Back to the Calkboard

Ok! Ok! So it has been a LONG time; too long, since we last connected here at The Bay Rat Sketch, and a lot has happened. To start, I spent the winter of 2010-2011 in beautiful Vail Colorado where I experienced a record year of snow fall; which meant lots of amazing skiing, full of powder and new experiences for me. LOVED it! Let's be honest though, I'm a fisherman. More specifically, I'm a fly fisherman, and Vail, in the winter time, is not a good place to be if you NEED to fish on a regular basis. I NEED to fish on a regular basis. It is who I am. It is my drug of choice. So most of my winter (when I was not skiing or spinning skis at Troy's Ski Shop) was spent thinking about my next adventure. An adventure that would prove to be a learning experience with many trials and fewer triumphs. I was going to be spending my summer guiding in Alaska, on the mighty Kvichak River. Near a tiny native village called Igiugig. (Picture above shows Lake Iliamna and the start of the Kvichak River).

Lake Iliamna, the largest lake in Alaska, is the headwaters of the Kvichak River. The river runs for 60 miles until it drains into Kvichak Bay, an arm of Bristol Bay and it is home to the largest natural salmon run in the world. The Bristol Bay Watershed is widely viewed as the greatest fishery in North America and could be damaged by the proposed pebble mine. To learn more about the proposed pebble mine and it's potential effects to the Bristol Bay fisheries, and or to donate to aide the efforts to prevent this environmental threat of the World's largest sockeye salmon fisheries and spawning grounds, visit http://alaskaconservation.org/conservation-issues/bristol-bay/?gclid=CPqTkITjvq4CFVCb7QodY3z_Pw

The Kvichak can be divided into 3 sections, the upper, the braids, and the lower section. The fishing is concentrated in the upper 12 miles of the river, which includes the upper and the braids sections. The lower section is deep, wide, and featureless. The crystal clear waters of the Kvichak in some places, look tropical with suspicions of clear, lite-greens, and lite-blues. Its bottom is littered with smooth, round rocks of all sizes, and some large boulders in some areas. It is the 8th largest river in Alaska, with flows around 18000 cubic feet per second, which varies depending on the time of year and combined with seasonal rainfall. People don't come to this mighty Bristol Bay river system to see the features of the river. No, they come here for the world's largest sockeye salmon run (8 million is the 20 year annual average, but populations have been on a decline and have been from 2 to 6 million the last 4 years), and mostly, for it's big fat rainbow trout.

The rainbows in the Bristol Bay Region are historically bigger and feed with a greater sense of urgency than the average trout in North America; mostly because their food sources are rich in proteins and a limited feeding season forces the trout to gorge on salmon eggs and dead salmon flesh. These trout feed aggressively in late May after ice out, and into early June on salmon smolt migrating from Lake Iliamna to the ocean. On clear sunny days you can see these migrating smolt in giant schools, with trout circling, waiting for that opportune moment to dart in and grab a meal. I was able to witness this in early June, just before the fishing season officially opened, and it rivaled the time I saw multiple pairs of spawning trout in water just inches deep, amongst a small creek in backwoods Colorado. Catching a glimpse of these rare, wild moments in mother nature are just icing on the cake in my line of work. I look forward to many more to come.

The weather in this area of Alaska from June till October is variable. Just like most of Alaska, it can range from mild to extreme. By mild, I mean, calm to no wind, with temps in the high 50's to the high 60's. It rarely gets in the 70's. By extreme, I mean, steady winds with gusts in the 40mph range combined with rain. The weather this past season was very mild. We saw minimal amounts of rainfall and about a week of extreme weather. You can count on at least a one week of intense weather at some point during a season in the Bristol Bay region. It is life in Alaska. To survive a season in such a variable environment, having the right gear is vitally important. A high quality rain jacket, together with a solid pair of waders and wading boots, plus layers of clothing to take off, or add, depending on the weather changes.

Alright, now lets get down to the nitty gritty, the fishing. On the Kvichak you can not legally wet a hook until June 8th. The anticipation before this date is painful. You have seen schools of smolt being ambushed by large trout. You have read about the epic fishing the Kvichak River is famous for. All you want to do is get out there and tame those monster bows (nickname for rainbow trout) you have read about and have only seen in pictures. The first few weeks of the season are all about the rainbows. These trout are migrating back and forth from Lake Iliamna to the Kvichak River, chasing schools of small salmon ranging from 2 to 3 years of age. These young salmon are called smolt, and using flies resembling smolt is a solid way lure in a hungry trout. Though, smolt flies can be successful, purple, black, and white egg sucking leech flies are the most effective patterns in the early season. Once the sockeye salmon start to arrive in late June, these trout scramble. Most move back into Lake Iliamna and the tributaries of Alaska's largest lake.

Sockeye salmon or reds, as they are affectionately know, make the extended journey from the saltwater to within a few hundred yards of the rock beds in which they were born; swimming 50 to 100 miles up a very strong current by using only the scent of the water for navigation. The scent is programed into their tiny pea sized brains from birth. During the peak sockeye run, usually the first week of July, 3oo thousand to half a million sockeye will swim by you in a 24 hour period. This amazing feat of nature is something only one can witness, and is not worthy of descriptive words portraying an image. It is frightfully amazing, even as I reflect upon it some six months later. Keeping a sharp fillet knife is a prerequisite, when guiding in Alaska. Cleaning 15 sockeye a day for about three weeks, puts any good blade through the ringer. You can't wait for sockeye season to start and just as soon as it starts you are ready for it to be. The popular saying amongst the guides prior to the beginning of the sockeye run is, "Can't wait for them sockeye." This quickly turns into, "Can't wait for them silvers," which are the next big run of salmon targeted on the Kvichak. In late July and continuing on into early August, the sockeyes have all reached their spawning grounds and there they meet a mate. A male sockeye may be a suitor for more than one female. While the sockeyes have reached their spawning grounds and are pairing up for reproduction, the silver salmon(coho salmon) are just begin to make their journey up river, towards reproduction. Once they reach their spawning grounds they will find a mate and ultimately complete their life's purpose; to ensure further generations of coho salmon. Then they slowly die a miserable, decaying death(all species of salmon reproduce and die). Silver season was slow, and every fish landed was earned. There just were not very many thick schools of silvers on the Kvichak in 2010. It was a disappointing silver run. I'd rather just forget about silver season all together. They are an aggressive, hard fighting pacific salmon species, and it's exciting hunting for them amongst the banks and slack waters of the river, but I could not wait for the late summer rainbow season to begin. Months of waiting, reading, and hearing about the fall trout fishing on the Kvichak was taking it's toll on me. I was ready for it. Then it was almost over night, like a switch went off. The cow (female) salmon started dropping eggs and the fun began. A few weeks of fat, feeding-frenzy rainbows, gorging themselves on salmon eggs and salmon flesh. This is what I came to Alaska for! Big, wild, rainbow trout. The possibility of landing a 30inch trout on the Kvichak River is real. Real, like nowhere else on the planet, kind of real. These final weeks of my first season as an Alaska fishing guide were filled with fiery, chin-up moments. It was what I expected out of my summer but was only able to find it at the end of my experience. After crushing big rainbows and dealing with the late summer, early fall weather, my summer on the Kvichak was over. The big rainbows of the Kvichak lived up to the legend and I only hope the legend lives on through proper fisheries management, lack of development, and lack of industrialization. Again, if you care about preserving our natural resources in the Bristol Bay Region please visit the link listed above.

The Week Of Fishing, Friends, And A Few Firsts

The past week has proven to be everything I love about being a fly fishing guide and this place I call home, The 4UR Ranch. The 4UR Ranch rests quietly tucked on the edge of the Rio Grande National Forest, 8 miles Southeast of the town of Creede Colorado, within the San Juan Mountain Ranges of Southwest Colorado. The ranch has a touch of history, from a summer hideout of the Ute Indian tribe in the 18th century, to the oldest concrete building in the State of Colorado, to a Hot Springs Hotel with healing power whose visiters include a President, Walt Disney, and other celebrities of the times. CF&I (Colorado Fuel and Iron) once mined on the east side of the property looking for feldspar. The mine and it's mark left on the land still stands and looks as though it could fall on any given day the wind blew perfectly hard enough.

The main reason why people visit this piece of hidden history is because of the quiet, gentle creek that flows through the ranch. The ranch has 7 miles of private, fly fish only, catch and release only tailwater(the water below the damn) known as Goose Creek, or simply Goose; it is host to 5 types of salmonids; Rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, the hard to find Rio Grande cutthroat trout, and a hybrid fish that is a mix between a rainbow trout and a cutthroat trout know as a cut-bow. Horseback ridding is also offered, but fly fishing on Goose Creek is what attracts most guests. The peak season and peak fishing has just begun...

Stalking big trout is not something I do as a guide unless my friend Shannon comes to the ranch(pictured to the right). People can't fight big fish, they tune out my instructions because they get that big fish syndrome or big fish fever and they try to horse the fish in quickly which causes the line to break. Trout are masters at using the current of the rivers to their ultimate advantage; so it is important to try and navigate the fish through calm waters and let the trout run or else you will never land the fish. In trout fishing we only use 4 pound test line(sometimes less) so it is easy to break a big fish off. It is a patience game with a big trout and people just have a hard time with.

Goose Creek has finally come down to a low enough flow that it is easier to spot fish. Shannon and I love to spot big fish and stalk them. I have fished with him before so we know how to communicate in such a way that this stalking strategy works for both of us. For the three days he was here it was big league fishing. We spotted and then fished for 15 big fish, give or take, and other smaller ones. As I said before, I don't use this approach with anyone when I'm guiding, but this is fishing with a good friend, not guiding. We had a blast! We caught lots of big trout but no real trophy fish. Below is a picture of us releasing one of the bigger fish we landed.

You never forget your first and for fly fishing anglers they never forget their first trout on a fly rod. Every so often one of the perks of my job is introducing someone to fly fishing, particularly, fly fishing for trout. Balancing between frustration and reward is a constant battle as a guide with a new angler, but with an eleven year old boy it is all amplified. Cash(pictured at the top of the page and below), is an energetic, competitive, well-mannered, intense, patient, emotional, a good listener, and just a fun young man to fish with. He came with his Grandparents, four cousins, and his brother and sister. I guided Cash 4 days straight and he wanted to know how long every fish was and it's weight. There was a competition to catch the most fish between the boys so Cash needed this valuable info to boast to his family. Boys will be boys...

Cash struggled at first while his competition showed success, which boiled inside him like a geyser waiting to erupt. Then, he hooked a big cut-bow trout; fighting it well as he listened to the instructions I was yelling, when suddenly the fish ran him under a rock and broke free. The geyser then erupted and a few tears were shed. I calmed him down and told him there was a bigger cut-bow 10 feet up stream and he was going to catch it. As a guide you try to avoid promises at all times, but this time I went for it and on his fourth cast, fish on. The intensity built, as the fight lasted a long five minutes, with a few close calls around more rocks; the net would eventually go heavy and the fish was Cash's for that moment in time(Pictured below). A very special moment for both of us.

Cash progressed over the following days with me as his guide and would in the end prove to be the champion amongst his family by landing four more fish than his next closest cousin.

The Land of Lost Lakes With The Miller Family

Imagine yourself on a long hike deep in the high country; when suddenly you stumble upon a taintless, crystal clear alpine lake at 11,000 feet above sea level with high rock wall cliffs piercing through the surface of the lake, while snow scattered mountain tops complete the landscape. You can smell the wild as you feel nature surround you. This is Lost Lakes. Lakes is plural because, you guessed it, there are two lakes. An upper and lower lake. Both have trout. LOTS of trout. It is the pursuit of these trout that brings me, Kyle, and the Miller Family here to Lost Lakes.
The ranch I work for owns this beautiful property, which is adjacent to the Rio Grande Resivore. This is where the Rio Grande River begins it's long and powerful journey through Colorado, New Mexico, and Mexico to the Gulf of Mexico (say that fast 10 times). Lost Lakes can be found hidden in the Rio Grande National forest and was at some point owned by the U.S. Government. Not many people fish the lakes. I'd say they get fished maybe 20 times a year. So in other words, the fishing is amazing. And this day would be no different.
It was a warm, breezy day, with very few clouds. We haven't had much rain so it was also dry and dusty. The Miller Family consists of David, Lori, Garrett, and Megan. They aren't fly fishers and have come to the ranch as part of our promotional kids stay free week. They are however, a very outdoors-type family. So I knew this day would be great.
The lakes consists of brook trout and Yellowstone cutthroat trout. The brookies out number the cutties 10 to 1 which if any of you know anything about brook trout you know they spawn twice a year- some would argue all year- instead of once a year like most trout. This means that they can take over a lake or stream in 5 years to a decade if you let them. So part of our mission today as "caretakers" of Lost Lakes we have to harvest lots of brook trout each year to give the cutthroats a chance.
The day started with David, Garret, and me in one boat, Kyle, Lori, and Megan in the other. The boats are powered by electric trolling motors which I like because you can sneak up on fish( Electric motors make little to no sound). Our morning consisted of lots of tight lines near the mouth of a creek where the cutthroats were spawning. You could actually see them spawning in water just a few inches deep. Very cool!
David and Lori switched boats which if you are keeping score means I had Lori and Garret and Kyle had David and Megan. The afternoon provided gusty conditions with little to no break in the wind. This made it difficult to control the boat with just a trolling motor. I managed to get my boat against a huge cliff wall that yielded us shelter from the blustery conditions. This is where Garret excelled in casting against the cliff and reeling back to the boat. I was yelling fish on almost every cast. By the end of the day my boat landed over 40 fish and so did Kyle's boat (the kids were counting).
Landing over 40 fish in one day is a special day; but I'm not a numbers guy when it comes to fishing. It's all about the experience for me and my clients. I want to make them comfortable in their style of fishing to make our trip more productive and thus in return, a great experience for me and the angler. This is my day to day challenge and sometimes struggle. I love my job!

Most would ask, "What is a Bay Rat?" If one were to snooker about my hometown, several answers could be sniffed out. It is the answer to this question that helped frame my passions for the outdoors and my lust for adventure. I think it's important that you understand what being a "Bay Rat" means to me rather than just define it; because there really isn't a definition. Being a Bay Rat is a way of life, a state of mind that is permanently sketched in the brain by the joy and pleasures that are felt while enjoying everyday life on or in the body of water know as Mobile Bay.

The eastern shore of Mobile Bay is where I grew up. It's where I became a Bay Rat. It's where life was simple and having fun was just the way it was. My childhood home was a block away from Mobile Bay and my large extended family shared a bay house in the town of Battles Wharf, AL, just south of my hometown, Daphne, AL. It is here that I trace my roots, my love for adventure, and my passions for the outdoors. I now strech the continent as my advenures push me west to spread the way of the Bay Rat by pursuing my career as a professional fly fishing guide. These are my stories...