Happy Holidays to everyone. Its been over two months since I've posted, but that doesn't mean that it hasn't been a busy fall. We had some excellent fall fishing, both great river fishing and stellar lake trout fishing on Jackson Lake. The river fish were all incredibly healthy given the solid water flows of the past year. We should have very good survival rates this winter and some very large and healthy fish in the rivers next summer. We had some great streamer fishing, I've got a particularly heavy streamer that was killer as long as you could throw it without hurting yourself, and I worked hard learning how to nymph more effectively on some of our smaller creeks that we can only float. Nymphing small rivers from a boat is a very difficult skill, but can be quite productive once you get it dialed in.
I really got into elk hunting more this year than I had in the past. This year I actually spent more time fishing than hunting during the fall season. We saw elk almost every time we were out but had difficulty getting one of the right gender into shooting range. It seemed like every time we got into a shooting situation it was either bulls in a cow only area or cows in a bulls only area. I finally did get one a few days ago. It was a large cow, finally in a cows only area, and wasn't until 1pm on my final hunting day of the season. It was really an 11th hour elk. I don't have a picture to post of it because both my hunting buddy and I dropped one at the same time so we had a ton of work and hiking to do to get both elk out before it was pitch black. Despite all the frustrations it was a really great hunt and they were good clean kills. As much as I do love hunting I hate to see the animals suffer so a good quick kill always makes me feel a little better. A buddy and I did take a trip down to the islands during November. The fishing was really good the first day because the weather and the wind cooperated but it was pretty tough after that. It essentially blew a constant 25-30mph with gusts 35-40mph and rain/clouds every day. Those conditions made for very difficult flats fishing. We had planned to camp for the week but after a few nights of waking up, laying in standing rain water and being molested my sandflies, we decided to bag it and stay in a hotel. We actually saw a fair number of large bonefish but with the conditions we wouldn't be able to see them until they were right next to us. We caught some large triggerfish, caught some bones (not many), saw a permit, hooked numerous sharks, caught a few snapper/grouper, and actually had the best success with some large tarpon. It was a fun trip but the fishing could have been much better if the weather had cooperated.
I really got into elk hunting more this year than I had in the past. This year I actually spent more time fishing than hunting during the fall season. We saw elk almost every time we were out but had difficulty getting one of the right gender into shooting range. It seemed like every time we got into a shooting situation it was either bulls in a cow only area or cows in a bulls only area. I finally did get one a few days ago. It was a large cow, finally in a cows only area, and wasn't until 1pm on my final hunting day of the season. It was really an 11th hour elk. I don't have a picture to post of it because both my hunting buddy and I dropped one at the same time so we had a ton of work and hiking to do to get both elk out before it was pitch black. Despite all the frustrations it was a really great hunt and they were good clean kills. As much as I do love hunting I hate to see the animals suffer so a good quick kill always makes me feel a little better. A buddy and I did take a trip down to the islands during November. The fishing was really good the first day because the weather and the wind cooperated but it was pretty tough after that. It essentially blew a constant 25-30mph with gusts 35-40mph and rain/clouds every day. Those conditions made for very difficult flats fishing. We had planned to camp for the week but after a few nights of waking up, laying in standing rain water and being molested my sandflies, we decided to bag it and stay in a hotel. We actually saw a fair number of large bonefish but with the conditions we wouldn't be able to see them until they were right next to us. We caught some large triggerfish, caught some bones (not many), saw a permit, hooked numerous sharks, caught a few snapper/grouper, and actually had the best success with some large tarpon. It was a fun trip but the fishing could have been much better if the weather had cooperated. 
