After two days of hard driving, I got to the promised land - the Rockies in Montana. I forgot how beautiful it is here! I stopped in Bufd Lilly’s lfy shop in West Yellowstone and got the lowdown on how the Madison River is fishing. We talked about fly patterns, Turneffe Island resort, the different Hardy rods and reels I brought and which weight rods to use for the different rivers throughout the park.

That afternoon, I fished the Madison with a Grey’s streamfly #5 - easy to throw and still soft enough to lay the line down very gently. I caught four Browns from 8″ to 13″, and two rainbows, one about 10″ and the other 19 or 20″. I caught all but one fish on size 12 Elk.

We set up camp at Madison campground, cooked a hearty dinner of pork chops, sweet corn and rice, then walked up the GibbonRiver. The campground is located at the junction of the Gibbon River and the Firehole River, which come together to form the Madison. After a short walk upstream, the fish started to show themselves and Hoppers were what they wanted. For about an hour and a half, and with a few small rainbows and one brown, I started my trip back to the camp.

Elk were on the hills on both sides of the river. The bulls were rounding up harems of cows, some buffalo were grazing down along the banks of the Gibbon.  There was no doubt I was in Yellowstone again, one of the most beautiful spots in the world!

After riding  south along the Teton Mountains, we got to Jackson Hole, stopped by High Country Flies to talk abut the Snake and surrounding tributaries.  It seems like there are endless rivers and small roads and the fly fisherman who doesn’t mind walking could spend a summer and probably not fish it all. The Snake was no exception - Hoppers and bright stimulators on top did their job.

We set up camp along the Hoback River.  I walked up the river with a 4 weight Hardy rod to see lots of small cutthroat trout. 

I caught one about 18″, lost another slightly smaller and missed one nice one.  I had never caught a cutthrough before that and it was sure a nice change from all the years throwing 12 weight rods and catching tarpon, permit and bonefish.  It’s all great and it’s all beautiful!

I’m back from another great trip, this time along the coast of the great state of Texas. I met David de Roode and his lovely wife, Claire, a couple of weeks ago, in Belize. I found out Claire is a natural at fly fishing - in two days she went from barely casting to throwing a nice loop! I was fortunate enough to be invited for a weekend of good times and better fishing for redfish and spotted trout. David de Roode called me and asked if I’d be interested in accompanying him to the Cliburn-Welder Ranch, just outside of Port O’Conner, Texas. Our gracious host, Jay Cliburn, who turned out to an accomplished outdoorsman, and his family own this ranch and several others in this part of Texas. It was easy to see that they are serious about wildlife management and conservation of this special place. Joining us were 17 other fisherman and hunters. There might be 17 nicer guys somewhere, but I don’t know where you’d ever find them.

If you’re wondering how the fishing was, well - it was as good as the company! For the past twenty-five years, I’ve been dreaming of redfish, skinny water, and my fly-rod. We spent most of the time driving down the ranch looking for schools of feeding red fish on the flats, which we walked off the road and waded. How can it get any better than that? Some of the flats must have been close to a mile long and, when the tide was just right, there were literally thousands of reds, and at least one black drum, that ate a gold and purple spoon fly, that were hungry and eager to take our flies.

Saturday morning David thought was should be fishing around Matagorda Island, on which he just happens to own a Quonset hut. As soon as you get on the island or Pen as the guys would call it, you can see how much thought and effort went into this great place. The water in the surf on the east side of the Island was clear and it was beautiful to see spotted trout, jacks, and, yes, sharks, swimming in the clear water. At times I don’t think the sharks were fifteen feet off the beach - never would I have thought they’d be this close and this visible. They caught about ten trout. I was shut out … the fish must have known I was a Yankee!

Our party included:

- David de Roode, an owner of Matagorda Peninsula (”the Island”)
- Jay Cliburn, an owner of Matagorda Peninsula and Cliburn-Welder Ranch
and the host of the weekend
- Jason Tramonte
- Fred Heyne
- Scott McKnight
- John Stevens
- David Johnson
- Chris Stallings
- Derrick Johnson
- Barrett Webster
- Christian Chamberlain
- Stephen Kenne
- Dusty Wilkerson
- Brad Hermes
- Jonathan Plumhoff
- Matt Harris
- James Easterling
- Greg Bruce

Welcome to my blog!  I’m heading to Turneffe Island Lodge on April 15, so stay tuned for hot posts from the flats!