First Spring trip to the Swift

A frustrating trip at first, this expedition out to Massachusetts's Swift River payed off eventually. Eamonn and I show up at around 2:30 to the route 9 bridge and started fishing. Not really knowing what to expect, stocking wise, due to the previous year's stocking schedule, we start fishing just above the bridge. Not seeing lots of interested fish going after our flies, a caddis nymph an a squirmy wormy, we switched to streamers. The Circus Peanut and Mike's Meal ticket got some attention at the Y-Pool but only one fish bit so we decided to explore. At the top of the right tributary of the of the Y-pool where there was little to no current and plenty of cover and space for the new stockers was where we got the most luck. Jigging a tungsten weighted jig style egg was what caught this beauty and a couple of other ones that got away. A weighted midge also worked well in this area by just letting it sink to the bottom,getting the attention of the stockers. As it started to get dark and we were heading back the egg fly was what nearly caught another nice fish which ended up swimming under and around Eamonn's legs and then breaking off. We had another bite where my line got stuck in a tree after the hook set and snapped most of my leader off. Even though most of the trip was spent figuring out what fly to use, the one fly that stood out and caught the most fish was the simple egg fly. This trip taught us a big lesson, never discount simple flies.

-Will

Western Road Trip

 

These photos were taken during a western road trip my family took a few years ago. Back then I was not as good of a fisherman as I am now, although I was able to catch some good fish. We flew into Denver then drove through NM,AZ,NV,CA,OR,WA,ID,MT, and then back into CO. During the trip I was able to fish quite a bit. I fished in an alpine lake in the Colorado Rockies, I fished in the Smith River California, I fished in the Madison, Yellowstone, Gallatin and Deschutes rivers as well as some random creeks in the Wyoming Rockies. On the Smith River I caught a small what I believe to be native or wild rainbow trout ( the first picture). In California I also fished in a small coastal creek where I caught the second fish pictured above which I believe to be a small King Salmon Smolt. After driving through Oregon where I made a quick stop at the Deschutes River I headed into Idaho for about a day. After Idaho we drove into Montana where I spent a couple days.In Montana I had the most luck on the Gallatin River where I caught 20 or so rainbow trout. In addition to the Galattin I fished the Yellowstone River, The  Madison River and Rock Creek. 

Once back in Colorado I fished in an alpine lake on Mt.Evans. Although I did not catch anything I got many bites from very aggressive cutthroat trout which was very fun. Overall this was my favorite trip of all time and someday in the future I hope to return with more skills.