Nice…good to see you made it through what passes for winter these days.
I can’t ski and I have yet to get a pooper on a fly but your pics do have a certain je ne sais quoi to them 
Do not understand one thing you type but love your pics. Nice seeing you and your buddy last week on Deer Creek
Thanks Bum! Your pup looks very fulfilled. Hope you got enough time on the limited white stuff to carry you through the dry outlook for the rest of the year.
I have to dust my 8wt carp sticks off and start hucking some stuff. Going to try for whatever again in Hawaii in June and need to get the rust out of my shoulder.
I LOVE your posts!!! Thank you Sir. Keep packing a camera and snapping shots.
Great photo’s again… Knowing how much more fight a fly rod seems to put into the fish, I’ll bet you have a blast with those rocky mountain tarpon… Your powder photos almost make me second guess my ice fishing exclusion… guess I should break the dusty ole sticks out again, got set up with skins and releasable bindings, but never been backcountry since… Not sure if it was the age or ice addiction, but I need to give it a go before I can’t… later J
The close ups you take of fish are beautiful
whats goin on
been a cold windy wet spring
aint been out as much as i liked too
but made our annual 4 20 green rendezvouses
my bro bought an acre above taylors flats in browns park so we skipped fontenelle this year and staid utarded
mur river gods
low water minimal 850 flows wind and weather didnt make for the best catching conditions but it never sucks to git out and fish with your crew
came home n fished for garbage with that crew
https://www.fishforgarbage.org/
filled a couple dumpsters
a lot o provo flips flops
well yeah
maybe see ya 6/25 on the ogden or july for the berry cleanup
my pops health has improved overall good days and less good ones
yet to git him out fishing, but got him back out and manning the trout unlimited desk at the wasatch fly tying and fishing expo
and spend some time pimpin good causes
single flys comps back on again
hoping to row/guide it again and stay for the cleanup
again
meat wagon
and stuffed poopers
got a new fishin whip downsized from the 12’ 4’’ 2x chamber to and 11’6’’ single
hit ice off and stung a few
happy tails
got skunked playing river permit lotto and just donated the cash to rec.gov
AGAIN
got a if i cant beat em join em hair up my butt
and decided to go to 2 weeks of white water guide school outta moab
and to tighten up my rubber rowing skills
hit the scofield on my way down
Catching was unexpectedly slow but got a few to eat
not sure the foulhooked zombie dead ones count
and i c&r ed that one
rolled in late on a thrursday
hopin for a river camp
managed to finally score at onion creek
never spent much time down south and as a fisherman i tend to poo poo the big chocolate water floats
but the geology and landscapes are stunning
my morning and evening commute to the boat yard in town was always rewarding
Good stuff fishskibum. Keep it coming. Think I saw you in the Uintas a couple of weeks ago on your SUP?
^^^ i wish i havent been on the sup since ice off at the berry
hopin to hit the bear and git my poopfish on this week
At 57 years young i was definately the senior gray wisdom’d locked river daddy to the fine young kids aka perspective guides
i laugh cause ive been rowing the same boat, granted not big technical white water for longer than most of em have been living and have a few 100 days of fishing guide/swamper on the water summers
Rowing is like casting skiing biking etc
its a mix of experience, muscle memory, reading water and understanding ferry angles and your crafts capabilities
fishins is fishin and takes on many forms
i will always be a fisherman
but removing it from the river equation
sure allows you to spend that time on other things and enjoy the float and be in awe of your surroundings
Kinda funny as after i bought my 1st driftboat back in 97 i spent a week in last chance at Hydes fly fishing guide school
back then i fished hard and really needed to catch fish, so i was up and at it every morning, eve, and at lunch when i could.
While impressed with my gumption and enthusiasm
An old seasoned guide said
youll go from your need to catch a lot of fish
to i just wanna catch big fish
to im just happy to be blessed to spend time on the water.
damned if he wasnt right.
Its one of those no one ever steps into the river the same
as both you and the river are in a state of constant change and never really the same.
Been a while and i cant find my copy of Paul Quinnett’s Pavlov’s Trout and the sequel Darwins Bass but both are good reads into the psychology and evolution of why we fish
Anyhow saw a few carp breach and them colorado pike minnows have been on my gits to eat the fly bucket list for a while
saw some bait dunkers fishin for cats n such but no catching was observed
ran a few days of the colorado moab daily
There are about 20 outfitters running multiple boats trips from 1/2 days to full to evenings
and yeah 50,000 is a lot of people and it is not a place of solitude at times its an utter junk show
cept 1st light and late evenings sometimes
Most outfitters run stern oar mounted paddle rafts as most people want to participate and even on most overnight trips there will be a paddle boat, depending on flows conditions and operator skills there may be duckies involved too.
rowing from the trunks takes some getting used to, but having an engine room of piston paddlers when properly tuned makes these boats very nimble fast and managing the duckies way easier than loaded gear boats, and a big part of your safety team and protocols
i gotta go wage slave but
tbc
did a good bit of safety training and stuffs i dont normaslly intentionally do
like hump boats navy seal style
intentionally exit the boat to swim rapids
place your watercraft in a wrong side down position
and fix that issuie
which speakin from oh… experience
are really not bad things to practice and aints gonna hurt ya crack open that can of calm once the proverbial poops hit the spinning blades
road tripped to durango to float the lower animas thru town
cleaver rapid is a blast ran clean
bit spooky otherwise but thankfully we didnt flip
Cool town i need to git back and spend some purgatory time and hit the upper animas
Our scheduled Ruby/Horsethief canyon overnighter turned into a 25 miler day trip on the big motorized j rig
which was a nice break as the night before was in the top 5 worst nights ive spent in a tent
total wind whoops of blowing sand and hot as heck with a nasty chest cold one of the guides gave most of the crew
saw some poopers and baldies
a cool canyon ill be back to
the crew
had a day off really wanted to float the tuparware mothership down the daily
couldnt find a co pilot or cheap shuttle
and i remembered i was a fisherman
so i drove down and threw in on kens lake and exercised some snirt’s
aka stocked nine inch troots
fun to bend the whippy sticks and not fight the wind and currents in the shadow of the la sals
I picked the mild 2 wilds guide school outta moab cause it had a 4 nighter on deso and thats a tough permit to score
the drive in to s wash/ 9 mile while scenic sucks and most outfits fly their dudes in
but once your there its stellar
most gang strap up the rafts and motor the 1st day
but the og’s gonna og
pretty sure he rolled it solo
thought we was gonna git the mfs turn the corner doing of salmon things on
so we gots the rubber rigged and headed up for sum big green cfs trainin over mermorial day
high waters flush aint real conducive to catchin plied the waters anyway
speed floated the a
chilled a bit on the b
gots one to eat and stay on in 9k of current
more deso stuffs
ill always be a fisherman but removing it from the equation every now and then is good for my river soul and lifes perspective
tied up n scouted a thumpin red creek
https://app.photobucket.com/u/skifishbum/a/8171f087-08a7-45f9-b537-c78033e2dfa2/p/360fd081-639b-429d-b891-eb3e2cae09d8
ran er pretty clean but i guess a drifty sunk just before
we managed to salvage a seat, fly box and nalgenes for em
pulled over and after dabblin in safetey stuffs let the tgrapps cat take the sticks and glad they had backup boats with them and everybody swam safe
boats are replaceable
he did and does good and the learning curves easier for some end of the day its time on the sticks muscle memory thing
like skinning or climbing up mountains to ski down em and a groove thing
[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erVSSm_k9QI[/video]
wanted to fish juneteenth but had to work and weather looked way better Tuesday
went to the bear yesterday it was high windy limited vis and they cut down a bunch of riverside trees
wasnt feelin it and much over 5mph and the sups not the ideal fishing platform
bailed and went to echo
pretty nice not having deal with boats and have a wakeless lake to fish under human power and have water in it
its really time for the udnr to address the mixed use power squadron problems and make some of our waters wakeless a few days a week or like millcreek with leashed dogs and bikes every other day
floated in on the weeb under 80
not the easiest access but something i always wanted to do
Saw the pooper pods all day
couldnt find any happy tailers mostly mid lake cruisers and a lot of fish in the lumber yard
had to downsize to 3x and small flies got a few to eat but lumberyarded me or came unstuck so the net staid dry
been gittin a few big domers at the Deck
backingmatters
s
hit the berry musta been as couple weeks ago
exercised a few slot cutts
dog was not impressed
lot of fish podded up in the shallows
better fishin when the winds cranked up
tough catchin day
dog got exercised
new 4 piece stick became 5
all part of the game
new 4 piece stick became 5
Price of admission but it still sucks…
its been pretty cool mentoring a fng and starting back at the beginnings
them full sinks lines are not real forgiving to poor casting dynamics
and my rainbow eclectic millennial friends just one of those salt of the earth do the right thing person
Hed scored a june 10th middle fk of the salmon permit which allows you to turn the corner and do another 5 days on the main.
When he told me i remember thinking damn thats a holy grail draw and i hopes runoffs early
well it didnt work out that way
+6’ with strainers and lumber everywhere and dead bodies was top spicy for our crew and a smaller less consequencial version of what went down in yellowstone that weekend reaffirmed that decision
its been 15 or years now since ive been blessed to float the middle fk and hopefully blessed again
so when in doubt return to home waters plan b
rollin up weds night turned into thursday morn
despite our meager snowpack still a good bit on the north slopes
got into dj shuttles and put the hog, dog, thomas and mr toaster in the gear boat scored the camp i wanted for 3 nights and put on at little hole
stuck a few and missed a bunch on the way down
scouted a boney red creek
put the boat where i thought i wanted it but thumped a rock pretty good , didnt think much of it as the Tupperware Mothership has been doin it for a couple decades now
toaster ran clean
swapped out and fished into camp
unloaded the crafts
fired up the fire and Snyders meats marinated tri tip for the fixins
i remember a bit of water in the bottom of the boat that night when we rowed upstream to fish
didnt think much about it figured dog and waders
slept pretty good clear skies and the big dipper
next morning we got out early and scored the morning spinner fall risers
put the dog in the rubbers want to happy about it
but hes a good dog and delt with it
stuck a couple solo on the drive by
a lot of things have to go right in faster water to make that happen
the rest of the crew stuck a few nice fish and we stopped at jarvie
By then it was kinda obvious the shell had cracked and the foam cavity between had filled
got er out at taylors
stuffs happens
You don’t need repairs if you’re not doing adventures!
Thanks for sharing- always appreciate your pictorials!
i try to take a few pics
and despite a small social media footprint, It stokes me out to run into random peeps who tell me the enjoy em.
as for the words.. well i dont cares as much if ya even bother readin em
Old man winter came and despite a promising Dec under delivered again
made the best of Ullr’s blessin as a bum could
we perform our crafts and leave our marks on the on the slopes
- I find i spend a lot more time sharing the passion with my furkid and friends skin kids*
hes a freak about the powder hound stuffs
and i shouldnt need a 9 y.o to reignite my love for the sport but ill cop to jaded local status and learn from those who dont know how its changed nor care
anyhow it is what it is
pulled the tarps n covers fired up the drifty for another season
20 years is a long time
id like a new boat but aint sure i wanna float without 2 decades of mojo this ones got
Looks like it was march 19th
the bear was up with limited vis and a few peeps fishin
3 yakers were i wanted to launch so went up top
the furkid was stoked to git the float n be happy back on
the poopers were slow skitterish and hard to spot but found sum playas n puts the bend in the whippy sticks again
stuck a few more and called it a good start
tbc…