Three Weight Thursday

I had a little time at lunch and decided to take a walk in the wind with the 3wt. to find a couple little gem wild browns.  Here is a quick release video of a leech chaser.

 

Last Trip Of 2012

A final trip to end the year, on the ice with George.  We saw a few nice rainbows and caught a couple as well.  George even found a small kokanee as well.  A slow day but a nice finale to the end of 2012.  George's cinnamon roll baking on his propane heater was something to behold.  Delicious.

My last fish of the year, a good way to end 2012.

George's famous home on the ice

Three Weight On The Stream

I took the light rod out today to walk the stream.  Unfortunately we had wind gusts to 65 mph.  It wasn't too bad along the water with a little shelter from the banks and I was able to drop my casts in close to where I was aiming most of the time.  The fish were fairly active and swirling strikes or refusals occurred at almost every good pocket, hole, or undercut bank.  The leech was working well enough that I didn't switch flies but I thought about going to a hopper with the high winds.  I may have to try a hopper on another day very soon.

Beautiful stream brown trout

Nice narrow undercut bank section

Rebirth Of A Lake

This morning was the TU Adopt A Trout program in cooperation with Wyoming Game & Fish.  We had 42 fifth graders out on a field trip to the stream to learn about stream ecology, fish telemetry studies, fish tagging, macro invertebrates, and fly casting.  I had a great time helping the kids on the fly casting station. [I'll get more info on the Adopt A Trout day up on the LVTU website soon.]

Ten fifth graders casting in the Wyoming wind

In the afternoon, I took off for a lake that winter killed this past winter.  I had heard a tip (thanks Derek) that the spring 7 inch stockers were running in the 16 inch range and that fall hunger was resulting in some good action.  The wind was blowing well, but I was able to get it at my back and cast the sinking line, covering a lot of water on each cast.  I was able to connect with quite a few of these rainbows and managed to land six in a short session of wading water deep enough to reach the top of the chest waders.  They were super hot fish, running, jumping, feisty and strong.  The sinking line was the ticket today.  I couldn't believe the bend these fish were putting in my six weight.  A great ending to a fun day with a focus on trout from start to finish.  The big question here is will we be able to get this lake through winter this year without another kill?  Spring of 2013 will hold the ultimate answer on that front.

A view on the lake

Rainbow from this year's spring stocking

Just Before Sunset

I did a quick evening trip to a lake I hadn't been to since June.  Only had to share the lake with the wind and some geese.

 Landed a pair of these 12/13 inch stockers on the short 3 weight.  Really more of stream rod at 7.5 feet but I hadn't taken it out for a while and felt like swinging the light stick.  Stripping a leech got me a little action.  They felt great on the light rod and fought well.

 I ended up staying about an hour and a half and was rewarded with a beautiful fall sunset.