so we got a very early start. I was doing a ten mile bike shuttle before 8 am. When I finished Granny had the boat ready to rock and off we went.

On this river, the fish are generally so small that we keep count and set goals. Today we were shooting for 25 fish. Keeping count may sound ridiculous to some but for us it makes it fun. If we don’t set a goofy goal like this then we tend not to put much effort into our fishing on this river. With the high fish goal each fish means something despite their being small. We even do things like no food until we catch three and no beer until you catch five (that will make you concentrate).

Things started slower than expected. There’s hardly room for one boat on this river in August let alone the three others we saw. Naturally they had the same plan as us of starting early so right out of the gate we kept running into one another. They didn’t seem to know the river so we slowed down our pace considerably to get them out of our sight for good. We dropped anchor on a favorite bank of ours and over the course of an hour we managed six fish – an even mix of cuttys and brookies.

We never saw more much more after that other than lots of birds including a family of owls, a porcupine of which I discovered because I heard some willows getting munched and over thirty fish. To our delight, three of these trout were pretty darn nice. We didn’t get off the river until 7:30 pm and it will go down as one of our most relaxing days of the summer.

During these last two days I wore my Granny out. She always teases me when I’m tired after fishing a bunch of days in a row, but she knows. Fishing and being outdoors all day gives you the kind of tired we all need more of. Now its back to work for Granny and believe it or not, I’m going to bust out some art tomorrow. I’m excited to say that I sold some art in my galleries and received more orders from my website then ever. Good stuff!

Today is Granny’s day, again. Actually it’s mine too because we went to a place we both love very much, the Piniella River. It’s a river we like to float because there’s not much fishing traffic (although today we saw three other boats) and there’s numerous fish to catch on big stupid looking dry flies. I like to twitch the winged Chernobyl in the seams and along the banks. Once again, this is by no means a location for big trout but the small ones are numerous. We get several species – brook trout, rainbow and cutthroat (both Snake River and Yellowstone cuts) and when you want them, plenty of whitefish.

This was a rest day after the hike of yesterday. Granny made us a heck of a lunch and even squeezed a couple of ice cold beers in my dirty cooler. The rowing is easy here so you can kick back and drift, drop anchor or just steer all while you are fishing. We picked a particularly long float so we got a very early start. I was doing a ten mile bike shuttle before 8 am. When I finished Granny had the boat ready to rock and off we went.

On this river, the fish are generally so small that we keep count and set goals. Today we were shooting for 25 fish. Keeping count may sound ridiculous to some but for us it makes it fun. If we don’t set a goofy goal like this then we tend not to put much effort into our fishing on this river. With the high fish goal each fish means something despite their being small. We even do things like no food until we catch three and no beer until you catch five (that will make you concentrate).

Things started slower than expected. There’s hardly room for one boat on this river in August let alone the three others we saw. Naturally they had the same plan as us of starting early so right out of the gate we kept running into one another. They didn’t seem to know the river so we slowed down our pace considerably to get them out of our sight for good. We dropped anchor on a favorite bank of ours and over the course of an hour we managed six fish – an even mix of cuttys and brookies.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site