Day 2 Weather Change

November 3, 2010

I couldn’t fall asleep last night to save my life. I couldn’t wait to get on the water this morning and couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility of catching a tiger even bigger than 12lbs. Then, when I finally got to sleep at about 1 am, I was awoken by the distant roar of a lion. It was a spectacular sound that really put our whereabouts in perspective. I was thrilled to be this deep into Africa but definitely aware that I could be on the dinner plate. It took another hour to get back to sleep and then I was awoken again. This time it was to the sound of snapping trees outside my tent. At first the snaps blended into a dream but then I realized the noise had nothing to do with my dreams. My heart dropped because it was so close to me. I opened my eyes and reached for my headlamp. I took a deep breath and when I turned it on there was an elephant less than ten feet from my tent. As enormous as the elephant was, somehow I wasn’t scared. The elephant was simply foraging on the trees and shrubs outside my tent. I watched him for about ten minutes and then fell into a deep sleep for the last hour before I was awaken by the camp staff for fresh brewed African coffee.

No matter how bad you slept it doesn’t take much to bounce from bed when you are going tigerfishing. We all met for coffee and breakfast at 5:30 am and then went promptly to the water. This morning Rob jumped into the camera boat and Leonard came over to fish with me and Keith. While Chris, Klug and Harris set up their cameras our boat made few drifts through the camp pool. I hooked up and landed a 5lb tiger immediately. Even though I got the massive 12lb tiger last night, in my mind this 5lber was nothing to laugh at. But without even a look, Keith corralled my leader and shook the fish off and called it a rat. It’s going to take me a few days to except that tigerfish under 10lbs are simply “rats”.

Shortly after Leonard landed a 5lber as well but then that was it. We fished like rock stars for the next six hours and got nothing but an occasional strike. Let’s talk about the strike real quick. Tigerfish have small mouths in proportion to their size and as you already know from my postings, teeth like a hyena. There aren’t a whole lot of places for your hook too connect to inside their bony mouths. Toothless places inside the tiger’s mouth are as hard as a rock. You must use absolutely the sharpest of hooks and when you get a strike set the hook beyond the norm. By far the best way to set the hook is to strip set about five times until the fish takes off in the opposite direction. Then hit him with some side swipes with the rod and hope that your hook is finally secure. Once hooked be prepared to put the heat on him. Tigers make some amazing runs and on the Mnyera River there are sunken trees and jagged rock crops everywhere. Even though you think you might break a leader, fly line or even your rod, do not let him run far. Be prepared for all the chaos and expect to watch some of the most incredible aerial displays of all freshwater species. Tigers are no different than a salmon, sometimes leaping five feet in the air ten times during one fight. They are really incredible.

By lunch time Leonard and I only brought two fish each to the boat. Our fishing was beyond slow; it was unheard of to the South Africans. During lunch in the shade they announced that today was the slowest day they had all season. They blamed it on the weather. Because of my poor weather history I grimaced when I heard that, but the weather didn’t seem too bad to me other than it was windy. However, evidently wind is a rarity here and the tigerfish don't like it. On top of that, it was colder than normal. Even though it was hot, probably close to 90° it should be hotter.

We took about a two hour break. Then Rob came back to my boat and Leonard went back to the camera boat. Rob and I fished like mad men while Keith worked his butt off poling us down the river. Every spot they knew held fish in the past produced nothing. Then out of the blue Rob hooked up and landed a gorgeous 14lber.

That was it. We didn’t touch another fish all afternoon. The South Africans couldn’t believe it but we landed only five tigerfish all day – a new worst day record for camp since it opened in 2009 - shocking. It wasn’t us, the fishing just plain sucked. There were no hippos, elephants or pukus either. And the African fish eagles looked hungry. All the creatures that were so active through the night were gone. That’s fishing. We’ll hope for the wind to die and for the temps to climb for tomorrow.

Special Note – Because I am in the Confluence Film I will be very limited on taking my own pictures. A special thanks to Jim Klug, Jim Harris and Chris Patterson for providing most of what you see on the blog for this Africa trip.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

To the Bush

November 2, 2010

Today began the long anticipated part of our trip, try to film a huge Tanzanian tigerfish caught on a fly. After a great breakfast overlooking the Indian Ocean, Jim Klug, Jim Harris, Chris Patterson and I went to the lobby of the Sea Cliff Hotel and met Keith Clover, one of the owners of Tourette Fishing and drove to the local airport to catch our charter flight to camp. Before we knew it we were in the air on our caravan. The flight lasted 2 hours and took us southeast deep into the heart of Tanzania. Our landing was spectacular not only because it was one of the most pastoral airstrips I’ve ever landed on but elephants, hippopotamus and pukus were to be seen out every window of the plane. One puku buck barely got off the runway in time to avoid being smeared.

Keith Clover will be with us all week. Keith is the South African that I spoke about in blogs last week. It was he and his friend Rob Scott that discovered this Tanzanian tiger fishery in 2008. Rob is the other owner of Tourette and he too will be with us on this adventure. In fact, Rob runs this fishing camp. He’s also a guide and was there waiting for us to arrive. Rob was once head ranger of Mala Mala National park in South Africa and his knowledge should be an asset to the film. The right hand man for Keith and Rob and also a best friend is Leonard Flemming. Leonard is 29 and reminds me of myself at 29. He lives to fish and not just for tigerfish. Leonard wants to catch every species on the planet. Leonard has been guiding tigerfish here for the last four months.

This is the end of 19 weeks of guiding in the bush for Rob and Leonard. They are absolutely exhausted from the intense season. The cool thing about this week for Keith, Rob and Leonard is that they will be a major part of our film. Sure, they need to guide us and run the show, but they too will be fishing in the film. If it wasn’t for their explorations the last two years we’d never be here. And there’s no doubt that they will forget more about tigerfishing than we’ll ever know.

You can’t explain how hot Africa really is. It’s absolutely scorching. If you’ve never experienced it before it can be shocking the first time. But it’s the climate that tigerfish thrive in. Under the African heat, Chris began filming the start of our adventure while the rest of us went about our business. For me and the South Africans our business entailed climbing on top of a classic African safari vehicle for a bouncy ride to camp amongst elephants and puku.

Once at camp we downed cold welcome beers then tossed our stuff in our tents and set up for fishing. I pulled out my 8-weight Ross and strung it with a Rio 250 grain tropical sinking line and strung my 10-weight with a 350 grain. I had everything prepared right down to my leader including the 40lb Rio Knottable Wire that I tied on at home a few days ago. All I had to do was ask the South Africans to recommend me a fly for each rig. After a quick lunch, another refreshing beer and a briefing about the weeks plan we were on the water.

We will fish on two different rivers this week. Today’s camp puts us on the Mnyera River. This river is much smaller than I expected and as you admire it you’ll see leaping baitfish fleeing from feeding tigerfish. We had two boats. Keith, Rob and I were fishing in one boat. The other boat had the rest of the gang including Leonard. They simply stayed back and filmed us.

We didn’t venture more than 100 feet from camp to start because like any guides, Keith and Rob wanted to see me cast. They heard I can fish but wisely wanted to make sure. Although this is my fifth time fishing for tigers I’m by no means an expert. The first thing at hand was to get my casting stroke in order. Even though this is about the tenth time this year I’ve broke out the big sticks it still takes a few minutes to smooth out casts with heavy lines and flies. To make it even more difficult, both Keith and Rob are 6’ 3”s. I only met these guys this morning so the last thing I wanted to do was hook them.

I must say I struggled the first hour. I was messing up my pick up on my casts and the fly Rob picked was the heaviest fly in my box. I was sure I was going to hook one of them and just wasn’t casting like I can. Rob was fishing while Keith poled us along with the current. He was doing fine and nailed two tigers before I got my first. One of his was easily 7lbs! I was ready to get out my camera and Keith called it a rat and unhooked and released it as fast as he could. I was really surprised because on all my previous tigerfish trips a 7lber is nice fish. This week should be very interesting I thought to myself.

My casting improved throughout the afternoon as I too caught some fish. In fact we must have caught 20 beautiful tigers and several were over 10lbs! My last fish of the night shocked me. He topped out the boga at an amazing 12lbs! I absolutely can’t believe it because we only fished for about 4 hours. To top it off we saw more elephants and hippos from the boat. The birds are incredible. Perhaps I have died and gone to heaven.

One more amazing tidbit about today is that when we got off the plane another group was boarding after their week at Tourette's camp. Would you believe I knew someone there? Garreth Coombes, an avid tigerfisher from South Africa was leaving after a great week. I met Garreth in Zambia in 2005 while hitching across Africa. We shared a ride – unreal! We have five more full days of fishing ahead. I can only imagine how big a tiger we may catch. Chris, Klug, Harris and I are so excited we can hardly believe it. In our minds we already have a film segment of giant tigerfish. Can we really catch one bigger than 12lbs? We’ll see tomorrow. . .

Special Note - Because I am in the Confluence film I will be very limited on taking my own pictures. A special thanks to Jim Klug, Jim Harris and Chris Patterson for providing most of what you will see on the blog for this Africa Trip.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

Where the heck is Zanzibar

October 31 – November 1, 2010

There’s been no time for jetlag on this adventure. Shortly after breakfast yesterday at the SeaCliff Hotel we found ourselves on a large ferry boat named Kilimanjaro headed out into the Indian Ocean for the island of Zanzibar. Zanzibar is famous for its blend of Indian Ocean cultures derived from being a major trade route for over 1000 years. It also has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world and it and the surrounding islands provide fantastic fishing opportunities. Unfortunately we didn’t have time for fishing and this was just a quick side adventure from making our tigerfishing film that we will begin tomorrow.

Another interesting thing about Zanzibar is that today, November 1st, is Election Day. This is a terrible time to visit Zanzibar because during the last elections major violence broke out and led to mass bloodshed in the streets. Of course, when we planned this trip we had no idea about the election and really didn’t become aware of the situation until yesterday. Fortunately everything turned out ok. There was definitely tension and we actually watched locals run from the military on one frightening occasion, but overall our visit was good.

First of all the 21/2 hour ferry boat ride to Zanzibar was one to remember. The Indian Ocean appeared clean and healthy and teaming with life. Flying fish scattered from the ferry nearly the entire trip and if you kept a watchful eye you’d spot porpoise leaping in our wake. When we arrived on Zanzibar the streets were quiet. Locals peered from shop doors and homes and stared at us. Very few made much attempt to speak to us or even stranger try to sell us anything, something you normally can’t get away from in the far corners of the globe. Jim Klug whom I introduced in a blog earlier this week had us booked into the famous Africa House. We checked in then hit the town to see the sites and film the people.

The previously curious folks of Zanzibar seemed to warm up to us fast. They were very friendly and wanted to meet us. The kids were especially fun and we had a couple of highlights with them. One was a big game of soccer which Jim Harris and I played. I haven’t really said much of Harris because I didn’t meet him until the trip. He’s a good friend of Klug's and Chris Patterson's (I introduced Chris a few days ago also) and great photographer. He’s along to help with the film. Harris and I were on opposing teams and I started as the goalie for my team while he played the field for his. I made a couple great saves (I thought they were) then Jim went and scored on me. The kids pulled me from the net and stuck me on the field immediately. We must have played for 15 minutes. Jim and I ate dirt and sweated to death. Miraculously I scored on his team and my teammates yelled good shot cowboy which as one of the most hilarious things I have ever heard in Africa. The best part about it Chris filmed the entire game and a few seconds of it will likely make our film. We spent the sunset watching kids practice back flips off an old tire on the beach. It was absolutely incredible!

I’m afraid it’s time to meet the boys of Tourette. Rather than me save this a week I’m simply going to say we had a great night and then today on Zanzibar. We visited the fish market and spice market and then things got sketchy with some showdowns threats from military. I don’t mess around when the political heat cranks up so we went back to the Africa House and packed it up and headed for the ferry back to Dar es Salaam.

That’s it for now. In the morning we leave early for the African bush and hopefully some huge tigerfish. Expect full day to day stories in a week or so when I have internet access again.

Special Note - Because I am in the Confluence Film I will be very limited on taking my own pictures. A special thanks to Jim Klug, Jim Harris and Chris Patterson for providing most of what you see on the blog from this Africa trip.

First of all the 21/2 hour ferry boat ride to Zanzibar was one to remember. The Indian Ocean appeared clean and healthy and teaming with life. Flying fish scattered from the ferry nearly the entire trip and if you kept a watchful eye you’d spot porpoise leaping in our wake. When we arrived on Zanzibar the streets were quiet. Locals peered from shop doors and homes and stared at us. Very few made much attempt to speak to us or even stranger try to sell us anything, something you normally can’t get away from in the far corners of the globe. Jim Klug whom I introduced in a blog earlier this week had us booked into the famous Africa House. We checked in then hit the town to see the sites and film the people.

The previously curious folks of Zanzibar seemed to warm up to us fast. They were very friendly and wanted to meet us. The kids were especially fun and we had a couple of highlights with them. One was a big game of soccer which Jim Harris and I played. I haven’t really said much of Harris because I didn’t meet him until the trip. He’s a good friend of Klug's and Chris Patterson's (I introduced Chris a few days ago also) and great photographer. He’s along to help with the film. Harris and I were on opposing teams and I started as the goalie for my team while he played the field for his. I made a couple great saves (I thought they were) then Jim went and scored on me. The kids pulled me from the net and stuck me on the field immediately. We must have played for 15 minutes. Jim and I ate dirt and sweated to death. Miraculously I scored on his team and my teammates yelled good shot cowboy which as one of the most hilarious things I have ever heard in Africa. The best part about it Chris filmed the entire game and a few seconds of it will likely make our film. We spent the sunset watching kids practice back flips off an old tire on the beach. It was absolutely incredible!

I’m afraid it’s time to meet the boys of Tourette. Rather than me save this a week I’m simply going to say we had a great night and then today on Zanzibar. We visited the fish market and spice market and then things got sketchy with some showdowns threats from military. I don’t mess around when the political heat cranks up so we went back to the Africa House and packed it up and headed for the ferry back to Dar es Salaam.

That’s it for now. In the morning we leave early for the African bush and hopefully some huge tigerfish. Expect full day to day stories in a week or so when I have internet access again.

Special Note - Because I am in the Confluence Film I will be very limited on taking my own pictures. A special thanks to Jim Klug, Jim Harris and Chris Patterson for providing most of what you see on the blog from this Africa trip.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

We Made It!

It was a long 36 hour door to door trip. Actually add 20 hours for me because I drove up to Bozeman, MT on Thur. Anyhow, we are glad to be here and ready to rock. We got in to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania two hours late, just after midnight Dar time. Everyone's luggage made it and we were pumped up enough to have some dinner and beers in the wee hours this morning here at the SeaCliff Hotel. As you can imagine our schedules are messed up bad. We are 9 hours ahead here. It will take a few days to adjust.

The program for us now is today we are taking a ferry ride to Zanzibar Island and Stone Town. We've been advised to either not go or be careful because Tanzanian elections start today. Evidently things can get out of hand particularly in Zanzibar. Whatever, we're going out there and spending the night there tonight than back to Dar tomorrow night to meet up Tourette Fishing company and Keith Clover.

Should be good. I'll try to post some pics tonight as long as I keep lucking into Internet access.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

 

Half Way There

One 9 hour flight done. One more to go. We made it to Amsterdam and in two hours we will fly to Kilimanjaro - another 8 hours. We chill there for an hour then fly to Dar Es Salam. It will be another long day and we don't get in to Dar until 11 pm Dar time. At least we can crash out a few hours. Then in the morning if all our travel goes well we are taking a ferry out to Zanzibar. Our fishing for tigers will start Tue.

First pic is Jim Harris from Bozeman working diligently on his computer.

The second picture is me rewarding Jim with a drink from the classic self service airport bar in Amsterdam. I'll stick to Heineken. Good stuff!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

On the Way

Not much to say other than we have a long way to go. We are in Minneapolis just about to board our flight for Amsterdam. Planes are running late today. Tomorrow we have a 3 hour layover in Amsterdam then a long flight to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Can't wait to put this part behind us!

Photo - Jim Klug founder of Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures - He's all business!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

Tiger Talk

Africa still has so many remote and unexplored fisheries that some of its fish species are not yet scientifically identified. I just spoke with Keith Clover of Tourette Fishing and he told me the tigerfish we will be targeting in Tanzania next week is no longer classified as the same type of tigerfish as those of the Zambezi and Okavango River systems. If you look back in my previous blog posted October 24th I mentioned that they were the same and want to clear it up.

My information came from an article “The Quest for Trophy Tigers” written in 2008. If you want a great read and to see some unreal photos it’s archived on the Tourette Fishing website in the articles section. At the time of the editorial there was little information on the Tanzanian tigerfish and despite its different appearance and larger size they were still considered to be (Hydrocynus vittatus). However, after recent studies of DNA from fin clip samples provided by Tourette Fishing, this amazing predator has been determined its own species. This Tanzanian tigerfish is (Hydrocynus tanzaniae).

The visual differences in tigerfish species aren’t nearly as dramatic as say that of trout species but I can see differences. In past trips to Africa Granny and I have caught at least two types of tigerfish.

The first hero shot on this entry is Granny with the Zambezi tigerfish (Hydrocynus vittatus). We were in Namibia fishing the Chobe River (five miles up from where it enters the Zambezi). It was actually my 40th birthday when she caught this beast!

The next photo is me holding a tigerfish that Granny caught in Egypt, (Hydrocynus forskahlii). We were Nile Perch fishing on Lake Nasser (the lake formed on the Nile River by the Aswan Dam). We were five days into a two week camping trip. Granny was tired of casting the 9-weight for Niles so I rigged her a red and white Clouser Minnow on a 7-weight. All I can say is she wished she had the 9-weight for this 7.5lb Egyptian tigerfish. Did I mention that tigers fight hard?

Lucky for me, Granny isn’t joining us to Tanzania next week and I’ll have a chance at a big Tanzanian tigerfish, (Hydrocynus tanzaniae). That’s the tigerfish in the last photo, courtesy of Tourette. They were only discovered a few years ago and the biggest caught so far is 28lbs.

The largest tiger is the goliath tigerfish (Hydrocynus goliath) of the Congo and Lake Tanganyika. You can find pictures of them on Google but I have yet to hold one and don’t have a picture to show. I would do about anything to go try to nail one of these on a fly. Goliaths reach 100lbs!

There’s plenty of work being done studying tigerfish these days. For your average angler having one on the line is enough. But I find it very interesting and hope to catch them all before I’m done.

Tanzania should be a great trip with plenty of stories and photos to come. If they don’t appear on my blog next week - not to worry. My guess is there won’t be any chance at all of internet in the jungle, but I’ll keep a good journal and transfer it to the blog the minute possible just like on my past adventures. I should also mention I will be interviewed live on Fly Fishing - Internet Radio on November 17th. It will be entirely about fishing for tigerfish and I’ll share stories from this trip and past trips. You won’t want to miss it!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

Back to Africa

The weather has changed. This October has been the nicest I can remember in my 24 years living in the Yellowstone area, but this morning the birdbath is frozen solid and the smell of snow is in the air. You may have noticed this past year that when the snow flies, so do I. That’s exactly why there haven’t been many posts this week even though late October can be the best fishing of the year. I’ve been packing, gathering info and pouring over maps.
I’m headed back to Africa. This time to Tanzania to fish for a colony of tigerfish only discovered in 2008. Although these tigerfish are thought to be the same species of tigerfish (Hydrocynus vittatus) I've fished for in the Zambezi River and
the Okavango systems, they reach sizes far larger. It is believed that the incredible biomass in this river allows the fish to grow faster and bigger than at other locations. They are also a good deal lighter in color and their stripes are much fainter likely because of the water color on these remote Tanzania Rivers.
The main reason of this expedition is to film a segment for the latest Confluence Films project. In the past three years Confluence Films has released two highly acclaimed fly fishing movies, Drift and Rise. The new movie to be released in fall 2011 is tentatively called Connect but that could change. The masterminds behind these movies are executive producer Jim Klug and
director/cinematographer Chris Patterson. Jim is the founder and director of operations for Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures and a long time friend. Chris is known for his stunning visuals and unparalleled camera work in numerous action sports. He has been the director/cinematographer of the Warren Miller Ski Films feature films for twenty years and has numerous other projects including all of the lead camera work for the winter action scenes in this year’s blockbuster DiCaprio movie, Inception.
Our hosts for this incredible shoot are South African natives Keith Clover and Rob Scott of Tourette Fishing – Fight it in Africa. Keith and Rob pioneered what they dreamt of for years – a place where one can catch a 20lb tigerfish on a fly. I’ve never met either but can tell from corresponding via emails and reading Tourette's incredible website that they are very keen adventure seeking fly fishermen. These guys not only guide tigerfish throughout Africa, but also on prime African saltwater fly fishing destinations including a place high on my list, the Seychelles.
Hopefully I’ll get on the water a couple more times this week before I head to Africa. Late October truly is one of my favorite times to fish my home waters, but there’s a lot that goes into preparing for a journey to Africa. If I don’t get out locally, I’ll be sure post on my progress of packing. I’ll also do my best to pass along some tips on preparing for an international fishing trip. It’s crucial that I'm ready for massive tigerfish so I too can be soon holding one of these incredible fish pictured here today!
Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

45 Doesn't Seem So Bad

I turned 45 today. 20 years ago that age seemed ancient to me. Even on paper it’s a little scary. But the truth of it, I feel great. I still feel like a kid and hopefully will never act my age.

Naturally I wet a line on my birthday. Good friend Rob Parkins and I did a short float on some sacred water. Our weather continues to baffle. It was easily in the upper 60ºs and the sky was cloudless. To top it off, we hardly had an ounce of wind. It was absolutely perfect!

Fishing was ok. I must admit we didn’t fish that hard but I think the weather is so nice that the big fish are inactive. Normally late October is a time of the first cold cloudy days that deliver blankets of blue winged olive hatches. Big trout are usually on the surface eating every mayfly in sight to fatten up for winter. But instead it’s bluebird days and the random blue wing, October Caddis and believe it or not, it’s so nice there are a few hardy late season grasshoppers around.

Nonetheless, we caught plenty of fish but the biggest was probably less than 13 inches. It was a variety pack however of good-looking little rainbows, cutthroats and brook trout and we caught them all on dry flies. We even caught a few whitefish which leads to the highlight of the day. Robs dog Shang loves to eat whitefish. Yes you heard me correct, Rob owns a fish eating dog. Obviously trout are kept a good distance from the jaws of Shang. In fact as I unhooked a brook trout Shang fell overboard trying to get him. However, when it comes to a whitefish, if he’s a good boy, he gets him. I watched Shang slam down three whities today in which he devours in less than eight seconds!

I don’t think I need to tell you it was no less than an ideal way to spend a birthday. We caught fish. We saw some moose. We saw a porcupine. We woke up some owls. And once again the weather was unbelievable. If only the Cubs were playing on October 18th! Someday. . .

Fishing was ok. I must admit we didn’t fish that hard but I think the weather is so nice that the big fish are inactive. Normally late October is a time of the first cold cloudy days that deliver blankets of blue winged olive hatches. Big trout are usually on the surface eating every mayfly in sight to fatten up for winter. But instead it’s bluebird days and the random blue wing, October Caddis and believe it or not, it’s so nice there are a few hardy late season grasshoppers around.

Nonetheless, we caught plenty of fish but the biggest was probably less than 13 inches. It was a variety pack however of good-looking little rainbows, cutthroats and brook trout and we caught them all on dry flies. We even caught a few whitefish which leads to the highlight of the day. Robs dog Shang loves to eat whitefish. Yes you heard me correct, Rob owns a fish eating dog. Obviously trout are kept a good distance from the jaws of Shang. In fact as I unhooked a brook trout Shang fell overboard trying to get him. However, when it comes to a whitefish, if he’s a good boy, he gets him. I watched Shang slam down three whities today in which he devours in less than eight seconds!

I don’t think I need to tell you it was no less than an ideal way to spend a birthday. We caught fish. We saw some moose. We saw a porcupine. We

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

100 Degrees and Few Bass

I was all amped up after giving my talk at Desert Fly Casters last night. It went very well and when we got back to Steve’s house at 11 pm there was no way I was going to try and sleep. Instead, Steve and I each grabbed a beer and watched a cool DVD called “Once in a Blue Moon”. It’s about the mouse hatch in New Zealand. I hit a mouse hatch in New Zealand many years ago and the DVD brought back incredible memories. We didn’t get to bed until 1 am.

It was no easy task, but we got up at 4 am to head to Bartlett Lake to chase down some bass. We were the lucky guests of Skyler Clark, a really nice kid about 22 years old. Skyler works part time at Sportsman’s Warehouse while going to college and is a friend of Steve and Cinda’s. He’s also one heck of  a bass fisherman and last Saturday his boat took 10th place out of a field of 60 in a bass tournament on Bartlett Lake.

Both Steve and I were a little groggy out of the gates this morning. Steve could hardly tie his fly on. However, once on the lake and after a few casts the body completely forgets about how tired it is and before we knew it we were concentrating on our fishing. It took me about ten minutes to realize our fishing was not going to be that good. I began by popping the shallows. It was great looking water but not even a small largemouth stirred. Steve was dredging streamers on a sinking line and Skyler was using his bait caster with all the right lures – but nothing. I think the field of 60 competitive bass anglers last weekend really educated the bass.

Despite the lake being full of bass, Steve and I landed four bass on the fly and Skyler landed about a dozen while using every trick he knew with his bait caster. It was slow to say the least. And the biggest bass were a couple of 14 inchers that Skyler dredged up. Not exactly the hawgs we were hoping for. Nonetheless it was a gorgeous morning on a spectacular desert setting. But at noon we reeled in and made a dash for some carp lakes. Skyler had never caught a grass carp and Steve and I knew we could probably put him on one.

We didn’t have a lot of time for carping because we had dinner plans at Eddie’s House. By the time we fought our way through the Phoenix Arizona traffic and arrived at the urban lakes we had an hour to fish. It was calm and a scorching 100º! Both Steve and I knew although miserable for us, the grassies would be feeding. We split up and started beating on some fish. I got my grassie the other day so I rigged a nymph and hammered away on some nice koi. I even caught what appears to be a giant goldfish. It’s definitely not a normal koi because of its long draping fins.

At the end of our hour Steve, Skyler and I met on a school of grass carp that were feeding vigorously. I was taking some photos of them and Skyler made a cast. Most of these grassies refused the offering but the last one in the rear of the school couldn’t resist. Skyler watched the grassie indulge his fly and set the hook perfectly. Five minutes later, Skyler had his first grass carp.

Tonight Steve, Cinda and I had a scrumptious dinner at Eddie’s House. Chef Eddie Matney is a great friend of ours. Eddie fly fishes like crazy and therefore Steve and Cinda have known him for years. I met Eddie in Jackson Hole with Chef Michael DelMaria whom we had dinner with on Tuesday night. Chef Eddie fishes the Jackson Hole One Fly Contest every year. This year Eddie led his team to a top ten finish by scoring 9th among all individual contestants. Not an easy thing to do when you consider there are over 160 individual contestants. Eddie’s House is located in Scottsdale on Indian School Rd. Every course of our meal was phenomenal to say the least and I highly recommend a visit to Eddie’s House if you have the chance.

The warm weather fishing is over for me for a couple weeks. I’ll be leaving Arizona early tomorrow morning fat and happy and ready to play with my local trout. Expect a few good stories from my neighborhood but the big news is I’m off to Africa in less than two weeks to chase a subspecies of tigerfish that was discovered in 2008. I will be part of the latest Confluence Film project hosted by Tourette Fishing in Tanzania. More on this trip to come in the next few days.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site