Fishing With Stevo!

Hey Everyone,

I have a good friend Steven. He is one of the "crew" as we call ourselves. The crew does a bunch of outdoors stuff together but mostly hang out and drink beer. Stevo (as we call him) had a bad (basketball not motor vehicle) accident a few months back and had to have emergency surgery to put his knee cap back in place. Awesome I know! Well Stevo was kind of bummed because he had caught the fly fishing bug real bad prior to this and had to sit out the whole fall season. He finally got the green light from doc to get out and fish. So to celebrate I decided to take him to a little stretch of water that has great fish but since I we didn't want to push the knee, also is pretty easy to wade. Needless to say it was an awesome day! Not a 100 fish day but one of those slightly hard days when you really have to think and every fish feels like a little win in the chess game. We had a mink watch us from the other bank for a few minutes which was really cool and there were a ton of turkeys, I mean a ton. They were going crazy yelping, purring, and gobbling all day. At one point we even had two of them fly right over our heads. I don't want to bore you with any more reading so here are some great photos of Stevo and I in action. Welcome back to the river Stevo!

See you on the Trail,
Lance

A Little Fishing With Doc

Hey Everyone,

I had my first guide trip of the fall the other day. It turned outto be a perfect day to be on the water. I got to the river at about eight to scout out some potential spots, which didn't take me long, and waited for Dr. Chuck Balch to arrive. Doc has been practicing tenkara for about a year now and asked if I could show him some more techniques and tricks with tenkara. We started the morning with a small Kebari and worked on a couple methods with it. I noticed that the trout really didn't want anything under the surface which seemed to be a consistent trend thought the day. Instead they were actively popping the

surface. I asked Doc if he had tried much dry fly fishing with tenkara and he stated that he hadn't. Having another rod with me I decided to tie on a small yellow caddis and showed him a dead drift into a skitter technique. Well when a brookie came up and almost crushed the caddis on the skitter it didn't take much more convincing for either of us. Doc took the rod and almost immediately hooked a trout on the skitter. He was more than impressed with the method. He hooked several fish and I think had just as much fun teasing the fish and watching them miss as he did when he would hook one. I think you could probably do a skitter if you had a long nymphing rod but I truly believe that nothing will allow you to control the fly quite like tenkara. I really like what tenkara has brought to the sport of fly fishing. Tenkara may not be the right tool for every type of fishing but sometimes there is nothing better. I'm happy to have had the chance to spend the day with Doc and tech him a few more techniques which I'm sure he will use on his future tenkara adventures.

See you on the trail,
Lance

A Little Get Away

Hey Everyone,

I have been wanting to fish this stream for about a year now. It's very remote and not an easy steam to get to or even fish. I mentioned it to some friends of mine a few months back and they thought is sounded like a fun trip. I helped them get geared up for their first backpacking experience and let them know that nothing about it was going to be easy. It was a tough hike in and maybe a little more than they expected but in the end everyone made the climb in had a great time. We spent three days climbing boulders and fishing. I have rarely seen a river or stream with such a thriving population of brook trout. It was great fishing to say the least. Its rare now days to find a spot so untouched and wild and I feel very fortunate to have had the chance to experience it. I hope you all enjoy the pictures although they truly do this beautiful area no justice. The fast riffles and steep grade made drifts hard to manage but with a long tenkara rod I was able to hold the fly in the soft water longer. Also being able to collapse the rod made it quite handy for climbing over the house sized rocks to the next hole. In fact is was working so well that by the end everyone had used it and it was unanimous that it was the perfect technique.

 Bear!

 The Crew

 Steven working a run while Jamie is way down in the lower pool

  A friend came to visit

 

I have several more photos but don't want to bore you with a excessively long post. Just thought you'd like to see some pretty country and untouched water. 

See you on the trail,

Lance

4 More Hooked On Tenkara

Hey everyone,

I've been quite busy lately introducing people to the world of tenkara. The fishing hasn't been the easiest that its been for me this year, but everyone is catching fish none the less. As a guide you get to watch other people and I've realized that the river means something different to everyone. I don't think I ever would ask, but It would be interesting to see what they are thinking. It's been a lot of fun not only catching some nice fish but getting to spend the day on the water with some great people. I look forward to see where else the water takes me.

 

See you on the trail,

Lance

Fishing with Ray and Sonja

Hey Everyone,

Well I had the privilege of introducing two more people to the sport of tenkara. I met Ray at the store where he was looking for simple, small, and packable equipment for trout fishing in the back country. Well, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to mention tenkara to him. He was very intrigued so we set up a trip. I remembered his words "I want to get my wife hooked on it" that morning as I scouted some potential spots. Once they arrived I went over the simple setup and gave a quick casting lesson. I say quick because they both picked it up in about fifteen minutes. We geared up and headed to one of the spots that I had seen some trout holding. It wasn't long before I heard those famous words "I got one" as Ray pulled in a nice brookie to the net. It wasn't long before both of them had hooked up. I decided to work with Sonja a bit since she was left handed and was having to cast backhanded. I took it as a lesson as well since It helped me learn tricks for the next time I have a southpaw. I am happy to say that with very little instruction, Sonja was out-fishing her husband (which was the plan). I don't want to get too long winded but I want to add that at the end of the day Sonja came over to me and said "I'm hooked". It was a great day with two great people and if nothing else it was just a wonderful day to be on the water.

See you on the trail,
Lance

Where Fish Stories Come From

Hey Everyone,

Well I'm not sure how to start this post other than to say that I have had two awesome days on the water over the past weekend. I started with a trip to the river on Friday. I met up with Jason and his neighbor Richard. It was a rather neat experience. I went down river to check on a few sites for a guide trip that you will read about in a minute. It just so happened that the hatchery truck was on the river then as well. I have been fly fishing since I was eight and I have been guiding for a few years and have never once seen this process in person. It was really cool to see massive net fulls of fish being put in the river. It was also nice to talk to the two gentlemen doing the stocking. I walked along the river spotting small schools of fish. Later on I met back up with Jason and pointed him to some fish I had seen in a small quick run. It turned out to be a great little spot and Jason managed to pull a few nice trout from that spot. Here are a few photos of Jason in action.

This brings us to Sunday. I had some friends, Jamie and Steve, ask me to put them on some fish Saturday night. So we set up a trip for the next day. It was kind of last minute so I thought I would take them to a spot that usually holds good fish. I hate to brag and say that I was right on so I'll let the photos do the talking. I should also mention that Steve had never caught a trout on a fly rod before this day.

I was happy to see these guys hooking up. I'm not sure how many fish were caught but Steve said he lost count at 44. Both of the guys hooked fish around 18 inches and Jamie managed to hook in to this monster. It was the largest fish Ive seen come out of that river. I estimate it was around 24 to 26 inches.



















It was an epic day on the river.

See you on the trial,
Lance

Fishing with Sydney

Hey Everyone,

Well even with all the guide trips I've been doing and work keeping me pretty busy. I did take the time to get up on the water and do a little fishing for myself. I was also lucky enough to be accompanied by a friend of mine Sydney Jenkins and her husband. We met at a familiar spot for me. It was a great day to be fishing. The only issue we had was our shadows were on the water for a half an hour or so. I told Sydney to get as low as possible and showed her where to be and how she needed to present the fly so that her line didn't spook the fish. I have to say that she was an excellent student and did exactly as instructed. It wasn't long before she hooked a fish and started to do so frequently. I had moved up stream and was fishing a tighter hole that I had seen some brookies holding in. That's when it happened. I actually saw the take and also saw the enormous shadow under the waters surface that took her dropper. I told her to be gentle, since we were running 7x tippet. She did really well and just held enough pressure on the fish and didn't try and horse it in. When I netted the fish I cant describe the relief I felt and excitement for Sydney at the same time. I forgot my measuring tape in my rod tote but I'm guessing that her rainbow was anywhere between eighteen and twenty inches. We took a few photos and revived the fish and it swam nice and calmly away. We fished for a few more hours together and landed a bunch more fish. I have to say that it was an epic day to be on the water. I had a great time and look forward to the next time that I get to fish with Sydney although I'm not sure how we can top a twenty incher.

Wet Nets,
Lance

Great Cigars and the One That Got Away

Hey Everyone,

I have had some great guided trips and met some really great people as well. One recent trip was booked by Micheal Ayers and a long time friend of his Gene McMasters. The weather could not have been nicer. We were on the river by about nine o-clock. The water was really clear and I could tell the fish could see just about everything. It tool me few minutes to find some schooled up fish but when I located them, I found them all. In fact I believe the comment was "I've never seen this many trout in one place" They were in a spot that I had not seen many fish prior to this trip. It was a beautiful day to be on the water and the smell of well rolled cigars were in the air...lol. It was a little slow going but they both ended up hooking up and landing fish as well as Gene's epic long distance release of what I'm almost certain was a twenty plus inch fish. I think I was more heart broken than he was. I think that both Michael and Gene had a lot of fun and enjoyed just being out there. I know that I had a great time just watching them. Oh OK I did get to make a couple casts and landed a couple fish of my own but I had to see what fly the wanted right...lol.

Wet Nets, Lance

Fishing with George

Hey Everyone,

This fall fly fishing season has been quite interesting. It did not start off with a bang as one might suspect. My fall season started with a booked guide trip by my now friend George Kerr. It was not an ideal day to be on the water. It had been raining frequently leading up to that Tuesday. Needless to say the river looked like chocolate milk and was running a bit high. I was at least happy to know that we weren't the only ones not catching any fish. After a tiring six hours of casting, tangling, tying and casting some more we called it a day. I felt really bad and invited George along on a fishing trip that I was going to take on my next day off. We arrived at the river and I was excited to see the water was perfect. I began scanning the bottom looking for shadows and movement. Seeing nothing I started blind casting into pools hoping for a strike. It didn't take long and I had located my first fish. I was stoked. I called George over to my spot and told him were the fish were holding. Soon enough he had hooked a nice little brookie. I'm not sure how many fish we caught but I'm happy to say that we had a very good day even compared to the other anglers on the river that day. I think the fact that we did so well and were the only Tenkara anglers as well may have sparked some interest in the other fly fisherman that watched us that day.











Wet Nets,Lance