Granny Catches Huge Granny

September 21, 2010

Micah Kruger, a.k.a. Meeks and I had such a nice day on the Nunya yesterday that I thought I’d take Granny there today so she could enjoy this incredible September weather and catch a few fish. We made a very casual start of leaving the house at about 10 am and by the time I finished the bike shuttle and launched it was almost noon. We did a higher stretch than what Meeks and I did just to mix it up a little. Just like yesterday there were fish rising everywhere. That didn’t last long however. The wind started in a matter of minutes after we launched and the calm surface of the Nunya turned more similar to a walleye chop.

Our fishing never got any easier. I watched Granny begin the day by doing something I often do. She tied a  Trico pattern on and on her first cast it was gone. It turns out; we people in our mid 40’s are losing our eyesight. We refuse to believe it so occasionally we miss those little holes, particularly the second one where you stuff your tag end through the hole you make with your Clinch Knot. Trying much more carefully, she attempted to tie on a CDC Mahogany Dun. Everything was looking great. She even went as far as to lick her knot and pull it tight at the same time. That was the mistake of the year. The fly slipped from her clenched fingers and she stuck herself right smack in the tongue!

She was a little shook up at first. I was biting my own tongue to keep from laughing (That could have led to a very troublesome day for me). The reason I wasn’t too worked up was that I knew it  was not just a flattened out barbless hook but rather a completely barbless hook from the get go. They always come out easy and sure enough I plucked it out with my forceps and she didn’t feel a thing.

The a few hours into our day the wind was a horror causing difficult casting and even harder rowing. It seemed that when we had our few breaks and a fish would eat the fly, Granny would miss them or lose them in a second. We called for a beer break and then the wildlife showed up for us. While we sat and relaxed tucked in some willows to get out of the wind along came a moose cow and her two calves. We watched them for nearly an hour. When we went back to floating we ran into another three more moose. I think the sound of my boat and oars was muffled by the strong winds. We went on to see a total of six moose and a family of Great Horned Owls.

The winds of September died off for our last mile of floating. The temperature dropped and a few small fish worked what was left of spent mayflies and wind smoked terrestrials. Granny finally landed a few small trout. Although our fishing was nothing like what I experienced yesterday, we squeaked out another summer like day and the wildlife more than made up for the lack of fish. It was another great fishing day in the books for 2010.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

 

Me, Meeks and Middle Nunya

September 20, 2010

I’m not so sure it was entirely exhaustion that caused Micah Kruger a.k.a. Meeks, Dougy and I to struggle to get to the back porch this morning, but we struggled. Luckily the coffee was good and the sun warmed us up fast. In no time our plan for the day began to form. Doug was quick to say he thought it was best he drive back to Livingston Montana. I thought about getting some work done but now that Meeks lives in Oregon we rarely get to fish together, we were fishing.

As Doug headed north Meeks and I broke for the Middle Nunya. The last time I floated on the Nunya was with Granny a good month ago and the fishing was excellent. After the challenging two days we experienced on the South Fork of the Snake River, a chance at some better fishing made total sense. Once again the weather was perfect. We have nice Septembers in the Yellowstone area but this one has been one to remember. As I pushed off from the boat ramp, rising fish dotted the river ahead.

Meeks had two hopper patterns rigged up about two feet apart. The Nunya is slow moving and the resident trout have plenty of opportunity to recognize a fake from the real thing. I wasn’t too confident in the big flies but I figured I’d watch Meeks try them. Fish after fish, Meeks drifted his hoppers without a take.

“Meeks we need to go small today”, I stated.

I had a small dry already rigged on my 4-weight Ross so Meeks grabbed the oars and told me to give it a whirl. The fly I had on was one of my CDC Vladi Trzebunia dry flies size 18. The pattern always works and sure enough the first riser I presented it too ate. It was a nice rainbow that began the fight down deep but jumped and broke me off.

We assumed we had it figured out after that rainbow nailed my small dry on the first cast, but it still wasn’t that easy. I couldn’t find another of my Vladi flies so I tied on a Mahogany Dun. The Lawson’s Thorax Mahogany almost never lets me down but the first few trout I cast too refused it. Meanwhile Meeks too was changing through various flies with poor results. These fish were tough. I dug deeper into my tackle bag and finally I stumbled into a well used CDC fly. Sure enough, the first fish I fed it too ate it and we were on the boards.

That first landed fish was like magic. I’d swear that for the next few hours every fish we showed that fly too ate it. Meeks and I took turns with my 4-weight and the productive European fly. We landed an array of rainbows, cutthroats and brook trout. One of our highlights today included a beautiful rainbow we found rising tight to the bank. He was rising like a porpoise with his back completely breaking the surface every time he rose. He was so cool looking we kicked back and watched him for about five minutes. He was in difficult spot to drift a fly too but I miraculously got it there to him thanks to a gust of wind. I wasn’t too surprised when he ate but was when I actually felt him fighting on the end of my line. I thought for sure I had too much slack.  Minutes later I was releasing a hefty Nunya rainbow. Meeks too landed a memorable fish today. He watched the white lips of a quality cutthroat move from about six feet down to rise to the small fly. If you haven’t ever experienced the leisurely take of a cutthroat it’s something you must do. They do it so slowly that even the most experienced anglers often pull the fly away before the cutty eats it. Somehow, Meeks kept his cool and watched those white lips close down on the fly before he struck. Then when he did strike, it was perfect, the fish was there and he too landed the gorgeously fall colored cutthroat trout.

The last three days have been spectacular. Fishing with old friends is something that can’t be beat. We covered a lot of water from the near forty miles of South Fork to the five miles of the Nunya. It will be awhile before we do it again together but we certainly will. Tonight begins Granny’s’ weekend and I have a funny felling I’ll be right back on the Nunya tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

The Man Behind the Scene

July 30, 2010

There wouldn’t be a jeffcurrier.com if there wasn’t a man behind the scene. There may even be one less fly fishing blog in the world if it wasn’t for that same man. That man is, Ken Holder from California and Jackson Hole Wyomig. I met Ken over twenty years ago. I sold him a pair of Simms wading shoes back in the late 80’s out of the Jack Dennis Outdoor Shop. I was just a young fly fishing maniac trying to earn enough for my next days off and Ken was desperately trying to land a size 14 wading shoe.

Over the years we got to be friends and one day he suggested I have website. It was the thing to do and he could build it and keep it going as a hobby. He suggested that perhaps if I didn’t have enough material to post I could share the website with a friend. I blew off the idea but Ken went ahead and got it started for me anyway. The site was pretty cool and I started adding things like my books and art and the occasional story or article. Maintaining it was a simple side project/hobby for Ken when he was out on the road working for United Airlines.  Neither of us dreamt that little website would turn into a huge 500 page step towards my self-employment and what is now Global Fly Fishing.

Ken works hours upon hours on the now massive website and that’s why whenever he visits the Yellowstone area I take him fishing. Today was one of his fishing days. He brought along his girlfriend Nati and asked one favor of me, help Nati catch a fish. We got an early start. The sky was deep blue and clear like the days of September even though its not. Throughout the day the clouds built up and it was hot. There were times today I couldn’t believe I was in the Rocky Mountains it was so hot. Regardless of the intense heat, the Pale Morning Duns and the Yellow Sallies hatched all day and the  brookies, rainbows and cuttys were out in full force to eat them.

One of the best ways for me to get a fly fishing newcomer into some fish is to put them in the front of my boat where I can keep an eye on them. I went over some of the basics of casting with Nati and showed her how to manage her line and eventually how to go about fighting and landing a fish. Once that was done we were off and I gave instruction while I was rowing throughout the day.

While all this was going on up front, Ken fished from the back of my boat. He tossed a 5-weight and an elk hair type of yellow sally I chose from his box. In no time Ken was hooked up. While most the fish on this river are small, I heard the trout sip his fly and  I could tell by the sound it belonged to a big one. By the time I looked over, Ken’s line was headed for some sunken trees. The last thing you want is for your fish to get into a snag so Ken prevented this by turning the fish. You accomplish this by putting as much pressure against the fish as you can based on the strength of your tippet by holding your rod tip low and bent. I like to pull downstream and get help from the current. On most trout, once you change their direction from going back to their home, they will usually fight you in from the middle of the river. Ken went on to land a spectacularly colored cutthroat-rainbow hybrid of which I netted and popped a few pictures with my new camera.

I knew I was in trouble the way Nati was looking at Ken's fish. It was the first trout  she’d seen in her life and now she had to have her own something  fierce. Fortunately her casting was getting good so I tied on a sally for her and sure enough the fish liked the fly. She didn’t exactly start putting fish in the  boat. Like anyone learning there were a few mishaps, such as not setting the hook at all, setting too late and completely forgetting what to do when you finally do hook one. Then, Nati got so excited on her first good hook up that she nearly back flipped over the side of my boat!

Nati went on to land some fish and get pretty darn good at fly fishing. In fact, we had a stroke of beginners luck when she boated one of the nicest brook trout you will find in these parts. Ken caught at least a dozen trout of all sizes however he was most happy  with Nati's success and the catch of his big cut bow. As for me, it was another great day on the water with friends.

There wouldn’t be a jeffcurrier.com if there wasn’t a man behind the scene. There may even be one less fly fishing blog in the world if it wasn’t for that same man. That man is, Ken Holder from California and Jackson Hole Wyomig. I met Ken over twenty years ago. I sold him a pair of Simms wading shoes back in the late 80’s out of the Jack Dennis Outdoor Shop. I was just a young fly fishing maniac trying to earn enough for my next days off and Ken was desperately trying to land a size 14 wading shoe.

Over the years we got to be friends and one day he suggested I have website. It was the thing to do and he could build it and keep it going as a hobby. He suggested that perhaps if I didn’t have enough material to post I could share the website with a friend. I blew off

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

First Float of the Year

I planned to head to the Henry's Fork today but not until about 4 pm. I wanted to get some work done beforehand. That was until Jon Yusko (JY), the Simms Fishing Products rep for Montana, Idaho and Wyoming and Mike Dawes, a managing owner of Worldcast Anglers Fly Shop and Guide Service called me. They invited me to do an exploratory float fishing trip to see if there might be some salmon flies (our largest stonefly) hatching on an undisclosed river. Naturally I said yes, so instead of leaving for the Fork at 4, I headed for the Nunya River at noon. I’d love to tell you where the Nunya River is, but like most anglers; there are some places I just don’t share. What I can tell you is that our day was fantastic!

The Nunya is a difficult river to float. First of all there are few places to launch a boat and most launches aren’t boat launches at all. They are simply roadside pull offs with steep banks to the river. While launching, your boat it could easily escape you and literally catapult off a cliff or slide down a ravine, hit a rock and splinter into a million pieces. Luckily, today neither happened to us.

It’s peak runoff right now. That means that most the rivers in our area are high and muddy from snow melt. However, the unique thing about the Nunya is that although extremely high, it nearly always flows clear. High barely described it today. The river was roaring and at least two feet swollen above its banks. Dawes, a veteran oarsman with years of guiding experience, thankfully took the oars first. Dawes navigated us through a gnarly rock garden to start things and although I’m sure I’d of made it through, I was glad I didn’t have too. I just threw out two salmon fly dries and mended them like a mad fly fisherman. JY was in the front of the boat doing the same. Even keeping your fly close to the bank where fish will likely hold in such conditions was difficult.

It didn’t take us long to realize that we weren’t going to see much in the way of a salmon fly hatch. There were no big bugs flying around and few nymph shucks along the bank. We hoped that perhaps as we travelled downstream we might run into them but never did. What we did find were heaps of salmon fly nymphs. Every single rock you turned over had at least one salmon fly nymph crawling on it. The hatch is just about to occur.

The three of us remained too stubborn to put on a stonefly nymph. All we could do was dream about the fish hitting our two-inch long dry flies as we drifted them along the banks. Fortunately a few fish did eat them. In fact, just enough to keep us entertained. Perhaps they remember these large insects from last year or maybe they have seen a few that hatched in the last few days. Either way, it was enough action to keep us trying and we caught a surprisingly good bunch of rainbows including some nice ones.

Though we were catching some fish on the dries, Dawes couldn’t resist just seeing how well a nymph would do. The truth of the matter is that when the Nunya is truly on, you can’t keep the fish off your fly. Dawes dropped a nymph called the turd below his big dry and made a cast. Literally on his first drift he landed a small rainbow. The nymph was the ticket. Dawes and JY fished out the turd for the last mile of our float and absolutely crushed the fish.

Neither of us were disappointed that we didn’t’ fish a nymph sooner. We caught plenty of rainbows. Not only that, it was a gorgeous day. It has rained almost every day for over a month. Today was in the 70s and not a cloud in the sky. Best of all, we left the waders behind and although the river was icy cold, it was our first day of wet-wading. What a great first float of the year!

 

Jeff Currier Global Flyfishing web site