Fishing Report for week of 4/29/2012

Mon. was the first of two days with Jim Cote and Herb Depp over on the Missouri. Last week I fished with Jim on the Bitterroot for one of the last dry fly days of the Skwala season before local rivers started blowing out. I mentioned how good the Mo had been this spring and he was up for the road trip. It was an easy drive to Craig, and after getting the hotel rooms and a few flies we headed up toward the dam. There were a couple boats and some wade fisherman in the normal morning spots so we started sliding downstream. Jim hooked a decent fish in our first spot and Herb netted a rainbow in the second spot we drifted. We continued making our way downstream to a good inside riffle and the guys doubled up on nice rainbows there. I recycled that spot a few times and we hooked fish on each pass. As I was rowing back upstream I noticed a pod of fish sipping midges behind the boat. We rigged Herb up with a dry and a dropper and took some shots at those fish. The boat angle was bad so I rowed us further upstream and Herb fished to them again, but still no luck. After changing flies several times Jim finally asked me what would happen if he threw his indicator nymph rig at those fish? I told him they would probably scatter like the wind but since we were moving on he might as well make a few casts. He hooked a big bow on the first cast and we were all so suprised that the fish got off. A few casts later Jim was tied into another 19" rainbow and I think we hooked another 5 or 6 good sized fish out of that little spot. They simply wouldn't leave or go down despite strike indicators and split shot bouncing off their heads. That was to become a common theme today. We'd come to a spot where I usually catch them on shallow dry/dropper rigs and we wouldn't touch a thing on the short stuff, but as soon as we switched back to the nymph rig we would start catching fish again. Both guys landed several nice bows and a few good browns as well, but Jim did especially well today with a bunch of big rainbows in the 18-19" range and one that stretched the tape to 20". We pulled the boat out at Craig and were within walking distance to our rooms and a great dinner at Izaak's.

Day two is a day surrounded by rumor, speculation, and controversy. One thing is for certain, it will live on for some time to come. After a breakfast sandwhich and a cup of coffee we drove back up to the dam early so we could have our pick of the water. I rowed up to one of my favorite spots on the river and Herb hooked a trout on the first pass. After that it went quiet and I made several more passes and a couple of bug changes with no luck. I was a little concerned but we moved over to another little shelf and quickly boated three rainbows on a couple of passes before a gaggle of wade fisherman pushed us out of there. We made our down to the inside riffle from yesterday and doubled up on the first pass. Since no one else was around I was able to row all the way to the top today and we hooked at least two fish on each drift. Since the river is up a little from earlier this spring, this spot is a tough one to row back up and after the second pass I wasn't feeling quite right. On the third pass I felt like I was going to heave right in the boat, and on the fourth pass I had to stop the boat and take a walk. Without getting into the gory details, I'm sure some critter was able to enjoy a slightly used breakfast sandwhich on an island of the Missouri. After that I felt great! I jumped back in the boat and we made several more passes and landed nice healthly rainbows on each drift. Eventually I started feeling a second wave coming on and knew I needed easier water to row so we floated down to the next island. As I started rowing up that channel we could see dozens of big bows just laying on that shallow inside. We started fishing and it was a near instant double where Herb landed a 20" bow and Jim an 18". The first several drifts we hooked at least two fish and sometimes three or four on a single pass, and they were all 17+" rainbows. The predicament was that the fishing was absolutely awesome, but I was feeling like death. After the first few passes I had to go get rid of the last of the smoked bacon and english muffin, only this time it brought no relief. I was light-headed, could hardly talk, and barely able to row the boat. To their credit, the boys offered to bail out on the day and head back, but I wanted to stick it out for as long as I could. I did change my shuttle from Craig to Wolf Creek so we could get out of there in a hurry if need be. The fishing was just too good to leave. It was big fish after big fish with Jim tagging a bright 19.5" bow and Herb landing a giant 21" rainbow. We'd hook a couple nice fish, they'd ask if I was OK (the looks on their faces was that of a 10 year old just hoping to stay a little longer at the county fair), and we'd go do it again. At one point I was seriously debating asking Jim to row my boat to the take-out, but about that time we took a break so the guys could eat. Not long after lunch the fishing slowed to where we were only hooking one fish each drift and it started getting crowded with other boats so we looked for new water. Our next spot proved just about as good with a double right away and multiple hook-ups on each drift but the last one. That's when the wind really started to blow and since I still wasn't feeling much better we started making our way toward to take out. We still hooked fish in each of the last two spots we fished, but I was awfully glad to get my boat on the trailer and into the air-conditioned truck. The guys had wanted to fish till around 4 so they could make it to Hamilton at a reasonable hour, but I was only able to last until 2. In hindsight, it was actually a blessing because the wind blew 20-30 mph all afternoon which would have made for pretty miserable fishing conditions to finish out an otherwise great day. We made it back to Missoula and I hit the sack at 5:30 that night and didn't twitch until 9 the next morning.

Now here is the fun part; well, fun for Jim and Herb...not so much for me. I know I am going to catch sh#$ for years about this day. It's to be expected, I certainly would have a lot of fun with it if I was in their shoes. So, for the sake of full disclosure here are the facts of the trip. After dinner the first evening I had a night cap with Herb and then a few drinks with some other guides (sleeping, eating, fishing, and drinking are the only 4 activities available in Craig). I would rate the alcohol consumption as moderate to slightly above, but I was in bed by 12:30 and woke up feeling fine. Still doing good after breakfast and coffee, and the party in my stomach didn't start until 10:30. The effects of which lasted until Wed. evening. Some may claim the brown bottle flu as the culprit, others the salmonella special for breakfast, still others state the drinking water in Craig is akin to Tijuana, and a small faction assert divine intervention in getting us off the water before the guys found themselves bouncing split shot off one another in the 30 mph winds. Whatever the case may be, it's one hell of a story that won't soon be forgotten. Oh by the way, Jim and Herb caught a boatload of great fish, Herb described it as one of his best big fish days ever and I can't wait to go do it again........all but the puking part of course!

 

 

After a couple days of fishing early in the week I was stuck in Missoula catching up on things until Sun. when I took my Dad over to the Missouri. We were both busy this spring and didn't fish together once, so I wasn't going to let the chance slip away to get on the water with him for at least a day in the early season. We launched the boat at Craig hoping for some good dry fly fishing further down below the dam. Dad started with a nymph rig and it didn't take long to start catching fish. I think he hooked five rainbows out of one riffle in the morning and most of the other good water produced fish as well. I rowed up a little side channel looking for rising fish, but when we didn't find any I ended up tossing the indicator rig and landing three nice bows before switching to the streamer rod and tagging a fat 18" rainbow. The weather was perfect today, high 50's clouds and no wind and the fishing was very good. The only disappointment was the lack of dry fly fishing today. We had good bugs and clouds, but there weren't many fish up on the surface. It might have been the weekend traffic, but we did find three good pods of fish and managed to stick at least one fish on a dry out of each group. I caught a couple dry fly fish in the afternoon, but otherwise Dad did most of the fishing and he simply drilled them on nymphs. Most were rainbows in the 14-16" range, but we also had a number of fish from 17-19" and a handful of brown trout too. Fishing with my Dad is always a good time, but the perfect weather and easy fishing made today extra special.

Local Missoula rivers are all back on the decline after hitting record high flows for this time of year. If the weather stays mild we may get another shot at area trout before the real run-off sets in. Of course, the Missouri is fishing very well with nymphs, sporadic dries, and streamers and I plan to hit a few area lakes in the next week or so. There's still some great fishing to be had right now so long as you do your homework and are willing to travel a little.

 

Fishing Report for week of 4/15/2012

Dry fly cuttbow

After some pretty tough fishing last week, the Bitterroot roared back to life on Mon. It was the first of five days with long-time angler Bob Rembert and we picked a stretch on the middle Bitterroot. The water had been on the drop for the last few days and with the warm and mostly cloudy forecast I figured we would be in for some good fishing. We started the morning with a dry/dropper rig and Bob was picking off fish right above the put-in. We landed quite a few smaller (10-13") trout in the morning, but he also had a bright 17" bow. After landing three fish in a run, with a couple on the dry we decided to do an early lunch in anticipation of the dry fly fishing to come. After packing up, we switched over to a single skwala dry and the fish came absolutely unglued in the afternoon! It was literally non-stop action from 12:20 to 3:30. There were a pile of smaller fish on the hunt, but we were also seeing quality trout in spots too. At one point we landed at least 5 trout in three consecutive runs. There were a bunch of bugs around today with skwalas, march browns, and gray drakes all on the water. Some days that can make for tricky fishing where some fish are keyed in on drakes and others on the stonefly, but today we got virtually every rising fish to eat the skwala. We witnessed some pretty awesome dry fly takes today with fish absolutely crushing the dry. Later in the afternoon the fishing slowed from fever pitch to very good and our average fish got bigger as well. Bob landed a number of 18" class bows and cuttbows and a nice 17" brown to go along with an unreal amount of 12-16" trout. It was by far the best day of fishing I've seen this year and one of the best days of skwala fishing for numbers of trout that I've ever experienced! Spring fishing is always a bit of a gamble and today we hit the jackpot.

So after the best day of dry fly fishing so far this season, what did we do today? Went up the Blackfoot to streamer fish of course!?! The thing I like about Bob is he'd go fish a muddy irrigation ditch with me if I told him I thought it would be good. That willingness to take a chance has led to some epic fishing in the past, and it's also led to our fair share of ass kickings as well. It's part of the game and Bob has seen the upside often enough to know that the risk is worth the reward. We headed up to the canyon today with hopes of big fish on streamers. The big meat didn't produce much all morning. Bob had a handful of grabs and a chunky 17" cuttbow by the time we reached the Munchmore hole. The bright sun wasn't doing us any favors so we switched to a nymph rig and the results were immediate. Bob hooked over 8 in that run including a few fat 16-17" cuttbows. I focused on specific spots through the canyon and almost every run produced multiple fish. It was outstanding nymph fishing the rest of the day. We never got the big boys to eat the streamer, but we landed a ton of healthy 12-17" cutts and bows. The weather was perfect, warm with little wind and we had the entire river to ourselves. I'm sure the dry fly fishing was solid again today on the Bitterroot, but the Blackfoot was gorgeous, the fish were willing, and there wasn't another soul around.

Wed. Bob's long-time fishing buddy, Roger Austin, joined us for a day on the Bitterroot. After some warm weather the river was back on the rise so I picked a float on the lower river hoping to stay ahead of the push of water. Our morning was par for the course with most of the fish coming on a stonefly nymph dropper. We had a couple trout take a whack at the dry throughout the morning and then just before lunch we started to see a few bugs around. I stopped and switched the guys over to single dry flies. While I was still rigging Roger up, Bob stuck a nice big rainbow on the dry. Not long after that Roger coaxed a hefty brown out of a tight little hole in the bank. That fish wrapped around a bunch of tree limbs under water and I thought for sure we'd lose him but Roger managed to get the fish back out of the tangle and into the net. With the fish starting to look up I decided to stop and eat so we'd be ready when the bugs poured off in the afternoon. The only problem was that the bugs didn't pour off in the afternoon, in fact they pretty much disappeared completely. Distant clouds keep teasing us as well while we baked in the bright sun. We caught some fish in the afternoon and most everything that ate the fly was a good sized trout from 16-19", but it was tougher than we thought it would be. A combination of bright sun, rising water levels, boat traffic, and no bugs made the trout a little grumpy. We still had a great time on the water, I always enjoy having Roger in the boat, and there were some gorgeous fish today.

Midge Brownie!

After a great dinner with friends on Rock Creek with world class home made pizza by Mike Lombardi, Bob and I made the trip over the pass to the Missouri for two days of fishing. On Bob's spring trip we usually fish the Mo one day during the week, but with all the rivers in western Montana on the rise we decided to make an overnight trip out of it. We stopped in Helena to pick up provisions since we were renting an awesome cabin overlooking the river. After all the little stops we finally hit the middle river around noon. It was cloudy and relatively calm and we started fishing streamers. It didn't take long for Bob to hook three or four on the streamer rig and then we started to see some fish rising to midges. We switched over to a little midge cluster and the next couple hours was some of the best dry fly midge fishing I've ever seen. I found a little current seam with three or four fish rising. I thought they were mostly little fish, but when Bob came tight on the first one, a 17" bow I realized they were all good trout. Everytime Bob would hook a trout it seemed like two more would slide in to replace it and start feeding. I don't know how many fish we hooked on that current seam, but it was over 10 nice rainbows. It's hard to beat 16-20" bows on a size 18 dry and 5x tippet. We went from one current seam to the next picking off risers until we came to a calm part of the bank and I spotted a big fish feeding up under some overhanging willow branches. Degree of difficulty for this presentation was an 8 or 9. The fish was tucked up under the willows tight to the bank. There was only one gap in the branches to get the fly in close enough to the fish and then Bob had to feed at least 15 feet of slack into the drift to allow the fly to make it down to the feeding trout. After 20+ attempts everything came together and the fish ate the fly. Bob set the hook and a big brown erupted in a cartwheeling jump from under the willows. It was perfect. There are scores of great trout over the course of a season, but there's only a handful of special moments like that; big trout in a super tough spot on a tiny fly and light tippet. I won't forget that brown trout anytime soon. We continued catching fish on midges until the hatch petered out and the wind picked up. We switched back to streamers with reasonable success and then when the wind really started to howl we rowed for the take out.

Mo Rainbow

Fri. I really wanted to head back lower on the Missouri for streamer and midge fishing, but the weather was telling me to point my rig toward the dam. It was bright sun which typically means marginal streamer and dry fly fishing. A nymph rig on the upper river is fairly impervious to the weather and I knew Bob could stick a bunch of nice fish under the indicator today. Since we stayed the night we were able to get on the water early and row upstream to one of the best runs on the river. We stayed in that one spot for over two hours and hooked at least one fish on every pass that we made. Most were good sized bows from 16-20", but we also saw a few of the smaller 12-14" bows in the river. We finally cut loose from that run and started drifting downstream. Every spot that I thought should produce a fish, did produce and most runs Bob had several strikes. In one particular run I think we had five fish hooked, and the last was one of the hardest fighting rainbows I've seen. Bob's been around the block and knows how to play trout, but this fish just wouldn't give up. After a long battle we landed a gorgeous 20+" bow that was so thick Bob could hardly hold it. After lunch there was a traffic jam of boats so I opted for a little side channel that no one else had been down. It's funny how little decisions like that can make or break the day. We ended up finding a small shallow water spot where fish were midging and I didn't pick up the anchor for over 2.5 hours. The sun made the fish a little reluctant to rise, but we dropped a little zebra midge 4" below our dry and sight fished to big Mo rainbows. It was a blast watching the fish react to the fly, and it was amazing how many fish were stacked up in a small spot. I couldn't tell you how many fish we poked out of that spot, but there were 4 20" class rainbows with the biggest a 22" stud and many more in the 14-18" range. After that spectacle it was hard to go back to the indicator rig so we just cruised the river looking for some more midging fish. We finally found another bucket in a maze of side channels and Bob lit up a bunch of other big bows with a couple more approaching 20" and the rest from 17-19". When the fishing finally slowed down it was getting late and we cruised down to the boat ramp and back to Rock Creek. It was another great day on the Mo and an awesome week with one of my favorite anglers.

Snowy Mo Bow

Sun. I fished with Linda Hogg and Frank Heigel. We set out again for the Missouri since our local water is still a little out of shape. Linda hasn't fly fished much in the past and Frank hadn't tossed a fly in 15 years, but I knew the river would produce for us. The weather didn't help much though, after driving through snow over the pass the white stuff was still falling as we launched the boat. It made for tough conditions with bulky clothes and gloves on, and ice building up in the guides but Linda and Frank were troopers and persevered despite the elements. We hooked a bunch of nice fish today and brought some real nice rainbows to the net. Linda landed her first rainbow on the fly and Frank boated a couple great bows over 18". Both anglers fished really well today with good casts and few tangles, but the cold made it tough to feel the line after hooking up, and there were a number of fish that got away simply because it was hard to control the fly line with big gloves and numb hands. Toward the end of the float Frank hooked up on a big brown that stretched the tape near 20" and Linda boated her biggest bow of the day at 16". I had a blast fishing with these two today. A lot of folks would have had second thoughts considering the conditions, but Linda and Frank never complained and were rewarded with a bunch of nice fish. I look forward to fishing again with Linda later this summer and I hope Frank makes it out again soon.

Conditions locally are back on the verge of very good dry fly fishing again. The Bitterroot is clear and the bugs are out, but it is still flowing a little heavy. The weather looks good for this coming week and I expect to see fish on dries again soon.

MARCH MADNESS: Missoula, Montana Style

Bitterroot River Bracket

Fly fishing with big dries is happening around Missoula right now.  Some watch March Madness on TV, getting all worked up about their $20 office pool.  Others witness March Madness live, on the rivers of western Montana.

Missoula, Montana Fly Fishing Report for 3/18/2012



Scott's Dry Fly Brownie

The 2012 fishing season has finally arrived! It seems that our mild winter has been agreeable with the trout and, our fishing went from not much of anything to game on overnight.

On Wed. I got out with former guide and long time friend, Scott Timothy. We put in on the middle Bitterroot and the river was in great shape, clear with a decent flow. Scott was on fish right away with a dry/dropper rig and landed a couple nice bows righ across from the boat ramp. It wasn't long before Scott got his first dry fly eat on a Skwala, and then I landed my first Bitterroot trout of the year on a dry fly. We found a few rising fish just after lunch and I fooled a couple mid-size cuttbows on a blue-wing olive. Our fishing was solid all day with most of the fish coming on a dropper, but enough action on the dry to keep things interesting. Scott and I didn't fish too hard, it was just nice to be back on the water again with some decent weather as well.

Steve's 19.5" Bow

Logjam Rainbow

 Thur. was my first guide day of the year and I headed to the Osprey cabin on the lower Bitterroot to pick up 1/4 of the LaMosca club, Steve Duvall and his buddy Tom. I fished several years with Steve but this was to be my first float with Tom. Unfortunately Tom had to bail out and head back to NY, literally at the last minute. We had the boat in the water and I was rigging rods when Tom finally reached someone who could change his flight. We were lucky to get my shuttle driver to rush down and take Tom back to the cabin so he could make the flight. I'm glad it all worked out, but it was a shame that Tom missed the first really good dry fly day of the season. Steve had a couple dry fly eats right at the put-in and the action stayed steady all day. With stuck with a Swkala/dropper rig for most of our fishing and the ratio was probably 40/60, but there were a few spots where we ran a single dry and found fish. The trout are still holding in the slow water and virtually every little soft spot and back eddy we pulled into produced a fish or two. We caught some small fish, but our average was around 14", and we landed five trout that were 18" or better with the biggest at 19.5". One of the highlights of the day was a little foam spot that was surrounded by downed trees and branches. I told Steve to cast in there just for fun, knowing there was virtually no chance of landing a fish in that tangled mess. Steve came tight on a fish and I was hollering to try to horse him out of there and then I saw the fish on the surface. It was a big bow and I figured we were screwed, but Steve managed to keep him out of the wood and after making sure we wouldn't flip the boat I jammed it into a tight slot in the log jam. It was an impossible situation but we managed to land the 18.5" bow and keep from dying at the same time. The weather was perfect today, mostly cloudy mid-50's and calm. Steve caught a pile of fish and I look forward to seeing him and the rest of the boys later this fall.

Rainbow on a Skwala Dry

Fri. was my first of two days with Ryan Jack. Ryan typically comes out in the summer with his Dad, but he's getting married in about a month so he contacted me to see if there was any spring fishing to be had. I told him about the Skwala hatch and he jumped on the opportunity. It rained most of Thur. night and I was dreading pulling up the streamflows on the computer Fri. morning. Sure enough, the Bitterroot was coming up hard at Darby. I really wanted to put Ryan on some good fishing, after all this would be his last trip as a single man and I didn't want it to be a dud. I honestly didn't know what to do, I thought about running over to the Missouri for good nymph fishing, floating the lower Root where the river wasn't rising as bad, but in the end I went with my gut and we headed back to the middle Bitterroot where the fishing and bug life has been the best. The river was definitely up, but I breathed a sight of relief when we hooked our first fish within sight of the boat ramp. The morning fishing was decent as we found fish in the best water on a dry/dropper rig. The weather improved after lunch and the fish turned on as well. Again, slow water, back eddies, and inside bends were all consistent producers. For the first time this year we found a couple spots where fish were actively eating Skwala dries and we switched over to a straight dry in those spots and tagged some nice fish. Ryan landed browns, bows, and cutts with five or six in the 18-19" range. We had a good number of dry fly eats, but the ol' dirt snake is still pretty hard to beat. The worm produced consistently in most all the spots we put it in the afternoon. The fishing slowed down around 5 and we managed to find a couple more fish in the last hour before we got off the river. We had a great day, and I was even more amazed when I got home and saw that the river was rising hard all day long. The Bitterroot is typically a cold mistress on a rising tide but we managed to beat the odds and put a bunch of nice fish in the boat.

Ryan's 20" Bow

Sat. dawned cold and wet and I wondered if the river was looking to get even with us today. The upper river had nearly doubled in volume over the last 24 hours and I figured we would be in for a challenging day. We went a little further upstream today to try to find the best water for the conditions. It was cold and raining at the put-in and I wasn't sure what would be tougher, finding fish or just staying warm. The river had lost quite a bit of clarity and was definitely running harder than yesterday. After fishing a couple spots with a dry/dropper set-up I knew we needed the nymph rig for today. We made the switch and a couple runs later Ryan was tight to a 18" cuttbow. Another cutt came a short while later and I was a little more optomistic about our chances. The conditions were much worse today, but at lunch we had more fish in the boat than yesterday. Ryan was seining the river and no fish was safe, he even managed to tag a whitefish and the ultra-selective sucker. Our biggest failure came at lunch when we couldn't manage to get a fire going. Not even the "special sauce" floatant could help us get a flame going in those cold and wet conditions. Fortunately the rain tapered off and the temp came up just enough to make things borderline comfortable. We drilled a bunch of nice fish in the run where we ate lunch and the fishing was consistently solid all afternoon. We focused on specific water types and there weren't many spots that didn't produce. The dry fly fishing never materialized but it was hard to argue with a bent rod most of the time. Again we saw a mix of fish with a 17" brown and several bows and cutts in the 17"-18" range, and late in the day Ryan boated the first 20" bow of the season. The river seems really healthy this year. The proof is two great days of fishing despite conditions that could have easily produced catches in the single digits. Ryan is always fun to fish with and I'm glad that the Skwala hatch treated him well. I look forward to seeing him later this summer with his Dad.

We've dried out a little and the forecast for the next few days is cool with temps in the 40's. The river has levelled off and is back on the drop. We should be back to dry fly fishing in a couple days and the higher flows have shuffled the fish and there should be some big trout holding in vulnerable lies over the next week. It's great being back on the water. There's nothing quite like watching big trout eat big dry flies after a long, cold winter!

Tight Lines!

Missouri Road Trip Video

Missouri on a sunny Feb. day

Finally got all the footage put together from our great trip to the Missouri last month.  This is my first attempt at video editing and the audio isn't quite right.  You may have to crank the sound up on your computer.
Click here for video

Storm's a Comin'

Storm clouds on the Root

Our first batch of nice weather finally made it to western Montana.  It was sunny and over 50 today with more mild weather on the way.  It's enough to make a guy itch to go fishing if I didn't already know better.  The spring Skwala hatch is the most anticipated event of the fishing season for those in the know.  Along with it comes a heavy dose of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. 


The Good is that it's the first and possibly the best big bug fishing of the year.  There's not much better than watching big trout gobble dry flies after a long, cold winter and if you know the river, the hatch cycle, and the weather you can stay on solid fishing from mid-March all the way till the river blows in late April or May.  


The Bad is that this hatch has gained in popularity over the years and it's no secret anymore.  The best fishing and heaviest pressure is on certain sections of the Bitterroot forcing anglers and guides to adjust their strategies.  Instead of just fishing the best water at the best time of day you have to get creative with access and use a few other tricks to avoid the traffic.  


The Ugly is what is about to take place in the Bitterroot valley over the next 10 days or so.  With the recent good weather every cabin fever afflicted angler within a couple hundred miles is headed to the river.  Locals, guys from Washington, and MT plates from out East will all be spotted at access areas in the coming days.  It plays out like this almost every year.  Unfortunately, the fishing is just not that good yet.  It's ugly (and a little funny) because it turns into a crowded river with anglers hoping against hope for a fish to eat their dry and it's just not going to happen, at least not very often.  The downside is the increased pressure clues the fish into the fact that the game is on again.  The upside is that a bunch of frustrated anglers who showed up too early go home whining about the Skwala hatch saying that it doesn't exist and is just a bunch of b.s. put out by fly shops and guides to make money.  The crowds clear out and leave a less congested river for the rest of us.

Here's to the start of the of 2012 season.  There are a few fish to find right now, but things should really get rolling in another 10 days or so.....till then I'm steering clear of the storm.    

Grip-N-Grins: How to make your fly fishing pictures worthy of the wall

You waited all year for your fly fishing trip, picked up some new gear and had one of your best trips ever.  You caught some awesome fish and were amazed by their beauty.  Your fishing partner or guide snapped some pics of the better fish and now you can't wait to get home to show friends and family.  You checked the photos on that ridiculously tiny LCD screen on the back of the camera and they looked just fine.  But when you get home and pull them up on the computer the best fish of the trip ends up looking like this.

Yep, that 20+" bow that you were going to brag about is hardly worth showing.  Your buddies may really believe you about the fish's size, but you're never going to get the reaction you want with a photo like this and it's definitely not going up in your office.  This photo is an extreme example with several major flaws, but even small miscues or one bad element can ruin an otherwise great photo.  Catching a trophy trout is hard to do, but getting that bruiser to the net is only half the battle.  There's a lot going on when a big fish is landed and you're getting ready for the photo-op.

All too often I see folks just grab the fish anyway they can, one maybe two shots are taken and that's it.  When I land a photo worthy fish the first thing I do is get the hook out and then get them back in the water. The biggest priority is the welfare of the trout so make sure the fish remains in the water as much as possible.  That way if things go sideways trying to get the pic the the fish can be quickly and easily released.  Once the hook is out I start thinking about composition, can I get the sun at my back?, sunglasses off, hat tilted slightly up.  Then it's time to get your hands wet and get ready for the shot.  While this is going on the photographer should be framing the shot.  Don't wait till your buddy is holding the trout to raise the camera up.  Get the camera where you want it so when the angler holds the fish they come into the frame.  Don't be shy to give orders at this point.  You don't want the fish out of water long so make the shots count.  As the photographer you want to fill the frame with the angler and the trout, after all they are the stars of this production.  Don't be afraid to use the zoom, or better yet, get the camera closer to the subjects since the zoom tends to compress the image.  What you want to avoid is a pic like the last image above, a bunch of scenery and what looks to be a guy holding a small trout (it's a 22" bullie by the way even though it looks 16").  Get in as close as possible so you have the fish and the anglers head and shoulders.  The other thing to keep in mind as the photographer is to shoot as many pics as you can.  Point and shoot cameras have a delay between when you press the shutter and when the pic is actually taken so you're likely to get a different image than the one you saw when you pressed the button.  Usually the pic snaps when the fish is moving or the angler has a weird expression on their face so shoot as many as possible, you can always delete later.

As the angler it's your job to make the fish look good and keep from looking stupid remember to smile.  It's important to take a second and think about things.  First of all, relax, the fish seem to be much more cooperative with someone who is relaxed than a tense angler trying to put the death grip on them.  Keep the net below the fish so it's no big deal if it slips out of your hands.  Rule #1 is keep your fingers off the front of the fish.  People want to see the pretty trout not your big sausage fingers like the second photo above.  Cradle the fish with your fingers under the fins and your thumbs up near its back for balance.  Make sure to show the entire side of the fish to the camera.  Rule #2 is hold the fish up and out.  The first photo above shows an angler holding the trout down and off to the side.  That's a big disservice to an otherwise big, colorful rainbow.  Try to get the fish up at least shoulder high and extend your arms toward the camera without locking them straight out.  Your photos will look unnatural and gimmicky if you hold your arms all the way out, a slight bend in the elbows works great.  Straight on photos are just fine, but a little angle on the fish with the head toward the camera looks even better.

Fish photos are like anything else in life, put a little thought into it and things are likely to turn out for the better.  Don't hesitate to practice on fish that may not be "trophies".  While those photos won't end up on your wall, you will be able to see the things that work well and those that don't so when that once in a lifetime fish does make it to the net you'll end up with a picture worthy of the moment.