Wyoming

Spent the last few days out in Jackson Hole, WY with my girlfriend and her family - enjoying the cooler weather, mountains, and trout streams that the region had to offer. Quite a nice break from the 100+ temps of Florida, and a good way to end the summer season. Following are a bunch of photos from our trip.

The first day we took two boats out of Jack Dennis Sports for a float down the Snake River at the base of the Tetons. Everyone caught fish and had a good time catching cutthroat after cutthroat on big dries.


left: Carolyn
right: Angie







left: Carolyn's dad - and the Spotted Tail photo gallery's #1 visitor



Day Two: Carolyn and I went hiking and had some interesting animal encounters. A chipmunk joined us for lunch, without being invited. It probably had rabies, so we eventually left him alone. And after lunch, we found two bull moose browsing in the trail.


But the highlight of the trip came Friday afternoon when Carolyn thought we were going fishing on Flat Creek and we ended up getting engaged instead.

The disguise:

8/3 season wrap-up

Went out on my own with the intentions of doing some more filming on the bay. The reds have been very camera friendly lately on the lower tides, but yesterday they were acting a little different. They were still up on the flats, but not sticking their backs and tails up in the air too much. I was contemplating whether to fish or run back in, and I noticed a wake coming right at my boat, which I had staked out for a minute. I was on the poling platform watching the wake come at me and could tell that it was not bait, but rather a small scholl of reds. As they approached the boat I hopped down and pulled my 6 wt fly rod out from under the gunnels and unhooked the fly. By this time the fish were right at my port side so I literally threw the fly with my hand at the fish. Before I knew it I had a boil and felt my line go tight. A few minutes later I had the fish at the boat. The self timer photos aren't the best this time around.

After I had my rod out, I decided to hop out of the skiff and wade to another fish that was tailing and pushing around as it fed on some minnows. I put a shrimp fly in its face and came tight on him as well.

LA Marsh trip

All the guides for Shallow Water Expeditions took a trip over to the Louisiana marsh for a couple of days to mark the end of the summer season. It was hot and muddy water, but we still all had a great time. 9 of us altogether and 3 skiffs, making a big parade through the marsh creeks and ponds.

A redfish of almost 15 lbs I caught on the cast after I pulled the hook on a 20+ lb fish