It's a work of art (and a fine piece of machined fly tying goodness)

…but I was almost starting to feel bad for myself — sitting around with a pile of newly tied flies, but not so much as a fish to show for it in 2010. Who am I kidding, I could sit in front of that vise for hours upon hours and never get bored, but I really was itchin’ to get the new year’s skunk off my back.

I worked hard last week convincing my buddy Josh that he needed a trip to the river about as badly as I did, and after some successful sweet talking with his wife and my fiance, we both got the green light. Game time… things finally falling into place for a prime winter weekend on the Lower Mountain Fork river.

We got down to Broken Bow a little later than expected (I was a slacker and didn’t gather my gear the night before and we had to battle fog for the majority of the drive).  By the time we got there it was raining pretty steadily, but we weren’t ready to set up camp just yet… It’s never too late to hit the water.

So we pulled into the parking area just after midnight and geared up…

Had a few four legged friends watching us as we made our way to the spot, their glowing eyes were everywhere.

Thinking about bolting...

curious why we were out in the rain...

We didn’t have much (read: any) luck swinging any of the black or olive wooly buggers I had tied up. I was pretty hesitant to fish something I hadn’t tied up myself (I really wanted to catch my first fish on a fly I tied), but I finally gave in and tied on a store bought zonker. Good choice.

Scored a small bow pretty quick and then hooked into something heavy a little while later. Ended up with a frustrating LDR, but the blood was pumping again. A few casts later I hooked into another heavy one, and thankfully this time it was hooked well. I thought it was a nice one, but then again… when a fish hammers a swinging streamer they all feel nice. Then the acrobatics started, the doubt was gone…just hoped I could get it in.

what a chunk

Had a lull in the action for a while and the numb toes/soaking rain combo sent us back in the direction of the car and camp.

We got up and started fishing after 8 on Sat… put Josh on some water he hadn’t fished yet and he got into ‘em quick. Think he had one to hand before I had a fly tied on.

Nice start to the day

It was a great area with a lot of fun water to work… I decided to get in on the action and pulled in my first fish on a fly I tied myself.

victory

There was a lot of fun water and I just enjoy fishing with the bluffs as a backdrop… nice place.

Josh workin' a run

Josh on another nice run

We caught a nice mix, a few small ones and a few nice ones… but one really stood out from the rest. Hard to be sure, but I’d bet he was born in the river. Rather catch one of the ‘wild’ ones than an above average stocker any day.

okie'bow

Got pretty hungry and decided to head back to town for some food and fish z3 while were were down there. Spent our time at the Rereg dam. Took us a little bit to find ‘em, but the action was pretty quick for a while.

Josh puttin it on a nice one

well done (click to see larger image, shows up pretty small)

I even managed to fool a few nice ones on the unproductive buggers from the night before.

rewarding

After catching enough to satisfy we headed back to the park to fish the spillway Creek from about 430 to dark. Didn’t have great success and only brough a few to hand. They were small and pretty unnoteworthy, but fun nonethless. The rain finally stopped and seemed to slow the fish down too. Or maybe we were just getting tired?? Who knows.

After fishing hard all day we didn’t really have it in us to get back out that night. The rain picked up again and the whiskey made it hard to get out of the ol’ sleeping bag.

We fished a little more on Sunday morning… but a few responsibilites at home made us call the trip a little short. Missed out on a perfect partly cloudy day with mild winter temps (mid 50s!?!), but at least the ladies were happy, ha. Gone are the days of fishing without responsibilties hanging over our heads…

getting into the groove

Sure wish we had more time out there… kinda felt like we had to rush to get all the fishing in. Had to make up for all the missed weekends the past few weeks. Need a long weekend or a midweek vacation to slow things down!

Had a hard time coming up with a title for this one… but definitely (and thankfully) a change of pace from the last post

The flight from OKC to Vegas was pretty uneventful… but once we got to Vegas things got a little bit more interesting (standard for Vegas). While we were waiting to board our flight to Reno we heard some commotion… Looked over and saw a woman choking and turning a eerie blue. A man next to her started doing the heimlich maneuver, but was unsuccessful after about a dozen tries. The woman definitely looked like she was in bad shape and things were getting pretty intense. A few military personel ran over and went to work… it took them a few tries, but they ended up dislodging whatever was keeping her from breathing. Taking care of business at home and abroad… very nice. I wish I would have pulled out my camera for a quick video…would have made for a great youtube vid, but things were a little too intense to think of it at the time.

We were delayed a few minutes while doctors checked out the lady, but she checked out and we boarded pretty quickly. Soutwest is weird, they don’t give you seat #’s and it’s a bit of free-for-all to get a seat. Reese and I grabbed a couple of seats by the window and waited to see who would be joining us… a fun waiting game. We lucked out hard core and sat next to a guy named Steve Keegan. He was a really nice guy, offered us a couple of congratulatory cocktails after noticing Reese’s ring and struck up a convo that lasted the whole (short) flight. Turns out he’s a pretty big name photojournalist who’s now doing some wedding photography to pay the bills. He was able to give us a ton of information about the Sierra’s and Napa and we definitely landed in Reno more prepared for our adventures than when we boarded.

We picked up our fly ride (impala baaabaay) and after a quick pit stop at an In and Out Burger we were on our way. Most of the drive was in the dark, which was disappointing to miss the view along the way, but the drive to Mammoth Lakes went pretty quickly regardless.

We had a terrible time trying to find a place to stay near Yosemite, but managed to find the Cinnamon Bear Inn a few days before we left. Turned out to be another lucky find… it was a great place. Comfy bed, living room, full kitchen… we were definitely a lot more comfortable than we would have been camping.

No AC, but the open window cooled things down

Not a bad spot to chill out after a long day

All kinds of Convenient

*you can click any of the pics (including ones below) to see them enlarged

Didn’t take long to crash… driving wears me out and had a long day of fishing/sight seeing ahead of us…Woke up and hit up the complimentary breakfast. They do it right..

It was nice to get outside and finally see the beautiful country that we were in. Ran into an interesting specimen while gassing up…

Never seen anything like it...

The short drive to the Tioga Pass leading into the park was pretty, but the view once we were on the pass was crazy pretty.

Once we finished the steep trek into the park I was greeted with more open water than I knew what to do with. I started fishing one particular creek that had been (VERY) kindly recommended to me…

Cold, clear, and FISHY

Didn’t take long after tying on a EHC and caddis puppa dropper to see some success. The first of many out of this creek was a pretty rainbow (turned out to be one of the larger ones I caught out of the creek).

Stealth was harder in the trees/boulders than I imagined

Can't even express how much fun it is to catch wild fish, nice way to start things off

Nice to have clear water for the underwater shots... Definitely not used to that

The first few to hand were all bows and they seemed to get progressively smaller, but I stumbled on to my first Brookie in no time.

Check another one off the list!

Pretty soon after the Brookie, I noticed Reese walking downstream (had been working my way downstream and left her set up with a camp chair and book on a boulder) looking for me. She had missed me crouched on a boulder and had passed… had to hop across stream and chase her down, but she had already become a little worried (ok, very worried) that we had been separated. Strike one… Note to self, be more careful to stay in sight!

I put up the fly rod for a few hours to make amends and we did some sight seeing… Took a while to get down to the Valley and we were met with huge crowds, but it was still nice to see the sights.

Lucky charm?

Another of the many impressive views

Don't know the name of this one... but I was exhausted just watching these guys/girls climb

After making the rounds, we headed back over to the east side for some more fishing before calling it a day. Found a nice little meadow and decided to give it a shot.

I love this place

I closed things out with another handful of rainbows and brookies before hooking into my first brown of the trip.

3/4 of the way to a slam

A pretty great way to start off the trip… Lots of fun, feisty, wild trout… and some great scenery that I’m sure I’ll never forget. On top of it all I got to share it with the girl I love more than anything… pretty much a dream scenario. It’s official, I need vacation more often.

Hope to throw up a post of day 3 (alpine lake/golden trout day) tomorrow, but we’re headed to Napa to have our fill tomorrow, so I’m not sure what kind of “posting condition I’ll be in.

-Ward