Seattle Foodie & Olympic National Park Fishing

We had a super fantastic family trip to West Coast😁.
Although I once lived in Washington for a certain period of my life (you can look back my posts from 2009 and 2010), it was eastern part and I had any businesses or opportunities to visit western counterpart such as Ocean and cities like Seattle.

Although we're very content with our life in Montana or Yellowstone Country, we'd also like to enjoy what we don't have or what we can't do in our area. Our top list is nothing but enjoy seafood🍣🍤🍥🐟😋Our special interest was Poke Bowl. We chose to dine at FOB Poke Bar. With so many options and combinations, what we can order is limitless😲and not to mention very tasty😋

We next headed to Uwajimaya - a well-known Japanese & Asian grocery store. The Seattle one is the largest. We wish we could have tried those but just watching many items was fun enough.

Then we ordered, well, Poke bowls again from the seafood department. Those were again fresh & tasty😋

From our hotel, we could easily walk, with Sage in a stroller👶, to Pike Place Market. This was another place that just watching stores and items was enjoyable enough.

Now we had to try the world famous Pike Place Chowder. As each item looked oh-so-wonderful, we went with the sample plate😋

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After we enjoyed all kinds of dead fish, we headed to Olympic National Park to see if we could meet live ones😏 We stayed at beautiful Kalaloch Lodge within ONP right along the Pacific Ocean. From there, we explored the area.

Before our trip, like any fishermen would do nowadays, I looked for information online. I had some very fresh surprises. There are not many information out there😲 unlike Montana or Yellowstone, really. There are only some outfitters and a few fly-shops in the area and not many books seem on the market either. That got me really curious. It's been a very while that I became a visiting fisher myself.

We tried from small creeks nearby our lodge.

Sage's first day on the stream with us👶😎

Ocean is just a step away!

I bet salmon and steelhead would swim up even to these small creeks during their peak season.
Next we headed to the main body of ONP into Hoh River surrounded by rain-forest.

This was quite a river and I had quite an experience. The Hoh is, with this flow, just about the size of Yellowstone River at the lower end closer to the Ocean. Upper river where we were was just about the half of Yellowstone River. Water seemed to have some color in it but water was actually clear. I think color is due to water ingredients (glacier fed) and river bottom contents.

Well, I hooked something......ah..........very little............😓
Sunset was beautiful over and down the Pacific😲

Since the lodge was so comfortable and also as we immediately fell in love with the area, we decided to extend our trip one more day. Renee and Sage got retired from fishing and decided to stay cozy at the lodge😊so I was on my own. On this day, I checked the very lower end of the Hoh, near the mouth.

The lower end was larger than the upper section, which made it hard for gears I had. In the afternoon, I decided to head back to the upper section again. On the way, I saw the region's unique Roosevelt Elk.

I again hooked something............ah...........very little. As the sun started to set behind tall rain-forest trees, I walked along the bank and tried to read structures. Then I saw something............ A giant fish swam right by me..............It didn't look like a trout-shape I'm used to. I bet it was more like Chinook........BTW, I do have one Chinook experience - see my old post😏

I kept on, at the last light, I felt something and this time it was hanging onto my line and fly😬

😂

As dada failed to catch proper trout, a trout aquarium in a gas station at St. Regis, MT was Sage's first trout experience👶😊

We quite enjoyed this trip and are already thinking about going back over there. Next time, more & serious fishing😬 and slightly less grocery shopping😅
Our quests for Steelhead and Pacific salmons will continue👍

Whoopie Ti Yi Yo - Wyoming's Bighorn

UPDATE & FORECAST
Spring runoff is in full-swing in area rivers. We all know most of Western states have had severe winter with lots of snow accumulations. This is the frustrating period in terms of fishing options under gorgeous spring/early summer weathers, but over all this is an important event for rivers' health and our fishing through summer.

• I wouldn't predict anything for Yellowstone River at this point. Still lots of snow in Yellowstone National Park, of which weather can be unpredictable. I usually have some ideas by the end of June as I commute to guide at Livingston's spring creeks. Keep your eyes on the changes on USGS website = Not only Yellowstone River but also Soda Butte Creek, Lamar River, and Gardner River. For visual observations, I keep you posted from here.
• Looks like we can be optimistic for Bighorn River this year, after some turmoils and unusual conditions of last year (again, fishing was excellent for those who had accurate info and who did show up). This year, Bureau of Reclamation's management seems working for every party's interest at this point. Actually I wish the spring flow would have been somewhat smaller for excellent dry-fly fishing but it was alright (I reported last month). And thanks to fore-thinking reservoir release early in the year, there is plenty of room to accommodate runoff water from both Montana and Wyoming. Keep checking this website and click Bighorn Lake, in which Inflow = runoff basically & Outflow = Bighorn flow that we fish. I would expect we still see some high flows during the peak of runoff = June, perhaps = but we can anticipate summer flows wouldn't be as crazy as last year, so now is the time start booking guide trips for July, August, and September!! 

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Then here comes our story along Wyoming's Bighorn from the other day............

Immediately after a trip to Idaho Falls, we headed to Laramie, WY for some other businesses. I have passed Wyoming many times, just like the route we took on the way, but on the way back, I was able to see and feel more of Wyoming intimately for the first time.
Over all Wyoming is still cold, dry, and full of desolated lands😂, we were able to visit and see some of landmarks and special features that have been on our "someday" list.

We headed to Thermopolis. Along the way, we passed Boysen Reservoir, Wind River Canyon, and Wedding of The River = all the upper sources of Bighorn River. We stopped by Hot Spring State Park. It rivals to Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone Park😲. We saw something very particular and "fishy"😏 Seeing is believing, folks😉

We then reached to Lovell. At just outskirt of this small cozy town, we can see the upper portion of Bighorn Lake/Reservoir.
We also knew that we were close to Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Refuge. After we collected information from a nice lady at the visitor center, also in Lovell, we might as well have made a detour. Now we were in the middle of Bighorn Canyon - we have not been from Montana side yet. It was immense😲😎

Then just as the lady told us, we spotted wild horses🐎🐎😲

And this is the level, as of our visit 4/26, at Horseshoe Marina. 

Perhaps our last trip while we are still two of us🤰👫⇨👪

We enjoyed another road trip to our neighbor state. We hope to explore more😉

Northeast Experience

It's been quite a chaotic schedule since my last post............. Midnight flight, Philly Cheese, Peking Duck, big cities, food poisoning, breeding cows (each of which has a long story......), then Christmas.......

Anyways...........I was visiting this part of the country!!

Even during the trip, I gladly couldn't get away from my profession..........
We visited Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum in Livingston Manor, NY.
First off, along the way, Mighty Delaware River and its tributaries were very enticing for trout fishing!!! I've seen this country and waters in magazines and websites. I'd never thought I would come this far........Now I really want to go back there someday to actually fly-fish!

Then Center and Museum are very interesting. It's quite a learning of history and culture over there. It definitely highlights where fly-fishing started in USA, then people and tools.

 Theodora Gordon

Poul Jorgensen - He's one of my indirect teachers of Atlantic Salmon Flies!!

Lee Wulff is the big figure anywhere in the world but it seems much more in here.

Indeed the second building is totally dedicated for him, Joann, and their memories and gears.

Ohhhhhhh.........Feathers.........

I recognized some tyers and their displays, including someone that I feel in touch spiritually.

Hatch Chart Extravaganza!!!

Again, someday in a near future, we'd like to make fishing trips over there!!
New York is almost all synonym to Biggest-City-in-the-World however, this part of NY is nothing different from somewhere in Montana. Say, Roscoe seems to me a typical fishing town in the West!


We kinda did a fishing on the beach of Atlantic Ocean of Atlantic City😉

And ate lots of seafood😋........actually more than we could handle.........😳

Late Merry X'mas and Happy New Year to all!!
Hope you all are having wonderful holiday now and we all have a wonderful fishy 2017😁

November Fishing is HOT!!

This November has been warmer than I remember. It's not even as windy as usual years (there are brutally windy days but feels much less than usual years). Fishing has been good!!

One of the best options around here is nowhere but DePuy's Spring Creek (www.depuyspringcreek.com). I guided a family I have known for the past several years. They fish hard! It was very good to see them this late in the year!!

There are still lots of browns and rainbows coming into the creek from Yellowstone River. Insects activities may vary day to day but I'm sure one can find a pod of rising fish to challenge a while.
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After a long road trip (indeed a long story😄), we were back to fish!
Just one of town-spots on Yellowstone River.

 Then we drove to............. Can you guess where this is?

The early mist on Bighorn River.

We walked from the access point and wade-fished.
As always, we started with nymphing. Fair Advise if you head that way: aquatic weeds are starting to die for the season. Loosened weeds are floating on the surface in various sizes. I don't mind saying those can be nuisance oftentimes.
............We first spotted so many midges already hatching that we saw on snow and on the river surface!! We did spot rises here and there. But not quite convincing to focus with dry-flies. Yet we didn't have any bites on nymphs and weeds were annoying........ Getting enough.......... Then we started to spot more doable and constant rises.
Gotcha!!

Learning and decoding.

 This was the trophy for me!!

As you can see, baetis were hatching in good numbers!!

I never meant to be the "minimalist" however considering the condition, I didn't carry many midge patterns, just two Lefty Angler Boxes, and certainly NO baetis patterns with me. It was far away to get back to my truck. However I somehow felt I could get by with patterns I had. A couple of my midge patterns do look like small mayfly patterns. I never meant them to be multi-purpose patterns. But when trout think so, I don't mind!! One of the most efficient patterns was my Split Shuck Floater with Hi-Vis Post.

Along with Coming Out APE.

It's exactly 8 months since Renee first fished this magnificent river. She has grown up as a fly angler. She's willing to challenge on selectively feeding trout with tiny dry-flies.

Her first one was actually a nice brown, which got away right in front of my net - of course she blamed her incompetent guide😅. Finally she made a solid hook-up!! Ahhhhh......Whitie😆!!

 I had another memorable one. Not so long but surprisingly plump for this time of year.

Renee kept working hard!!

And rewarded!!

Indeed we were on the road trip through Idaho, Nevada, and a part California, talking about fishing and our lives together.........

It was good and enjoyable.........then back to our home state, we enjoy fly-fishing on our great rivers even more!!

Enjoy great winter fishing!!