Goal Setting

Every year I set a goal of how many Trout I feel i can catch. To some this may seem trivial, others might feel that doing this will take away from the enjoyment one can get from fishing. To me I feel that it is neither of these. Setting a goal gives me the drive to learn new techniques to improve my success, it also to me ads a type of competitiveness that I have come to really enjoy and appreciate. Am I crushed when I do not reach my goal, NEVER......
This years goal is 1000 trout. Right now i am sitting a little short of that and probably wont make that goal. I enjoy keeping track of my numbers, it also gives me a long term record of how different streams have produced, what time of year I do best on certain streams and other vital stats that help me plan my fishing trips.

Trout number 750 for the Year.......



This has been the year I have caught the most.....I have crushed my old record of Trout caught in a given year.
If anyone has any thoughts or opinions or even does something similar or the same I would love to hear about it.

This weeks trips

Lucky for me this week I have had alot of downtime from school (thank you to my professors for the small amount of homework). Because of this I was able to make 4 trips fishing. Here are some of my favorite photos/fish from this week.

 This first male brown was my favorite. What a beautiful male. the colors were just unbelievable

 My good friend Adam hooked up with this brownie on his first cast of the day.

 This was my biggest fish I got the first trip this week. (note the scud, I have been fishing these like crazy with great results lately)

 This insanely fat bow also was duped by an olive flashback scud (size 12)

 heres another look at the big bow. I was fishing my 3 wt when this decided it wanted to test me. I felt the fish take the scud, instantly lifted the rod and BAM the battle started. As you can see I won the battle and was rewarded with a clam fish that let me get some good one handed photos.

 I was also able to take my good friend kenny fishing with me this week. Our class schedules are totally different this semester so we have a hard time meeting up. I introduced Kenny to fly fishing about 4 months ago and he was happy to set a new personal best with this fish. I must say I was proud to sit back and watch him be rewarded with fish. His casting has improved so much that I felt he deserved a good fish. It was funny, on our trip today he asked if I would wait 10 min before fishing so he could try to catch one (I have been blessed with a monster trout almost instantly every trip Kenny comes on) I managed to wait the 10 minutes out of respect but man was that HARD.

 This fish came from the community ponds here in Rexburg. It was by far the biggest trout I have ever caught at these Ponds. Although its a planter bow, It impressed me with the fight it put up. We managed about a dozen bows on this trip in the two hours we were there.(11 me 1 Kenny) but hey he is getting closer.

Here is Kennys 1 that he got on the trip. Again scuds were the ticket.

The quest for that monster brown!

Well I only had one class today and decided to Hit some areas on Henrys Fork that my buddy Chris showed me a while back. I havent had the opportunity to get into some big brown trout for a long while so I wanted to try to catch one while the fishing is good. Overall I managed 14 browns and 1 big fat bow on the 4 hour trip.

 This was my biggest brown of the day. 19 inches taken on a halloween bugger.  (sorry for some of the pictures being upside down. I tried saving new images of them to fix it and it wouldnt work.

 This was such a beauty of a brown.

 This one was camera shy.....which is a bummer because he had beautiful color.

 This rainbow was 18 inches. I couldnt get over how fat it was. Pound for pound I dont think there is a trout that fights harder than a rainbow. Plus this was a personal best for a Henrys Fork Rainbow. I know there are much bigger ones to be had.

Overall it was a great day of fishing. All the fish were caught on either a halloween Bigger or a brown Crystal bugger size 6. I hooked into a big male Brown today, got it to to the surface, and then it came unbuttoned. I feel this one would have beat my personal best brown at 27 inches. I estimate this one to be between 24-27 but about 2 times as heavy as my current best.

Catching up!

 Its been a while since i put up any of my trips. I have been busy with classes and homework and what not, but i still managed a few short trips over the past 2 weeks. My good friend Adam managed to catch this nice male brown on a recent trip ( it was his first trout on a streamer and also his largest brown. For Henrys fork its no monster and the picture honestly doesnt do it justice. It was a broad shouldered beauty. We took some other pictures but for some reason they didnt save and i lost them.

 This saturday I took my girlfriend fishing to Birch Creek, it was a great trip and we had alot of fun but didnt fish very long. I managed this double before I left along with a few other nice wild brookies. I stalked this one brookie that had to have gone 12 inches(would have been my largest wild brook) but after hooking him he came unbuttoned about halfway to my net.

 The wind made for a miserable day. Gusts of up to 40 mph and 30 degree temps.trying to cast my 3 wt was a challenge. I am really glad I had a thick beanie on because i managed to hook it multiple times.

Overall it was a great memory/trip I will take her back in the summer for a 200+ fish day to make up for it

Its starting to get cold out! To me it doesnt matter one bit.

 Well in between classes today I was able to meet up with another student here that I fish with. We ventured over to The Henrys Fork of the Snake River with the hopes of catching a monster spawning brown. We did catch multiple fat browns, but no trophys. Overall it was a great day of fishing. Most of the fish Chris caught were on a black leech. and the majority of my trout came on a Hotwire Prince Nymph and a olive/white clouser minnow. Also as you can see in the pictures, I am the proud owner of a bigger net. (next time I am at Henrys Lake i might actually be able to net those beasts. This is my first rubberized net and I must say I am in love.

 this was my first brown of the trip. caught within the first 15 mins of fishing.

 This was the biggest of the day for me. A healthy 18 inch Bow. It smacked the crap out of my clouser. When it hit, I was afraid my rod was going to snap.

Chris with the biggest brown for the day. His best pattern today seemed to be to wait till i moved and then instantly cast where I was standing and hook up with decent browns. Only him though, when I tried I got weeds.