Highlight Reel of Flyfishing the Green River 4/5/2014

Check out this short clip of an awesome day of flyfishing on the Green!  It is more or less the debut of Western Fishing Unlimited Productions!

Brown Trout Release

I bought a new camera and started testing it this weekend!  Stay tuned for new (and longer) videos!

Fishers of Men: Fresh Fish

Photo courtesy of Jeff Wettstein and Rick York

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish but the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. To feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and traveled farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were no longer fresh and the Japanese did not like the taste.

To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats.They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish.

Also, the frozen fish brought a lower price. So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish would stop moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish.

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks, but they added a small shark to each tank. Sure, the shark would eat a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state satisfying the Japanese market.  The fish are challenged and this made the difference.

Have you realized that some of us are also living in a pond that most of the time is tired & dull? We need a Shark in our life to keep us awake and moving. Basically, in our lives, sharks are new challenges to keep us active and tasting better...  If your challenges are the correct size, and if you are steadily conquering those challenges, you hone your skills and develop your character. You think of your challenges and get energized. and you get excited to try new solutions.

  Attribution

Jigging for Browns at Fontenelle!

A few weeks ago I was fishing with a friend and I got completely humbled! I can usually pull my weight and then some when it comes to catching the numbers and quality fish but on that day I got beat on pretty much every level. I watched him closely and quickly picked up on his strategy.  He introduced to me a new way of fishing with jigs that I had honestly not considered.  Typically when fishing with jigs I would simply cast them AFAP (as far as possible), leave my bail open and allow them to sink straight down to the bottom. I would usually employ a fast and aggressive retrieve, jigging hard and allowing a brief pause while reeling in the slack.  Jeremy taught me a new technique: begin a slow retrieve immediately after the jig hits the water, use quick but very short switches of the rod only a few times per cast, be prepared for very soft hits and set the hook hard  If I hadn’t personally seen him tear into two great rainbows on the first and second casts, I wouldn’t have adjusted my fishing strategy.  

A few weeks later I was back to the same reservoir where Jeremy and I fished but in a slightly different area. I was accompanied by Shaun and Jason (aka Boogs) Harris, who are always great company and fun to fish with!  I went with a 3/8 oz.  black jig and followed the technique I just described.  The water was very murky and most of the fish were in the upper column of water. We started catching great fish like these right away and within a short time we had hooked into six browns.  Had Jason not decided to take a nosedive off the ice sheet and into the icy water we may have been able to catch a few more! All things considered, it was another awesome day on the water!

Fishers of Men: Keep the Lower Lights Burning

Ancient Light House

  A long time ago, noted preacher Dwight Moody told his congregation a story about a boat, helplessly rocking and plunging on a stormy, starless night near the Cleveland harbor. The mariners on board could see the lighthouse, but they needed to find their way through the narrow passage in the treacherous rocks that surrounded the harbor. Normally a light on the shore, aligned with the lighthouse, marked the passage to safety. But on this night, the lower lights had gone out.
Finally, the desperate captain decided they had no choice but to proceed into the harbor without the guidance of the lower lights. “With a strong hand and brave heart”—but in almost total darkness—“the old pilot turned the wheel.” Tragically, he missed the channel, crashed the boat upon the rocks, and lost the lives of his sailors.
Moody then explained the lesson to be learned from his story: the Master will take care of the great lighthouse, but He depends on us to keep the lower lights burning. Philip Paul Bliss was directing the singing at the meeting that night and was so inspired by Moody’s story that he wrote what would become one of his most popular hymns, “Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy.” He also composed the music, a hymn tune known as “Lower Lights,” which was first published in 1871.
The storms of life put many around us in peril. They may long to approach the light of “our Father’s mercy” but are unsure how to navigate the obstacles in their way. We all know how they feel, because each of us has been lost at sea from time to time.
Most often, God uses us to rescue them. If we can keep the light of faith burning in our hearts, if we align our light with the Light above, we can guide an exhausted mariner safely home. We can be the lower lights that “send a gleam across the wave. Some poor fainting, struggling seaman [we] may rescue, [we] may save.”
-Lloyd D. Newell

Courtesy of Music and the Spoken Word

Check out this performance of the song Brightly Beams Our Fathers Mercy.

Casting Jigs in a Lake or River

Several years ago, a friend of mine told me that he wanted to show me how to catch fish in a way that he was sure I had never tried before. When I asked him to tell me exactly what he was talking about, his reply was that I would have to go with him to find out what he meant.

I was eager for him to pick me up the following weekend, and the minute I hopped into his truck, I asked him what we were going to be fishing with that was so top secret, he couldn't have told me about it earlier.

“Jigs,” he said. “We are going to be fishing with 4 inch long tube jigs.”

I laughed!

At this point in my life, I had done quite a bit of fishing and tried many different lures, flies and baits. I was quite certain that big jigs like that were reserved for lake trout fishing, and there was no way that a trout in a river was going to bite something that big and unwieldy. Besides that, jigs are for ice fishing. A fisherman drops the jig down the hole and jerks the pole up and down every once in a while hoping that  fish will come by and bite.

This, I soon found out, was not the case. Fishing jigs in a river or in a lake is much like fishing a lure or spoon with long casts and slow retrieves. There is lots of casting, lots of work, and lots of action.

We launched the drift boat and walked over to fish the hole directly below the dam before we set off down the river. My buddy took the first cast with a big ugly white jig and instantly hooked into a fish. Several minutes later, I helped him land a chunky 24 inch rainbow. I didn't need any more convincing. I tied on a jig and caught several nice fish that day. I spent that rest of that spring learning how to fish with jigs.

Since that time, I have caught trout on jigs in all kinds of lakes, ponds, and rivers. If there are fish in the water, a good bet is that a jig will catch them.

Since that first trip, I have also used all sorts of jigs: rubber tubes, bucktails, maribou, and all sorts of combinations of the three. Fishing jigs can still be sketchy. There are days when the fish just won't bite anything. However, more often than not, if the fish are going to bite, a jig will hook up more fish than any other bait.

-Jeremy Kaiser 

Nice Browns in Porcupine Reservoir!

I went to college at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.  I admit that I was just a little nerdy and studied too much as I worked to achieve a dual major in Biology and Public Health.  However, I still had my priorities to keep the insane stress of school in check... I fished whenever I could! We fished all over the Cache Valley from the Logan River to the Blacksmith Fork to Newton Res.  One of my favorites was Porcupine Reservoir. On this particular day we hit it just as the ice was thick enough to walk on. Slightly scary, yes, but worth the risk!   Don't tell my wife but we had to jump over a few feet of open water along the edges to get to where we wanted to fish.  I know... I know... I am a safety professional and I take some chances on the ice now and again. However, I make sure I take the proper precautions while I'm out there.

This day was just perfect: clear skies, fresh snow, strong clear ice, and good company.  I was fishing with Cody Anderson who is usually pretty busy pouring concrete with Cadillac Concrete in Cache Valley but now and again I convince him to bust out his fishing gear.  We fished near the dam in about 20 feet of water with small green and black jigs right off the bottom. We caught these two fish great fish.  The thinner of the two was actually 21 inches long and the heavier fish was 24 inches.  Strong, feisty fish that put up a good fight! 

Fishers of Men: Attributes Obtained Through Fishing

"To go fishing is the chance to wash one's soul with pure air, with the rush of the brook, or with the shimmer of sun on blue water. It brings meekness and inspiration from the decency of nature, charity towards tackle-makers, patience toward fish, a mockery of profits and egos, a quieting of hate, a rejoicing that you do not have to decide a darned thing until next week. And it is discipline in the equality of men-for all men are equal before fish."   

Herbert Hoover

" Perspective is a perishable commodity. Fishing restores perspective. when we escape to the solitude of quiet waters, the day's fleeting troubles seem to evaporate into the mist; in the presence of nature, spiritual order is restored."

Criswell Freeman

Bow Fishin' for Carp!

I hate carp in so many ways but then again they can be so awesome!  I have several fishing buddies who fly fish for carp and they think it's the bomb. I know others who love to get out their ultralite spinning gear with 4 lbs test line and hook into carp during the spawn.  Me, I just like to snag them with heavier gear and get a good fight out of them! Or I’ll break out the bow from its winter hibernation and rig up the bow fishing gear.  We mostly ‘hunt’ carp in the summer months at Flaming Gorge Reservoir but we will also spend some time in the Blacks Fork Rive stalking the river banks.  When carp spawn they gather in numbers and it is not uncommon to see over 50 carp in a single cove or nestled into the shallows with their backs sticking out of the water.   

If you camp along the reservoir you can hear them splashing around all night.

Bow fishing is a little trickier than you might imagine.  Of course you want to get as close as possible and shoot them when they are within a few feet of the surface. Early in the season you can jump in your boat and slowly motor around and get close enough for a shot. Later on you might have to transition into stealth mode and often get in the water and move slowly into spawning areas.    
 When light hits the water it gets refracted and changes its direction of travel. This causes the fish to appear that they are in one spot but in reality they will be a few inches (or feet) from where you think they are.  The depth changes all that as well and it magnifies the effect. Get out to the lake and give carp fishing a shot!