I cannot overstate the importance of having a guide on new
water. Dane and Brad rowed their butts
off to put us in the best current and would row upstream over and over to put
us back in the best water. They
knew which flies would work and the depths to fish the flies. They knew where the boulders were and how to
navigate the white water. They knew that
river and its residents like the back of their hands. They did all the hard work and were dedicated
to us having a memorable experience as well as having fun. They were also psychologists as well. If someone would miss a fish or lose one,
they would hit you with a dose of positivity and words of encouragement as well
as reassurance. No, guides are not cheap,
but they are worth every penny.
Remember, you’re paying for a boat, navigation, and fishing knowledge
that would take you a LONG time to obtain.
That knowledge comes in really handy on new water that you are only
fishing for a day.
The next fish that was caught was the biggest of the
day! It was pretty obvious that Wendy
had a good on one the line because of the all the runs and power it
displayed. She did a perfect job playing
the fish and finally landed it with trembling hands. It ended up being a 23 inch, 6 pound Rainbow
and was by far the biggest trout she had ever caught. She also had a few fist pumps and hollars
which made Dane laugh pretty hard. He
also told us “I love how excited you guys get.
That’s the way it SHOULD be.” How
could we not be excited? We were fishing
in Jurassic Park!
The next fish that came in the boat was a 21 inch wild cuttbow,
followed by a 19 inch male rainbow with a pronounced kype. I followed those fish up with a 22-23 inch
rainbow that was built like a thick torpedo.
The difference between this fish and Wendy’s was that hers had
significantly more girth. Dane confirmed
that the cuttbow was wild because they aren’t stocked in the river. He also said that there were a few cutthroat
in The Mile and that hybrids were more common that you would expect. All of these fish however fought hard and
some of them made some pretty acrobatic jumps.
Some of them would save their fight until they saw the boat but all of
them took drag. Brad and Dane did a
fantastic job setting the drags for us as well.
We never broke off a fish and the drag allowed the fish to take line
without allowing them to get into the backing.
Brad and Dane also did a phenomenal job managing the
boat. They kept us on good drifts
through deep holes that held large numbers of fish. When a fish was on the line, they kept us at
a good angle to ware the fish out and not lose it. This is a tough skill. Another observation that I made was that they
were able to row, watch both indicators, give instruction, and tell jokes at
the same time. Those were some pretty
impressive multitasking skills. Both
fellas also quickly but carefully netted every fish and Dane even jumped ashore
a couple of times to land fish. I was
really impressed at how both gentlemen handled the fish with care and
respect. We were asked to wet out hands
prior to handling the fish for pictures and every fish swam off to live another
day. The pictures that the guys took
were solid as well. Add photography to
skills required to be a guide.
Right before lunch I landed an 18 inch rainbow that was
stunning. The photographs won’t show it
but in the water the fish’s back actually had hues of blues and grays mixed in with
the green.
We beached the boat near some picnic tables and had a nice
lunch. Kurt did an outstanding job
laying out options for lunch and we got to pick out what we wanted. This was a first for me with a guide service. I’ve had everything from homemade turkey
sandwiches to Subway. I really liked
that we had wraps, sandwiches, fruit, three different desserts, bars, and chips
to pick from. We all swapped stories
from the morning and soaked up the scenery.
A few other guides pulled up and they all ate together. It reminded me of kids at lunch talking about
their teachers and the teachers in lounge talking about the kids. We were talking about how great Brad and Dane
were and hoped that they were giving us good grades as well.
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