August 29, 2010 - Sunday - Stillwater Fishing

I'll be honest, I didn't sleep at all - sure I closed my eyes, but I woke up at least a dozen times to glance at the clock, each time it inched closer to when the alarm was set for. But I never made it, I never do - my eyes popped open at 4:15am and I decided that was close enough - turned off the alarm clock and got dressed in the dark. Pretty standard rituals for us guys who want to hit the waters not so close to home. Some of us do this every day just to get to work - I don't know how you do it Darren!

I pulled out of the driveway at 4:35am, the truck already fully packed the night before. Now it was time for the 2 hour journey to South Park. I hate making these trips alone - I usually need a second mate to blame the trip on (you know - "I went because Werms wanted to go"). I tried for about the first hour (almost all the way to Kenosha Pass) to talk myself into turning around, calling Scott and telling him I wasn't going to make it, then crawl back into bed with the wife. I tried, but no success. After Kenosha Pass I had decided that I was past the half way point, and it was going to be dawn soon - so the trip would get easier. It really didn't. Sure, I was awake, awake with anticipation of a good day - but in the back of my mind I was always thinking - what happens if I get skunked? It could happen.

I pulled into the North Boat Ramp at Spin at 6:35 - no sign of Scott and Scotty. Maybe they ain't coming. I'll kill'em. I call Scott's phone, and he answers - finally - bastard didn't pick up all Saturday when I wanted to know how the fishing was with Werm (yeah - where the hell is the report and pics??). He's right behind me - and we are pushing off from South Ramp - so I peel out and head to South. We pull into the lot together. Exchange handshakes and a couple quick barbs at Jr and before I know it we are on the water. It isn't cold, but it isn't warm. Wind is already up a little, not a good sign for the rest of the day.

We head straight to the other side of the lake - into a nice little cove area in the NW corner. Scotty starts dragging a big Club Sandwich trying to imitate a big ugly caddis skittering along the water. He manages one huge hit - but land nothing. We decide to hole up right next to a weed bed. It was quiet for a long time - Scott had two on, but lost them, Scotty had two on but lost them - I managed the only fish of the morning a nice 20 inch rainbow.





We decided to move south along the shoreline, not much to tell for the next couple of hours - lots of misses, no fish in the net. It appeared the fish were not in the shallows and we could see them on the fish finder when we moved from spot to spot in the deeper water. So we decided to hit a huge weed bed out on the middle. We anchored down and Scott hooked up right away - a nice fight, but soon the fish broke him off. It was not a good sign for the day - in fact I could see Scotty and I's day about to head for the shitter if Scott didn't land one of these big hits soon.

The phone rings....Werms! Dude - we got nothing - 1 fish and Scott is pissy, I gotta go. A few minutes later Scott's phone rings - it's the wife, she'd meeting us and is almost there, come pick her......wait, I have a fish, I have to go. Then bang - another fish pops off. We decide to go get Kelly at the dock. A quick trip in and a quick return right to the same spot. We need to get Scott into a fish or we might all die.

About 2 minutes later Scott is hooked up, and as I'm getting the camera ready to film Scott landing the fish I feel a tug and next think I know we have a double. These fish were twins (not technically, Scott's was a 1/2 inch bigger and a lot fatter) - and it was a nice break from losing fish. Maybe we were onto something.





I'm a big fan of harassing Jr, I mean the poor kid better get used to it. The problem is when the kid slams back to back 22 inchers in a matter of 15 minutes it makes it a lot tougher to pick on him. Don't feel too bad for him, the kid can dish out the shit too. Like father, like son.





Although we had some luck, we weren't exactly lighting it up, we spent about an hour and a half in the hole with not a ton more success after the initial few fish - so we decided to move to the bluffs. We never actually made it to the bluffs - Scott was watching the fish finder when we did about 100 mph over a ton of fish, so we scooted back to a nice shelf that looked promising. I don't have a whole lot more to say then WOW. We didn't "kill them" here, but we caught some of the biggest fish we have ever caught in here. Between the 3 of us we fished from about 12:30 to 3:30 and landed about 10 pigs. The largest being a 23 inch almost 5 lber by Scott and I had 23 incher that was slightly skinnier, here are some of the pics:







We lost a ton of good fish - I had on a nice looking colorful pink rainbow that I lost at the net. I missed a pig of Scott's when I hooked the top fly in the net on him (sorry bud). Scott also had a fish sink him - straight into the weeds. It stopped fighting and Scott was still hung up on the bottom - just waiting - he had to break it off. So strange. Lots of other unbuttons, but that is pretty typical day.

Oh, and our last fish of the day - by the pike slayer:



Not a knock'em dead day, but it was pretty damn good. The morning SUCKED! But the afternoon more than made up for it. About 15 fish boated - only 4 were smaller than 18 inches, 5 were at least 22 inches. Unreal.

Flies of the day were size 14 orange scuds and a size 14 damsel. I had some on chiro's but not consistently. Water temp was 62 in the AM and 65 when we left. Lots of big clouds, but partly sunny temps were about 72-75 degrees.

Thanks for the great trip Scott and Scotty and thanks for putting up with all of us Kelly!

FOTD - Roughfisher Scuds

Roughfisher has some nice looking scud on his site this AM. Great colors and great ties. These look like they would work great rolling on the bottom of the river.

Wish my scuds came out looking that nice (not to mention the photography!). Great ties Ruf!

Caddis for Spinney

So I finally tied up some nice bugs - good enough to eat. I can't wait for Spinney on Sunday. I tied up a couple of emergers too - because if the trout are slamming the dries they will be cruising for emergers too! Let me know what you think.

GoPro Helmet Camera

For those of you who are interested in getting an "EXTREME" HD video/still camera, this is highly recommended. I got it about a month ago and love it - it takes amazing video and stills. Underwater it is just as good. I have taken it surfing, fishing, camping, to the pool, on my daughter's bike helmet, my inline hockey games, basically everywhere. Things works great.


GoPro Helmet HD Camera

My buddy here at work just bought one and took the below video of his drive into work on his motorcycle - this looks cool! Great video taken at 60 fps in 720p. Battery lasts 2.5 hours.

2009 Suzuki V-Strom DL1000 from Tim K. on Vimeo.

August 11, 2010 - Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island

Sorry it has taken me so long to post. I haven't exactly been tearing it up fishing, been busy with work, family stuff, and camping.

Anyways. The family and I did the every other year family get together trip to Narragansett, RI last week. The trip was awesome. Got there Friday around 6. The cottage we stayed at was super nice - just redone - way over done considering it is a cottage and college kids live there from Sept-May. But it was nice to have everything redone in the last month or so.

Saturday we decided to do some clamming at low tide. If anyone hasn't been clamming it is quite an experience - you go out to the mud flats and walk barefoot in the water and feel for "rocks" - those rocks are usually quohoags. You can sometimes use a rake to feel for these "rocks" - about 14 of us went out and got about 6 dozen clams over a couple of hours. I got a sweet sunburn on my ass from bending over so much.




On the way back, we decided to get some crabs for lunch - so we stopped at the boats that are docked in Narragansett Harbor - they were good, but not great.



Sunday Jen had friends down from college (and all their rug rats) - we decided we had already waited too long for lobster - so I splurged and bought 16 lobsters and Jen's Uncle Tony bought the big one - a 6.5 lber. We ate well.




Monday and Tuesday were mostly beach days, including one night at around 7:30 when all the old guys (me included) went out and body surfed the larger waves at high tide. Fun stuff. There was a tropical storm off the coast that caused some higher than normal waves.

Wednesday we did a little fishing before heading up to Boston for the afternoon to see my grandfather. We caught 5 flounder, all small, and a couple of seagulls. No, seriously, my sister in law caught the same seagull twice. She had very little weight on her line so when she cast the bait would take a few seconds to sink and the seagull would grab it - get the hook stuck in its beak and then start flying away - to no avail. After a minute or so the bird flipped the hook out. Funny though.





On the way to Boston we stopped off at the Bass Pro Shop in Foxborough next to the Patriots Stadium - had to get some Seagaur tippet. Got a cool photo of me and the kids with the Captn Hook bear chasing us (the bear was missing a few fingers on it's left paw!).



We hit Boston that night and I stopped and got my Poppy a nice lobster roll at Kelly's. Had a sweet fish sandwich and a scallop plate as well - worth every frickin' penny.

Thursday was again a beach day - just hung out and relaxed. Luckily we did steamers on Thursday night as an appetizer - these were ok as well (not great). This pile was not nearly enough to satisfy me.




Friday we had friends visit again, basically spent all day at the beach.

Saturday we were out of there at 10am and had a 5pm flight - home by 11:30pm.

That was the trip - not a lot of fishing, but still a good time. I dragged the 7wt down there and a bunch of Clouser's but never really had a chance to use them - used the rod on the flounder which was kind of fun.

We have a block party this weekend, then who knows what is up the following weekend - Spinney maybe?

Taylor River and Taylor Res 7/24 & 7/25

I don't have a lot to report - except a double skunk-itude.

Scott and I (and our families) camped at the Taylor this weekend (he is still there until Wednesday) and we got a chance to fish on the boat and the tailwater. Saturday night we headed over to the tailwater for some night fishing around 10:30pm until 12:30am. I saw a few, we heard a few jump, but neither of us hooked up. There was a lot of people over there - which was kind of surprising.

On Sunday Scott took us out on the boat - I tried my hand with the fly rod for trout - but no luck. His son (Scotty) however hooked this pretty 19 inch pike that Scott showed to my daughter Avelyn.



That was about it. It was nice to get out on the boat and have the kids experience it for the first time. They really enjoyed it and that was all Avi talked about the next day!

Big T - July 10, 2010

We went camping this weekend with Scott and family. Stayed at Elk Meadows RV Park - don't ever waste your time going there - it is a joke. We did however have a great time - even if there were 25 other campers within a 30 foot radius.

We had planned to fish the Roaring River in RMNP, but Z decided to wake up about 5:15am (15 minutes before we were scheduled to leave) and he was not going to let us sneak out without giving Jen a really hard time. So basically everyone got up at 5:30am and started the day a little earlier than expected. Trying not to piss off my wife the day before her birthday I decided to hang close until nap time for Z. Basically the RR was out and we'd have to fish closer to camp.

There are some pics of our campsites with my new GoPro Helmet cam - set at taking pics every 10 secs. These are some pretty cool pics for a video camera - and I actually like the warped edges of the wide angle lens. And yes, I got a lot of shit from Scott and family, but it was worth it - I got some great video too.





At around 9am when Z went down for a nap we headed to the Big T below the dam. The water was flowing perfectly at 143 cfs. We hit Steffan's (not so) secret spot (sorry dude). The spot was perfect - no one in it and we dressed quickly and got on the river. The pics below are from the helmet cam - set up to shoot every 10 seconds. Yes, I had about 140 pics I deleted - with random triplicate shots of the same fishing hole. But these are some of the best ones. You can really see the curvature of the bridge taken by the wide angle lense.











And of course - my favorite picture ever:



The bad news is that none of us caught anything - which is pretty embarrassing to say the least - considering how dumb the fish are in the Big T. I hooked 4 or 5, but couldn't land a damn thing. We could see lots and lots of fish as well - but I could not figure out what they were eating.

We hit another spot, but had no luck either and were back at the camp site at 12:30pm. Not much more than that to report.

I will try and post a video from the camera after I cut it up and get it up on Vimeo.

Updated to add video:

New GoPro Camera - Big T Fishing from Brandon Harnois on Vimeo.

Berkley Lake - July 5, 2010

I'm going to make this short and sweet - and get to the pics as soon as possible. Fry, Werm and myself hit Berkeley Lake on Monday - started early by meeting at 4:30am in Conifer. We were on the water around 6:30am. It was a bit cool with some wind, but we started out near the bluffs. We caught a whole bunch of nothing early on - the wind would kick, then die, then kick, then die - a very weird day of wind. We did see one cloud make an appearance all day. We moved around and then around 8:30am Werm and I get a double - completely random. We basically landed the exact same sized fish over near the bluffs. Scott gets a heavy wack soon after - but can't set the hook. A little while later he hooks and lands a rainbow. Then, nothing. I think we changed spots a couple more times.

As the day warmed up and the wind changed (again) we were hooking fish - nothing fantastic, but we were into one every 5 or 10 mins or so. Then it would get windy and ... nothing. Then it would stop and we'd get lots of hits - some on the strip, some just hanging there. We were looking for bugs and they only came off 2 or 3 times - big callibaetis, some bigger caddis, some chiro's (but not a lot) and am orange colored flying ant. Basically no top water action to speak of.

We had a period of about an hour or so in the late morning/early afternoon where we were doing very well - everyone was into fish. Most fish were mid-size, the smaller the fish the better the fight. Some pigs were caught and landed - and a few got away. The flies of the day seem to be my grey juju in size 16, and Werm's callibaetis in a size 14. Nothing else was really the ticket.

We moved a ton - from Scott Secret Spot #119, to Darren's Secret Spot #39, to Scott's Secret Spot #357...nothing was on fire. It was pretty sporadic with long periods of being between fish. The fish seemed to be deep - close to the bottom.

At around 2pm we decided to fish close to the boat ramp, Werm slammed a pretty brown, then we headed out of there around 3:30. We hit some traffic on the way home - I grabbed my camper at Scott's house - then was home by 6:30.

Werm's last fish of the day - the only brown - he was big and fiesty - great ending to a fun day.

Another pic of the brownie.

Werm fumbling a bow.

This was my third pig of the day - it was a very big fish - hooked him accidentally in 10 feet of water with 15 feet of line out. He had a f*cked up red blood shot eye. Looked like Scott after a hard night of drinking.

It might be short, but it sure is skinny!

Scott was constantly hooked up.

My fattest fish of the day - this one had like two stomachs, wide as hell - not very long.

...help...

Scott with a beauty rainbow.

My biggest pig of the day - didn't fight as nicely as some of the smaller fish - but he was pretty long - maybe 19 or so.

Old Chub, 8:15am - and I was the last to start drinking! Thanks for the Chub McFry! Oh, and the ice....

Book Review - Red Summer - by Bill Carter

Red Summer by Bill Carter

This is a newer book out on the shelf that I happened to pick up at the library and started reading. It is 230 pages of easy reading. I literally read the entire book in a week - which is unheard of since I am barely literate at all. Most books take me the full 2X renewal period the library allows to read.

Obviously I am a big fan of fly fishing, and although this is not a fly fishing book, it is about Alaska and salmon and fishing for them. Bill spends 4 summers (only about 6 weeks a year) in Egegik, Alaska netting salmon with a few locals. He tells his stories of being a greenhorn in year 1, the pain he feels in his body and the lifes of the Natives. Through all the drinking, cigarettes, swearing and work he tells a great story of just how hard these natives work and just how much they appreciate the Alaskan way of life. Outsiders, like himself, take a long time to "fit in", but the Natives have been welcome as long as they seem to "add" to society and work hard.

There are a few of chapters about other causes as well - the grizzly bear, the Pebble Mine, conservation and the Alaska Fish and Game that add nicely to Bill's story. He seems to be a great story teller and he captures the feel of living in Egegik, Alaska.

Another cool thing to do is to search on Facebook for people living in Egegik, AK - you will find quite a few, including the people listed in the book - I thought that was pretty cool that you could actually see that these real people exist. Pictures of Egegik make this place even seem more real.

Overall I highly recommend this book - it isn't about fly fishing, but it is about "fishing" and about a place we all dream about - Alaska. Happy reading.

North Park - June 21-22, 2010

This will forever be known as Destination Deet Throat - and if you have ever been to North Park in the summer you know why. We were fair warned, Darren set out early early morning on Monday and got up there around 5:30am - later in the morning he sent us an email saying "if you forget anything, don't forget the bug spray". So we packed a can each, and it was barely enough. Werm and I met at my house around 3pm and hit the road, after a quick McD's and a cigarette break we were pulling into South at 6:15pm or so. We stopped at south to get our bearings and give Darren a call - and suddenly a swarm of bugs were inside the truck - like pirahna's after flesh. To say the least, I am still swatting imaginary bugs away as I can still feel them buzzing next to my eyes and ears.

BUGS!

I should probably get to the fishing reports.... we met Darren at the North, but he was having no luck and we headed back over to South at the Willows - we blew up the kayak and were floating in minutes. The wind was just high enough to give us some reprieve from the bugs and add a little chop to the water. We all caught fish - mostly small ones, but we each caught about 4 during the daylight hours. Werm had a stretch where he had about 8 LDRs in a row - it can be frustrating when they unhook themselves like that. The darkness was creeping in, but the moon was over 3/4 full, so it provided enough light to make a headlamp a nice to have instead of a necessity. We loaded up the yak into the truck/car and were going to streamer fish into the night.

random fish

We headed back over to the fence on North and fished there for about an hour. Darren hooked up with a nice brown, but Werm and I got the skunk. So we headed back to South - by the outhouse and the beach and we lined up along the flats and pulled streamers through the beach area. We had really good success as well, I landed a nice little rainbow, Darren caught 2 huge pigs, and Werm landed a few nice bows as well. All seemed to hammer the streamer under the moonlight.



At around 12:15am we called it a night - and headed to Walden for the hotel. Werm and Darren wanted to borrow my underwater camera so they could compare their callibaetis' in the shower and see how they looked wet - but I said no, and they finally settled down and we crashed just after 1am. Before I knew it the light was on, the blinds were opened, and they were bustling around the room ready to go. I fought it for a while, but these guys would have just left me and gone to fish. We were back on the D's at 6:30am.

We started out on the South lake on the lot right at the left of the entrance - a nice little bay with some stinky ass mud. We paddled over to the spillway and started fishing. It was slow going, and we moved again. It was great - no bugs, and not a breath of wind.

like glass

Unfortunately no wind = no movement = no fish. We moved again, continuing towards the willows. Then I started hooking into fish - my first 4 fish were beauties, 3 of which ran in the 18 to 19 inch range and were brightly colored females. The 4th fish of the day was 18 or so inches and was bright pink - when I couldn't get the hook out I had to hold her tight and she shot over 400 eggs all over me and the kayak - it was a mess, and I felt pretty shitty. I hate when the females do that and you know those eggs aren't going to make it.

lots and lots of eggs

piggie piggie

The boys soon started hooking up as well - most of the fish the rest of the day were the 14-16 inch stockers that would run you all over the water. The smaller the fish the better the fight - it was a lot of fun not knowing what you had on until it got to the boat. Like clockwork, at 9am the bugs started attacking us. We slathered on the deet and sprayed each other with bug spray. And like more clockwork, the wind came, and came and came, and came.

Darren in his yak.

We did have an epic 45 minute stretch between 10am and 10:45am where we couldn't get the fish off our lines - all three of us landed a total of about 15 fish in that span and we have a couple doubles as well. Horsing those fish in on 4X and a 10 foot leader is no easy task in the yak - no ones arms were long enough and the dip net helped, but some you still couldn't reach. Not to mention the fish are net shy - they see your net and RUN! The water temp seemed perfect at around 59*.

Werm with a nice fish.

We literally got blown off the water around lunch time. We parked the yaks next to shore and just shore fished for an hour or so - Darren was the only one who landed a fish, I had 3 strikes in a row, and all three broke off flies. One fish I had on felt like the largest of the day - he pulled me straight into the weeds where I broke off.

We tried a couple more spots - including the outhouse hole and then back at the willows with little luck. By 3pm we were worn out from the wind and we packed everything up and hit the road. We were worn out. The trip home was uneventful and we were at my house by 6:15pm. It was a great trip, with amazing weather (it was in the high 60's or low 70's the entire time), almost no clouds and great fishing.

The pattern of the trip was the jumbo grey juju tied on a 2302 hook in size 16. I hooked almost all my fish on that pattern or a very similar pattern (same color) to it. Werm had some luck on some callibaetis late morning on Tuesday, and Darren had some luck on a caddis green tubing nymph, but they too had as much luck on grey juju's.

There were a lot of other campers/fishers out but it was by no means crowded. It was of course quiet and we had the occassional coyotes crying at night.

Pair of hawks that were building a nest in the willows.

Great trip boys - thanks for hanging with me! I hope to do it again soon!