Ok, so it’s on like never before this year. After my disasterous season last year, I’m going to be fishing like never before this season. I’m doing it all too, pike, trout, walleye, carp, anything I can fish I’m fishing!
It’s been an awefully long and cold winter and this past week it has warmed up into the 40’s each day. I close my office at 4:00 pm on Wednesdays, so this past Wednesday, I just had to get out. The wind was blowing a mild 20 miles an hour, and the trout were rising. I headed to one of my favorite little holes in a local stream to see if I could get into any good trouble. I tied on an adams klinkhammer and hammered the fish. I only had about an hour to fish, but in that hour I managed to land somewhere around 15 trout. It was simply wonderful. I wanted to take pics of all the fish, but when I found out how stinking cold the water was after taking one of my first, I decided that I’d rather catch a few more fish and not worry about pictures just yet.
So with no further adoo (?sp) The first fish of the year!
She’s a beaut, no doubt about that.
Congrats.
Ed
Thanks. It felt so good to have a fish in hand. I’m going out again on Sunday…can’t wait!
TT
Hugo -
Are you going to be doing one continuing thread for all your fishing outings this year ?? With all those species you are hunting, it would be great to follow your adventures through the close of 2011 !!
John
Hugo,
Nice fishy! I agree with John. How about a long thread to cover all your adventures?
REE
That is my plan indeed…one loooooooong continuous thread to cover it all. I’ve already made plans for tomorrow. A friend and I are going to check out a local reservoir where there are some nice big bows that love to cruise the ice as it recedes. If it isn’t fishable, we’re going to the same place I went to on Wednesday. Hope to have some nice pictures for Monday.
TT
Ohhhh, man…I’m sitting in my office, staring out at a busy street as I type this; quite a contrast to where I was yesterday. My wife decided that she would like to try and join me for my little fishing excursion yesterday. She’s in her third trimester of pregnancy, so she wasn’t sure if she’d even be able to put her waders on. I hustled out to the shed to get them and had my fingers, all my toes and my legs crossed that they would, and they did! We stopped by a gas station to get her her new license, and then motored out to a favorite little run below the first lake dam. I say motored because it was our first ‘fishing trip’ in my new rig, a jeep cherokee, which is quite a difference to the '86 trooper I was driving. It was the first time I hit 70 mph on the hill going out of town, lol.
Not only was it our first trip in my new rig, but it was to be the first time she strung up the new rod that I built her for Christmas! I put a tapered leader on for her, and then tied on a size 16 adams klinkhammer, and did the same for myself.
I helped her down the bank set her up in a good place to stand, and then proceeded to make her mad with all my “help” on her casting, lol. It had been 6 months since she had a rod in her hand, so she got a little frustrated, but it didn’t take her long, after I shut up, to get back into the swing of things. It really was amazing to see how effortless her casting seemed once she got the feel for it again…she LOVES how easy her new rod is to cast too.
Well, to make a long story short, we got into them immediately and never moved all afternoon. I have no idea how many fish we caught, but there were plenty to keep us from getting bored. Not only did Danelle get the first fish of the day, but she got the biggest fish too. Oh, how I love seeing that smile on her face.
On a quick side note: I’ve been tying up some new patterns with CDC, midge emergers. I’m sure they’re alot like many others, but I’ve never tied or fished anything like them. I named them for my wife, “DSG emerger,” and caught a pretty little brown for the first fish. Now I know that doesn’t mean much to most, but it’s a little sentimental for me. I finished out the day fishing my new fly and can tell you that I was most impressed with the results.
Enjoy the pictures,
TT.
Danelle stringing up her new rod.
First fish of the day.
Biggest fish of the day.
Brown caught on the DSG emerger.
One of the rainbows I mangaged to catch when Danelle let me fish.
Good grief! I know it’s spring, and March is our snowiest month, but I was really hoping that we’d get away without any more snow than we already had. We finally had weather warm enough to melt most of the snow around here. Last night we got another 4-7 inches! I don’t want to sound like I’m whining, because I chose to live here, but this is really putting a damper on what I had planned for this weekend! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
I guess I’ll have to suck it up and go anyway…but still…
TT.
Nice pics, thanks for the trip/family outing report; keep them coming. We’ll be in the general vicinity this summer - driving over from Whitefish to spread my father-in-law’s ashes up in the Sweetgrass Hills near Whitlash. He, too, was a Blue Pony, Class of '51.
Regards,
Scott
Scott, you’re only about an hour or so away…don’t suppose I could talk you into joining me for an evening of fishing could I? I’ll even supply the rods and flies if you aren’t already bringing your own.
TT.
TT,
Thank you very much for the invitation; it would take very little arm twisting to talk me into fishing. As we firm up our plans I’ll let you know when I’ll be out there and maybe we could wet a line.
Regards,
Scott
Scott,
That sounds great. I know how difficult it can be to do something when you have a family engagement, especially one like that, so please don’t feel any pressure, but if you can, well then, the big sky’s the limit!
TT.
One of my goals this year is to catch a pike on a fly rod. There’s not a ton of accessible (without a boat anyway) water nearby though. We ought to try to meet up this spring or early summer. 300 miles is nothing in Eastern Montana. 
Poke 'Em,
Fresno Reservior is known for its big pike that love to take flies. I caught my first little one last year on the milk below the Dodson dam. I’ll definitely be out after pike in Kings Bay after the ice clears a bit. It’s wadeable, or you can float tube/pontoon it. I’ll let you know when I hear that they’re in the bay, you can head on over and we’ll hit it hard over a weekend! There are also a few smaller lakes that I know of that have some pike, and one that was stocked with tiger muskies too! Or if the fishing is better that way, I can meet up with you there!
TT.
I went out again yesterday with some friends of mine to try a new little spot on the stream. It’s actually one of the spillway channels that is fenced off. Unbeknownst to me, there is a gate that you can use to access that part of the stream. My friend, Cody, his brother-in-law, Trey, and I took turns nymphing (the first time I’ve nymph fished on this stream since I’ve been here) for the fish holding in any of several runs. We did pretty well, and I managed to bring to hand a nice fat chunk of rainbow. Cody and Trey couldn’t stay long, so after they left I moved over to the lake side of the dam to fish the open water. I got into some really nice, big fish throwing the crystal muddler in the fotw section. If the weather holds I’ll be going out again this afternoon for a while.
The chunky bow I caught nymphing.
Trey with a really pretty rainbow he caught on a lightning bug.
The view from up on the dam.
First nice bow. Took me a little by surprise and put a pretty good bend in my 4wt.
Another good fish.
Nice fishies, Hugo. But I am wondering what kind of watch you wear and where it is ??
John
John,
When I do wear a watch, I wear an Invicta Chronograph. It’s in the top drawer of my dresser, and stays there unless I’m getting gussied up, lol.
I went out again today for a few hours this afternoon. The fishing off the dam was much slower, and the temperature was a lot colder. I was actually breaking ice off the guides once in a while. The first fish of the day got off just as I was about to grab it, the second one wasn’t so lucky, and I got a pretty good picture of it. After I got tired of the wind, I headed upstream to try out a new spot or two.
I have a terrible time trying new spots when my favorite ones produce as well as they do, but this year I told myself that I’m going to fish a few new parts of the stream, just so that if anyone asks, I can tell them that I have fished other parts of it.
It was pretty rough going, there is still quite a bit of snow, so I had a bit of a limit on how far I could hike. I did manage to catch a few fish though. The colors were simply stuning. There is just something about catching a small fish that is full of beauty.
Sooooo, John, why is it you wanted to know about my watch?
TT.
TT,
Excellent report and pics of those pretty fishies.
REE
… someone asked about mine, which is visible in most of the fish pix I post. Just thought we’d get it out of the way early on in your continuing thread.
John
P.S. I have a practically new back up of the one I wear if you are interested in a good deal on a great outdoors watch.:roll: