I got a little taste of cutthroat trout fishing in Wyoming on my first trip to the state two years ago. It was just fishing from the side of the road en route to Jackson, but it was enough to get me motivated to get back out there and try my hand at the state’s Cutt Slam program.
What better way to experience the state of Wyoming than to try and catch it’s four native cutthroat species? It didn’t take a whole lot of convincing to get Blake to come along – I think both of us have been looking for another trip out West since our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park back in 2012.
After a good six months worth of planning it was time to pack our stuff……
and fly to Salt Lake City. I had no idea Outdoor Retailer was this week, but several folks asked if that’s where we were headed. No thanks, I’d rather go fishing.
After a quick stop at Western Rivers Flyfisher it was on to Evanston. Once there we made two more important stops – food/camp supplies and beer.
Then we drove north. On to the Wyoming Range, where we would hopefully have enough time to land our first cutthroat of the trip – the Bonneville cutthroat trout.
In the interest of time we stopped off the side of the road, close to the same spot I fished back in 2012 and close to where we would be camping for the night. We decided to fish some of the beaver complexes that looked pretty fishy from the road.
We rigged our rods and got suited up lightning fast, the anticipation of catching the first fish of the trip was killing us. The overcast skies started to drizzle rain, it didn’t take long to notice that fish rising in the ponds. Blake was first on the board and fooled a decent Bonneville with a dry.
It took me a little bit of time to knock the rust off, but I got on board as well.
After that the fishing was on fire. These Bonneville cutts were crushing a hopper pattern Blake had tied.
The action was so consistent that it was tough to call it a day and walk back to the car, but we knew we still had to set up camp, which was not something we wanted to do in the dark – especially on night 1.
It was a solid start to the trip though and felt really good to get the first cutthroat species under our belts. We’d actually be fishing for Bonnevilles again in the morning, but we were hoping the next stop would yield a few bigger fish. For now it was time for cold beer and campfire and hopefully getting some sleep in a hammock system I’ve yet to sleep in.
I try to do a year end review every year because I like to do it and it is fun to look back at how the year went. I already know before even putting this one together that this year was probably my lightest on fishing and writing content in eight years. The priorities in my life have shifted and although I’m not getting on the water as often I’m still having a good time. This year was a busy one, hard to believe it is already over. Free time comes at a premium now and fishing trips sure eat up a lot of it. It is safe to say I’m a pretty fair weather fisherman now. Without further ado, 2014:
January – I was 2/3 on redfish trips in January, unfortunately that lone dud happened on a tournament day, which set the tone for my tournament fishing in 2014 – I didn’t really dedicate the time necessary to compete and honestly it didn’t bother me one bit. I focused on having fun when I fished and each trip I took was just that, fun. Now that fishing trips happen less I think they mean more, funny how that works.
February – My kayak fishing trip of a lifetime was in February when I got to tag along with Jim Sammons and crew to Panama. Fishing in more than a foot of water was refreshing. I got the nod in a roundabout way, but I’m really glad I was able to go as I doubt I’ll ever be able to do something similar again.
March – When Spring rolls around in Louisiana and it gets to be shorts weather again it never fails that the kayak demo days and boat shows soon follow. Mardi Gras too. I fished a couple events in March, a redfish tourney down in St. Bernard and a new kayak event on Bayou St. John in conjunction with the City Park Big Bass Rodeo – nothing to show for in either, but they were good times.
April – If there is one thing I can talk about for hours it is sightfishing redfish from the kayak and that is just what happened at Pack & Paddle one day in April when John Williams asked me to come give a seminar. Hopefully everyone in attendance came away a little more knowledgeable on the subject. Paddlepalooza was also in April and was another success. BCKFC has their two big tournaments dialed in and I recommend anyone with a little interest in kayak fishing to try and attend. Got to see some new water as well when work had me up near Simmesport. I ended up catching a choupique on a fly that established the fly rod record for that fish in Louisiana – got to start somewhere.
May – I entered the world of fiberglass fly rods in May with the arrival of a 3wt CGt. Put it to use on some neighborhood fish, it has been a lot of fun on the bass and cats. Fished the first Louisiana stop of the IFA kayak series. Pre-fishing went as planned, but tournament day was a bust.
June – I fished the Trout Challenge in June and caught a bunch of redfish, go figure. Hammered the bream in the neighborhood pond too, then trips became few and far between. I got a bit nostalgic talking about Blake’s spotted bass record and did my own version of Facebook’s “throwback Thursday” re-hashing my kayak ownership from day 1.
July – We vacationed down in St. John in July and had a really great time, pharyngitis though had me in pain for most of the trip, it was a major bummer. I gave Paul Lebowitz some of my video content in June and he put together a couple little videos that were published on the Kayak Fish site. It was cool to see my stuff somewhere other than here.
August – I made my way to the Northeastern part of Louisiana for the first time for work in August and found myself with time to kill for a day – of course I found somewhere to stretch the fly line. Followed that up with a slow day with Blake at an oxbow lake north of town.
September – It was obvious how things had changed come September as I made my first wade fishing trip of the year then. Spotted bass use to be my favorite target, now they are merely an afterthought, which is a shame because I really enjoy those trips. I also provided a tutorial on installing a Power Pole on the Cuda 14 with the new mounting bracket from YakAttack. It’s a good thing I did as I have still yet to use the darn thing. Power Poles need power and I’m too stubborn to wire it up. They are supposed to have a battery pack for it available in the Spring – hopefully it will see the water after that.
October – I figured out in October that the neighborhood catfish have gotten to the point where they follow you around the pond waiting for you to feed them. They have become fat and domesticated and are really a blast on the glass rod – I’m not ashamed. I also made my way back to the Jackson factory in October, where I shared some musky water with Chris Funk and Josh Tidwell. It was a lot of fun and reminded me that it isn’t always about catching fish. I did a poor job of following up that post with another about the Dealer Summit. In short we had a blast and my enthusiasm for kayak fishing, which was down a bit since June, was restored.
November and December – My cousin’s brewery opened in New Orleans in November and if you like good beer they are worth checking out – Courtyard Brewery. Then I met up with some good dudes from Alabama to hang in Grand Isle and fish for some reds. Everyone caught fish on the trip and James and I had one of the most productive days fishing I think I’ve ever had. It was almost literally every cast. I also got around to posting about a hike I did in Jean Lafitte NHP, which is a beautiful park that is often overlooked in the New Orleans area.
That’s it for 2014 and looking at the year in it’s entirety it was actually pretty awesome. Before writing this I’m thinking that the year was somewhat of a dud, because I felt like in years past I had so much content. The quantity of the content may be down, but the quality is there – Panama, the Virgin Islands, big trout in Georgia, musky hunting in Tennessee – 2014 was badass, here’s hoping 2015 rocks too!
The boys from Alabama made their annual trip to Grand Isle the weekend before Thanksgiving and I was able to join them for a couple of days of fishing and fraternizing. The forecast looked bleak before I made the drive down and I was fighting a bit of sinusitis, but I knew that they would be having a good time no matter the weather and I hadn’t gotten a chance to see them last year so I was in no matter what. Luckily for us the forecasters were wrong that weekend and we had two days of decent fishing weather before the bottom fell out.
Day 1 had three of us, James, Matt and myself, fishing together in a spot I picked because it would be somewhat wind protected and it had been a fishy spot in the past. Plus a good biscuit spot was on the way down – always good to know the good biscuit places to meet at. Conditions were great considering the forecast, the only real negative was the wind. Winds were constant, but they certainly were not the 15+ mph that was predicted. Water clarity was good, the sun was shining and the tide was out and coming in slowly – sightfishing wouldn’t be a problem on day 1. The other positive was cooperative, aggressive redfish.
It took me a while to get set up as I was fishing out of a new boat (more on that later) for the first time and by the time I met the other two, James was on his way to a limit of redfish on the fly rod. James had stumbled on a spot that I’ve had success at in the past on trout, only today it was stacked with reds. It is an area where a few different bodies of water run together and make a little deep spot with oyster bars on the shallow ledges. James was bumping his fly on the bottom and wearing out the reds with a fiberglass fly rod. I parked a short ways away and found a spot of my own and figured out a similar pattern with a Matrix shad on a 1/8 oz jig. We were basically nymphing for redfish, letting the current take our baits through the hole as we fished by feel along the bottom. In no time we pulled our two man limit of slot reds between 16-22″ with one upper slot kicker that was around 25-26″. Matt pulled up during the slaughter and announced he had his first redfish on the fly and it was a stud too at 25.5″ – would have made a great tournament fish. I was thrilled that we had such early success at the spot I picked for us to fish, given the conditions and the fact that I hadn’t fished saltwater since June’s Trout Challenge tournament.
After my limit I began tagging reds and after tagging another limit I decided it was time to move on. We made our way further into the marsh and found that pretty much anywhere you had big mounds of oysters there were redfish hanging around. Think of redfish and oysters like peanut butter and jelly or spaghetti and meatballs or lamb and tuna fish. I caught a few more reds before lunch including the biggest I would land on the day at 29″. He was pretty fun to catch as he broke the hook off my jighead on hookset, I had time to reach behind and throw my popping cork rig to him, but instead of him eating the Vudu shrimp he inhaled the cork. I gave him some slack and let him try to swallow the cork then as he spit it out I set the hook. Somehow the plan worked and I was able to hook the outside of his jaw with the Vudu – it was a wild sequence of events!
After lunch I did more paddling than fish catching but did end up catching a few more reds. I have to say it was probably my best day fishing for redfish this year. I haven’t dedicated a whole lot of time to saltwater this year so it was awesome to have a great day. When we were tired of the relentless wind we headed back to the camp to clean some fish and tell stories with the other guys. My one request was that someone bring some beer I haven’t had and Rhodes came through:
Day 2’s forecast was worse than day 1 so we weren’t very optimistic about our chances, however things change when you wake up to dead calm conditions. I imagined things would get worse as the day progressed but at least it was good now. James and I set out for a different spot, no matter how good the day before was I just don’t have it in me to fish the same spot two days in a row if I have a say so, must be the explorer in me. We set out for spot 2, but upon parking we realized that it wasn’t in the cards. A private landowner moved us along, which was a first for me, but I’ve heard it is happening a lot more down here. It is unfortunate that all natural tidal water is not available to the public, but I have no argument against the rights of landowners so move along we did. We went further up the road to a spot I haven’t fished in a while, but have had a lot of success at in the past. Conditions were different than yesterday. The skies were overcast, there wasn’t a whole lot of wind, water clarity wasn’t as good here and we would find that the redfish just weren’t as opportunistic as the day before.
It took all day for us to catch a limit, but we each got one. The average redfish size was better too, with several upper slot reds being caught. In fact I had a slot red that went 7.9 lbs. – talk about a tournament fish! The sight fishing was a lot tougher, but when I did see a redfish it was because his back was out of the water, which is a lot of fun when it is like that. It felt a little more like hunting on day 2 and what a relief to end up getting into some fish after the slow start. It wasn’t that I didn’t see them early on, it is just that I botched all my opportunities with missed hooksets and awful casts.
We ate well that night with Cole’s legendary deer balls and boudin from Ronnie’s in Baton Rouge. I had some Truck Stop in a can courtesy of Tidwell and Mark. It’s always a good time when the Alabama boys come down and this might be the first year that there wasn’t a skunk for anyone that made the trip. The redfishing was pretty darn good given the weather forecast, but specks were non-existent, I think there was one caught in the whole group and it was undersized. I hope that is just an enigma and not a pattern, either way I don’t think anyone left disappointed. Can’t wait to do it again next year!
What better way to experience the state of Wyoming than to try and catch it’s four native cutthroat species? It didn’t take a whole lot of convincing to get Blake to come along – I think both of us have been looking for another trip out West since our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park back in 2012.
Mountains to Marsh 