Lessons Learning

February 3, 2017 By TB

We had a great first year on our River Ramble, fly fishing the Trout Unlimited’s Guide to America’s 100 Best Trout Streams. We fished 47 of the Top 100 and over 70 streams in all. We planned meticulously so that we’d not just maximize our time in each location, but more importantly, maximize our quality fishing time in each location. To do this, we set out a few “rules” for our trip that I’d encourage anyone going on a fishing adventure to adopt as well.

The first of these “rules” was that once we arrived in a new spot in the SaraLinda, right after we’d “hooked up” at the campground, our next stop was to visit the local fly shop. We’ve found these fly shops via our guidebook, Trout Unlimited’s Guide to America’s 100 Best Trout Streams. At the back of each river description, the author lists local fly shops that service fishermen on that river. We also do internet searches in each locale for other possible fly shops in the area. Finally, we’ve been asking other fly shop owners if they have recommendations. These three methods have proven very successful for us. We’ve been blessed on our trip thus far with some of the most helpful fly shop owners/staff imaginable.

The shop staff have been invaluable in helping us get the right flies for the local river(s). They’ve also been great at pointing us to the right spots on the rivers to fish most successfully. They cannot guarantee you’ll catch fish, but, they can tell you the most likely spots where fishing has been good. They can also suggest other streams in the area you might fish. We’ve totally taken advantage of this and have been pointed to some great “other” known streams and “nunya” streams in the area.

Safety is another reason to drop into the local fly shop before heading out to the stream to fish. There may be high flows that make wading dangerous, or dam generation that changes flows dramatically in an instant. If you’re kayaking, there may be crossings, weirs and other obstructions in the river that require special navigation. Safety first when you’re on the river.

The second thing we do is to check in with the guide we’ve hired who will be taking us fishing the next day. Our itinerary for each river has us taking a guided fishing trip the first full day we are in an area. This way, we get to see the river and fish the river through the eyes and instruction of a qualified, knowledgable person. Usually, the guides we hire have many years, if not decades, of experience fishing and guiding on the river. As with the fly shops, these guides know what flies to use during the day, what parts of the stream are most productive, often pausing at these spots to fish them thoroughly and above all, assuring our safety either in the drift boat (raft) or wading.

We’ve had some outstanding guides this past year and are looking forward to this year. We have found them via local fly shops as well as through recommendations from other guides we’ve had. What we’ve found is that the more information you, the client, can give them prior to your guide trip, the better your time on the water with them will be. I’ve often made the mistake of just saying “whatever you think” or “we’re with you” when a guide asks what we’d like to do during our trip. While the guide does know files, water, safety and such, they don’t know what you might consider a great day on the water. Do you like to throw streamers? Nymphing? Are you a dry fly “aficionado”? Do you want a more “technical” guide (focused on fishing techniques) or a more “place” guide (focused on the “experience” and the surroundings)? A big shout out to Rachel Finn, my guide on the West Branch of the Au Sable in NY, who brought this concept of sharing all this with your guide before your trip.

The days following our guide trip, we typically wade fish the river (and others in the area), taking full advantage of what our guide has taught us as well as what the fly shop has provided us. We’re often back in the fly shop multiple times to get more flies (yes we loose a lot in trees, submerged limbs and rocks) and get even more information that makes our fishing more productive. We’ve made really good friends with fly shop owners, staff and guides along the way.

Staying true to our mantra, “Its Not About the Fish”, we really try to immerse ourselves in each local community. We also try to take the occasional “Road Trip” when we find ourselves near national parks, monuments (Devil’s Tower) or just cool places we’d like to visit. We’re going to try and do even more this year as we traverse the country. We’ll be fishing in several national parks (Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Great Smoky Mountains) and will be taking time to explore them as well. We’ve got a Grand Canyon “Road Trip” on the books already that we’re most excited to experience. We’ll be doing our own version of “Diners, Drive Ins and Dives” as we sample the local fare from these great fishing towns we visit.

We’re learning every day as we ramble around but wanted to share a few of these “Lessons Learning” in the hope they might help others who go on fishing adventures. Stay tuned as we continue our journey.

Ramble On!

Lagniappe

Sisters on the Fly

January 14, 2017 By TB

Sometime, in the early 2000’s, we were on one of our first fly fishing trips to Montana and noticed several really cool, vintage looking travel trailers. Seeing these, we started dreaming about how much fun it would be to travel in an RV to fish, especially in one of these amazing tricked-out trailers. We learned it was a small group of women who’d traveled to Montana to fish together and have fun, traveling in their Shastas, Holidays, Airstreams, Aljos, Roadrunners and more.

Fast forward to today, we are in the SaraLinda, watching vintage trailer after vintage trailer checking into the Austin RV park where we’re camping. These are the same kind of vintage trailers we saw gathering, years ago in Montana. We noticed that all of the campers in these trailers were women. Little did we know that the two sisters who originally shared a fishing trip in Montana, in their trailers, had spawned a nationwide group of over 7000 members…. “Sisters on the Fly” – and – the women convening here are “Sisters” from this group.

We’ve had a chance to meet some of these women, learn more about the organization, and Barb is ready to join up. Even though the weather in Austin this weekend is cool and wet, the campfires are burning and stories are being shared. We hope you enjoy this “Gallery” post of a few of the members and their trailers.

Lagniappe, Music

231 x 12,847 x 47 x 71

December 30, 2016 By TB

Before we begin our 2017 Ramble, we wanted to look back at 2016 and all the adventures we shared. We were “on the road” for 231 days in 2016 and traveled 12,847 miles in the SaraLinda. We should have checked the odometer on the Subaru Crosstrek we tow behind, to see just how many miles our car went. I’m guessing easily double the SaraLinda.

We fished 47 of the TU Top 100 Trout Streams in 2016. These 47 streams were scattered across 15 states. In addition, we fished 24 additional streams on our Ramble, bringing the total to 71 streams fished in 2016. To be honest, some of the “other” streams we fished were easily as amazing as the TU Top 100; streams like Duke’s Creek (GA), East Fork of the French Broad (NC), Pine Creek (PA), and Soda Butte (WY) to name just a few.

We also had some great “road trips” and diversions along the way that made our Ramble even more interesting. Our visit to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming was very special. Stopping by Crater Lake in Oregon and Craters of the Moon in Idaho exposed us to the volcanic nature of the American West. Yellowstone National Park is always a highlight anytime we get to visit. Our Ramble allowed us to be in YNP for about two weeks, not just fishing but exploring the park and experiencing a Snow Day. We even made it to Woodstock!

We always enjoyed finding interesting places to eat and drink along the way. Of course, we sampled some local beers that became favorites of ours from Ubu in NY (thanks Rachel Finn) to my Montana fav Cold Smoke. We also found our fair share of great local bakeries.

Of course, music is always a highlight for us as we travel. We found music in many different places, from music halls like Infinity Hall in Connecticut, to bars and breweries like Innovation Brewing in Sylva (NC), to the back porch of our dear friends Sue and Dud in Bozeman. We were blessed to meet amazing musicians along the way, even guides who were in bands. We featured many of them in our music videos we created, usually to highlight an area or state. These included: Hunter Morris, our guide on the Toccoa River in NC, whose band Blue Blood provide the background to our North Georgia Recap; Miller Watson of PMA, who backgrounded Tuckaseegee Views; the duo Bird in Hand who shared Ms. Carolina for our North Carolina review; Atlas Gray who rocked Infinity Hall and shared their music for our Connecticut Color; and Kostas who provided our holiday post “Reflections Off the Water“. Music will continue to be a major part of our Ramble.

Throughout out trip, we were constantly fishing the most beautiful places on earth and catching the most beautiful fish. However, as we came to realize early on, “Its Not About the Fish“. Scenery is great and hooking into trout is awesome; the Ramble has truly been about the people we’ve met who have helped us and befriended us along the way. The guides we’ve had have been knowledgeable, focused on safety and so kind to us. We’ve had 39 different guides who’ve pointed the way for us during 2016. Their stories are told in our “Guide Talks”. We’ve also met some amazing people who own, run and staff the numerous fly shops we’ve visited. It’s not just been the assistance in picking the right flies, or the right stretches of trout streams or even the “Nunya” waterways they’ve shared; it’s also been how welcoming they’ve been to us, inviting us into their homes, breaking bread with them, sharing a beer and allowing us to really get to know their local areas and waters. These have been and will continue to be the most memorable parts of our Ramble…. the people we’ve met.

So, as 2016 draws to a close, we are already plotting 2017. We’ll be starting in Arkansas in February and then heading west to begin. We’ll fish our way around the west in the spring and summer before heading back east for the late summer and fall season, ending our 2017 Ramble in Tennessee. We’ll fish 48 different TU Top 100 trout streams in 2017 and countless others along the way. We are really looking forward to 2017 and hope you’ll follow along with us. For now, we hope you’ll enjoy this 2016 recap music video set to “Follow Me” by Bird in Hand.

Thanks again to all who made our 2016 so special…. and Cheers to 2017 as we….

Ramble On!

Lagniappe, Music

Reflections Off the Water

December 23, 2016 By TB

As those of you who’ve been following us know, we love to find great local musicians wherever we go on our River Ramble adventure. We’ve found some great music venues like Infinity Hall in Connecticut and enjoyed some great artists including Atlas Gray who we featured in our Connecticut Color video. We met the duo Bird In Hand in Sylva, NC, at an evening gig at Elevation Wine Bar; they graciously allowed us to use “Ms. Carolina” for our tribute to NC. We’ve had guides who were in bands and shared their music with us that we’ve featured on our site. We even made a pilgrimage to the site of the Woodstock Music and Art Festival and stood on the hallowed ground of the stage where all those amazing musicians played.

With this in mind, it seemed fitting to share yet another great musician with you for the holidays. We met Kostas Lazarides (professionally known as Kostas) one evening at The Mint in Belgrade, MT. Our dear friends, Sue Doss and Dud Lutton, had invited us to join a group who was having dinner at The Mint and listening to Kostas.

Since that evening, we’ve heard Kostas perform numerous times at music venues in the Gallatin Valley and at Sue and Dud’s place in Bozeman. He is a singer and songwriter who is renowned in the country music world for hits such as Timber, I’m Falling in Love and Blame It On Your Heart, which was the most performed single of 1994. He’s written songs for a multitude of artists including: Patty Loveless, Dwight Yoakum, Travis Tritt, Martina McBride, The Dixie Chicks and The Mavericks.

We really enjoy all of Kostas’ music, but one night, Barb and I heard Kostas sing two songs that struck a chord with us, relative to our “ramble”; the song featured in this post and one other we’ll save as a surprise for next year. For now, please enjoy this music video tribute to “Reflections Off the Water” by Kostas.

Lagniappe

Fly Dogs

December 18, 2016 By TB

We are now in Indy for the holidays with our kids and grandkids. We needed to do a little shopping and ended up, as we often do, at FlyMasters of Indianapolis. As we walked into the fly shop we were met by Noland and Seth…. not the two guys behind the counter, but two fly shop dogs. It reminded us both of all the beautiful dogs we’ve encountered along our River Ramble in 2016. We decided a blog post was in order to share some of the pictures we took of these beautiful creatures. However, it was very difficult to pick just a few of the many we’ve encountered. You see, these dogs are fixtures in many of the shops across the country as well as with the guides we’ve had.

As you might imagine, fly shop dogs are some of the friendliest and funniest you can find anywhere. Just like Barb was greeted at FlyMasters, we’ve had similar greetings from North Carolina to New York… and… Pennsylvania to Oregon. While we can’t show you all of them in this post, we wanted to share a few. First, as you can see from the featured image for this post, Barb is sitting in FlyMasters with Noland and Seth. We found out that FlyMasters actually has even more shop dogs at various times depending on who’s working.

The first image is Red from The Fly Fisher’s Place in Sisters, OR. Early one morning, I left our campsite to drive into Sisters for some flies and encountered Red as I walked in the door. I learned from Red’s owner that he was somewhat of a celebrity online.

Second, when we were in Maupin,OR, fishing the Deschutes, we popped into Deschutes Angler and found not one, not two but THREE shop dogs greeting us: Lupin, Nelly and KD. Barb had KD on the floor as happy as a dog can be I think.

The third image is of Desperado, or Desie, the black lab that roams the ranch at Roger and Mary Nelson’s Spring Creek Ranch near Livingston, MT. Desie always comes to meet us at the parking area. She usually comes down around lunchtime to just hangout but always enjoys a game of fetch. It’s usually Barb that wears out first before Desie.

The fourth image, I took from a “Guide Talk” interview we did on the banks of Pine Creek in Slate Run, PA. This is Brookie who hangs out with Julie Szur, guide from Slate Run Tackle Shop/Wolfe’s General Store. Brookie hung out with us during the interview and often is at Julie’s side when she’s guiding along Pine Creek.

Finally, a picture of Solomon, who fished with us on the Henry’s Fork along with her owners Sue Doss and Dud Lutton. We’ve been with Solomon on numerous occasions but never fishing. He was so excited when a fish was on the line and always tried to “land” the fish before we did. Solomon has been seen riding along in a drift boat with Dud at the oars on numerous rivers around Bozeman.

We will continue to highlight the beautiful dogs we see in shops, with our guides and along the rivers we fish in 2017 as our Ramble continues. If you have any great pictures or stories you’d like to share, please send them to us at: tb@riverramble.com

Ramble On

Lagniappe

Campground Reflections

December 5, 2016 By TB

Our River Ramble travels took us to 45 different campgrounds in 2016. While a few of them were simply travel stops, getting from one fishing location to another, most were places we stayed for 4 to 8 days at a time. Since trout generally live in very beautiful places, we didn’t have much trouble finding campgrounds near each of the TU Top 100 rivers we fished, but they were all unique in their own ways.

Our criteria for picking these started with proximity to the river we were fishing, of course. We were fortunate in that throughout the 2016 “ramble”, we were never more than 10-15 miles from prime fishing spots. While proximity was #1 in our minds, its always nice if the campground has electrical and water connections. The SaraLinda has a large water tank and a diesel generator so we we can easily “dry camp” without having connections. However, its always nice to avoid noisy generators and carrying water weight. Finally, being able to wash clothes, especially when staying for 8 days in one spot and traveling light, is a necessity.

Beyond these criteria, we found three other campground types that really became our favorites. First, campgrounds in state and national parks were special. These always seemed to have bigger spaces for the SaraLinda and our little Subaru XV Crosstrek. They also usually had beautiful, large trees for shade. We stayed in 8 state or national parks during 2016 including: Yellowstone National Park; Unicoi State Park (GA); Deep Creek Lake State Park (Oakland MD); Kettle Creek State Park (PA); Hartwick Pines State Park (MI); and, American Legion State Forest (CT). These were favorites of ours given their beauty and value.

Second, while proximity was our #1 criteria, the ultimate proximity was actually camping on the TU Top 100 river we were fishing. Being able to simply walk out of the SaraLinda and down to the river was awesome! Highlights of this kind of campground included: Ekstrom Stage Station (Rock Creek / MT); Lake Placid KOA (West Branch, Ausable / NY); Kelly Gallops Slide Inn (Madison / MT); Ellensburg KOA (Yakima / WA); Roscoe Campsite (Beaverkill / NY); Angler’s Roost (Bitterroot / MT) as well as Yellowstone NP, Kettle Creek State Park and American Legion State Park. We often overlooked some other criteria like laundry facilities, close to town, etc… in favor of being right on the rivers we were fishing. PS…. if you are ever near Clinton, MT and want a great meal, go to the restaurant at Ekstrom Stage Station.

Third, and it’s really very close to the second, are campgrounds that are CLEARLY there to serve fly fisherman. Of course, such campgrounds are often right on the river but that’s not enough. These campgrounds typically also have fly shops, boat rentals, guide services and more. The prime example of this, is Cottonwood Camp near Fort Smith, MT. When you drive down the road to this campground, in addition to the RVs parked in spots, you see drift boats everywhere. As you near the small hill that drops you down into the campground office, there are even more drift boats for rent. Check in for the campground is actually in the fly shop itself. This campground was fly fishing central for the Big Horn river. Others we encountered on the trip included: Slide Inn (Madison / MT); Anglers Roost (Bitterroot / MT); and Roscoe Campsite (Beaverkill / NY). If you are a fly fisherman and heading to these rivers, you must stay at these campgrounds. If you’re not RV’ing, each of these have cabins as well.

We are really looking forward to our 2017 “rambling” that will take us to 49 more of the TU Top 100 Trout Streams and finding more campgrounds of every type. For now, if you are traveling to any of these areas, please take a look at the campground websites. We hope you enjoy the pictures we’ve included with this “Gallery” post.

Ramble On

Lagniappe

Oregon Outstanding!

November 22, 2016 By TB

We’d been to Oregon several times before starting our River Ramble. It was always flying into Portland for meetings/R&R, hitting Salem for state capitol confabs and occasionally, an education conference on the Oregon coast. In other words, we were always on the western side of the Cascades. It turns out, the four Trout Unlimited Top 100 Trout Streams are on the eastern side of the Cascades in what is “high desert” country.

This area has incredible beauty from the basalt cliffs that line the Deschutes and Crooked rivers to the tall pines and redwoods found near the North Umpqua and Metolius rivers. While we toured these four trout streams, we’d always look up and see the majesty that surrounded us. It seemed we always were seeing the snow fields on Mount Jefferson, regardless of which river we were on.

From a fishing perspective, we caught acrobatic steelhead in the North Umpqua, native Redband trout in the Deschutes and Crooked and one measly fish from the mysterious Metolius. I know, I know, “It’s Not About the Fish” and it truly isn’t. But we have to talk about our “excuse” for our River Ramble sometimes.

Once again, we met some incredible people and had the best guides. Tony Wratney steered me into holes on the North Umpqua, after I’d fallen in the river on my third step in, at 6:30 am, and caught and landed 4 steelhead, in one morning. I thought this was just a typical steelhead fishing day, but, I learned that it was not typical at all, but an epic sort of day. Tony said he’d not brought along his net because he was going to be surprised if we needed it. Little did we both know!

All along our trip, we’ve been blessed with finding a fly shop that really goes above and beyond in helping us. In this case, it was Fly and Field Outfitters in Bend, Oregon. We met Jasper, Gabe, Dave and Griff the first day we were in the shop. Griff is the lead guide and instructor for the shop and we were fortunate to have him as our guide. Griff gave us a most memorable day on the Deschutes. I cannot recommend him enough for his instructional techniques, his manner in working with us on the water, his knowledge of how to fish the water and most importantly, his humor and outgoing personality that kept us laughing and having a great time all day.

A few days later, Eddie Mack from Fly and Field, took us on a trip along the Crooked River. The setting for the river is simply spectacular. The fishing, both nymphing and dry fly fishing, was great. Eddie was incredibly helpful in getting us into spots on the river where fish were holding, and helping us with the flies and best techniques to catch them. Again, many thanks to the entire team at Fly and Field Outfitters for a great time.

We did our best to sample the food and drink of the area as well. We loved our time around Sisters, OR, and Camp Sherman. The Camp Sherman Store is a must stop, given its setting along the Metolius. Sisters is just 25 minutes away and also a must stop at the Sisters Bakery and Three Creeks Brewing. While the secret of Bend has been out now for a while, it’s still a place you must visit; breweries practically on every corner like Starbucks in Seattle. Bend has this outdoor vibe that sucks you in and makes you want to bike, hike, kayak, float, fish, board, ski and even surf right in town. As we were heading up to Washington, we even stopped in Maupin, a little town on the Lower Deschutes. Great fishing…. great food… great flyshop in the Deschutes Angler with three great fly shop dogs: Lupin, Nelly and KD. We’ll definitely be coming back to Oregon.

We hope you enjoy these “highlights” of our time in the great state of Oregon. It truly was outstanding!

Guide Talk, Henry's Fork, Snake River

TroutHunter TJ

November 21, 2016 By TB

For years, we’d heard from our son-in-law, Chris Drake, of the difficulty in fishing the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River near Island Park, ID. How the fish all had Ph.D.’s and were easily spooked. How perfect presentations and drifts were essential to catching fish. Well, we saw these clear, flat waters outside the TroutHunter fly shop in Island Park, ID, but decided our best bet fishing was in sections where there was a little more current and structure that would lend itself to having better luck.

We’d also heard about the local charm of Island Park, ID. According to wikipedia, “the city was incorporated by owners of the many lodges and resorts along U.S. Route 20 in 1947, primarily to circumvent Idaho’s liquor laws that prohibited the sale of liquor outside of city limits. It is only 500 feet wide in most locations and, at 33 miles (53 km), claims to have the longest “Main Street” in the world.” TroutHunter’s fly shop, lodge and restaurant/bar are one of the highlights along the route. We were fortunate to have booked our guide from the shop and to have met friends for dinner at the restaurant/bar. More on that in another post!

We met our guide, TJ Powell, at the TroutHunter fly shop on a cold, crisp October morning and headed off for a section of the river nearer Aston, ID. When we put in, we knew it was going to be a great day because we immediately came upon fish. They weren’t the giants that inhabited the Railyard section of the Henry’s Fork, but beautiful wild trout that fought like crazy.

We had a blast fishing with TJ and hope you enjoy his “Guide Talk” video about fishing on the Henry’s Fork.

Lagniappe, Yellowstone

Snow Day

November 21, 2016 By TB

We had an awesome week fishing, hiking and touring Yellowstone National Park. We stayed at the Madison Campground inside the park. It was just a short hike to both the Gibbon and Madison rivers. The week started with a great guide trip with Patrick Daigle of Blue Ribbon Flies (West Yellowstone, MT). We fished the Madison, Gibbon and Firehole rivers with Patrick and got a great feel for fishing by swinging wet flies for big fish that were moving up the Madison from Hebgen Lake to spawn.

Our typical plan in an area is to go out with a guide on our first day and then fish on our own the next few days. In this case, the day after our trip with Patrick, we awakened to white stuff dropping from the sky…. SNOW! The temp outside was in the mid-20’s. We’d accoustomed ourselves to fishing in the 40’s and even in the 30’s as the temp was during our day fishing with Patrick. However, the mid-20’s was something else. So…. we made a decision….. SNOW DAY!

We took off from the campground about 9am and didnt return until dusk. It snowed on us all day but made the landscape of YNP so beautiful. We hope you enjoy this narrated video of our “Snow Day” touring Yellowstone National Park.

Guide Talk, South Platte

VSP

November 21, 2016 By TB

The South Platte River is a blue ribbon trout stream famous for its most productive sections like Cheesman Canyon, 11 Mile Canyon, Dream Stream and Deckers. We had the pleasure of fishing the Dream Stream section with Vinnie Renda of the South Platte Fly Shop in Woodland Park, CO.

We met Vinnie at our campground at 7:00am on another COLD October morning. Lucky for us the campground didn’t have good cell service because a message from Vinnie came through from days earlier asking us if we could meet at 6:00am. What we soon realized, as we arrived at the river just below Spinney Mountain Reservoir, was that it wasn’t because of good fishing early, but because so many anglers wanted to get the “prime” spots first! When we arrived, there were already at least 10 cars in the parking lot. However, we found there was plenty of water to be found.

As we fished different spots along the Dream Stream section, the winds kept howling with increasing intensity. 30-40mph gusts were common with a constant 20mph wind. This didn’t deter us at all as we chucked our nymph rigs into likely spots and watched for the slightest movement in our strike indicators. When it happened, BOOM… the water would explode as large brown trout would fight to expel the tiny #18 zebra midge fly that fooled them.

We really enjoyed our day fishing with Vinnie and appreciated his desire to keep people off the “redds”. Vinnie explains this and more in his “Guide Talk” as we conducted it inside the SaraLinda due to the gale force winds outside. Enjoy!