R.I.P

Olympus Tough TG 310 July 13th, 2011 to May 31st, 2012.

Today another tragedy happened. I was up to something at DePuy Spring Creek. My camera slipped off from my vest pocket into water. Severely damaged, then dead.......
As you would see in the link above, it was water-proof. But about a few months later, it dropped from my desk to floor while being connected to my computer. Since then the lid (to cover connector, battery, & memory) had been broken and attached with a piece of duct-tape. It had been just fine with my wet hands and splash and I had been very careful for a "full-diving". Until today.......... I came home quickly and tried to dry them. But it was no use.

Here are very last two attempts that confirmed TG was no good any more. I just sent into Repair Service (at least for a recycle anyway). Now you may guess what I was up to.....

It could have been a wonderful post with lots of wonderful pictures. But sorry to deliver this sad news. Of course, cost for replacing is one, but it could have been working some more years. I don't know how long it will take till I get a new one. Next posts (don't know how many) will be either NO-pictures or with pictures of bugs & flies from the past......

Multi Purpose Midge - On Stream Treatment

Howdy folks. Have anyone made fishing to Montana general rivers opening day last weekend?
For people who are reading this blog from other states or countries, I never mean to scare you off but........it's cold here in Paradise Valley, MT. Believe or not, we are having snow again, if not cold rain...... Well, actually this may help river flows/levels later in the season as we don't have huge snow packs this year. This weekend is the opening of Yellowstone National Park fishing! However,   I'd rather wait till it gets warmer as June rolls in.....

OK, here's my recent tie that I learned from my guide mentor, Montana's Master Angler himself Tom Travis (click for info). It's called Multi Purpose Midge for right reasons. Tying materials and steps are simple. I love the little twitch of using stripped peacock herl for abdomen.  

It's already great & juicy appearance enough for most of midge situations. However, if situation (trout and/or hatch) gets picky, there is more to do with this fly. While you are fishing, if you clip the tail/shuck with scissors or nippers, you will have an adult midge instantly!

Then if you trim top & bottom of hackle fibers flat, leaving the tail, you will have a low-riding spent midge as you wish!!

I'm a great fan of multi-purpose & cross-dresser flies that imitate several stages/appearance of insects at once. As for dry-fly, it would be imitating: emerging, struggling, crippled, full-fledged adult, or sometimes even spent spinner. At least I look for or invent patterns that contain at least two of those stages. Soft-hackles can be: nymphs from subsurface to certain depth and drowned individuals (cripples, adults, or spinners) but also I fish them as dry-flies!!
This idea of Tom's gave me another approach for designing cross-dresser patterns = prepare at your tying bench then fix at streams as you need. Super practical.
Everyone should give a try! I will be tying and learning more for mayfly patterns for this kind.

New Page - Water I Guide & Fish

In a very bloody effort, I have just compiled my extensive experience about waters I guide and fish.   Please drop by the new page on the right, "Waters I guide & Fish".

I'd rather be a guide who focuses on every inch of waters around where he lives & guides. My area is 6 and somewhat 7 as I list Bighorn River.

 Then I have another "play-ground" in south!! Yellowstone National Park!!

Let me know if I can be your huckleberry!!

Poindexter Dexterous (Whatever that means?)

Yesterday, I visited Dillon, MT area with two Livingston friends of mine. We quickly floated a section of Big Hole River till noon. Under murky water condition, it started well with streamer and ended up so-so-so-so........

In the afternoon, we hit Poindexter Slough. OH! What a lovely setting!! It's located at a typical Montana ranch/wilderness, nothing different from Paradise Valley spring creeks. But one huge different is 6 MILE WATER in STATE MANAGED LAND!! As for character of  the water, in my observation for the first time visit, it's also a mix of my favorite waters. Meadow sections remind me of Firehole and Gibbon Rivers in Yellowstone Park; several other spots/sections resemble three Paradise Valley spring creeks.
We expected, and for what we heard, there would be some insect hatches and rising trout. There were some caddis and sporadic mayflies in the air but I really didn't see rising trout. No visual indication of trout at the very first water to fish. My first approach was to observe, assess, read the water, and search. Since there was no strong insect hatch and rising trout, my choice was a Dry-Nymph dropper tactics. If Poindexter really resembles waters mentioned above, I should be able to read water well and I must be able to deduce trout habitat from experience and observation. I selected attractor patterns to get searching started.
My dry-fly selection was Royal Wulff Cripple,

trailed with Bead, Hare, Copper (from Parks Fly Shop)

or BHC Peacock version (Copper Matt!). All in size 14.

First trout for the first visit is always memorable. But you can see where my BHC is...... Anyway,

Second was caught legally and it became non-stop!!

This size of brown, as the very first one, was larger side of catches.

Definitely brown seemed dominant in population. Matt and I were wondering "is there any rainbows?"...... Right after I said that, I caught a nice rainbow and it turned out to be ONE & ONLY rainbow of the day........Am I revealing my "honey-spot"?? Hey, it's public water anyway! Come & fish, everybody!

Indeed it resembles Firehole or Gibbon in Yellowstone National Park.......

This was the best brown!

I caught all of them on ONLY BHC!! Royal Wulff Cripple served only as an indicator. This proves  the effectiveness of BHC but at the same time, it was weird for me that no trout came up to RWC. On the contrary, Matt caught all of his trout on his dry-flies....... Here he was working on a few sporadic risers.

It was such a beautiful day to spend with my friends (& without Livingston gusts!!). That was more than happy enough but experience at Poindexter was beyond description. All trout are wild and never pushovers. I admit fly selection was not a problem (maybe because we didn't encounter serious hatches) but trout did require perfect presentations and I had to do my best of water-reading to locate them.
If planning to visit Dillon, most of visitors, even me from Livingston, MT, would think of famous Beaverhead and Big Hole Rivers for right reasons (in that case, I suggest you to hire my guide friend Graham!!). But Poindexter deserves to be spent a whole day. Yesterday was only my first visit but considering my experience & knowledge for alike waters mentioned above, Poindexter is now in my list! 6 miles of public water in State managed land and for some reasons it's not crowded at all......can't be better than that (if this post were to be in a fly-fishing magazine, it could be crowded???). From now on whenever I head to Dillon or any other Western MT destinations, I will always try to visit Poindexter as much as I can. So should you!

Purple-------Something??

How are you doing, folks? I'm doing fine but.......Lovely Yellowstone has started annual runoff. Montana public rivers and Yellowstone Park waters have not opened yet (next weekend and Memorial Day weekend, respectively) but weather is nice and fine. So it's cruel that I don't have much fishing opportunities (I would fish at lakes and walk around spring creeks without fishing for observation under owners' permission).
Now I'm busy to re-stock my flies after busy spring fishing. I seldom show my new patterns & ideas in public without actual experiments at waters but since it's the time like this, pardon me that my ideas are ahead of experiments.......
OK, Purple Haze is one of the essentials in Montana rivers. There is really no PURPLE insects on the surface but somehow this fly does wonderful jobs!!

So why not PURPLE under water? I just came up with ideas and tried at my bench.

Top view.

Though I have figured out consistent list of materials and tying steps, I haven't experimented them yet. I just have to wait. If some of you readers would be interested in this fly and would do experiments ahead of me, I will send you free samples!!
Naming? Purple Haze, Purple Nymph...... OK......Nymph phase...... PURPLE NYMPHAZE?
That'll be the name only if proven at various waters!

Mother's Day Caddis Report - 7 (Last!)

I was wrong in a good way. Yesterday had looked the best & last day to float the river. Warm and calm. Water temp hit around 50F. However, somehow I decided to take off. I had fished enough for sure. Weather was pretty much the same today. However, when I checked river info online, I was surprised that river condition remained the same. In spite of sunny weather of yesterday, water level didn't go up! I called my outfitter Dean if he wanted to go. Water clarity was great. Though we didn't encounter pods of bugs and rising trout, trout came up to surface to take our flies at likely spots. OK, today's hit fly was my brandnew caddis soft-hackle pattern in Mother's Day tone. It's named "Double Soft-Hackled Caddis".  It's already a success but I will test for other caddis species!! Then I can go details for you along with tying materials and steps!

What a gorgeous day to float Yellowstone River around town of Livingston! Some other anglers should be doing well with streamers but I have had lots of fun with these early season bugs and dry-flies. One can still be able to float tomorrow with some good fishing but I call for the early season and let runoff run!

Mother's Day Caddis Report - 6 (Last?)

It was a bit colder than yesterday and fishing was slower though water condition seemed to remain the same. We encountered only one pod of hatching bugs and rising trout, which lasted 10 minutes or so. However, it was fun to get out with my friends and I knew how to salvage the day.
Bead, Hare, Copper (from Parks Fly Shop; click on Custom Flies).  I am developing a religious faith in this fly.

Nice rainbow came into the net after striking on BHC and running hard!

Tomorrow, I strongly guess river condition stays the same. I don't have a floating engagement with my friends. I don't know but I may get out for a few hours wade-fishing. Maybe. Then I bet, on Tuesday, Yellowstone River will blow for next several weeks....... So I might hit the very last dry-fly chance tomorrow. Somehow I'm indecisive tonight........

Mother's Day Caddis Report - 5 (Still Good)

It was another great pre-runoff fishing today. But first weather was typical  of "if you don't like Montana weather, wait 5 minutes". We had mix of everything. Considering yesterday's nice weather, it was even cold along with some hales.

OK, we saw great number of hatches today. There were Baetis, Caddis, and March Brown in that order. Today I wanted to try this relatively new tie for me; Butch Caddis. I omitted rubber legs on sides as Kelly says in the video, rubber legs are for commercial purpose and without them this fly works just fine. And SUPER BUOYANT like cork!!, suspends a dropper nymph, and catches fish!!

A bit skinny but nice rainbow with big mouth! It sucked my fly above! He will gain more weight as season goes by.

If weather forecast is right, my personal guess for the last day floatbale is next Tuesday. I would imagine water would rise and lose clarity as Tuesday goes by. See what's gonna happen tomorrow.

Mother's Day Caddis Report - 4 (Floating around Town)

Today, I took an advantage of great weather and fishing condition by floating the river with my guide friend Graham. We floated just along town of Livingston. Caddis continued to hatch en masse!! However we didn't see many rising trout or a "pod" or two and we had to get off the river earlier. Wish we could have stayed longer but that doesn't mean fishing wasn't fun. We hit a "jackpot" with a "killer fly". It's "Bead, Hare, Copper" from Parks' Fly Shop (click Nymphs and make sure to wacth YouTube video). (I'm out of copper beads so I'm using gold bead for now.) This has become my "life-saver" fly immediately.

With that we hit the "jackpot"!! We caught & lost trout after trout only in one spot!!

A couple of those we hooked but lost could have been larger. It seems we are experiencing some of the best "pre-runoff" fishing. To be continued.

Mother's Day Caddis Report - 3 (Still There!! Along with Baetis!!)

Cool weather continues. Yellowstone River is literally shrinking. I was expecting a bit warmer afternoon for caddis hatch but anyway it was calm and comfortable enough to get outside so I hit the 'Stone in the late afternoon. Now it's easy again to read and determine currents. First thing I observed was that Spring Baetis was hatching in great numbers!! I'd say for me this is the best baetis hatch for this spring!!

So was Caddis!! Lots of them, definitely more than a couple of recent outings. Then of course trout rose in great numbers!!! First one I hooked was really huge!! and broke X-Caddis. So I tied on this "Mother's Day Iris" (originated from Parks' Fly Shop).

I didn't miss it this time! Nice & hard-fighting rainbow! Any fish can be the last one before runoff!! Happy!!

I left my special baetis boxes in my house. However, I always kept a few general attractors with me. Micro Wulff Cripple did a great job!

Fish rising on baetis seemed smaller ones. But I hooked & lost a couple of large ones too.

Believe or not, I caught a Cutty with a Tag again!! I did net it but it slipped away while I was getting ready for pictures........It could have been the same one! Either way the last one bore with me for a couple of pics. Thanks for that.
It seems this weather continues till middle of next week = fishable & floatable. Then it would finally be a true runoff. I will keep updating as much as I can!

Mother's Day Caddis Report 2 (Really? How's Runoff?)

Howdy folks, don't be surprised by the title. Yellowstone River is fishable now. Last several nights have been cold, just around the frozen point, that's causing to prevent snow-melt of Mighty 'Stone itself and misc. tributaries. So runoff has subsided somewhat as of now. Clarity has improved too, more than a foot. Considering weather forecast & assuming if they would be true, 'Stone may be fishable till this weekend. Streamer fishing should be good but also there might be a possibility of Mother's Day Caddis hatch.

With that expectation in my mind, I head to the river in the afternoon. There were lots of caddis in the air and on the water. As hours went by, more caddis were around!! However, I didn't observe any one single rises at all..........Well, at least future generation of caddis should be abundant......

I waited till water temperature would go up. Winds didn't help the process much, but according to the frequent check with my thermometer, it did. "There's someone for me somewhere" (Johnny Cash: I Still Miss Someone).

This was taken by swinging my brandnew caddis soft-hackle along the riffle!! I have tied all sizes and colors for all caddis species in my area. I'm finalizing tying instructions and such. Details will be soon!

If one wants to catch big trout by any means, to get on a boat and throw streamers are way to go. However, I'm inclined to expect & fish for hatches. I think water temp needs go up somewhat without too much wind for trout to rise for caddis (caddis are already abundant). Well, then runoff may hit.......... So emotional with this mixed feeling........!!
To be continued. Hopefully I can report -3, -4, -5, & -6 or more!