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.

Catch some salmon......CHECK!!!!

Well I am now back in Idaho for another semester of school. I have not made it out as much as I would like to, but I did manage a trip with Shane to a trip on a local river that had some Kokanee Salmon running. I have never had the opportunity to catch a Salmon, so this trip was one that I was super excited for. Here are some pictures form the trip.

 It was a wonderful trip. (also extremely exhausting). we found kokes from where we parked, up to where we turned around. They were the thickest about 4 miles in. I constantly found myself thinking how in a few weeks, these fish would all be dead and no longer here for me to catch them. It was a different feeling, a greater form of respect for these beautiful fish was definitely cultivated on this trip.


And of course, The fall streamer bite is picking up, so you should be seeing alot more pictures like the following......

These were from recent trips to various rivers that Shane and I fish.

Okay, I snuck out for one more trip! (or 2)

Well I heard the Little J calling me one more time. I really felt strongly that I should oblige and fish it for an hour or two.

I picked up a few browns in the 12-13 inch range right off the back. Sorry, I was in lazy mode and didn't take any pictures.

Towards the end of the trip I tagged this nice bow on my own scuplin pattern.

On the way home, we stopped off at the George Harvey area, and hit that one more time. I left my brother and dad do the fishing, and I was the designated netter,unhooker, and photo taker. Unfortunately my brother lost the big guy he hooked into, but my dad did manage this big fat pellet hog.

I also wanted to fill my smallmouth canteen, to keep me going while out in Idaho. So I took my favorite rod and headed down to the J for some popper action. and was rewarded with a bunch of smallies around this size.

And I should probably include this sweet looking hopper that was on my car one morning this week.

 I need to tie some of these things up, I bet they will work well on the little J.

Pennsylvania and Family

Well my time in my home state has come to an end.(I might be able to sneak out one more time to the Juniata before I leave) It has been the kind of summer break I absolutely cannot complain about. I caught some monster fish and a lot of fish while being home, one of which I don't think I will ever forget. Here are a few pictures of the Pennsylvania waters I cannot get enough of.

 

They have treated me well, and I cannot wait to come back again.

This First trip of the week was a special one. Sometimes the trips are memorable for the fish that I catch. This was much different, my father came along and served me up a large piece of humble pie. we went to the Little J and I chucked streamers, with sporradic dry fly fishing in between. He brought his spinning rod and his minnow rig. I will not give numbers(I do not want to look bad) but lets just say that he found himself with a much larger amount of fish on the other end of the rod than I did. It was great to see my dad kick my butt, Its been years and he knows it :). Normally he was always stuck helping my little brother, or fishing water behind me.( I called my style POWER FISHING, because I never really stop moving along the river. Its just a constant walk while fishing)

After landing a healthy brown halfway through the trip, I decided I had had enough. I thought to myself, this is one of the few times you have to simply "fish" with your father. So with that thought, I broke down the Redington, strapped it to my backpack, and decided to stick with my dad and net his fish and just enjoy the moment.

 The last brown of the day for me.

 This guy was a good 17''. It doesnt look it, but that is just because my dad is a beast.

 You have no idea how great of a day this really turned out to be for me.

This being my dads second ever trip to the Little J, he was not used to trout that actually fight. This is a far cry from fishing for 12 inch stockies and or wild trout that are in the hole the size of a truck bed.  I know he will be fishing it often from now on, because he kept commenting on how hard these trout can fight when they have some water to move around in. This really was one of my more memorable trips of my life. 


The second trip of the week was to the first stream I ever fished. On the way back from the Little J, my dad asked if I had been back to this stretch to try it. Frankly, I had forgotten about it. I hadn't been there for about 8 or 9 years.

Well early next morning, I found myself headed for Rothrock State Forest with my 3 wt. Back when I was a young child, I remember my dad giving me piggyback rides, while he fished for wild brookies. I fished the stream, and pulled out a few brookies, but surprisingly most were wild browns.

This little Freestone stream is absolutely Gorgeous!!!!!!! Most of the holes were the same as they were 8 years ago, which made for a nice walk down memory lane.

The goods from the trip:

 T

The third trip was back to the Little J with my buddy Matt. Matt is a Junior High football coach, and did not have much time to fish, but we made the best of it.We both chucked streamers, and the J gave up some good fish.