Archive

Freshwater

Frenchtown Road Conservation Area

October 30, 2013
Exploring, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Hiking, Scouting, Warmwater
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This past Saturday Amanda and I had a chance to check out BREC’s newest park, the Frenchtown Road Conservation Area, which is the biggest conservation area in the system at 495 acres. It encompasses most of the land between the Amite and Comite Rivers, south of the Illinois Central Railroad. Currently there are a little over three miles of hiking trails on the property through mostly bottomland hardwood forest.

These trails are just the beginning of the park’s intended development. I’m hopeful that established kayak/canoe launches are in the master plan, as it sits now the only river access that is available is via a 0.7 mile railroad trail to a beach on the Amite River at the park’s NE corner. Any new access to our area’s scenic rivers is a good thing, but it looks like I’ll have to invest in a cart before I can give this stretch of water a proper go. I did manage to get a few mid-hike casts off from the beach and was rewarded with a little spotted bass for my efforts.

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It was a nice day for a hike and I look forward to using this area more in the future. There was a little confusion on the trails though. Seems a nearby property owner was not too pleased at the location of the big loop trail in the park and “No Trespassing” signs were placed toward the end of the trail turning this loop into a long one way. According to the park’s facebook page it sounds like a bypass trail has been added and the area can be avoided. You’d think they would figure these things out before opening the park, but live and learn I guess.

Lakes of the Kisatchie

September 19, 2013
Exploring, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Kayak Fishing, Scouting, Warmwater
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Knowing that my days on the water will be limited once the baby arrives, I spent a day in the Kisatchie National Forest looking for largemouth bass. Normally if I wanted to do some bass fishing I’d prefer to spend my time on a river, catching spotted bass until I was flat wore out. On this day, however, I was going for a home run, looking for an above average bass. I had never laid eyes on any of the lakes in the Kisatchie, much less fished them, but I had good reason to believe there were some nice bass in at least one of the lakes I fished.

Upon arrival the lake was as I expected – empty. The water was crystal clear, the entire lake bottom covered in grass, deeper toward the dam, covered in lilies on the shallow end. I wish I could tell you fishing was spectacular, but it wasn’t. I caught two, both around 12″, a disappointing result when you drive 2.5 hours. Still, the lake was beautiful, one of the nicest I’ve seen in Louisiana.

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I had time to head to another lake that was the site of an old timber mill 100 years ago. It wasn’t as nice as the previous lake, it looked like who ever managed the lake had been doing a lot of work clearing brush around the lake’s shoreline – not sure if that is the best thing from a fishery perspective.  This lake also had a shallow end covered in lily pads though these lilies were much bigger. I pulled three bass out of this lake with the biggest going 13″. In both lakes the bass were caught in the shallow end swimming a bait along a grass edge or popping a topwater next to the lilies.

I went for the home run, looking for big bass in distant lakes, but all I could muster was a bloop single. I did enjoy scouting an area of Louisiana that actually has some elevation to it though. It was a nice change of pace with a drive time similar to that of Grand Isle to Baton Rouge – not like I haven’t done that in a day.

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Teton Valley

August 22, 2013
Coldwater, Exploring, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Food and Drink, Freshwater, Hiking
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Wednesday was a travel day for us, back to Salt Lake City from Island Park. With flights leaving out of SLC Thursday morning I thought it best to stay there the night before. It also provided a good opportunity that night to meet up with friends from high school who now live in Salt Lake. Instead of heading down Hwy 20 to I-15 at Idaho Falls though we took a more circuitous route which would take us through Teton Valley, on the west side of the Tetons, and put us in prime cutthroat territory. So, much like day one, I found us a roadside stream where we could fish and hopefully bag another species.

We started off our trip with a stop at Trouthunter to load up on flies before the trip home. One thing I loved about the Yellowstone area was that there is no shortage of fly shops. Good fly shops too and Trouthunter, which was right down the road, might be the best.

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Our next stop was Mesa Falls. This is definitely a must-see attraction for the area. The park surrounding the falls is a top notch facility and the falls themselves are very impressive. A short trail will take you right next to the falls and you can really feel the energy in the water and the chill in the air.

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From one of Idaho’s scenic byways to another we then headed to Teton Valley to get a view of the Tetons from the west. According to our guide Derek while in the area we had to stop at the Victor Emporium for huckleberry milkshakes. When milkshakes are involved you don’t have to tell me twice, so we had to stop. I was curious about huckleberries anyway since it seemed people from Idaho were more obsessed with huckleberries than potatoes. They’re pretty darn good too, like little blueberries, they go great in a milkshake.  What Derek didn’t mention was that the Emporium was also a fly shop! Thinking about it now, the Victor Emporium may have supplanted Trouthunter as the best fly shop for the Yellowstone area because milkshakes and flies go together like peanut butter and jelly.

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Once we left Teton Valley and entered into the Snake River watershed it was time to find our feeder stream to fish. The creek was relatively flat, bordered by willows and had deeper sections where there were beaver dams. Fishing a hopper, it didn’t take long to for my fly to get that familiar bump from the smaller trout. Soon enough I hooked up with a little bigger cutthroat and had my first Snake River Finespotted Cutt.

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After catching a few cutthroat I let Dad take the lead on the creek and I tried to help Mom get a fish. I think fishing these smaller creeks with regular tackle is actually tougher than fly fishing, but Mom refused to use my fly rod. She got a few follows at her spinner, fish just wouldn’t commit to it though. Dad ended up bringing one to hand, but it flopped out before we could get a picture, but I was glad he caught one.

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After a couple hours of fishing we hopped back in the car to make it back to SLC in time to meet my friends. They had the four of us over for dinner and really went out of the way laying out a nice spread and making us welcome. It was really awesome seeing my friends Eric and Sterling again, I was kind of bummed I didn’t get to make it to my 10 year reunion, so this was a good consolation.

A good bit of planning was involved in this trip and it was worth it because it ended up being a ton of fun. We saw so many new, awesome things, it’s hard to sum it all up. I felt we needed to do something big before having our baby in November and this was perfect. I’m already itching to go back out there, but next time I want to go after the Cutt Slam, hopefully I can find a fishing buddy that is up for the challenge.

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One last note, I forgot to mention the cabin we stayed at in Last Chance was Kim and Mary’s Cabin. We really enjoyed staying here, it suited our needs very well. It is in the Last Chance area of Island Park, there is access to the Henry’s Fork right down the street and you have three fly shops within a mile. The cabin still looks brand new, it is in great shape, we were very comfortable there. Kim and Mary are phenomenal owners who will make sure that your stay in the area is all that it could be.

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