Sunday, February 7, 2010

Double Haul: A Brown Below the Bridge


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Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Single Haul: Wading Next to the Dam Builder


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Thursday, January 28, 2010

The Subaquesous Photo Experiment




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Monday, January 25, 2010

Single Haul: There He Is!

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Monday, January 18, 2010

Roll Cast: On The Missouri River

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Friday, January 1, 2010

Single Haul: New Year's Day Rainbow

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Friday, November 13, 2009

Roll Cast: Armstrong Spring Creek

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Sunday, October 11, 2009

Cheers

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Saturday, October 10, 2009

Coming In Hot!





Big ups to Stu on the fifth day of the 2009 trip to Montana. He worked the oars better than a gondolier, was ready with the net for the bows he positioned us on, and had an indescribable Ricky Bobby style when parking the drift boat along a bank.

-Parker

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Thursday, October 8, 2009

Pride, Pride, and Glory






Couple of friends made it down to the southern most point in the States and had a big time on the flats.

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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The 50 Mile Riffle Residents







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Sunday, October 4, 2009

The Fun






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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The 5th US Secretary of State's River



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Monday, September 14, 2009

The Preparation

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Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Inn



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Tuesday, September 8, 2009

The Town











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Thursday, September 3, 2009

arTrout of Madison County

Saw some art and trout while walking about Virginia City and Ennis during day three and four of the recent trip to Montana. A benefit project called FISH OUT OF WATER was been set up in Madison County and made for some interesting fishy photos. We came across three out of the twelve: Carrying the Legacy, Spirit Swimmer, and Madison Memories...
















-Parker

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Monday, August 31, 2009

Montana 2009 - Day 3

Most of day three in Montana was spent going back to the future like Marty McFly in the third installment of the classic movie trilogy involving a suped up, one of a kind sports car. But instead of escaping the Old West's rugged Cowboys and Native Americans in a DeLorean, we were enjoying some old mining towns of the late 1800s in a Nissan Armada that did not have to reach 88 mph...it also sat four folks comfortably and flux capacitor was not required.

The road trip down to Ennis took us through some of Montana's oldest towns that reached their heights in the gold rush days gone way by. The first stop was the St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Laurin....



Followed by a stroll up and down some rustic two-by wooden plank style sidewalks in Nevada and Virginia City.











As the rural country landscape drive ended and cell phone service returned, we came out of one of nature's valley and came face to face with another. The Madison River Valley and the town of Ennis somewhere down there...



As nice as it was to be back in the future in Ennis, it was interesting to learn about the small towns we passed through on our country tour drive. They are historic landmarks that help paint a picture of the tough conditions that once were when brave souls ventured westward as the United States grew years after the Louisiana Purchase in the nineteenth century. Roads were; hoof beaten trails, rivers flowing between cities, and railways for a quicker means of transportation. As much of the world think things needs to change, it is always a pleasure to visit places where humble roots hold strong and good folks keep important history alive. It helps shed a bright light on the determined greatness of America and gives a guy like me a chance to fly fish some incredible water in incredible countryside today.





-Parker

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Monday, August 17, 2009

Montana 2009 - Day 2


There is something just flat out awesome when the bite is "on" while you are fishing one of your favorite rivers. It is extremely hard to explain all the fishy factors that turn the bite "on" as it seems most of those fishy factors you have little control over. But when it's "on" like it was during the second day of our Montana Trip, confidence with a fly rod in your hand abounds as it feels like you can do no wrong with the little hook dressed up as a trout's favorite insect and you cannot stop the smile on your face.

Mom and Dad teamed up with Todd for their adventure down the Missouri River...



...and they got into some real nice fish during their float.





Mom landed a beast of brown trout that put a smile on every one's face...




And as they continued down the river...



...Dad got into the nice rainbow that got away from him last year.







As for Liz and I, we got into our fair share of fish with Coach K-style leadership from Mitch K. There were a lot of firsts on our adventure but the most exciting first for me was watching Liz hook into a trout and landing herself a nice rainbow...







It was our first time to share a drift boat on the Missouri and her fly fishing skills really developed throughout the day where she knew what she had to do to trick trout and land'em!

Another first for me was a dry fly take from a brown trout feeding along the bank of the river and fighting him into Mitch's net.





Mitch has been coaching me on the proper techniques to fool a feeding trout and for it all to come together with this brown trout was a wonderful feeling for me.

The entire trip down the Missouri was a blast and with the warm summer temperatures of Montana, the cool waters of the river, and trout cooperating the way they should this bunch of fly fishing friends could not have been happier...







We were even fortunate enough to land some of the coolest looking brown trout I had ever seen on hopper patterns that made me chuckle to myself the more I realized on what had happened when I replayed the show stopping takes in my head.









The exciting day was long and much appreciated for all the work Todd and Mitch put in for us as we fished the Missouri for the first time as a family. Liz was so jazzed she looked like she was ready to take on the world with a fly rod as she walked up from the take out point.



And the smiling fly fishing team of family and friends knew it was quite a day with all the heart racing takes, epic fights with muscle bound wild trout that beat us in some of the rounds, and the very much appreciated feast lurking Rainbows & Browns that were willing to turn their bite "on" so they could play our game as we brought them to the confines of a net and a sweet release.




"Yes...Quite a day."
- A River Runs Through It



River being the MO that is!

Thanks Todd, Mitch, and PRO for the incredible time on the water during the second day of the Montana trip. It will always be a day of memories tough to beat.

-Parker

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Saturday, August 15, 2009

Montana 2009 - Day 1


The first of August provided me the opportunity to head to Montana to spend a week (9days exact) hanging out with family/friends and chasing wild trout in the countryside I enjoy most. It was a long week of fun and I was more than worn out upon my return. So much in fact, it has taken me awhile to think of a way to share some of the photos we captured. I figure the best way to show everyone all the exciting times is through a series of posts that chronicles the day by day events through photos. So this will be the first post of a handful in an attempt to share the experience.

To start, I could not wait for this trip. When the opportunity presented itself I knew it was one I did not want to miss out on. We had planned to cover four rivers/creeks all over southwest Montana and I extremely over planned with ammo (flies) the week before I left...



I never realized how many flies I truly had in possession until I started reading every fishing report up there. On top of that, I bought 60 more flies based on reports I had read because I was certain they were sure fire replica insects that would fool every fish in Montana.

But even before I arrived, I called Mom and Dad a few times and they were kind enough to pick up some flies from a local fly shop (Headhunters) that were working at certain times and certain conditions recently. So when I finally touched down in Montana and made it back to the cabin, Mom and I rigged up our rods as fast as we could and headed to a favorite creek...the LPPC.

After wetting our lines through a sweet lil' hole on the LPPC I hooked into a brown trout as I showed Mom how to drift a nymph pattern. Of course it did not take one of the 500+ flies I brought/bought...



...but rather a nymph pattern Dad had picked up a few days earlier at Headhunters. I was more than pumped to see a brown trout because the weekend before I spent two days trying my hardest to land a brown in Oklahoma. Within a few hours of landing in Helena, I had landed a brown and felt pleased enough that I could return home to Fort Worth.

After fishing with Mom for awhile she made her way back to the cabin and left me to explore more stretches of the LPPC. Since it was late in the evening and I was in Montana where wild trout abound, I decided to fish some dry fly patterns because nothing beats top water action. Fortunately, I hooked into a few more fish...




And towards the end of the day, I fooled some some nice brown trout that for me would have made the trip up to Montana completely worthwhile...



but little did I know, there were more trout in our future that made this one heck of a fishing trip to beautiful Montana for everyone.


In a tribute to Lt. John Dunbar, I want to change my name to "Dances with Brown Trout."

-Parker


PS: And the best part about day 1...Mom and Dad were back at the cabin cooking up a GREAT dinner!

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Saturday, August 1, 2009

Double Haul: Going Back to the MO

Heading up to beautiful Montana this morning and...

...if things go right on the Missouri River tomorrow (and w/ the other fly fishing adventures planned for the week) I will come home with a few fun stories and fishy photos to share like this!



-Parker

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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Mamagewea's First Time on the Missouri River

I do not have much of a story that goes with my Mom's first trip fly fishing down the Missouri River in Montana, but I do have some photos that they have forwarded my way. This is kind of like a real time update to the blog because this all took place yesterday and I was receiving updates from Mom throughout their day. Mom, Nancy, and the greatness of Mitch K floated from the Wolf Creek Bridge to Craig. Like I said before, this was my Mom's first time ever to fly fish so I was hoping she would get on a few fish and maybe get an understanding on why I enjoy it so much. With the phone call I received from her after she landed an 18" Rainbow, a text I received describing the fishing as "all world" after her first Brown Trout, and the photos they emailed me this morning...It is safe to say she had an amazing time on the water with Nancy and Mitch and just might be hooked on this fly fishing business.

Here are just a few of the nice trout Mamagewea landed...




Here are just a couple of the trout Nancy landed...



I say just a few/couple of their trout pictures because from what I am told, Mom and Nancy were catching so many fish they got tired of taking pictures! I was thrilled to hear of their great day on the MO and proud of Mom for landing her first of many trout.

Saturday cannot get here soon as that is when I will be heading to Montana for a week of fly fishing adventures with family and friends!

Good Job Mom, Nancy, and Mitch!
-Parker

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Monday, July 6, 2009

Roll Cast: Zone II Brown @ Beavers Bend by Wes

video

A summer brown trout landed by Wes over the 4th of July weekend in Beavers Bend.

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Saturday, July 4, 2009

Single Haul: Happy 4th of July


artwork by Bradford Erikson

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Sunday, June 21, 2009

Single Haul: Happy Father's Day

Helping Dad land a rainbow trout on the Lower Mountain Fork River in the fall of '08.


Happy Father's Day,
-Parker

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Friday, June 12, 2009

Double Haul: New Friends

Met some good folks/new friends last weekend in Beavers Bend. Eugene had taken his grandson, Hunter, fly fishing for the first time and we made our acquaintances along the Lower Mountain Fork River. And for the record...Hunter did quite well for a first time fly fisher.

Eugene even landed himself a very interesting albino trout and he kindly allowed me to take a photo.


It was great meeting yall and I hope we cross paths up there again. Thanks for the flies Eugene!
-Parker

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Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Wind Rows of Foam


If you remember back to the post on the 24th of April around midnight, I let everyone know that Kyle and I were on our way down to Key Largo for a short stay at the Key Largo Inn before we were to meet up with our guide early that morning to fish out of Islamorada. We were excited to say the least and our goals were set high with thoughts of tarpon and bonefish...and just maybe a shot at a permit. Little did we know we would be up against it with terrible fly fishing conditions and only less than a handful of chances at a tarpon.

That Saturday morning we were up and ready to go around 6:15am. As we drove down from Key Largo to Islamorada we could not help but notice how the fiercely high winds were whipping the palm trees and flags around. We kept our spirits up with the static sounding tunes from US 1 Radio (104.1 FM) and ignored the gusty winds.

We met up with Davey Wilson, our guide, at the Lorelei around mile marker 82. After the introductions and friendly morning banter we boarded his skiff in route to Indian Key for some wind protected casting tune ups and casting instruction. I really believe he just wanted to see what we had in our "casting bag" and had what it took to fly cast in the Keys. We shot through some mangroves on the path to Indian Key and along the way my hat blew right out of the boat because when we arrived I could not find it anywhere. Luckily Kyle had an extra one for me to wear in his back pack.


We both kind of sand-bagged on our abilities at Indian Key but he was complimentary of our casts and informed us we had what it took. This made us feel pretty good however Davey kept reminding us it was going to be a tough day with the winds.

Davey anchored the boat at Indian Key along the west side of the small island for a good three hours or so. It protected us from the wind and the water along the west side of the island was safe from the choppy breaks of the Atlantic. Plus he said he had some luck with some tarpon rolling through this area on guided trips from the past. All we saw was a couple of sharks and a few rays in between a barracuda biting through Kyle's leader and one tarpon I tossed at that had little interest in my fly.

So we loaded up for a drive to the Gulf side where Davey had some flats lined up that may give us a better shot at a tarpon and/or a bonefish.

Davey tried his hardest but it just was not in the cards for us that day. He was calling other guides constantly in an effort to find out if they were having any good fortune and attempting to pole us through some rough flats...


...The wind was absolutely ridiculous. It was howling between 20-30 mph as seen here ripping through my shirt and pants...

The strong winds caused a chop on the water that not only made it difficult to site cast but ol' Davey had his own difficulties steering the boat as he poled and motored the skiff from flat to flat. And if choppy waters were not enough to try and see through, wind rows of foam started to form on the water's surface, adding to the difficult clarity of spotting a tarpon...let alone any type of fish.



We tried a number of different flats but the conditions were just not favorable to a couple of fly fishermen. Poor Davey had so much trouble poling that he eventually just started anchoring up his skiff with hopes of positioning us in a location where tarpon would pass by as we casted from the back of the boat. I had about 3 shots at some tarpon when he adopted this method but by the time we saw them cruising it was way too late. I had to make a precise cast to a fish going in the opposite direction that was more concerned about going from point A to point B than taking a fly. Most of the time my fly line would get wrapped up around the motor or the poling platform.

Toward the end of the day with Davey we knew our chances of hooking up with a fish were not going to happen. He had informed us about half way through the day that he "normally doesn't fly fish when it's this bad in the Keys." If that was not comforting enough for us, he broke his three-piece 21 foot poling shaft at the first segmented section and lost it to the sea. Kyle and I felt terrible for the guy because we knew he was embarrassed and really was not sure what to do. It was not like he had an extra 21 foot pole laying around his skiff.

We tried one more flat on the Atlantic side but with every jarring bounce of the boat and splash of cool water to the face on the ride over, our motivation for fly fishing was falling by the wayside. Davey was not exactly feeling it either and we could tell that his old bones were getting tired. After giving it a short shot at the last flat with his anchoring method, he finally asked, "Would you boys be upset if we were to call it day and head back? It has just been too tough out here today." We agreed without hesitation and made our way back to the Lorelei.
The day was rough. I had a few tough shots at some tarpon, we did not see one bonefish, and Kyle's only real excitement came with the 'cuda that made short work of the leader with his razor sharp teeth. Luckily for us, Davey was more than kind enough to give us a break on the guided-trip fee because of the tough conditions on the water.

With the disappointing day of fishing behind, we jumped back in the car and headed further south down US 1 to the Conch Republic...


...Key West, that is.

After checking into the hotel and cleaning up, we treated ourselves to a grand dinner at Red Fish Blue Fish and enjoyed a few laughs about our day on the water. We joked that we were like Captain Rich Tudor and Tom Rowland recapping their fishing day on each episode of the Salt Water Experience...only we had no fish landed to speak of!

That evening we took in all the sights and sounds that Mallory square has to offer. Plus we saw a neat sunset over Sunset Key...



We walked around the docks doing a bit of sight seeing before we committed ourselves to all the fun bars along Duval Street...



Sunday morning came early in Key West thanks to a headache and the feral roosters roaming the streets...


We had planned to hit some accessible flats we knew of around Key West in the morning but the weather conditions for the day were going to be the exact same as Saturday's. Instead we decided to stroll around Key West since we had only seen it at night. And seeing it night does not really bode well to our memory because we are usually a few cocktails in when we are enjoying the sights of Duval Street...


Captain Tony's (home of the original Sloppy Joe's)...




...and where Ernest Hemingway spent some time when we was not fishing or writing in the 30s.


The new Sloppy Joe's...


We even ran into Papa at the Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden that honors 36 Conchs that have made a positive influence on the Island.



After our walk-about, we got back in the car to head North to Miami so we could catch our flight home. We made a few stops along the way...


...one of which cost us a little over five hundred bucks.

It is almost too embarrassing to tell, but for the sake of a good laugh and a picture of a fish from our trip, I'll share. Kyle and I were clipping along US 1 making good time. As we approached Islamorada it was about 4:30pm and we came across an accessible flat we fished before. The last time we were here we had a shot at some bonefish and at this time of day, the tide was just right for us to work the flat. We decided we would try it again and figured we had some time in order to do so. At this point during the day, we thought our flight left at 8:45pm. I asked Kyle what time we should be back in the car driving to the airport and he said, "About 6:00pm." Focused on rigging my rod I agreed without clearly running the numbers in my head.

We worked through the flat twice. The first time through at the tail end of the flat, I saw what appeared to be two ghosts of the flats and sent a cast their way. I over shot them a bit and as I stripped the fly ever so gently they spooked in a flash. This little sign of life gave us the urging to walk back around to the beginning of the flat and work our way back down a second time.

On this second trip through the flat, I turned a fish and had him finally take my fly after I had stripped it in to about ten feet from me. I had no clue what was on the end of my line, but he ran quite a bit of it out racing across the flats. When I finally had him close enough to land and the fight was drained from him, the sight of him made me a little apprehensive to pick up immediately...


It was nothing I had seen before...


...and I treated him like some sort of poisonous alien fish that freaked me out as I tried to work the courage up to pull him out of the water and retrieve my fly.


After what seemed like forever, with Kyle giving me the business to get tough and grab the dang thing, I pulled the oddly shaped peculiar looking species out of the water for a photo op. Now you will see what I mean by alien looking fish...




See what I mean? I believe it was some sort of Boxfish but not entirely sure as most of my experience is relegated to freshwater species or the popular and well known salt water species. If someone out there knows exactly what this is, please feel free to let me know.

But back to story of getting to the airport. If you remember, we felt that if we were on the road by 6:00pm, we would be in good shape to catch what we thought was our 8:45pm flight. However, when we got back to the car and looked at the clock, it read 6:21pm...YIKES! Islamorada is about two hours from Miami but that is on a good day with less traffic. On an end of the weekend Sunday with everyone leaving the Keys heading back to the mainland and being South of Islamorada proper, we knew there was about a snowball's chance in you know where of catching our flight!

Nonetheless, I jumped into our compact SUV driver's seat and we made our push to Miami International. I tried my best Ricky Bobby driving skills to go fast, but with all the traffic on US 1 there was no way to make up the time. We also learned along the way that our flight actually left at 8:35pm...not 8:45pm, so those ten minutes hampered our chances as well. Plus we still had to drop the car off at Avis and then catch a bus to the airport. We arrived at the airport at about 8:20pm and still held out a small glimmer of hope we could catch the plane. However they kindly informed us we were late and would not allow us the opportunity to sprint through the terminal to our gate. We had to be there at least 45 minutes before our flight.

So, we were stuck in Miami for one more night. There were no other flights heading to DFW that night and our best option was to catch a 6:30am flight Monday morning. What was going to be an economically friendly recession trip to Keys just got a bit more expensive. You see, we used some miles for our flight but because we missed our return flight the earliest flight we could use our miles on was at 11:30am. And the other point we had in planning this trip was not to miss any work time from our respective jobs. But if we were to take that later flight with our miles, we would have missed more than half a day of work. So we sprung the cash for the early morning flight and one more night at a hotel so we could make it back in time for our jobs.

It was beyond stupid on our part to miss that flight, but the thoughts of a bonefish from an accessible flat in the Keys impaired our judgement. It was a costly mistake in time mangement we hated to make and it is best summed up in that classic Mastercard commercial way...

Monday's One Way Ticket to DFW for Sunday Evening's Missed Flight...$383
6 Hour Stay at the Hilton for Sunday Evening's Missed Flight...$95
Additional Dinner Meal at the Hilton for Sunday Evening's Missed Flight...$39

Catching ONE fish on your economically friendly recession Florida Keys fishing trip and having no idea what it is...Priceless.




-Parker

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Sunday, May 3, 2009

Single Haul: Photo Op (3 of 3)


And the final installment of the three part series of Single Hauls.

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Saturday, May 2, 2009

Single Haul: Photo Prep (2 of 3)


Second in a three part series of Single Hauls...

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Friday, May 1, 2009

Single Haul: Net It Hopsing!! (1 of 3)


First in a three part series of Single Hauls...

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