Back Logging

Ok so the posting thing needs to get back up to date so in my attempt I will jump on that tonight. This house work thing has really kept me super busy and have kinda pushed the blogging/editing and in some right the fishing by the wayside. So her we go, lets catch up.

Lets go back to the Kirman Lake trip for starters. If you've never had the pleasure of hauling your float tube for three miles on a warm summer morning at 7000 feet you should really try it. Kirman lake is located on the eastside of the Sierra Mountain range off of hwy 108. The trailhead is directly on the hwy and the trail is primarily flat except for a 100yd uphill push right before the lake. When we arrived at the lake, it looks more like a bass lake than a trout fishery but no bass here. I think its all the tules in there that give that impression.

Anyway no bass in this lake and for the first half of the day we thought no fish were in there at all. After kicking all around this 40+ acre for a few hours we finally found some fish. We had heard that this lake had some big Brookies and Cutthroats but we had no idea. It was all about the fly selection on this one and the little scud pattern it was. Drift that baby under an indicator and pow it was on. They weren't caught in mass quantity up there but the ones caught were quality. I have read that these fish basically gorge themselves on bugs and insects until they get heart failure and die. This is why they get so big. Thomas was first onto the gold and then I got my hands wet.

We had brought my cousin Sean up with us on this one and he never wielding a fly rod before, was itching to get some action. Oh and did he ever. He pulled the last Brookie of the day at probably around 23" and close to 4/5lbs. Not bad for your first day with a fly stick I'd say. Its hard to tell him that he'll probably be let down from here on out with all the other fish to come because he got a fish of a lifetime right off the bat. He was stoked.

So Kirman lake was a success and probably got the biggest Brooks we'll ever catch. If you're into it, take a trip over there some day and you too may just find the big boys and hook into some of the fun action. Check out the Kirman Lake video here or on the previous post. So stay fly and Ill try to hit up another trip report in the next couple of days. D

Kirman Video and New YouTube Channel

Hey I know its been a bit and some since our last post here but I plan to work on that soon. I do have plenty of trips and video/ pics to post and will hit that when time lets me. As for now we have created a YouTube channel that you can find HERE, <<<<< CLICK HERE.... and I will go ahead and post up a video from Kirman Lake and some fat Brookies we caught there. Enjoy and Stay Fly!

D.

High Sierra Opener

Little quickie post today. I fished the upper Tuolumne for the high sierra season opener last week. Luckily the flows weren't too high and the little trout were pretty hungry.


I did however manage to hook up with a nice 14" brown! I definitely wasn't ready for him after hooking up a handful of small rainbows.

This area of the Tuolumne up to Preston Falls is beautiful country. Anyone who's interested in an easy backpack/day hike trip should check it out!

Stay fly....
Thomas

Truckee River/Pyramid Lake Excursion

A few weeks back Daniel and I decided to try and put together the ultimate fishing weekend and hit both the Truckee River for some big browns and bows, and Pyramid Lake for some monster cutts. Having never fished the Truckee before, and for Daniel's birthday, I got a guide for that Friday. Matt Koles, owner of Gilligan Guide Service, was dude I ended up giving a call. Matt is a chill, down to earth, guy. He'll tell you what's up on the Truckee. Living in Hirschdale, he knows the in's and out's of this river. Having never got a guide before, I wasn't too sure what to expect, but luckily Matt just gave us a heads up on rigging, showed us the spots, and let us do the rest. It was a great day! Weather-wise it was a little crazy. It started off with blue-bird skies, gradually got darker, and by the end of the day it was dumping snow. One of the fish that was still eating was this nice ~22" brown who took a size 16 baetis nymph before the snow started coming down thick.
Photo by Matt Koles





Next was Pyramid Lake. This year was the first year in 10 years (from what I heard) that the area known as "The Nets" was open. We heard quite a few amazing reports from the week before, so expectations were high. Unfortunately, it was not the case. Daniel and I had to work hard for the few fish we caught. The one good thing about Pyramid is that the "average" fish is always a good sized cutt. It was nice hanging with the few club members that made it out too. Hopefully next year we'll get that 10 pounder!

Cabin Fever

Well......it's still raining. Not much going on. It's dumping loads of snow up the hill, which is absolutely crazy for this time of year. I snowboarded at Dodge Ridge on Tuesday and I can honestly say in the 11 years I've boarded there I've never seen this much snow......and it's March!! All of our local rivers are still flowing ridiculously high and these cold temps are probably screwing with the brains of the bass who normally are in pre-spawn/spawn mode by now. Needless to say, there's not much fishing going on now. So what is there to do?? Tie flies and get crafty! Daniel's been working on a prototype stripping bucket, which is nearing completion. This bucket, when done, will be made with a significantly low cost of materials. This is a big deal considering there are crackheads in the fly fishing industry getting away with murder selling these buckets at over $100 a pop!!! Daniel's bucket will have all the functionalities of these expensive buckets as well. Not every fly fisherman is a rich doctor/lawyer type that can afford to drop $125 on a stripping bucket, but there are many of us that see the functionality of having such a bucket. I'm sorry, but those flimsy laundry baskets just don't cut it. Anyway, tonight Daniel worked on another small project and sewed up a rod sock out of digital camo fabric. It's pretty pimp!

As for me, I did some late night fly tying for our upcoming trip to Pyramid Lake. I started thinking and one of the reasons pyramid woolly worms are tied with a small tail is for short strikes and the theory that longer tailed woollies don't hook up as much. This led me to thinking about steelhead flies that are tied with a trailer hook. I liked this principle so I applied it to your traditional Pyramid lake woolly worm pattern and voila! I now have a new pattern to try out there. I'm not entirely sure if there is a fly out there like this already (but then again there really aren't too many truly new flies out there today anyway), but I've dubbed it the T-Bagger for now. Oh and the front hook will be clipped (not clipped in picture).
Hooks: Front: 5263 #6, Trailer 5263 #8
Trailer hook is tied with 2 tufts of marabou, silver mylar wrapped around the hook shank, and a hackle collar.
Front hook is clipped off and tied with a loop of backing to connect the trailer hook and the body is just tied like your traditional woolly worm without a tail.

Hopefully it will work out there!!! Stay fly

Rain is here...again

The forecast says rain for the next 11 days or so. That sounds promising for our local fisheries and flows.. not. I guess then this makes a perfect time to build that custom rod that I've been wanting to build. Oh wait, I just finished it last week. Yes I got my Sage VXP 5100-4 blank kit last week and wasted no time. It looks awesome with its real French silver tinsel accents and I cant wait to cast it and land one. Dont worry I GoPro'd the whole thing and should have a time lapse video up in the next few days. So in the next 11 days or so when the rain visits and stays around, maybe we will stock up our fly boxes. Tie up for the upcoming trips like Diamond Hair streamers and El Ratons for the Restore the Delta Bass tourney or even time up some small baetis for the Truckee. Oh and we cant forget to tie up a bunch of woolly worms of various flavors for the all too hungry Lohantons over the hill at Pyramid Lake. The next two weeks of rain should drown our rivers but we will continue to look forward to upcoming EPIC trips. Stay tuned for the Rod build video and you can be sure the GoPros will be running, gobbling up GB, creating our next awesome video short.

Green Fish Season Will Be Here Soon!

I did a little bass fishing on my birthday yesterday. The conditions still aren't quite ideal yet (water is still on the colder side), but I managed to get a nice little dude on a meat whistle at the secret spot. We didn't know about this spot during spawn season last year, but post spawn was awesome, so I can't wait to catch some of these fish when they're fat and pissed off when a El raton, popper, or diamond hair streamer rolls through their nest. With the next Restore the Delta tourney approaching soon, Daniel and I are going to have to get back into bass mode soon!