Taimen Tails

Brent and i paddled into a pool where Peter, Gen, Paul and Jeff were already fishing. I could see them all lined up down the back, but couldn't tell what they were doing until it was to late to pull off before going into the rapid that lead into the pool. Brent got a little squirmy on the oars and ended up going right down the main tong of the pool. I think Peter and Gen had already been fishing the pool for a while but Peter seemed aggravated. Like Brent had just spoiled his water. We pulled over in the tail out to watch them fish for a bit. Just then, Peter got in his boat and started smacking the oars around on the water right over the meat of the pool. Like we already wrecked it, so he better just go ahead and seal the deal in case we had wanted to fish there. Which i didn't. I just wanted to watch and film and maybe see if i could spot fish for them. Paul followed suit and paddled off down river too. Either way, i felt like we better give them some space, so i told brent we were going to get out for a bit and just chill. I told him to get in where he fit in. Or in other words, waters all yours dude, pick your spot. He dilly dallied around for a bit then headed up into the bushes to take a growler. I figured the pool looked like good water, so i better make some casts. My first cast with a heavy streamer Brent ties called the toma hawlk, was right into the head of the pool so it would drift for a bit and sink into the sweet spot before i started the swing. Just about the time i thought the fly would be getting close to the bottom, it stopped. I reefed back hard, but thought for sure it was a snag. Just in case, i always wait an extra moment before i give slack or start pulling to hard. Just then, there was a massive surge in the line. I knew it was a big fish right away. He proceeded to pull out all the stops. He did the down and dirty head shakes, the gill flare tail walks, the massive gator rolls while pumping his jaws. I managed to run over 100 yards down river on some loose, sketchy rocks and finally get some control over him near the tail out. When i finally wrestled him to shore, the fly just fell out of his mouth. It was an epic catch and turned out to be the fish of the trip, maybe the fish of my lifetime.

Red Fishn'

Hey Fishing Friends. Just wanted to share a few photo from this past week of fishing the Marsh in Southern Louisiana. Spent some quality time on the marsh, made some new friends and had a great time. Our trip was hosted by David Leake and Brent Boone from Tail Waters Travel Service out of Dallas Texas. http://www.tailwatersflyfishing.com/ We fished for five days with Capt. Bryan Carter and Capt. Shane Mayfield. Also joining us throughout the week was Brent Dawson of War Path Flies, Mike Thompson from Patagonia and Bre Cambell.

We stayed at the historic Woodland Plantation as many anglers that fish this area do. Accommodations were top notch, food was amazing and what a great place to spend a few nights drinking, eating and laughing with good friends. The owner/manager Foster made us fee like family.
My first black Drum. They look really cool when they are small.
Bryan Carter and David Leak with a 54 lb. Black Drum. They don't look quite as cool when they get big. I dubbed them the zombie fish or the swimming dead. When they reach this size the Black Drum gets all kinds of sours on it flesh and the slime is horrific. If it gets on you, it never comes off. Bryan said it's like silicon. I never understood why the guides didn't like the big Black Drum until i got to see one up close. They are like a big old zombie doomed to cruse the flats forever.
Brent Dawson with a nice Red Drum on his Whammy jig head streamer. Brent tied for several months in preparation for this trip. He showed up with an arsenal of Red Flies that you couldn't believe. If your planning at trip to the Marsh any time soon, you should think about buying some of Brent's custom hand tied flies. He has a red fish selection that is un matched anywhere.
Capt. Bryan Carter with a nice Spot Tail.
Bre with her first Red Fish. Showing the guys how it's done.
David Leake showing off a beautiful Red.
Mike Thompson knows how to get it done. Wasn't his first Rodeo. In fact the last go around in the marsh with Bryan, he got a 34 lbr.
Big Black Drum.
Capt. Bryan Carter and Capt. Shane Mayfield.

Taneycomotrout.com

Wow, check out some photos sent to me by Jeremy Hunt of Taneycomotrout.com. Jeremy lives in Missouri and regularly guides and fishes the waters of the White River in Arkansas, the Norfork and Lake Taneycomo in Missouri. For years and years i've been hearing about the monster brown trout and rainbows of this area but have yet to fish it. I'm planning to now though after seeing some of these mega trout Jeremy and his Wife (pictured below) have been catching. The Ozark region of Arkansas is one of the best and most underrated trout fishing areas in the nation. It's a also a great destination for winter fishing for trophy trout. If your interested, you might think about checking out Jeremy's site before you go and maybe hiring him for a couple days. We are planning at trip for this spring to do some filming with him.

Hatcho Dan

Last week i floated the American River with JJ Plank from the Sac Sierra Chapter of Trout Unlimited. I knew there was some steelhead in the river but i couldn't resist the urge to throw a ten weight with a huge streamer instead of an indicator rig. This feisty little hatchery steelhead took a size 2/0 streamer that i was hoping to hook a striper on. I had just hooked one fish and lost him. Thinking it was a striper and there might be another one, we rowed up a bit and fished through the hole again. When this guy grabbed, i thought for sure it was a schoolie striper. He was ripping line off the 10wt like a beast. When i saw it was a trout not a bass i was really quite shocked. Kudos to you hatchery steelie.

Loren's Delta Striper

Loren Elliott loves to catch giant fish on his home tied flies while on his breaks from college.

Huites Bass Club

Here's a note from Richard McPherson from Blue Mule Outfitters about our trip to Huites Bass Club.

I just got back from the best Bass Fishing Lake in the Americas! My friend Mike Wier and I flew down on AeroMexico to Los Mochis last Thursday. We stayed in El Fuerte, at Hotel Posada del Hidalgo for one night, then went to the Lake Huites Bass Club for three days. While we were there, we caught over 120 Large Mouth Bass on fly rods, actually Weir’s second fish was a 10 pounder (more about that later). Several fish were over fiver pounds, with the average about three pounds. These fish aggressively attacked Poppers thrown near the banks and streams fished deep around submerged boulders and flooded trees. After we left the bass club we stayed in Los Mochis at the Hotel Santa Anita. Check out the pdf or my webpage about these great locations and the fabulous Lake Huites Bass Club.


Capt. Richard McPherson
Chasland Enterprises
3318 North 15th Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85015
USA
1(602) 297-1960 office
1(602) 573-6848 cell
www.bluemuleoutfitters.com
www.youtube.com/N6160Qhttp://twitter.com/McPhish

Thanksgiving

Annual Thanksgiving session with my brother.
Seems to choose to rain on our only day for the past few years. Doesn't stop us from having a good time. It's always fun to spend some time on the Moke and see it's many moods.
A good rain brings all the water loving creatures and plants of the forest to life.
First cast brown trout.