Monthly Archives: June 2016

Contoocook River, Henniker, New Hampshire

June 18, 2016

The Contoocook River, Henniker, New Hampshire

I planned a business trip to Boston months in advance and that meant getting Kelly free flights on points because she had never been to Boston. It also meant ending the business trip in a long weekend in New Hampshire at our friends, Pat and Sabine Hynd’s house who live in Derry, New Hampshire.

And I knew full well, there was outstanding fly fishing in New Hampshire. I just had two obstacles:

Kelly, who is never happy about me stranding her all day while I fly fish
The research I needed to do to figure out the closest river to Pat’s house that held trout

I never did overcome the first obstacle. But, I did overcome the 2^nd one by doing something really smart: I went to the New Hampshire Trout Unlimited Website where the officer’s email addresses were listed. Fly fisherman are almost always helpful to outsiders so I wrote a simple email to the president, Ron Sowa. Well, almost immediately Ron Emailed me back suggesting I fish the Contoocook River in Henniker, New Hampshire. Ron and I went back and forth in email a few times where he provided great info for me before I realized he was a guide! And he was so generous with free info. At that point I felt badly. So badly I said to myself “Screw it; I’m going to hire him for a full day and if she’s pissed so be it.” Then I chickened out because of the sheer agony I’d have to endure, and thought about a half day guided with Ron. At that point, to my extreme pleasure, Pat showed interest in joining me for some fly fishing. Pat had never fly fished before and like many of my friends in the software world I was really looking forward to us fly fishing together, guided.

Pat Hynds, Master Angler

Then the wives got wind of it and totally put the kibosh on the idea. But, the wives were willing to give us a morning. So, it was going to be me and Pat leaving early, driving 45 minutes, gearing up, my teaching and guiding & fishing for 1.5 hours, and drive 45 minutes back in time for lunch and a big hike with the wives. I have a goal of fly fishing in every state in America and New Hampshire was on the list so I was still very excited to check it off the list.

Well, I owe Ron big-time and I will repay him if he ever gets to the sierras in California…. Or I’ll just figure out how to get to New Hampshire again and hire him to guide me and Pat.

Big Rainbow from the Contoocook

We fished the Contoocook river. At first it was a bit of a challenge because we went upriver on the college side when we got to Henniker and it was froggy, big and deep. I said, “hmmm”… Then we went back over the bridge and downriver. Immediately, there was a huge dirt parking lot with a dam looking structure, but I could see pocket water in the distance. But, there was a big swamp in the way. I said, “hmmmm…” I’m a bushwhacker, but, Pat was a first timer; I didn’t want to drag Pat through that mess. So, we continued another ½ mile down the road to the next pullout and I almost fainted from what I saw: Pocket water, riffles, multiple runs, tail-outs. This had it all in a 200-yard stretch. But, no one was there so I said to myself, “Hmmm”. It just seemed too perfect. “Why were no other fly fisherman here? It’s a Friday. If this place were good then there must be something wrong.”

Another big trout from the Contoocook River

We’ll I geared us up and we wadered up there on the side of the road. We wandered into the water. It was a coffee stained clear that in the shade provided zero visibility; even with my Smith Chromopop polarized lensed glasses. But it was not a slippery river like I’m used to in the East. So, it wasn’t difficult to wade at all; you just had to go slow because you couldn’t see. I did my lecture to Pat on where trout hang out and rest / feed and pointed out a few places. And as we did I noticed a number of different bugs in including large Caddis and Yellow Sallies. I said to myself, “hmmmm”… We staged ourselves 20 feet below two large boulders where I knew Pat could make an easy beginners cast. Then I started on a casting lesson for Pat. On my second “10-2” thing teaching Pat to cast, I caught a small brook trout not even trying. I said to myself, “hmmmm”… Then I saw a large fish rise on the other side of the river and I said to myself, “hmmmm”… I said to Pat, “Hang on one second I want to catch that rising fish.” And I did. and I said to myself, “hmmmm”…

More Underwater Fish porn from the Contoocook – this time a big Brookie

And it was just one of those days; a day that you remember forever. But, a day I haven’t had in a while. In fact, I believe the last time I had a day like that was on Lake Crowley close almost 20 years ago. And I only fished for an hour and a half on the Contoocook River. I think if I had all day I would have caught and released more than 50 trout.

Highlights:

I had a Grand slam with multiple brooks, rainbows, browns, & smallmouth
Most of my fish we caught on dries.
I caught 2 brookies at the same time (one the dry and one on the dropper)
And this was a first in my fly fishing career: I hooked a fish…well he caught himself… that jumped out of the water from between my legs to get my dry…through my legs and up a foot out of the water like shamu while I was releasing a fish from the dropper he was hooked on!

This is one of Pat’s Brookie’s that he fooled. See that big ‘ol nymph hanging out of his face after Pat’s perfect set?

And we only got 1.5 hours to fish! 45 mins up and back. In that 1.5 hours I caught ~20 and I was “guiding” a beginner! I have never ever left a river when the fishing was so good. Even Pat caught fish! As a first timer! To his credit I have never had a beginner wait like you are supposed to when loading the rod. He was the quickest study I have ever guided. He figured out how to fight fish without me even helping.

The fish I caught went 6” to 14”. I’m sure there were larger fish in that river. I caught one fat rainbow jumper that was worth taking a picture of under water. And many of the fish I caught had to be wild because I got a lot of jumps. And every fly fisherman knows how fun Brookies are…

A Contoocook rainbow too big for me to take a picture of while trying to land him.

How we fished

I put Pat on an indicator (New Zealand wool style indicator) dropped by a large, size 12 bead headed black midge. Dropped from that was a bead headed birds nest I tied.

And here’s where it’s really interesting: I did dry/dropper. My dry was a size 12 bullet head skwalla (Montana fly company’s version). I don’t even think they have skwallas (a huge stone fly) in New Hampshire. But, it killed. Just like my buddy in montana, Mike Hillygus, said it would. Mike swears bullet head skwallas work all over the world because of the size and profile. And I most certainly proved that in Poland last week. And I proved it in New Hampshire yesterday. This weekend I’m going to prove it on the Upper Kern river in the sierras where I am really curious to see if it will work.

So, if you want to fly fish in New Hampshire I strongly suggest you hire Ron Sowa from Reel New Hampshire Fishing Guide Service to guide you. That would help repay my debt to him. He’s headquartered in Manchester, NH 603.493.3857.

Bialka River, Poland – May 31st, 2016

I sure am glad that one of InterKnowlogy’s most brilliant engineers, Szymon Kobalczyk insisted we fly fish in his beautiful country of Poland, because it was a total blast; so much more fun than I thought it would be.

Tim & Szymon on the Bialka River, Poland

The Białka River is in the Tatras mountains and runs through southern Poland. It is a tributary of the Dunajec River, which is a European famous fly fishing river. The Białka is only about 25 miles long. The source of the river is in the High Tatras. It is fed by the Jezioro Czorsztynski Reservior (I have no idea how to say that in English). I have seen a lot of rivers in Europe. I have fished a few. And we American fly fisherman typically have a stereotype of Europe and how they have dammed, fished out and poached their lakes and rivers. And that is certainly true in many parts of Europe, but not on the Bialka. What I found on the Bialka River was an extremely healthy mountain river supplied by snow-melt; an abundance of runs, riffles and pocket water and everything that makes a great fly fishing river, including a huge population of brown trout. The Bialke even has closed spawning sections and fly fishing only sections.

Looking upstream of the protected spawning area of the Bialka

Technically it was a little 3 day long weekend vacation for Kelly and I at the end of a business trip to Europe. Kelly has never been to Krakow and it’s one of my favorite cities in Europe. It’s an awesome city; Great food and great people. And if you are into history, well, it’s where the Schindler Factory is, which is now a WWII museum. It’s also where Szymon lives with his family.

Catch and Release Sign on the Bialka River in Poland

Szymon told me he had arranged a guide. I traded emails with the outfitter (guide cc’d) scraping for info, but couldn’t get the guide to reply. I wasn’t worried. I just wanted to set expectations that I wanted the guide to spend all his time with Szymon because it was Szymon’s first time fly fishing. All I really need these days it to be lead to the river. If I’m told what to throw and I don’t have to figure that out, all the better.

Szymon and Shemek pointing out where we are on the map

Well, it was a long drive to the Tatras mountains of Poland that border Slovakia. And when we pulled up on the guides house I was really excited. The guides name was Przemysław Półtorak (nickname pronounced “Shemek”) and his outfitter is Sebastian Kalkowski from www.guidedfishing.pl. I knew Sebastian spoke beautiful English from the many email responses I got from him from all my questions. But, thank God I had Szymon with me because it was immediately obvious “Shemek” spoke very little English. Of course it’s fly fishing so really how much talking do you really need to do? Shemek is a 24 year old fly fishing nut. I love that. in broken English he told me he had been fly fishing the river since he was 8.

That’s me trying my best to Czech nymph from my knees with an 8’6″ 3 wt.

In Shemek’s back yard with wadered up and rigged up. Shemek offered me a 12’ Czech nymping rod and my heart sunk a bit. There is nothing wrong with Czech nymphing, which I call “raking the river”. It just doesn’t suit my constant need to move and to cast. In Czech nymphing you fling a heavily weighted nymph 45 degrees up stream about 10-15 feet in front of you and “high stick” it, bouncing the nymph along the bottom. And to do it right you do it 2” at a time covering every inch of the river. My personality can’t deal with that. I love the big cast and I love the hike I get out of wading the river for miles. Well, I politely told “Shemek” no thanks to the rod. I had a my 8’6” TFO BVK 3 weight with me and since I was comfortable landing 20”+ montana brownies on that rod, I was sure it was enough for this river. But, Shemek rigged my 3 wt for check nymping…sigh… I politely said thanks and we headed out to the river…well, what I thought was the river. A raging 20 foot wide creek that looked more like an overflow channel was accessible from the back gate of Shemek’s yard. At first I thought there is no way we can fish this thing. it’s overgrown and absolutely raging. Then as we walked downriver we reached a pool that was one of Shemek’s favorites. Actually the water was perfect for Czech nymphing. At the time I thought we were on the Bialke River. But, we weren’t. we are on a diverted irrigation canal. Well, I hooked a handful of small trout on the swing, but weren’t able to pull them back up river. That was a good sign though. because we moved to another part of the canal and quickly I had landed my first small Polish brown trout. And I was still nymphing, Czech style, on an 8’6” 3 wt. it was testing my nymphing skills, or more correctly stated, my lack of nymphing skills. I had moved about 100 feet away from Szymon and Shemek and it wasn’t long before Szymon ran to me holding a nice 14” brown trout in his hands. That pleased me intensely. I have fished with so many beginners that get skunked their first time out. So, obviously “Shemek” was a good guide and knew where the fish were. But, we were still fishing in the canal. And then I saw it…through the trees.. the Bialka. “So we were fishing an overflow canal.”, I said to myself. And what I saw in the distance was a beautiful river. I was really excited now. It was also just after seeing the river for the first time that I saw it… a rise.

Another beautiful brown from the Bialka

I pointed out the rise to “Shemek”. He nodded in pride. And that was my “in” to be polite about changing myself out to a dry fly. I really wanted to test my buddy Mike Hillygus’s theory that a bullet head skwalla will work anywhere; any time. Cutting to the chase, it wasn’t long before I texted Mike right from the Bialka River: “Guess what fly works in Poland? J” Of course I was 10 hours ahead of him so that txt woke him up at 3am.

That’s me battling a nice brown i fooled on top with a bullet head skwalla on my TFO BVK 3 wt.

So, I ended up catching a bunch of fish. And Szymon, a first timer caught fish too. I dropped the Bullet head skwalla with a rainbow warrior I tied because the water clarity was pretty good. And that fly killed. Especially on the swing. But, it was the fish I caught on dries that were so fun. At one point I was hooting and hollering, “This is so fun!” Shemek was proud.

Szymon battling a nice brown

The Bialka is a river that can be fished effectively by any above average fly fisherman. The hard part is finding the access points. If you are interested on how to pull this off, email me.

I would love to go back there and spend a couple full days fishing the main river up stream, skipping the flood channels and canals completely. And some day, probably next spring, I will.

The Bialka River, so fun….

if interested contact details:

Przemysław Półtorak

+48512619452

Email: gorskierzeki@gmail.com

www.gorskierzeki.pl

May, 2016 – The North Platte River: 546 Trout Caught and Released

The North Platte River – Grey Reef Section

For the last 5 years I have planned the annual “Get Locked!” fly fishing trip for a dozen of my buddies. This year’s location was the N. Platte River near Casper, WY. And my God did we have fun! I believe everyone in the group agreed that of the 5 trips this was the best. And it was the best because of where we stayed, the fishing, the outfitter and guides, The local fly shop, and the food. We floated the Grey Reef section of the N. Platte.

The great thing about this trip is that the majority of the guys are beginner fly fisherman…. This trip is the only time they fly fish each year. It’s a bunch of CEOs and such; a bunch of old married guys. So how do a bunch of beginner fly fisherman catch 546 fish over 3 days?: Answer: Guides; really good guides… well, that and how effective for beginners, “the bobber” is…

Another 18″ rainbow

The Guides

So I might as well start the story here at the guides: Ryan Anderson and his wife Liz run WYOMING FLY FISHING GUIDE SERVICE – Gray Reef Outfitters on the North Platte River (307-277-6282). And I highly recommend them if you are going to fish the N. Platte River in the Grey Reef section in the Casper area. Ryan, (who is a big ‘ol bear of a guy about ½ my age, crying funny, and an awesome guide) enlisted 5 more of his guide crew (Mickey, Slade, Bean, Grant, & Keith) in a 6 boat armada to float us drunken old guys to catch and release 546 fish over 3 full days of fishing. Sober and trying I think we would have caught 1000. I will definitely fish with Ryan again. I haven’t told my lovely bride of 27 years just yet, but I plan to make my way back to Casper in the fall with my son Mark to float with Ryan.

Bean sheepherding another double hookup with Tom and Doug

The Place

We stayed at Red Butte Lodge. Really, it wasn’t really a choice. It was the only place I could find in the Casper area that had 12 beds (short of a hotel). But, we totally lucked out. The Red Butte Lodge is awesome, quite reasonable in cost, and it has the high TripAdvisor ratings to validate it. Ruth Romp owns and runs the place. She is a kiwi (New Zealander) and is just a great gal. Her lodge and cottage sit right on the river. Although I barely fished in front of the Red Butte Ranch because the river was blown out there (downstream from Grey Reef), most of the year I bet you could just wade in right there and fish quite successfully the entire time.

The view at sunrise from The Red Butte Lodge.

The Fly Shop

I have written of the local fly shop in Casper (and it’s internet business) many times before in this blog. It’s the Platte River Fly Shop located just outside of town on your way to the Grey Reef area of the N. Platte at 7400 State Hwy 220, Casper, WY 82604. My buddy Mark Boname owns the shop and is a genuinely great guy. I tell all my friends to buy their fly fishing stuff from Mark at: www.WyomingFlyFishing.com. Mark and his staff, Gerri to name one of them, run an honest business and provide tons of guidance and help. Plus, they have all the “good stuff” (Simms, Sage, Galvan, TFO, Patagonia, Winston, etc.)

The Pronghorn Antelope not affectionately called the "speed goat" is on it's way back to building numbers after being hunted to the brink for many years

The Pronghorn Antelope not affectionately called the “speed goat” is on it’s way back to building numbers in Wyoming after being hunted to the brink for many years

The Food

I had real trouble finding a caterer to do the breakfasts and dinners in Casper. Then I stumbled on Caputa Catering. Rob Caputa and I went round and round in planning in email and on the phone. Great guy and I’m totally pleased. Unique every day hot breakfasts with always fresh fruit. The dinners ruined the diet, but exceptions must be made when the food is that good. Rob, even purchased and delivered all the beer and alcohol. He had his GM, Lashawn Wier helping him. She was great.

Even if you don’t have the need to cater in Casper, you need to go to their restaurant, Prime Time.

Expert Angler Bill Scripps with just another of his many 16″ – 20″ rainbows

The Fishing

On this trip each year I fly in 2,3 days early to set things up and to do some “real” fly fishing. I prefer to wade. I know it’s so much more effective in the drift boat, but there is a certain freedom and skill and hike involved when wading that I really enjoy.

I had some time on Sunday when I got to Casper, before sundown so I stopped at the North Platte River Fly Shop and my buddy Mark set me up with flies and steered me to the section of river between the dams because it was not blown out. I did pretty well. Great stretch of river. I was really encouraged because I’d be fishing with Mark the next day.

On Monday, my first full day in town my buddy Mark Boname graciously offered to take me on a full day of wade fishing. He took me to some of his spots on the N. Platte including the Fremont area of the river above the dams and downstream in the Grey Reef area and in the transition area between the dams. We did pretty well in a rising river. Mark dragged me all over that river and I didn’t find out until days later from him that he was totally sick…like puking sick. He didn’t even mention it while we were fishing. And we fished a full day. That is the type of guy he is.

That night my buddy Tom O’Connell, CEO of Applied Information Sciences flew in and we hit the Silver Fox Restaurant in Casper hard. This is the highest rated restaurant in Casper for a reason. And its Casper; so the restaurant is very reasonably priced. We sat in the bar and ate and Brian the bartender took care of us. Brian later became of good me of me, tom and the entire gang.

This is a self Portait. i had to set the timer while the fish was in my net. i so rarely take trophy shots anymore. but, this fish from the Wind River was special.

This is a self Portrait. i had to set the timer while the fish was in my net. i so rarely take trophy shots anymore. but, this fish from the Wind River was special.

I Lost Another Fish of a Lifetime

The next day, Tuesday, Tom and I made the big trek to Thermopolis to fish the Wind River section of the Bighorn. We hit the local fly shop in Thermopolis and got some great guidance, flies and the special permits to fish this stretch of river on the Indian reservation. What we did not know is how big the river was. Until we got there. I have never seen that river so high. Crossing was not even a consideration. We couldn’t even wade. Most of our fishing was done from the rocks on the steep banks. I caught a really nice fish and Tommy hooked up a few times, which is impressive because it was really tough casting in those conditions and finding soft water for a good drift was really difficult.

The Wind River on the Indian Reservation just up stream from Thermapolis, WY. It takes a special permit to fish here.

But, what I will remember forever is hooking into another fish of a lifetime…and losing it. I found 10 yards of soft water between two huge boulders in the river that I knew was holding fish. Just like I was taught, I made a cast right on the seam, mended, got a good drift and my indicator went down with vengeance. I set hard because it’s Wyoming; they use 3x at a minimum in Wyoming. The fish reared and jumped right in front of me. I gasped and then almost fainted because it was huge. Honestly huge like a steelhead. I bowed the rod just like you are supposed to do it. The fish landed and sprinted downriver. My reel was singing and I had the drag setting pretty tight. But, now the horror set in. The fish went into the main channel around the giant bolder. I couldn’t chase her downstream because the line would have wrapped the boulder. I tried in desperation to flip that line around the boulder, but it was like 10 feet tall and the fish kept running…for what seemed like an eternity. I considered jumping in the river and swimming after the fish a number of times. But the river was so high and raging. It just was not safe. And the fish kept running. My backing was now scraping the rock. I watched the backing deplete to about 20 feet from getting spooled.

I always hear and read about how great going into the backing is. I’ve caught a lot of big trout in my time and I never seem to go into the backing. I think if you fight them correctly you don’t need (or want) to go into the backing. But now I’m not only into the backing, but I’m about to be spooled and lose the fish, the line and the backing. I quickly considering pulling a “brad pitt from a river runs through it” by jumping in the river and swimming after it. but, I’m wearing waders and the wind river is in an angry dangerous mood that day. So I do what I have been dreading for minutes now: I tighten down. I’m at a loss what to do now because I don’t want to hurt, most likely kill the fish, by reeling it backwards up a raging river. I didn’t have to worry about it for long. It only took a few turns of the reel before the fish got pissed, turned her head and snapped off the 3x. sigh.

Question: Do you know how long it takes to reel in all the backing and the entire fly line?

Answer: An eternity after losing the fish of a lifetime.

I now have 3 fish that will haunt me for the rest of my life:

The Giant Blue Trevally off the cliffs in Mahaulepu, Kauai
The huge roosterfish in Guancaste, Costa Rica
The monster rainbow in the Wind River, Thermopolis, WY

Jay Hutton, aka “worst client ever” fumbling away another 18” rainbow

Fishing Guided in drift boats with Grey Reef Outfitters on the North Platte River

The insanity started on Wednesday when everyone flew in to Casper. We fished guided for 3 days; some of us 4. Most of us drinking adult beverages in the drift boats the entire time. And it was ridiculous good fishing. Which is funny because the guides thought it was kind of slow. I guess in Casper, 542 fish by 12 amateur anglers in 3 days is slow. BTW, 95% of the fish caught and released were over 14”. Silly. Not matter what your skill level, if you want to catch a bunch of wild, hard fighting rainbows on a fly rod you need to call these guys. Worth every penny

I cannot wait to get back to the N. Platte River.