Being guided, Indicators, shuttles and Full Moon

Hi Folks,

Long time…. And so much to report on.

First the fishing… it’s been really, really good. The Drakes continue to do their thing on the Encampment and the upper river, Bennett to town, has been great on nymphs and when the cloud cover permits on dries. Everything is hatching so there are bugs deep, in the middle and on top.

The river and our area continue to get fresh shots of rain, the river comes up and slows the fishing a bit then goes down and the fishing is wonderful. You’ll never see Wyoming, Montana or Colorado so Green in July. It’s great for the rivers and should allow us great floating well into the summer….. the down side is the folks who like to wade fish it’s tough right now… so bring your boat, inner tube, log or rubber ducky to float on…. Or hire me to row you!

Speaking of hiring me.. Or any guide for that matter….. I’m usually good at asking my clients what they what to get out of their trips… and then I’ll explain what’s happening on the river right now and what’s most effective. More often than not we can find a happy medium to keep my guys happy and put a few fish in the boat while enjoying the day on our beautiful Platte.

So I get a couple of new guys, spur of the moment who want to fish… they want to float the Encampment themselves and do the big river with me… tomorrow. I explained that the nymphing has been hot on the Platte and judging by the rain that was coming down at the moment they may want to wait a day for me on the big river so it could settle and start to drop and in the meantime and they could do their thing on the Encampment. They voted to do the Platte right away so off we go the next am.

As advertised the river was up a bit but we still had decent visibility …. No worries we’ll nymph the edges and do just fine.

Right off we catch an 18” Brown and life is looking good… until I apparently didn’t know where to fish, how to set up a leader and was using rotten tippet material.

My one client, who caught the nice Brown, all of a sudden decided that he would start throwing his bugs in all the juicy looking runs where the fish just had to be… Just like on the Arkansas says he, and tying up his own leader using his bugs ….

Sadly we were on the Platte and for an hour or so he lost flies, broke of leaders by casting into 5” of water rather that fishing the runs I pointed out. He and I were both frustrated so I pulled into an eddy took a deep breath. I looked at his leader which was now down to 5 feet and about 20lb test with no tippet …… he liked it cause my tippet was rotten and he wouldn’t break off this way….. I explained that he wouldn’t catch fish with that set up and if he would please allow me to re rig him and give my way and hour. Begrudgingly he said yes and unfortunately I set up a battle between the client…. An old fly fishing sage….. And the guide… young punk kid wet behind the ears…. That would last the rest of the trip.

So…. The very first run after re doing his rig and with him putting the fly where I asked… he could do this as he was a good caster and good fisherman…. He immediately hooked and landed a 16” Bow…… ah victory was mine and now we can start catching fish and enjoying the day. Alas it was not to be….. He is after all the client and many years my senior so by Ten am I was relegated to boat driver and following his directions …….we proceeded to not catch fish in every imaginable way.

So while this is drama is unfolding my other guy, also a good fisherman with ton’s of experience lands a nice Brown and says “ great fish… now let’s take off the indicator … which he doesn’t like fishing with…. And carry on. No worries, I don’t use an indicator for my personal fishing and it’s a challenging way to fish…. But to be effective you have to really, really, really pay attention and work hard at it… I love it!

I’m sure you’ve already guessed that without the indicator and without the intense concentration it takes to make it work…. that end of the boat stopped catching fish and wouldn’t let me work with him to get the good drifts required to catch our beautiful Browns and Rainbows…. Drat’s !... foiled again!

So……. First, if you hire a guide for the day… use him…. After all we do know a little about this game….. And if you decide not to use or listen to him, except to row….. please don’t look to your guide at the end of the day and say the fishing was poor… just thank him that the boat didn’t sink, the water and ice tea were cold and what a pretty river the Platte is.

I digress, sort of…… Now for the final blow… for the first….. And last time….. Your fearless guide committed the cardinal sin as it pertains to running the shuttle….. As we all know the key to the shuttle is the KEY! At the end of the above explained, less than stellar trip…. I arrived at my truck with both keys locked inside… E Gad… what next… with gathering storm clouds I’m sure a lightning strike was in order!
A borrowed cell phone and with my mechanics help we were on the road again… thank god for friends!

So I wake up this am…. A little fuzzy from the single malt that was used to soften the above fiasco…. off to the west I spied the moon setting…. A full moon!

So a final thought to end this rambling e mail report…… never, ever, never hire me on a full moon… let’s all just sit on the deck, enjoy a few libations, howl at the full moon and wait for the dam thing to go away!!

Hope you all had a great 4th of July and are enjoying a fish or two!

Cheers,
Mitch
Harrison’s Guest House & Guide Service 307 326 6079