Do Fish Respond to Texts?

On Monday I guided the most awesome 13 year-old girls from the East. I remember 13 being my most awful year, by far, but these girls have grabbed life by the horns. We fished the Wood, but mostly I learned the local gossip. With over 8,000 texts a month, you can only imagine the amount of info that's being shared and I know it all now.

The fishing wasn't that great, but it was definitely an awesome trip!

Where the Antelope Roam

Yesterday I finally made it up to Copper Basin to do some scouting. I am so happy to finally have a car that can get up there and yesterday's trip was well worth it. I mostly fished on Star Hope and it was amazing. All of the fish were Fine Spot Cutthroat and there were lots of them. I just threw a Purple Haze and a Lightning Bug and got the job done. And of course, the Frog Hair 5x was easy to pull right out of the bushes.

I had never driven the full Copper Basin loop so yesterday provided me with that opportunity. I got within 20 feet of three Pronghorn and started racing them. They beat me at 30 mph--as fast as I could go on the pot-holed road.

I drove back down the basin and went up Wild Horse Creek. I managed to scare off an 18" rainbow and didn't find much after that. I am so happy it's summer in Copper Basin--it's always a nice change from the Wood or Silver Creek. I'm looking forward to hitting the Lower Lost next!

Trico Midges

A certain person I used to guide with, now deemed my nemesis, once pronounced on the Big Wood, "The bugs you see flying around are trico midges." I'm not kidding.

Buddy and fellow guide Carl corrected her, but throughout the day she continued to identify the tricos as trico midges and showed in an entomology book she put together the trico midge page.

Long story, but tricos are not midges, and they are out on the creek. I fished last night and saw a few and saw my first clouds of the year this morning. The fish seemed more tuned into the PMDs, though, which was okay since the PMDs were 14s and the tricos were 20s.

The Wood is dropping and fishing quite well. It's just under 1000 cfs, but there are Green Drakes and the fish are eating them. I hope to go to Copper Basin tomorrow--it should be fishing too.

Thank god it's summer.

Ummm--maybe a little more masculine

I was reading the New York Times fashion articles today and they had a report about menswear from Milan--masculine!  I was looking through the slideshow and this was my favorite.  I think we're going to need something a little more masculine if we're hitting the river.  I can't imagine where they found the hippers and tackle box.  It's funny to think about some assistant hitting up the local gun store for the latest menswear accessories.

Photo from www.nytimes.com, incredibly ridiculous outfit from DSquared2

Making it Work

The Wood River Valley has had crazy rain for the last month. Of course, when business picked up, we had to guide in muddy flood water and take beginners on Silver Creek. The photo is of Sus, a TNC employee, on the Wood last week.


The rain has cleared up and the fishing has definitely improved. The Wood is rapidly dropping, and the bugs are going crazy on the creek. I'm looking forward to scouting in Copper Basin later this week and am getting ready for a busy July.

Frog Hair Surprises!

I was recently invited to join the Frog Hair Pro Staff and just thought I was getting a good deal, but was surprised twice this week. On Wednesday, I received business cards with my name on them--PRO STAFF--I am beyond excited for my first pro staff position. Check out the sweet deal below.



This afternoon, after a hard day of guiding, I came home to an awesome box full of all of the tippet and leaders I had ordered and some awesome swag. Hats, stickers, patches, and all kinds of fun stuff.


I'm really excited to be part of their team and I've used Frog Hair for years. There's nothing like fighting a fish on 8x and not worrying about breaking them off. You can check out their website to the right.

The Aftermath

Finally got around to downloading the brown drake pics. It was really disappointing this year, but we at least caught some fish.