Flies for a friend - FOTD

Having just been to the Bighorn and had great success with a new pattern I created, I wanted to repay a friend of mine (David) for floating us down the river on Friday. These are pretty simple midge patterns, but they are killer on the Horn. These are 5 dozen of my best in sizes that range from 16 to 20.

These are my newest creation - no name yet - but I was thinking maybe the "Simpleton":


These of course are my Killer Midges:

Super Float Stonefly - FOTD

Ivanbogda is one of my favorite fly tiers out there - I think this is the 2nd or 3rd fly of his that I have linked to - I have wanted to link to more, but don't want to promote the guy too much until I get a few of his flies as payment (hint hint - kidding of course, but donations are always welcome).



This is the Super Float Stonefly that is just a great looking fly - it was a little salmonfly in it and is an amazing tie. I'm not sure how he gets the biot tail to stay in there - but it looks great.

Check out all of Ivans flies at Fly Tying Forum.

April 16-19, 2009 - Bighorn River, Ft. Smith, MT - PART 2

Saturday

We had high hopes for Saturday, as it was supposed to be the best weather day of all - with temps in the mid 60's and low winds. Unfortunately that was not how it would turn out. We got a late start, trying to figure out boats and when toleave. We got word from Alvin the campground owner that David had left a message the night before saying that he had to rush home to Billings because his wife was ill and he wouldn't be there to float. (Just to let everyone know his wife is ok, althouhg they can't seem to figure out what is wrong with her). Chad went with Jason & Eric again, Bill borrowed Willy's single man pontoon boat, Steffan went with Sid & Don, and Willy and I broke in his new 3 seater raft. We got a late start - probably closer to 9am - leaving from Afterbay bound for Bighorn Access. Just as we left the cabin, a huge burst of wind kicked up rattling the monsterous Cottonwood trees at the campground, it sounded like a jet plane, but never stopped - it was a steady 25+ mph wind. The weather was still below 40 degrees and this wind made it seem much colder.

We met Tim (tplane), his dad and buddy Tim at the boat ramp - where Tim showed me pics of the whitefish trophy winner - a 17 inch beauty that he had caught the day before. I taped it based on the picture of the fish against his net - this would be tough to beat. Willy and I pushed off and Willy used his new oar locks and oars on the raft, but it was quick to be determined that this was not the best method. We switched to paddle style and it worked much better. Although, neither of us would be able to fish out of the raft as we each needed to paddle.

All of the normal spots were well stocked with people - as there seemed to be a lot more people than normal out on the water. We skipped the Meat Hole, and settled on the right hand bank of the Aquarium just below Suck Hole. Unfortunately we had no luck after about an hour. Bill kept warm by cracking a beer at around 9:30am. We moved down again and again, with little luck. Finally we settled at 3 Mile Access in the same run that David had fished the day before. I set Willy up with a nice rig and his first indicator (a tiny thingamabobber) and had him fish the same stretch. He had a couple of bumps, but no takes. I fished just ahead of him in the riffles - and hooked a monster rainbow that took me 60 yards to land. When I did land him, he had the tippet wrapped in his gills and I saw a little blood come out and paniced, I just cut the tippet and let him go - he bolted out into the middle unfazed.

We moved down again, this time to a spot just under some cliffs. Tim, Tim and his Dad were stopped just across river from us enjoying lunch. It was starting to warm up and the wind was off and on. The wading was tough since we stopped at the cliffs, basically all of the boats fish this bank, but no one could get out because it was too deep to drop anchor - but with a raft it was perfect. I missed a brown right off and then Willy had a big hit - I heard him give a little hoot and I waded down to the raft to help him net his fish. But this fish wouldn't move - it basically stayed deep and he couldn't turn it's head no matter what he tried. The fish basicaly stayed within a 10 foot radius, and moved a bit up and down, but it took Willy about 7 or 8 minutes to land the beast. When he did it was all worth it - it was a legit 20 inch brown with beautiful coloring and a nice hooked jaw. Willy had broken in his new rod on a beauty!



We moved on again, this time stopping at the pool just after the Drive In Hole. This spin out held lots of fish and I was hoping it would be an opportunity for Willy to catch an easy one - and he sure did on his first cast:



It was a nice 16 inch rainbow and Willy was on the board again! I had quite a good time in this hole. The weather was now clearing up and the wind was down. I fished the whole stretch - all the way past the two downed logs to the end of the pool - I picked up 6 or 7 fish and missed some hogs as well. Here are a few:







We kept moving - jumping from spot to spot with not much success. We saw a great hole where the big flat turnout on the left is with a huge shelf and the boats land on the shelf and fishermen stand arm in arm and cast into the flat pool - it was stacked with 4 boats so we drifted by it about 200 yards and again landed right on the cliffs. This time there really wasn't any place to tie off the raft - so we made a tie off with sticks and large pieces of shail. No boats could land here again because it was too deep to drop anchor, but every boat fishes this section as the swing by. Steffan/Don/Sid pulled in across river from us.

We had to walk next to the cliffs and slightly in the water to get to the slow parts of the run, but Willy did and caught a little guy right off. Then I started hammering them - I caught 4 18-19 inch rainbows on the red midge, and 1 little dink brown. The fish were beautiful and fiesty and I didn't think I would land them after they would run out into the deeper/faster water - but I managed to land them all.





After that we kind of made our way down river - stopping a couple of times, but not having much luck. There is a deep section of river that is towards the end of our trip - there are huge flat rocks next to the shoreline that run a 100 yard stretch or so and they drop off into 15+ foot water. While coasting over one of them I saw a huge carp (had to be about 3 feet long and over 30 lbs) just kind of slide off the rock he was sitting on down into the deep water - the fish was just so huge that you couldn't miss it. The day was winding down, we were hungry and in need of beer and we landed at Bighorn right around 7pm. Bill was waiting there for us. We loaded the truck and were back at Cottonwood around 7:30pm ish. We had a nice turkey bruger dinner, shot the crap with Sid and Don, and reluctantly packed most of our stuff in the truck in preparation of a long drive home the next day. We hit the sack around 11pm.

Sunday

Got up around 7am, on the road by 8am. As we were pulling out we saw Jason's nice camera bag laying just past his camping spot at Cottonwood - so Chad grabbed it. It was an uneventful drive - stopping a few times for gas, food and potty breaks. About 2 hours into the drive we finally got cell service and Steffan listened to his messages and found out his basement had flooded - 2,000+ gallons had to be removed after the power went out and his sump was useless. He stressed the whole way home about it, and there wasn't much he (or anyone) could do as the damage was done. Dropped Steffan off in Longmont at 2:30pm, Chad and Bill off in Denver at 3pm and was home by 3:30pm. Of course the kids were asleep - so I went right to the carwash and spent an hour detailing Jen's truck.

15 inches of snow had fallen in Highlands Ranch, and there was still some left on the lawns and in huge snow banks where the snowplows were nice enough to leave them. Water was flowing out of every drain, sump, lawn and down our street like a river. When you stepped on any exposed lawn you sunk in at least 6 inches.

Ahhhhh, so nice to be home.

April 16-19, 2009 - Bighorn River, Ft. Smith, MT - PART 1

Flows 3,000 cfs, clear.

Thursday

Wednesday night around 10pm I tried laying down to get a couple hours of sleep - of course I was fully packed and fully clothed. I never really did get much sleep, maybe a couple of hours before my 4 month old son woke me up around 12:15am. I handed him off to Mom and got my shoes on, grabbed a Pepsi and out the door at 12:45am. Hit the gas station, and made it to Chad's house at 1:20am. Bill (Flashbck) and Chad (ChadTrout) were out front waiting with headlamps on - they threw their stuff in the truck and up I25 to the 119 Longmont exit we went. Steffan (Naffets) was just pulling into the park and ride as we pulled in too. It was just before 2am and we were on the road.

The weather reports were iffy, but we were just getting out ahead of the weather. In Cheyenne we stopped at the normal gas station and grabbed gas and snacks and the potty. Just outside of Cheyenne we hit some fog that seemed to get worse and worse. The roads stayed relatively dry, and the fog came and went until about Casper, where we stopped again to fill up and hit the head. The weather outside Casper started getting nasty, so Steffan took it easy for an hour or so. The weather cleared nicely after an hour or so and we had it cranked back up to 75 mph as the sun started brighting the cloud cover up. We hit Sheridan making decent time at around 8:30am or so and hit our normal Rock Stop gas station - where we saw this familiar face:



I'm not exactly sure why the sculptor decided to bronze out a tiny little penis on this guy, but it doesn't do him justice...

Knowing that the MT border was 25 minutes away we hit the road - hit the Lodge Grass exit and were in Ft. Smith by about 9:45am. We hit the parking pass machine, then Bighorn Trout Shop for a hat, weights and small thingamabobbers, then on to Cottonwood to check in. Our cabin was open, so we threw are stuff down - got our waders on and Chad's buddy Jason and Eric show up with their popup camper - great timing.

We all hit 3 Mile Access by about 11am. It was still chilly and the water was ice cold (38 degrees), I knew this because within a half a minute of stepping in the river I had a left foot full of water. Within 30 minutes of trying to not stop fishing I had to give up - the water was creeping up my leg to my jewels and was coming in just too fast. I left 3 Mile and headed back to Cottonwood - but, their cheapest pair was $200 Dan Bailey's. I headed to Bighorn Angler where I found some nice Simms waders that were mis-priced. A little pissed because of the bait and switch the shop guy went in the back and brought out $140 Simms that I could tell were 100X better than my Hodgman's hip waders.

I was back on the water by 12:30pm or so and met back up with Steffan - we weren't having any luck at all and decided to fish to the easy dinks just down from the boat ramp that were slamming the top water over a 100 foot stretch. I just took my weights off and slid my indicator down and landed a bunch right off. I had Steffan do the same and he was suddenly into tons of fish. Steffan pulled out a beauty - a 15 inch brown that was hidden among the dinks - not a bad little fish, and a great fight!

We decided to hit Afterbay at around 4pm and all 4 of us drove up there. We hiked down to the Meat Hole and had it to ourselves. The hole has changed a ton, the shelf is much longer and the pool at the end much smaller. Worst of all, we didn't see a whole lot of fish. Chad caught 5 fish before we got there, and I managed 1 nice brown of about 16 inches on a red micro tubing midge. We didn't have a whole lot of luck and it was getting dark quickly - we headed back to Cottonwood at around 7:30pm. We were exhausted, so we made dinner - stuffed halibut with asparagus (by Steffan), drank some beers and then passed out.

Friday

We woke around 7am all ready to go - but the cold weather kept us in the cabin and David (BlackOtter) showed up around 8am. Kyle (Kyo) and Doug (OliveBugger) showed up a couple minutes later and we suddenly had spots in boats for everyone. Steffan and I fished with David in his boat, Chad/Jason/Eric rented a boat and Bill went with Kyle and Doug. David and Kyle's boats lauched from Afterbay while Chad's boat launched from 3 Mile. Steffan and I were into fish almost immediately - as we traded whities right out of the gate:





Steffan's whitie was 15 inches while mine was 14 inches - so he had an early lead. I managed a nice 17 inch rainbow as well - I was off to a good start, as I always seem to fish well with David.

The fishing was hit and miss throughout the first three miles - with most of the good spots already spoken for. Steffan picked up a nice brown out of the boat and at least someone was catching fish (I wasn't).



We didn't really hit another spot for all of us to fish until 3 Mile Access where David picked up a fiesty brown on the island drop off next to the main channel - she was a beauty and he got her on his first cast.



As we pulled out of David's spot we slid next to the boat ramp and tried hitting the slow/deep stuff just next to the ramp - it is easily 12 feet deep here, so I put a ton of weight on and put 10 feet between my indicator and flies. I hooked and landed a beautiful rainbow that went 19 inches long - I hooked him on my Killer Midge that David likes so much.

We kept on moving, hitting the Drive In Hole where we all picked up some fish - Steffan hooked a nice brown (below) and David was trying to pick some lunkers off with a streamer, with no luck. I managed a nice brown as well.





We kept moving down river - settling in across from the Colorado Club where Steffan and David tore it up - David pulled 4 18+ inch fish out on 5 casts, I had 3 decent fish on (including a lunker of a rainbow that was a boot licker) - but couldn't land any of them.

David let me row the rest of the way down the river and it went pretty uneventful - I only did 3 360 degree turns, but didn't bump into anything and actually avoided a spin out that the guys were betting I'd hit. All in all it was a good day, although the fishing was so sporadic and the weather was teetering on cold/almost warm. It was partly sunny, but there was a steady 10 moh wind and it was only in the upper 40's. Back at the cabin we were greeted by some more RMF board members including Don (flybop), Sid (MTNole) and Willy (WillyC). We all at a nice pork roast dinner and drank our share.



I somehow managed to drink 16 beers, including about 6 in the last hour or so before bed. Chad/Jason/Eric pulled in late shit-faced on 2 bottles on Maker's Mark before noontime! Sid and Don had to have their arms twisted to drink our beer, and Bill was feeling preety happy as well after a nice day of catching fish!

4 advils later, around 11pm I was out like a light.

Saturday is coming up next......

Canadian

I love everything about Canada, the beer, the hockey, the ladies in the Montreal men's clubs, the fishing, the outdoors and so many other things. My ancestory is French Canadian - although from Nova scotia as well.

I also love their flag - straight red and white with a nice maple leaf. Simple.

Chatfield - scouting the water levels

I hit Chatfield today to take Cabo for a swim, headed to my carp flats because I wanted to see the condition of the water and if the flats were filled in yet - HOLY COW! The water level was at least 8 inches higher than it's highest point last year. I tried walking through to my little bay, but couldn't get there without waders.

Rumor has it they filled the other reservior on the other side of C470 and they are keeping some of the water for themselves. Of course they will probably open up the flood gates in May and push a ton of water out of there. It has to be close to carp season on Chatfield.

Ants in Your Pants - if you are into that sort of thing - FOTD

I'm not a big ant fan, I don't think I have ever used the pattern in my life - but these Forest Ants are sweet!



That has to be some sort of epoxy on the butt (I'm wrong - it's hot glue stick - which actually makes this fly even harder to tie!!), that is an amazing job getting the color so even and getting it to be that polished. perfect hackel, nice antron and the red body is sweet. Did I mention the photo is sharp, in focus, multiple flies and has a good background? That's the grand slam of fly tying photography! Very nice job and my FOTD!

Hot Damn, I'm in Love! Diving Raffine Caddis - FOTD

Ok, I'm still searching for the perfect fly, and I found another - yup, it's a caddis, it's small, and it is beautiful. Size doesn't matter in ff, think golf and your score - smaller is better!

I found this beauty while searching another members blog buddies, damn is it nice. This is the Diving Raffine Caddis from Dave Wiltshire Fly Tying Blog and I like the simpleness and the use of the Raffine wing/case.



This guy has some amazing photos on his blog - he does some amazing caddis patterns that don't look too hard to tie (but I couldn't tie them), but look like they will definitely catch fish.

And I saw this little guy below that I would like to get a closer look at.



Thanks Mr. Wiltshire for some great looking flies!

A Wicked Stoner - FOTD

Ok, so I'm checking out all the blogs that people who belong to my blog belong to (confused yet?) and low and behold - there are some awesome bloggers out there with relatively unknown blogs.

Here is one by Luke C at Proven Patterns Blog that is just fantastic - there are so many good things with this fly that I can barely type I'm so excited - for instance, the lighting and color matted behind the fly is awesome (not distracting and highlight the fly perfectly), the biots are completely straight, the legs point down and are great, the body is well dubbed, the scud back is perfect and she is as sexy as blonde in a little black dress. Ok, I might have gone overboard there, but you get the point.



Oh, and did I mention he was a hell of a photographer as well? Check out his Flickr page for some unbelievable photos, like this Sulphur.

Sulphur
Originally uploaded by Tuberson1

For the Love of Caddis - FOTD

Just saw this beauty on the Fly Tying Forums.



I love caddis pupa/soft hackles - the lime/chartuese green bodies are so easy to tie - and better off they really do mimic the natural. If you have ever gotten one of those little cone shucks on your hook when fishing and you think it is a stick - take it and squeeze it from the bottom up and see what oozes out. It will have a black head and a lime green body - exactly like this fly.

I would tie this slightly different - I would use the micro-tubing instead of vrib to add less bulk and make the gap between hook and body slightly larger.

Even better! Brett just sent me a link to his site with tying instructions on another pattern. Check out The Trout Addictions Fishable Flies Blog.

Good Looking Bass Bug Photography - FOTD

I'm a sucker for good photography, and an even bigger sucker for flies and good photography. I saw this article pop across my Google Reader and I love the photos.

Check out the Fly Tying Forum thread on this guys bugs - and check out isaacviel.com for the photographers work - these are just amazing pics.

Below are just a couple of these amazing photos (I like to call it Fly Porn):







That is quite the set up for photographing flies - the most elaborate (and expensive)spread I have ever seen.

Yep - I fished....

...but not a whole lot more to tell. The day was beautiful (a weekday off too!) - got an early start with my buddy Darren, on the road at 5:30, to our destination (the Ark) by about 8am. No one around, bright sun, wasn't too cold, a little wind (but a cold wind), the water was the right flows (550+ cfs to be exact). Rigged up quickly, in the water soon after, about 1,000 casts, 4 rig changes, 2 blue heron sightings, 2 mean Canadian Geese that were giving us the evil eye(s). Oh, how was the fishing? It was great, the catching...well not so good. Darren did ok, about 6 fish and at least that many hook ups. Me - I got nothing - big ole SKUNKED!



We fished my secret spot and then moved to below Brown's Canyon for the afternoon. I was stone cold and shut out.

I was surprised to see some HUGE stonefly casings at our first stop - they looked like last years casings, but I'm not sure since they were very close to the water line and there was 6 or seven of them all together.



This sucker ws easily 3 inches + long, and most of the others I found in this "pile" were only slightly smaller. So next time you doubt how big/small the stones are on the Ark, here is some evidence!



Most of the other stones were this size - which is less than a half inch long!

Although I hate getting skunked, it was well worth the trip. Good company, beautiful day, good bugs, nice trip - I can't complain.

Cow Patties, the "Lean", and Swedish Supermodels - That's Living the Guiding Life

Through the reach of the internet I have had the opportunity to meet some great people and great fishermen. Being a fly fisherman I tend to be focused on the water and don't chat with many anglers unless I bump into them back at the truck while rigging up/down. The internet kind of smoothes things out - you can view people's personalities on forums and gauge whether you think you could actually fish with them through posts or email. Sometimes you get lucky and find a permanent fishing partner, and sometimes you find that guy who you'll only fish with once.

I've done very well on the internet - I met my best fishing partner on a forum, some great tyers, some really smart guys and some plain old nice guys too. One thing these guys all had in common is that they all out fish me on the river. I've met Canadian Army guys, biologists, sales people, finance geeks (like me!), fishing guides, IT geeks, just about every walk of life.

One of those guys that intrigued me the most I got a chance to meet last year at our annual Bighorn River gathering in Ft. Smith, MT. His name is David Palmer and he goes by the handle Blackotter on the few fly fishing forums he is on. David is living the dream - last year he quit his day job and followed his passion for fly fishing and teaching and became a fly fishing guide. I was lucky enough to catch David on an off day last year (well - not sure he would have called it an off day) and fished with him on the Bighorn. Not only was he very knowledgable about everything from the town of Ft. Smith, but he knew the birds flying over head, and he expalined the different types of brown trout in the river and their histories. He also outfished us all 3 to 1.

Afterbay on the Bighorn.

We aren't quite in the fishing season yet, so David had some time to answer some questions I had about his first season of being a guide. His responses are pretty genuine just like he is. Check out his interview below:

What rivers do you guide on?
Right now, I guide on two rivers, the upper 3 miles of the Bighorn and then the next 10 miles of the Bighorn. There were other rivers I tried to get work on, but being a first year guide, it's tough enough to get your foot in the door in one place let alone many. The other part of the problem is in this area, the rivers are spread out. In Bozeman and Missoula, you have a lot of choices in a small area. Here, it's 90 miles one way or 90 miles the other way. This year and maybe next I'm looking to guide other places as I build a (hopefully positive) reputation.

Did you have any mentors?
A few and some whether they realize it or not. My dad started me fishing at a very young age and it starts there. I have a friend who used to guide and is an excellent fisherman. I owe a lot to him. I have a couple other friends who are also excellent fisherman and they were a very positive influence also. But as you go through the learning process and go down the river day after day, you watch others and see things that you like or don't like so there are others who became silent mentors, most likely unknowingly.

Help us out here with a rumor, are all guides homeless, long haired, unshaven, dog lovin' hooligans?
I don't know too many that are long haired. There are a couple though. It gets too hot on the Bighorn in the summer to have long hair. You see a lot more Marine Corp style haircuts than you would think even though I only know one guide who was a Marine. It feels like everyone is homeless because so few people in Ft Smith are full time residents. I stay in a place called the Mouse House. You can guess who the full time residents are. At the end of the season, most are off to other destinations so if it's not homeless, it transients.

Unshaven is relative. Almost everyone stays shaven early in the season. As the days go by, more and more shave less and less. When opening day for bow season approaches, you can easily tell who is getting ready to go bow hunting and who is still going to be guiding.

There isn't a guide that doesn't love dogs. Most prefer bird dogs. I have poodles and I won't trade them for bird dogs or anything else. I have a friend who loves dogs but his girlfriend wants a small "foofy" dog, which he won't get. So they compromised and got a rabbit.

How many guided trips did you make in Year 1?
I guided 108 trips in my first season. Many people told me to expect 50 to 75 trips. I don't know how I did it other than brute force will power.

How long had you been a fly fisherman before you became a guide?
I started fly fishing when I was about 14 or so with the spinning rod and bubble. It was quite a while before I actually used a fly rod. I had been using a fly rod for about eight years before I started guiding. Knowing what I was doing fly fishing is even shorter than that.

What made you want to become a guide?
Bad middle management. I was in computers prior to guiding and was involved with a project that lasted a painful five years. Nobody ever would stop and take a look at why it was so problem ridden (which was probably me). The only thing I looked forward to was going fishing when I could. For a long time, I didn't think I had it in me to become a guide but it turns out that sitting at a desk for twelve hours a day was just not for me.

When I'm guiding, there's no middle management. There's the clients, the guide and the fish and it's really hard to delegate to the fish.

There's nothing better than seeing the expression on an anglers face when he holds up his prized fish, except maybe the look on his face when that same fish slides through his fingers as he releases it back into the river.

Which quality do you think you must have the most of to be a good guide: ability to listen? patience? knowledge of entomology? great personality?
Personally, I think a good guide is a good communicator. Whether someone is fly fishing for their first time or going on their thirtieth year, the guide is in control of the day and needs to communicate to understand what the people expect, give them an idea of what the fishing should be like and offer alternatives. Patience helps too. People in my old life wouldn't probably not call me a patient person. But when you are on the river, things happen and there's no reason to get upset about those things. Personality is a good thing, but I think attitude is more important. You know of some guides because of their personality, good or otherwise, but the guide that has a good attitude isn't going to give up when things get tough.

...and the ability to duck with cat-like reflexes.

What is the funniest thing to happen to you in Year 1 of guiding?
I had two clients that had been doing well. We were wade fishing in a spot and the one upstream just kept hooking fish. I *really* had to take a leak but couldn't because he kept hooking fish. Finally I told him I had to go so I went up behind a bush and started going. I look over my should and he's got another fish. I hurry up and start running back down to net his fish and get right to the edge of the water where there was a lot of very fresh cow plop. I stepped right in the middle of one and went down hard...right into the middle of more cow plop. I was completely covered. I ended up having to throw away a jacket and shirt because it just wouldn't come out.

What is the funniest thing to happen to your client in Year 1 of guiding?
It wasn't my client per se, but a family a group of us were guiding. I had one brother in my boat and someone else had the other two brothers. One of the other two brothers, Mark, wasn't all there and the other two brothers would readily tell you this. Anyhow, Mark has to pee and walks ashore and in the spot we were in, it was quite a walk. He gets his waders down and starts going and the other guide yells, "Mark, be sure to watch for rattlesnakes!". Mark completely freaks out and forgets that he's peeing and his wader liners pop up and he's peeing in his waders and jumping around looking for rattlesnakes that aren't there. The other two brothers and I about pee ourselves laughing so hard. Mark gets himself together, pulls his wader liners back down and finishes. Then he walks all the way back out, pee all over the front of him and in his waders and says, "You guys catch anything yet?".

For some reason, funny things happen when someone has to pee.

What was your biggest learning experience of Year 1?
The biggest self-preservation learning experience is how to casually lean briefly to let a cast whiz by you and go back to rowing like nothing happened. Really good guides don't stop rowing, but you see the slight lean.

The biggest learning experience goes back to communication. I would have clients, especially beginners and novices, that would be doing fine and then something would happen and I'd say something and they'd do it again. The one I noticed first was they would be casting from the boat and make a cast too far up or downstream. I would say, "More toward the bank." and they would make the same cast they just made, but try to cast farther. I realized what they heard was, "Make the same cast again but closer to the bank." So I had to learn to say, "Your cast was too far up (or down) stream." and remind them of the general area they should be casting.

The other thing I learned was to let people have their space at times and do it for themselves. I had two clients and they both had fly fished for a long time, but one of them only got out once or twice a year so it was a re-learning experience. I was helping him and coaching him but he wasn't getting into any fish. I tell him I'm going to check on the other guy and I get about five steps away and he hooks a fish. So I start coaching him again and he's doing everything pretty good but not hooking any fish. So I turn to go help the other guy and get a few steps away and he hooks another fish. This happens about six or seven times in a row. Finally I tell him, "I'm going to tell you that I'm going to help the other guy and walk away and you're going to hook a fish" and he hooks a fish!

Even though I thought I was doing the right thing by being right there and trying to coach him and have him correct some of the small things, I was making him nervous. Once I had moved away, he relaxed enough that he was thinking of the fish and not thinking of doing something correctly. That was a huge lesson for me.

What will you change from Year 1 to Year 2?
Watching for cow poop when I have to pee.

Also to be more proactive in getting people's skill level up, especially for beginners. I always ask people if they had fished, how they fished, what they fished for but too often made assumptions that translated into thinking they'd know what to do fly fishing. It's a fine balance between overloading the person early in the day and telling them enough things to get them going. I don't know if there is a way yet because I found just going over casting and mending was too much for a lot of people so you start working on things as you are fishing.

Every fish has a story, and that fish never fails to leave a smile on it's anglers face.

What was your best fly pattern in Year 1?
Being on the Bighorn, it's a pretty limited selection. A Ray Charles was probably the best all around fly and a grey one at that. It seems like no matter when you stomach pump a fish, there are sow bugs, even in the thickest hatches. There are times when other colors work well but the consistency of a sow bug pattern is unrivaled for me.

What was the beer of choice in Year 1?
Whatever is free. If I have to buy it, it's Moose Drool. If I have to buy it and share it, it's Miller. In college it was common practice to get the cheapest beer possible. But when you are sharing your beer with clients and employers, you want it to be good enough that they'll still hire you.

What was the most common "weakness" in your customers game for Year 1?
The most common one, which occurs more in novice anglers but still some in more experienced anglers, is starting the cast with too much slack in the line. That's where a lot of tangles come from. People start to cast, the slack is there and they jerk the rod to get the slack out instead of going back slowly.

What were you surprised that customers picked up the quickest in Year 1?
The water haul. Casting is tough for a lot of beginners but you can show them how to use the water to load their rod and just flip a cast upstream. The funny part about teaching it is it seemed like the newer the person was, the easier it was for them to do.

The hardest thing for a lot of people to pick up is casting close. Everyone wants (or tries) to cast thirty feet or farther. But on the Bighorn, there are times when you can get really close to fish and you only need to cast the leader and maybe a little bit of line. A lot of people can't load the rod and make the short drift.

What is the name of your boat? Every guide HAS to name his/her boat!
Believe it or not, I don't. I haven't named anything in a long time. It probably goes back to my youth when we named a cow and a year later, it was dinner.

Who is better - the customer that says "Teach me" or the customer that says "More Fish"?
Let's face it, everyone wants more fish. I had two or three clients all season that said, "You know, I've caught enough for one day. I want to go have my cocktail now."

I don't think one is better over the other. The "teach me" client is fun because you can work with them, but not everyone has the same things to learn or that they want to learn. The "more fish" or the "THE fish" client makes you challenge yourself as a guide. Whether you get more fish or THE fish is another thing, but the challenge is fun.

Oldest client in Year 1? Youngest?
Nine year old Cassandra was the youngest. I'm not sure the exact age, but a few that were in their seventies. The bulk of the clients were mid-forties to mid-fifties.

Rumor has it you like the carp and whities - so be honest, what is your favorite type of fish to catch?
I love carp and whities. If it wasn't for whitefish, I probably would not have stuck with fly fishing. Their willingness to be caught is what kept me trying and improving. I also love small mouth bass. A fourteen inch small mouth fights harder than an eighteen inch trout. I've also hook a couple large catfish on the fly. It felt like pulling a tree up. But if I only had one fish to chase around, it would probably be trout just because they offer such a wide variety of ways to try to catch them and you are seldom standing someplace ugly when you do. Thankfully, I live in an area where I don't have to make that choice.

The Horn has some big white fish in there - what was the largest whitie your client caught this year?
The Horn has some very large whitefish, definitely a state record and probably a world record. The largest I had a client catch was about 19 inches and pushing 3.5 lbs. I've seen larger in there but the Bighorn is not prime whitefish water and targeting a big one is a lot harder than going after a big trout. The client that caught the big whitefish was absolutely thrilled.

Did you tell them that the whitie was the much rarer cousin (thus much harder to catch) of the rainbow trout?
If the client is new to the sport, I always give them a good explanation of what a whitefish is. A few of the more seasoned anglers seem to share the same disregard a lot of anglers have. For a lot of people, it's a fish and they don't care. Of course, there is the rare angler that loves catching them too. It's more rare to find a client who likes catching carp.

Every fish is released into the river, but remains in the memories of the anglers that caught it.

What was the craziest weather you saw last year while guiding?
It's Montana. Crazy weather is just part of the day. Wind is the most common thing. It'll be mostly calm one minute and a 30 mph wind the next. One of my last days on the river, the wind came up and was going about 30 mph and then hit 40 mph, died to almost nothing, changed directions and a 50 mph gust hit.

One morning, the wind was blowing strong right away and blowing upstream. It was so hard, I (and quite a few others) had to pull over to rest because it was so much work getting downstream. I sat there and watched people rowing as hard as they could and their boats were moving upstream against hard current.

Another day, we stopped for about 30 minutes and watched a thunderstorm. It was a nice morning but a thunderstorm blew over the mountain and nobody wanted to be in the middle of lightning so we watched it for a while to make sure it was going to stay to the south before we got too far downstream.

There was another time where we got off the river at the end of the day and it was pretty nice but you could see a storm farther up. The people that were up in that stretch of the river were getting pummeled by hail and where we were didn't get a drop.

Any guiding related injuries in Year 1?
Except for ego, none were related to cow poop.

I strained my shoulder one day trying to stop the boat while a downstream wind was pushing us and a client hooked and landed a nice 20 inch rainbow. I really had to dig in to slow the boat and felt the twinge in my shoulder and thought, "Oh sh*t!". It took about five days before it started to feel better and the thing that saved me was the wade fishing was excellent for the next few days so I didn't have to spend all day doing the row-around.

Guiding - harder/easier than a real world job?
A lot harder than a desk job. It's very physically demanding and also, you can't call in sick or show up feeling crappy and do it half-assed and just slide by. You have to give every client the best day of fishing.

Average hourly pay for being a guide - remember to add in sun-up to sun-down prep work?
Enough to live on, but I won't be buying river front property any time soon.

Biggest fish your client caught in Year 1? on what fly?
We landed five 22 inch rainbows throughout the season. The most memorable one was on a Downy Wonder nymph.

According to a client, we landed a 23 inch rainbow, but it grew 3-4 inches after it got released. I have markings in my net so I can eyeball the size pretty quickly but it was his fish and his story.

Which is greater in a day: # of wind knots or # of flies embedded in skin?
Knots by far. Almost everyone gets a knot or tangle at some point. I was only hooked a couple times. I was hit a few more. It all goes back to learning how to lean away and let it fly by. Guides wear big hats for two reasons, chicks dig it and it keeps the hooks out of your face and head.

Who would be your perfect client?
Swedish supermodel or women's Brazillian beach volleyball team. There just aren't enough women that fly fish.

Honestly, I'm not a perfect guide so I'm not going to put pressure on someone to be the perfect client, but the most enjoyable clients are the ones who appreciate the day for what it is.

When the day is over, the boat is trailered, and you pull away from the ramp - what do you do next? Go home, go for a beer, something else?
In Ft Smith, a lot of the clients are staying at one of the lodges so it's get them back to the lodge and enjoying the social time before the meal. Most lodges down there provide the lunch stuff for the day so you have to get that in so it can be cleaned and refilled for the next day. Then it's break down and put away any equipment that needs to. If I have to work the next day, it's get a meal and have a beer with a couple friends. About the middle of August, it's stay up another hour tying flies I have now run out of and need the next day. If I don't have to work the next day, it's go through McDonalds in Hardin, drive home, get up, wash laundry and get ready to head back. Once in a while, you get a day you can actually fish.

How long do you want to do this for?
Guides work for as long as essentially two reasons allow, they wear out or the wife/girlfriend puts the foot down. I'm hoping that neither one happens too soon. I know of one female guide but she's still guiding so I don't know if the same two rules apply.

Any celebrity clients in Year 1?
First year guides usually don't get high profile clients. A couple that probably don't qualify to some as celebrities, but one guy who was a retired professional cyclist. Another was the son of a famous mayor who has achieved some fame for himself.

David showing off a beautiful rainbow.

Any stories about other celebrities you might have heard through the grapevine?
I met Fuzzy Zoeller and spent a morning rigging fly rods right next to Gary Anderson. I spent one day within eye sight of VP Dick Cheney. I heard that Tom Selleck was supposed to be on the river at one point but never saw anyone that looked like Magnum, PI. The funny part is, when they are in waders, a hat and glasses, they are just another person on the river, except the Vice President. Then he's just another person in waders, a hat, sunglasses and surrounded by forty heavily armed people with a military helicopter escort.

Any advise for a wanna-be fly fishing guide?
I have two pieces of advice. The first is, find the most difficult fishing situations and try to over come them. If you don't fish streamers, go fish streamers and figure out how to catch a fish on a streamer. One client I had was a young man who had aspirations but he wasn't very good at dry fly fishing. I told him to go find hatches and fish hatches.

On the Bighorn, everyone knows the obvious good spots. On busy days, they are packed so I would use those days to fish spots where I didn't see people fishing. Many times I found areas that fished really well. I had to learn to adjust my tactics in places and realized where there's water, there's fish. Then I started guiding and realized I hadn't found nearly as many spots as I thought. The caveat to finding a little niche is if you use it often, people will notice and pretty soon, someone else will be standing there.

The other piece of advice is some that someone else gave me. If you are truly thinking of becoming a guide, take two friends out that may not be skilled anglers and leave your rod. Tie knots and flies, take them through areas that you think have fish. Actually guide. I took my mother-in-law. We were almost not on speaking terms by the end of the day, but it certainly gave me a good sense of what a day was going to be like. Thankfully I don't have to spend holidays with clients so I don't get as stressed out with them.

I'm going to make a sports comparison here, because they do have some similarities - do you get butterflies in the morning before meeting your client? If not, when did those butterflies end?
I almost threw up the morning of my first guide trip, I was so nervous. I almost couldn't row because I had the jitters so bad. Thankfully, we hooked fish pretty quickly and I thought, "Phew, this won't be so bad." After that, I still got nerves but nothing like the first day. I got nerves a couple other times with clients that had pretty high expectations and again for one of the high end lodges. I still get butterflies from time to time but that let's me know that I'm not getting complacent. It was the first year in a long time where I woke up every morning looking forward to going to work.

How many times this year have you said "wow, that's never happened to me (or my client) before" and then it did happen again?
I had a lady client who was having a hard time casting. She managed to cut through a strike indicator and then a couple hours later, did it again. There's also the North Dakota Double as we call it. The client in front hooks a fish that runs up stream and it gets tangled in the line or leader of the person in back. The first time it happened, you think there's no way it'll happen again. I had it happen three times one day.

Give us your favorite three fly patterns (besides the Ray Charles mentioned earlier) for the Horn?
Not a specific pattern, but in general, midges. I've always fished them in the winter and book-end months but never fished them throughout the year. I found that fish eat midges every month. A specific pattern that covers midges and a lot of other bugs is the JuJuBee Midge. I'm glad someone told me about that fly.

Another great pattern is the Downy Wonder nymph. It works great for beatis, caddis, pmds and pseudos.

The most under utilized pattern on the Bighorn and probably anywere is a streamer. I don't go too far out of the box on patterns. Buggers and zonkers work great. People don't fish them because it's work casting and work fishing them. The Bighorn breaks a lot of rules when it comes to what fish will eat at what size they get. Lots of big fish will eat sow bugs and scuds because they are a big protein meal. But a truly big fish is still a hunter and is looking for that big meal.

What about bad clients and hard days? Every guide has a "bad client" story.
I have heard a couple stories and I did have one day that was not entirely pleasant, but it was something out of my control that set everything in motion. I did what I tried to do every day and that was get people to catch fish. But it was one day out of a whole summer so I don't dwell on it.

The hard days for me this year were two and both for the same thing...I had two different clients bring their fathers who were terminally ill and it was their last hurrah. One I found out about a few days before and the other I found out at some point during the day. You know there isn't much time left and they just want one last memory. You just try to make it as good a day as possible.



If you are interested in hiring David (Montana guide #12456) as your guide on the Bighorn, he can be reached at www.sunriseflyfishing.com or you can contact the outfitters he works for at:

Jeremy Gilbertson, Gilbertson Outdoors
Billings, Mt
Montana Outfitter 8836
(406)690-4752

The Bighorn Trout Shop, Steve Hilbers
Ft Smith, Mt
Montana Outfitter 504
(406)666-2375

Thanks David for being a good sport, a good friend and a hell of a guide! Hopefully we'll be tipping some Drool at the Bighorn gathering in a few weeks!

All pictures were taken by David Palmer.

Flies from the Fly Tying Gathering 3/14/09

 

The Juan Hopper tied by SweatPants

 

The paraloop tied by SearchingSolitude

 

The Orange Asher tied by TSyl

 

The CDC Caddis tied by SweatPants

 

The Yellow Stone tied by SearchingSolitude

 

Side view of the Yellow Stone tied by SearchingSolitude

 

Small Yellow Stone tied by SearchingSolitude

 

My Black Stone tied by brandon722

Great tying session and great meeting all 6 of you guys - SweatPants (John), The Flash (Darren), SearchingSolitude (Ken), TSyl (Tim), Troutdawg (Tradd) & Todd. Can't wait to do it again!