Fall is right around the corner….
The Shallow Season
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Wade Fishing
Go West, young man
Just got home from a whirlwind Western vacation with my wife and parents where we spent time in Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho seeing as much as we could of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks and the surrounding area.
On Day 1 we flew into Salt Lake City, stopped for lunch at a great little diner – the Blue Plate, then made our way toward Jackson, WY where we would spend the next two nights.
While in Bonneville cutthroat country, I made sure to stop at a roadside stream where I might be able to catch a new-to-me species of trout. Sure enough, on one of the first few casts into a beaver pond I caught a beauty of a Bonnie. It would prove to be the only fish landed on the short outing, but it made it worth the stop.
We continued through the Star Valley en route to Jackson, stopping to check out the Elk antler arch in Afton and the adjacent fly shop, Pioneer Anglers. After the town of Alpine, the drive takes you along the Snake River all the way up to Jackson, where we stayed in a creek side cottage run by the Alpine House, which proved to be an excellent place to stay for the four of us while in town. That night we checked out the town of Jackson and took it easy in anticipation of the Tetons the next day.
Grand Isle again
I parlayed the trip down to Leeville for the Slamboree into a week of work on Grand Isle. Blake came down to fish on Sunday, unfortunately the wind that morning was relentless and forced an early exit from the water for us.
The wind let up a bit after lunch and I made my way to Elmer’s to see if I pick up a few trout in the surf. I caught some trout, mostly throwbacks, but the highlight of the day was this juvenile Jack Crevalle that came on the fly rod.
The next day meant the start of my work week and I found myself on an island full of these little guys.
The tides were low and falling fast and had these little hermit crabs exposed on all the tidal flats. Low tides also meant potentially good sight fishing, so that evening I went back to where Blake and I had planned to fish and with better conditions I was able to boat three reds between 18-22″ long. They were tagged and released to fight another day.
The next island I worked on was full of these black skimmers. They had a large nesting colony not too far from where we docked the boats. Most of their chicks had been fledged, but a few were still too small, including one stubborn guy who plopped down right in our work area.
A storm forced us off the island a bit early, but fear not, that just led to more specks in the surf – this time off of Grand Isle itself.
That concludes another fun filled week on the island. It must seem like I don’t do a whole lot of work while I’m down there, but I’m actually putting in roughly sixty hour work weeks while I’m down there. I’ve realized that the extra twenty hours I work is the time I had set aside to update the blog, so forgive the dead air.
Mountains to Marsh 