Nothing but Yellow Belly

September 26, 2010

What a September! Today was in the 80ºs. The sky was cloudless and there wasn’t an ounce of wind all day. The willows, aspens and cottonwood trees are glowing with gold and the hillsides are vibrant red from the wild roses, mountain maples and hawthorns. Hardly a single turned leaf has fallen yet. September is truly the best time of year in the Yellowstone area and this year we are having the best of the best.

Today I floated the Moose to Wilson section of the Snake River in Jackson Hole Wyoming with Gary Eckman and Cooper. Cooper you should remember from previous blogs is Gary Eckman’s fourteen year old son that has become quite a proficient fly fisher. We got an early start today of about 8 am. Right now, 8 am is about sunrise here. It should have been freezing cold but instead it was a balmy 50 degrees. We all wet waded from start to finish.

Fishing started surprisingly slow despite the seemingly perfect conditions. I rowed the first hour while Cooper practiced his streamer fishing and Gary plopped an ant pattern along the banks. Other than a follow on the streamer and a small swirl behind the ant the cutthroats were asleep. Wildlife always seems to make up for lack of fish. We saw a gigantic bull moose tearing up some willows, a mule deer and her nearly full grown fawn, numerous elk, eagles and a long tail weasel along the banks as we drifted. Just to spice things up even more we floated into the famous “Bourbon Channel”. I’m not a big fan of the channel as it is one if you are the oarsman you row and that’s it. You can’t relax and enjoy your surroundings for even a split second or you’ll sink the boat. The Bourbon Channel is small and winding. The water moves fast and there are boat flipping snags and debris every inch of the way. It’s probably one of the most treacherous sections of all the Snake River. Take your eyes off what’s ahead of you for a second and your life is in danger.

We successfully navigated through even the most hair-raising mazes of the channel. There was no doubt that my workout for the day was complete. Once we got back to the main river the fishing turned on. It could have been the time of day but I think it was the slower water. This time of year the Snake River cuttys like a steady flow along a rocky ledges and the drop-offs just below riffles. There were plenty of bugs hatching. This late summer weather continues to deliver PMD’s. It’s late for PMD’s but we saw some. Then there were numerous Mahogany Duns and the occasional Snake Drakes, a large mayfly about a size 12. Fish began to rise and we all fished dry flies for the remainder of the day.

Today’s highlight, was watching Cooper catch his biggest fish ever on a dry fly on the Snake. The catch occurred during a time when he was getting a little distracted. The Snake River has one of the best sucker populations you can imagine. If you look into the water from the front of the boat while drifting you notice huge fish moving along the bottom all day long. While many anglers freak out thinking they are all huge trout, most of us know that most of these fish are actually suckers. Naturally, the fact that they are so much bigger than most trout in the river, Cooper wants to catch one bad. And while he should be carefully mending and watching his drifting dry fly, he’s often in a trance staring into the water ahead of the boat. I always watch his drifting fly and find myself constantly telling him to mend, dry your fly, recast and when we are lucky, set the hook. I must sound like a broken record.

Fortunately for us, not the cutthroat, Cooper was watching his fly when a big yellow belly slowly elevated from bottom to the surface and ate his Mahogany Wulff. You could see that this was a big trout and somehow Cooper kept his cool and set the hook on him like a pro. But once the fish was on, Cooper got very nervous. Now he truly knew how big this trout was and like any kid he wanted this fish in the net. He wisely asked for advice on the best way to get him there. Gary and I were thrilled and did our best of coaching Cooper through the event. He handled it beautifully and a few minutes after hook up I netted Cooper’s gorgeous cutthroat trout.

It was another great day on the Snake River in Jackson Hole Wyoming. Cooper relished in his success for an hour or so before going on a full time sucker hunt. Gary and I  enjoyed the weather and scenery and took turns fishing and rowing. We caught plenty of fish but today was by no means as good as it has been in previous weeks. As much as I’m not ready for it, what we really need to trigger our fall fishing is fall weather. Next on the agenda Granny and I will be chasing some big browns and brookies on some secret lakes. Stay tuned . . .

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

Uncle Jeff the Fishing Guide

August 23-25, 2010

My nieces Sammy Currier, age 8 and Montana Currier, age 6 have been fly fishing a lot longer than most kids of the same age. In fact, Sammy has been around fly fishing since she was 3 years old when she spent an afternoon reeling in the fish I hooked. They aren’t proficient casters yet but they understand rivers and where fish live. They can also help you choose a fly and if it’s a dry fly, they will watch it like a hawk and tell you when to set the hook.

My brother Greg and his family live in Massachusetts. Once a year they make it out to visit Granny and I and we camp, hike, relax and of course fish. The last few years Sammy and Montana have fallen in love with a place we camp at up the Gros Ventre River. The Gros Ventre flows gently here and the girls can swim on their own and whenever they feel like it, fish with their Uncle Jeff.

These past two days was our annual Gros Ventre camping trip. Granny and I met my brother and his family at our scenic site on Monday night. We wasted no time and began the weekend with a hot fire and cooked up some delicious burgers. As the sun set temperatures plummeted for the first time since spring. We were shocked at how cold it felt and accused ourselves of being wimps. Once it was totally dark wolves howled from a distant butte. Then another pack answered back. Surprisingly, the only other times I’ve heard howling wolves was camping in the boonies of Mongolia. It’s a spectacular sound and we listened and hoped for more but they were silent.

Sunrise couldn’t arrive soon enough. Granny and I shivered most of the night in our summer sleeping bags. It wasn’t just an unseasonably cold night, it was flat out freezing. It turns out we aren’t wimps. We awoke to thick frost and frozen water bottles – it’s August for crying out loud! Thankfully the sun warmed us fast and by the time the coffee was flowing the temps had risen to the upper 40ºs and it went on to reach the 80ºs by afternoon.

You know how kids are; they’re immune to the cold if they want to play in the water. Unsurprisingly, Sammy and Montana were ready for a swim with Uncle Jeff before the temps reached 60º. This weekend is all about hanging with Uncle Jeff so I had to think fast or make the frozen plunge. Being the quick thinker I am, I turned a stroll down to look at the river into a one hour hike. The hike was a thrill for the girls as we found cool rocks, water striders and water beetles, a dead moose not completely cleaned to a skeleton yet and some amazing wildflowers. Then we finished it off by summiting a butte with a view of the Teton’s that even six year old Montana appreciated.

Normally the girls fish with me for about an hour in an entire weekend and we end up swimming and goofing off the rest of the time. However, while I was sitting in my camp chair drawing up some trout tattoos for a friend that works for RIO and watching the girls play in the Gros Ventre, Granny strung up a rod. I noticed as she hiked to the pool above where Sammy and Montana were swimming they stopped playing and followed her up. Granny  began fishing and the girls watched attentively. Then Granny missed a fish that ate her dry fly and I heard Sammy give her some instruction so it wouldn’t happen again. I chuckled and then headed on down to join the fun.

Sammy and Montana weren’t just amused by the fishing but rather they loved it. I arrived on the scene and the girls asked Granny to give me the rod. I nailed the first cutthroat. Then a second. And in less than an hour I caught at least 10 cuttys and a few whitefish. Some were very nice size. The girls took turns reeling each fish in. They posed for pictures and giggled unstoppably when they released them. It was great fun for all.

We fished at least three hour long sessions in the pools around camp just on Tuesday. Then the minute we finished breakfast today the girls had Granny and I fishing again. They loved catching and playing with the fish. They just couldn’t get enough of it. Between hook ups they played in the river, rescued minnows and collected rocks and busted up shotgun clays.

It was hard to beat the fishing but there was more fun to be had. I really was drawing up fish for tattoos. Naturally the girls were fascinated and before I knew it their camp chairs were parked next to me and their sketch pads were out. For hours we nibbled away on our projects until finally even Sammy was done. Then we posed for a picture with our masterpieces and it was back to the river.

Fishing with kids is something we all need to do more of. This summer I’ve done more than ever. Watching my young pal Cooper Eckman become a deadly angler and now my nieces is about as cool as it gets. The good news is that my sister and her family visit next week and there will be more fishing with kids for the Currier’s – good stuff. What a summer!

Normally the girls fish with me for about an hour in an entire weekend and we end up swimming and goofing off the rest of the time. However, while I was sitting in my camp chair drawing up some trout tattoos for a friend that works for RIO and watching the girls play in the Gros Ventre, Granny strung up a rod. I noticed as she hiked to the pool above where Sammy and Montana were swimming they stopped playing and followed her up. Granny  began fishing and the girls watched attentively. Then Granny missed a fish that ate her dry fly and I heard Sammy give her some instruction so it wouldn’t happen again. I chuckled and then headed on down to join the fun.

Sammy and Montana weren’t just amused by the fishing but rather they loved it. I arrived on the scene and the girls asked Granny to give me the rod. I nailed the first cutthroat. Then a second. And in less than an hour I caught at least 10 cuttys and a few whitefish. Some were very nice size. The girls took turns reeling each fish in. They posed for pictures and giggled unstoppably when they released them. It was great fun for all.

We fished at least three hour long sessions in the pools around camp just on Tuesday. Then the minute we finished breakfast today the girls had Granny and I fishing again. They loved catching and playing with the fish.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

Cooper Chuckin Streamers

Today was Friday on the South Fork of the Snake River with Gary and Cooper Eckman. Cooper is the 14 year old fly fisherman and son of Gary that I introduced last Friday. He loves to fish and I enjoy watching him in action. This week Cooper showed up with a plan – he was going to throw streamers in search of a “River Monster”.

Prior to today, Cooper only dabbled in streamer fishing. He’s already a very competent dry fly angler. He can feed a big bushy dry fly down a grassy bank and he can present a tiny Pale Morning Dun pattern to a selective cutthroat on a riffle with the best of them. But he knows that fishing a streamer is its own art. He also knows that larger trout are often times more likely to prey upon small fish rather than tiny insects. That’s how they get big. So in turn, if he’s going to get that River Monster, he needs to learn how to fish streamers effectively.

A good place to catch trout on streamers is the canyon of the South Fork. This is a 26 mile stretch of water that can be broken down into two stretches, the Upper Canyon and the Lower Canyon. No matter what section you do, it’s an awful car and trailer abusing shuttle because part of it is a fifteen mile washboard dirt road to a place called Cottonwood. If you do the whole canyon you avoid the washboard dirt road altogether and shuttle drivers simply move your car down the highway and there’s little fear of your car and trailer being tortured. In order to do the entire canyon you must do a two day overnight trip, bring a motor or row your butt off a portion of the day. We opted to do the whole canyon and row our butts off a portion of the day.

That meant an early start to the day. Fridays are a tough one for me because Thursday nights are “Music on Main” in Victor Idaho. It’s a heck of an outdoor concert at the park only a rocks throw from our house. We do “Music on Main” whether we like it or not, fortunately we love it.

The boys picked me up at 7:20 am and we were launching at 8 sharp. I grabbed the oars and while Gary and Cooper got rigged up I pushed us downstream. I rowed for about 90 minutes or to a landmark known as “Hole in the Wall”. “Hole in the Wall” is just that, a huge hole or cave high up on a rocky cliff. It’s about a third of the way down through the entire canyon. It’s an absolutely gorgeous place and one of the most beautiful floats. Like fishing in Grand Teton National Park the other day, it’s hard to watch your fly and not just stare at the scenery.

It’s tough to row past good looking water. I know Cooper and Gary were ready to fish five minutes into our long row. But everyone just kicked back and enjoyed the scenery and wildlife. Cooper made a cast on occasion just to check if we were there yet. When we started, we were all ready for it. I watch with anticipation as Cooper made his first few casts. To start, Cooper was casting his two streamers like a dry fly. However after a little coaching he put a little more authority into his cast and put the flies where they needed to be; now we just needed a fish.

We easily went a mile without seeing a single fish. Cooper started second guessing the streamer like any 14 year old kid would. I kept saying fish it through this bank. Then the next bank would look good and I’d suggest he do it again. Finally Cooper was ready for a break. But there was one bush he just had to throw his flies too. I promised him this would be the last one he had to cast too. And sure enough, he hooked up to his biggest fish of the day.

Cooper landed a fat cuttbow. It was his River Monster and boy was he satisfied. We took a few photos and then as you can imagine, the streamers were back in the water most of the remainder of the day. Sure Cooper threw dry flies on occasion, but for the most part he stuck to the streamer. Cooper can fish a streamer superbly after one day in the South Fork Canyon. He ended up with several cutthroats and even a nice brown. We finished up our long float at about 7 pm. As always we had a great time.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

Fishin’ with Cooper

Today was fishing with Cooper day. I don’t’ get to fish with Cooper too often because he’s 14. It seems half the summer is over before we get our first day out together and then before you know it school starts again. Cooper is the son of my friend Gary Eckman whom I wrote about on August 6th. Cooper would have joined Gary and me last Friday but he got into a dirt bike accident that required a heap of stitches in his knee and was not allowed off the couch until things started to heal.

Cooper is in charge of where we fish when he goes. He recently returned from an exciting trip to Alaska in which he caught a lot of BIG fish such as halibut, lingcod and golden eye. With that in mind, today he was in search of more big fish. He’s had most of his good luck over the years on the South Fork of the Snake so we did a repeat of what Gary and I did last week – the Upper South Fork from the Irwin Slide to Conant.

The boys picked me up at 9 am. I was glad for the late start as I’ve been fishing so much that I’m behind in everything from art to paying bills. Mornings are productive times for me. Once we got going Cooper was quick to flash his injured stitched up knee to me. It must have been an ugly mess when the accident happened because even though the wreck was two weeks ago his knee still looks kind of gross.

Once at the river we launched and Gary rowed us directly to the riffle where we spanked fish last week. We were early. We pulled into our hot spot and beached the  boat on a gravel bar. We sat and watched over cokes hoping to see some big cutthroats begin to rise. I was starting to think they moved out to the main river when the first fish barely broke the surface. This big cutty took a PMD by making less than a two inch ring on the surface. It was the true definition of the word sip. I told Cooper to be ready and he excitedly grabbed his rod and made an approach.

The fish may not have been quite ready to eat yet. Cooper made some casts with one of my Vladi CDC PMD’s but to no avail. I knew it was the right fly but Cooper was having trouble keeping it afloat. With CDC flies you really need to aggressively false cast between drifts to keep them floating and looking good. Gary switched him to a beetle but even the beetle didn’t work. Eventually Cooper took a break and Gary went in there and quickly nailed one on a tiny light Cahill. Cuttys on the South Fork are not known for putting up dazzling fights but this one had us fooled into thinking he was a rainbow or a brown trout. He pealed off line and tried to wrap Gary in the log piles before Cooper finally got him netted. It was a nice fish, in fact, one of the bigger cutthroats I’ve seen on the South Fork.

Cooper took another crack at the riffle where several fish started rising more frequently, but again they would not cooperate. Just downstream of us in some slower water another trout began to feed. This trout became very consistent and even though Cooper had fish in front of him, the cutty downstream was too much for him to tolerate so he went after him. I considered talking him out of his move because often times these trout in the slower water are near impossible to catch. In such slow water they can scrutinize your fly and your light tippet can look like a rope. They also cruise around all over and you don’t know if you really got your fly in front of them or not. I didn’t want Cooper to go down stream, not get the fish and get discouraged. But then I thought better of saying anything. Cooper is a good angler and if anything, it would be a learning experience. Five minutes later Cooper called for the net.

Cooper was hooked up to the sneaky cutthroat trying feed without us knowing. Like Gary’s cutthroat, this scrapper also put on a surprisingly good fight. Cooper and his 5-weight handled the battle like a pro and then he gave me a few pointers on when to net his fish. I listened and I scooped up the heavily spotted cutthroat on the first try.

We didn’t exactly spank the fish today like Gary and I did last week, but it was pretty darn good. Between the three of us we probably landed a dozen nice cutthroats, a brown, a rainbow and a quality whitefish. My highlight of the day wasn’t Cooper catching his cutthroat from the slow water at our first stop, but rather when Cooper perfectly executed a difficult cast to a rising fish far back in a cave at the base of a rock cliff. He had to do a side arm flip cast to get his fly to the trout. That’s not to mention all the willows he had to avoid with his back cast. Once he made the cast it was all you could do to see the tiny light Cahill he was using because of the darkness in the cave. But Cooper patiently worked to this fish for at least ten minutes until he hooked another dandy of a cutthroat.

The three of us enjoyed a great day on the water and we’re all lined up for another visit to the South Fork next Friday. I really get a kick out of watching kids get into the fishing and Cooper is over the top like I was at the same age. For me I believe this was my seventh day of fishing in eight days. I don’t mean to brag but I haven’t fished through a summer like this since I was Cooper’s age - before I got my first summer job over thirty years ago!

Cooper took another crack at the riffle where several fish started rising more frequently, but again they would not cooperate. Just downstream of us in some slower water another trout began to feed. This trout became very consistent and even though Cooper had fish in front of him, the cutty downstream was too much for him to tolerate so he went after him. I considered talking him out of his move because often times these trout in the slower water are near impossible to catch. In such slow water they can scrutinize your fly and your light tippet can look like a rope. They also cruise around all over and you don’t know if you really got your fly in front of them or not. I didn’t want Cooper to go down stream, not get the fish and get discouraged. But then I thought better of saying anything. Cooper is a good angler and if anything, it would be a learning experience. Five minutes later Cooper called for the net.

Cooper was hooked up to the sneaky cutthroat trying feed without us knowing. Like Gary’s cutthroat, this scrapper also put on a surprisingly good fight. Cooper and his 5-weight handled the battle like a pro and then he gave me a few pointers on when to net his fish. I listened and I scooped up the heavily spotted cutthroat on the first try.

We didn’t exactly spank the fish today like Gary and I did last week, but it was pretty darn good. Between the three of us we probably landed a dozen nice cutthroats, a brown, a rainbow and a quality whitefish. My highlight of the day wasn’t Cooper catching his cutthroat from the slow water at our first stop, but rather when Cooper perfectly executed a difficult cast to a rising fish far back in a cave at the base of a rock cliff. He had to do a side arm flip cast to get his fly to the trout. That’s not to mention all the willows he had to avoid with his back cast. Once he made the cast it was all you could do to see the tiny light Cahill he was using because of the darkness in the cave. But Cooper patiently worked to this fish for at least ten minutes until he hooked another dandy of a cutthroat.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site