Sunshine=Fish?

Wow, some tough fishing on such a gorgeous day. We hit some of our favorite local holes. I said favorite. One should not have to work this hard to catch fish. But we scraped a few and still had fun. Who couldn't have fun in this weather? OH, and look who figured how to post big pictures on the blog..... it's on now.

Hopper action

Personally, I think it was the blaze orange shirt that limited the fishing success.... Ricardo?

Can you believe how blue the sky is? You flat-landers thought it was baby blue, huh?

The pheasant tail became the fail tail

I love this shot, the fish really popped out

Wind Rivers 2009 .....or Sweets Goes Fishing

We took off for the Wind River Range in Wyoming to mine some “gold”. After hooking up with Kiley in Lander, WY. we headed for the trailhead, which included strapping our backpacks on two four-wheelers and riding 45 minutes before hiking. We hiked about 3 miles to Crack Lake, set up camp, and started getting our butts kicked by Sweets. Ricardo may have caught the first two fish, but Sweets ended up putting us to shame. I never thought I’d get tired of hearing her yell “Fish on!”, but I was getting close.


The next day we hiked up to a lake that is known for its Golden Trout. Nada. Zilch. Skunk. We didn’t see a fish. Weather was good and we stayed late in the evening to see if things started to heat up… nope. As is the case when one fishes for Goldens when they are not spawning. Tough fish. Sweets made it back to camp and promptly caught everyone dinner….. cause no one else was able to catch dinner.


Day 3 took us a little further from camp to a great brookie lake. Seeing the size and colors of these fish helped us forget the beat down we took the day before. God used every color on his palette when he created the brook trout.


Day 4 brought snow. The voice coming out of our two way radio said the snow level would be 9000 ft. We were camped at 10,800 ft. With snow and rain continuing for the remainder of the day. Yikes! We busted camp and hit the trail. After dropping in elevation the rain never stopped and pounded us all the way back to the 4-wheelers and the truck.


It was a great trip, lots of scenery, and for Sweets, lots of fish.


Lesson’s learned:
1. The only true waterproof boots have Gore-tex.
2. When the Merrell boot salesman tells you their boots are waterproof, they’re lying.
3. The fly you need to fish a certain lake will always be home in your nymph box.
4. No matter the water, no matter the area, Sweets will always out fish you. Get over it.
5. Pizza tastes soooo good after slogging for 3 hours in the snow and rain.

Crack Lake Camp

If you're not bleeding, you're not having fun. Ricardo demonstrates how to have fun.




Bear bait.... I mean Kiley's dog, Koda



Dinner....







....see? I told you so...

..... let's see, cook at 500 degrees for.....

Snow Lake

Look everyone, Sweets caught another one...

Aaaah, the rewards

Home Waters....

Aaaah, yes, home water (it rained all day). I am privileged to live in an area where, 10 minutes after leaving work I can be on one of two “blue ribbon” trout streams (what the heck is a blue ribbon trout stream anyway). 30 minutes after work I can be on 2 other streams and 45 minutes after work I can hit 3 additional rivers plus some pretty cool still waters. So why take off every weekend and fish rivers in other states? Don’t know… Anyway, since we are heading to the Wind Rivers Range next week, Ricardo and I thought we would take advantage of the rain…. I mean the local waters. We hit one of our favorite stretches to kick things off. Did I mention it rained? Yeah, it rained the entire time we were fishing. But, the fishing was good enough to keep our hopes from getting drowned. Here are a few pics, and I apologize for the quality, because of the rain we left the SLR at home and got by with the point and shoot.

Ummm, hey Ricardo, the fish is upside down...

That's better....

Seeing an old wrecked car upside in the river always brings the questions; who, when, and what in the crud happened?

Apparently Mr. Brown didn't read the signs, this is cutthroat water and the browns and rainbows are not supposed to migrate this far up the canyon.

Ricardo highstickin'. His middle name is Czech.

One of the nicer colored up fish we pulled in