Out of the Snow into the Sun

Sammy and I are in SLC waiting for our flight to Baja. Things are lookin good! It's likely I won't have internet most of the week but I will do reports day by day when I can even if its when I get home!


We Made it

January 30, 2011 PM

It’s bedtime so this report will be short and sweet. We're in Lapaz at a hotel. That’s about three hours south of where we wanted to be tonight. Grant Hartman picked Sammy and me up at the San Jose Los Cabos Airport promptly at 3 PM and we hopped in his truck and headed straight north. Our intentions were to drive 5 hours up to Ciudad Constitucion. Well, let’s just say we didn’t make it.

Nothing bad happened, no flat tires or engine breakdown. However, it looks like I’ve hit another election day (Remember the Election Day in Zanzibar back in November?). I’m not sure who Leonel is or what he’s running for but we got caught in stop and go traffic of cheering, honking, banner holding citizens that were voting for Leonel. Even with Grants Nascar racer like passing maneuvers we lost at least two hours. At sunset (which is at 6) we were driving through La Paz and decided to call it. All three of us were exhausted and driving in Baja at night is a big no no. So instead of completing the drive to CC we got a hotel and Sammy took us to a great restaurant called Buffalos Bar-B-Q where we devoured fresh souchie and huge steaks. Now I’m so tired I probably won’t be able to sleep but I’m ready to try. We’ll be up early in the AM and hoping to fish by noon. Life is so damn good!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Website

Glad to be Home

After rolling in late Tuesday night from an intense three week show circuit I was glad to put my feet up in my own house, drink some pressed coffee and watch my hungry birds (these are Evening Grosbeaks) indulge after a period of empty feeders. When I left on January 5th it got light out at 7:30 AM but now it gets light at 7. The best thing about a busy January is that it flies by and the cold dark days are gone before you know it.

I dragged on my bird watching for about two hours then the relaxation ended and I was back at it. I don’t mean traveling already, but rather unpacking, answering emails and calls, paying bills, shoveling the driveway (thank goodness for Granny!) and the list goes on and on. You know how it is when you are away from home.

Today, I’m nearly caught up and I’m packing for Baja. Yes at the and of every tunnel there is light and on Sunday morning I’ll be catching the early one for Salt Lake City where I’ll meet Sam Vigneri. Then we’ll fly to Cabo and by 3 PM we’ll be headed up the coast of Mexico with Grant Hartman to fish for a week.

Huge surf and cooler than normal water temps have thrown a twist in our trip. What was planned to be a hunt for giant Pacific Snook has turned into a hunt for fishable water and take anything you can get. But that’s fishing and ok with us. I’ve been working like a dog and Sammy always does, so a break from work and getting out of the cold is all we really need. My kind of blogs coming soon!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Website

Somerset NJ Fly Fishing Show

This past weekend was the Somerset, New Jersey Fly Fishing Show. Somerset is the largest fly fishing show in the world. Hundreds of exhibitors including fly fishing product manufacturers, travel companies, lodges, guide services and even fly shops were there. Worth mentioning were Simms, Rio and Yellow Dog Fly Fishing Adventures, all companies of which I’m lucky to be affiliated with. There were demonstrations and seminars given by big time fly fishing celebrities such as Gary Borger, Steve Rajeff and even Lefty Kreh. Amongst these legends of the sport were another 20 or so well known anglers and fly tiers.

This year marked the 19th anniversary of the three day show that always begins on Friday and ends on Sunday. I was there to speak about warmwater and saltwater fly fishing, a couple of my favorite topics. My talks are done as PowerPoint presentations and using photos I explain the equipment and tactics I use for various fish species followed by pictures of big fish that you can catch when everything goes right. I have an assortment of pictures of not only big fish that most fly fishers are familiar with but also several unusual ones that many in my audience don’t even know exist until I put them on the big screen. In my saltwater show a huge roosterfish always stirs the crowd while in my warmwater presentation I show the giant tigerfish of Tanzania and I get to laugh as everyone in the audience nearly faints!

Between my programs I sat with the local fly tiers and while they tied gorgeous flies I painted fish. I finished up a greenback cutthroat watercolor I started two weeks ago while at the Denver Fly Fishing Show. Painting attracts the shows wandering visitors to my table to watch and then I hand out my business cards and hope to generate future art business and speaking engagements.

Show highlights always involve running into old friends. Dan Swift and Evan Schwanfelder, two former fly shop employees of mine, spent hours at the show. Dan even hung around for dinner with Granny and me. Also, one of my college pals, Danny Zilker stopped by for a visit.

As fun as the shows have been, I’m ready for a break. Granny and I are presently between Detroit and Salt Lake City on our way back to Victor. We fly into Jackson Hole around 10 PM and we’ll get home late tonight. I suspect I’ll be shoveling before I can get the car in the driveway. I’m not looking forward to that.

I have a lot of work to do in the next few days from artwork to final organization of the Brazil trip I’m hosting in March. The good news though is that Sunday I’ll be headed to Baja for a week of fishing with my pal Sam Vigneri. Stay tuned as I promise I’ll be blogging about fishing instead of working here soon!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Website

Marlborough, MA Fly Fishing Show

The long anticipated show season is screaming past fast. My schedule always appears grueling on paper but I enjoy the shows and they always go by like lightning. In just a few more days the biggest fly fishing show of the year, Somerset, New Jersey, will be behind me and I’ll be in Idaho packing for Baja.

The Marlborough, Massachusetts Fly Fishing Show was excellent. It wasn’t enormous crowds that made it so good but rather the quality of the visitors. I had excellent attendance at my seminars, sold a few books and handed out a bunch of business cards. Granny helped and had fun meeting folks and even picked up a few distance casting tips from my friend Michael Mauri of Germany.

Granny and I are presently enjoying the snow of New Hampshire with my family on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee. I just wish I had my ice fishing equipment! As I mentioned last time, there’s not much to mention in the way of fishing right now, but in less than two weeks I’ll be chasing snook off the beaches of Baja. Be ready to some exciting reports!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Website

Sneaking Around a Blizzard

Granny and I were on the first plane to land after the blizzard this week that tore up New England. We landed at the Manchester, New Hampshire airport at 8 PM on Wednesday night. New Hampshire was absolutely buried in fresh snow. Many areas had as much as 20-inches of fresh powder! Then we drove two hours up to Wolfeboro, New Hampshire to my parent’s house. This is where Granny and I will base out of for the next two weeks while I give presentations at the Marlborough, MA Fly Fishing Show on January 14-16 and the Somerset, NJ Fly Fishing Show January 21-23.

With deep snow everywhere, Granny and I couldn’t help but get out and play today. My sister Becky and her husband Don took us to Castle in the Clouds. While the three of them snow shoed I cross country skied. In one word, it was “epic!” I mean seriously, the snow was as good as it gets and the snow drooped white pines and dormant oaks and maples were as beautiful as ever. It’s great to have the opportunity to explore all parts of the USA in the prime of winter.

Tomorrow morning at 5 AM Granny and I will drive for the Marlborough, MA Fly Fishing Show. Although I’m not giving any presentations tomorrow, Saturday I speak on Saltwater Fly Fishing and on Sunday I’ll speak on Warmwater Fly Fishing. It should be a fun weekend!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Website

Show Season is Underway

Show season has begun! I apologize for the lag since my last post, but for the next two weeks blog entries could be few and far between. I’m in the heat of the moment right now doing seminars, entertaining, painting, and promoting my art. Although it appears as if all I do is fish, every year at this time I work like a mad man for three straight months (Actually I’ll sneak to Baja for the first week of February to chase Pacific snook!).

I’m just back from the Denver Fly Fishing Show. The show was fantastic but now I’m beat as heck. Rather than fly to Denver like I normally do, I drove so I could bring more stuff. I left for the 10 hour drive early Thursday morning and arrived in Denver at about 6 PM. The next day came fast and soon I was setting up my table to display all my stuff ranging from my coffee mugs, books, Simms T-shirts, Gi-clees and even some of my original artwork.

The show ran Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Each day I gave presentations. On Friday I presented “Four Seasons of the Yellowstone Trout Bum” to over 170 people. On Saturday I spoke on Saltwater Fly Fishing and on Sunday I did a fly casting demonstration. The show aisles were packed on Friday and Saturday. I’ve been doing shows and speaking in Denver for nearly 20 years so I know a lot of folks. It seemed like every time I looked up there was an old friend. On Sunday a significant snow storm ripped through Denver and it definitely lessened the traffic. Nonetheless, it still was busy enough to make the day worthwhile.

The show ended at 4:30 PM and by 5 I was doing 35 mph on an ice covered I-25 heading for home. It was the road conditions of nightmares but I had to get home to repack and get ready to fly east for the Marlborough Fly Fishing Show that starts Friday. Luckily by the time I got to Laramie, Wyoming and I-80 heading west the roads were good. I pulled in my driveway this morning at 4:25 AM absolutely exhausted.

The show was a great one. People showed a lot of interest in my art and I had a blast doing my presentations. I also had lots of fun during and after the show hours with my friends. I have a lot of pals down the Denver area that I don’t see enough of. One of my personal highlights was spending some time with Dave Whitlock. Dave told me about his recent trip to Bolivia for golden dorado and I shared my recent adventure to Africa for tigerfish. Dave also spent about a half hour giving me one of the finest autographs in my Guide to Aquatic Trout Foods book that anyone could ever ask for.

I have a busy week ahead with travel east, fine-tuning presentations and some art projects. I doubt I’ll be able to blog again until early next week after the Marlborough, Massachusetts show. There’s good news as far as fishing goes however, I’ll be headed to Baja to chase snook and other cool species the first week of February. This means we’ll have some exciting blogs to look forward too in less than a month!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Website

Happy New Year - 2010 will be Hard to Beat

It was a daunting task writing a story about every single day of fishing in 2010. There’s well over 100! I have typed away at my computer at least some 300 hours this year for my blog alone!

Is blogging worth it? I often ask myself that, especially when I should be working on my art or sorting and editing photos from recent expeditions. Granny thinks I’m crazy because of the hours I put in. She’d like to see me do more with my art or write another book or worst, get a normal job. She just doesn’t see the value in a blog.

Last night I was piecing together a PowerPoint presentation about my trip to Canada back in June. I used several cameras that trip and found it difficult remembering the order of events. Numerous times, I used my blog as a reference. Before I knew it, I read the complete day by day account of the trip and found myself completely reminiscing. It was pretty cool. And because I enjoyed it so much, I’ve decided I’m going to continue with the blog even if Granny thinks I’m nuts. I just hope the rest of you enjoy the reads also or she's right again.

About a week or so ago I asked what were some of the favorite blogs of 2010. Although I didn’t hear enough feedback on my question, I did get some.

Hands down, the favorite blog of the year was “The HF Marathon”.

The close runner up was "The Unknown Specie and a Monster".

And third was "Tiger Island and Mikey's Bar".

Third through fifth were all close so I’ll tell you that "Everything but Roosters" was fourth and "The Moment of Truth", one of the most memorable fishing days of my life, was fifth. I just think I was too tired to write it as well as it happened.

For now enjoy theses stories that were top fishing days of 2010. Although I’m busy as heck getting ready to hit the pavement for the rest of the month, in the next few days I’ll try to organize pictures of the best fish of 2010.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Website

Reeling it in for 2010

Teton Valley was already covered in deep snow from previous storms before a fresh 5-12 inches landed the last two days. We had high wind and periods of heavy snow throughout Tuesday afternoon and most of yesterday. Now our temps have plummeted and wind-chill is forecasted to be a dangerous 22º BELOW ZERO! Yikes! In other words, unless I slip on some ice and whack my head extremely hard, Sunday was my last day of fishing in 2010. 2010 will go down as the best fishing year of my life. We’ll highlight more on that in the next few days.

I just came in from an incredible ski in the backcountry. I spent nearly two hours breaking a trail through deep snow up one of our nearby mountains. I was exhausted to say the least by the time I reached the summit of this foothill. At that point, all the clothes I shed while sweating my way up had to go back on to keep me warm as I skied down. What took two hours travelling up took a mere 20 minutes going down. Remarkably, I made it all the way down without wiping out and the powdery run was by far my best ski outing of the season.

Now I’m back to the computer finishing up preparations for the Fly Fishing Shows which begin next week. The shows you will find me at this January are the Fly Fishing Show in Denver January 7 – 9, Fly Fishing Show in Marlborough, Massachusetts January 14 – 16 and the biggest of all Fly Fishing Shows, Somerset, New Jersey January 21 – 23. That’s just the January line up and I hope to see some of you there!

As I work away at my computer I have many feathery visitors. Our bird feeder hangs just a few feet from me and all kinds of birds visit. At this very second I have a fine-looking Hairy Woodpecker but my camera is out of reach. Damn! However, this morning I got this picture of a Clark's Nutcracker and yesterday this hungry crow. Good stuff as they say!

I still plan to post pictures of the 12 top fish of 2010. I’m also trying to narrow down my favorite blogs of the year. I appreciate the advice and suggestions many of you have made the last few days. It really helps and any more help would be appreciated. Feel free to contact me direct or write your vote in the comments box below this entry. Thanks again!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Website

To Fort Frame

I’m headed to the frame shop to drop off these two 12” x 16” original watercolors I finished for the Watercolor Magic Art Show to be held in Jackson, Wyoming January 14th thru February 11th. The show will exhibit at the Art Center, Theater Gallery. One of the pieces is of a Snake River Cutthroat Granny caught this summer and the other is of the best tigerfish I caught in Tanzania in November. While both are for sale, I doubt the tigerfish will sell because it’s such an exotic fish that few anglers have caught, however it will be a definite eye catcher. What’s really cool about this tigerfish painting is I don’t care if it sells. We don’t have a single painting of mine hanging in our house. This one will hang proudly in our guestroom.

I may also sell unlimited prints of both these fish. I’m headed for Staples before the framer to investigate the chances of starting an unlimited print series that will be very affordable. Stay tuned on this because my goal is to have any species you want for sale as a print in the very near future.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Website

Let's Beat the Storm

It was exactly a year ago today that Rob Parkins, Zack Dalton (One of RIO Products main guys) and I floated the South Fork. Evidently, that day was the beginning of a tradition because the minute Rob walked in the door at our Christmas Eve party he asked me if I was going with him and Zack the day after Christmas. (I don’t need to tell you my answer).

This is getting ridiculous – being able to float fish in late December. Even more ridiculous, the rod guides didn’t freeze until the last half hour of our day nor did we need gloves even when we were rowing. And as usual, there wasn't another boat in sight. This is about five trips in a row on the South Fork of the Snake and we have yet to share with another boat. This is the best off-season in history!

Today’s fishing was decent. Both Rob and Zack nymphed out of the boat to start the day. Rob caught a few whitefish a rainbow and a brown trout. At mid day I took the front and tossed some streamers. I literally have not taken my point fly (bottom fly) off yet since I tied it on in November. I’m still using the black and silver Screamer Streamer and pounding the fish on it. Even when I have multiple flies on the Screamer gets eaten nine times out of ten. The fly has just been fantastic.

Wildlife was abundant today. On the drive over from Victor Rob and I saw hundreds of deer and an enormous bull elk. The elk was trapped along the roadside by a very high electric fence with three strips of barbed wire at top. It was even too high for him to jump over. As the passing traffic alarmed him he finally attempted to clear the barrier only to get badly hung up. It was a near ugly scene but after a short struggle he made it through or over, massive antlers and all. I wish I had a picture to show but we were afraid that stopping would have made things worse.

On the river we saw at least a dozen bald eagles along with thousands of Barrow’s goldeneyes, mallards, buffleheads and even a drake wood duck. Although I’ve seen a few over the years, the wood duck is an unusual sighting for this area. The out of season flocks of robins continue to nourish on the midge hatch while numerous water ouzels (dippers) dive the shallows hunting nymphs in the frigid water.

The fishing, the wildlife and even the Christmas diner leftovers we had for lunch added to another incredible day on the South Fork. The question is: was this the last day of fishing for me in 2010? Supposedly there's a storm moving in so I’d say yes, but the way things have been going, I may wander out one more time. I hope so, even if it’s just to wade fish the midge hatch for few hours.

Even if I don’t’ fish again, expect a few more postings. I’m just about done with the two watercolor paintings I’m putting in the art show over in Jackson. I’ll post pics of them soon. Later in the week I’ll post my ten most memorable fish of the year. I caught a few of these but many were caught by friends and family. This will not be an easy edit so any help from you the readers would be great. Last, I’d like to decide upon my three favorite blogs of the year. I think I have an idea but any help would be Greatly Appreciated. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the Holidays.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Website

Floating Xmas Week? Slap Me I Must Be Dreaming

Little did I know the other night while I was painting fish and signing books at the Jack Dennis Fly Shop party, my pals Rob Parkins and Paul Bruun were organizing a float on the South Fork for a few days before Christmas. To my delight this excursion included me and I would discover this in a corresponding email later that night. Our day was set for Wednesday, but we ended up going today.

By now you should know Bruun. You may know Rob too, but it's been awhile since I introduced him on my blog. Rob Parkins is a well known fishing guide here in Teton Valley. Rob guides in both Idaho and Wyoming. He is also a very accomplished fly tier and photographer and although we don’t spend much time together in the summer because he’s guiding so much, in the winter we often fish together and even more regularly grab beers and burgers together at one of the many Victor, Idaho establishments.

Today was the first time I saw the sun in weeks – perhaps since I left Africa over a month ago! I found myself hypnotized by the brilliant blue sky several times. I also found myself picking ice out of my frozen rod guides throughout the day. Despite the sunshine, our temperature never reached much above 20º. But 20º is a true bonus in mid December. And today, even though it was the shortest day of our lives, was a great chance to squeeze out another float.

We put in at the Palisades Dam. Normally our winter South Fork floats find us fishing ten miles further downstream but this float offered us a change in the usual scenery and sometimes up top we often stumble into larger fish. However the trade off is usually fewer fish. The wind always blows at the dam no matter what time of year it is and this morning was no exception. The good news is that once you get around the first turn in the river it all but stops and suddenly it feels about 10º warmer. That’s a huge psychological plus for winter float fishing! Sure enough we got around that corner and even though the rod guides were still clogging with ice, the hats and gloves came off and it was quite a nice day all the way till dark at the take out.

Our fishing ranked as good, but by no means red hot. To start the day, Paul rowed, Rob fished nymphs and I did my usual multi fly streamer rig on straight 0X RIO Flouroflex Plus tippet. We caught several fish and they were nice ones, but we went through some proven hot spots that weren’t so hot. Some good news is that it appears most the browns are done spawning. We caught quite a few and they all came from the deep on the streamers. In fact, we only caught two rainbows and maybe five cutthroats. The rest were browns. Also, when Rob was nymphing he latched into numerous whitefish and even snagged a handsome sucker.

It’s remarkable how much snow has melted. Two weeks ago Bruun and I could barely reach the boat launch and now after an unseasonably mild December the river banks are void of snow. This attracts many of the inhabitants of the river basin down to the edge to find food. The mule deer were grazing the exposed grass while red squirrels gathered supplies. We must have seen a dozen bald eagles and what is most unusual for winter, hundreds upon hundreds of robins. They were devouring midges on both sides of the river for the entire final two hours of our float. It made it feel as if spring is just around the corner – FAT CHANCE!

Speaking of midges, at day’s end the fish were on them. The beauty of it was that Paul brought along some fantastic cigars, a perfect item while taking turns casting dry flies. We were almost to the boat ramp yet we hadn’t smoked these fine cigars. I dropped anchor at one of these rising fish pods and lit up and asked the guys if they wanted to cast some midges. At first they lit up their cigars and we all watched the risers. The trout fed as if it were 10 PM in July during a rusty spinner fall. It was incredible. Then gradually the dry fly rods appeared and Rob made the first cast.

We didn’t exactly extract fish from this pod at a rapid pace. These guys were difficult to say the least. A lot of it had to do with our inability to see the tiny midge patterns we were throwing. Sometimes you would set the hook thinking the fish ate your fly but he hadn’t. Next cast you wouldn’t set and of course you should have because the fish really did eat your fly. We should have rigged an indicator of some sort but I think the cigars and relaxing during sunset took precedence over extra rigging.

I keep leaving this great river thinking it’s my last time for 2010 but I find myself right back. A float just a few days before Christmas on the South Fork - are you kidding me? Taking turns casting a midge to ten rising trout – am I dreaming? Smoking cigars with friends during sunset in December while watching the wildlife and listening to the birds and sudden slurps of feeding trout – that’s enough! Happy holidays everyone.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Website

Has Anyone Fly Fished in Madagascar?

I’ve never really just thrown out a question but here it goes. Has anyone ever fly fished or even know someone that has fly fished in Madagascar? This year Granny and I will be throwing on the backpacks to explore some serious walk and wade fly fishing in the salt where few westerners have tried. It must be affordable so for that reason we are focusing on the third world. It also needs to be a place where I can use my Delta miles for free tickets. We have combed the web for information and Google Earthed the coastlines of places like Ecuador in South America to Gabon in Africa. We can’t decide whether or not we should hunt enormous threadfin or near impossible to catch milkfish. Decision making like this just sends my fishy brain into a frenzy!

After weeks of cocktail hours on the computer pouring through websites, our research has directed us towards Madagascar. The beaches on this massive Indian Ocean Island are stunning in photos and the waters appear pristine. Madagascar is only 1000 miles south of the famous but expensive Seychelles, one of the saltwater flats fly fishing Mecca’s and this leads me to believe there should be flats species such as bonefish, trevally, triggerfish and one that has really stumped me in the past, the milkfish. We feel its worth at try.

The particular area we are studying is Nose Be and its surrounding islands in the north as well as St Marie Island off the remote east coast. If you know anything, please email me at jeff_currier@hotmail.com. Thanks!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Website

Just Like Old Times

Tonight I made a guest appearance at the Jack Dennis Fly Shop where up until last year I worked for some 23 years. They asked me to come in and be part of a book signing with long time friend Scott Sanchez. The event took place from 4 – 8 PM and between book signings I drew fish with sharpies on Cliff Fly Boxes and even painted up a 7” x 9” Snake River Cutthroat for a former employee of mine, “Big” Willie Roth.

Although many longtime retailers complain about the hecticness of Christmas season, I used to love it. I particularly enjoyed the challenges of figuring out good presents for the fly fishers who have it all. There was nothing better than helping distressed customers nail down that perfect gift. In fact, although I cherish the freedom of self employment, tonight kind of made me miss working in a busy shop for Christmas.

I didn’t know what to expect as far as turnout tonight, but I’m happy to report that the event was quite busy. Many of my old customer/friends made it in for a visit. It was fun to say hi and catch up. The shop sold plenty of my books and also my art related things including coffee mugs. It was a very worthwhile event for me and Scott as well as the Jack Dennis Fly Shop.

As far as posting another fishing day before Christmas, it’s looking doubtful. I’m hoping to sneak over to the South Fork for a few hours one afternoon and fish some midges, but we’ll see. I’m still busy as heck. I have an invite to display two paintings in the Watercolor Magic art show at the Art Center, Theater Gallery in Jackson, WY January 14 – February 11th. This is a special showing only for the watercolor artist of the Jackson Hole area and it’s an honor to be asked to participate. As always, I have little to no stock so I need to dedicate the time to do up two paintings and get them framed before I hit the road next month. That’s a tall task when you consider I still have plenty of preparation to do on my presentations for the Fly Fishing Show circuit. Luckily the weather is lousy and daylight hours are at the minimum keeping me inside and hard at work rather than tempting me to the river!

The Snowy Snake

I’ve been busy taking winter fishing photos lately to update a segment of my “Four Seasons of the Yellowstone Trout Bum” PowerPoint presentation. My first delivery of this program is Friday January 7th at the Denver Fly Fishing Show. Today I ventured to Wyoming and the Snake River up around the Jackson Lake Dam. I went with friends Mark Kuhn (Milkfish) and Bob (I don’t know Bobs last name). Our weather was absolute crap! It was raining when I left Victor and it did so all the way to Jackson. Even so, we had this planned for several days so off we went.

Surprisingly, up at the dam it was nice. By now the rain turned to snow and it was a true winter wonderland. Dams aren’t usually the most scenic places for winter fishing photography but being that this is in Grand Teton National Park, it’s an exception. It’s absolutely gorgeous in the wintertime and this part of the Snake also provides one of the best winter fishing options in the Yellowstone region.

My presentation covers the calendar year of fishing in and around Yellowstone National Park. Basically, my show includes twelve segments made up of eight to ten photos. Each segment represents some of the best fishing in the Yellowstone area for that month. I simply wanted some photos of it snowing while they rigged up, post holing through deep snow, some casting with a gorgeous backdrop and then a few nice fish. Well, here are the pictures from today. Do you notice we are missing something? The boys got skunked!

I can tease them but I can’t go too far with it. In order to be dedicated to my photography I wisely didn’t even bring a rod. Being that I didn’t fish, I don’t know how tough the fishing really was. What I do know though is that it is unseasonably warm here right now. Our snow is melting at a fast pace. As I’ve mentioned before, when snow melts into the river at a high rate, water temps can plummet and cause the trout to be very lethargic. Unless your fly hits them in the nose it’s hard to get them to eat.

Nonetheless it was a great day out. The scenery was beautiful and the wildlife was plentiful. We’ll try it again soon. . .

A Good Fishing Day Missed

Thursday Paul Bruun, Tom Montgomery and I were planning to head out on the South Fork. Unfortunately we canceled late Wednesday night. Each of us was just a little bit too far behind in our work. However, it’s a fact that when you cancel a day of fishing, those who still go do well. Often times they do very well as Gary Eckman and Ed Emory proved. Young Cooper, Gary’s son whom you should know by now, couldn’t wait to email me this photo of his dad’s huge brown. Nice work Gary!

Seeing Gary’s hawg is a definite incentive to get out this week. I know I’ll be walking the Snake River on the Wyoming side in the next few days. I will mainly be shooting photos that I’ll use to update the winter fishing segment in my “Four Seasons of the Yellowstone Trout Bum” PowerPoint Show. But getting to the South Fork again. . . I hope so. Meanwhile it’s continue here at the house on my various projects and laugh at the magpie whose wondering where his peanuts are!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Website