Da Juan- Day 4

Our day started early once again, met our new friend Noah from Georgia and Luke. Luke drove in the night before but the first we had fished with him. We headed up to the old C&R section. Saw a nice 20" bow on the trail by the willows, guess he got stranded, bummer, nice fish. Fishing was Ok for everyone but Mike and Neal. They both smoked 'em. Neal was on freaking fire fishing some semi slack water with a small hopper, was just sick!! Noah got into a few nice fish. Mike was out in the middle in pretty good water and silently smoked fish after fish. Some people hollar or grunt or something, but not Mike, he is the silent assassin! Hotter than hell out there as soon as you step out of the water, but not too bad when you are thigh deep in 42 degree water. Bugs were present, but not like it should be. I think the the high flows, fast ramp up and ramp down will effect the bugs for awhile. Around 4:30 we headed back to camp for the meal we had all been looking forward to. Now dont' get me wrong, I am not complaining about ribeyes, venison burgers, elk tenderloin or elk sausage, but that night was deep fried turkey and ranch beans with some amazing salsa mixed in. Phil, you should have your cooking show on the Food Network, I'd watch it.

All in all it was an amazing trip with some amazing anglers and amazing people. I am blessed to have such good friends and I made several new ones. The only friends I will not welcome back into my camp are the freaking raccoons that played havoc with our food stuffs all weekend long. Next time I will have a wrist rocket, pellet gun, paint ball or something to ward off those evil little suckers. Juan trip 2012 cannot get hear soon enough. Next up------Pyramid Lake in March. Booyah!!!!

Da Juan- Day 3

Day three found us on the main channel again. Neal and Denis were meeting up with us today. We flogged the water for a few hours and picked up a few fish, but fishing was tough. We concluded that the fast drop in flows threw the fish off their game. Still don't think they have worked back into their normal areas. Around noon, we decided to try the lower river so we parked at the gas well lot. When we got to the water, Denis and I took the south channel and the rest headed to the north channel. Denis is a hell of stick and I learned a lot from him. He is on the Irish National Fly fishing team, so needless to say, I was a little intimidated. After fishing for 5 minutes that all went away. He is so warm and gracious that their was no reason to feel intimidated. We took turns as well fished up the channel. He caught a nice 18" bow, the first he tried for. I took my turn and caught a nice brown, and so on and so forth. We laughed and ribbed eachother as we fished our way up. We were asking eachother tons of questions so I think we both learned a lot. After what seemed like an hour we ended up in the lower flats. Actually it had been 3 hours. We looked around for the rest of the group and they were gone. We walked back to the car and headed back to camp. Another 4 star meal was in the works. Elk tenderloin and elk jalapeno sausage and fried taters were on tap. Another fantastic day with friends on the San Juan. As you can see from the photos, we had the luck of the Irish with us!!! Denis, you are the man!

Da Juan- Day two

Daylight came early and we were out of the rack, drinking coffee and on the road by 6:30. Today it was, Mike, Phil, Jim and I again. Jim went out in the toon while the 3 of us floated. Phil rowed his ass for us and never gave up the sticks, good thing as I suck on the oars. The Texas Hole was packed with boats so we just headed on down. Again, the fishing was off and on, but we had a great time and caught some fish. Mike had the hot hand early and I, well, never really got the hand at all. We stopped a few times and anchored with similar success. We were out of the boat by 3:30. We headed back to camp to regroup and to see if we could figure these darn fish out. A couple of us went and fished the main channel and Mike and Jim drove to aztec to buy some burgers since the damn racoons ate a bunch of our food the night before, thieving bastidges. Around 6 we headed back to camp and we sat around camp and yucked it up and decided to cook us some grub. Elk sausage, elk burgers were the ticket after a long day on the water. Coming soon, day three!

Da Juan June 22, part 1

Holy cow, what a trip! Met some new folks and fished with old friends, that is what a fishing trip is all about. Mike and I arrived around 2:30 and met up with Phil and Jim, set up camp and went fishing. Fished around the Texas Hole and main channel. Tried one of my favorite spots and it was not happening. Caught a few but the fish were few and far between. Phil and I headed up to my favorite spot on the river, Ochoa riffle. Not always a great fishing location, but holds a special meaning for me. I named it that after my best friend, Ed Ochoa passed away and that was a place he and I used to fish a lot when there were a ton of fish in that section. But I digress! As Phil and I were walking up I was reminiscing about Ed, it brought back a ton of memories. We started off a the bottom of Ochoa and finally spotted a fish, Phil ran a couple by him and then wham, down goes the indicator. He fought him for a few minutes and then he popped off. Nice fish, nice fight, nothing to show for it but a nice memory. The rest of the time was all about memories as we only spotted one more fish and he spooked after one cast. We headed back down the main channel and then headed back to camp. We sat around and shot the bull for an hour or two and then started the grill. Mike had brought some awesome looking ribeyes, Jim cooked up some tators and we were set for the evening. Man, that was some good dead cow. We sat around the campfire shooting the bull about where we were going to fish, what flies we were going use and made up a bunch of bs. You know how us fisherman are! Any way, day one was in the books and we all had a great day and even better evening. I'm going to break this this down by day so stay tuned. Nothing in way of photos for day one, but if anyone sends any to me, I'll add them later. Day two thru 4 will have photos, dont' worry.

San Juan

I am headed to the San Juan on the 22nd, returning home on the 26th. The big flush ended yesterday and the river got a good old fashioned, well needed, cleaning. Meeting some old friends at the river and meeting some new ones as well. Will post a report upon my return and will post some pictures from Camp Juan.

Food, Friends and Fishin'

Went up to JD and Perkins again last weekend. Phil drove over from Albucrackie, Jim and Mike from Phoenix and Charles from Flagstaff. Pulled in around 6pm on Friday. Unloaded our crap and Phil broke out his Jalapeno and cheddar cheese elk sausages, Oh hell ya!!! Sat around the lantern until about 11pm. Fire restrictions so no fire. Not quite the same! Headed over to the lake around 8am and got to fishing. It was not great, but we all landed some fish. Nothing huge, just your cookie cutter 10-12" bows. Jim was a noobie to the fly game but was comfortable out in the toon. That was, until one of his fins fell off and suck to the bottom. Oh shit!!! I hate borrowing stuff from friends cuz something seems to always happen. Oh well, whatcha gonna do! The guys headed back to camp for lunch and mid afternoon siesta, screw that!!! Charles and I stayed to catch fish. The fishing picked up some so I called them on the cell and told them to get their asses back to the lake. They declined......wussies! Around 6:30 we headed back to camp for ribeyes and camp beans. Now that was the ticket after a long day on the water. We sat around the cozy lantern until about 11pm telling stories and talking shit. Up early again. Mike and I headed over to the crapper to get rid of the previous evenings ribeye. While Mike was taking care of binness, I fished...nothing. When he walked out looking 10lbs lighter, I handed him my 3wt and took my turn. Of course I walk out, 12lbs lighter, Mike has a fish on. Bastidge! He just smiled and said, "nice stick Freeman". We headed to perkins to see if we could get the williams slam. We get to the drink, all 1.5 acres of it, and there are 5 tubes and toons on the lake. To make a long story short, the other groups left shortly after, I can't imagine why ;) Well Jim hooks a nice little grayling and lands it, Nice going Jimbo!!! I chose to sit and watch while the others fished. Phil lands a 11" brookie and brings it to shore so I can take a pic, he grabs it around belly for his hero shot and out shoots a 2.5 inch mudbug! Very cool. Phil finished his Williams slam by landing a fairly rare brown from Perkins. It was an outstanding weekend of Food, Friends and Fishin'!

Redemption

Went up to JD and Perkins again last weekend, what a difference a month makes. Left at 4am with Mark, got to the lake just as the sun was cresting above the pines. Not even a hint of a breeze! Went to inflate my tube and realized I forgot my fins, well shit, here we go again. Rigged up a simi seal leech with a pt dropper. After about 5 minutes, I felt a tug. Nice little 10" rainbow, a couple minutes later, another, then another. Hell ya!!! Wind picked up and so did the fishing. Around 11:30 and about 2 dozen fish later, I felt satiated. We loaded up the truck and headed over to perkins tank. On the drive over we passed a couple guys, all camo'd up, sitting on quads which were also wearing full camo. They were sitting on the side of the road glassing the side of a hill with binoculars. Barely gave us notice. We drove up the road a couple hundred yards and saw a nice Tom about 50 yards off the road munching on new grass shoots. Hahhaha, get off your lazy asses and walk a little eh? A little while later, we landed at Perkins, now mind you, it should have been about a 15 minute drive, especially the way Mark drives! Mario Andretti ain't got nothing on this dude. We actually got a little lost, well not lost, but a might turned around. So after an hour we finally pulled into the parking area at Perkins. Mark hopped into his tube and I walked around to the only fishable area by foot. We both caught a boat load of grayling, up to 10" and some rainbows. Mark also caught a half dozen little brookies. We got bored catching all these little guys so we went back to JD. We fished for another couple hours. We both caught a bunch more rainbows, up to 16" this time. These fish will be fat and nasty by mid summer. Great little lake and I still have not seen another fisherman here in the last 3 trips. Hope you enjoyed my first decent "Fishing" report.

We are not in Idaho anymore....or are we?

It's been almost a month since my last fishing excursion so I was Jonesing bad. Against my better judgement and everyone else I knew, I headed north to JD dam to meet Mark. As I headed into the impending storm, I said to myself, maybe I should turn around and use my kitchen pass for next weekend. Of course I didn't. I got to whitehorse lake, about 5 miles from JD and there was about 2 inches of snow on the ground. I called Mark, nothing here man. Sweet! I put the metal to the pedal, or something like that. Got to the lake around 6pm, set up my rod and threw a few casts before dark, nada! Figures! Now is when the fun starts. I hear a dog howling, sounds close! WTF? Mark tells me he found a beagle, called his owner who lives in Prescott, would be up the next day to pick it up. Went back to his popup trailer, fed the pooch and had a bowl of soup! Wind is howling but no snow, maybe we dodged the bullet? Hardly! I was sleeping on one end of the popup, Mark on the other. Now picture this, Mark weighs a buck sixty, I am pushing 2 and half bucks, well he gets up and exclaims, son of bitch, there is 4 inches of snow on the ground and it still snowing hard. Think we should pack up and leave? We of course I say no!!! (Dipshit) he spends about 10 minutes knocking snow off the popups and roof. He gets in all of sudden the world is shifting, I go flying against the window and shit is flying all over the place. Seems with the shift in weight, snow on the roof, and lardass on the bumper end, the trailer decides to fall on it's back! I am pinned against the window cussing like a sailor and laughing my ass off. Dog is on the couch just staring at me like I am insane. Marks pulls me up into sitting position, laughing to beat the band, we get up, get dressed, go outside and push the trailor back upright. No damage! We clean up inside and decide to hit the rack, just fell asleep and bam, freaking trailer tips again, shit goes flying, lardass goes flying, the sailor barks again. Well, now is when common sense comes to play. I say to Mark, let's just switch sides of the trailor, not, "Let's get out of here", but let's switch beds. Shifted about 140 lbs so that worked like a charm. We get up around 7am after a very fitful 2 hours sleep ;) Now there is about a foot of snow on the ground. Common sense finally prevails. Lets drive the trailor to the other side of Whitehorse lake, snow should be much less, we can park the trailer and truck and head back to JD and fish. Jeez, we fisherman and so damn dumb. We we get to the other side of Whitehorse and snow is about 14" deep so we just kept driving. 25 miles of dirt road and 2 hours later, we get to the freeway, road is clear. I call him on my cell, hey, is there some where you can park your trailer near Flagstaff? We can go pike fishing on Lake Mary. He says hell ya! Not very bright are we. Well to make a short story long, we get to Flagstaff, 14" on the ground and almost white out conditions. Well frick!!! I get home around 2:30pm and open the door and my wife just smiles and says, "I knew you would be home early, dipshit"!!! "Well I had to try!" I fish, therefore I am!

The Stink

Seems like I have a stink problem. I have not been fishing much in the past 3 months or so and everytime I have gone, I have not had a tug. Went to Lees Ferry for the day after they raised the flows from 8000cfs to 22,000, lots of stink that day. Six weeks later went to Roosevelt and the stink followed me down. Fast forward to Sunday. My buddy Charles and I decided to hit the Ferry again. Got on the water at 9am and the water looked great, a little higher than we thought, but still looked good. After about 3 hours, I was thinking, well shit.....I'm gonna smell like skunk for another 3 months. Well the trout Gods were a smilin' on me. I finally landed a freaking trout. Only landed 3 all day, but I was more than happy. I don't have any proof as my buddy did not press the button down on the camera all the way, but I don't care, I don't smell like skunk no mo! Here is a pic of Charles holding a typical Lee's Ferry rainbow!

Picture is worth a thousand words

I guess that is why this fishing report has no photos! Went to Roosevelt yesterday with my buddy Mark. Took the toons. Big storm was coming in later last night, hoped the fish would be on the feed. No such luck. Got to the lake around 9am and got the toons ready for action. It was a little breezy off and on, temperature was nice with a nice cloud cover most of the day. We threw the kitchen sink at the bastidges, but they didn't want anything to do with us. Nine and half hours and not a tug. Man, this Arizona fishing is kicking my ass. Been skunked twice in a row. I guess a little humbling was in store. Can't get a big head now can I? Better judgement should have prevailed, should have saved my kitchen pass for a better weekend, but it has been almost 6 weeks since my last confession....I mean fishing trip, so I guess you can't blame me for trying. Still had a great time and had lots of laughs. Will add some pics once I find my USB cable for my camera.

Idaho Ain't Half Bad

I was lucky enough to live in the Boise area for 3 years. I met some awesome people while I was there, made some great friends, and was able to experience some of the most incredible fishing imagineable. Within a two hour drive, I could catch browns, rainbows, cuts, redbands, Largemouth, smallmouth, bluegill, crappie, carp, catfish, and steelhead. Here are a few pictures to whet your appetite. I hope you enjoy. Paul

Welcome

This is my first post on my new blog. Still feeling my way around so please be patient. My blog will of course have fishing tidbits, but also hunting and probably lots of....well who knows, I guess time will tell. I just moved back to Arizona, looking for a job, subsitute teaching, tying and selling lots of flies. No trout bum shit here, too much shit to do to be bumming! Hopefully a teaching job will rear it's ugly head for next fall, then I will have a little more cash to do some bummin'! We'll see what happens.