InsideSeam - Articles

Fly Fishing with Pookie

Written By Dean Reiner of Hatch Finders Fly Shop

FALL FISHING

BIGHORN, YELLOWSTONE RIVER & THE PARK

After four years of avoiding the Bighorn River I took the opportunity to take two anglers, Paul and Rick two guys from Wisconsin for a two-day float. The reports I have gotten all summer indicated the Horn was fishing better than ever. These guys really wanted to catch some big trout. Doing a day trip on the Horn requires a 5AM departure from Livingston with a 3-hour drive in order to put in at after bay by 9 AM. Pookie is not an early riser and was not to happy about being pushed out of bed at O Dark Thirty.

I haven't tied for the Bighorn in a long time so we stopped at Alvin and Roda's Cottonwood Camp and picked up some likely flies. Bates and Black Caddis was what was happening and the Horn being a nymph river we picked up a new patterns called the Skinny Nelson along with a few CDC Black Caddis. We no sooner put in and floated a few hundred feet and Rick had his first brown on. It was non-stop from that time on.

One of the reasons I stopped floating the Bighorn were the crowds. This was no exception. There must have been a hundred boats on the river with us. The difference being the trout were hitting the nymph s on the float and we didn't have to stop at any of the runs.

After a few nice trout were brought to the boat, Pookie said OK I can get into this. On that first day, Paul and Rick landed 15 trout apiece. With twice that number either lost or missed. It was constant smiles all the way around.

After what I would describe as a great day and we were looking at another long drive, Paul decided that we could get more fishing time if we spent the night. There wasn't one bed available in Fort Smith, does that tell you how crowded the river was, so we found a room in Harden. This let us get on the river by 7AM and well ahead of all the other floaters. To my pleasure we were able to stop at the breakfast hole for over an hour before we saw another boat. The guys did rather well with two big rainbows landed.

By the end of the day neither Paul nor Rick could catch another trout. Both were crying for the Ben-Gay. Paul wanted to know if they came back next year would they get the same experience. I said, " Go home, brake your rods and never come back again"! This was once in a lifetime day.

After a long ride back to Livingston and a short night's sleep I picked up a good fishing buddy Cloyd and his son, Mark from Ohio. Cloyd has fished with me every year for the past 12 years. Some years were good and some not so good. The day we did the Yellowstone, the wind was blowing about 40 MPH, or at least seems that hard. All I know was my arms were 4" longer at the end of the day. We floated Carbella to 26 and the water looked really good. With the wind we settled on the Pink Pookie as our go to fly. Right out of the gate the Pookie was being hit. The problem only small trout were doing the hitting. We boated a fair number of trout but the biggest was about 12". I changed flies all day, but always came back to the Pookie.

Two days later, Cloyd invited me to go along on a trip to the park. Not being a guided trip I was able to fish for my self. We started on the Lamar, as this was Cloyd's favorite stream. Walking up from the Cottonwood hole I found a nice little pocket that looked promising. Starting with a black beetle, just to see if there was anything in there, I casted to the head of the riffle. I was rewarded with a fat 16" cut. After a few more casts I noticed green drakes in the flat water. Wasting no time I switched to Koichi's CDC drake with immediate takes with aggression. It was fun from that time on. We fished till 6PM with fish on all day. It was one of the best days on the Lamar I've had in some time.

To some up for the week, the best performing flies were the Skinny Nelson in sizes #16 and #18. Pink Pookies sizes #10 to #6 and Size #10 CDC green drakes. With the cooler fall weather the BWO's will be making their appearance on the river and though hoppers will work for some time yet start looking for pods of rising trout feeding on small mayflies and midges. Fishing will just get better as winter is just around the corner. Get out there and catch a few yourselves.

Volume # 4 Number # 7

Dean Reiner
Hatch Finders Fly Shop
113 #3 West Park St
Livingston, MT 59047
na3d@hatchfinders.com
WWW.hatchfinders.com
1-406-222-0989 Shop
1-406-223-1330 Cell

I just saw this video clip on YouTube. It is obviously geared toward the beginner, but even the most experienced fly fisherman should find something useful. Good luck making it through to the end...

Written By Dean Reiner of Hatch Finders Fly Shop

THE 2007 LIVINGSTON

INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF FLY FISHERS CONCLAVE

It’s conclave time again for the anglers in Livingston. For Hatch Finders Fly Shop it’s an opportunity for us to renew old friendships and make new ones. For me it’s the best time of year to sit back, listen to all the fish stories, making sure I have my feet on top of my desk, and tell a few whoppers myself.

The show it self features new products, gadgets of all kinds, all the things that makes a fly fisherman’s heart flouter. Fly tiers from around the world make their appearance teaching the latest techniques with the newest materials, all with the hopes of convincing the elusive trout to take their offerings. Koichi my friend and partner made his first appearance this year as a master fly tier offering a class on flies tied with CDC. I’m proud to say it was a wonderful success. Dandy my daughter and general manager of Hatch Finders is manning the booth this year. She is handling the sales and demonstrating some tying techniques of her own. The old man, that’s me, stayed in the shop grateful for the chance to be lazy and to encourage Dandy and Koichi to show off their talents.

The FFF has a new program this year, its called healing waters. It consists of taking disabled veterans from all branches of the military and taking them fly-fishing. The wonderful thing is that there is no cost to the veterans. I had the distinct pleasure to have two men in my boat, Mark Bilodeay and Bill Johnston. Mark from the air force and Bill who was a Marine who served in Vietnam. He was injured with only 3 days left in country. The injures were so server that he lost bough of his legs. He asked me what I did in Vietnam and I told him I was a crew chief on CH-46’s. When I told him I served with HMM-364 the Purple Foxes he said that, that was the squadron that med-a-vac him and was instrumental in getting him to a hospital and saving his life. All helicopter squadrons fought with valor in Vietnam but our primary duty was to rescue wounded solders. I believe we saved the lives of thousand of our brave men and women who were surly mistreated upon their return home.

There was another program from Bozeman called Wounded Worriers where they took Marines wounded in Iraq and gave these young Marines several days on the water. Finally we are treating our service men and woman with the respect they deserve.

On Monday I got a real treat. I had the pleasure to meet a man named Alastair Gowans. Ally, as he likes to be called, is a world class instructor on spay casting and one of Scotland premiere guides for Atlantic salmon and Brown Trout. On Friday we loaded up the boat and headed up to Mc Connell for a day of fishing. We also had in the boat Dennis Grant a good friend of Ally’s and he sits on the casting board of governors. We put in at 6 AM. I noticed that the parking lot was empty, thinking that was unusable we started fishing. A few minuets later and one fish I got a call from Hooters asking how bad the mud was. Then I understood. I told her it was terrible not to send any boats up here. I know that was very bad of me but I got to fish the entire day and never saw another boat. That was the first time I floated that stretch all by myself in 27 years. So shoot me! Dennis used streamers all day and really did well. Ally was committed to the dry fly. He used the ever-reliable Pink Pookie. Ally was just fascinated with the scenery. Every time he rubbernecked he would get a strike. The comet was "did you see that, he almost got my fly. I saved it just in time"! By the end of the day we had a respectable number of trout to the boat. And the best thing for me is I didn’t have to say mend even once. I was in heaven. Sitting or standing, these guys could cast from the middle of the river to any bank and catch fish. It was surreal. On our ride back to town Ally said in his Scottish brogue "Dean do you know the definition of fly fishing?" Not really wanting to say something predictable I waited, Ally came back with the simplest way to describe it. At the end of the day it’s having a smile on your face and wanting to do the same thing tomorrow. I think he said it all.

I would like to thank the Wounded Worriers, Healing Waters and all the vets, and to say thanks to all my friends with the FFF for a mind numbing but absolutely enjoyable week

Volume # 4 Number # 6

Dean Reiner
Hatch Finders Fly Shop
113 #3 West Park St
Livingston, MT 59047
na3d@hatchfinders.com
WWW.hatchfinders.com
1-406-222-0989 Shop
1-406-223-1330 Cell