British Columbia

The first week of school had me in some sort of trance. Getting back in the school groove was taking its tole on me. Luckily, my good friend Alec woke me from this trance. He asked me to come along on a 4 day trip to British Columbia in search of large bull trout and cutthroat. I didn't even have to think twice before saying, Im in. Suddenly the pressure of school was lifted and all I could think about was the cold, clean and clear water teeming with wild trout. Thursday afternoon finally arrived. After some minor set backs the 6 of us hit the road en route to Fernie, British Columbia. We drove the last few hours in the dark and ended up camping near a Tim Hortons parking lot. When I awoke Friday morning I was greeted with some of the most amazing scenery I have ever laid eyes on. At this time I took the only two pictures I took the whole trip.

View from "The Cove" aka Tim Hortons parking lot

I wish I had more pictures to show. My excuse, the fishing was so good and the landscape so breathe taking my time was spent soaking it all in for myself. Real selfish I know. All three days of fishing were spent stripping streamers with the occasional dry fly presentation. The streamer fishing was consistent for the most part with healthy cutties willing to come out from their hiding spot and smash a 4 inch streamer. The bull trout were a different story. They wanted the fly right in front of their face. I was able to catch two bulls in the 21-23 inch range as well as a few under 20 and countless numbers of colorful cutthroat. The guys I fished with took most of the pictures. It being their second trip to BC they were able to spend more time with a camera in hand instead of a fly rod. I hope to get some pictures from those guys. When I do, I will be sure to post them for you all to see. This trip was nothing short of spectacular in so many ways. I got to see pristine landscapes, beautiful water and crazy Canadians. I experienced great fishing, good company, a bull trout eat a cutthroat and surprisingly good precooked barbecue ribs. Along with those experience come great memories that I will never forget. I would like to thank everyone who went on this trip for making it spectacular and Alec for the invitation to come along on such a great trip. Thank you all!

IM BACK!!

Schools in full swing. It is only the second day and my  TO DO list just keeps getting longer. Im feeling a solid day or two trip to a near by river is on the agenda for this weekend. Until then check out my new short film "South of The Valley" on my Vimeo page.

South of The Valley from Strip. Twitch. Pause. on Vimeo.

Sporadic Spring Fishing

I have been getting out on the water more on the week days this spring, In an attempt to avoid the spring crowds. I have caught some very healthy good looking fish, but have been failing in the photo department. In my resent outings I have been using my Go Pro Hero 3 to take pictures. It takes good quality photos and is an unreal underwater camera. The one downfall I am having is getting the go pro to capture enough light in the picture. Recently I have been trying to salvage some picture with I photo, here is what I came up with...

 Rock Creek Rainbow

Brown from the creek

Goodbye

 Bitterroot Brownie

Headed home..

Just what I needed

Yesterday I hit the river on my day off with high hopes. I had spent a good amount of time on google maps a few days earlier and had a good spot picked out but it was gonna be long walk. Long story short, The walk was worth every single step. Here are the pictures to prove it

 Ferocious Cuttie

 Taped out to 20 inches (My biggest Cutthroat ever)

The Release 

 Fish of the day

I suck at selfies

Cheers!

My Hiatus

Hello again followers of Strip Twitch Pause, I am back from spring break refreshed, reloaded and ready to fish. My 10 day spring break focus was to relax and re-energize my soul, this unfortunately ment fishing was gonna be put on the back burner for the first time in more than a year. Its not that fishing doesn't allow me to relax, I was just feeling drained from the chaos we call life and needed to get away from everything. Most of the break I spent hiking in the wilderness and laying in my hammock clearing my head. The other days were spent sitting in some hot springs in Idaho at a secret location. (Hands down the best place to relax and re-energize) Now its back to reality and back on the river. I plan on getting out on the water Tuesday to toss some streamers in the high water around missoula.

Here are some pictures from my adventures over spring break.

 Hot Springs

 Panorama

 Not a bad view 

 Hot springs waterfall

Hammock relaxation

Cool Story: The creek where the hot springs were located was a tributary of the Salmon River. We set up camp along this creek below the hot springs because the terrain was to steep to camp next to them. One morning when the sun was shinning on the creek I looked in the pool in the picture below with my polarized glasses and saw a 18-20 inch steelhead!! I was in shock, I kept looking away, then back at it as it just swam in the current gracefully soaking up the sun. I quickly grabbed my friend Cam to take a look to make sure I wasn't going crazy. He ended up spooking the fish and it headed up the creek further. The amazing part about this story is we were at least 2- 3 miles up this creek and as you can see in the second picture there is not much room for a 18-20 inch fish to swim up this creek. Just another reason why I admire the steelhead and their epic journey.   

First Skwala Experience

Last week I was able to get out on the river for the warmest day of 2013 to date. A few days prior there had been rumor that the skwalas were out on the bitterroot and I was eager to experience my first skwala hatch. The day started off okay, I was able to catch a couple feisty browns on streamers. Then IT HAPPENED, fish started looking up and consistently rising. I wasted no time tying on a skwala dry and first cast I hooked up with a nice cutthroat. It only got better from there. I caught 10+ fish on drys, the biggest being a 19 inch brown. Now I finally understand what all the fus is about when spring rolls around on the Bitterroot.

The Trifecta!

Yesterday I had great day of fishing on the Bitterroot. I caught 5 different types of fish including a bull trout! Words can not express my excitement when I netted this fish. The fish itself was only about 13 inches but the fact that bull trout are in the Bitterroot just puts a smile on my face.

 Bully

 Dry fly eating Cutthroat

According to the weather man it is supposed to be the warmest day of the year tomorrow! Highs in the 60s! Can you guess where im gonna be?

A Tribute to the Cutthroat Trout

I put together a short video to post last friday but had some complications with Vimeo. I could wait till this friday to show it so your anticipation builds to extreme levels but for something that is average at best, it just seems unreasonable to do that. So take a minute out of your boring Monday afternoon and watch this short video. Click the link below the video to watch in HD.


A Tribute to the Cutthroat.mov from Strip. Twitch. Pause. on Vimeo.

WATCH IT HERE IN HD: A Tribute to the Cutthroat Trout HD

Nomad Fly Fishing

Yesterday, When I came home from my Statistics lab I was greeted with a box at my front door. Nomad Fly Fishing hooked it up with some swag along with the Mid-length net I purchased. 

I didn't waste anytime putting the net to use..

As soon as I saw this composite net I fell in love with its clear rubber net and sleek green rubberized paint (For better grip when wet). When I picked it up I promised myself I would never buy any other net again.. This Mid-Length net tops the scales at .88 pounds, thats right, less than a pound! I have 3 words for you:

 GET ONE NOW!

Eager Cutthroat = Happy Fishermen

Saturday Alec and I headed up Interstate 93 bright and early, we were excited to get a full day on the water with temperatures in the 50s. The weather was even nicer than predicted, we fished for an easy 6-7 hours and saw temperatures top out at 62 degrees. It was one of those days where everything fell into place, the weather was great, the cutthroat were eager to eat our bugs and we even enjoyed a cold beer at lunch. Im looking forward to many more of these warm fish filled days in the spring and summer to come.

 Much love

Eager Cutthroat

 Photo by Alec Underwood

 Alec hooked up with a fatty..

 Sucker haha

 This is what we all come to MT to catch right?

 Colored up Cuttie

 Lunch

 bye bye brown trout

Its "No class Tuesday" tomorrow so you can bet your ass I will be knee deep in the water somewhere. 

Tight lines!

STP

Spring is on the horizon

I dont have much time to write, Alec should be at my house any second to go fishing. Temperatures in the mid 50's. Thats all I got.

PEACE

COLD BLUE NIGHTS

Cold Blue Nights from The Fly Collective on Vimeo.

Ivan Orsic and Russell Schnitzer team up to put together a spectacular short film  about fishing the Blue river in Colorado at night. PURE EXCELLENCE!! Im excited to see whats in the future for The Fly Collective.

Happy Hump day! Wait... I didn't get humped today.. Did you?

Peace!

ATTENTION: Name change!

Me changing the name of this blog is long over due. It has been two years since I have lived in the great state of Vermont and I bum a lot more things than just trout. Needless to say "Vermont Trout Bum" is a very misleading name for this lackluster fly fishing blog based out of Montana. So without further ado, drum roll please (Insert drum roll here)........ The new name for my blog is

STRIP. TWITCH. PAUSE. 

STP

This name was inspired by my passion for tossing streamers for big fish and one of my favorite retrieving techniques for this style of fishing. Just remember, change is good. 

Fishing, Fireball Whiskey, Tombstone pizza, Rap battles, PBR and Good friends

6 am Saturday morning coffee and breakfast in hand, 8 brave souls departed for the mighty Missouri river. The weather was calling for sunny conditions saturday with winds around 30 mph and gust as high as 45mph. Sunday's weather called for snow and temperatures around 33 degrees. These predictions would have made the average angler stay home but not Where the water leads, Bum Trout, False Casts and Flat Tires, Garret and I. We were all eager to get to one of the best winter trout fisheries in Montana and maybe catch a midge hatch? Early Saturday the wind was blowing fairly hard but around noon it calmed down and the fishing was consistently good all day. Saturday night we all got pretty bamboozled around the campfire. Im pretty sure Bob knows every Michael Jackson song and he is a hell of a rapper too. Sunday morning was overcast with temps in the mid to upper 30's and we got into some good midge fishing on top. All the guys in Garrets raft(Garret,Bob and I) were able to land multiple fish on dry flys and nymphs before a big storm rolled in. All in all it was a great two days with lots of laughs, good fishing and great friends. I already see I wrote way to much so I will stop and give you something cool to look at. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

 Boat ramp rainbow

 Photo by Robert Prince

 Streamer eating brown

  Photo by Robert Prince

 Photo by Robert Prince

Break to warm up with a fire and beer

Photo by Robert Prince

 Kyped up bow

Photo by Robert Prince

 Alec cheesin' cheek to cheek with his wild rainbow

 Bob with a pig 

 Garret bringing a fish to hand

Garret with a beautiful wild rainbow

 Bob doing his thing

Dry fly eating Bow

 Bob with chunky rainbow

 Storm approaching 

Bob emptying out his leaky waders

Big thanks to everyone who went on the trip, I had a blast and look forward to the next presidents day weekend blogorama, blogger bash, blogiversary whatever you want to call it.

Peace!