Yeah, It’s on and your missing it!

I fished a day with friend and fellow guide “Jake Hood”. The plan was to throw streamers in hopes of catching some “Giant Toad Beasts”, while keeping a eye open for some rising trout, also “Giant Toad Beasts”.

As streamer days go it was not a bad day or a great day. I  lost a few, had one straighten out the trailer hook,”Pig” for sure. Jake had a better day than me, landing a handful of nice ones, and this “Toad Slob”.

The cool thing about this fish was, we got him out of a little side channel no wider than 2 boats. The fish chased it out of a root wad and short struck, next cast was money. The fish was stuck with a home brewed yellow bunny, the rest is history. Remember, he who dies with the most “Piggy” pictures wins.

I’ve been doing a few trips as of late. Run off has started early this year and I expect it to be done early. The only negative effect run off has on the Missouri is more guides and anglers come from miles around to fish the clear water.

You should have been here yesterday does apply. Longtime clients Paul and Ed kicked off their season in grand fashion. We got em on streamers, nymphs and drys. Most important, we hooked,  lost, and landed some big Browns.

Paul and Ed will be back in a couple of weeks, will you? Fast Eddy will be looking for more of these.

Not many fishing clients like to fish in the spring, at least with me. I sit here with “Dread Zeppelin” and rack my brain on why more people don’t fish in the spring?

I thought we should list the pros and cons of spring fishing.

Pros                                                                    Cons

You catch huge Browns.                                     It can be cold.

Fish are dumber (more Big Browns).

Big insect hatches = Big Browns.

Some days all you catch (Big Browns).

Less fishing pressure = Big Browns.

Big Browns still eat streamers.

You are week and pale from winter and you need to catch Big browns.

This information is from a independent study, but don’t take our word for it. You should do the research and make your own call.

I’m sure that every guide and outfitter has a customer that stands out for one reason or another. They can catch fish with no more effort than tying their shoe. Or they can cast a mile into the wind sitting down, and drop the fly in a ball cap. Some have an off-beat favorite dessert that must be served at lunch each day, like a ding-dong with a beer. If they’re really lucky they have one that claims all three, like Bill Smith.

Bill made his first cast with a fly rod more than 50 years ago in the small streams in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. He started fishing the big rivers as soon as he got his drivers license, and traded time between the trout fishing in the Owens River and the bonito and white sea bass in King’s Harbor and Marina Del Ray.

He made his first trip to the Yellowstone Park and Henry’s Lake area in October 1969 and has missed this annual autumn trip just 4 times since. In the early years it was one week at Henry’s and a second week at Wise River exercising those Big Hole brown trout.

In 1984 he and his bride moved to Spokane and it wasn’t long before he was fully immersed in the conservation of local stillwater opportunities there. He’s a lifetime member of both the Inland Empire Fly Club and the Spokane Fly Fishers, and a Past President and Fly Fisher of the Year of each. He has been presented several awards for his ardent conservation efforts, including Steve Abel’s Rock Roller Award in 1991.

These days he’s far more likely to be sitting comfortably in the bow of one of our guide boats railing Missouri River rainbow and brown trout (he prefers the browns) seemingly at will.

You might wonder why we’re telling you all this or what the point is. Between Jake and Lindsey, we’ve been guiding Bill for 19 years and we’ve come to know him in ways that only time and appreciation allow. Like so many of our long time customers, he is also a friend, and we think he’s worth knowing.

When your living the guides lifestyle, its wide open, the throttle that is. The only one going faster than this guy is the guy who snapped the photo. I like to stay ahead.

I try to go fish the Yellowstone at least once a year. I have family down in Belgrade so my wife makes me go fishing during Easter weekend, who am I to argue? The Stone is cold and fickle this time of year, it’s always fickle.

This year I got out and fished it with my no good cousin in law “Clint”. Clint is the guy you can call on during a blizzard, flood or hurricane; we fished the day before Easter during a blizzard.

What I like about the Stone is the anticipation of a big fish, and the fact that it is beautiful. I like to throw streamers in April, on the Stone you could catch a lifetime brown.

I did not catch a ten pounder this year, maybe next year. We did have a good day, Clint caught this one within site of the Launch on my “Channel Hit Man”. We experienced a lot of fish rising to blue wing but we never wavered, we tossed the big stuff all day. You won’t catch a ten pounder on blue wings, maybe a hopper?

This picture is a little gem from days past. After a long day of guiding Kings on the Branch River. Good friend Dave Belt, with a clients fish, also in the picture is Dieffy “will the real Dieffy please stand up”? We along with other Lodges, parked our planes and boats at Johnny and Marie’s camp, Dieffy was related in some way. I really don’t know much about Dieffy, he couldn’t speak English, had no teeth, he answered you with head shakes and some stuttering. Dieffy all ways had a smile, we would give him all the soda pops leftover from the days events.

The Branch gets a small run of Chinook Salmon, although the run is not large in numbers, the fish were large and strong. A good day on the Branch could be ”Epic”, the fish fight hard, they like to get in big root wads.

There was always some drama on the Branch during King season. Myself and the guys I worked with like to back troll “Mag Warts”, most of the other lodges like to “Boon Dog ”. The two methods of fishing did not mix well, you had to be tough to hang in there with all of Tony Sharps goons! We had safety in numbers if we had all four boat out that day. Dean and Rob Spear were a couple of pilots from Oregon, these two brothers started working in Alaska at a very young age. The Spears were well schooled in the ways of the bush flying, guiding, running lodges, they could also scrap if need be. My buddy Dave Belt and I were just crazy, no one messed with us. We worked for Ron Hayes, he was only in his 60s then, he would fly somewhere to kick your ass.

Dave Belt is one of my few friends I still talk to, Dave is also a very talented bush pilot, guide, and musician. Dave might be the last pilot trained by Ron Hayes, I was lucky enough to be in the plane during some of his first flights with Ron, yelling, hitting and screaming at Belt. Dave is now a 22 year veteran, well trained in Cessna’s and De Havillands, on wheels and floats. Dave likes to catch piglet Brown Trout every spring with yours truly. The picture below is Davowitz with a total “Gator” from last spring.

Spring fishing is good times. You must like the challenge, inclimate weather, slow periods caused by cold water. Spring brings hope and hope brings brown trout. I love spring fishing because we catch mostly browns and some big ones.

Finally, I got out on the river. We kicked off the fishing season on a high note. Because of bad weather conditions, I waited a few more weeks than I wanted, it was a hard wait but my hoppers are all tied and my streamer box is stuffed.

I did pull the trigger on the nicest day this spring, it could have been to nice with all the sun but this fish didn’t care, they ate the hell out of the streamer. Aaron got the big one and I lost my big chance. We had lots of action, it was one of those days when the fish would lift off the bottom and attack in a upward motion, very visual.

The forecast ain’t bad for the next week, maybe I should go again?