Tag: AZ

Colorado - Lees Ferry Reach, Lagniappe

Lees Ferry Redux

By Tom Burnett

Last year, almost to the day, we fished the Lees Ferry Reach of the Colorado River with Skip Dixon and Kevin Campbell of Lees Ferry Anglers.  We were joined by fishing buddies Dan McCormack, James Kelly and his son, Andy.  What we discovered was one of the most strikingly amazing landscapes you can imagine…. as well as a world class fishery.  At the Lees Ferry put in, we watched as anxious rafters prepared for their journey downstream through the Grand Canyon while we boarded a jet boat for our run upstream toward Glen Canyon dam.  After a great day fishing, Skip and Kevin shared their perspectives on this fishery and its surroundings in Lees Ferry Fanatics.  While we were in Arizona, we also took numerous photos and incorporated them into our highlight video post, AZ Memories.

Our time last year was so good here, we decided to come back this spring.  Skip took us out again on a beautiful day in the canyon.  We found some gorgeous fish that Skip captured in his photos shown above in this post.  I told Skip that our post on this trip was going to be about him and his photos.  He has an eye for photography that captures not just the fish, but most importantly, the surroundings in this magical place.  He also uses a variety of filters to further enhance the images and their meanings.  His pictures are always treasured as mementos of our time with him on the water.

Skip avidly chronicles his time on the river, as well as providing fishing reports.   He takes a very mathematical approach to his guiding, making sure to document river flows, temperatures, hatches and fishing success among many factors.  His methods help assure his clients have the best chances at success on the river.  You can find his reports and chronicles on both his Instagram feed as well as on his Facebook page.

When to come fish with Skip?  Anytime is the right answer, but according to Skip, the summer Cicada hatch is not to be missed.  He also hinted that if you want to target big browns, think about fishing in January or February.  We can’t wait to get back whenever we are in the area to fish the river and experience this vividly stunning landscape.

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Lagniappe

487 x 34,585 x 95 x 149

By TB

For much of the past two years, we’ve been on our River Ramble, exploring trout streams across the USA.  All total, we’ve been on this journey for 487 days and have visited TU Greatest 100 trout streams in 26 different states.  In fact, we’ve now fished 95 of the Top 100 streams and 149 different trout streams in all.  I know what you’re thinking, you’re still 5 short, and indeed we are.  There is one more state we’ve yet to visit, Alaska.  While we are looking forward and already deep into planning our Alaska adventure to fish the final 5 (and a few more of course) of the TU 100, we wanted to take a moment to look back on this past two years.

As we’ve continued to discover, Its Not About the Fish…. its about the people we continue to meet along our Ramble.  We’ve been blessed to have fished with some of the best guides in the world on the best trout streams in the world.  In small villages and communities, we’ve met some great local fly shop owners and staff who’ve sent us to some off the beaten path fisheries that, while not TU Top 100 streams, easily could have been.  What we’ve enjoyed most have been guides, shop owners and community members who’ve befriended us, shared their stories with us and allowed us to see the rivers through their eyes and experiences.  We feel so lucky to have met each and every one.

Our tagline for our blog, “Fly fishing, food, friends and fun” has been just that.  We’ve sampled more than a few local brews, pubs, diners and dives along the way.  We’ve also had a great time visiting family and friends in Arizona, Indiana, Missouri and Montana…. rafting, zip lining, pickle ball, baseball, hiking and of course, fishing too.

Our “mothership”, the SaraLinda, has performed like a champ, taking us nearly 35,000 miles along this journey.  We’ve camped in state forests, state parks, national parks, Corps of Engineers campgrounds and even dry camped in amazing, remote locations.  The 180 sq. ft. we’ve been living in is dwarfed by the incredible outdoor expanse we’ve called home these two years.  Our backyards have been the Tetons, Yellowstone, Great Smoky Mountains, Appalachian Trail, Maine wilderness and stream side campgrounds in most every state we visited.

2016 was a great year and we posted up a “Year in Review” video for it last December.  We’ll be fishing numerous streams across the country in 2018 as well as the streams we’ll fish in Alaska, but for now, we wanted to share a look back at 2017.   We hope you enjoy this short music video and a few highlights from our 2017 River Ramble.

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Arizona, Lagniappe

Fun in the Sun

By TB

We arrived in the Phoenix area after enduring the drive across west Texas and a snippet of southern New Mexico.  It’s actually a beautiful drive with the southwestern mountains framing the desert landscape.  Sunsets were incredible each night.  When we first arrived we were at Lake Pleasant Recreation Area where Barb was dwarfed by a giant cactus. But now, the SaraLinda is parked in the Cave Creek Recreation Area north of Phoenix.

We’ve been having a blast hanging out with our youngest daughter Kelly, taking hikes, going to a few Phoenix sporting events (Suns and Rattlers) and sampling some of the Phoenix cuisine.  We’ve also met up with our dear friends from Nebraska, Ted and Deborah Watson along with their daughter Katherine and her husband Brian.  We had such fun catching up, eating BBQ and hanging out.

Hiking has definitely been a major theme of our time so far in Arizona.  We’ve hiked 6 trails so far and they’ve all had their unique character.  Our first hike was on Wild Burro trail as we were hoping to find… ummmm… wild burros.  Our hike was along the lake and beautiful wildflowers were popping up, especially the yellow poppies.  The big “bloom” is about to happen here and it will be spectacular.  We’re hoping to still be here when it happens.  We saw so many plants almost ready to pop open.

As we left the Wild Burro trail and headed back to our campground, of course, what did Barb see on the side of a hill, THE BURROS!  We stopped, I hiked down the hillside and then along the Beardsley trail toward them to get a picture.  The three in the picture above were giving me the eye so I didn’t venture any closer.  There were at least 16 burros in the group just lazing along, snacking on the plants along the hillside.

While our first Trout Unlimited Top 100 Trout Stream fishing won’t happen until next week, we did find a trout stream about 1.5 hours North near Sedona.   Oak Creek is a small stream flowing through the Oak Creek Canyon south through Sedona and ultimately joining the Verde River.  The drive from Sedona to Flagstaff which parallels Oak Creek is recognized as one of the Top 5 Most Scenic Drives in America according to Rand McNally.  We had a great drive up to the scenic lookout above the canyon and of course, there was snow…. yes snow in Arizona.

While we drove up to the scenic lookout, we were spying for good pullouts so we could fish our way back down to Sedona.  We ended up stopping at three different spots, but the river was blown out from rain and snow melt in the Flagstaff area.  While river conditions made it impossible to wade safely into the water, we still decided to at least wet our lines from the bank.  No fish were caught but we had a great time practicing short casts and high sticking in the narrow, tree lined spots we’d picked.  We finally made it back to Sedona, took a few pictures of the beautiful surroundings there, and headed back to our campsite.

We are excited this week to see a host of friends from our original hometown of Lexington, MO who are coming in for spring training games.  We’ve got more BBQ’s, ball games, hikes and even pickle ball, whatever that is.  And, we have some  fly fishing buddies coming in on Sunday who’ll be with us to kick off our “official” start to year 2 of our River Ramble.  Until next week, its time to….

Ramble On

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