Finally!!!

Whip finish and head cement and you're done. This is by far my favorite

winter pattern in Black Canyon. Tie them in a variety of colors. The only difference

from a regular wooly bugger is the large cone and thick lead wire. Tie them really heavy.

Wrap the chenille forward away from your body and then wrap the saddle

in the same direction. Remember with hackles shiny side forward.

Leave the tinsel for last and wrap it in the opposite direction of the chenille and saddle.

Next tie in the marabou tail and wrap over the lead to make it smooth.

Tie in a piece of chenille, tinsel and the tip of the saddle at the hook bend.

This is a size 4, 4x long hook with a large cone head

and heavy lead.

By the time I finish teaching and doing homework the last thing that I want to do is blog. I have somehow mustered the motivation tonight. I could use this time to complain about all of the fishing that I haven't done but I will instead say that I have fished once in the last month. Pathetic. I got down to tying some Buggers tonight and that perked up my spirits. With the winter all but here, I now dream of Bear River rainbows, and fat ones at that. In preparation for the trip that may never happen I began tying my Black Canyon arsenal. Part one the Wooly Bugger with plenty of weight. Here goes. As you can see the pictures are in reverse order. Great for the dyslexic. 

Pumpkins and Cutthroats

Tiffany and I had a great time today taking the boys to the pumpkin patch in Preston and then retreating to the Cub river for a picnic and fishing. I only got to fish for about an hour, but hey, it was an hour more than the last two weeks combined. The Cub River is a beautiful little cutthroat stream in its upper reaches about 10 miles southwest of Preston. It is pocketwater that has decent little cutts in almost every pocket and seam in the river. The fishing was pretty good, fish were rising to the trusty P.A. and I landed about 5 and missed several others. I did get some pictures though thanks to Tiffany of the river and how beautiful it is this time of year. No fish pictures though, sorry. For anyone that is interested I did pass through both Black Canyon on the Bear River and the Onieda Narrows in the past few days. AWESOME. The water is perfect and the fishing looked great from what I could glimpse of the river. I saw plenty of rising fish in the Narrows in the foam lines and the water below where it is usually to fast to wade was very fishable. Check out the link to Oregon Trout's blog for pics of our Deschutes adventures.

The Elusive Deschutes Steelhead

I have never caught a steelhead before. My trip last weekend led me to the lower Deschutes River in Oregon around the town of Maupin. Maupin is a cozy little town with a few fly shops, restaurants, motels, an eight man football team and not a few steelhead fishermen. Luckily when we arrived at the river after our 1 1/2 hour drive from Gresham at 7:00 AM we found relatively few people on the river and some willing trout on our nymph rigs. I caught 4 of the 5 first fish of the day between the three of us, in the first 1/2 hour and then only two others the rest of the day. Nate got into 3 really nice trout in a row 18, 17 and 16 inches in that order and fat. The fishing slowed considerably by 10:00 and we were working for only the occasional hit the rest of the day. Nate and I fished a section about 1 1/2 miles downstream from where John was and we had no luck. We wandered around for a while and then decided to go find John. When we found him he immediately had a story about a steelhead that he had just hooked but had released early. We thought, "right". Not 30 seconds later John was into a decent steelhead and we were feeling more than a little sheepish. John played and landed the 7 pound steelhead like a pro on a 4 weight rod. That was, in fact, my first and only look at a real steelhead. Oh well, maybe next time, it was still a great time.

If I had a nickel...

If I had a nickel for every fish that I have caugt recently I would be a poor man. Have not fished much lately. My day usually goes like this school-football-dinner-homework-bed. My recent schedule has forced me to put the fish on the back burner for a while. In the last few weeks I have made a few trips to the Portneuf and I fished 8 mile creek with some boy scouts on our last campout. The Portneuf has fished great the last few times I have been there. If you can find sections were there is good moving water or a little wind it is very possible to have enough cover to be able to catch alot of fish. It is commonly believed on the Portneuf that once the water gets low and really clear that it is impossible to get close enough to a fish to catch one, but with the right conditions and knowledge of the river it is very possible to catch lots of fish. I fished a section about a week ago that had moving water and was very weedy. In the seams between the weeds was a cutthroat. I only caught one rainbow and nothing over 20 in. but if you want some tough, fun fishing find this kind of water. Stiff tippets with hoppers are a winner right now. I had to go to a 2x because of all the weeds in order to keep their heads up. I expect that with the colder temperatures at night the fishing will get even better clear up until the closer. My brother is getting married in Portland this next weekend and I get to go back to the Deshcutes. The fishing there has been good of late and the word is that this year is a record steelhead run. That would provide some real excitement.

Good fishing, don't give up. 

Kevin

August 23, 2008

Great fishing on the Portneuf in the mid afternoon. A few fish looking for hoppers, most were eating smaller bugs on top. Good amounts of activity and fish rising. Caught one bigggg fish and a few other smaller 16-20 in. fish. I have also heard great reports from the Blackfoot river and several of the larger creeks toward Caribou Mountain. Fish on the Blackfoot really like Dave's Hopper and I have seen pictures of some in the 2-3 lb range. Below the narrows seems to be the place to be.

Taco or Burrito?

Will somebody out there that reads my blog tell me and the 8th Grade class at North Gem what the difference is between a taco and a burrito!!!! We are confused.

Aug 12, 2008

I need to take more pictures. That is the conclusion that I have come to after viewiing several other blogs. Mine tends to pale in comparison, still I chug along hoping to offer as much info as I can on my home waters. Right now the Upper Portneuf is fishing well in the mornings and evenings. Very shortly the fish should be onto the hoppers in the afternoons. I have not fished the Bear River in quite sometime, but it should fish well later in the month. Usually the water really clears up after they quit messing with the flows and in some stretches the fish will really be looking up for hoppers. I will definitely be out in Black Canyon by the end of the month looking for some of the big fish in the canyon to be looking up. Creeks in the area continue to fish well. Check out McCoy, Tincup, Bear, Brockman, Pebble, Toponce, or Eight mile creeks. I don't think that you can go wrong with any of these creeks later in the month. All of these have good populations of Cutts and are a real hoot to fish. The real purpose of this post is to chronicle the results of my last trip to Bonners Ferry. My brother Todd and I fished Snow Creek and Myrtle Creek and though Myrtle Creek is much larger I ended up catching more fish and larger fish in some of the big pools below some small falls on Snow Creek. Myrtle Creek new to me and has some beautiful water. The real joy of my trip was fishing a canyon section of the Moyie River where we found some great fish, mostly rainbow, and one really nice cutthroat. It was a great time skipping along the really slick rocks, more like greased bowling balls and I have the bruises to prove it. We probably caught 30 fish in this section that recieves relatively little if any pressure since access is through private land and pretty difficult. Well worth the trip.

August 7, 2008

Met with the cutthroat stalker this morning for a full day of fishing. I am going to keep my post fairly brief as I am bogged down with homework (yuck) but will give you a link to his site that will provide you with a great story I am sure about our trip. We fished the Portneuf in the morning and saw great numbers of mayflies in the area downstream from the parking lot on Croney Road. We were mostly casting to rising fish in the morning which made this trip really fun. Except for the one that got away. It is very rare that you get a shot at a fish more than once that is 20" or longer. I missed the first time and then donated my P. Adams to his nose on my second chance. I dreamt about it last night. We then moved downstream to fish the area downstream from the horseshoe bend. I had good success in some faster water but by 11:00 all the fish had gone down. I found about 5 nice fish on a P.T. nymph in some of the faster water. Most of the fish that we did catch on the Portneuf today were over 15" with a few pushing 20 and one that I landed in the evening that was well over 20". Check out cutthoat stalkers blog for pics and video. We fished in the middle of the day on the South fork of Toponce and had limited success, it was not what I had expected at all but the south fork did fish better than the main fork where we only landed a few fish. I have a post coming soon on my adventures in Bonners Ferry.

Toponce Creek July 22, 2008

I guess Tyler was hot!The creek is really looking in good shape. The big hole
DT's first Cutt on a fly rod

Took Tyler and DT fishin' on Toponce creek. We had a ball until the sun went down. Then the fish went down too. Drove by the Portneuf and it is running high but pretty clear. There should be fish feeding. We had a great time tonight, the only casualty was Tyler's new Cars watch that he bought with his own money today. He forgot to take it off before falling in the creek.

Oregon Pictures

July 21, 2008

I haven't fished much this summer at all and I am about to go crazy. On the 5th of July I took my brother Todd and Les to Toponce creek and we just had a ball. We hiked up the south fork above the beaver ponds where we got into loads of cutthroat. We then fished the main stem for a few hours the fishing was pretty spectacular. Les didn't even hook himself in the nose this year, but that was the joke of the day. On the 4th Todd and I fished Blacksmith fork and I have to say that was one of the worst experiences of my life. Besides only catching 4 fish I think that every person in Utah owns 4 ATV's and they were all in Blacksmith fork canyon. Note to self avoid anywhere that people know about on holidays. Other than that, I was at scout camp this past week near Palisades dam and took off for a few hours to fish Bear Creek on the west side of Palisades reservior. I caught a mess of fish, most in the 6-10 inch range but there are some hogs in there. I had one surprise me in a muddy looking slow channel that was about 18 in. One of the most beautiful cutts I have ever seen. I hope this week to be back on the river and after more fish. It's dry fly season and everything is looking up. Head to the small creeks for a great time and you might even get surprised in the process.

June 28, 2008

Finally it is great to be home and check up on some of my local favorites. The water all over the west is running high, and I have seen alot of it in the last three weeks travelling through Oregon, Washington and Idaho. I found a little creek that feeds the Moyie River near Bonners Ferry that I had never fished before and my two brothers and I had a wonderful time catching little native westslope cutthroat. It was particularly special to me because most of the streams that far north have become so overrun with brook trout that it is a special occasion to find a creek with almost nothing but cutts. I went out to check on the Portneuf and Toponce creek last night. The Portneuf was high and muddy, when farmers want water they get water. Toponce Creek was high but actually fished pretty well. I talked with another fly angler that was doing well on a wooly bugger. I had a hard time passing up the rising fish so I threw a parachute adams which always seems to be the go to on this creek. I expect the water to be very clear maybe even within a week or so and for appetites to be voracious. Sometimes mother nature surprises us with water and we have to wait until that magical day when the runoff has finally finished. Thanks for the good winter. I think that I might have to push south of the border for a few days in the coming weeks and test out some of the water in the Logan area.

June 7, 2008

The Deschutes river in Central Oregon is a beautiful, powerful river that runs through a deep canyon in the area below the town of Maupin. The river also holds one of the most powerful trout that I have had the privelege to hook up with. The fish were few and far between, I only hooked maybe a dozen or so all day but wow! when you hook up you hook up. These redside trout are some of the toughest hombres around. I was lucky enough to be able to go with John, and Nate who fish the Deschutes often and they were great. The salmonflies and big golden stones were moving into the shallows by afternoon but the fish were still not keyed in on them. I had such a wonderful time, pictures are coming soon of our trip. Thanks, guys for letting me come along. I wonder what the rivers at home are doing. I will not be back til the end of the month but can't wait to get to the Blackfoot for the opener.

Vacationing at the beach,
Coach

May 28, 2008

I have been around and checked a few places out but have not spent much time anywhere. Last week I spent about an hour at 24 Mile reservoir and had no trouble finding fish. I was having trouble hooking up however. I was getting consistent strikes fishing a little caddis emerger. I was fishing without an indicator and strikes were really hard to detect. There was a lot of "swirling" going on from 7:00 on. I also drove up to Toponce Creek the other day and the gate was still closed. I talked to one guy who said that they were supposed to open the gate yesterday but I have not been back to check it out because the water was raging. Pebble Creek road was open but the creek was blown out by runoff. I did fish the Portneuf below the Pebble Creek bridge yesterday about 11:00. There were a few mayflies coming off but not enough to get the fish looking up. I picked up a few chunky rainbows but only had about half an hour so I didn't get a real good idea of what's going on.

May 10, 2008

Portneuf at Pebble Bridge

I got to go to one of my favorite local creeks this last weekend. Tobee and I went to Birch Creek and fished it a few miles north of Lone Pine. We had a great time throwing small dries to brookies and rainbows. I fished backwards, trying to find a pattern that wouldn't work and after many attempts on only didn't catch fish on a yellow sally. We fished for about 5 hours and landed over 150 fish. Somebody out there tell me if I'm wrong but there were redds all over the upper reaches of the creek. Must have been spawning rainbows, even though I thought all the rainbows in the creek were triploid fish. Good reports from 24 mile and Chesterfield from boats trolling hardware, bank fishermen and float tubers. No motors on 24 Mile. Streamers, chironomids and nymphs fished under indicators have all been producing. I personally can't wait for the opener on the Portneuf. There has been more water this year than last and we should see pretty consistant flows and the water is getting clearer everyday. Toponce and Pebble should even be ready for the opener with the cold temperatures keeping the runoff pretty moderate.



Good Luck,

Coach

April 28, 2008

Well, I haven't blogged in while because there hasn't been much to talk about. I ahve taken a few more trips to Black Canyon in April and did ok on midges and small mayflies but overall have not had the kind of numbers that I did in early March. I tried to fish some streamers a few weeks ago in the canyon and only had moderate success, it was more fun to chase rising fish. With the amount of snow that we had this winter the water is just now starting to run high in many places and will probably do so through part of June. Tyler and I had fun on Ledge Creek the other day only a few hundred yards from the highway in Soda. Ledge Creek is very small and I don't even know how many people actually believe there are fish in it but we managed a few brookies and had a great time. Only 3 1/2 weeks now until the general stream season so the action should pick up. I expect good Baetis hatches from here til early June if there is a place the water is not too high. The Oneida narrows seems to do pretty well on those overcast days. Stillwater is also a good bet this time of year as the action heats up on Chesterfield and 24 Mile reservoirs for trophy fish and at places like Condie and Twin Lakes for bluegill and bass if you like that sort of thing. I haven't quite figured out 24 Mile or Chesterfield yet on a fly rod but have taken a few fish over 20 inches on wooly buggers, nymphs and chironomids. I can't wait until the creeks open up and we can get after some cutts.

March 21, 2008

Went with Albert Hansen again to the Bear River and did really well. From the bridge at the Black Canyon access I fished further from the bridge today than I usually do and picked up alot of fish. The average fish seemed to be much larger the further I ventured from the bridge. The water clarity and quality was excellent as they are holding more water back at the Grace dam which helped the wading and the catching. Today was mostly cloudy and about 45 degrees. For the most part heavy weighted streamers were the best bet with a big conehead sculpin pattern being the winner for the day. Albert didn't do so well today he was trying to fish dries to imaginary rising fish, just like he saw those Utah guys doing. Check out Albert's latest picture.

March 14, 2008

I had a coaches clinic in Missoula MT and decided to drive south a little and fish the famous Bitteroot river today. Met a guy at the river that said he knew the river pretty well so I fished with him. I only caught 1 fish today, a big old ugly squawfish. I was a little early on the skwala hatch but had a good time and got to see some great country.

March 7, 2008

Number 30 almost made me late for dinner. Went fishing today with Albert Hanson and I totally kicked his butt. I tried for twenty minutes to get number 30 on the line and finally had to pack it up and leave. The weather was not as nice as it was last Saturday, but the fishing was just as good in Black Canyon. As you can see in the picture there were a few fish up in the afternoon. It's always pretty fun to take a decent fish on small flies, in this case it was a #20 parachute adams. I was struggling a little at first then found this big ugly streamer in my box that I think I stole from a friend of mine. I caught 28 fish on that streamer but I'll have to wait another day for number 30.

Happy fishin',

Kevin

Bear River -- March 1, 2008

I couldn't believe my eyes when I woke up and it was 42 degrees at 7:00 AM. After the long winter we had around here it was a beautiful morning. I decided to take a trip to Black Canyon and it was even warmer there. Nymphing the big holes in the canyon was not the name of the game today. Picked up a few fish on the big green ugly early. Then about 9:00 midges started to come off and the fish were up. Found half a dozen fish or so on a #20 Griffith's gnat and another few on a #22 Parachute Adams. The real winner of the day was swimming big wooly buggers in black, brown and olive through the big holes. Also dead drifting and stripping them strait back upstream picked up good numbers of fish. I talked to one kid from Logan that had come up for the day and was doing great on a size 8 brown bugger with a little split shot for extra weight. No need for a sinking line here. All said, I landed about 20 fish in 2 hours with most of the fish in the 14 - 18 inch range.

Happy Trails,
Kevin