Monthly Archives: March 2016

FlyWise – A Fly Fishing app from FlyBoxFishing.com

I have at least 20 fly fishing applications installed on my phone. I rarely use any of them. Because I have worked in the software industry for over 35 years I just can’t deal with the bad user experiences in these applications. I’m sure it’s because really knowledgeable and talented fly fisherman try to build software.

Well, the folks at FlyWise approached my club, The San Diego Fly Fishers and it seems I’m the logical choice to review a fairly new mobile phone application called FlyWise. I was skeptical. And I’m shocked…. I’m pleased to tell you I am shocked in a positive way. This is an app I will and have actually used.

FlyWise give you access to real-time river conditions, weather, hatch charts, river maps, fishing regulations, license requirements, and more. It’s free. But, it’s currently iPhone only. I trust the folks at FlyBoxFishing have android on their road map; hopefully Windows Phone too. Download the FlyWise app for your iPhone from: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flywise/id896949958?mt=8 or you can just search FlyWise in the app store.

So, with something so positive let me say up front that the app in its current form helps the advanced fly fisherman the most. But, beginners could learn a lot from this app. I use the app in research. But, I really will use this app streamside (assuming a network connection).

I think it’s best to describe the app with a real use case that I used it for. My son and I are going to fish the Stillwater River in Montana. I have never fished it. So, firstly I used the app to look up the Stillwater River. The Rivers are organized by state and the list seems to grow by the day. Once finding the Stillwater River the Home screen for the Stillwater River shows current weather, wind, sun rise, sun set and river flow in CFS.

FlyWise
That info in itself is a goldmine for a fly fisherman because it’s real time and easy to see on a small device. What’s missing, of course, is the moon phase, but Zach Lazzari of flyboxfishing.com tells me that feature is coming. I’d love the see the River flow as compared to Normal for the time of year so you could easily tell if the river was blown out or not. Or maybe have symbols for low, normal, blown out, etc.

The next screen is the detail of the current weather screen. It’s represented with the sun symbol at the bottom of the screen. Remember this is real time weather detail. Very valuable for those of us that fish in the rockies where those afternoon thunderstorms come quickly with a vengeance.

The next functionality of the application is a map of the River. And the put ins and the take outs and access points are identified with pushpins. There is functionality that uses your GPS to show you exactly where you are on the river. Obviously a satellite view of the map would be extremely beneficial here for when you are making that decision to hike “just another mile upriver where that undiscovered honey hole is.”. I do this all the time. And yea sometimes I get in a bit of a pickle when the sun goes down and I’m looking for that next best place and getting farther and farther from my car. I’m sure a satellite image of the map is at the top of the priority list to add next.

The next set of functionality is the info section. It shows everything one wants to know about the river including species info and source and tributaries, etc. But, also includes hatch charts…. In a tremendous amount of detail. My current go-to dry is the bullethead Skwalla. Skwalla flies are big ass stoneflies and are really fun to fish. And from the screenshot below you can clearly see that Skwallas hatch March to May on the Stillwater.

The last two sections of functionality are the Regs and the licensing requirements. There’s even a link to purchase an MT license online, right there riverside.

FlyWise is an app that I would pay for. But, it is free.

I was so encouraged by FlyWise that I wrote them a litany of feature requests I want to see in the app. And they actually agreed and trumped me with a list of features they were currently working on that I didn’t even think of.

I have now decided I’m moving to Missoula. And someone needs to tell Kelly because I’m afraid to. 🙂 What an awesome 3 days I had on the Clark Fork River.

The West Slope Cutthroat

The Clark Fork Outpost

Honestly the reason my 3 days were so awesome was because of Mike Hillygus. I met Mike for the first time on this trip. I had an incredible 3 days of fishing with Mike. The funny thing was that the weather was just miserable. Cold, Windy, Raining and Snowing. Why is the fly fishing always so good when it’s snowing sideways? We did get sun at points. It is Montana, of course. And in Montana the weather changes by the minute.

I stayed with Mike and his two dogs, Bell and Cru, at Mike’s lodge, the “Clark Fork Outpost”. Mike’s lodge is right on the Clark Fork River. It’s about 80 miles downriver (Northwest) from Missoula. More specifically it’s in the stretch of the Clark Fork River that does not parallel I90. The closest town is St. Regis, MT.

The Clark Fork Outpost

I flew in to Missoula late on Saturday night. I offered to rent a car and drive it out to the Clark Fork Lodge, but Mike wouldn’t have anything to do with that: “You’ll just hit a deer and ruin the trip.” That is how Montana people view Southern Californians, as cullers of big game with rental vehicles. 🙂

Well, Mike and I hit it off right away. Because he’s a genuinely great guy and like me, loves to tell stories. And before I knew it, I had refilled my glass with Buffalo Trace and it was after 12AM. And we had a big day in the morning.

I heard the dogs around 6am… and I was a bit crusty. It was my first real day of fishing on the west side of the Rockies. I have fished the “Bozeman side” of the rockies in Montana many times. But, for some reason I never had the opportunity to fish the “Missoula Side” of Montana. I can check that off my list now. Now the real issue is that I cannot wait to get back in September.

St. Regis, MT

The Food

So after a couple cups of coffee, I’m thinking of eating a power bar that I brought. But, Mike had different intentions: a smoked salmon basil scramble with a thick cut ham steak. Oh man…. A lot of guys maintain they are good cooks…and are not. Really the only thing I am good at is grilling. But, a buddy of mine told me Mike was a good cook and Mike said the food was going to be good. I had no idea. I didn’t come back from the trip skinnier like Kelly wanted me to. That night was a salmon dinner. I’m not a big salmon fan, but there was something he did to it that made it awesome. I wish I knew. The other breakfast featured a ham frittata and another gourmet scramble. The 2^nd dinner was a rib eye… but, not just any rib eye it was custom rolled from the outside “marbley” part. Unbelievable. I learned on the trip that Mike went to Culinary school and served as a chef before guiding and ultimately becoming an Outfitter. I have been to a number of lodges that claim to have gourmet level food. They do not as compared to Mike. He’s in a class by himself.

Rolled Ribeye

The Dogs

Now, I’m not a dog guy…. Anyone who knows me knows that. I loved our dog Dontee. Not as much as Kelly, but she trained her so well you couldn’t help but like it. And she was smart. Dontee was Kelly’s dog. Mike’s dogs are English Labs. They are bird dogs. But so calm and so loving. I just couldn’t resist petting them. And they are fishing dogs. They road in the drift boat with us. And not even a peep from them. But, Belle sure does love sniffing and sometimes licking the trout when you catch them.

Huck with Belle and Cru

The Fishing

On Sunday the first day, we dropped into the river in Mike’s drift boat around 10:30AM….and didn’t come off the river until 7:30PM. I landed 7 0r 8 and hooked and missed about double that. But, it was the dry fly action that was so fun. When we saw rises Mike had me throwing a Skwalla imitation called a Bullethead Skwalla – Tan Wing, Size 12 from Montana Fly Company. A Skwalla is a big ass bug in the wild and throwing that big a dry made it easy to see in the water. And I was throwing my new TFO BVK 3 wt again. I’m in love with that rod. I caught my first west slope cutthroat on this day. What a treat that was.

Cutt-Bow

The 2^nd day we got out a little earlier and floated a little shorter stretch of the river. The weather was just horrible. I was so cold at points my hands were numb. I had snow blowing in my face. And the fishing was awesome. I landed somewhere between a dozen and twenty and missed about 15. I caught some quality fish.

Mike letting Belle have a sniff

My Favorite Moment #1

My favorite moment #1 was on this 2^nd day. Mike and I were hunting rises. And doing really well. It was crazy fun. Is there anything more fun in fly fishing than casting at a rising fish with a dry? Well, yea, it’s doing that at the West Slope Cutthroat. I’m used to those vicious attacks by the browns and rainbows of the west where they scare the crap out of you as you set as quickly as you can. But, there is something about the West Slope Cutthroat that makes it so slow. It went down like this: Mike, “Did you see that?” as a fish rose 40 feet ahead and 45 degrees up downriver from me. Tim, “On it.” So, I casted…and it landed it well enough, just a few feet from the fish in slow glassy water. The Skwalla pattern drifted right over him as the boat caught up. Now we were staring directly to the port side of the boat just 15 feet out. And like it was in slow motion up from the depths comes a big ass west slope cutty; just taking his time as he gulped my fly. It was like it was in slow motion. I set and boom! The fight was on. I was screaming, “Did you see that?! That was awesome! Woo!”

Another Big Cutt-Bow

The last day I fished half day guided by one of Mike’s Guides named Sam. I think Sam is a new guide for Mike. I didn’t get details or even his last name, but I can’t wait to fish with him again. We only floated 3-4 hours. The weather was miserable. At times it was even colder than the prior day. I landed 5 or 6, but, they were mostly big fish, and only missed 2 or 3.

My Favorite Moment #2

Big Clark Fork Rainbow

Sam pulled us into an Eddy where I was drifting the eddy and into the current. Nothing. Then straight up river on the seam. He guided me to drift every which way in that hole. It was really deep there so I didn’t have a lot of confidence. I casted and drifted about 20 times in there. Then Sam said, “Pull it in for a minute, Tim I want to lengthen your dropper by a foot.” And I have to tell ya’ I was skeptical. For a second I thought he was doing that just to impress Mike. I had zero confidence but, after he lengthened the tippet to my girddlebug dropper Sam said something like, “Throw it in the same place.” So I did. And son of a bitch my indicator fly went down I set on a brick. I battled that fish until my arm hurt. “I want to lengthen your dropper by a foot.” I’m still laughing about that. Wanna’ know the difference between a great guide and a good one? it’s knowing the river and its flows so well you lengthen the tippet to the dropper 12”.

Another big Clark Fork Rainbow

I know this is now going to sound like a commercial but, I can’t help it because I was just so pleased by my visit to “CFO”. So here is my guidance: if you want to fish the Clark Fork out of Missoula there is no need to stay at one of those high priced expensive lodges. Contact Mike Hillygus at his web site. Mike’s Clark Fork Outpost lodge sleeps 6 in beds (3 bedrooms; 5 total beds). But, he can accommodate 14 more at his neighbor’s place.

Belle Ready for Fishing

Oh yea, Mike also owns the Stillwater River Outpost… I cannot wait to visit that one in May. On that trip my son Mark is joining me and I cannot wait!

The 4-year California drought is over (I have no right to say that)

The 4-year California drought is over. I’m no scientist; and I have no right to say that. But, I don’t have to be. I have been watching the flow charts for the Upper Kern River because I just can’t wait to back pack into the Forks of the Kern again. And the river is big again. it’s big and it’s nasty again; at least from a computer it was. It’s been four years since I have seen the Upper Kern River at normal levels. This post is about me dying to see it for myself.

Upper Kern 16 year average – We are back to normal in 2016

Last year I backpacked into the forks of the Kern the day they opened the road (NFs2282 / Lloyd Meadow Road) on April 21^st. This year because of the snow pack, I doubt I can get in there until June or even later. We just have so much snowpack. I’m told we are at 125% and two more big storms, at least, are lined up to pound the Sierras.

I had a business trip to Lemoore, CA which is in the central valley 350 miles north of where I live in Carlsbad, CA on March 9^th, 2016. I call the upper Kern River my home waters. Sure, I have fished the Mammoth and Bishop area rivers for years. But, I have not commanded them like I have the Upper Kern. And the Upper Kern is just so remote, wild, and physical that few people do it. So, it really is my favorite river to fly fish that is within driving distance.

Well, on this business trip, I just couldn’t resist a 150 mile detour to see the Upper Kern River myself. I went to the Johnsondale Bridge to see just how high the River is. As a point of reference the Johnsondale Bridge, which really is not in Johnsondale, just south of it, is twenty miles North of Kernville. The reason it was a 150 mile detour is that all the mountain roads are closed in the winter. I had to come up from the south through Kernville.

Staring at “Huck-Truck” from across the Johnsondale Bridge

Like I have said many times before, “The only good thing about the 4 year drought is the fly fishing on the Upper Kern”. The drought turned the Upper Kern from a raging class IV & V wild river to a tame, easy to fish, crossable river. For the last 4 years there has not been a spot of water in the upper kern I could not cast to and much of the river was wadable with many crossable spots. Those days are over. At least they are over until the next drought.

Last year in April the flows were under 200 CFS; in March even lower. What I found was flows of over 700CFS

Upper Kern March 8-11 2016

And now the river is back to normal flows, if not higher than normal.

I have a favorite run with a tailout and some good pocket water just a 1.5-mile hike up river from the Johnsondale bridge. I always catch fish there. So, I wadered up and with a 5 wt started my hike to the spot. when I first crossed the bridge I looked closely. I could see the river was up. But, it’s slow moving water there. I couldn’t tell just how up it was. By the time I got to my spot it was a totally different river. Firstly, the willows that sprouted and grew in the 4 year drought at the side of the river were now underwater. Which means wading in front of them was now in deep, swift water. My little run in normal flow was now a dangerous one. I had to perch myself on submerged boulders where the penalty for failure is significant. secondly with the water so high making the drifts into the channels had now become fast which require me to weight down my nymph rig. And lastly, and what makes the Kern so challenging in normal flows is that the river is so big again I couldn’t wade to a point where I could cast to the opposite side of the river. And a 60 foot roll cast is just not realistic. All this combined with the fact that not a single bug was in the air meant that I had a 1.5 hour casting lesson.

My favorite run; a year later double the water

My favorite run; a year later 4X the water

And isn’t that the great thing about fly fishing and rivers in general? Just when I thought I had mastered the upper Kern mother nature changed it all up again so I need to learn it all new again.

Like I really need another annual fly fishing trip…

Like I really need another annual fly fishing trip… To my wife it seems like i have one every month. But, I just couldn’t resist when a buddy of mine asked me months ago. This buddy is Ken Foersch, president of my high School, Crespi Carmelite, an all-boys catholic high school in Encino, CA. Ken told me this father-son all guys fishing trip in Bishop started with his dad like 30 years ago. And they have been fishing the lower Owens river every year since. I told him I’d be happy to teach some of the younger boys how to fly fish. Little did I know that would be the most fun part of the trip.

Check out the white tips on this typical 12″ brown in the lower owens river

Firstly, I knew that some of my friends in “the club” would be able to help. I serve in the San Diego Fly Fisher’s club and there was a club trip to bishop just a couple weekends prior. I got a ton of guidance from my buddies in the club on what to expect. But, what I didn’t expect to hear is that a few really good fly fishermen from the club did not do well at all.

I did well. Arguably really well. I fished it Thursday, Friday and Saturday… I got out of there just in time in the morning yesterday before the huge storm hit. The wind on the way home was crazy…and mammoth took 4 feet of snow!

So I did the dawn patrol Thursday morning leaving at 4am so I could be on the water in time for the hatch. The rest of the gang (which I had yet to meet) was not due to show up until that night and I wanted to figure out the river before they got there.

I was also pretty excited to fish a new rod. I broke my go to 3 Wt. last year and got a ton of guidance from Mark Boname of North Platte River Fly Shop on its replacement. I ended up buying a Temple Fork Outfitters BVK from the North Platte River Fly Shop. What an awesome rod! It casts the dries so well now I want to fish it everywhere. It weighs only 2.4 Oz! which makes it perfectly balanced with my super lightweight Lamson reel. The BVK is a light, fast action rod, but has a soft sensitive tips. So, it’s easy to cast like a fast action rod, but the feel is more like that really slow load on a medium action rod. So fun to cast! And what a great rod for the price! It’s the only TFO rod I own and now I’m a big TFO fan. Honestly I cannot wait to buy another TFO rod.

“Huck-Truck” parked on the banks of the Lower Owens River with the Sierras in the background

I decided on the way to bishop, that I would go to the head of the fly fishing only section (below the footbridge at the south end of the campground) of the Lower Owens River just to see how crowded it was. I have never been able to fish there because there are always a ton of fly fisherman there; usually shoulder to shoulder. Last year, two buddies of mine from the club just killed there. To my surprise no one was there. And the midge hatch was on. I saw some rises in the bait section so I threw a midge adult floater just feet from my truck and boom! 2^nd cast and I had landed a nice wild brown. “Hmmm… this could be a good day.” And I was. I fished a midge dry trailed by a midge emerger and did really well. And then the BWO hatch went off…. so I switched to a light green bodied size 18 BWO and man, was that fun. Once the hatches ended, pretty much so did the good fishing. But, I had hooked 25 or so and landed half of them by 1pm. The weird thing was that every fish was a wild brown in the 10” to 12” range. I was not catching big fish, nor was I catching tiny fish.

I met all the guys that night….great group. Totally fun. some of them had fished the stocked section in bishop in the afternoon and they did pretty well on bass and stocked trout on traditional tackle.

Austin casting dries to rising fish on the upper C&R section of the Lower Owens River

Well, the next day (Friday) I headed right back out to the head of the Wild fly fishing only section and parked exactly where I did the day prior. No one there. “No way!” I said to myself. “Where in the world is everyone? Do I not know something they know?” The reality was the opposite. There was no one on the 3-mile section of the lower Owens river and the fishing was great. And no one knew it but me. I did even better this day. I probably had > 30 takes on the dries and landed more than half of them. But, the same cookie cutter 12” browns. All of them. That is weird. When the hatch died off and the fishing came to a halt around 1:30 PM I switch to streamers and did the 2+ mile walk downriver hunting for troutzilla. And I caught a few….but the same cookie cutter 12” browns. Troutzilla may have stuck me. I got hit so hard on the swing it almost knocked the rod out of my hand. But, he didn’t stick. I’ll never know.

The next day, Saturday was one of the most fun fly fishing days I have had in a long time. It was the best part of the trip and I didn’t even fish; I guided. And not only did I get to guide, but I got to guide a newbie 15 year old high school sophomore named Austin. Great kid!

My buddy Ken Battling on a custom rod made for me by Tom Young

And no one was on the river again! A Saturday! I couldn’t believe it. When we started I told Austin and his uncle Ken (who asked me to teach him): “You are not going to catch a fish today. But, a great goal is to make you a proficient cast and see if we can fool a couple fish to rise to your drift. You won’t land them, but I’d love to see you hook one.” I taught him how to cast….and he was doing ok…and he got better… and he missed about 5 takes. Which was awesome. I was happy at that. then he started hooking fish….and missing them…. And then it happened…. Just like god looked down on us and took pity … he made a perfect cast in between two swift seams…right into soft water. He mended and his drift was perfect. Whack! A 12” brown hit him hard and he set perfectly…. Before I could even coach him he had the fish on the reel. At this point I was pretty much doing cartwheels in joy and screaming the f word “f’ing awesome! woo! Play him! Don’t reel him in… f’ing awesome!” he swung the fish to my net…. “Woo!!!! “ I screamed that so loud the whole owens valley heard it…. And then I apologized to him for getting so excited and saying the F word. He laughed.

Austin with his first fish landed on a fly rod!