I pulled into the lakes public access lane and drove passed the boat and trailer parking area, pausing out of surprise when I noticed there was not a single vehicle parked. Realizing that the mid-August heat can often drive fishermen away I expected to see at least a few early-birds such as myself on the water. From the looks of things however, there was not a single boat on the lake yet. My surprise was added to shortly thereafter upon finding even the lower parking area vacant as well. Could it be that I actually had the entire lake to myself?

Ashton, Idaho is a quaint little town located at Henry's Fork of the Snake River.  It's one of many small towns located on the upper river.  I could have chosen any one of the small towns to talk about but selected Ashton because it's located mid-way between the Island Park Reservoir and the area known as the lower river, which places it 'smack dab' in the middle of all the action.

I had been reading the stuff on this for several months and I decided that I wanted to try it. I picked up one of Tenkara Bum's starter rods at Sow Bug. I played with it a little on one day, but I knew I need to let the water warm up some. This was the day. It was 70+ degrees out. There was a slight breeze so I grabbed the Tenkara rod, the fish basket, and some flies. I did not take any other rod since I was going to learn to use this rod.

The Madison River begins life at the junction of the Firehole and Gibbon Rivers the confluence of these two rivers create one of the headwater tributaries of the mighty Missouri river. The river was named in July 1805 by Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expedition for James Madison who succeeded Thomas Jefferson as President of the United States in 1809.

I have never been happy with the looks of my leech patterns even though they do catch fish. I just wish they looked better to me. I found this leech pattern the other day and it answered many questions I had on how to make my leeches look better. It turned out to be a lot easier for me to get the "look" I wanted for my leech patterns. I do not want anyone to think that this pattern is my creation. It is just a pattern another tier used and I liked it and wanted to share it in case others might want to tie up some and try. I decided to call it a "leech with a collar".

There must have been a fork in the road I didn't take. Either that or I missed something. At any rate, I'm having difficulty figuring out what happened.

My husband says it's because we were raised during the "war" years. That is the second world war, not Vietnam. Times were different then. We had shortages of almost everything in America. Still, we were very grateful they were not fighting the war here.

I think the urge to catch a truly big fish is something that has crossed the mind of every person that has ever gone fishing. I always presumed that it was part of the process of becoming an angler. First we just want to catch a fish, and then we want to catch as many fish as possible, then we want to catch a big fish, then lots of big fish and finally we just want to go fishing. There was always the angler that got stuck in one of those phases, but generally most anglers moved on from one phase to another until they arrived at the realization that just fishing is really the most enjoyable part.

Gone but not forgotten, here are some favorite images of Summer from Tom and Neil Travis.