Weekend with the Barkey Bunch

goodmorning

thanks babe

well worth the trip


nice little creek




absolutely no side spots



tight quarters

gotcha bitch!



full of cutts




love the orange on this fish




one of many beautiful cutts




slut!

chris and dave




michelle at the camp site


nice fish, blurry pic. chris's tiger



biggest caddis's i've ever seen. about size 12


small but colorful

Chris invited us to go camping with his family and some of their friends. it was a 4 hour drive south but was looking forward to the trip. unfortunately we got off to a lter start on friday then i had hoped. i would have liked to have gotten to the camp site while there was still some light just to make it easier getting set-up and un-packed. we didn't arrive till about 9:30pm. we arrived b.s.'d for awhile then off to bed as we were all tired. after some breakfast a few of us drove down to one of the lakes that were in the area to hopefully get into some fish. the reports were killer. chris had been sticking quite a few. me, michelle and her daughter jasmine fished for a few hours with not a fish to be had. we had some follows on buggers and leeches and a i had a few rises to some dries but notta. after we went back to camp for some lunch me, michelle and jasmine drove down to the creek that flows out of the res. were i was hopeful that i could maybe redeem myself. they didn't want to battle the wind so they did not fish. after trying some ants and beetles, it was the hopper that was the ticket. they weren't big fish but i caught quite a few good looking 10-13" cutts out of that small stream. they weren't the big fish from theres. but i felt as though i had redeemed myself somewhat. after dinner we all headed back to the lake to try our luck again. chris and dave did well once again and it wasn't till close to dark that i decided since nothing else was working i would throw on a streamer that had a big deer head to hopefully intice some fish hoping that maybe they would mistake it for a mouse or something as it skipped along the surface. i fished in this one location for about an hour and a half and had a good 40 strikes on that damn thing but just couldn't hook up. it was cool watching these wakes chsing this fly, time after time. i was so damn frustrated. if i have that many hits on a stream i will USUALLY hook at least half and land a fair amount. so i went to bed irritated and frustrated. woke up this morning and headed straigth to the lake with payback in mind. what was i thinking?! i went through an endless variety of different patterns trying to find something that would raise the fish and it wasn't until i rigged up and pink/tan chernoble and a flying cinnamon ant as a trailer that i was able to raise the fish consistantly. although i only landed two i did manage a few more hook-ups and lost a really nice one on the ant. although another dissappointing morning at least i got some to hand. after i returned from the lake i grilled up some lunch, we packed up our camp and me, michelle and jasmine headed back home.