March Brown Spinner If you live anywhere near the Bitterroot River then every March you listen for the whispers and rumors of the first Squwala sighting and even though you know it will be packed with every guide west of the Missouri you still head out there for the chance to throw a big dry…
Fishing Journal
March 26th, Tuesday. 60+ degrees. CFS doubled from 250 to 500 overnight. Tea colored water with loads of debris floating down. Never a great sign for fishing. Began with a skwala but had no takers. Nymphing wasn’t effective either. Coaxed two and missed two on a streamer. The highlight of the day was watching two…
Parachute Squwala
Just in case you don’t have enough Squwala patterns to tie, here’s another one. This pattern is based on Schroeder’s parachute hopper, which I think doesn’t get the credit it deserves for being one of the best. The fly checks off the key features of a Squwala: it’s low floating, segmented body, and lots of…
Floral Park Traverse
Hidden Lake Trail
Hidden Lake
Renegade Damsel
The idea for this fly started up at Georgetown lake fishing with my buddies Bryan and Sep. Georgetown lake is a shallow, spring-fed lake that sits around six thousand feet in the Pintlar mountains. It’s a super fertile lake that gets loads of pressure and handles it just fine. There’s enough food to feed the…
Too Beautiful
A thing of beauty is a joy forever; Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness. ~John Keats I first crossed paths with the concept of being humbled by nature, it seems, through my grandfather, Louis Dufresne. His outdoor stories could fill the night air of a thousand campfires. He tromped about the…
The Fink Fly
The Fink fly is a blatant rip off of one of my favorite ice fishing jigs, the “Ratfinkee”. Bryan’s son, Finn, grew up using it and has taken fishing the Ratfinkee to new heights catching every type of fish he can find minus a pike. The fly version here has been a great winter pattern…
Three Days in Bristol Bay
Opportunity knocked on a cold, winter Saturday Night. I sat on a folding chair in a one car garage, flanked by three great friends; two small space heaters; an endless array of tools, decorations, toys, and memorabilia; and discussion of life and fishing. The usual suspects included Phil Leonardi (the Garagmahal’s owner / operator), life-long…