Strip. Twitch. Pause.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

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.

Monday, March 18, 2013

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.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

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?

Monday, March 11, 2013

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

Friday, March 8, 2013

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!

Monday, March 4, 2013

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.