MattBoyer
Active member
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2006
- Messages
- 1,515
OK, here it goes. Sorry it took so long to post, but this is my report on the Jam. First off, I would like to say it was great to meet everyone! It was actually tough to stay in one conversation at the pavilion. There was so much knowledge and good humor flying around my brain hurt the next morning. OK, so it might have been the beer, but who knows? Seriously, though, I feel like I met a lot of people I would be proud to call friends. It was nice to get to travel to streams with new friends who were there to do the same thing I was and I felt a common bond amongst all present. Thanks again for all the good times and great fishing. Now for the weekend as I saw it.
I woke up at 5AM Friday to pack gear for the trip then go to work. Talk about the dragginest-*** day of work in history. I was chomping at the bit to get out of there but I had a 3 o’clock meeting. My buddy showed up around 2:30 and said he would cover me in the meeting. Sweet! I got my stuff together and ran out the door. Stopped by my parents to trade cars with my dad for the weekend knowing my cavalier would not hold up to any serious offroading. After I got all loaded up it was time to make a few stops at the tackle shop, the farmer’s market and the dollar store(which was the longest part of the trip for stuff I never used-except for the cheesy poofs) It’s like 5:30 by now and I got nothin’ but open road. It’s one of my favorite parts of any trip. You plan and organize your stuff for what seems like a year, then you finally leave and it’s hard to not smile while cruisin’ down the road. The weather report called for doom and gloom, but I was having none of that. It seems like everywhere I went it had either just rained or was about to break loose any second, but I only brushed through one tiny sprinkle for about 5 minutes the whole way up. It was like I was being guided through the storm. There was a point on 180 where the storm was coming from the west with fire and brimstone and I was driving parallel to the front, but just ahead of it, and when the highway turns west I was just north of the top of the storm, then I could see it later when the sun came out from behind. I had seen a vicious thunderstorm from all 4 sides without much more than a light sprinkle. I knew then that it would be a great weekend. I was gonna take 15 but at the last minute I decided 287 was the way to go. I got to witness probably the most dense spinner falls that I have ever seen on a tiny run to the right of the road just south of Liberty. Not sure what the stream was, but it was blown out from a storm and was still tiny. I couldn’t believe that many bugs could come off such a little stream. They were like a cloud to drive through.
I got to camp around 9:00, got my tent pitched, and got settled in. I grabbed a beer and headed to the pavilion, where I met everyone and got so caught up in the evening that before I knew it, it was 2:00. Looks like tomorrow was gonna be a late one. Not to be. I had to take a leak at like 6:00, and my tent was like 200 yards from the bathroom. I thought about the bushes, but the old couple next to me were already up and outside. Well, at this point I’m up, so brutal hangover notwithstanding, I hit the creek behind my tent until more people are up. I got one little dink of a stocked brookie and a rather chunky brown before heading up to the pavilion.
We broke up into smaller groups, and for the day it was RyanH, Bruno, and myself. We headed out to a tiny little native stream a little ways from camp and caught a few that looked kinda like this.
A little ways downstream I found a beaver dam, which was a welcome relief. I had worn neoprene expecting the creek to be a bit bigger and the day a bit less sweltering, and I was dying.
I missed a real nice brookie by the dam breast, but got his little brother who was living in the lodge.
Our next stop was Kettle below Ole Bull (O-lee Bull-ee). :lol: We saw a parking area, pulled in, almost too far in, and then realized that we were where the fish was on the Delorme. Seems logical to try it, they put a fish on the map, it’s got to be good. Talk about snotty arrogant fish. I had a hookup or 2, but lost them. Ryan got one in the *** by accident, which was not the last time this weekend a dumb trout would do that. I think he got a couple more, but I was kinda absorbed into trying to catch a rainbow in front of me that was red from stem to stern. Very pretty fish, wish I woulda gotten him. After a few hours we headed back to camp to make plans for the evening hatch.
The evening crew that night was broken into two groups, the bikers and the climbers. I was with the climber group which was Bruno, Tomgamber, Fly N’Ice, Ryanh, and myself(I keep feeling like I’m missing somebody there). The hatch the evening before was insane, but for tonight the preferred to fall on the rail trail. I missed two, I think Tom got a couple, RyanH wouldn’t let the dang bluegills alone, and Mo and the bikers were upstream layin’ waste to them. I got a kinda grainy but good video of Maurice bringing one in, I just need a new firewire cable to upload it.
We finally got back to camp around 10:30 or so and proceeded to hang out, talk fishin, and JayL and I tied some flies. Maurice admired one of the flies I tied so much that I have since named it “Maurice’s Miracle” :-D . It was a really great time meeting each and every person at the jam. I learned more that night than in the last year of reading the board. I even learned some things about my local streams that I had never really thought of. Great bunch of guys. 2AM is getting to be a theme around here by now, so it’s off to bed.
Next morning I overslept, then went up to the pavilion to meet up with JayL for a morning of lower Pine and Slate. We hit a trib mouth first to see what was swimming around in the big hole below it. I have never seen such big trout as I did this trip, but they were a stubborn bunch that would inspect/reject so fast they would tailhook themselves, so Jay and I each got one Michigan style.
Next we moved on to Slate Run. While we were at the back of the car getting ready my eyes just happened to fall on the dumpster in time to see a 300 odd pound bear climbing out. He walked a little bit away, but was standing on a small cliff above the stream.
He just wouldn’t leave, so we stood there telling him to beat it. He eventually gave up, but he was a bit stubborn. I wish people wouldn’t feed bears. They get pretty brave up that way. Where I come from you only have to yell at a bear once to get them to take off. Not this guy. I think he was pissed.
He finally climbed the cliff and we hit Slate. Maurice had called the BWO spinner fall to the minute, but I think the fish were full when we got there. We were short on time so we only fished from the Russ Mauwry hole down, and only saw a few fish.
We got back to the parking lot just in time for our buddy to be coming back down the cliff. I was feeling like our luck had been pushed enough, and this time he was coming towards us, not going away, and we couldn’t just get in the truck, so I grabbed a rock just in case. Like that would help. He patiently waited for us to leave, although he took a few steps to show us whose woods they really were. We then went down and hit Pine by the mouth, and each got one.
We got back to camp and Jay had to go home, so we got the night shift together. We were originally supposed to all meet up at the creek, but Mo led his tribe astray. Tom and I went where JackM had decided to go. We made the right call. It looked bleak when we got there, but come 7:30 the rain started. Then it was raining in the middle of a blizzard. Just about everything that had hatched that weekend was hatching right then and there. I got 5 and missed probably 10 on a size 12 Yellow Sally in about a half an hour. It was insane. It was the evening they write books about. We fished until well after dark, and were still a bit hesitant to leave, as they were still rising. These were all fairly big fish. I was amazed at the size on average. Here is a picture of TomGamber, JackM, and Brandon, way off in the distance. Beautiful scenery.
That night at camp I said my goodbyes and went to my tent and fell asleep to the sound of the rain. Beautiful night for sleeping. I got up around 6, got my stuff together, got a shower to warm up a bit and headed down the valley. Pine was a bit high and brown behind my tent, but I hoped if I got lower it would be up and cold, but not brown yet. Luck was on my side that day. As soon as I got to Blackwell I looked down and there was the Pine in her deep cool teal splendor. I headed to the spot Jay and I went the day before because there were some huge fish cruising the hole. On the way I saw this guy a few dozen yard up a trib. He looked very worn out and was above a 3 foot waterfall, so he was either caught and put there or had jumped it a few days earlier when it was hot and the creek was low. I’m not sure he made it, but I held him in the current for a good 20 minutes before I put him back where I found him to rest. It truly saddened me to see a fish that beautiful gasping for breath.
The creek had come up just enough that I couldn’t see them, and I think they were up in the riffles feeding, but I couldn’t get more than one strike, so I moved up stream. I stopped at a go-to hole where I always catch at least one rainbow, and sure enough caught exactly that. After that I was gonna grab lunch and head home but on a whim stopped a little further upstream. As soon as I got to the water I saw some rises and passed a few caddis. Tied on a stimulator and had a very similar time as the night before, only it was 74 and partly sunny, and at 2:30 in the afternoon. It was awesome. I missed a ton, and my heart jumped every time one would inspect/reject. I ended up with 5, all once again hefty fish, including this one with a really odd head.
Around 4:00 I grabbed some lunch and headed home still seeing rising trout in my head the whole way and recalling the events of the weekend. It is all a blur of fishing and friends and I’m glad I went. I woke up early the next day and fished all day before cutting the grass and going to band practice. I wish I was fishing today but alas work needs to be done, flies need tied, and I wanted to write this down before I forgot more details than I already have. Once again, it was great meeting everyone, and that means everyone. If I listed names I’m sure I’d miss one, and there’s not a person who was there that I would want to miss. Not one. Thank you all.
Boyer
I woke up at 5AM Friday to pack gear for the trip then go to work. Talk about the dragginest-*** day of work in history. I was chomping at the bit to get out of there but I had a 3 o’clock meeting. My buddy showed up around 2:30 and said he would cover me in the meeting. Sweet! I got my stuff together and ran out the door. Stopped by my parents to trade cars with my dad for the weekend knowing my cavalier would not hold up to any serious offroading. After I got all loaded up it was time to make a few stops at the tackle shop, the farmer’s market and the dollar store(which was the longest part of the trip for stuff I never used-except for the cheesy poofs) It’s like 5:30 by now and I got nothin’ but open road. It’s one of my favorite parts of any trip. You plan and organize your stuff for what seems like a year, then you finally leave and it’s hard to not smile while cruisin’ down the road. The weather report called for doom and gloom, but I was having none of that. It seems like everywhere I went it had either just rained or was about to break loose any second, but I only brushed through one tiny sprinkle for about 5 minutes the whole way up. It was like I was being guided through the storm. There was a point on 180 where the storm was coming from the west with fire and brimstone and I was driving parallel to the front, but just ahead of it, and when the highway turns west I was just north of the top of the storm, then I could see it later when the sun came out from behind. I had seen a vicious thunderstorm from all 4 sides without much more than a light sprinkle. I knew then that it would be a great weekend. I was gonna take 15 but at the last minute I decided 287 was the way to go. I got to witness probably the most dense spinner falls that I have ever seen on a tiny run to the right of the road just south of Liberty. Not sure what the stream was, but it was blown out from a storm and was still tiny. I couldn’t believe that many bugs could come off such a little stream. They were like a cloud to drive through.
I got to camp around 9:00, got my tent pitched, and got settled in. I grabbed a beer and headed to the pavilion, where I met everyone and got so caught up in the evening that before I knew it, it was 2:00. Looks like tomorrow was gonna be a late one. Not to be. I had to take a leak at like 6:00, and my tent was like 200 yards from the bathroom. I thought about the bushes, but the old couple next to me were already up and outside. Well, at this point I’m up, so brutal hangover notwithstanding, I hit the creek behind my tent until more people are up. I got one little dink of a stocked brookie and a rather chunky brown before heading up to the pavilion.
We broke up into smaller groups, and for the day it was RyanH, Bruno, and myself. We headed out to a tiny little native stream a little ways from camp and caught a few that looked kinda like this.
A little ways downstream I found a beaver dam, which was a welcome relief. I had worn neoprene expecting the creek to be a bit bigger and the day a bit less sweltering, and I was dying.
I missed a real nice brookie by the dam breast, but got his little brother who was living in the lodge.
Our next stop was Kettle below Ole Bull (O-lee Bull-ee). :lol: We saw a parking area, pulled in, almost too far in, and then realized that we were where the fish was on the Delorme. Seems logical to try it, they put a fish on the map, it’s got to be good. Talk about snotty arrogant fish. I had a hookup or 2, but lost them. Ryan got one in the *** by accident, which was not the last time this weekend a dumb trout would do that. I think he got a couple more, but I was kinda absorbed into trying to catch a rainbow in front of me that was red from stem to stern. Very pretty fish, wish I woulda gotten him. After a few hours we headed back to camp to make plans for the evening hatch.
The evening crew that night was broken into two groups, the bikers and the climbers. I was with the climber group which was Bruno, Tomgamber, Fly N’Ice, Ryanh, and myself(I keep feeling like I’m missing somebody there). The hatch the evening before was insane, but for tonight the preferred to fall on the rail trail. I missed two, I think Tom got a couple, RyanH wouldn’t let the dang bluegills alone, and Mo and the bikers were upstream layin’ waste to them. I got a kinda grainy but good video of Maurice bringing one in, I just need a new firewire cable to upload it.
We finally got back to camp around 10:30 or so and proceeded to hang out, talk fishin, and JayL and I tied some flies. Maurice admired one of the flies I tied so much that I have since named it “Maurice’s Miracle” :-D . It was a really great time meeting each and every person at the jam. I learned more that night than in the last year of reading the board. I even learned some things about my local streams that I had never really thought of. Great bunch of guys. 2AM is getting to be a theme around here by now, so it’s off to bed.
Next morning I overslept, then went up to the pavilion to meet up with JayL for a morning of lower Pine and Slate. We hit a trib mouth first to see what was swimming around in the big hole below it. I have never seen such big trout as I did this trip, but they were a stubborn bunch that would inspect/reject so fast they would tailhook themselves, so Jay and I each got one Michigan style.
Next we moved on to Slate Run. While we were at the back of the car getting ready my eyes just happened to fall on the dumpster in time to see a 300 odd pound bear climbing out. He walked a little bit away, but was standing on a small cliff above the stream.
He just wouldn’t leave, so we stood there telling him to beat it. He eventually gave up, but he was a bit stubborn. I wish people wouldn’t feed bears. They get pretty brave up that way. Where I come from you only have to yell at a bear once to get them to take off. Not this guy. I think he was pissed.
He finally climbed the cliff and we hit Slate. Maurice had called the BWO spinner fall to the minute, but I think the fish were full when we got there. We were short on time so we only fished from the Russ Mauwry hole down, and only saw a few fish.
We got back to the parking lot just in time for our buddy to be coming back down the cliff. I was feeling like our luck had been pushed enough, and this time he was coming towards us, not going away, and we couldn’t just get in the truck, so I grabbed a rock just in case. Like that would help. He patiently waited for us to leave, although he took a few steps to show us whose woods they really were. We then went down and hit Pine by the mouth, and each got one.
We got back to camp and Jay had to go home, so we got the night shift together. We were originally supposed to all meet up at the creek, but Mo led his tribe astray. Tom and I went where JackM had decided to go. We made the right call. It looked bleak when we got there, but come 7:30 the rain started. Then it was raining in the middle of a blizzard. Just about everything that had hatched that weekend was hatching right then and there. I got 5 and missed probably 10 on a size 12 Yellow Sally in about a half an hour. It was insane. It was the evening they write books about. We fished until well after dark, and were still a bit hesitant to leave, as they were still rising. These were all fairly big fish. I was amazed at the size on average. Here is a picture of TomGamber, JackM, and Brandon, way off in the distance. Beautiful scenery.
That night at camp I said my goodbyes and went to my tent and fell asleep to the sound of the rain. Beautiful night for sleeping. I got up around 6, got my stuff together, got a shower to warm up a bit and headed down the valley. Pine was a bit high and brown behind my tent, but I hoped if I got lower it would be up and cold, but not brown yet. Luck was on my side that day. As soon as I got to Blackwell I looked down and there was the Pine in her deep cool teal splendor. I headed to the spot Jay and I went the day before because there were some huge fish cruising the hole. On the way I saw this guy a few dozen yard up a trib. He looked very worn out and was above a 3 foot waterfall, so he was either caught and put there or had jumped it a few days earlier when it was hot and the creek was low. I’m not sure he made it, but I held him in the current for a good 20 minutes before I put him back where I found him to rest. It truly saddened me to see a fish that beautiful gasping for breath.
The creek had come up just enough that I couldn’t see them, and I think they were up in the riffles feeding, but I couldn’t get more than one strike, so I moved up stream. I stopped at a go-to hole where I always catch at least one rainbow, and sure enough caught exactly that. After that I was gonna grab lunch and head home but on a whim stopped a little further upstream. As soon as I got to the water I saw some rises and passed a few caddis. Tied on a stimulator and had a very similar time as the night before, only it was 74 and partly sunny, and at 2:30 in the afternoon. It was awesome. I missed a ton, and my heart jumped every time one would inspect/reject. I ended up with 5, all once again hefty fish, including this one with a really odd head.
Around 4:00 I grabbed some lunch and headed home still seeing rising trout in my head the whole way and recalling the events of the weekend. It is all a blur of fishing and friends and I’m glad I went. I woke up early the next day and fished all day before cutting the grass and going to band practice. I wish I was fishing today but alas work needs to be done, flies need tied, and I wanted to write this down before I forgot more details than I already have. Once again, it was great meeting everyone, and that means everyone. If I listed names I’m sure I’d miss one, and there’s not a person who was there that I would want to miss. Not one. Thank you all.
Boyer
