Western Adventures

-Wind River Range 2011

We had anxiously planned a trip to Glacier National Park this summer, to do a bit of backpacking and fishing. Those plans were thwarted by the incompetent permit system in place there. After getting our intial trail rejected we turned out sites to a different area. A vast wilderness with no roads, was waiting to be explored. It may be impossible to see all the sites the Wind River Range has to offer in a lifetime, but we had 5 days to make to the most of our first trip. We had read and heard of massive golden trout stocked long ago, being caught in numerous lakes. We figured to maybe hit one or two of these lakes on our hike, in hopes to natch a trophy for our trip. Since we had a dual purpose mission we were also set to see some of the more beautiful sites the range has to offer. As often happens, things did not go as planned. Only one day were we actually able to do what we had planned from the beginning. A series of problems arose such as complications with altitude sickness, eye infections, etc that caused us to turn away from some of the places we had intended to visit. But with each problem a new opportunity arose to fish for things we might not have anticipated when we journyed off. We settled in on two lakes that had golden trout in them, and were not very fortunate. Mike and David both ended up catching a couple goldens a piece but that was it for the trip. Where we would find our luck was in the cutthroat department. With our plans to fish a couple of golden lakes changed, we now had the opportunity to fish some nice cutthroat waters. We had great luck, thanks to Mike ordering us a number of scuds that proved dynamite in the apline lakes. Danny nabbed the beast for this trip early one morning. A good fish, I think could have been a golden cutthroat hybrid. David and Mike both lost BIG fish fishing in the outlet streams of various lakes. It was an incredible trip, with unbelievable lake fishing. One day we hope to make it back up to a certain lake we only got an hour to fish at. But in that hour I saw many golden trout over 20 inches. This trip will have to wait though. It is hard to capture the incredible sites you see with photgraphy but I did my best. Below is a mix of pics and video from our trip...til next time

-Dreamcatchers

Freemont Lake

View from the campsite. Ready to do work!

A look from the outside of the Wind River Range

David fising in the inlet to a lake on our way to Titcomb Basin

Look down from cliffs above Lower Titcomb Lake

Colorful cutthroat mashed the orange scud

Same fish as above, nice sized catch

A nice pull by David early on the fourth day of hiking

Scudded this one just on the edge of the shelf. He was a fisty fighter.

David fishing in one of the inlets to the lake

A smaller rainbow catch

Back in the Basin

Mike fishing an outlet stream from the Upper Titcomb Lake

A small golden trout from the outlet stream pictured above

Nice pull by Mike

Pressure was on to catch dinner and this is what hit the yellow stimulator

David fishing around at Island Lake

The hog of the trip

Releasing the beast

A golden David caught the last day out

Summer Streams

Great Smoky Mountain National Park -

It had been two weeks since my last expedition and another week would not be missed. Extreme heat directed my attention to the higher elevations, so I went up to the Park to explore some streams. I figured I would shoot for Walker Camp Prong but was stopped, as always, by the inticing Little River on the way up. Many monster brown trout have been pulled out of the Little River, but I have yet to lay my hands on this secret gold, and the River would have me wait longer. I fished awhile with no luck in the Little River before moving up to Walker Camp. I climbed down from the road through some poision ivy and thorns, and dropped into a nice area of the stream. I hiked up the stream a bit and found a perfect run. I was extremely cautious approaching this run, even more so then usual. I sat down and observed the run for a bit and noticed two fish feeding on the subsurface. Amazing what a little patience will do. Regardless, I missed my first two bites, and could tell my small stream fishing was a bit rusty. So I sat back, tied on a new fly and dropper and fooled a couple out of the hole. One rainbow and one brookie. I decided to hop over the mountain to the larger 'Luptee and try my luck there. David is not very fond of this river, so I try to hit it up when he is not with me. I pulled a couple nice rainbows from there, the largest of which I didnt get a picture of. The browns that I was searching for didnt come out to play, but they will in due time. "A day on the water is like a day in paradise" one great man once said....oh wait I just made that up! til next time....

-Dreamcatchers

Light peaking through Walker Camp

Friend

Tiny Brook Trout took a hares ear that barely fit in its mouth

Another Rainbow from Walker Camp

Higher flows than usual

Waiting in the net

Rainbow took the Prince Nymph

Colorado

Colorado

A long weekend gave time for our latest expedition into the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. We had juggled with the choice of fishing for some large tailwater fish or hiking up into the mountains with a chance at some wild greenback cutttroat trout. We decided to take the wild route hiking up into Rocky Mountain National Park. Since this was a sort of spur of the moment trip, we started planning only 2 weeks before our trip. The high snow levels didnt look promising, but we were set to get to some of the harder to reach lakes in the park. We were greeted on Thursday morning to awesome vistas of the Continental Divide, as we settled into our campsite at Moraine Park. We quickly noticed the very high flows on the Big T, almost making it unfishable completely. As we wandered around some of the smaller streams we realized we would need to focus our efforts on the high altitude lakes. The runoff was just too quick too fish in. Thursday we hiked up to an alpine lake just under 10,000 feet and spotted out a number of cruising greenbacks. Just as soon as we made it to the lake we noticed a storm cloud come over the towering ridgeline. We decided it was most likely a pop-up shower and would wait it out, having just hiked up the trail. Quickly the temps dropped about 30 degrees and the rain and wind picked up. We staked out a spot near a slightly overhanging rock, and try to wait it out. the storm started to spit hail at us after a while, and me and david then realized this storm wasnt going to pass. After freezing in the rain for about 30 min we ran out, to a disappointing fishless first day. Friday we hiked up to couple more alpine lakes, and had some decent luck with the cruising greenbacks. I fished the inlet to Spruce lake and did very well there. On Saturday I was struck with a fever and a very sore throat, most likely from freezing in the rain the day before. Sunday, I woke up and felt much better and we made the trek to the west side of the divide. We hiked up 5 miles to one alpine lake only to be turned around by enormous snow drifts and the inability to identify any trail. David managed to catch a small brookie out of the North Inlet but its flows were extremely high as well. All in all it was an incredible trip, though the fishing left some to be desired. Most if not all of the lakes we had planned to fish were still snow covered when we were there. But at the end of the day the spawing colors of the greenback cutthroat is something that might be unparrelled in the world of trout, and we were able to catch a good glimpse of that, and I can find peace at that....til next time

-Dreamcatchers

Moraine Park

Making my way out to the Big T, in runoff flows

A good look at the flows of the Big T

Booming

Throwing a delicate cast into Dream lake

The storm coming of the ridge at Dream Lake

First Greenback Cutthroat from Fern Lake

Fern Lake

Fun greenback from Spruce Lake

David ontop of Forest Canyon

A good look at all of the snow levels

Cache la Poudre River in the Valley below

The Loch

Forney and Noland Creeks

Over Memorial Day weekend Phil and I decided we would go on a backpacking/Fishing trip up in the Smokies. After debating for a while about where to go either Hazel or Forney creek we chose Forney, thinking we might not be able to make it across Fontana Lake before dark on Friday to get to Hazel. We fished Noland creek for about 20 minutes on Friday but really did not have much luck pulling the fish in when they would bite. On Sunday we headed over to Forney Creek and after a 6 mile hike we settled at campsite 71 and began our quest upriver for some nice trout. We did not have much luck at the beginning but after eating lunch on a big rock in the stream, I caught a nice rainbow right above it. With new-found-confidence we began to fish upstream and caught a few nice rainbows with beautiful colors and a sharp red stripe. After a while we began to wonder if we would find the trail again, considering we did not study the map much, but after fishing about a mile upstream we came out on the trail and hiked our way back down to camp each having caught about 4 or 5 fish. It was a successful day. On Monday, we decided we would head downstream and fish that section as we hiked out. We saw another fisherman so we wonder if the spots were already fished but we tried anyways. I caught 3 right around the same area and Phil caught some upstream from me. As we headed downstream I came across a hornets nest, not knowing, and got stung twice, on the head and on the leg. After that I was pretty much out of commission. We caught a couple more before taking a swim in the cold water and hiking out. Once we hiked out we took one more stop at Noland Creek and tried our luck there. We caught a couple there before we decided our time was done and we needed to eat. With a backpacking trip like this there was only one choice of food the trifecta of captain d's, zaxbys, and bojangles(which we craved the entire trip). It was a successful trip and two more smokey mountain streams down. We definitely found out quick we were out of shape. Til Next Time

-Dreamcatchers

Fontana Lake Overlook from the Road to Nowhere

Looking downstream at Forney Creek


Old chimney from the early settlement

Blooms everywhere

Nice Rainbow on the Yellow Stimulator

A couple pics and video from Sunday...

Little Guy

Nice Rainbow from David

Another Rainbow

Evening is the Time

The fishing on the Hiwassee has been insane lately. Fish bite almost anything you throw in, without hestiation. Wednesday I got off work early to head up and get a solid 3 hours of fishing in. David decided he would join in. The fishing was hot as expected. David had one of his best days on the river, pulling fish after fish out of some of the better runs. As dark set in I pulled in a nice brown. I want to head out to some different waters soon, but its hard to pass up the local one, when the fishing is this good...til next time

-Dreamcatchers

Rainbow from the depths

Little nymph action

Two fish at the same time please?

A taste of color