Slow Windy Evening

The winds of the last few days along with a Monday snowstorm have kept me off the water all weekend. It was painful to say the least. We had 60+ mph gusts which shut down my desire to attempt anything involving a fly rod. I did manage to tie some hot head leeches and a few varied midge patterns during the forced downtime. This evening the wind was still out but tolerable so I got a little water time after work. Not too much going on with the water churned up and off color from the recent weather but I did manage to hook and fight a couple rainbows. Midges were taken by the fish I found but it was definitely slow, so I switched it up to some bugger patterns for a while with no interest from the fish. It felt nice to be out and I stopped for a hot coffee on the way home to take the edge off the wind chill in my light windbreaker. I will remember my warm hat next time.

First Cutthroat Of 2010

Eric and I planned a trip on the plains to do a little stillwater pontooning and search for some nice rainbow trout. The fishing was excellent as the trout were targeting the reoccurring midge hatches. We were able to dial in on the big rainbows and had a wonderful day fighting and sometimes landing these brutes. The strain here is a strong, aerobatic line of fish that really have the ability to work your rod and reel combo to its limit. I only had one rainbow trout under 18 inches. Most were right at the 20 inch mark with a few 21 inchers thrown into the mix as well. This lake also has a smaller population of cutthroats and I finally managed to catch a few this year to add a cutthroat to the 2010 species list. The cutts tend to run in the 13-15 inch range right now but they should put on some good growth this summer as this lake tends to be a smorgasbord of insect life.
First fat bow of the day

My first cutthroat trout of the year

Eric fighting a rainbow

Another chunky bow

A shot of me battling a rainbow thanks to Eric and his camera


This cutt was wounded and had a clear demarcation of color at the wound line around its body. I am not sure if this was due to the sampling they conducted within the past few weeks or not.

A view towards the distant mountains

A big hen fell for the midge to end the day. She was dropping eggs in my net.

Windline Foam

The wind was howling today when I went out for a brief evening trip after work. It had created a nice foam line running directly down the dam of the lake. Fish were stacked on the foam and I was able to catch a few in close by just working my nymph rig in the roil of the foam. The trout wanted the midge and all were on the bottom fly. I am not sure if it was depth or pattern related but the setup was working.

Spring Ice Out Meetup

The ice is partially off some of the higher lakes now and that means the full on season of chasing big lake resident trout is almost here. I met up with Mark, Marc, and Scott to find out if the big fish could be found and we had a nice time catching up, talking fishing, drinking various beers, and generally relaxing and enjoying the day. A few trout were found here and there but the hot fishing hadn't yet materialized. At the end of the day I did hook into a nicer brown of about 20 inches which seemed like a good way to end the evening on the water. I took a walk up the hill in a short search for some Jurassic invertebrates and came away with a couple finds but nothing spectacular. It did get me up above the lake for some beautiful evening views and I caught some pretty wildflowers blooming as well.

Mark spotting fish for Marc in the calm morning water

A typical rainbow up here on one of the lakes

Mark working to the rainbows

Jake patiently waiting on us to actually catch something

The brown trout that completed my evening

Wildflowers blooming out on the hillside

What I think is a Jurassic era Camptonectes species of bivalve

Wandering Eric

I had a few hours on Saturday afternoon to get out and explore a little water on the plains. I happened to run into Eric out there doing the same thing and we had a few hours of slow fishing occasionally punctuated with a couple rainbows to keep our interest peaked. The wind was heavy and Eric was all over the place trying to find a place to get out of the gusting forces of nature. It is nearly impossible to do out on the plains lakes though. There just isn't much shelter to find.