Heading to Montana on the 3rd of July

[pica 0]

Now your knots, Nail, albright, perfection, surgeons, clinch....etc. If you are guiding fly fisherman you will be tying LOTS! of em. Shucks your already on the boat you son of a gun. Hope it went well.

[wschmitt3 0]

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?

[RickZieger 0]

You may want to check with the Fish & Game site there. Many streams have been closed.

 

Rick

[mikechell 0]

Pica's avatar is a ... wait for it ... is a Pica! Look 'em up.

[wschmitt3 0]

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.

[heavynets 0]

Which flies we're working for you?

[wschmitt3 0]

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.

[bellevue.chartreuse.trout 0]

Welcome back. Besides the drift boat handling issue, what did you learn? Was there any one particular item that you learned about the endeavor you are about to get in to?

 

BCT - ignore the pm then you updated here

[wschmitt3 0]

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.

[wschmitt3 0]

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.

[bellevue.chartreuse.trout 0]

Nice fish and nice pics Will. I got one of those sort of nets this past Winter and was somewhat surprised by how small a decent fish looks in them too. I caught a few this past May and had the same effect when I looked at their pics.

 

Still, nice fish and it's neat to see the cars on the bank as I've seen other pictures in publications of that bank. But it's neat to see it as taken form someone who has visited the area.

 

BCT

[wschmitt3 0]

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

[mikechell 0]

Glad to hear you had a good experience. Any class you take that involves a few fish being caught can't be bad.

[wschmitt3 0]

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.

[bellevue.chartreuse.trout 0]

Need any help moving??? (lol.. just kidding) Don't think any more trout fishing is in my cards for the rest of the Summer for me this year! Oh well, there might be a LM or two if it ever stops raining!