iPads.....

Sorry for all the random posts here and there with no photos. My moms iPad is awful!!!! Nobody get one. Hopefully I can figure something else out soon. Work has been good, real slow right now. Fishing isn't too bad either. Only gonna get better.

Lewis Lake and Mista Grizz

Another friend from the shop, Aj came along with my mom and I up to Grizzly Lake. The fishing ended up being a bust but the scenery was incredible so that was a plus... A few days after Grizzly Lake, my mom and I traveled up into Yellowstone National Park and then hiked into Lewis Lake which. Lewis Lake is a really cool lake in Yellowstone with some great scenery and really good fishing. Huge brown trout and lake trout are in the lake and those fish were the ones I targeted. Man I wish I had a boat! Fishing in the lakes off the banks is really tough with a fly rod because 90% of the time there we a lot of overhanging branches that don't allow you to get an ideal cast. But still I managed to streamer up a nice brownie on a brown and yellow Clouser Minnow. A deadly fly! Sorry for no pics, this is all off of my moms iPad. Which I don't recommend at all this thing is terrible. But anyway that was a fun trip and a good first fish of the summer. After that, my mom and I left and got in the car and on our way out we saw an awesome looking grizzly bear just walking through a field. It looked awesome from the car, probably gonna be a different story when I come face to face with one... It's only a matter of time. I've already seen my mountain lion up close. Mista Grizz is bound to come up on me sometime soon if I continue to hike back into these places. Hopefully Bear Spray really works! Everybody stay tuned for more!

Grizzly Lake!

The two days we have spent in JH have been incredible. I don't start work until saturday and so this whole week is just fishing with my mom. Not bad huh? Like I said, tomorrow I'm fishing in a Smallmouth Bass tourney with Andy-man. I'm super excited about that, but today my mom and I are going to hike into a pretty remote lake called Grizzly Lake. This. Lake is actually very close to where my family's ranch is and it has some huge fish in there. I once asked the owner of my shop about it and his jaw dropped with the expression on his face like "How do you know about that place??? You're not even from here!!" Which really I have to give credit to one of my family's longtime fishing guide and good friend, Paul Rice. He took my family up there probably six years ago and I just remember seeing absolute monster fish feeding on top. This is really tough water to fish as Cutthroat trout that live in lakes are typically a lot bigger and smarter than those in the rivers. The reason for this is that first of all they can just be lazy and not have to worry about current, which obviously isn't making them burn any fat. Also, there are a lot of aquatic insects that come off of lakes. There are a lot in rivers too, but lakes are more consistent with a ton of hatches with midges, baetis', and damsel flies. Not to mention the leeches that swim around in there and even a little snake can become a snack for a big Cutty. Another awesome thing about this lake is that there is a healthy population of huge Brook Trout. The owner of my shop (Will Dornan), thinks there are state record Brook Trout in there. I believe him too! There are some really big fish in this lake. Not many people travel to it though because it is remote and about an hour and a half hike in. Also, (hence the name of the lake) this is prime Grizzly Bear country so my mom and I will have to be on our game today... But other than that minor obstacle, we should hopefully be just fine! My mom is armed with Bear Spray and a camera so hopefully either tonight or tomorrow I'll have a good blog with some awesome pictures up soon. Stay tuned Crew!

Finally Here!!

My life in Jackson, WY has officially started again. My mom and I drove about 16 hours yesterday all the way to North Platte, Nebraska then woke up early this morning and polished off the last 9 hours. We pulled into JH around 3:45 and went to the apartment to make sure our key worked and also to brush our teeth haha... After stretching a little bit from the two day drive, my mom and I drove to "Snake River Angler" (my shop in town) and I was greeted with big hugs and a few very "welcoming" and "colorful" jokes. It was great to see the guys and I met one of our newest employees named A.J... He was a cool dude and a fellow southerner so that is always a plus.

Tomorrow I'll go back into here shop to get some stuff taken care of so I can start working. Beyond excited! I'll probably fish a little tomorrow too at Jenny Lake and already my good friend and boss Andy invited me to fish in a smallmouth tournament with him on wednesday in Ririe Resorvoir. Super stoked! This should be an awesome trip.

Big Fish on the South Harpeth

Went straight to the river right after my last exam... Didn't have any shorts with me. Sorry for that gruesome sight. I'll try to lay out more often!

Exams... Then JH!

Hey everybody sorry for the no blogs lately I have exams all this week and I have been super busy studying and trying to get through this last stretch. Only about 3 days until my Mom and I hit the road for JH. I'm so excited to spend another special three months with her and hopefully an awesome summer awaits me in the Mountains. Hope everybody is havin' a great start to the summer. Stay tuned!

Smallies On zee Fly!!

For the past week, my friend Hutt and I have been making the trip out to his families new property on the South Harpeth where it is absolutely loaded with Smallmouth, Redeye, Largemouth, and Bluegill. I use about a #8 Olive Woolybugger and it just wrecks shop on this river. Every time I throw it into a deeper hole or riffle, if I'm not getting strikes by Bluegill or litte Shad, then it's by a Smallie or a Redeye usually. Hutt and I fished this past week three times and for each of those three times, we probably caught a total of 30 fish or more in less than two hours. I caught this fat Redeye on one the Olive Woolybuggers and Hutt caught this Largemouth on a little swim-bait of some sort.

On our last day of the week fishing here (Thursday); me, Hutt, and my oldest brother Nat got on the water at about 4:15 pm and we quickly waded up to a deep hole where Hutt said he had had some big strikes in here. So we all got up to this hole and Nat was up top, Hutt in the middle, and me down low. As I began to fish, I found a big Smallmouth chasing Bluegill off and even eating some little Bluegill. It was an awesome sight to see. This fish was ferocious, literally eating anything in it's path. So I started throwing my Olive Woolybugger about 5-7ft in front of where it was eating and let my fly sink down to the fish's depth. Then I just mildly stripped in the Woolybugger seing if I could get this Smallie to eat it. Sure enough he chased it and acted like he was going to eat it.... but he never really committed.

So I threw the same exact cast, and sped up my strips a lot and made the intervals between strips shorter. This definitely got his attention but again he wouldn't really commit to the fly. After doing this probably eight times, I knew I had to change flies. But I also knew I could catch this fish if I pissed him off enough. So I put on a J.J. Special and started stripping hard and fast. Finally, on probably the third cast with the J.J. he smacked it. This fish just destroyed my fly and he was a fighter right off the bat, jumping probably 3 feet out of the water twice! It was awesome and he even began to take out some drag. Which was also probably due to the fact that I was using 7x fluorocarbon tippet but still. This was a healthy fish! After maybe one minute of hard fighting, this Smallie gave in and I finally got him in my hands. Awesome fish and even better fight!!

After that, the three of us sort of just cruised down river catching some Bluegill and smaller Redeye. But at another deep hole, my brother found a BIG Smallie that no doubt was at least a pound bigger than the one I was holding in my hand in that picture. I began to cast at him and I got him to look once but we had to leave right after I started fishing for this monster. I'll definitely have to come back and try again at this beast!

Stay tuned because tomorrow I'm going down to Hutt's farm "Cabin Creek" in Giles County, TN to fish for some huge Largemouth like this one caught by my oldest brother two years ago. And I'm going after these Hogs on a fly so this should be intense (Hopefully)!!