Teton Trout

Brush Creek

2010-08-30T21:31:00.000-06:00

So now that I have updated my blog for summer 2010 I should tell everyone that I have taken a new job for fall 2010... I will be working at Brush Creek Lodge in Saratoga Wy... This is an all inclusive luxury guest ranch located nex to the medicine bow national forest... We have privaet access on both Brush Creek and the North Platte... I have a few more days up here in Montana and then it is off to Wyoming again...

More updates to come soon.. Also Hank Tony and I will be headed back to New Zealand in November.. Cant wait to get back!

Oh boy

2010-08-30T21:21:00.000-06:00

Dry Fly Pig

2010-08-30T21:19:00.000-06:00

Then at the end of the trip... I caught the biggest fish I have ever caught on a dry fly! (except for NZ)... This bad boy at a golden stonefly.. This might be the prettiest fish I have ever caught.. it was a long summer but this fish really capped it off...

Summertime

2010-08-30T21:15:00.000-06:00

Caught a few more fish :)

Scenery

2010-08-30T21:14:00.000-06:00

Saw some waterfalls... and some snakes ;)

Wyoming

2010-08-30T21:12:00.001-06:00

Then I took a 4 day trip to Wyoming... we caught a couple of fish :) Grasshoppers and stoneflies....

Night Float

2010-08-30T20:53:00.000-06:00

Hank and I did a night float looking for a big fish.. we put in after work around 7... we finally dragged the boat off the water around 2 or so... we caught some decent fish... then the sun went down.. BIG HUGE moon.. nothing.. we tried mice.. streamers... everything not hits.. no tugs.. I guess we will keep trying

Missouri

2010-08-30T20:50:00.000-06:00

Then skip forward to the end of July (the next time i went fishing)... I spent 2 days on the Missouri with my good friend Jeff Church... we caught a few really nice fish.... both of these fish were feeding heavy on caddis tight to the bank.. Al Caucci would have been proud :)

Rock Creek

2010-08-30T20:46:00.000-06:00

Had a great evening float with Hank, Sarah, Mary Jo, Sage, Luna, and Koda :) 4 people 3 dogs in a driftboat floating down Rock Creek... HAHAHA... we even caught some fish.. Nice wading belt Hank :)

Sage Fishing

2010-08-30T20:42:00.000-06:00

Sage loves fish too :)

Sage

2010-08-30T20:40:00.000-06:00

Sage really loves the camera... and the boat :)

Bitteroot

2010-08-30T20:38:00.000-06:00

Mary jo, Sage and I went fishing on the Bitteroot.. Salmonflies were everywhere.. caught some nice for 2 days... MJ caught this sweet rainbow..

Lake Fishing

2010-08-30T20:28:00.000-06:00

Here are a few shots of Sage the terror... watch out she can turn at any moment.. she has a thing for wading boots :)

Sage's First Float

2010-08-30T20:21:00.000-06:00

Well Sage did her first float on the Big Hole with Hank and I... she loved the boat... all kinds of fun stuff to try and chew on... then she found Hanks boat bag... this Articulated Zoo Cougar bit Sage right in the lip.. she was really upset... good thing it was barbless :) Poor girl... she has now learned her lesson.. after trying to bite a stonefly that bit her back in the nose :) she was 8 weeks old here

Fly Book Convention

2010-08-30T20:14:00.000-06:00

The Big Hole in April... It was sunny... beautiful... fish eating streamers HARD... then this cloud came over the canyon wall... 3 inches of snow in an hour.. fish still ate streamers :) The boys from the fly book came down to Montana... It was awesome

Sage

2010-08-30T20:06:00.000-06:00

Well... then i decided to get a puppy... SAGE... she loves slippers.. and anything else she could get ahold of.. This is sage.. 2 nights after I got her.. she was 6 weeks old..

Hank's Baby Brown

2010-08-30T20:02:00.000-06:00

This damn fly keep showing up on the boat all spring when Tony Hank and I were fishing.. there were a few bets on it... If Tony landed a fish bigger than 20 inches on it... I would have rowed all day... SO CLOSE.. he had the fish.. at least 22... up to the boat... but no go... hook must have been dull :) Tony rowed for most of the day :)

WOW Longtime!

2010-08-30T19:59:00.000-06:00

OK OK OK... i have gotten enough emails and phone calls from friends telling me to update... they are sick of seeing Henrick... well here goes!

So many of you know that when i got back from NZ I took a new job up in Montana at The Ranch at Rock Creek... I started up here on March 1rst... things have been great for the last 6 months.. i was the head fishing guide at the ranch and helped Hank Welles run the activities department... This is a new ranch with a great crew and beautiful scenery... I got a chance to fish a bunch of great rivers... met some great people... guided some famous people and had a great time working with hank.. I got a dog... caught some fish... and learned a lot..

Here are a few shots from early season.. A couple of shots from the Clark Fork and Big Hole.. We spent a lot of time on the Big Hole, Bitteroot, Clark Fork, Rock Creek, and the Missouri...
I am going to have to let the pictures do the story telling... I did not fish as much this summer as I have in the past but I got a few good days in ;)

Henrik's Double

2010-02-02T19:43:00.001-07:00

I fished with Henrik, Thomas, and Magnus on my last day in New Zealand... it was a beautiful sunny day with some big fish around... Magnus caught a 5 lb fish and I had a HUGE fish follow my cicada 10 meters... after a bit of a walk we found this beautiful pool where Henrik landed this 10.5 lb monster... It was an awesome day and one I will remember for a long time... nice work Henrik!

The Winter Family

2010-02-02T19:31:00.001-07:00

The two weeks of my trip were spent in the Murtchison area... I stayed with at the Kiwi Park with the Winter Family... the owners Brent and Lynn Winter and their 3 kids, Henry, Daniel and Adelaide were awesome... I had the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks with them fishing and messing around... They have beautiful accomodations with a small farm and a bunch of animals... This will be one of my best memories from my 3 month stay in NZ... It was amazing how warm and welcome my new friends were... if you are planning a trip to New Zealand you have to stop by the Kiwi Park in Murchison... Here is a picture of a 7lb brown Lynn, Henry and I caught on a nymph... and a 5 lb fish that Brent and I caught the following day...

Big Boy

2010-01-22T20:53:00.009-07:00

Josh and I have just returned from our last back country trip... We spent 5 days exploring a remote river.. The weather couldnt have been better and water clarity was perfect... We bushwhacked for 4 hours into this isolated river... It really should have only taken 3 hours but I had a fever and was feeling awful so little josh had to carry me... We finally got to the river set up camp and starting working our way through some gorges... we spotted very few fish on the first couple of days but we did spot a bunch of foot prints at every hole... what we didnt realize at the time was we were following someone up the river... they were a couple of days ahead of us and alone but it still beat up the water pretty bad... on the third day we had moved our camp up through a large gorge and into the upper section of river... Josh and I came up on a pool and I peeked my head over the top of a large rock... sure enough there was a big fish sitting on the edge of the current swinging a little bit... I was sure it was a rainbow... it had a HUGE red side... only problem... i have never heard about a rainbow in this river? Weird but it didnt matter.. about 4 cast later little Josh and I are running up and down the pool chasing this massive fish around... he ate a size 12 hairs ear nymph and he was pissed! Josh somehow cornered it and was able to net it.. he started yelling at me that it was not a rainbow but a really big brown with red sides? As it turned out it was the biggest brown I have ever landed.. 10.5 pounds and meaty... The fish has some really interesting colors on it.... The size and proportions of the fish say that it is definitely a healthy fish but the colors are very different... I think the fish has just eaten too many mice and is having trouble digesting them... Anyways... this was the fish of the trip for me... I have been looking for a fish this size for a long time... The next 2 days were a dissapointment... while we saw some very large fish they were absolutely not feeding.. whomever was ahead of us had fished up and walked back through the pools... the fish were more than spooky they were not feeding... Little Josh did manage to land a beautiful 6 lber in some quicker water but other than that we were skunked... We had a long 5 hour bushwack back to the car... up over a mountain and out... we were very happy to emerge from the woods to a big field with Rambo sitting on the other side.. thank god for the GPS... the bush is so dense here in this part of the country you honestly felt blind in there... we just trusted the GPS and a compass and we made it in and out safe as can be...

Anyways... this was our last backcountry trip for us... Little Josh flies out on the 27th and I will stay here in town until the 2nd... We may do a little fishing from the road but both of us are resting up and getting prepared to come back to the states... I have updated the blog and webalbum but unfortunately i dont have many pictures to update.. just a couple of fish pics... :) Thanks to everyone for reading my updates... I may send one out just before I fly out on Feb 3rd but we will see... hope everyone is doing well and I will see you all soon... Thanks again to everyone who has written over the last 3 months...

Little Josh

2010-01-22T20:51:00.004-07:00

Here are a couple of shots of Josh's beautiful 6lb fish... This guy ate a big dry in some fast water and was quite a handful to land...

Piggy Piggy

2010-01-20T02:54:00.004-07:00

5 days of fishing... landed 2 fish... but... it was worth it... caught this 10.5 pound meat eating beast on a size 12 hare's ear... I think the coloration comes from eating too many mice!

Update

2010-01-11T01:32:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to write a quick update.. Little Josh, Marty and I drove from Westport down to Queenstown for New Years... Queenstown was crazy as usual with thousands of young people running around... After New Years I met up with my parents who had flown into Queenstown... Josh and Marty stuck around in the area and fished some of the local waters in the area... We took off and headed to Te Anau and Fjordland... We spent 4 days hiking the Kepler Track... This Great Walk was unbelievable... we had a mix of weather but all in all it was a beautiful hike... From Te Anau we headed to Milford Sound for a day cruise out in the sound... again weather was mix... we had some pretty serious wind and a little rain... It is supposed to be summer here but it sure feels like fall this week... After Milford my parents and i headed back up to Wanaka to find some sun... we did some biking and hiking around... visited the world famous Puzzeling world and relaxed... Today my dad and step mom fly out of Queenstown and Little Josh and I are headed back north to do some more fishing... This break has been great but I am starting to realize that we only have a few weeks left... Marty had some things come up and he is headed back to Wyoming a few weeks early... Josh and I will stay here with Rambo and go chase some more fish... Sorry for the lack of fish photos... there will be more to come... Hope everyone had a great Holiday and New Years...

Kea's

2010-01-09T14:48:00.001-07:00

Here are some alpine parrots called Kea's... they are very curious guys

More scenery

2010-01-09T14:44:00.001-07:00

Here are a few more scenery shots... some flowes and such

Milford Sound

2010-01-09T14:41:00.001-07:00

Here are some waterfalls in Milford Sound

More Kepler

2010-01-09T14:32:00.001-07:00

Here are a few more

Kepler Track

2010-01-09T14:29:00.002-07:00

Here are a few shots from the Kepler Track

Stu's

2010-01-09T13:59:00.001-07:00

The best fly shop in New Zealand... check out his website

Bridge

2010-01-09T13:57:00.002-07:00

Josh decided he wanted to jump off this bridge.. It was a nice day... we stopped.. he jumped... we kept on driving :)

Camp Life

2009-12-25T05:51:00.001-07:00

Here is a cool shot of Marty and Little Josh standing around our campfire.. it is about 8pm we are drying off and eating some dinner... it is pretty amazing to be standing around a campfire on Xmas eve... More pics to come from Marty and Josh's camera

Fish Porn

2009-12-25T05:46:00.001-07:00

Here's a few more fish shots... I have posted more on my webalbum

Group shots

2009-12-25T05:36:00.001-07:00

Ninja Fishing

2009-12-25T05:15:00.001-07:00

A lot of our pictures we take our buffs off but sometimes the bugs are so bad we just leave them on... we wear buffs on our face mostly just to keep the bugs off but also sun protection and to keep camoflauged when spotting trout... I could not imagine fishing in New Zealand without a couple of buffs and some sun gloves!

Random Shots

2009-12-25T05:09:00.001-07:00

Josh and Marty landing a fish in some faster water... Marty Kayaking his gear back and forth... Little Josh putting the wood to a fish....

Crazy Fish

2009-12-25T05:04:00.001-07:00

Here is a sequence of Marty fishing to a fish you can see next to the log... after a few casts he hooked the fish and was able to land the 4.5 lb fish in a few really hard strips... Little Josh jumped on it and scopped it up... this all happened in about 30 seconds...

Chopper trip

2009-12-25T03:53:00.004-07:00

T he boys and I have just returned from a 5 day trip into one of the most remote rivers in New Zealand... We had to helicopter into this river... It is nearly impossible to walk to... I have read in a hut book that numerous people have attempted to walk to this river and have gotten lost... nearly drowned... and were forced to return... it requires crossing a big river and climbing through gorges on either side... Wayne the helicopter pilot told us that he has only met one person that was able to walk in there.... Anyways we took a chopper in and dropped off some kayaks to get across the river....
We hiked an hour from the drop off point took our kayaks across and away we went... the first pool we came upon had 6 trout swinging around eating nymphs.. we hurried to get a camp set up and get fishing.... it was evening time so we made our camp and fished for a couple of hours... The next day we started early and fished long and hard... we ate out normal oatmeal and raisins and took off... Right from the get go we started landing fish... this river is so remote it sees maybe 10 parties a year... the fish were obviously not educated... I have never caught so many fish in New Zealand... we landed fish after fish.. working our way up from each pool... we kept trying to skip the faster water but every time you looked in front of a rock or on a seam there was a 4 pound brown swinging in the current... it got ridiculous... it is easy to get spoiled by this kind of fishing... we landed 18 trout that day... we made a big fire and slept hard...
The following day we moved camp up about 4 miles and fished the afternoon... we got stuck on a couple of bigger pools within the first mile of camp... there were so many fish that we would be fishing to a fish we spotted and you would get intercepted by some other fish that swung over and ate your fly... I would be spotting... staring at the fish... watching the dry fly coming down... then out of no where a fish would rocket up from the bottom and eat the fly 4 feet in front of the intended fish... After a 3 hour bush bash and 6 hours of fishing we were beat and passed out...
Our last full day of fishing we started early... after breakfast we started up the river around 9am... we fished our way up through a couple of gorges trying not to stop on every fish... .we really wanted to explore this river and see if we could find some bigger fish... at this point we had landed around 30 fish and they all were in a slot of 3.5 to 5.75 pounds... we covered more water this day and did not fish as well... we landed plenty of fish but all three of us went through some rough patches... I think i hooked 4 fish in a row without landing one of them... Little josh went through a streak like i have never seen... he seriously broke off 6 fish in a row.. ON 3x tippet! Josh was not laughing but he was all smiles when he finally landed a few after that... We fished until about 7:30 and then realized we better head back to camp before it gets dark... It is nice here in NZ... it does not get dark until about 9:30 but there are no trails on this river... we bush bashed our was back to our camp... because of the weather forecast we decided that we better be cautious and come out a little early...
The next day we banged and crashed our way back to the botttom of the river... we were able to find a better route back to the confluence so we made pretty good time...when you are bush wacking with no trail it is hard to see where you are stepping sometimes.. this causes you to lead with your foot and as a result your shin seems to lead the way... It is amazing how bloody your shins will get when you crack them on 1038402844 logs and rocks in 5 days... anyways we fished the bottom section of the river for the afternoon... kayaked across the river and made our way down to the edge of the wilderness area where our helicopter was coming to pick us up... It is Christmas day.... Wayne came ripping in on his helicopter wearing shorts and sandals... told us to jump in and away we went... in a flash we were back in civilization... It is strange how you can be in one of the most remote areas in the whole country and be back to your car in under 20 minutes... I think I need to buy a helicopter! We spent our Christmas evening at the Rongo in Karamea... they had a big feast with about 20 people... Roasted Lamb... Lasagna... all kinds of food... this is really what we needed... It was kind of strange eating Xmas dinner in shorts and T shirts outside in the sun.... There was a great sunset tonight and summer is finally in full swing... All three of us are a little sun burned from the last couple of days..
We are now headed down to Queenstown... We will be stopping on our way to fish a little bit but we are mostly going to take our time.. relax a little bit and spend some time on the beach... We are going to spend New Years in Queenstown and then get back after it.... I will be meeting up with my dad and step mother in Queenstown and will spend 8 days with them... Little Josh and Marty will go fish a few rivers in the area and then we will join up again on Jan 10 to spend our last few weeks explore some more rivers...
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a great New Year... See you all in February!

First Fish

2009-12-19T20:42:00.001-07:00

Marty's first fish in New Zealand... this 5.5 lb brown took marty downstream about 200 yards!

Loops

2009-12-19T20:40:00.004-07:00

Little Josh took this picture of me casting to a fish in front of a big rock.. we spotted this fish two different days but were unable to get him to eat... Need more practice!

Before and After

2009-12-19T20:37:00.001-07:00

Pre flood picture...
Post Flood picture....

Rain

2009-12-19T20:36:00.001-07:00

And then it started raining...

Stalking

2009-12-19T20:34:00.001-07:00

Marty and Josh stalking some fish in pocket water... the fish Marty is looking at is literally 6 feet on the other side of that rock!

Waterfall

2009-12-19T20:31:00.003-07:00

Here is a pretty cool shot of a small waterfall... there is just so much water in New Zealand it seems to come seeping out of everything...

Pre Flood

2009-12-19T18:00:00.001-07:00

I landed this 6lb fish on the last day before the rain... Josh's fish was the one that took him down the rapid... Photo Credits go to Peter Carty on the last one... We met up with him last night and he bet us we could not eat 2 burgers each from the pub... Peter lost... he underestimated how much oatmeal we had been eating...

Fish Smile

2009-12-19T17:56:00.002-07:00

Marty Swimming

2009-12-19T17:54:00.001-07:00

Here is Marty swimming with his fish... this one got away...

Josh swimming

2009-12-19T17:51:00.001-07:00

Here is a good sequence of Josh and Marty swimming for a fish

Monsoon Season

2009-12-19T17:46:00.001-07:00

Well I think it is monsoon season here in New Zealand... Marty, Josh and I headed out 5 days ago up a west coast river to try and explore a new river... We packed up all our gear... food for 7 days and started up the river... We hiked straight for 2 hours until we found a suitable camp site up river... Set up camp and got an afternoon of fishing in.... Marty landed his first trout in NZ and we had a few other hook ups... the next morning we packed up fished our way up in search of a higher camp site... We fished our way up and made it up another 4 or so miles.. Set up camp, landed a few nice fish above camp and got ourselves in position to have a few good days on the upper stretch of river... The next morning we started early and covered lots of water... we landed 6 fish between us included a few 5-6lb fish... marty and josh both hooked fish that took them swimming down some rapids... this was pretty funny to watch them chasing these fish down rapids swimming around and behind boulders trying to get ahold of these fish... Josh managed to land his and marty's pulled out... we worked our way up high on the river spotting some big fish... spooking some and landing a few... the water was not perfectly clear it was slightly high and tea colored... that night we got back to camp with plans of making it to the top section the next day...Just as we got into bed it started to shower... then it all CHANGED... I woke up that morning to marty yelling my name... it was 6:15 in the morning and I couldn't figure out what he wanted... i yelled back and he said "You better come out here".... It was still raining and I did not want to get out of my sleeping bag... I could hear the river behind us but it didnt sound any different than the night before... Boy was I wrong... I got out of my tent out in the rain and looked at the river... i almost fell over... the river had come up 6 to 8 feet!!!! the river was 2 feet from martys tent and coming up... It really didn't seem to rain that hard but it is a big drainage and we were in trouble... of course we were camped on an island... the creek behind us was raging! We scrambled... packed all of our wet crap into our bags and made a mad dash for it... we got to the creek and debated a few times the best way to get across... we decided to link arms and make it into the middle behind a rock... this worked ok for a while but with 50lb packs on your back it was pretty crazy... the last part was a 15 foot swim in some pretty fast water... we put the packs around one arm and floated/swam down the river... marty made it to the other side safely... then me... then little josh... it was pretty intense... we were pretty pumped up once we got across the river but then we realized we had a LONG walk out... we had walked up the river bottom most of the way and now there was no chance of that... there was no trail on this river and we are on the west coast... this turned into an 8 hour bushwhack! it was really rough... because the river is gorgy there was a lot of up and down... because there was no trail you couldnt tell which was better.. .you would go up for a bit... then climb down... to turn back around and go back up... we covered about 6 miles in 8 hours... it took FOREVER! we finally reached the car bruised and battered... Of course we arrive to a dead battery and a nice rock someone decided to throw through our rear window... that was real nice.. we got a jumped... cleaned the glass out and headed back to town... luckily we had been warned about this river and left all of our gear and valuables at a hostel... so we are showered and well fed now and are trying to get on a helicopter to fly into a remote river in a couple of days... We will be around for 2 more days then fly out on the 23rd into a very remote part of NZ...

Josh and Blaine

2009-12-15T01:55:00.002-07:00

Here are a couple of shots of Josh's fishing a few weeks ago... Josh had been traveling around with his brother Blaine and friend Dan.. they did some fishing while traveling from the North to the South island... Marty and I just picked up Josh and inherited Blaine and Dan's car... more fish to come... headed into the backcountry tomorrow... be back in a week

Rambo

2009-12-15T00:50:00.001-07:00

Here is a good shot of "Rambo"... on our way out of Christchurch we stopped by the pack and save to buy food for our trip and repack... $680 dollars later and an hour of packing we crammed into Rambo and headed out of town...

Bugs

2009-12-15T00:47:00.001-07:00

Who says there are no bugs in New Zealand!

Transition

2009-12-15T00:41:00.001-07:00

Dropped John off at the airport the other day... picked up Marty in christchurch the following day... waited two days for Josh Gallivan, Blaine Gallivan and Dan to get to Christchurch... we all met up.. hungout for a couple of days... John and I returned our mini rental car... We talked a lot about what to do for a car for the next few weeks.. Blaine and Dan were nice enough to "Donate" their car to us... After taking it for a test drive... fixing a tire.. a little super glue on the raditator we decided to give it a try... Dan and Blane bought the car up in Auckland drove it all the way down to queenstown and back up to Christchurch... Along the way they spray painted and had all the people the met sign the car... They nicknamed the car "Rambo" and kindly pawned it off on us... Amazingly I am writing this post from Murchison about 200km outside of Christchurch... Rambo is going strong and we are trying to think positive... here are afew pictures of their car and their thanksgiving meal... more to come

Big Fish

2009-12-06T11:26:00.001-07:00

Finally landed a big fish... this 8.5 pound brown was a very healthy fish... we landed him on the first afternoon pre Monsoon! after that the river got high and muddy and was never quite the same.... I may need to revisit this river a little later in the season.....

Scenery

2009-12-06T11:20:00.001-07:00

A few scenery shots from the two clear days we had during the last week... John and I spent 41 straight sitting in our tents... I read two entire books... cover to cover.. drained my ipod in 45 min... wrote in my journal 4 different times... debated climbing mount everest..... tried to sleep... studied North Face interior tent design... when it finally cleared we ran to a hut 4 miles away... Of course the weather got nice and we had to head right back to the river the next day... The plate of food in front of me is our signature dish.... Mexican Dinner... We take some canned corn... add chilli beans... a cup of rice... and a package of taco mix.... stir it all together and you have Mexican Night! Not quite as good as Pica's but it will do for now....

Weird Fish

2009-12-06T11:18:00.001-07:00

Here are a few shots of an 8lb fish that John caught... we have asked a reputable source about what caused these scars on this fish... The only thing that makes sense is that the river we were fishing is very prone to flooding... it is possible the fish was injured in the floods... we did catch a few others with similar scarring but none with marks this extreme... very interesting... coloration on these fish is different because of the light colored rocks and open background in this area... quite a contrast to the darker fish from the regions we were in before

Cannibal Gorge

2009-12-06T11:14:00.001-07:00

John and I have just returned from a 7 day trip in an area nicknamed "The Cannibal Gorge" It was named this because the gorge used to be a popular route for a few different Maori tribes... the legend is that there was a battle between two Maori tribes over passage through the gorge... the victors celebrated by feasting on the losers... hmmmmmm...... so we hiked through the gorge for 9 hours and got through to the river... we feasted on oatmeal, rice and beans, peanut butter on tortillas.... we could use some more protein though! After reaching the river on a showery rainy kind of day we set up camp on the rive bank and waited for it to clear... the next morning did not look very promising.. cloudy... wet... river was up slightly... we made breakfast and fished for a few hours.... we spotted 4 fish... landed one... It happened to be my largest fish of the trip... 8.5 pounds! by the afternoon the rain came heavy and we retreated to our tents! From 4pm that afternoon it rained... and rained... and rained... It rained all night... we woke up to a swollen... brown... dirty river... so... we ate breakfast when the rain slowed down at 10am... then lunch at 2pm... still raining... read a few books... cover to cover.. skipped dinner because it rained hard till 9pm.... ate a few granola bars... a handfull of peanuts for dinner.... tried to sleep... rained all night again... woke up at 8am to rain.... finally it cleared for 20 min.... we scrambled... packed up and ran our soaked crap to a hut 4 miles away.... Well of course the sun came out... so we sat at the hut.. splitting firewood... drying out EVERYTHING... debating what to do.... We had just spent 41 hours in our tents... it is now sunny... the river is still up but is sure to drop... so after being bored out of our minds having read all our books in one day... we headed back to the river the next day... We fished that following afternoon... We had decent sun... spotting was ok... the river was still up but you could spot some fish... we landed a few nice fish... all fish over 6 pounds... The next day we woke up to more clouds... the weather was starting to get depressing... everytime we thought it was going to get good... clouds... rain... river goes up.... we fished all of day 6 in the clouds... we did spot a few fish... had a good day but the river was just not cooperating... John and I finally decided to bail... on day 7 we walked 14 miles back to our car.... this was a good decision... it rained for 3 hours on our hike... the river is definitely unfishable again and we would just be sitting in our tents! New Zealand weather can be finicky and when you walk all that way to fish a river you have no control over the conditions... luckily we did manage to land a few really nice fish and have a good time.... This is Johns last fishing trip of his stay... We are headed back to Christchurch for the next few days and he flies back to Wyoming on the 10th... It has been great fishing with John for the last 5 weeks... I will be taking a 6 day break before I meet up with Josh and Marty to start my second part of the trip... I will fish for 7 weeks with the Jack Dennis boys... many more stories to come...

Fat old fish

2009-11-27T22:03:00.001-07:00

One last fish to post... my biggest of the trip so far.. about 7lb.... so thats it from our last 2 weeks.. we are showering up.. eating good food... resting and getting ready to head back in the bush for another 8 day trip... we have a travel day tomorrow.. going to visit with a local legend Peter Carty and then off to another river.. time to start looking for a BIG fish... Things have been great so far hopefully they stay... Will write another update in about 10 days or so... please feel free to shoot me an email if you have time... would love to hear from friends... also check the web album for more pics... more to come

http://picasaweb.google.com/joshxcski/NewZealand2009

A few more

2009-11-27T21:53:00.001-07:00

A little blue sky and dry fly fishing... weather has been pretty good so far... some rain here and there but nothing major...

Mouse Plague?

2009-11-27T21:38:00.001-07:00

There have been lots of rumors of a mouse plague... the true sign of fish eating lots of mice is their anus gets swollen from passing vertebrates! take a look at the fish john is holding... bet there are a few mice in there!

Grip and Grin

2009-11-27T21:32:00.001-07:00

Here they come fast and furious... caught these 4 fish all in the same day.. 3 of them actually came from the same pool! Two of them ate dry flies... two of them ate nymphs suspended about a foot under a dry...

Worth the walk

2009-11-27T21:25:00.001-07:00

We have hiked around 120 miles so far on this trip... some of the rivers that have a track along it actually have some pretty cool swing bridges... as you can see when we fish we are dressed in beautiful olive and camo... the water is so clear and the fish can be very spooky... On my last trip to New Zealand I didnt think it would make a difference... I am now a believer... the more camo you are the less the fish see you... I think it has made a huge difference in our success... the last pic is on top of the pass we came over on the last day... it was such a beautiful morning... 9 am climb then hike to the ocean 9 miles away...

Sandflies

2009-11-27T21:17:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to let you all know about a fun little bug called a sand fly... these little guys LOVE fisherman... they can smell you... this is what i woke up to one morning... it took me 20 min to get up enough courage to make a run for it out of my tent... they were waiting so patiently!

Smile Mr. Brown Trout

2009-11-27T21:13:00.001-07:00

Here are a few of just the fish... check out the red spots on one of those guys... more pics of this fish in the photo album

13 Days in the Bush

2009-11-27T21:05:00.001-07:00

Here are a few scenery shots... The first picture is looking down at a big deep pool... spotting a fish and getting ready to climb down to him... I did manage to get down... water was waste deep... waiting 30 min for him to drop back enough in the pool that i could reach him... cast about 60 feet... he ate the fly.. I hooked him... he ran straight at me... then turned and bolted back the other way... snapped my 4x like it was tinsel... should have used 3x...

Chopper Ride

2009-11-27T20:10:00.001-07:00

So for many anglers who come to New Zealand a helicopter is a must... since we cant afford much helicopter time we decided to hire one to take us one way about 2-3 days walk deep into a national park... of course in a helicopter you cover this same ground in about 20 minutes... We would then walk and fish our way out... 45 miles some on trails some bush wacking... We met wayne and the helicopter pad... he literally flew in from who knows where... never stopped the chopper... jumped out... grabbed our bags... through them in the helicopter... told us to get in and put on our seatbelts... no safety instructions... he literally said... get the hell in we have to get going... we jumped in... found our seatbelts... put on our head phones and away we went... 25 miles up a gorge... we flew along the river it looked so small beneath us... he explained the area a little bit.. we flew around a no fly zone and landed at our hut we were going to spend a few days at... the rain and wind were pretty bad making for a pretty wild ride... gusts of wind would come through the gorge and it felt like we were flying almost sideways... he dropped us literally 15 feet from the door... never shut off the propellers... had us jump out grab our gear and said "See ya in a couple of weeks mate!" it was pretty amazing to be sitting a town eating breakfast one morning and then be 3 days from any road in less than 30 min... well this was day one of our 13 day adventure....

Big Brown Trout

2009-11-15T11:51:00.001-07:00

Well here is John's 7.5 pound brown from our first backcountry trip... this is John's biggest brown ever... this fish was awesome and took john down that rapid right behind him... more updates to come... we are heading to the helicopter pad to fly out this morning... we will be deep in a national park and be fishing our way out... should fish 4 rivers in about 13 days... will be back with more update... to see more pics check out my webalbum
http://picasaweb.google.com/joshxcski/NewZealand2009

Fish porn

2009-11-15T11:27:00.001-07:00

Here are a few fish from the last trip... a few nice ones :)

Scenery shots

2009-11-14T23:52:00.001-07:00

A few more scenery shots from the gorge and up on the smaller stream... drying out some wet clothes from the rain and deep river crossings...

Camp life

2009-11-14T21:07:00.001-07:00

These are a few shots from backpacking life... food is pretty basic... oatmeal in the morning... peanut butter and something for lunch... rice beans veggies for dinner... try to pack light but bring enough... not very gormet

Notes from New Zealand

2009-11-14T15:53:00.001-07:00

Well it has been a while since I have posted but from here out I should post about every ten days... I am writing from the town of Karamea on the South Island of New Zealand.... After the guiding wound down in mid October I tied some flies, packed my stuff and headed to NZ... We flew into Christchurch on Nov. 3rd secured a car and off we went... We headed to the West Coast of the island.... The west coast can be very wet at times but has tons of rivers to explore... We chose a rive that had a couple of branches to explore as well as some nice tributaries... we hiked 12 miles to reach the junction where there was a hut... what seemed like an easy hike with a full load turned into a grueling march.... at about mile 7 you start to cross earthquake slides called "slips" .... These took quite a bit of time to move through but we eventually made it to our hut... We fished our first few days up the northern branch... we slowly moved our camp up the river until we hit a pretty serious gorge... Fishing was good right up through the gorge... we spotted a decent number of fish... most of the fish we were catching were averaging 5 pounds or so... after fishing up in the gorge we decided to head back down to the hut for the last 2 days and fish one of the many tributaries..... Fishing on the tribs was great... we spotted more fish but they were a little smaller... the fish in the smaller streams were easier... we were probably the first people this year to fish the smaller river... Almost all the fish we sighted ate the fly... Most of the fish were were seeing were nymphing or eating emergers... Most of the fish ate nymphs dropped behind a dry fly anywhere from 1 to 3 feet deep... It is pretty amazing to watch a 6 pound brown trout swing over 2 feet and eat you nymph a foot under the surface... I am definitely a dry fly fisherman at heart but sight nymphing a trout is just as rewarding for me... after 5 days of fishing and 7 nights in the bush we decided to hike the 12 miles back out and head for town... we will spend today showering, eating good food, and reorganzing for our next trip that starts tomorrow... I will post some more pictures and details this evening... Here are the first fish that both of us caught here in NZ... more to come

Green Stonefly Nymph

2009-10-19T10:34:00.003-06:00

Tied up a half dozen of these little beauties... double tungsten bead... lead wire... Green stonefly BOMBS!

NZ Dry Flies

2009-10-19T10:30:00.004-06:00

Just like the Nymphs most of the flies I will use in NZ will be basic dries... they do not have big hatches but profile and size can be important... there are some terrestrials like beetles and blow flies.. also we expect to fish some cicadas in January...

NZ Nymphs

2009-10-19T10:21:00.006-06:00

Here are some nymphs I have tied the last few days.. nymphs in New Zealand need to be extra heavy... tied with both lead and tungsten beads... most of the nymphs are basic but very buggy...

Update

2009-10-19T10:16:00.003-06:00

The last couple weeks have been really good... I guided up till about the 12th and now have been prepping for New Zealand... There is so much to prepare when you are leaving for 3 months... I have been tying as much as I can... ordering equipment and sorting through all my stuff... The weather has been mixed lately... we had some snow and rain... then it got warm for a few days... now it looks like we are going to get some more rain... I have not fished much since I finished working.. I will post some pictures of flies I tied for NZ...

Aggressive Brown Trout

2009-10-06T22:51:00.002-06:00

Here is Alan Sims with a gorgeous brown trout... the weather has started to turn and the browns are getting aggressive... this guy ate a big streamer stripped fast through some skinny water... Had a blast fishing with Alan for three days

Hero Shots

2009-10-06T22:41:00.001-06:00

Here are a few more fish shots.. from my last days off

Aussie's

2009-10-06T22:34:00.003-06:00

Fished with the Australian leaders One Fly team for three days before the One Fly... We had decent fishing.. here is a picture of Glenn with a nice south fork brown

South Fork

2009-10-06T21:41:00.003-06:00

Had a great time fishing on the south fork with John Ashley, Graham and the Whitley's... Fished big dries for two days... good fishing great company

Fish

2009-10-06T21:31:00.003-06:00

Here are some shots of just the fish... from a trip at the end of sept

Long Over Due

2009-10-06T21:25:00.001-06:00

Ok so I have been working a lot and have been lazy... I have not had a blog post in over a month... I apologize... here comes a bunch at once... Here are a few fish from a day off back in sept

My day off

2009-08-28T18:49:00.004-06:00

Stumbled into a couple of fish on my day off... had some great dry fly fishing ... fishing has been on fire lately... here are a few fish from yesterday... all these fish ate hoppers.... what a surprise :)

Ernie and Luke

2009-08-22T21:22:00.001-06:00

Ernie and Luke came out to fish from Pittsburg... fishing was good most of the day... we saw some nice fish on chernobyls and hoppers...

Blake and Tyson

2009-08-22T21:01:00.001-06:00

Fished with Blake and Tyson the other day... we had a great day fishing big dries on the snake.. here is a few photos

Sunny Cutties

2009-08-18T23:46:00.001-06:00

Fished with Peter and Roselle the other day... we had a great day with big fish eating chernobyls and hoppers... the snake is really starting to fish well.. the water level is perfect right now and with the right drift you can find big fish on dries

Hoppers

2009-08-10T22:43:00.001-06:00

Here are a few more shots from today... had a great time fishing with Aaron and his father Ron.. All smiles today.. We are starting to see some bigger cutthroat in the Snake now... Hopper fishing is starting to turn on..

Teton Fishing

2009-08-10T22:39:00.001-06:00

I fished with Aaron and Ron for the afternoon on the Snake today... We had beautiful weather and lots of cutthroat eating hoppers... Here are a few shots from under the tetons

Rainy Day

2009-08-10T00:30:00.002-06:00

I fished with Jeff Engelman yesterday on a secret brown trout river... Well we got the weather we were looking for... cloudy... rainy... cold... what a day... we caught some awesome fish... Browns get really aggressive in this weather.... Sex Dungeon all day!!!

All Smiles

2009-08-10T00:22:00.001-06:00

Had a blast fishing with Jeff and Gene the last few days... we fished hard on the snake and some other rivers around Jackson... weather was good.. fishing was awesome... we caught fish on stoneflys, hoppers, and streamers... smiles tell the story

Beautiful Fish

2009-07-25T21:52:00.001-06:00

This is a beautiful fish... very healthy... great colors... lots of spots... big mouth... he was feeding tight to a undercut bank....

Smiling Trout

2009-07-25T21:45:00.001-06:00

Here are a few fish from yesterday.... the dry fly fishing is really hot right now... These 3 fish ate Chernobyl ants...

Epic Day

2009-07-21T23:30:00.001-06:00

Had an unbelievable day fishing streamers with Ted... we moved a lot of fish and landed some really nice trout... here are a couple of shots from one the the best days I have had...

Dry Flies and Streamers

2009-07-21T23:16:00.001-06:00

Guided Ted Tsandes for a couple of days... we fished pretty hard... all dries the first day and streamers the next day... Dry fly fishing the first day was decent... drakes and mayflies in the morning... stoneflies and caddis in the afternoon... we had about 4 hours of rising fish in the morning... streamer fishing was awesome... we had a fair amount of cloud cover and the fish were aggressive

Big Meal

2009-07-17T21:50:00.001-06:00

Mira caught this trout that had something sticking out of its mouth... this 14 inch brown had a 5 inch trout stuffed down its throat... Just proves that some browns are looking for a big meal

Update

2009-07-17T21:43:00.001-06:00

Fished with Mira and Ari the other day... we fished the green... found some fish rising on grey drakes... Mira landed her first trout on a fly rod... it was a monster :)

Streamer Fishing

2009-07-15T23:02:00.001-06:00

Caught a few fish today... John and I fished hard... found fish eating Grey Drakes, Stones and big streamers

Mid July Report

2009-07-15T22:51:00.001-06:00

Guiding and fishing hard lately... here are a couple of shots from the last few days.. waters are dropping... clear... lots of bugs around..

Big Fish, Small Dries

2009-07-11T22:49:00.001-06:00

Had a blast fishing with Matthew Lennig and his father Allen on the green today... we fished hard and found some awesome fish eating grey drakes... the water is high and the mosquitoes are fierce! These next few weeks on the green are going to be really good

Grey Drakes

2009-07-10T22:11:00.001-06:00

We found these fish eating Grey Drakes today... dry fly fishing is really getting good... Grey Drakes, Green Drakes, Stoneflies, PMD's, Sallies...

Day Off

2009-07-10T22:04:00.001-06:00

Had a day off today and went fishing with Tom... camped last night and got on the river early... fished long and hard... streamers early then the dry fly fishing turned on