Frolicking With Nick and a Rookie Mistake

ate the cicada

accurate cast = solid fish

nich taco'd up to a sweet cuttie

even i caught some fish

cased caddis

another quality nich fish

nich's solid brown

mating stones

first fish on a cicada

I did not plan on fishing since i was on phone standby but since i did not get called in saturday and was not called in as of 11am on sunday i new that i would be safe to head out. i was going to maybe check on the weber above coalville so i gave nich a call to see if he had any feedback on it which he didn't but he did say that he was going to maybe head out by his lonsome in about an hour. i asked if he minded if i join and about 2pm we were parked on top of a ridge gearing up for the decent down the canyon. now on the way to the creek nich was belly aching about a bum knee that he tweaked the day before while fishing, falling then nose diving in the river. it was pathetic.......you should've heard him. now i have a broken feet, 2 bum heels and both knee have pain but i was able to suck it up. so we hobbled down the ridge and chose to hike down river aways and fish our way up. the stones were hot & heavy, the caddis hovered all around and some cicadas were clicking and buzzing in the trees. it felt like the makings of a good afternoon/evening. we fished what nich referred to as baseball style, 1 fish and done or 3 misses and done. nich went first, which was fine with me cause i was busy inspecting tree limbs, tall grass and various bushes for insect life so i was preoccupied anyways. it was probably a good hr until nich finally hooked up and it was a beautifully colored and solid brown, probably would've been 18-19". as nich was fighting this fish he yelled for the net so i started working my way to him while trying to watch my footing across the mossy rocks. heres where the rookie dumbass move comes in. instead of trying to ditch my rod somewhere to free up a hand i carried it with me and as i'm watching my step nichs fish decides to head downstream which turns nich around, i have my rod out in front of me, our rods get tangeled which ties up nich's line not allowing the fish to be able to take line and this sweet fish comes un pinned. damn did i feel like a jack ass. nich was bummed and i truly think i was a irritated as i'm sure he was. i didn't stop thinking about it until nich landed a fish. nich did have a beast come up and smack his fly later in day that nich said would've definately gone 20". i didn't see the take but i heard it hit the fly and it sounded quite big. all was not lost cause about 3 casts later in that same little hole nich landed the only cuttie of the day and it was a beaut. i have only fished cicadas a couple of times with no luck but this day i was able to land a couple on one so that was cool. i really wish i had my macro lense that i had ordered cause i have never had so many good macro chances as i did this day. we each brought a few nice fish to hand so between the fishing, the company, the hatches and the great weather it made for a killer day. oh yeah and nich did take another fall in theriver trying to keep up with a downstream swimming fish so nich banged up his knee again and bellied ached the rest of the day. for the hike back up the ridge nich had to find a big stick to put his weight on. he really broke out his big vagina on this trip. he was kind enough to bring a few brew hahas for us to quench our thirst so kudos to nich for that.

Late Afternoon on the S.F. Ogden

Last week got some feedback on the ogden from corey k.........drakes and caddis on top. with that in mind i decided to pack some shit in the jeep so that i could head straight from work to the river. got on the river around 4pm and started throwing a green drake. there were a few caddis flying around but i chose to start with the drake. about 45 minutes into the afternoon i had no rises or looks at the drake so i switched it up to a small compardun/deer hair caddis tandem rig. that set up started to get the attention of browns sitting in the shallows. other then one other mayfly dry that i threw, the caddis, compardun rig was the only set up that worked. around 7pm i decided to move upstream and that's when the river died for me. at that time there were a lot of caddis and some good mayflies buzzing above and dive bombing the river. i didn't touch another fish. all in all it was a really nice evening. the weather was perfect, i caught a few, lost a few and missed a few fish.

Quick Trip Home (Washington)

It had been a couple of years since most of my family had seen my kids so we took the 15hr. drive north and spent a week up there. we didn't really have any time for fishing except for a couple of hrs. on a local private pond so i took the kids out there in hopes of getting them into some solid fish. shayne actually came out later and managed 1 fish in the 15 minutes or so that she fished and myself and jake got into a few decent fish. i just threw some streamers and jake threw streamers and dries. he did get one of a grumpy frumpy so it was nice to see that that fly actually works. haha.

A Little Top Water Action

my biggest of the day

jake playing spotter

jake fishing one of many beavered sections

jerry and whitetail

small 'bow' after release

jerry's nice brown

small nest of catepillars

Headed out with my son jake and jerry (nova) this morning. we fished a small little stream and much to our liking there were quite a few small light brown caddis coming off and there were a few fish rising to them. it was kool to see one fish come completely out of the water to get this caddis, but ended up exerting itself for nothing, as it missed. there were even a few blue wings coming off. we took a couple on some bead-headed bwo patterns sub-surface but most of the action came top side. fish rose to deer hair caddis's, a green drake pattern, cdc loop wings and a midge pattern. between the three of us we ended up a few fish, all browns except one rainbow, which was a surprise to see. they were all smaller fish rnaging from 7" to 14", but the fact that we took most of them on top made it more enjoyable.

What a dumbass!.......a day with my kids

Today was a big mistake. tuesday i was diagnosed with pneumonia and what perfect timing cause my kids flew into salt lake tuesday evening. well against the better judgment of my girlfriend and doctor jerry ford (aka nova). i wanted to take the kids out for a hike and some fishing. we had originally made plans on a 2 mile hike up by bald mnt. but there was still to much snow off the hwy so the trail was not visible. we made the decent back down the pass and made the turn up towards lambert basin. we stopped and fished our way around alexander lake with no success, well jake did have a couple of hits and 1 lost fish, but certainly nothing to write home about. there are several more lakes in that area so we continued our drive up the road. we got so far and started running into snow issues and finally at one point after shortly getting stuck we decided that enough was enough and turned our butts back around to find somewhere else. on the way back down we shortly got stuck in the exact same spot but was able to get through. jake had his window down 1/2 way and asked if i could roll it up so he wouldn't get smacked in the face by roadside branches, the window switch does not work on his side. we also had put both rods in the jeep without breaking them down with the tips between mine and jakes heads. well when i rolled up the window i did not notice that the tip of my newly built SLT had migrated oput the window and when i rolled it up.....SNAP! son of a bitch, i thought. oh well just one more rod to send in for replacement parts. we get off this dirt road and with my suggestion head up to murdock basin since i had some success up there last fall. another crappy road and finally hit snow again shortly before we arrived at the lake, but we made it anyways. there is still plenty of snow up there and where there was snow is a lot of standing and running water. well shayne is in shorts and tennis shoes so after trompsing through that crap she is cold and wet. for some reason i didn't think to much about 10k+ ft. in elevation would bother my pneumonia issues. i can't recall ever hurting so much. breathing heavy with my mouth wide open trying to get sufficient air, my lungs were on fire, my throat raw and i had to stop about every 20 yards to take a break. with all the snow up there we chose to leave after about 30 minutes on the lake and not hit the other 2 lakes around that i wanted to. i did manage 1 small brook but all in all the day would have been better spent lounging at home. lesson learned......i won't bother with the uinta lakes until july timeframe.