Not much time left for high-country brookies

On the day before the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, we headed for the high country in search of late-summer brook trout. This is the best time of the year for mountain lakes. The mosquitoes are gone, and so are the summer crowds. And the brook trout are turning their bright fall-spawning colors.

The lake was slow in the morning, but when the wind picked up a bit and put a chop on the water, the fishing turned on. At one point, I must have landed nearly a dozen fish on a dozen casts.

Sam fared well, too, and put on a clinic on how to release brook trout, as evidenced in the above video.

With fall rapidly approaching, there won't be much time left for high-country brook trout. It's only a matter of time before the mountains get their first coating of snow.

But for now, the high country is the place to be.

First Wyoming trout of the year

If you only catch one fish in a day, it might as well be a memorable one.

That's what happened today when I caught my first Wyoming trout of the year. I traveled to a lake where some friends had a banner outing last week. Armed with their information on what flies to use, where to fish and how to fish, I felt confident of repeating their success.

Of course, that didn't happen. Two days of snow in the intervening period had totally changed conditions. I cast futilely for about 90 minutes before moving to the boat ramp where I thought rainbows might be attempting to spawn.

The fish were there and on my second cast to a cruising 'bow, the big boy turned and went right for my egg/chironomid combo. After a short battle, a guy fishing nearby netted the fish for me and also shot some video of my poorly executed release.

The 24-incher turned out to be my only fish, indeed my only strike, of the day. But it could well turn out to be the biggest trout I catch all year.

If so, a one-fish day will be OK.

Wind, weather make for tough fishing

Flyfishing has been a challenge so far this spring thanks to Mother Nature. She must be angry at fishermen, for some reason.
Weekends generally were crummy. Weekdays weren't much nicer.
Wind is the major culprit. We experienced many days of sustained winds in the 30mph range with gusts into the 40 mph velocity. Lately, several days produced gusts of more than 60 mph.
Along with the wind comes the wind chill, which drops tolerable spring temperatures into the chilly range. When you're around water, or wading in it, the wind chill feels even colder.
Trying to cast in those conditions is practically impossible, even if you can get the wind at your back. Fortunately, at one local lake, you don't have to cast far to get into fish.
Earlier in the spring at this lake, I was wearing chest waders to get farther out into the water with my casts. I caught a few fish, but not many. When I told Sam about it, he said that I was wading right where the fish were cruising close to the dam. He never wades at this lake and always does well fishing from shore.
So I changed tactics and became a landlubber. It worked a lot better than wading. My best outing there was nine chunky rainbows in several hours of afternoon fishing. Many fish hit just slightly more than a rod-length from shore.
Another benefit of shore fishing is that you can sit down and relax while waiting for the next strike. It's also a lot easier to drink beer when you're not wading chestdeep in cold water.

First flyfishing trip of the year

After a long, hard winter which finally ended Sunday, I made it through some slippery roads to an area lake Monday and broke out the fly rod. I was rewarded with a small rainbow on my first cast and a small cutthroat on the second.

The day went like that with fish striking a beadhead prince nymph regularly in shallow water where it was probably warmer. The sizes improved, too. I managed a nice Snake River cutt in the 18-inch range, and a half dozen other cutts in the 15-inch range. A few rainbows were decent - probably around 13 inches but fat.

It felt great to catch some trout on the 6-weight. The only trout I'd caught this year had been a few while ice-fishing for perch and ling. And I only went on the ice three times this winter.

Once the fish had shredded the prince and I broke off the replacement, I decided to hit a stream and try to complete the trifecta with a brown trout. I tied on a bugger and slung it into the wind for a while. As I worked upstream into a narrow channel, I cast into a shady back eddy and Mr. Brown took the invitation to play. The next cast into the same eddy, a smaller brown took the bugger.

Trifecta completed, I headed back to the car happy with my first day of flyfishing. It bodes well for the rest of the season.

Tight lines.