Lower Stanislaus River - Jan 30

Who says that football trout only come from the Kern. Yesterday, Jesse Anderson and I went out to the Lower Stan and proved that this is not true. Check out this beauty!



Yet only around 15" long, this bow had a girth on em'. So the day started, arriving around 8 or so and seeing no vehicles at the roadside parking. Crazy indeed! I had fully expected the Bay Area folk to be in full effect as they had been since the opener. Maybe it was the rain and the muddy waters that deterred them, but whatever it was, keep it up. Anyway, we started in the money hole below the dam and even with the water conditions, we were catching fish. The night before I had purchased a new Sage Launch #5 and my first fish on it was a near 17" beautiful bow. Ill post a picture of em' when I get the images from Jesse. Not a bad way to break-in a new rod. So we fished there, landing around 6/7 fish combined and cataloged them (check out my post about the cataloging). We then hit up the top pool which is really hard to fish due to the dam overspray and had a few takes with Jesse landing one.

With about an hour or so left before we had to get back to town, Jesse took me to a new spot. This was a very frustrating but rewarding spot in the end. I probably had on atleast 5 solid fish on but due to lack of area to let the fish run, the rocks or rapids took them from me one by one. Each time my flies poping out and ending up in the tree behind me. SOB! Jesse tried the pocket and bam after a few drifts, fish on. But to his luck too, the rocks had there way. A few casts later, that same fish was on again. By looking at the fish you can just tell it was the same one. How many fish look like a football come out of the Stan. This time the fish was on and I grabbed the net and thankfully as the fly was poping off, I had the net right there and the fish was landed. After logging the fish, Jesse released it and heres where the trip gets crazy. He cleans up and I decide to get a few more rolls in. As he watches, he saw a rise about 3/4 ft out. I make a drift there and wammo. Fish on, landed it and as soon as it was out of the water, we knew it was the football fish. An unbelievable story that really did just happen.



All in all, this day of fishing at the Stan was one of the best I've had there. Each fish of excellent qualty, tons of research done, and got to really put the new rod to the test. Not a bad January I'd say! Happy Tying! D

A Series of Unfortunate, yet Fortunate Events

First off, I'd like to say happy birthday to my main man Daniel who turned 25 today! Since it's his birthday today, of course we had to go fishing. That's where the story begins......


The game plan was to head to the honey hole on the Stanislaus and continue catching a bunch of fish like usual. Well, we show up and park and pop the trunk and something is missing......my rod. Yes, you read that correctly, I had my boots, waders, and vest, but somehow forgot my fly rod. So then we moved on to phase two, which was driving home, grabbing my rod, and going to the Tuolumne instead. We executed plan two, got to the Tuolumne, put on our waders, put our poles together, and then I realized that I left my fly boxes with my fly tying gear that I took to the shop on Thursday......at this point, I was seriously thinking "WTF"...........

Well, luckily in my gear bag I have a few boxes, my steelhead flies and my "junk flies." (Junk flies meaning ones that are poorly tied/ones that are falling apart from being used). So I ended up just fishing with those. The Lower Tuolumne has always been a tough river for Daniel and I to figure out. We've only landed two fish there between the both of us. Albeit Daniel's fish was a 20-incher though. So needless to say, we don't expect much when we fish there and that's how the first part of the day started off. Then suddenly I felt a fairly soft take turn into quite a mighty pull. I saw the fish jump once and then realized I might need some assistance for the land. So luckily Daniel made it over and netted this nice bow!

Thursday Night Fly Night

So starting today, Greg Nault came down to Sierra Angler Fly Shop to do a little tying and instruction. Today he tied a very awesome steelhead fly called the Intruder. Too bad Thomas and I showed up just a little too late to tie along with him, we did get a whole bunch of inspiration and awesome tips for our tying toolbag. Hopefully next week we will get there early so we can participate along and rig up a fly or two. Check out his amazing Salmon/ Steelhead fly box. Happy Tying! D

Well we just went up to the lower Stan, Thomas Jim and I that is. Today was tough fishing for sure. We discovered that the hatch right now doesn't come off til around 11 so the early start wasn't really needed but whatever. Anyway I finally landed the one on a 22 gnat. Yup dry fly. About a 12" bow at that. Atleast there wasn't a skunk out today. Last thing is that we decided that the LS is starting to look a lot like the E Walker. People everywhere down there. Well we will try again next weekend. Til then, happy tying!

Season Opener

With the New Year upon us, once again the Central Valley tailwaters open back up. With great anticipation, Thomas and I headed out the The Stan on Jan. 2. This was a first for the both of us fishing so early in the year and we didn't know what to expect. Upon arrival of the dam parking, there were about 6-7 cars. After suiting up we headed down to the river to see if we could hook a few. We ran into a foursome on the road gearing down and they had said they had been there all day and "hadnt even had a single take and that they hadnt seen anyone else even hook up. Me, beeing kind of cynical, actually love to hear this from people leaving the river. Its kind of like a challenge and I love it. Down on the river I had figured our favorite spot would have been taken; but to my suprise, it was free. There were about 5/6 people already on the river slingin flies at this time and it was about 3pm. The river was hopin just like we had left it 2 months ago with trout hittin the surface non stop. It can be very frustrating to see this and to not be catching anything. But if you know whats up, this can be awesome and it seems that we know exactly whats up. With my second cast, fish on! A nice 10"er to start off the year right. I could see that this really frustrated the guy just down the river about 20' away. An hour later, 7 fish and tons of hits and misses, the river was all ours. It was awesome and a great start to the year. I just got done tying a bunch more of ammo for the slangin and am amped to get back out. D!

Heading to the Stan for first time this new year with Thomas! I'll post some pics and a little write up later on how it went. Stoked!! D