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.

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.