What a boy!

I can't even put into words how proud I am of my little boy. We fished tonight for a couple hours, and didn't catch much. Despite this, I was in awe of my 7 year old fishing a woolly bugger the whole time, completely independent...what a kid!

Good Times With Good Times

So my cousin and fellow fly fishing obsessive compulsive came down to visit my family and I over Labor Day Weekend. Johnny is great to be around and also somehow manages to bring fun with him wherever he ends up. Therefore he has been dubbed by some as "Johnny Good Times".

So Johnny called me during the week to suggest coming down to visit and do a little fishing. So I approached my lovely wife about it (she loves when Johnny is around) and I told her we would "probably" do a "little" fishing. Well she knows me to well and what started out as one evening outing turned into a full on binge!

Good times arrived in time to watch my youngest kids and the neighbor boy (see last post) catch a few bass and a sucker. Him and I played around with a few top water poppers but didn't get into any bass.

The following evening I took him to "lunker alley" in hopes that one of us could match or beat the 21 inch brown I had caught 2 weeks prior. Streamers were once again the ticket and we both landed a few respectable rainbows and I lost a fish that may have been pretty big.

It was a great night and we fished long into the evening. We then headed for down town Bozeman and sampled the nightlife.

The following evening we threw Noah in the car with us and fished the Yellowstone near Pine Creek. Unfortunately the "Stone" was in one of her moods and either of us touched a fish all night. The wind was also up which was a little discouraging. Noah out did us both by catching a 6 inch brown and a 10 inch rainbow on a little panther martin. Despite the lack of action the Paradise Valley was beautiful as always.





We then drug our tired bodies out of bed the next morning and hit my favorite stretch of the East Gallatin. The early morning was ridiculously slow. I was begining to wonder if Johnny thought I was trying to keep him away from "my fish." I lost a decent fish early on a copper john but we fished for the first 2.5 hours with basically zero action.

Finally we located a pod of risers and Johnny pulled some small fish out of the crowd with a small blue winged olive. I grabbed a snap shot of the trophy rainbow as Johnny sheepishly held up the "lunker". I snapped the pic just as he broke out laughing.


I apparently thought I was fishing for paddle fish becasue I didn't hook a single fish in the mouth. I was nymphing in a nice run when my indicator paused. I set the hook and thought I had hooked into a new state record. I dramatically worked the fish and screamed for Johnny to bring the net. I was a little embarassed when he netted my 14 inch rainbow hooked in the fin.


As we were working back to the truck and started pitching a black muddler to the banks. I watched as a fish bolted from the bank to grab my streamer. Once again I over dramatized the situation and judging from my rod bend the way the fish wouldn't move I thought I had another above average fish on. Once again Johnny scooped my 13 inch brown from the river to find that I once again foul hooked the poor thing.

Johnny left later that day and hit the Missouri for a few hours on his way home. I will have to let him tell that story though. Check out his blog. http://theriverconstant.blogspot.com/

It was a great weekend and as far as good times go, Johnny never fails to deliver.

Take a Kid Fishing

Just a quick note.  As one digs deeper and deeper into the obsession of flyfishing, sometimes it is refreshing to take your self back to the roots of the craft.  

I took my my two youngest kids Noah and Gracee and our neighbor boy to a local pond the other night.  Gracee and Noah have both caught fish before but the neighbor boy had never even been fishing.  This was exciting to me and it was neat to see Noah step back and unselfishly "guide" his new friend into his first fish.

It was a refreshing experience to watch the innocence of young children fishing.  The neighbor boy landed his first fish, a sucker.  It was awesome to see the excitement over what most of us consider a blight to the fishing world.  The boy kept the fish and took it home to ask his folks about mounting the "beauty."  

This is what it is all about, finding joy in the most basic components of this sport.  If your feel you are ever losing touch with this just take a kid fishing.