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Archive for August, 2009
Trilby Trip Day 3
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Day 3 August 26th
After some high mountain huckleberry pancakes, we decided to take a chance and walk back up the trail to a lake called Spread Point Lake. It was supposedly a big lake on the chain but had no marked trail on the map. We thought that a lake that size should hold a fish and since there was no marked trail, there would have been fewer people fishing it.
Five miles later, we found ourselves looking down on it and started our climb down. The map was right and the trail was non existent. It was extremely bluffy, with blow down after another, and the entire hill side was one big bog. It took us a good half an hour to walk a quarter mile. Once we were there though, we found a dandy camp site, and what was better, fish were everywhere.
We had already gotten plenty of footage so I got the pole and caught a few for dinner. We fished around and discovered that the lake was full of fish and they were all smaller, 8-10 inches. Classic signs of an over populated Lake. Even so, we had a great time catching and releasing fish out of Spread Point Lake.
The following day we navigated our way up that crazy hillside and hiked to the car. It was an awesome trip with excellent scenery, perfect weather, and plenty of superior fishing.
Trilby Trip Day 2
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Day 2 August 25th
It was apparent that our targeted lake was not going to fish. The lunkers were there, in the deep middle, feeding on monster flies that were hatching out there. Way out of range. So plan B: head 3 miles out to a more remote lake by the name of Rattlesnake. We took off early and expected a gnarly walk, but to our surprise, found a nice gentle walk to the lake, and the fish were there!!
We wasted no time in catching them. We caught so many I couldn’t even guess a number. We were using our CDC Caddis Black and they were taking! We worked our way around the lake and continued to catch them. Finally the sun was its way down and it was time to get back to camp. An easy walk to greedy fish; Rattlesnake was good to us.
But it held one more surprise for us. On the way back we stumbled into a monster huckleberry patch with blueberry sized berries! We picked a bag full and then ate our fill. The pancakes in the morning were now going from good to awesome. Rattlesnake was a good choice. We get back to camp with smiles on our faces and memories of giants on our mind.
Back at camp we waited for a chance at the big guys in the middle; hoping one would venture into casting range. While I was waiting, I stumbled onto a breeding bundle of Garter snakes which were everywhere around me. I was extremely fun to film those snakes.
Trilby Trip Day 1
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Like the Enos blog, this trip will be broken into three different blogs. Be sure to check them all out!
August 24th
In our never ending quest for breath taking fish footage, we decided to head for the Trilby lakes. Near the border of Montana and deep in the Frank Church Wilderness, Trilby is a seven hour drive north and west from Boise. We gathered our gear and made for the trail head on Sunday the 23rd, camped the night there, and set off during the black day light of the 24th.
The walk was practically cake! The trail starts way up on a major divide and it follows it for 8 miles. That means that was practically zero up in the walk until you brake down for the lake. The scenery was breath taking, on wither side was a different drainage and you could see for miles. Idaho is on one side and Montana on the other.
Lake Creek Lake was our destination and we pulled into camp around 11am. We immediately started fishing, waiting for a go with a few of the giant cutthroats rumored to live there. But we never got arise. It was dead we had to bail on that lake and hit lower Lake Creek Lake to catch dinner. That lake was jumping with fish and we quickly caught dinner and started fishing for fun.
Finally our feet had had enough and we called it a day. I immediately peeled my boots off to check my feet and found a bit of a blister. No problem, life was still good. We fed up and called her a night.
Owyhee Fishing 8/21/2009
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I got to the river about 4:00 pm in the afternoon, it was 100 degrees and there no fish at the surface anywhere. I drove the river looking for an isolated group of feeders but they were not there.
I finally settled in on a stretch of river below the Rock Garden and began working a few flys. It was about 6:00 and I began seeing a few small black caddis brewing on the water and right in unison a few small fish began to surface. I changed flies to our #20 CDC Black Biot Caddis and began to work the feeders. Bingo, I catch a small brownie and then another small brownie.
I looked to the inside bank about 40 feet ahead and a giant is sipping bugs almost on the bank just outside a moss patch. I zing a cast to him, but miss his feeding zone by a few inches, so I serve it again. He gently sips my fly, I set the hook and he exploded across the river, then turns and bolts straight down river on a big run. I am left in his wake while my mouth opens wondering when this fish will calm. He doesn’t, I stop his run down water ahead of my fishing, but he darts back across the river into a line of downed willows and moss beds. I quickly wade to the middle of the river to get an angle to pull the fish out of the brush. It works and I begin bringing him up river. After a few more violent runs he’s in the net. Wow!! He’s a giant. I admire his beauty, compliment his fight and he disappears in the milk.
I turn and face the river again and it had come alive. I see fish feeding at the far bank, in hard current and close in against my side of the river. They begin to thrash and viciously attack the surface.
I turn to target mode; only focusing on the big boys and positioning myself to serve them. I see a lunker thrashing in hard current and put a cast over him. Nothing, I cast again and the fly lands incorrectly ahead of his feeding trough and quickly moves to his position. An enormous swirl erupts the surface, I set the hook and the war begins. He puts in me for couple of minutes, swims across the river and wraps me around a boulder. Snap the line breaks. He’s free and I’m left with shredded tippet and a lost fly. I re-gear while the fish continue a smorgasbord all around me.
And so it went from 8:00 to black dark. I’d select a large brownie and serve him a fly. More times than not he was a taker and we’d enter into another classic tangle between a 5wt rod and an oversized fish. He won some and I won some, but by the time it was over both the fish and I know we had an experience. That last giant, golden fish in the last sliver of daylight will stay in my memory bank for a long time. As I stumbled up the steep bank to the car I could still hear fish ripping at the surface.
We have now added the Black CDC Biot Caddis to our fly store. We have fished this fly at all elevations for all species of fish will amazing results. It’s a “Super Fly” our #1 producer of big fish this year. You should own this fly, and get ready for a fishing day like no other!!!
Enos Day 3 August 14 2009
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Our final day at Enos started off cold, real cold, but thankfully dry. We decided to beat the rest of the crowd to the water and left early to try and capitalize on the rainless morning. The plan was to fish Enos, and if we had no luck there, hit another satellite lake and film it instead. Well, we fished along the bank until the trail took off to the upper lake and didn’t catch a thing. Denied. It was as if no fish had ever lived in the giant lake that was Enos! But we at DFI are resilient and we roll with the punches and moved up to that upper lake.
After a short while at the upper lake we were into fish, but they would only take once in a while. We hiked along the edge and caught a few more fish but it was over a period of time. We fished that lake for most of the day and once we hit all the fishy spots, we decided to hit big Enos again. By our thinking, it had to have woken up by then.
The short of it is that it didn’t. The temperature drop and pressure change had sent all the fish down into the deep middle, and in the big lake, the fish had no reason to cruise the banks. Crestfallen but not defeated we returned to our little lake we were camping at and took a break. We fished that small guy a while and actually did quite well, but unfortunately the camera was already stowed, so no footage was shot.
Enos was a good hard hike and a fun fishing trip. The weather in which we camped was less then ideal, with a good stiff wind swirling constantly. During normal August conditions, fishing can be phenomenal but as it has been DFI’s luck all summer, we arrived during deviate weather. I say oh well because we still did well and personally, I had a lot of fun.
Enos Day 2 August 13 2009
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Day 2 started off wet. The forecast called for only a 30% chance of rain and we got it first thing in the morning. Thunder rousted me from my wet sleeping bag and my uncle and I took turns stoking the fire and hiding under a tree. It rained off and on for a solid hour and a half and we waited a bit longer after that before risking the camera gear to the unsettled elements. Finally, we set off down to Enos and began our fist real day of fishing.
Enos itself is a really big lake; we are talking about three quarters of a mile long! With that information, we hiked on still wobbly legs to the far side. The reason for the pain is because that is where the big fish hang out. There is a long line of awesome transition water that holds nice sized cutthroats cruising for a meal and no one usually makes the walk down there so they are relatively unmolested. We filmed and fished for several hours and did pretty good, catching quite a few larger cutthroats around 15 to 17 inches. The wind was blowing in our faces and so we switched from the caddis into a black ant. That is because a black ant can still be effectively fished just under the surface. When the already uneasy, turbid weather decided to gust gale force winds at us we eventually had to change tactics and move to a more sheltered side of Enos.
We hiked back around to our side of the lake and fished waters that we thought looked fishy. That tactic worked well but again, the wind changed and blew us off the water. Undaunted we saw that the head of Enos was still somewhat sheltered and so we fished it as well. We caught several gorgeous cutthroats under the bluff of the main camp on Enos and were planning on catching a few more when the wind shifted again and shut us down completely.
We returned to our camp to have a bit of feed and some rest. We were getting nice and cozy by our fire when that 30% chance struck again! It rained off and on until well past dark but it finally settled down for a clear starry night.
Enos Day 1 August 12 2009 Dry Fly Fish Idaho
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Recently we just returned from Enos. Enos is a lake in the high mountains outside of McCall Idaho in the Payette National Forest. I am not going to lie but the walk was grueling! It is literally up hill both ways and the walk itself is just plain long; about 10 miles give or take. As far as this blog goes, the posts will be broken up into 3 different blogs (because we fished it on 3 separate days) so be sure to check them all out!
Like I mentioned before, Enos is a good walk and we wanted to get an early start on her. That way we could reach the lake at a decent time and walk during the coolest part of the day. So we left Boise at 3:30 AM and reached the trail head at 6:30, finally setting off at 6:50. The first 2 miles or so was easy! The trail was really well maintained and it did not take us long to reach our fork. As soon as we took that right though the trail practically disappeared! It took a trained eye to find the path and follow its many twists and bypass its blow downs.
The trail led us over two major mountain passes and around 11:30 AM we found ourselves standing on the rocky shores of Enos Lake. The only problem was that there was nowhere to camp! Allow me to explain. There are only 2 good camps on Enos itself and to our surprise, both were already occupied! That walk practically noodled my legs off my body and here we find two separate groups of people camping in where we were hoping to camp. After a short rest, we decided to hike up to one of Enos’s satellite lakes and carved out a camp there. Not ideal when you are exhausted but we had no other choice.
When we first arrived at that smaller satellite of Enos, we thought it was barren. We saw no activity at all near the surface and were worried that we would have to hike back down to Enos to catch dinner. Thankfully, after a few casts using our CDC Caddis in Black, we had caught enough for dinner and started catching a releasing. It was one after another as the cutthroats threw themselves at our fly!
The fish themselves weren’t exactly giants, but they weren’t small either. I would wager the biggest was around 14 inches and the average around 12. The takes on our fly were all spectacular though, and even the smallest fish just attacked what we were offering! We had a lot of fun catching and releasing those cutthroats that day, and when the sunset, we were hungry for the monsters that lived in the main lake.
First Annual Dry Fly Innovations Camping Trip Day 3
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Saturday was our last day of fishing and we needed to shoot commercials for the new product line that is on the market now (fly boxes for seasons). Sammy came with us because he needed to do the filming and after the work was done, it was time for him to get fishing. Poor Sammy rarely gets a chance to fish because he is always behind the camera but Saturday was his day to shine. We decided to trade off every other fish because Sammy never packs a pole so I got him all rigged up and put a fresh new CDC Caddis black #18 and let him go to town. Sammy did amazing on Saturday; he was working his line like a pro and targeting fish and catching fish left and right. I feel it is safe to say he had a better time working fly line than he did videoing for the first part of that day.
I have to end this blog by saying Nate (owner of Dry Fly Innovations) has created a masterpiece that is an absolute fishing machine. The CDC Caddis Black (in thread and in biot) is just about the perfect fly to match what it is the fish are looking to eat. The silhouette, wings, and color are a fish’s nightmare. Even when there is not a caddis hatch on the water, this fly is triggering something in the fish’s mind to attack this fly. That is all you can ask for when it comes to fishing a particular fly. I would strongly recommend this fly in any condition (high mountain lake, stream, and rivers) because it proved something to me this past weekend and that is, it works!!!!!!!
First Annual Dry Fly Innovations Camping Trip Day 2
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Friday morning dad and I went fishing back to dredge ponds and the girls and Sammy (the camera guy) went to the hot springs for a day of fun. When we got to the ponds, it was still raining but not as hard and not hard enough to keep us away from fishing. We should have been smart and tied on CDC Caddis black in thread or biot, but we decided we would experiment with a couple different flies. Big mistake! The brookies were refusing almost every fly we tied on (adams caddis, bare belly caddis green, etc). After that, we immediately went to the CDC Caddis black and it was like clockwork, they just kept attacking that fly and there were hardly any refusals. We caught and released for roughly 3 hours; and in that time period, we probably had caught 50 or 60 brookies with that the CDC Caddis black.
First Annual Dry Fly Innovations Camping Trip Day 1
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The entire Dry Fly Innovations gang loaded up the vehicles and headed to McCall for our first annual picnic. I am fairly positive we could not have picked a wetter weekend for this event; but like most things, we did make the best of it. McCall was socked in with big rain clouds and some thunder bumpers overhead and I would venture a guess that it rained about 2” in the four days we were there. With all the elements that were playing against us, it did not affect our fishing in the least.
We showed up on Thursday afternoon and set up camp about three miles from Burgdorf Hot Springs and went immediately to fishing. We drove to Warren, Idaho where there are dredge ponds. These dredge ponds were created from an old mine and these are full of eastern brooks and some planted rainbows. When we arrived at the ponds, it was still raining pretty hard so we drove around and saw just about every pond that was around the area and then we drove back to a pond that we thought might hold some brookies.
After the rain had subsided, we got the poles ready for fishing. We started out using a black ant in about a #18 and we picked up a few brookies, but we were getting several refusals. Nate (dad) went to a CDC Caddis black with biot in #18 and immediately started hammering the brookies. I am a bit slower than most so I tied on a few more flies (beetle, mountain emerger, and a hatching emerger) before I stumbled on a CDC Caddis green in a #20. The interesting part of the fishing was there were no caddis hatches going on, but the brookies were violently attacking these caddis flies and it was as if they could not resist these two CDC patterns. We fished for about 2-3 hours and caught enough brookies for dinner and headed back to camp.