By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

With a lack of water on the upper Big Hole, our high hopes of landing some bruiser trout faded quickly. Fish were rising on the occasion, but they were confined to a deep, slow stretch near the Squaw Creek Bridge. That water gave them plenty of time to study our flies as they passed overhead. We lost a few on black caddis, but the bite wasn't consistent enough for us to stick around. So we high-tailed it out of Wisdom and rolled into Hamilton just in time to use the last light of the day to try and score on the main stem of the Bitterroot. Since it was Sunday, no fly shops were open for info, so we shot from the hip and ended up cashing in with tan caddis on a fast stretch of river just up the road from our motel. The rise didn't start until around 9:30 and lasted well into dark. Mark turned this chunky brown trout at 10:00 sharp with a short roll that put his fly just a few feet from where he was... [ Read Full Post ]

By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

Tim's post on the Felt Soul videos prompted me to watch "The Hatch" again ... which started me daydreaming about salmonflies ... which got me thinking about "religious experience" bug events. You know, insects raining from the sky, waters parting with trout wakes ... the moments that ruin you, and transform you into a trout bum forever.

My top 10 "religious experience" bug events in America:

1. Salmonflies. Early-mid June, Gunnison Gorge, Colorado. 20-inch fish hammer 2-inch dry flies, sometimes before they hit the surface. 'Nuff said. The Big Hole and Rock Creek in Montana are also epic salmonfly rivers.

2. Hexagenia. Mid-late June, western Michigan. Giant bugs fill the night sky ... you fish into night, and when you lose light, blind cast by sound at gulps and splashes. Mmmmmm.

3. Green Drakes. Early August, Frying Pan River, Colorado. Wait until the monsoon rains start in the afternoon, then boogie to the river and wait for the armada to float downstream. With their wings up, they look like tiny sailboats ... until they get crushed by trout.

4. The "Smolt Bust." Mid June, Naknek River, Alaska. Fine ... it's not a... [ Read Full Post ]

By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

The last two weeks have provided some exceptional fly fishing in Northern California. The Lower Sacramento River in Redding, Ca. has been flowing between 13,000 and 15,000 cfs, typical summer flows, and the drift fishing for large, colorful, rainbows has been very good. Twenty to forty fish days are common with the average size rainbow going over 16 inches. Smaller nymphs such as caddis pupae and micro mayflies are producing in the upper drifts with stonefly nymphs and large rubber legs producing in the
lower drifts.

A little closer to home our central valley rivers have provided some incredible days on the Stanislaus and Mokelumne Rivers. Nymph fishing has been very good but the dry fly fishing and streamer fishing have been epic. My clients have had days of up to 75 trout with fish up to 23 inches coming on dry flies and streamers producing wild rainbows up to six pounds.

One of our most successful streamer patterns this season has been the bonefish slider saltwater pattern. Fished with a 250 grain streamer express line with 2x to 3x tippet this fly pattern as enticed big rainbows as well as striped bass in the same water. Just last week I had two... [ Read Full Post ]

By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

Editor's Note: Joe Cermele (in the first photo below) is an associate editor at Salt Water Sportsman, one of our sister publications. He's writing an article on this trip for Field & Stream's print magazine, and we conned him into sending us regular updates for this blog from the road.

What do you get when you send two East Coast trout bums to Montana to fish as many rivers as they can for seven days on $300 a day for food, flies, fuel and lodging? I can tell you as I type this at 11 p.m. from a motel room in Wisdom, Montana, that you get the road trip of a lifetime, but for the price of feeling like you haven't slept in weeks. My good friend Mark Wizeman and I are headed into day three of this trek, and we'll get up...again...before first light to get on the river and intercept the first risers of the day. Tomorrow it's the Big Hole, and as we have for the last few days, we'll end up fishing until dark en route to our next location. Draining, but well worth it.

Day one found us in West Yellowstone, where we fished the Upper Madison... [ Read Full Post ]

By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

Fishing here on Nantucket has done nothing but improve. With the week-long blow long behind us and a stable air mass the fish have moved in almost everywhere. Nantucket harbor is fishing well and I have had several reports of good size fish there. On the West End the sight/flats fishing has opened wide up; this past week Jaime Rantanen from PA landed 12 stripers up to 17 pounds and pulled hooks on 3 others. Dan Zemann of NY landed a nice 40 incher (22 1/2 pounder) along with 3 other nice fish a few days ago, and managed 8 today all ranging from 29 to 36 inches, and Jim Beasley of Florida landed several nice fish with a personal best on fly of 34 inches. The rips have exploded with squid so we took a "store" trip out yesterday morning and were doubling and tripling up with stripers ranging from 30 inches to 37 inches; not as big as the report I had from the previous day but all nice fish. Capt Shawn Bristow has been getting into some fish up to 43 inches in the rips.

[ Read Full Post ]

By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

The weather gods have smiled upon us here in the Keys the past couple of weeks. Light winds, hot temperatures and afternoon storms have finally made it start to feel like summer in Key West. The fishing has responded. I have been solely focusing on tarpon and have been finding a good number of fish laid up in backcountry basins and cruising the Atlantic fish lanes. In addition, we have seen sporadic shrimp and guppy hatches where the tarpon have been feeding with gusto in the early mornings. One thing to try when the wind drops and the fish get spooky, try putting away the 12-weights and pick up a 10-weight rigged with a long leader. The lighter line can definitely make the difference between casting to a ton of fish and hooking some of them. Hopefully this good weather and good fishing will continue as we move into July. [ Read Full Post ]