If there is a sage grouse in your camp leave it, they are good company.

Well, I've spent the last four days on a little stream in the heart of the windy beast. Fishing was slow, wind was cooling, thunderstorms every afternoon, more stones and caddis' then you could imagine. I caught the biggest fish of my life. A carp that loved a woven stone. I am guessing 30 inches and some where in that range of pounds. That fish was so thick. This silly bastard had both eyes, but he had moss growing on his back. I was on a ridge watching trout roll on the bottom. Then comes up this submarine and starts working the back water. He had a lady with him who I was thinking I wanted to catch, because I only had my three weight and come on... He was facing the only approach I had on the bank. So I sit and watch and he won't change directions I can't climb down and throw to him. What is the next logical thing? Make a cast from the ridge. I have only had a limited amount of sight fishing for carp (see previous post) no problem. First cast a bit short, but he still saw the movement and went to check it out. I pulled it away from him not wanting to get the big guy but wanting the smaller more manageable fish. Next cast perfection, for the big fish. Two small strips, he keys in on my stone crawling on the bottom, little flick of the tail, six inches forward, tail up, short strip to set the hook, he doesnt move, neither does my fly. What the hell? I raise my tip and then he can finaly feel the hook. He doesnt make a mad dash for deep water but a slow steady jog. I scramble after him over sage brush and slide down the ridge into the waters edge. There we have a tug of war for the next 15 or 20 minutes. He makes no hard runs, but does not want to move. I get ten feet he takes nine back. When I finally get him with in reach I have no idea what the hell I am going to do. Net? psh, I would have a handle with no net in the loop and he would be wearing a silly green hat. Try and thumb him? fuck no my fist could have fit in the vacuum of a mouth. Gill him? Nope, enough said. I get him up next to the grass and get a boot under his belly, he just rolls over onto the reeds, what a cooperative fish. He had moss growing on his back!! how long does that take? Enough Carp.




The trout were tough. Did not want anything to do with my nymphing. I had fair success on top, but in the windy South Canada your window on rising fish is small. They were all cookie cutter Cuts in the 16 inch range. Not a thing to complain about with the beautiful fish smashing my little stone/caddis hybrid.

Lessons learned on this trip.
Broken shock mounts do not have to slow you down.
Sage grouse make good camp buddies when you get lonely.
Coyotes will give this boy bad dreams.
Mosquitoes are the state bird of Wyoming. (Nich remember how I said they don't bother me? Bull shit).
A big carp can make your day when the trout are hiding.
Fuckers in drift boats can be assholes
Even in swarms of stones and caddis the fishing can be slow when you are a poor fisherman.
Sight fishing to carp and rising trout, so much better then watching a bobber or Czeching.
Thunder storms every afternoon, maybe another around 1am for good measure.
I NEED a new tent.
Four days alone is about right.

The last week

Well here is a rundown of the happenings and goings on for the last seven days of my life!! Yah! exciting. whatever. Well first off another day of chasing the Muskie. I am going to start calling them the dragon. So another day of chasing the dragon. It was a good day on the water. I went with Doug Barnes and his wife Coleen. We all got into some fish. I got really sick of loosing fish from them cutting me off so I bought some knotable wire leaders and gave them a go. Not a damn thing. Switched back to florocarbon and a fish on the first damn cast, on to something...... hmmm...... A few fish here and there no big action. It was pretty funny though. I seemed to catch more fish when I had an audience. Grizz and Brian came around the corner in their drift boat, fish on! Nick came around the corner, fish on. A skier fell right by me, fish on. I paddled back to talk to doug, fish on. You get the point.

Wes and I went to Wendover to fill a keg for is sister Hayleys birthday party. Wes won a small tourney. He now has two under his belt. I broke even. I played some good poker and some bad poker. We had the Kegger the next night and I got tipsy for sure. On a side note a new fun game, Find at least four of your closest friends go into the street and shoot paint balls straight up in the air with a sling shot. Use two friends to coordinate your X and Y axis'. It is funny.

Woke up late on my way to meet Nick for a trip to fish some water in Wasatch county. First stream had a redicoulous Stone hatch. It started out really quick, but I am thinking the stained water made fishing real hard. We both had a few fish. A change of location brought more fish albeit small. On the way home we hit up the Berry for some mouse action. I had a few swirls but no hard hits.


Urban fishing is so damn funny. Planter rainbows are dumb, and carp are smart. Mexicans can roll 15 deep in the back of a truck. Little kids would rather fish then watch TV. Make sure to keep your car in eye site. Ipods left on the stream may or may not be there when you return. Chew keeps me mellow. Little kids can not land 10lbs carp but Nick can. Giant goldfish will tail for a chartreuse headstand. I am bringing a beer next time.

That silly bastard only had one eye

I forgot what a trout looks like. My last handful of trips have all been chasing Muskie. With each trip comes a new success a lot more knowledge crammed in my ear and one more theory about easier ways to catch these beasts. Today I only boated two fish. This has been pretty much par for the trips, but I had nearly half a dozen hook-ups today. I had two fish on two consecutive casts!!!! The first was a bruiser that I site casted to, he was hanging in a sunken tree. He ran to deep water and found another sunken tree and tangled me. Lost fly (story of the day for me). Tie on an other new little pattern I worked up. Cast sink sink sink half a strip and feel some weight set the hook and off it goes. I could feel him roll under the water and he cut me off. I am going to have to use some steel leader. My hookups and strikes my be less frequent, but I feel so terrible about leaving those big salt water flies hanging in the fish. I had the biggest fish ive hooked into up there right at the boat ramp. He jumped some damn high, twice!!! before he cut me off. What a good day.

I am stealing some photos from Douglas Barnes www.nowpicturethis.com from out last outing.

So here are two of my latest Muskie chasing flies. They are going to take the test on Sunday. Last week I tied a bu crappie on the snch of flies. 9 white and olive gizmos and one EP crappie. I lost the EPecond cast. So I tied up a few this week. I have been experimenting with different fibers for my fish. I had a whole bunch of puedo-marabou that I won at the expo. The first few flies were all tied with that. It was a bit too soft and tangley so it tended to foul around the hook. I went on a little binge and bought some yak, craft fur, and some other fiber I can't remember right now in white olive and cream, some of each. I love yak. I want bunches and bunches of this stuff. If anyone has some kicking around and they dont use it break it out try again, its fun. As much as I love Yak I hate Craft Fur more. I hate this shit, hate it hate it hate it. I will try to find some other use for it, but I just don't dig it for making fish. I have heard that Rainy's makes some good craft fur but I can not find it anywhere. Does any one know who carries it? Nick, help me out here. I feel like I am skinning a muppet. I don't want to kill muppets. I can use a dead animal to make a fly, but not a muppet. I had a girlfriend who loved muppets, maybe it is a carry over from her closet full of creatures. Does anyone have any pointers on my EP flies. Oh yeah, does no shop in this valley carry actual EP fiber? I know Fish Tech is getting some. I get first dibs.

I dont think I am ever going to be huge. I am too damn sore to cast.


Oh yeah I bought a Vosseler S1, sexy.

Okay so I had another great day of Muskie fishing. Trout are for old geezers, Muskie fishing is for this kid. The morning started out slow after a few fly switches I threw on my EP Crappie. It was my first EP fly Ive ever tied. First cast UGLY, went no where. Second cast beautiful right on the bank saw it twitch a few times, it had some nice action, then the sinking tip took over and it dove into the deep water. Strip strip twitch twitch BAM!!! head shake head shake and that big old Muskie took my pretty fly. Bastard. For some reason I tied up nine Gizmo minnow patterns and one EP Crappie. Silly boy. OH well first Muskie on a creation on my own. It feels good. Like when you find a $20 dollar bill in the pocket of your dirty pants. I ended up with one big fish, longer then the gap in between my pontoons. I should go home and measure that. I tried to lift him out of the water but he had huge teeth and the only place to drop him was on my lap or back in the lake. I choose the later. The wind came up and the skiers came out so I went home. Nick Jones is a fine specimen of a human. I like that guy, I owe him a few bottles of root beer or a dinner or two. On side note there was a massive hatch of dead Crappie on the lake. Any ideas, anyone Bueller?


So my buddy Eric the Horrible told me about this years line up at the Twilight Concert Series. Stop bitching about Salt Lake, this summer is awesome.

I Joined the Gym

I am going to be huge.