wschmitt3

You'll never hear a complaint about the fish from me and it was an amazing learning experience also. I stepped up my fishing a bit learned some good stuff from some other fantastic fishermen from the US and Canada and set my self up for a job in the industry (hopefully). How ever. I am dying now that I am home. My home river is 78 degrees in the afternoon right now and 72 in the dawn hours and is fishing like a drainage ditch what ever trout are hanging around have to be slowly dying so fishing for them is totally uncool. The water in the Big Horn was in the 50's the whole time I was there with 85+ afternoon air temperatures. All dams should be bottom release. Thankfully on 1 August I will be moving to a new place right across the street from one of the best trout streams in the state and just up stream from one of the best stretches of that river.

I blame the the b*it*h at the ticket counter in billings, the dude at the other counter let one of the other guys with a rod tube through while I was in line and when I asked him he said another guy went through ahead of him and the ticket guy didn't even flinch when it came to the three tubes he had taped together. The problem with the refund is that the Customer service supervisor at Denver is apparently a employee of a sub contractor for united and has no authority to give or authorize refunds not actually a employee of united. I am still not ever going to fly united again.

Yea here is a picture of me leaning against the net. Its a big one for sure.

So I found a little plano fly box from wal-mart near a place I have seen the kid I mentioned in my earlier post on this thread fishing a few times. I asked this older fisherman if it was his and he said the kid had gotten a fly rod and was asking around if any one had seem me out fishing. So I figured since he was on the path to becoming a fly fisherman I would help him out. I grabbed an old fly box and fishpond chest pack and net I don't use and stuffed it with flies and enough stuff to get him going on a good path. When I got started some one hooked me up with a bunch of stuff and it felt pretty good to pass on some of that stuff and a few really good pieces of gear to a newbie.

I should have taken many more photos than I did but here are some. First one is an old tractor in the river, then a brown I caught (nice fish, really big net), me (looking haggard) with a brown, the famous cars buried in the bank, then me (again looking haggard) with another brown. The last two are fish that two of the other students caught. The last one was caught at the boat launch after jet boat training, the kid only took three casts all day and landed this nasty fish.

So check this out. I recently flew from Boston Mass to Billings, MT on Delta. I carried my rods on the plane with out any one saying anything. There was three of them in rod tubes very securely strapped together. On the flight back to Boston on United the woman that checked me in forced me to check them and charged me $150 for extra luggage because I had two other checked bags, she actually threatened to charge me for all three tubes because they were "separate items". I objected while I was there in Billings but got no where and then again in Denver. In Denver I was told by a customer service supervisor that I would get refunded because there was three or four other guys on the plane with 2 or three rod tubes taped together and one guy with a two peice tube that held 3-4 rods (it was huge) and it wasn't fair that they were allowed to carry their rods on the plane and I wasn't because I chose the wrong ticketing agent to go to. So I get home and go to the website and submit for my refund and I was denied for the refund. I am sooooo angry. I will never fly on United again.

Post removed... I regret getting involved in this. I try so hard to avoid talking about this stuff with people in the real world I don't know why I displayed such bad judgment here.

Post Removed

Where is the picture!!!!!

Post removed.

Take me with you BKB! I just came back from Montana and I cant wait to head west with a rod in hand again. When you return we should make a plan for a day of fishing, I'm pretty sure you are the only other Vermonter on here. I'm moving to Montpelier in a couple weeks and I plan to take up residence on the Winooski. But, I have yet to fish the Battenkill or anywhere down your way and what kind of Vermont fly fisherman am I really with out wetting a line in what is probably the most storied trout stream in the state. Best of luck to you in Colorado. Tight Lines!

In my mind if your fishing brookies in the summer top water is the way to go, you can catch them any way you fish in the headwaters of the freestones here in Vermont but dry flies are so much fun. I like to get out in the late afternoon like around four and fish until dark. I will often, starting about this time of summer fish something like a cricket or hopper pattern, If I happen to stir up a bunch of caddis in the brush I will toss on a cdc caddis or something like that. Simulators in yellow, brown or olive in the smaller sizes like 14 are good also. I will typically slowly go up in size as the summer goes on because the crickets and hoppers get bigger as the summer goes on. A dropper is always a good idea but can complicate speedy release on hot days and increase handling and as a result mortality so I typically dont use a dropper, it is often the smack of the hopper on the water that brings them up any how.

The drift boat handling and jet boating was a major part of the course but we also learned casting instruction, worked on knot tying there was a fly tying lesson in which I helped some of the guys who had never tied, they talked about client relations. Most of what they talked about regarding being a fishing guide is stuff I had read other places and a lot of it is really just common sense stuff that any one with some customer service experience should be able to figure out but the way they put things together was great and over all it was a really great experience.

Big Horn Origional Scuds tied with rainbow tan Sow/Scud Dubbing, tan and grey Ray Charles, White Wooly buggers, Olive & Black Zebra Midges I caught one on an simplified Caddis Poopah type pattern also, the wire worm took a few as well.

Let me guess Mike they have "huge sharp teeth" and "a visious streak a mile wide" like the Rabbit of Caerbannog in Monty Python and The Holy grail. https://youtu.be/XcxKIJTb3Hg All that aside. Guide school was an absolutely incredible learning experience and the fishing was fantastic. Because of absolutely no prior experience learning how to handle a drift boat was a trying experience for me but I got the hang of it by the end and got a really good performance review from the instructors. Now I just have to get my resume and cover letter into them and hopefully I can get a guiding gig for this summer. Ill post some pictures later on I am still sorting them out. I really wish I had taken more I am seriously lacking fish pictures, it was just that it was so hot most of the days that speedy catch and release was absolutely necessary.

Welcome to the forum its a great place to source info.

Not heading out for a few hours but thanks, you gave me a good idea. I am not bringing my laptop and I fear boredom during travel. I should bring a couple lengths of cord to practice tying knots on the bus and plane. I'm pretty good with most knots but there area few I don't tie much and it's always good to practice knot tying. Is your avatar a baby bunny?

Wow. So so so stupid.

Welcome, this is a great forum!

Thanks for the tip Crack, I think that I am really not enjoying tying these flies because I have no confidence in them. I have never fished a scud or sow bug pattern, seen a scud or sow bug in my kick seine and while the flies are as true to the recipes and proportions as any that I have tied I just dont know if they will catch fish. I don't know if that makes sense, its like this... When I tie a flash back pheasant tail or a brown wooly bugger and drop it into a slot in my fly box its exciting to think about the fish I will catch on it because I have caught many fish on those patterns but I haven't on the scuds and sow bugs so I am sitting there taking care to tie these as well as I can and wondering what if none of these catch fish and I just wasted half a day tying them.

That's a good bit of advise. I had not considered that. Most of my big streamers are hook down. I really dont enjoy tying these scuds or sow bugs. They are very simple flies but I don't enjoy the process at all.

Getting ready for the big horn. Some Grey and some Tan Ray Charles and Origional Big Horn Scuds in a couple colors. I was getting frustrated tying the scuds so I'm going to take a break for a while but I plan to at least double the number of both by the end of the night and tie buggers and streamers tomorrow.

I have caught bunches of both and still mix them up quite often.

I think you are right sir. I should have taken a better look at it.