Fishing with Dad

My first 3 fish.  The small brown was first then the larger brown.  The cutthroat was after the wind pushed us clear to the inlet.

Ever caught some big browns and cutthroats on teeny little flies?  We were talking about going up to Littlewood to scout for elk but the week prior, dad had talked to an older man who was pretty good at catching the big browns that hang out at Sublette Reservoir.  The guy was using nymphs primarily.  I decided I could get my frumpy butt out of work and headed down to dad's house a couple Fridays ago.  With a high likelihood of catching some big fish, Littlewood didn't seem to be the best thing to do with my time at the time.  My dad primarily uses a small one-man pontoon boat while fishing there but since I was coming with Quinn, we decided my river raft with the fishing frame might be a good way to get out to the channel.  The raft has seats for three people.  The channel is where the big piggy browns lie in wait.  (I say piggy because I got the opportunity to hook one of them for a half a minute or so and I saw a big chubby sow-like looking thing before it shot off with my line.) (but more on that later.)

Me and Quinn headed down that evening and we spent the night at dad and mom's house.  We got up around 6 ish to eat breakfast and was headed out sometime before 7.  We got to the reservoir and went around to the east side where there is a shallow place that you can back a small boat in.  I backed in the raft and let it float while we got our stuff ready.  The old guy had said nymphs were good.  I decided I would use a dropper system that Randy Berry had taught me with a big fat foam hopper on top.  I dangled a copper wire type nymph below that about 14 inches.  I believe that kind of nymph is called a "Copper John".  My dad put on some other type of nymph and Quinn just had a spinning rod and he wanted to try his power bait.

We got in the raft and I started rowing out to the channel.  This is where the reservoir narrows and is where the water comes in.  We found a likely spot in and around the floating plants while trying not to tangle ourselves in them.  We dropped an anchor which held but the wind would kick up a little and we would just go in circles for awhile.  The raft was constantly changing position which made it hard to cast and not catch each other or weeds.  As we were in an awkward position and starting to move again from the wind my Copper John caught the first fish.  It hit it hard and fast for a little brown but we got him in easy and it was nice little guy about maybe 9 -10 inches.  As I wanted some fish for the freezer I kept it.

The wind kept moving us and then it started breaking the anchor loose and we had to reset it.  I decided I wanted to add a third fly to my system and then hung a gray colored nymph with a bead head down below the Copper John.  I think its some kind of a Hare's Ear type bead head.  We were getting frustrated and so we decided to move.  Just as we were about to pull the anchor and move on a large fish broke the surface right in front of me.  It made quite the splash and we were all stunned for a sec.  Since I was the only one in position to try for it I made a quick cast and the hopper plunked right in the middle of the ripples left by the departed fish.  It sat for a sec and I saw the Copper John and the Hare's Ear sinking slowly as the sun was at the perfect angle to illuminate them.  I think everybody's attention was on them because we all saw the next scene unfold and I heard everybody gasp at the same time.  Bam!  Suddenly we saw in the lighted water a shimmering, colorful trout shooting up after my fly.  I was surprised that it went right by the Hare's Ear and Copper John like a rocket and smacked the hopper with a lot of fury.  My dad thought it was a rainbow as it had shot up out of the water with my fly in its mouth.  The fight was on!  I was trying to keep it out of the weeds and dad was trying to get the net in position.  After awhile we could tell it was a big brown and not a rainbow after all.

The hopper that I had in the top position.  Or it might be an ant.  I can't tell the difference on these foam flies.  Notice how beat up it is from big fish teeth.  This is the one the big brown hit.

The Copper John I had on in second position

I think its some kind of a hare's ear bead nymph that I had on last.   Its quite beat up as well.  I caught an equal amount of fish on each nymph and one with the ant/hopper

We finally got it in but I have a 9 foot leader and I had another 3 feet of line attaching all three flies and so it was quite a tangle of fish, flies and line in the net.  I was able to get it all out without a serious knot and then strung the brown next to the little brown on my stringer.

We then pulled up the anchor and moved down a little.  We tried various places to anchor but the wind kept blowing us until finally we were jammed into the inlet and could go no farther.  I dragged the raft as far on the bank as I could and we started fishing there.  There was some deep water right around the raft and so Quinn plunked his power bait in there.  Later this is where dad caught most of his fish.  Quinn was not able to catch a fish unfortunately.  I decided to go along the bank to the west and started casting my long leader and train of flies.  Bam! I hooked one after about the 5th cast and it was a really fun fight.  This fish was a little harder to get in than the brown but it turned out to be a bigger cutthroat.  As its legal to keep cutthroat here I kept it as I wanted more for my freezer.

Dad and Quinn still hadn't caught one.  Quinn was walking over towards me when I saw a big mouth and a big fat fish waddling up through the water toward my fly.  I set the hook and then gave it to Quinn to let him reel one in.  He was holding the rod and it was really dipping.  I told him to try to steer the fish out of the weeds but he almost couldn't.  The fish was making really slow passes up one way and then back the other way, all the while the rod was bent double.  It was then I realized that it was a really really big fish and I promptly told Quinn to give me back the rod.  As I took the rod I could feel the weight of the bugger and then suddenly ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing pop!  And it was gone just like that.  It had stripped my line out to the backing and then I must not have set the hook good enough because I got my fly back!  Thinking it over the mouth hadn't looked that big in the water but then after catching a couple more, they looked puny in comparison so I think it was really really big.  I let Quinn reel in my next fish.

My third fish which was caught on the Hare's Ear

About that time I started noticing a large gray mayfly that was starting to show up more and more.  I yelled over to dad to try a large grey mayfly dryfly.  He switched and promptly caught a fish.  I had 4 fish by then and I told him that I didn't think I wanted anymore because that was more fish than I expected to put in the freezer.  These were hefty fat cutthroats weighing from 2-3 pounds and were around 17 inches long give or take.  I can't remember exactly the dimensions.  Dad then caught another.  I was still fishing even though I was thinking I didn't want to catch anymore and then I hooked another.  This was my 5th one and I decided to keep it and it would be my last.  Dad rapidly caught up to me catching 5 as well.  His last fish he hooked turned out to be the biggest at 3 pounds.  I can't remember how long it was but it was about 2 inches longer than my longest.  He caught all his on a dryfly and I caught four of mine on nymphs and one on the dry fly.  It was a productive trip meaning I didn't have to change flies once.  They all caught fish.  I've never had that happen before.

Dad's spot where he caught most of his fish. I am standing about where I caught the rest of my fish.  All the ones we caught in this area were cutthroats.  This is where I lost the piggy.  You can see the raft and where the wind blew us to the end.

Looking to the west toward the dam and the outlet.  The big bull was eating grass and pawing the ground on the slope to the right and then moved on behind us.  The piggy zinged up the water in the direction I am looking here.  The weeds in the forefront are where he almost went in when Quinn had the pole.  He swam slowly up to the left in the deep water there then turned and had pulled my line out to the middle before he zinged and was gone.

As a funny side story there was a large bull that had walked up the road behind us madder than you know what.  I believe he had just lost a fight because we had heard what sounded like two big bulls fighting.  He came up the road bellering and letting us know it wasn't a good day.  He kept going up the road and I was glad as we didn't have any means to fight him off if he came after us.  I was thinking since we had life jackets on, if he charged I could grab Quinn and throw him in the water as far as I could and then jump in after him.  About ten minutes later we saw him again, only he was down by the shoreline and coming slowly our way.  He was eating and walking and so didn't look mad but I got a little uncomfortable when he walked behind us not too far away.  I waved my fly rod like it was some kind of sword so he at least knew we were there.  Thankfully he kept on and we didn't have any bull fighting story to tell.

My fourth.  Each fish got progressively better.

Still my fourth

All of them together.  Dad's is the biggest cutthroat in the middle there.  At this point I'm not sure which all are mine and his other than the browns.  

Me and Quinn.  Dad's pole is on the left.

So we gathered up our fish after dad was done, took pictures and got in the raft and rowed back to the truck.  The fish were quite heavy while trying to hold them up on the stringer.  We got back to mom and dad's house, cleaned up all the fish, got our stuff and unfortunately had to get home.  It was a long drive in the nasty smoke filled air from all the fires that were going on at the time.  Luckily we didn't get much smoke while fishing.

Me holding the whole stringer.  It is an impressive weight. 

Dad can hardly hold the fish after Quinn was taking a long time to cooperate in the photo.

Got the first tasty ones on the grill.  We will eat the rest over the next couple weeks.  It turned out that two at a time was too much for us and we really couldn't eat much more than half at a time.  

The next day we got out a couple fish and threw them on the grill.  They were pretty good but it was a lot of fish to eat.  I like cooking fish on the grill like this but maybe I should have filleted them instead this time.

So there is a sequel to this story.......

I am going to insert some photos that dad sent me later in a text.  He went up again the next week with his pontoon boat and met LouAnne and Troy there.  Meanwhile he had a good time and caught a couple more fish, one being quite a larger fish.  It was a big hooked mouth male Brown that was 22 inches and weighed 4 pounds.  The other was a 17 inch cutthroat that weighed 2 and 1/2 pounds.  All the fish we had caught earlier were females and this was the only male I believe.

Dad and his "hook jaw" brown (the lower one).  The upper is a nice cutthroat.  You can see his pontoon one man boat in the back.  LouAnne must have taken this photo.

Dad's brown and cutthroat side by side.  Too bad the bushes are covering it a little.  It has a nice deep color though.

A photo he took of me the prior week.  Not sure which fish this is.

I don't remember catching one in this spot but it looks like I did.  This is where dad caught most or all of his.  To my knowledge I have no picture of me catching a fish with my fly rod so I am glad to get this.