What the best Fly Fishing Trip you have Been On?

[Brandon]

Yea, it's cold and we had snow today in Easton:eek: I have my ticket booked to head to Florida and then to the Bahamas on Monday, this cold weather is for the birds. So sitting here with the fire going I was thinking of what is the best fishing trip I have taken outside the Chesapeake is and what others might say.

For me my best trip was to the Seychelles Islands which is about 1500 miles off the coast of Africa. The fish were big, but it was as much about the adventure of it all that made it exciting. We took a flight from Dulles Airport to Paris. Stayed in Paris a night and then took another 8 hour flight to Mahe which is the capital of the Seychelles. We stayed there for 2 days to get used to the time change, I think 12 hours, and then took a charter flight another 2 hours to the Alphonse Island. Just getting there was an adventure. Once there it was ttally wild. We would get up early and take a 45minute or hour ride on a catamaran to an atoll where the flats boats were and fish. We were literally in the middle of the Indian Ocean with another another person around for hundreds of miles. The tides were 6ft, the sharks were big, lemons to about 5ft that would bump your legs while fishing, ran into a tiger shark while wading up to our waists/my chest one day with the boat anchored 30 minutes away. Not a huge deal the tiger was only about 12 feet long:eek2::eek::eek2: Scariest thing I have every experienced:wacko: The bonefish averaged 6-8lbs with many 10,11 and 12 and we saw bigger but could not catch them in the surf. There were milkfish and all sorts of bait and other fish. It was totally wild.

On the way home we went through London. From Mahe to London I got food poisoning from a buffet we had on the night we left mahe which made for the most miserable 9+ hours of my entire life. Recovered in London and slept from there home. I was dead for about a week between the time change and food poisoning.

But it was one was one of the top trips I have ever been on. I have had some other good trips out west fishing the snake, the Bahamas for bones and I would put fishing out of Kiptopeke the last two years for Stripers up there on the list of amazing fishing. I think the adventure of the more distant trips make it a little bit more interesting then just the fish if you know what I mean.

Soooooo, give it to us, what is your favorite place/fly fishing trip?

Brandon

[Barracuda48]

I fished at Coopers Minipi Lake Lodge in Labrador last August For Brook trout. What made the trip so special to me was that I was the only angler in the system that week. They have 4 lodges that will accomodate 32 anglers and for various different reasons (economy, cancellations, etc.) I was there by my lonesome. I had three different guides at my disposal and a cook. One day, they brought the float plane in from Goose Bay and flew myself and 2 of the guides to another lodge to check out the fishing there. And oohh for the fishing... During the week I landed 11 brook trout over 5 pounds. The top three were 7 pounds 4 oz, 7 pounds 12 oz and 8 pounds. Most were caught on large mouse patterns on 6 pound tippet. It was truly a trip that could never be repeated.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q82/Barracuda48/100_1840.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q82/Barracuda48/fatboy.jpg

[Brandon]

WOW, now that sounds and looks like a great trip!!!!!

[Capt Bob]

well lets see...I'm sitting here in my t shirt...doors open, breeze is blowing about 5 off the gulf...
best fly trip...I used to live in No NJ and would drive up and fish the Beaverkill and Willowemoc a lot with spin and fly
was working the big pool where the two rivers join and three guys came up from behind and sat on the bank and watched me work the pool with a small spinner...one offered me his fly rod as mine was in the car...and a hatch had just started...caught 3 nice browns which I released, then left the pool to the three returning the rod to it's owner, I sat and watched them for over an hour and a half...they worked the area like masters...catching and releasing a good number of fish
they came out and sat next to me and chatted and shared a couple of flasks with me...I had just returned from 4 yrs overseas in the Army and we talked about many things besides fishing...when we got ready to leave they introduced them selves...

A.J. McClane....Joe Brooks....Lefty Kreh...

I'd say it was memorable

[Wild Bill]

Brandon-

Most of the guided trips I have taken out of the country have been adventures and we have caught fish on all of them. The best fishing I have ever experienced was on my boat in the good ole USA.

The striper fishing in NC out of OI four years ago in winter was incredible. We had a school of fish three miles long and thousands of diving gannets all day long. The fish meter was loaded with fish on the bottom and suspended fish too. Huge fish were rolling on top. It was a great time for the fly rod and I caught my largest striper on a fly at 46" and 40 pounds. Big Fish Bob caught a 48" 48 pound fish on a white bass assassin the same day. No it was not an exotic location but it would be hard to fathom better fishing anywhere in the world. There were no small fish on that trip. It was similar to what we experienced out of Kipto the past two years but the school was much larger and more dense. The fish averaged much bigger than any where else in my experience. Most were over 30 pounds. I saw some that had to be well over 50 pounds but smaller 30 to 40 pound got to our flies first. My buddy that day caught some nice fish but was fishing a fly that was much too small. The bait was 10" and bigger menhaden.

I do not ever expect to see that again. Yes, the striper fishing is still good. Yes, you can still catch over 100 fish per day; but that trip was incredible for the size of the school and the size of the fish.

Although guys do not like to hear it, each year the schools get smaller and the average size of the fish gets smaller. The big fish are being hit too hard all up and down the coast by recs and comms to have fishing like that again in my lifetime. If you say that on a fishing message board, someone always says you just do not know how to locate fish or catch fish. That may be, but I know what I have experienced and the stripers are in decline.

[tightloop101]

My most favorite place to fish is the one that I am fishing at the time I am out. I have fished in several destinations some in the US and others not. I feel that the finest place is the one that I am in at the time. All my memories are the ones that I have of the scenery and just being there, don't get me wrong the fishing is important but just being there is the bottom line for me. Having said that, I feel that my most memorable place to fish is the one that I am at.:yes:

[Head Hunter]

Alaska....fished the Alagnak river and surounding areas for over a week last year. Tons of bald eagles and bears everyday.......Cought rainbows on every cast.....up to 27 inches. Used egg patterns to get warmed up.....then switched to big meaty leach patterns for the larger trout. Also would find a silver salmon hole each day and catch a bunch and keep one for dinner and/or lunch....its seemed to rain each day at 5:30/6pm...did not reallynotice or care cuase everything so beautiful...and having the right gear helps too.:cool:

[gus]

took a month and a half to cross back from california to virginia. fished, hiked back country in a lot of our national parks. yosemite, kings canyon, tahoe, 2 weeks camped on the banks of the snake/hoback rivers or up in the tetons (that was awesome!), yellowstone, glacier (1 week), finally ended up on the south holston and watauga rivers in se tennessee. glacier was the most scenic, snake river area between jackson hole and yellowstone was incredible. wake up every day to mist coming off the river and bald eagles sitting in the trees. ive fished a lot in ny/vermont/maine/new hampshire too but they dont compare. snake river was the best. most days i never saw another person - the way i like it. id like to explore more in glacier area - i did more hiking than fishing there. got some friends who do the black foot in missoula every year and swear by it. havent made that one yet.

[Bo_G]

Flight schedule from a business trip to Naples Florida allowed for a half day in the 10,000 Islands. In the first 30 minutes had a 36 in snook and a 26 in red. The Capt said "do you realize you are 2/3 the way to an Everglades Grand Slam?"

My response: "Well break out the 14wt!" Spent the next three hours spooking tarpon almost the size of the boat!:D Never got my grand slam, but it sure was interesting throwing a 14wt.

Bo

[Jeffrey Rasband]

Capt. Bob,

Thats one hell of a story! I was fishing the san juan river with Jim Teeny but it just wasn't the same.

[kwk]

My favorite trips have always been those closest to home. Best was at a secret little urban stream within spitting distance of DC in which after 20 minutes of trying to get the perfect drift I caught a 15" smallie. It was a rocky run about 3' wide and this guy had found a hole about 6' deep that was almost impossible to fish. I couldn't believe a fish that size was in this creek.

[ko]

Has to be the remote west side of Andros in the Bahamas. One hundred thirty five pound tarpon on a fly. Fish of a lifetime.

[Salmo trutta]

As for me..... 17 year cicada hatch on the North Branch of the Potomac a few years ago. I thought I was only going to do a quick day trip but ended up staying a couple nights in the back of my tiny trailblaizer. Got into all types of trouble with work and wife but it was well worth it.


Or Belize, Amergris Cay. Courtney and I went on our second trip there but this time was busier, more expensive and peak holiday season. The wind blew pretty hard the entire time. I begged and pleaded for a tarpon trip. We booked through our hotel for a FLY FISHING trip and ended up reef fishing inside the reef for 5" snapper. Eventually we talked him into working the docks and settled or bones. Then we did another trip for tarpon with a proper guide but the wind kicked up and we settled for bones again. The next day was our last day and we had plans for an inland jungle tour that we both wanted to do. But the weather was forecasted to be perfect. Courtney made the call to cancel our jungle tour and the tarpon flats was our choice again. First group of fish had to be 12 or 20 strong coming straight at me. I saw them set up in line but they cut straight accross our bow and I lost them in the sun. I already had three or four false casts in and the guide said "NOW NOW" so I let it go and hoped like heck it got near my target. It was perfect, just infront of the lead fish. Two strips later I was bowing to my king and not just once like my previous tarpons trips prior. After several bows I had him boat side and it was just awesome. Courtney even jumped one with the spinning rod and I jumped three more that day with a shot at permit too. On the way back we got caught in the mother of all storms and I had to look back a few times just to make sure the captain was still on the tiller. But we made it home safe. One heck of an adventure.

[wils]

Tough to say-

Might be the one when I scooped an emerging green drake out of the water to show my fishing buddy's novice fisherwoman wife what we meant when we talked about hatches. It crawled right out of the husk and unfolded its wings on the tip of my finger 6 inches from her nose. My friend told me later he had been trying to get her interested in fishing but had never seen real interest from her until that moment. Later that day I netted what he told me was the biggest trout he had ever caught, a 28" unbelievably fat hen rainbow. Oh and I had a great day on browns too.

Could be the fishiest single day of trout fishing I've ever had-over 50 fish, none less than 12 inches, consecutive fish on 13 casts at the end of the day. After I landed the thirteenth in a row it had gotten silly so I just walked out without another cast.

Could be the backcountry trip I took with an old high school buddy in Wyoming. I drove through the night from CO to meet him in the Wind River Range in Wyoming as he was moving to OR from the East Coast. On the hike in I lined the only wild grayling I've ever seen and sent him scurrying. We continued hiking up to some backcountry lakes, caught brookies for 2 days out of lakes above treeline. We came back the same way and I found the same grayling in the same pool and got him on the first cast.

But I think it would have to be the first date with my current girlfriend. She said she wanted me to take her fishing so we hammered rockfish in Eastern Bay one afternoon. Later she told me that the way I concentrated on fly fishing made her think I was worth getting to know better. We've been together almost seven years now. Yeah, that's it.

[bchipps]

Any time I fish with my son.

[piledriver]

Two of my passions are fly fishing and travel. Everytime I leave the country for travel I bring a general assortment of flies, a few leaders, and two rods (Sage Xi2 8 wt. and an old Sage 5wt.)

Me and my rods have been through Australia, SE Asia, Central America, South America, Italy, and Croatia.

Best catching trip: My first and only bonefishing trip. Spring '07 in South Andros, Bahamas. Between drinking pints of rum in a sand floor bar with the only pool table on S. Andros, and catching dozens of bonefish including one around 6lbs, the trip was an adventure with two good friends that I will never forget.

Most exotic species: Golden Dorado in Corrientes, Argentina. In the cold Argentine winter and the off-season for Dorado I managed to outfish the two other baitfisherman 2-1. We ate fresh cooked Dorado, Catfish, and Piranha like fish riverside with Malbec wine, delectable. The fight was akin to saltwater stripers, but in skinny freshwater, phenomenal. If you ever meet me in person I can tell you the post fishing adventure involving a fish we kept on ice and travelled with for over 30hrs. on our way to Mendoza wine country.

Hardest to get to fish(single fish): Brown trout Ushuia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. A early winter snow storm closed all roads leaving Ushuia, the southernmost point in the Americas. I had hoped to chase browns down there, but couldn't get to any of the lodges or potential access points. Fortunately, I met a guide in an Irish pub, who was out of work because of the weather and offered to forge through the closed roads with me, his brother, and trusty Land Rover. After passing a police checkpoint and disregarding the advice not to travel the roads we made it to a small glacier fed creek. With little in the way of cold weather gear and no waders we got wet feet and fished a few unfrozen deep water pockets. Four hours of fishing later, when the guides had left for the warmth of the truck I managed one 12in. Brown trout. Well worth the adventure.

Most unique fishing experience: unknown fingerlings, Laos. While reading a little Hemingway from a hammock along a tributary of the Mekong I witnessed some young local men crawling along the banks of the river. They were using flexible sticks to gently place small bugs on the end of three feet of line on the currents edge. I watched them and ended up joining in the hunt. At one point, one of the men donned goggles and floated through the river pointing out the locations of fish as he drifted. None of the quarry was over four inches long and all went to the dinner table. At another point on this adventure I asked my trekking guide if fishing was allowed and you would have thought I was talking about illicit drugs. He pulled me aside and explained to me the local tribes highly protected their waters and that "fishing" was not advised. However, once he determined that I was to use a strange 9ft. contraption of graphite and string rather than dynamite he thought it would be allowed.

Travel Fishing must do's: Russia and Mongolia for taimen and trout. I am talking about chucking groundhogs at loch-ness monsters.
The Seychelles: anyone looking to go or organizing a trip please notify me. Mostly for bones and hopefully a battle with a GT.
Ocean Rockfish off of Virginia: like the ones Bill and Brandon caught this year.
Taking a swordfish on fly out of Virginia, can it be done?

All in all though: my best day of fly fishing was for stripers this year at the CBBT, almost 100 fish in a day between two anglers, all flies tied by myself.

Great post idea Brandon!!

[piledriver]

pic of a bone...need to pull others from flash drive

[mike cozzens]

Great Thread!

I have not traveled much. In fact, I bet it's been been 3 years since I caught a fish outside the state of VA, and that was out of Hatteras.

I'm torn between two. One was the 7 years I spent living in Jackson Hole shortly after college. If I think too much about all the incredible days I had out there, I might cry. Those of you who have spent time out there know what I mean. There is something out there that must be felt to understand. In fact, the last time I walked off of Flat Creek, (I was was leaving town for good the next day) I was crying like I had just seen the end of Old Yeller!

Also tied for first was the trip I took 5 years ago to Belize. I went with my Dad and had an incredible time. He landed a big permit, I broke off two. We caught tarpon, bones, and a whole host of other fish like 'cuda. We fished the Placencia area. Everything was perfect. The locals were great, the food was marvelous, the weather was calm and warm and I was fishing with my favorite fishing buddy. When I got home, I had a newborn healthy baby girl waiting for me. Yes, you read that correctly. My wive went into labor a month early and delivered while I was frantically trying to get back to Virginia Beach! True story. So if you are going to Belize, I have two tips for you. The first is that It's real easy to choke while casting at a Permit. The second is, Don't go if you wife is expecting.

Mike

[Barefoot]

I don't fly fish much, but my best trip was to a friend's campsite.

Because our friends don't fish, I had to figure it out on my own.

I asked at the shop where I bought a license, and they told me which flies to buy.

I walked into the water about 20' from the tent and started casting.

Didn't take long to figure out what made the fish bite, and I was having a blast with rainbows jumping every 10 minutes or so.

We saw several float boats go by with guides, and never saw one catch a fish. Either the fly shop hooked me up with something the guides didn't know about, or I had incredible beginner's luck.

I didn't know much about the river until I looked it up when I got home. Henry's Fork.

Here's an action shot:

http://www.myfishingpictures.com/data/543/929idaho1.jpg

[Albiechaser]

Saltwater:
December 2005, Cape Lookout, NC. Had a great solo day of chasing Albies going on, landed about 20 in 6 hours. Up in about 3ft of clear warm water, near an exposed hump of sand at low tide, and was leading a fat 18lb Albie when a pod of Bluefin crashed on the Albies. One bumped my Albie out of the way and swiped my fly. I thought I had the mother of all Albies on until it streaked by the boat and almost hit the trolling motor and I saw it was a juvie Bluefin.. It streaked off to the SSE and I had to pull the trolling motor and crank up the outboard. I followed that fish out to Northwest Places before I had it somewhat under control. Played the circle dance in 50ft of water and with a final quick cut into the circle, I had it up against the side of my boat, hand gaffed the lower jaw and popped out the fly. I estimated the tuna around 130 and on a 10wt, that ain't too shabby. Glad I had put a fresh spool of 400yds of 50lb Battle Line braid on the night before.

Freshwater:
August 1993, river name withheld, Northeast Alabama. Fishing with my best friend from high school, we were wet wading for Redeye (Coosa) bass. Sneaking around in camo with my 3wt, I crouched behind a rock when I saw a flash up ahead in the pool above me. I casted my fly down stream to get the proper distance for a single shot at the fish. I turned, aimed at the spot to drop my fly and fired out... with a soft plop, my sneaky pete landed just past the rock where I saw that fish. I let it sit until the rings disapated. Twitch, twitch, pause and just when I began the second set of movement, it got slammed. I tightened down and stood up to 2 1/2lbs of pure freshwater fury on the end of my line. Sure, it isn't a Bluefin , a bull Red, or a Tarpon, but for a tiny stream nestled in southern Appalachia where you have to bushwhack miles into wilderness, just to see this stream, it was a real treat. These fish don't get big, but they more than make up for it with gusto. These are not Rock bass either. These are a small species of black bass related to smallmouth, spots, and shoal bass, a whole different fish than the Rock bass that my VA buddies call redeyes. They obviously haven't tangled with one of the hardest fighting bass species out there...

[Bob G]

Lots of good trips, many made by a single fish I had to work hard for. But probably what will stick with me longest is a September trip to the Penobscot River in Maine with a college buddy. It was probably my 4th or 5th trip there, and the smallmouth fishing was incredible every year! This was during the late 1980s, and most Mainers still considered smallmouth trash fish. We had many 40-60 fish days, and the fish REALLY averaged close to 2.0 lbs, with at least a couple 3-4 lb fish expected every day.

Both of us used spinning tackle during those early trips, but one year I carried a fly rod. Didn't use it until the 3rd day, when the fish just turned off at dusk. Usually they were hitting anything that moved at that time of day, especially topwaters, but not this day. So, I pulled out the 7 wt. with a white popper, figuring what the heck, and second cast had a 2 lb + fish wallop it. Biggest fish I had caught on a fly up till then. For the next hour, every other cast I had a big smallie on. That trip set the fly hook deep into me. I dreamt about those fish blasting those poppers for weeks after!

[FFWanabe]

Watching my grandson catch his first landlock salmon on the Fish River in Maine on a elk hair caddis he tied himself.