tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86899556808803462922012-02-16T08:59:17.410-08:00Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.comBlogger291100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-10383950768644312102011-09-12T22:30:00.000-07:002011-09-22T22:49:21.277-07:00

Well, we finally went. This trip has been several years in the making. We tried to go last year, but the way that the permitting was set up, and with a long winter, we were unable to go before the area closed. Lakes were still frozen solid in mid July. If you bum around the High Sierra corner of this shady world wide web long enough, and you have a penchant for the piscine, you will catch

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-57921405372313265732011-08-22T14:34:00.000-07:002011-08-22T14:34:30.228-07:00

I'm sure that some of my backcountry confederates can relate to this one. Anybody have a lake that they have looked at longingly for years, but never managed to reach? I caught whispers of this lake and it's inhabitants almost 4 years ago. Someday, I told myself at first. Then next year. Then this year. Then as some of you may recall, I attempted to get there last year. But after some....

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-33168214292484010802011-06-18T16:30:00.000-07:002011-06-18T16:53:24.136-07:00

Made my annual trip out to the Rockies to visit with the family towards the middle of June. My real focus for the trip was to be the Blue River beneath the Dillon Reservoir dam in the town of Silverthorne. I flew into Denver International the afternoon of the 6th and made the quick drive up to Breckenridge, where our rental was located. The next day would be the first of nine consecutive days

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-32288906319170335812011-03-19T18:49:00.000-07:002011-03-19T18:49:16.221-07:00

Yeah, it is winter time. Spring is really taking it's sweet time this year. Ive had a few more trips since my last update. Lacking the motivation to provide my normal long winded play by play, I will go the route of shameless fish porn. Less talk, more rock. I also got my buddy Steve on a nice EW fish awhile back: Its been fun. But big largemouth on swimbaits, and the

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-89505977727151968102011-01-24T16:05:00.000-08:002011-01-24T16:10:07.559-08:00

The last few winters that I have spent in California have been a major drag. When I was still trophy bass fishing, it was really really tough just to get bit on the big baits. Most trips were wet and windy. Since I started backpacking and fly fishing again, the winters have been nothing but a forced break from what I wanted to be doing. This year I decided to make a concerted effort to keep

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-81383824893587195092011-01-11T13:58:00.000-08:002011-01-11T13:58:32.814-08:00

My buddy Brandon and I made our second visit to Pyramid Lake in Nevada this past weekend. We had originally planned on doing another two day trip, but Brandon's schedule ended up leaving us with only a day to fish. He met me at my house at 4 a.m. and we were off. It was cold, dark, and foggy for much of the drive. After stopping for breakfast and fishing permits, we found ourselves setting up

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-7921867978211666862010-12-16T02:43:00.000-08:002010-12-17T16:18:57.069-08:00

Well, after a couple years of almost making it, I finally made my journey to one of the West's fly fishing Meccas. Pyramid Lake. Steeped in lore, resplendent with with large Cutthroat, and unique in it's fishing. It doesn't take long, living where I do and being a fisherman, before the name Pyramid is heard uttered. Be it in hushed tones and knowing smiles, or by chest thumping bellows, you will

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-29810118558897313122010-12-09T20:22:00.000-08:002010-12-09T20:23:51.730-08:00

Ive got a trip coming up in a couple days to fish the famed Pyramid Lake of western Nevada. For those of you East of Salt Lake City, I'll clue you in. Pyramid is a giant, alkaline lake in the high desert. It is one of the last remnants of a huge prehistoric lake known as Lake Lahontan. In that massive loch of yore evolved a great beast. The Lahontan Cutthroat Trout. Cut off from its mykiss

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-42736784770514998422010-11-27T19:12:00.000-08:002010-11-27T19:12:17.109-08:00

Well, sitting around bored on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. Weather is nasty, and I havent been fishing for a while now. I thought I would share some of the knots that I think are real need to know knots with all of you guys. Arbor Knot: Perfection Loop: Uni and Uni to Uni knots: Palomar Knot: Davy Knot: Alberto Knot(Modified Albright): These are some of my favorite, and most

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-39533757947738185252010-11-11T20:07:00.000-08:002010-11-11T20:19:11.667-08:00

This one is a little belated, but I made a quick day trip run to the Little Truckee with my girl. She was gonna fish this time so I outfitted her with an old pair of neoprenes and an indo rig, and off we went. It was one of those days where it starts off kind of slow, then, before you know it, it continues to be slow, then in a flurry of inactivity, it ends slow. Krista struggled most of the day

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-43712056339850043102010-11-03T15:16:00.000-07:002010-11-05T00:17:25.576-07:00

Some of you will remember a few months ago I put up a post detailing a trip I took with my buddy Steve. He got his first Golden Trout with me. He is a world class trophy bass fisherman normally, but he had expressed some interest in fishing some moving water with a fly rod. I was all too happy to oblige him. We finally managed to get a trip lined out this past Sunday. Our destination this day

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-6440336656532980472010-10-26T14:46:00.000-07:002010-10-26T16:48:32.703-07:00

My buddy and I planned a two day banzai run to the Sierras for this past weekend. We had the dates set quite awhile ago. As the date loomed near, so did one hell of a storm system. As per our usual modus operandi, we spat in the face of mother nature and decided to go for it. Initial plans called for day one to be on the East Walker and day two to find us plying the seams of the Truckee and

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-187852930542595912010-10-25T10:46:00.000-07:002010-10-25T10:46:04.592-07:00

Then I irritate myself over the matter of which fly to use, finally darting my hand blindly into the fly box. I come up with one I tied myself that imitates the effect of a riot gun on a love seat.The Longest Silence by Thomas McGuane

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-52134133344643729312010-10-03T18:52:00.000-07:002010-10-03T19:00:44.767-07:00

I have wrestled with myself on whether or not to even put this up. I consider myself fairly competent up there, but this time, I blew it. Bad. A few years ago, when I first got back into spending time in the high country, I heard about this lake. You know, one of those really cool spots in the high country. Hard to get to, big Goldens swimming around, that sort of thing. It sits high atop this

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-77260409365110363992010-09-25T16:32:00.000-07:002010-09-26T11:14:40.207-07:00

Below the small dam that was erected on Lake Tahoe(douchebags!) there is a pretty good size pool filled with giant trout. Gawking tourists buy fish pellets and watch as 10+lb browns and rainbows come up and get em. It is a pretty cool little spot, there is no fishing within 1000ft of the dam, and as near as I can tell, those fish never really leave the safety of that pool for the fishable reaches

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-46080592424233448102010-09-17T17:45:00.000-07:002010-09-17T17:45:44.654-07:00

I took a couple of my bass fishing buddies on a quick daytrip last week. The fishing was pretty dang slow with only 4 Brookies landed between the 3 of us. My new friend Bryan took these pictures of me. That shelf looked so tasty from the bank, and I waded way out to the edge of it and chucked some fur around for awhile, but didnt get bit. Definitely some cool pictures though. In addition to

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-50090277704144435182010-08-14T01:44:00.000-07:002010-08-14T01:44:22.727-07:00

When i first started tromping around the backcountry of the Sierra Nevada, I knew right away that I wanted a Golden. It took me several trips to find a lake that still had Goldens in it. It was fun, and a real reward when I finally got one. I felt like I really worked for it. But we as fishermen never turn away an easy target. Haven't heard many guys lamenting over their day end brew that they

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-24501356968036343572010-08-02T00:31:00.000-07:002010-08-02T00:31:49.142-07:00

“What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism” Einstein is the deal.

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-75769241580976113682010-07-13T18:54:00.000-07:002010-07-18T15:35:12.429-07:00

Sometime back in February or March, my buddy Brandon and I managed to get permits for the VERY restrictive Williamson Bowl. They are hard to get and the area is closed to all human activity from July 15th until January. With the impressive snowpack the Sierras has received, as our July 7th departure date loomed near, we realized that there was just going to be too much snow this year. It was a

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-36027903312385970542010-07-12T14:43:00.001-07:002010-07-12T16:13:17.967-07:00

Well, my girl and I had a few days completely to ourselves and were dying to get to the high country. After some searching we found our potential destination. The Lane/Roosevelt area out of Leavitt Meadows in the eastern Sierra. Since I couldnt ascertain real time snow conditions up there, we packed very heavy, and packed so that we had the option of doing several other things if conditions

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-55371728438465752322010-01-09T19:41:00.000-08:002010-01-09T20:03:34.005-08:00

After our two overnights together, and much to my joy, my girl had become as hooked on the back country as I am. We decided to do a 3 day 2 night trip next, and again, set our sights on the Desolation Wilderness. Day one was saw a roughly 7 mile hike up and over Rockbound pass.The last little 1/2 mile up the pass is a butt kicker! We dropped down to our home and basecamp for the trip.We found

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-55434496557040536492010-01-08T20:15:00.000-08:002010-01-08T20:37:09.882-08:00

So after returning from the Rockies, I set my sights on finally getting myself a Golden.My buddy Brandon and I decided to do a two night trip to the Eastern Sierra to a lake that is known to have some quality Goldens and Lahontan Cutthroat. The hike in is one of the most enjoyable trails I have ever hiked. Many great vistas, and a nice steady grade in lieu of the standard granite boulder hopping

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-66427839244387192932010-01-08T19:47:00.000-08:002010-01-08T20:15:06.597-08:00

Yes, I have been incredibly lax in my updates. Given the fact that all the places I want to fish are buried under feet of snow, I decided to do a large, all inclusive post covering the trips I made in the 2009 season after my last update.I made many trips, and got to enjoy most of them with my girlfriend.The first bit of High Country fishing that I have yet to catalog was my trip to visit family

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-20975036685623085062009-07-05T18:04:00.000-07:002009-07-07T11:00:27.052-07:00

The plan for this mission was a a trip up to the trail less lake of Kalmia. Total of about 5 miles one way. The first 2.6 miles sees a vertical gain of about 2200 feet! Somewhere around mile 1.5 I pulled my groin. Last mile and a half is a completely trail less route that involves about 500ft of elevation gain, then the mile and a half of side hilling. Snow fields, wet granite , and big boulders.

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-85212029770129127732009-07-04T00:46:00.000-07:002009-07-04T00:54:02.365-07:00

Have a bunch of trip reports coming up. Look for Golden Trout missions in the Desolation, replete with issues.Then some New Mexico river Browns and Rainbows, and Yellow Perch and damsel munching 'Bows from the lake, big stillwater Colorado 'Bows, and MAYBE even some moving water .....well, I wont spoil the suprise with those fish. :DIm worn out, and need to organize, edit, and gather a couple

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-33533432640316853162009-05-03T15:03:00.000-07:002009-05-03T15:26:30.293-07:00

In bed at midnight on Thursday, on the road by 3am. At the trailhead by 7.I slung my 42lb pack on my back and began the 3 mile hike into the nasty weather ahead. It was pretty cold, near freezing. There was a slight drizzle when we took off, nearly unbroken cloud cover, and the sun was just coming over the ridge to the east.The hike was fairly uneventful. I did find a pretty nice arrowhead. Which

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-35700504630122621972009-04-30T20:56:00.001-07:002009-04-30T20:58:04.481-07:00

Leaving for the Eastern Sierra at 2am tomorrow morning. Lots of wind, hiking a few miles with a 42lb pack, camping, freezing, rain both days. Will be back Saturday night hopefully with some fish pics.

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-79730849504693702522009-04-19T16:22:00.000-07:002009-04-19T17:03:43.660-07:00

Here's the rundown of last season's fly fishing that I promised earlier.After getting home from Colorado, I pulled out my dusty old Cabelas Boulder Creek rod that I had bought in the original store in Sydney, Nebraska when I was 12. The reel had long since been lost in my series of moves. I went out and picked up an Okuma Sierra 4/5 and some Rio Mainstream WF5F line. I assembled most of my

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8689955680880346292.post-88963103136623790612009-04-17T23:03:00.000-07:002009-04-17T23:51:00.706-07:00

Hello all!You have stumbled across what I hope will become a loosely assembled rambling of my thoughts and experiences fly fishing Northern California.Before we get started I thought I give little background info for you.The name is James, more commonly known as Jay to those unfortunate few who I consider my friends. At the time of this writing I am 24, living in the foothills of Northern

Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08508685617507723550noreply@blogger.com0