Road trip: Bwo’s, Blue Jays and Bat flips

Posted on November 6, 2025 by troutondries.com

“The Blue Jays won the bat flip contest hands down. Some of the best ones I’ve seen since Jose Bautista was at the plate. They showed-up, stood tall, faced the payroll Goliaths of the league and slugged it out inning by inning…best attitude, team spirit, comradery and most enthusiastic, loud and appreciative fans…all players winners in my mind…the most entertaining team I’ve seen in a long time “. — Bob

Road trip. Fishing, not Baseball. Last one for the trout season. It’s been sunny and blowing for weeks along the eastern slopes. The two conditions often go together in Autumn. The upcoming weather prediction was for 2 or 3 days of calm and overcast skies. A perfect set-up for a late season Blue Winged Olive (BWO) hatch. So I decided to take advantage of the incoming low front and drove due south in full sun and high wind, and woke up next morning under a heavy sky and best of all calm.

The riverside campground where I stayed in mid-canyon was empty. Harper was left off leash as there was no one around to bother. She chased squirrels and some deer, and nosed the fire pits. Fortunately no skunks showed up when it got dark. Most mornings it was 32f or slightly above. In the afternoon it was 40s or low 50s f. There were a few anglers around and some floaters. The fly shops were open but quiet. A great time to look at angling stuff. Local restaurants were closed.

The night is long at this time of year and daylight short, and dry fly opportunities brief. One or two hours in the afternoon, maybe slightly more, depending on the intensity of the hatch. My first day I experienced a weak hatch. The second day it drizzled a bit, was colder and the sky ominous looking. The hatch was strong. The river section I was on came alive, and I connected with size 18 and 20 parachute BWO dries. Rising trout on November 4th. It was a good day. So good I flipped my fly rod in the air.

Some images…

Road trip images

Posted on October 25, 2025 by troutondries.com

This is where…

Posted on July 28, 2025 by troutondries.com

This is where I covered many miles of river the other day. Mostly along its bouldery edge. Walking on round rocks all day is an art. I usually take shortcuts between river pools on the softer ground through the Cottonwood forests, meadows and brush in the river valley in order to get a break from the boulders. However, I didn’t this time as it’s wild berry season. There’s a bumper crop of Saskatoons this year. And bears love to feast on them.

The pools on this river are far apart and there’s not much fishable water between them, so you have to cover ground. You keep telling yourself “maybe the next distant pool has a good fish in it” and you rock-hop onward. The river holds a few quality trout so that’s the incentive to keep going mile after mile. It’s kind of like fishing New Zealand. There can be great reward for your effort, or sometimes not. That’s the deal.

I spotted a few fish with the sun overhead but mostly “fished the water” (prospected). I tossed a large black foam beetle. I had to twitch it to get the best one of the day to take notice and rise off of the bottom.

Before I know it my water bottle is empty, lunch and snacks are all gone, my shadow lengthens, and Harper, my dog, curls-up and naps riverside. It’s the sign(s) that it’s time to turn around and head back downstream; back to my vehicle.

While walking back I remind myself this is where Dinosaurs once roamed. This has long been the home of the Blackfoot. This is where giant prairie Grizzly bears wandered. This is where Buffalo once lived and travelled freely.

This is where I spent my day…

Roaming around

Posted on July 6, 2025 by troutondries.com

” Aye, aye! and I’ll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition’s flames before I give him up”.

Captain Ahab, Moby Dick/ The Whale—Herman Melville

Oh boy! I’ve been on a bug search. Looking for insects. Looking for a good solid hatch. Looking for some rising fish. The two go together: bugs and surfacing trout. It has been tough out there. I’ve been roaming from river to river. Looking. Some yellow sallies are around; some pmds; some big stones; some bwo’s when cloudy; some drakes. “Some” but not “much” of anything. Kind of sparse (hatches), thin and weak I’d say. And then some inclement weather rolled in. Some low clouds and rain. I picked another river. One I’ve been waiting to get on. Waiting for the flow to drop. Waiting for the right moment. And I got lucky. Around mid-day bugs started to hatch. Big guys. Big drakes riding the surface, wings up, like the old time tall ships with their towering masts. A spectacular event. Maybe 1.5 hours long. Not bad. And with it the best in the river (trout) showed themselves and I managed a few good ones on dries. Then I continued to walk the river and watched familiar locations and spotted several more robust trout rise perfectly to intercept the big bugs. By then watching was good enough. Reverence for this special river.

Some photos while roaming around searching the past few weeks; hiking streamside paths; crossing rivers….and a few special trout.

always investigate little pools off of main flow

creek walking

Posted on October 28, 2024 by troutondries.com

“YOU WILL NEVER GET THE TRUTH out of a narcissist,. The closest you will come is a story that either makes them the victim or the hero, but never the villain”. — Shannon L. Adler

CREEK WALKING. NO TROUT ROD IN HAND. Out scouting the upper reaches of a mountain stream for next (angling) season. Harper and I discover that some rolling stones do gather moss…

Standing in a River Waving a Stick

Posted on October 11, 2024 by troutondries.com

“I’m an instinctive caster and use whatever elements of the formal casts I need to get a good drift. I think it’s best to be inventive and flexible…I’ll cast upstream, downstream or sideways; whichever direction gets me the drift I want.”– John Gierach, Author, Trout Bum

SOME NIGHTS HAVE BEEN COLD. I HEAR the furnace kicking-in in the wee hours. Rivers are cooling down. There are fewer late afternoon rising fish. They are retreating. Bottom hugging. The big sleep is coming. I just read John Gierach passed away. A big loss. If you are a fly fisher you know whom I talking about.

A few season end images. It has been a good one. Glad I covered a lot of moving water. Glad I stood in a river and waved a stick….

the flame

Posted on August 28, 2024 by troutondries.com

“From a little spark may burst a flame”. – Dante Alighieri

Late August and September are a beautiful time to be on local Cutthroat rivers. There are fewer people around and less angling pressure, especially on weekdays.

With the season transitioning to Autumn dry fly angling becomes more of an afternoon event. Nights are cooler and with the sun arching lower, shadows blanket the river often until late morning, sometimes noon. Each river is different depending on the direction they flow in relation to the travelling sun and the terrain they run through. Morning shadows cover a river longer in steep mountainous and heavily forested territory.

Once the sun does reach the water it slowly warms it and energizes all life. If it’s a river inclined to having hatches then often an insect emergence occurs mid afternoon. It takes time for things to heat-up on a mountain stream. You wait wondering if it will happen. Then you see a few tall-winged Mayflies riding the current. Then a bulge in the water signifying a feeding trout. Then more Mayflies. If you are lucky the emergence becomes a flurry of activity with trout gorging themselves on the surface. “From a little spark may burst a flame.” Trout will take full advantage of the food nature is gifting and survival requires “getting while the getting is good”. That’s when you want to be present in order to witness it all and hopefully locate a few good ones in the afternoon light. And for me quality dry fly angling is all about the light. Spotting a rising fish in a pool or along a bank when it and the insects that it is preying upon are fully illuminated in the afternoon light is angling perfection. It is the most visually engaging trout fly fishing that I know. When “it’s on, it’s on” and it’s thrilling. However, in a cold mountain stream the hatch can be brief. An hour or two, maybe a little more. Once the shadows return around suppertime then it all begins to shut-down. The hatch dies-out and the trout retreat below. As quickly as it begins, it ends. The flame goes out.

Some images from the past two weeks chasing the flame…

untamed

Posted on August 20, 2024 by troutondries.com

MID -AUGUST. MORNINGS are noticeably cooler and shadows are longer around suppertime. The Corn truck is parked along the highway. Bears are foraging for berries in the river valleys. All are signs that we are transitioning into late summer. It’s a reminder to “catch it while you can.”

Some photos from recent outings where the trout haven’t been tamed…

open road

Posted on June 12, 2024 by troutondries.com

Stetson named one of their hats, Open Road. Probably paying homage to the wide open West. Here are some images while fly fishing out on the Open Road… eleven days, three rivers in search of brown trout, a growing pup and a roof top tent on my truck. No Stetson or Cowboy boots. Instead, a ball cap and aging Simms wading boots. All trout caught on foot, with my eyes and on dries…