September 25, 2011
Every year Scott Sanchez (Chez) and I donate a day called “Fishing with Jeff and Scott” to the Jackson Hole One Fly. They auction us off and the money is used towards some sort of river rehabilitation project. This year a good friend and owner of Gros Ventre River Ranch, Tina Weber, purchased the trip and Scott and I put together a very special day of fishing.
I left Victor at 5 AM and met up with Tina and Chez in Jackson, Wyoming at 6. Then we drove to the launch and pushed off in a temperature of 37º. 37º sounds brutally cold, but for Wyoming in late September, temps above freezing at sunrise are considered warm. In fact, the forecast was for an amazing 80º, clears skies and little to no wind. No matter how chilly 37º felt, we knew it would get hot fast.
To begin the day, I took the oars and rowed us downstream. I know this river like the back of my hand. Today was a long float and I wanted to blow through some dead water so we could concentrate on the better water. Keep in mind, days are a heck of a lot shorter now and it gets dark around 7:30 – making the best of our time was essential. The row was nice for me because I warmed up quick and nice for Tina and Chez because they have never been here and got to take in some of the scenery, something you don’t do much once you start working those flies. And the scenery was spectacular to put it bluntly. All the leaves of the cottonwood trees, aspen trees and varieties of scrub bushes are about 3/4th changed to their fall colors. Reds, oranges and yellows gleaming amongst the remaining green leaves is a sight to behold. Then throw in the mountains and the rich blue sky – what a morning.
Before we got to where I wanted to begin, I had Tina and Chez start fishing. I know Sanchez can fish, but I’ve never fished with Tina. I know she fishes a lot but as the rower it really helps to do some observing. What I learned was that she can put not only one, but two winged Chernobyl’s exactly where they need to be.
Within minutes Chez attached himself into a fantastic brown that fell for his famous double bunny pattern. The size of this brown caught us all by surprise. He was truly huge and quickly pointed out a weak point in our equipment, our net was a “junk show”. Scott, who provided the boat along with the normal boat utensils, owns a net that gives the fish a true bonus opportunity to get away and leaves you helplessly tangled in its net bag. After my first swipe at Chez’s brown I found myself dreaming of my New Zealand weigh net in my boat back in my garage in Victor, Idaho. On my second scoop with the net I got the fish half way in then the net frame collapsed and ejected the enormous brown back to the river. By now my biggest concern wasn’t Scotts brown but rather will this go on all day and will it cost Tina the brown of her life at some point. On the third attempt I put the browns head in the net then tailed him with my left hand and handed the muscular thrashing trout to Chez to deal with. It was a true wrestling match and in order not to hurt the fish we released the trout quickly and I missed the photo opportunity.
After we released Tina’s big cutthroat I was thinking to myself that this was going to be the best fishing day of the season. Why not? We were only two hours into the day and less than a quarter of the way through our float. But the fishing went steadily downhill until dark. It literally went from fish crushing the fly till they were hooked, to nipping at it, swirling below it and then hours of absolutely no action at all. Luckily the forecast lived up to its prediction. We saw only a few tiny clouds. We had a breeze for only an hour. And the temperature went past 80º. In fact it went so far above; I went for a rare late September swim to cool off. Of course all this nice weather is probably what turned off our fishing.
I’m not sure what’s next on my fishing agenda. On Wednesday my folks come out to visit then my schedule in October gets insane. I’m not saying I won’t be fishing in October, that’s far from the truth. In fact I’ll be supplying some very exciting stories with a few days down in Arizona for grass carp and a week in Wisconsin for musky. But the next ten days is uncertain.
One thing I do know for sure is that on October 7th I’ll be in Bozeman, Montana for the premiere showing of the Confluence Film, “Connect”. This is the movie where I was the lucky guy to do the segment filmed in Tanzania for giant tigerfish. If you didn’t see my photos and blog for this trip last November go there now. You absolutely will not believe the fish we caught and the stories that went with it. And the movie! I did voiceovers in July and got a glimpse of the near final product on a small laptop screen – this is a fly fishing movie you don’t want to miss!
One of my favorite trips to do in late September with friends is an overnight float trip through the canyon of the South Fork of the Snake River. This normally busy river has little traffic, the mahogany duns are hatching and the colors of the changing leaves scattered up the canyon walls is as stunning as it gets. The problem however it that my drift boat only takes three, me as the rower and two friends, so when I have a crew of college buddies like I do this week, the South Fork isn’t feasible – unless we rent another boat. 
Renting a boat isn’t often a smart idea either because rowing the South Fork is about as demanding as float fishing gets. This river cranks out the water flow. This September is especially high flowing at nearly 9000 cfs. Of course, every angler says they can row. And many can row. But honestly, there’s a big difference between rowing lakes and small slow flowing rivers vs. the South Fork. If you don’t know what you’re doing you can get killed out there in a blink of an eye. So before I threw out the idea of renting a raft so all six of us could do the overnighter I really thought it over. 
Mike Birmingham, one of my college pals on this trip, is one of those guys that is good at everything. One night over the campfire I mentioned the South Fork float and quizzed him on his rowing skills. My gut feeling was that he could handle the challenge and when I tossed the idea out he was all about it as were the rest of us. On Monday morning we found ourselves pushing off from the Spring Creek Highway Bridge beginning our 26 mile float trip to Byington on the South Fork of the Snake. 
Although I was confident in Mike, I believe Travis and especially Mark, his passengers were a little uneasy as their fishing raft took off in the heavy current of the South Fork. But Mike was good. He simply floated behind my boat and followed my every move and my advice that I gave him on the drive over. My best piece of advice to him was to avoid danger from afar. Basically, rowers should be looking downstream (rather than staring at their friends fly) and always have that boat pointed towards anything that can wipe you out – rocks, rapids, overhanging trees off the bank, sleepers and strainers. By pointing towards them you can always in an instant begin back rowing away from them. What gets every rower in trouble is not seeing these dangers soon enough and then rather back rowing away from them; they try to push forward and away. Pushing forward to get away often times gets you to the 
danger faster. Most humans are much stronger back rowing rather than forward rowing so spin the boat and back row. After about three hours of following our boat, Mike was rowing excellent and everyone was at ease.
current that the fish actually move more to the inside turns and shallow gravel bars. It didn't take long for Howie and Rieser to become believers as they each pulled fish from literally 8 inches of water. 
slough well out of sight that perhaps that little trickle I saw leave the river might enter. Anywhere there’s current there is usually a fish. So I rowed us up there. Sure enough before we even saw the trickle enter we could hear it. I told Howie a big fish lived in there. I rowed the boat forward and Howie methodically dropped his dry flies in every inch of the in flowing water. Then just where the shallow met the deep, wham! A beautiful cutthroat inhaled Howies fly and soon after I netted a nice 16 incher.
best they could. At 5 PM we settled into a campsite in the upper canyon near the entry of Pine Creek. During cocktail hour we enjoyed watching a group of moose including two huge bulls. They were across the river feeding on willows and silver berry. There is no more velvet on the antlers of the bulls.
I got the boys up early on Tuesday. Sometimes streamers and enormous dry flies can be deadly before noon. We made our coffee and skipped breakfast altogether. As we broke down camp we had a crazy cow moose meander right into us. I say crazy because she gave us the “google” eye with her ears back – something they love to do before they charge you. I was a bit uneasy but she finally moved on out. Then once on the river the fish were biting as expected. 
We had great action for about two hours. Howie and Rieser each landed a handful of nice 14 to 16 inch cutthroats and a scattering of browns and rainbows. By 11 the sun was high and it was hot like a summer day and unfortunately the fishing slowed down miserably. Our boat probably landed less then three fish from 11 till about 3 PM. It was really surprising. Luckily, at about 3 the hatches started and I mean big time. There were pale morning duns, mahogany duns, tricos and a few stoneflies out. Once again the fish returned to feeding on the riffles and even on the slow banks. Howie, who has much less fly fishing experience than Rieser, put on one of his best fly fishing performances of his life. While fishing from the back of the boat he threaded the needle and dropped his flies into nooks and crannies that trout don’t expect a fly to land. The result, Howie beat the heck out fish in the final hours of the trip. I’m not sure if he just drank the perfect number of beers or what, but Howie was in the zone that anglers get in only once in a very rare while.
The highlight wasn’t Howie putting on a clinic however. The highlight was watching Rieser land two brown trout on one cast. Rieser was in the front of the boat fishing two small dry flies. I saw some shallow water towards the middle of the river and suggested he drop a cast over the gravel. His flies drifted along about ten feet then one got eaten. He set the hook and a small brown leaped. He was hooked on his upper fly. Then Rieser said there was another trout chasing the one and acting very strange. After a few days ago when I had that huge trout eat a trout off my line I stood up hoping we were about to have some similar excitement. But this was different. The chasing trout was the same size and he wasn’t chasing the other hooked trout at all. He was chasing the trailing fly. And he got it. “You have a double!” I shouted. 
We woke up to clear skies and the thickest frost I’ve seen in years last Thursday. In fact, remember that wet meal we ate Wednesday night? Our plates were solid ice blocks when we woke up. Even the flies on our rods were frozen popsicles for fish. We had to chip them loose from the rod guides. But the sun was out and things could only get better for the rest of the week.
in one blog, but with more camping and fishing days ahead without internet access its best I get this done tonight. All I can say is these last four days far surpassed my expectations. I simply wanted to show my Midwestern college friends a good time with some reasonable fishing in a gorgeous place. On the very afternoon we arrived at our new camp we had great fishing. This is a camp I’ve stayed at before and it’s absolutely spectacular. It’s right on the river, there are peaks in every direction, the elk are bugling and fish rise all the time. This week was no exception and before we even set up the tents we observed several nice rainbows feeding. Travis of Iowa was first to pursue the risers. He waded right out and on the third cast he hooked and landed one of the nicest trout of his life. It was a thrill not only for Travis, but the rest of us 
enjoyed watching the whole experience unfold before our eyes as we sat in our lawn chairs sipping beers. Fun!
him beached I couldn’t help but stare at how pretty he was. His speckles were amazing to say the least. There were millions of them and they were all over his body including his pectoral fins.
likely a brown but possibly even a monster cutty, ripped him off my fly and ate him. Just seeing this massive trout whirl effortlessly through very fast shallow water and maneuver so easily will leave an impressive little memory in the back of my mind for a long time. What I’ll never forget was that his eyes were as big as nickels and his tail like a broom. He was so focused on stealing my trout off my line it was incredible!
accidentally on purpose! 
overnight trip through the Canyon. Expect a good report as I believe these college buddies have really brought along some fantastic luck!
While I was rapidly stripping in an 8 inch trout that I had on, a huge trout, likely a brown but possibly even a monster cutty, ripped him off my fly and ate him. Just seeing this massive trout whirl effortlessly through very fast shallow water and maneuver so easily will leave an impressive little memory in the back of my mind for a long time. What I’ll never forget was that his eyes were as big as nickels and his tail like a broom. He was so focused on stealing my trout off my line it was incredible!
through my fly boxes in search of some sort of massive streamer. I didn’t have one. My streamer box was nowhere to be found. So instead I put on two huge Polish nymphs and started dredging the run in hopes I’d hook up with him. But no luck. Evidently, once this big guy showed himself in the area, all trout went into hiding. For the rest of the day I found myself doing terrible things like really taking my time to land the all the small trout I hooked and I may have even dangled one through a deep pool accidentally on purpose! 
up and ready for a night on the town. Remember, this is a celebration with college buddies. We graduated from Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin 25 years ago and we are still great friends. The plan is to search out a big dinner in a warm room under a roof after our four nights of camping in the cold and good bit of rain. Then it’s up early in the morning so we can head to the South Fork of the Snake where we will do an overnight trip through the Canyon. Expect a good report as I believe these college buddies have really brought along some 
fantastic luck! 
Day 2 of the 
It took less than three minutes to land my first fish and an hour later, I had nearly a dozen and Phil had a big fish, a 17” brown that gave him considerable bonus points. Things were going exceptional. What was especially great for us was that morning fishing on the South Fork is considered poor because the hatches don’t start till about 1 PM. So here we were doing well early and the good fishing had yet to start.
Little did I know it, but that spirited rainbow damaged my fly. In the next ten minutes I hooked and lost three more big fish. I hooked them, fought them for about ten seconds and they were off – talk about frustrating. I flipped my fly to my hand to check it and the hook gap was opened slightly. It was from the massive pressure I put on the “not ready to land” rainbow. Not cool, but a situation that happens and you simply bend the hook back. So, I pulled out my forceps and delicately began the procedure and with hardly any pressure at all my hook snapped. My hook snapped! I was finished!
Granny and I just got home from the One Fly celebration party. The One Fly is now officially over. I’m so exhausted I can’t explain it. Competitive fishing is as fun as it gets but it really takes it out of you. And it’s not just the fishing. I get so amped up with the fun of seeing old friends that come to Jackson, Wyoming just once a year for this great event. What a great time. I will work and rest for only a couple days, then on Wednesday my best friends from college arrive for a week of camping and fishing. Stay tuned. . . 
