LOOKING BACK

2012 has been quite the year for me. Lots of goals have been accomplished, new friends have been made, my major has officially been declared, and the fishing has been stellar.

This year started out with another semester in Idaho, and a whole lot of fishing. As spring came to an end, I took a trip back to Pennsylvania on vacation and fished some more. Following that, I returned to Idaho and somehow balanced 14 credits, a relationship and 40 hr weeks for the rest of the year. I honestly have no idea how I made it, other then great support from awesome friends and family. 

This is a fishing blog, so I will not bore you with a tons of life photos. I will however review some of my favorite fishing trips and catches of the year. 

SPRING........

 This photo and the one below are from one of my favorite trips of the year. I tagged this big male cutt and will landed this big female off the same ledge. Both took streamers like they were the last time they would see one.

 Warm River

Henrys Fork Brown during the salmon fly season

Robinson Creek brown

 This was a memorable cutt. Chris pulled it out of a creek that couldnt have been more than 4 feet across. it inhaled a well placed streamer.

 One of the best looking bows that I think I have ever seen

Monster cutt from the upper reaches of the Henrys Fork.

 SUMMER (Central PA)

Best Little J brown to date (late August on a streamer)

 Lebanon County Freestone

 Little J

Mifflin County holdover pellet hog

FALL/WINTER

 Personal Best from the Warm River

 Caught some salmon

 Teton River

 Henrys Fork Brown

 I caught my Largest trout to date a few months back.

 Black spot disease

Its been a great year. Thanks again to all those who read the blog. I am going to be off school until April, so there should be a little more activity around here during that time. Also check back after the new years for some giveaways, I was going to do a Christmas one, but I think there are enough of those currently so I will postpone mine. 

On a side note, there have been a few people that have contacted me about fishing. I am not ignoring you, between my busy schedule and the fact that I have lost all your contact information I just have not been able to do much. Please get a hold of me, and we can meet up in the near future. 

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!! Tight Lines....

Gratitude

It being Thanksgiving and all, I feel I need to express my gratitude towards all my readers and those who follow my blog. This blog has been up and running for just over a year now, and much to my surprise, there have been over 7600 views. You all are awesome!!!!!!


I want to do a little write up on my favorite rod and reel also.

The rod is a 9' 6 wt Temple Fork Outfitters TiCr. It is without a doubt the best streamer rod I have thrown. It is most definitely a fast action rod (really took some getting used to). One of the main reasons I chose the TiCr was the fact that it came with a fighting butt. In a 6 wt it is extremely hard to find one that comes with one, with this model being a saltwater specific rod it was included. It has plenty of backbone in the butt section with great sensitivity in the tip. The rod punches through these Idaho winds cleanly and accurately.

The rod is paired with a Ross Fly Rise. Its is the absolute best deal on the market. For 100 bucks you get the Evolution LT drag system and legendary Ross durability. I have put many hours in searching for a lightweight cast aluminum reel, and this is by far the lightest on the market. You pair the TFO with this reel and you have a combo that has a lifetime warranty on all parts.

This combo has handled everything I have thrown at it. It has become a must when chucking streamers.


Again thank you for all the support and the following. This little blog has far exceeded my expectations.

BEAST MODE

With work and a relationship tugging at my ever diminishing free time, I haven't had much of a chance to get out fishing much. When I do, I go into beast mode and I am making so many casts, I feel like I am burning more calories than running on a treadmill. Yesterday, I was rewarded with a monster hybrid which also happened to break my largest trout ever caught record.

 26 inch 9.25 lb hybrid.........It decided it really wanted to hit my articulated sculpin pattern like it was the last   piece of meat in the river.

A decent cutt my buddy Tyler caught. The black spot disease really kills the beauty of the Yellowstone Cutts.

Shout out to my buddy Chris. His Cutty Candy sure does catch them.

STINGERS

Its been a long while since I have updated anything on here. Fishing time for me lately has been non-existent. If I am not working, I am in class or doing homework. I cannot complain though. Things are going great! I have had a few hours here and there to sit down and tie up some new streamers though, and I really wanted to try them out. I woke up this morning and found myself with nothing to do. I had the day off work and I had one class at 3:15. About the time I thought about going fishing, my little brother walked into the apartment and I ran the idea by him. He was all for it, so we headed out in search for some fish.

After a drive to check our spot out on a local river that we like to fish, we decided to change our plans and head on over to the Henrys Fork and try our luck for some brownies. 

I made 3 casts and was rewarded with 3 great fish. After taking a few photos of the last fish, we decided to head back towards Rexburg and grab my net that I had accidentally left at the last fishing spot. After retrieving my net we headed back to the HF and started fishing again  The wind had picked up, but that didn't stop my brother from picking up a good fish and me a few more also.

As the title states, all my streamers now are tied with stingers. I no longer need to fish trailer flies, all the short strikes that have been occurring no longer pose a problem. Today was the R&D day for my stinger patterns, and in hindsight, they WORK!!!!! I am officially converted and they really do increase your hookups. 

2 ways to get your streamers!!!!!

I am going to have a photo contest on my photo page. All you need to do is like my page and submit a photo  of a streamer caught fish. The winner will get a half dozen of my favorite streamers. The contest will run the whole month of October, so tell your friends.

The second way to pick up some awesome tied streamers is to head on over to my buddy Shane's website. www.fishhunterchronicles.com and follow his link to his online shop. He has some AWESOME streamer patterns that we fish all the time. His prices beat any fly shop, and the quality is great. Shane is a fishing machine, and these patterns have evolved over time to become fish catching powerhouses.

In the form of fishing trips for me, there haven't really been many. I have been working 32 hours a week and also taking 14 credits. Stay tuned though, because I will be headed out this week a few times hopefully.

LOW FLOWS

Here in Idaho the leaves are turning into their beautiful orange, red and yellow splendor. Along with that the nights are getting colder, the vegetation in the water is breaking up and dying, and the rivers lose their attraction as many take to the mountains in search of some elusive animal to harvest and turn into jerky. (for any of my readers if this be the case and you are successful, send some my way) Although I really like all the changes listed, the thing that I am exicted most about is low fall/winter flows. They have arrived, and with that, the drys and nymphs take a back seat almost completely for a few months and my favorite boxes become the staple in my pack.

 This picture shows the right side of the meat box, mostly single hook streamers that i use as my dessert trailer to pick up chasers that refuse to commit to the main course.

 My lead streamers........All big, mean, and articulated. I like to fish a size 2 2xl hook up front and a size 2 3xl hook in the rear for most of my big articulated offerings.

 My smaller stuff for picky fish. I would never leave the house with out a large selection of size 4 2xl wooly buggers. Simply put, they catch fish.


Here are a few close ups of my takes of different streamers that I have came across over time.

 This one is called the snot rocket. I tied it specifically to pulsate like crazy when it is stripped back.

This heavy Son of a gun, is my go to streamer for swinging. Its done well in Halloween colors, but I plan on fishing this purple version this fall.


The fall/winter flows expose so much awesome cover, ledges, undercuts and other stuff big trout like to hide in while waiting for a poor unsuspecting small fish to swim by. I really do love this time of year. Hopefully my Pennsylvania friends will catch some of my fall Little Juniata river browns for me. If you do, send some pictures my way (preferably with a big piece of meat hanging out of its mouth). Keep checking my blog, pictures will be added steadily for the next few months if all goes as planned.