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)!!

Insane Harpeth River Fishing

Sorry for no blogs this week! I'll have a new one up tomorrow with pictures.

Incredible Fishing!

Yesterday, my good friend Hutt gave me the invite to come out and fish his families new property out on the Harpeth River. They have 265 acres of prime hunting and fishing land. But we went out there with Hayes, Wyatt, Chandler, and Jack (different Jack than on the Caney). All good friends of mine in my grade and they also love to fish. We began fishing at about 2:15 pm with Wyatt and Hayes at the top of property, Jack and Chandler in the middle, and Hutt and I took the bottom section.

Hutt had warned me about the snakes and I knew they were there from past experiences with them on the Harpeth. But Hutt and I walked/climbed down the bank into the water and immediately there were Redeye Bass, Bluegill, and Gar swimming around frantically. Everybody else was spin fishing but my love for fly fishing has grown so much that I basically take a fly rod everywhere I go. So I tied on an olive Wooly Bugger and began casting at these fish. On my third cast I caught a little bluegill, and then another one, and another one, and another one. These bluegill were all over my Wooly Bugger which was actually pretty fun because I had a 7x tippet on and so it was a little bit of a fight. But really what I wanted to catch were the Redeye and Smallmouth. In the mean time, Hutt had already caught one bluegill and one small Redeye too. Of course in the first 15 minutes we saw three Copperhead Snakes too.

But we continued to walk through the water upstream catching all the bluegill in the world. And I then told Hutt that in order to help this stream prosper in Redeye and Smallmouth fishing, whenever anybody catches a "bigger" Bluegill, throw it up on the bank and let it die because the bigger bluegill can actually eat and will eat smaller fish like baby Redeye, minnows, and baby bluegill too. But then release the small bluegill we catch because that is also Smallmouth and Redeye and Largemouth food. But the reason for this is that bluegill really aren't a game fish, they might be fun to catch sometimes but they're so easy to catch that it gets old fast. But anyway, they aren't a game fish and the bigger bluegill are competing for food with the Smallmouth, Redeye, and Largemouth bass. So the less "big" bluegill are in the stream, the more food there will be for the Smallmouth, Redeye, and Largemouth bass and they will increase in size and in abundance.

Anyway, Hutt and I continued to wade upstream while Hutt was catching some Redeye and I was catching the bluegill. We probably had about 18 total fish in 45 minutes and finally we got up to where Jack and Chandler were. Jack and Chandler had caught a few bluegill but nothing else. But finally, I was fishing this one hole and I could see this Smallmouth chasing my fly, but he just wouldn't take it. He would chase it aggressively and then back off. I knew I just needed to keep the pressure on him and strip faster to get him. Finally, after about 15 casts at him, he absolutely demolished my fly and with 7x tippet it was a pretty awesome fight. This fish went nuts, jumping out of the water and splashing it was an awesome fight. Finally Hutt came and helped me land this fish and he/she was probably right at 1 lb. Which is a pretty good Smallmouth for a little stream like this. But it was an awesome day and to top it off I went to the Brantley Gilbert and Erich Church concert which was incredible.

Early Runoff!

http://www.snakeriverangler.com/REPORTS---ENTERTAINMENT.html

Last year when my mom and I rolled into Jackson, WY. There was still 6 feet of snow stacked up on the passes and maybe 10 to 12 inches on the ground down in the valley. I remember my first day of fishing on June 2nd, it was about 30 degrees and snowing. The record snow-pack last year with over 700 inches, and the cold weather throughout June, caused the runoff to start around July 1st. Which is almost two and a half weeks late compared to "normal" years. Anyway this was difficult for me because I only had three months of fishing and working there and two of those months had been taken away due to snow and heavy runoff. But this wasn't bad because it prompted me to go explore more water and more incredible scenery around Northwest Wyoming.

As you can see in the link I attached of my shop's fishing report, this year is a much different story. The rivers are already in full runoff with such a small snow-pack throughout the winter and unbelievably warm temperatures during the "cold" months. So hopefully the Snake will be clear and ready to fish by early to mid June. This is good for me because the fishing will be awesome right when I get out there and throughout the summer but years like these usually means the fall won't hardly have any water and the fishing might not be too good. By the way this is the locals favorite time to fish because all of the tourists and "90 day wonders" (College students that come work and live in JH for the summer) will have left to go back to college.

Can't wait to get back out there. Only 24 days.... But in the mean time I'm headed back to the Caney this weekend with Hayes to go after some more brownies and rainbows. Stay tuned!

Finally Success On The Caney Fork

Sorry for the late blogging folks... But anyway I spent that night at Hayes's house on Thursday night with Jack. We were off to sleep by 12:00am and getting dressed at 4:45am. So it was a short night's sleep! We got our gear together in the back of Jack's truck and we were on the road by 5:00am. Behind Jack's truck, he was towing a River Hawk Boat with a small horsepower motor on the back and a trolling motor on the front... Absolutely perfect for the Caney Fork! We drove for about an hour before stopping at a Mcdonalds for some breakfast. After eating, we drove the final fifteen minutes to our put-in at the base of Center Hill Dam.

I tied up a variety of Shad patterns in with .20 gram Lead core, Black Thread, White Streamer Hair, Black Marabou, Olive EP Fibers, and Goggle eyes. I also tied up some Olive and White leech patterns that I thought might be of some success. Earlier in the week, Jack told me that white, olive, and black Clouser Minnows would be a killer fly on the river and as I looked through my material, I realized I had run out of bucktail and I had to butcher a clouser minnow looking type of fly. That was my arsenal. Jack had tied up some of his own personal clouser minnow patterns and these things were mean.... Jack tied up the perfect variety of material in his clouser and they killed it. Hayes (Hazel) had some big white streamer constructed with a lot of white Marabou. Hayes also had some white wooly buggers too. Jack and I both had our fair-share of nymphs too.

The lineup in the boat was Jack up front with the trolling motor, Hayes in the middle, and me in the back. It couldn't have been longer than ten minutes before Jack caught a small rainbow trout and he had also probably "stung" two more. I knew today might be a good day for us! We continued to slowly go down the river casting at the banks and stripping our streamers like mad-men and we would get the occasional follow or look from a small bow or brownie, but none would really commit and attack it like we wanted. Meanwhile, I was busy switching up streamers I had tied... which was stupid now that I look back on it. I couldn't have fished the same fly for more than ten minutes until I found one that worked. But whatever at least we were catching some fish.

We continued to slowly cruise past other fisherman on the bank and finally we got up to a longer and deeper run that Jack said held some fish. So we anchored the boat up and all three of us hopped out and began to fish. I started out at the very top of the run, Hayes took the middle, and Jack took the middle/lower part of the run. Again, three minutes later Jack caught another 10-11 inch rainbow. Hell Yeah! They were here. Jack made his way down the long run and Hayes followed. Hayes hit a deeper hole created by a drop-off from a gravel bar up ahead. I was still fishing the top of the run when I heard Hazel hootin and hollerin about a big fish chasing his streamer. He went after it a few more times but nothing and he opted to move on down the river with Jack. Well I was done with my leech patterns and I put on one of my Shad patterns with the goggle eyes and went to fish this same hole. On my first cast I had a big bow chase my fly... Again, he wouldn't commit to it or attack it but it definitely got his attention. I kept at this fish knowing that he was interested in it already, so just keep throwing it right in front of him until he couldn't resist anymore. This is a very typical thing for trout. Especially bigger trout. Anyway, I never caught him and we all decided to hop back in the boat and move down river.

Again we pulled up to another great looking run and we anchored up again and began fishing. Same lineup as last time, me up top, Hayes in the middle, and Jack middle/lower. On my first couple casts I had a big fish go at my fly but he missed it. So I threw my streamer back at him right away maybe ten more times and he wouldn't go at it again. Man I just can't get these fish in this river. But Jack hauled another one out downstream, so Hayes and I decided we would move down too. I threw my streamer in this long pool/riffle and had four different "hits" from fish. I missed all four!! I was not on my game today... Man I could not get one of these fish attached to my line. But Jack was catching fish and so I was glad to see a good friend catching fish. Something I learned this summer in JH, watching other people catch fish gives me the same pleasure as when I catch my own fish. So I was happy. But still thinking to myself "Keif... they're eating your fly. Set the hook!". But I just couldn't get connected. Well we eventually moved on and Jack hauled out this big boy from the deep with one of his own clousers! It was awesome! The fight was incredible. About a 16 inch rainbow and man was he fat. An absolutely awesome fish!

We continued down river and Hayes caught a little 8 inch Striper and it was pretty cool especially since it was Hazel's first striped bass. As we continued down river, I still hadn't caught a fish, but I was just glad as a group we were catchin' em' and having a good time on the river. A little down river Jack hooked up again on a Pheasant Tail Nymph and caught a beautiful brownie. Another awesome fish!

We had gone as far downstream as we needed to and decided to start heading back upstream. Jack had caught his share of fish and decided to let me take the front of the boat. You don't find a lot of fisherman who will give their "lucky spot" to you so I was thankful. Granted, being in the back of the boat and starting at the top of the pools for most of the day it was likely that I wouldn't catch as many fish, but even when I got up front for the last hour of the trip I still couldn't haul anything in. But whatever! That's fishing... Sometimes it's your day and sometimes it isn't. Either way we all had a great time and I think we might be going back again next weekend. Haha Can't Wait! Awesome trip and stay tuned folks!

Revenge On The Caney Fork

Sure enough I'm going back to the Caney tomorrow morning with Jack and Hayes... Should be exciting.
Supposedly streamers are killing it and of course that's the only thing I didn't try last weekend...But no excuses! Hopefully Jack of "Game Fair Ltd." will be able to give me some pointers on this river. I'm always open to learning new things about fly fishing and really anything in general.

I tied up a lot of olive and white streamers this week and so hopefully we'll tear em' up out there. Pictures and a damn good story tomorrow!

GAMETIME BABY!!

Caney Fork- 1 Keifer-0

Well Sure enough when Chandler and I hit the road it was pouring rain and about 50 degrees. Not so great! But we made the hour drive and got to Happy Hollow access parking lot around 7:30am and began fishing around 8:00am. Before we hit the water, a father and son came up from the river with disgusted looks on their faces.... They were the faces of defeat! :(

I got to talking with them and they delivered the bad news to me. They didn't catch anything, hook anything, or even see anything... Definitely not what I wanted to hear. And these two had fished this stretch before and knew the river pretty well. But we stayed optimistic and walked down to the banks anyway. Chandler took off down the bank with his spinning rod and Rooster-Tail attached to the end of his line. While I waited at the edge of the water looking for brown trout to either be feeding or at least sitting on the grassy bed of the river.

The river looked awesome; it was nice and clean with great looking water and great looking potential for holding browns and rainbows. But the water was low, no question about it. I'd say we were looking at anywhere from 200 to 400 cfs. And this river usually flows around a 1,000 cfs, especially during the rainy spring season.

I set up my first rig which consisted of a white strike indicator, and two nymphs ranging from 2 to 4 feet under it. I had a Scud on top and a San Juan Worm under that. Two (supposedly) deadly flies on this river. I saw no fish in my first twenty minutes of searching and I decided that blind casting into the deeper riffles was probably going to be the key to my success. I began to fish the deeper riffles expecting something to rip my strike indicator down under the water but nothing. Maybe that was the problem, I expected to catch something even though I had never fished there before.

But I continued to fish changing flies like a madman, I literally threw every nymph I had. I went from scuds, to SJ Worms, Prince Nymphs, Pheasant Tails, Zebra Midges, Hairs ear Nymphs, etc... I didn't even realize it until after we were done fishing, that I never threw a streamer. Which I said in my earlier blog that I would, but after seeing the low water I didn't think a streamer would even be worth trying. After a four hours of fishing, I saw five newly stocked brown trout in the 5-7 inch range and a rainbow that jumped out of the water, and he was probably a 13 inch bow. But I couldn't get my fly to him, he was too far out in the middle. After seeing this, we went back up to the car only to see more disappointed men getting back into their cars after also getting skunked.

It was definitely a rough day on the Caney but I'm eager to go back. I know way more now about the river than I did. Sometimes it takes coming back from the trip and recapping in your head what you could have done to be more successful. It wasn't a great trip in the "catching fish" category, but it was a blast to get up early and see a new river I had never seen or fished before.

Now I'll be headed back this Friday with another friend from my grade named Jack. Jack works in the Orvis shop (Also known as "Game Fair Ltd.") here in Nashville, and he has more experience on the Caney than I do so hopefully we'll be able to get into some fish this time. Stay tuned!

P.S. Definitely Pictures this time!! Sorry I keep forgetting the camera!

Practice!!!

Yesterday on the Harpeth was actually really fun. Both friends Hayes and Chandler came with me and although I didn't catch anything on a fly rod, Hayes caught three Smallmouth on a spinning rod. I tried everything from crawfish patterns to little leech patterns and then to a hopper pattern on top, nothing!! But I kept trying and finally I hooked a bass and of course, I wasn't paying attention and I missed him! ****!!! But whatever it was a fun day on the water with two good friends.

After fishing, I realized I definitely need some more practice to get ready for this summer so today I'm going out again after I get my homework done and I mow the lawn, today I'll have my mom's camera too so we'll see if I can get some pics up on here. Wish me luck!

Harpeth River Madness

Today, I'm hooping to get out on the Harpeth River and do a little Smallmouth Bass fishing with my good friend Hayes Brown. Hayes is in my grade and we do a lot of hunting and fishing together throughout the school year. First I'll probably make a stop at Fly South for some new crayfish flies and maybe some fly tying material too!

Not exactly sure what today will bring but hopefully tonight I will have the pleasure of uploading some pictures of Smallmouth Bass on here. The Harpeth River is definitely a fun river to fish and it really doesn't get much pressure at all mainly because it isn't really that great of a river to fish. But it's one of the only ones close to home so it'll have to do. A buddy of mine said he has seen 4lb Smallmouth pulled out of here before so I know that they are lurking around in there.

Smallmouth aren't the only species of fish in the harpeth either, I have caught both Largemouth Bass and Redeye Bass . And some say that there are Rainbow trout in there too but I haven't seen any and if there are, there are very few and they definitely stay out of the shallows because this small Tennessee river would be too hot for them to survive abundantly. But maybe there are, and maybe I'll hook one today.

One thing to watch out for tough while fishing the Harpeth is snakes. Copperheads and Cottonmouth snakes are what you need to look out for. Those things are thick in there! They lay all over the banks under brush and rocks. Just make sure to watch your step and maybe flip over a rock or two before entering the water. I personally don't have that big of a phobia of snakes but I still would rather not get tangled up with either of those species. But besides that, the fishing will hopefully be awesome and I'm lookin' forward to fighting some smallmouth.

Crayfish patterns are my favorite types of flies for this river... I'll be using something like this Bachman's Crawdad fly. I'm stoked to get out on the water and hopefully I'll have some pics to upload later!

Can't Wait Any Longer!

The title explains it all. I am out of patience, all I can think about now is getting out to JH and begin fishing and working. Although I have done more fly fishing here in Tennessee this year than I ever have, the scenery obviously isn't even close to being the same. I just want to be out there already! School is just getting old. As y'all can see, I have to entertain myself in school because I don't know what to do with myself anymore, I have to get out west. Another month and a half and I'll be on the voyage with my momma once again.

Up and At Em!

Whats up everybody! I'm back with another blog about my adventures in Jackson, Wyoming again for the summer of 2012. My mom and I will be starting our two-day voyage back out there on May 26th, the day after my last exam. I can't wait to get out there! Can't Wait! It's going to be another incredible summer with awesome stories, pictures, and VIDEOS!!! I hope...

Sometime in the near future I will purchase a GoPro camera and hopefully be able to get not only some awesome pictures with it, but also some really cool videos of me fishing and just hanging out. I can't wait to get out there and I hope everybody who reads this blog enjoys it. Look forward to beginning my journey out west once again. Take it easy everybody and stay tuned.