Paradise Circus

Nothing like summer in Montana. It's a paradise of sorts. But, with summer comes crowds. The Bitterroot can become a circus. Access points flooded with cars, trucks, and trailers. But, weekdays, mornings, evenings, and cloudy days are the ticket. Less splash and giggle, more room to fish.

Check out the video in HD.

Changes

Changes - a dangerous and potentially terrifying title for a post after an unexpected month long hiatus from the YGF blog. But, they are afoot. Not major changes to the blog...other than the fact I am back.

Changes - Banana Box to Big Red Bin

These changes are related to my FFESS...or fly fishing equipment storage system. For the past year or so, I have willingly stuffed my waders, boots, rods, reels, tippet, nippers, and related fishing accessories into a Del Monte banana box I got from Costco for "free." The gear overflowed. But, I took great pride in the banana box's ability to store very little, but carry a great deal. The banana box was perfect. It had character and was easily replaceable, but also surprisingly durable. It made for a great storage system going to and from the water, but it was a bit of an eyesore at home. So, the girlfriend replaced my banana box with a big, red tupperware box. It holds everything in a neat, clean package. There is ample room for all of my gear. My gear doesn't overflow or fall out of the big red bin. Most importantly, it is no longer an eyesore at home.

I miss my Del Monte banana box.

Saturday Spotlight with Fish Porn

Last week, I took a break from not fishing to sit down with Caleb of Fish Porn for 20 minutes and talk shop. And by shop, I mean GoPros, editing software, egg timer GoPro mounts, sticking it in people's face for two or three seconds, and song choices. I am honored to be the first interview for Fish Porn's Saturday Spotlight. Have a watch and please excuse my long winded answers and "good dude"-ing.


Saturday Spotlight - Yukon Goes Fishing from FP Media on Vimeo.

Goodnight Mouse/Hello Brown Trout

I have been stuck behind a computer for long, torturous periods of time as of late. While much of this time is of my own doing, I needed to get out on the water. So, I annoyed Stan from False Casts and Flat Tires into heading out on a night time mission to mouse up some brown trout. Last year, one of my goals was to catch a fish on a mouse...and catch a fish at night. I failed miserably on both accounts. Mostly due to a severe lack of commitment. The nighttimes is muchos scary, guys. Mucho muchos scary. With the darkness, the lack of light, a collection of odd, unusual and threatening sounds, and bats, I didn't last long whilst trying to catch nighttime trout on the fly.

In January, Andrew Grillos, signature fly tier at Idlewylde saw that my 2012 dreams and goals list still included catching a trout on a mouse. AG, is apparently the giving sort, sent me two of his BOB Gnarly patterns. Then, earlier this week, he emailed me to tell me that this week would be a good week to go mousing. That email got me out on the water by midnight and into fish by 1 in the morning last night...or this morning.

Admittedly, my first trout on a mouse was hooked as I crossed the stream with my fly trailing me downstream. More of an exercise in "skilled" wading than skilled presentation. It's not the biggest of fish by any stretch of the imagination. But, a first is a first.

First at night, First on Mouse (Photo: Stan Spoharski)

As we progressed upstream, Stan and I started to put pieces of the proverbial presentation puzzle together. Working upstream and casting downstream, shaking the rod tip and stripping in sporadically, We had our fair share of boils and splashy misses. As my BOB Gnarly quartered and twitched it's way downstream, my fly disappeared into the jaws of impressively proportioned 17" brown trout. It had the shoulders, head, and pseudo kype of a fish a half a foot longer. Monkey off back. Props go to AG. I feel like he Jedi guided me from a distance.

The girthiest 17" of brown trout I have ever encountered. (Photo: Stan Spoharski)

The lovely brown trout hump/check it out (Photo: Stan Spoharski)

Yukon Goes Headhunting

Two days of fly fishing on the Missouri River with Headhunters Fly Shop's John "Scumliner" Arnold and Jared "Gandolf" Edens. Mother's Day Caddis, March Browns, Blue Winged Olives, and Midges were hatching...sporadically. While we had high sun on both days, we were still able to find some rising fish. On the Missouri, a few rising fish is actually a good deal of rising fish. I had my fair share of shots at some nice risers and dropped some ugly casts on them. But, we were still able to catch some nice fish on dries. Short leash nymphing was the primary producer and the "standard" Missouri River 16 to 19" rainbows showed up in force with a couple 20s and a 21 or two finding their way into Scumliner's skinny black net.

Yukon Goes Headhunting from Yukon Goes Fishing on Vimeo.

It should be noted that the Missouri River fish fight....hard. A twelve inch football of a rainbow took me to my backing in a couple seconds.

You may note that I did my first bit of acting in a YGF short in this one. Acting like I was waking up to an alarm clock was hard. The guys at Headhunters set me up in the Craig House for the weekend. The Craig House would easily fit six people. It was spacious, comfortable, three bedroom, two bathroom house next to the Rainbow and Brown cabins. As you can see from the video, it is a quick minute walk from Headhunters, which is a minute from the river. It was complete with a full kitchen and flat screen TVs with satellite. More than enough for this angler and some of his friends and it is a steal for groups of 4 to 6 people. The beds were extremely comfortable and I was out before my head hit the pillow.

Side Note: I think it should be obvious to everyone, Jared Edens is Gandolf, based solely on his stick skills and also his mean beard.

All this happened and so did some carp fishing.

Music: Santogold "Starstruck"