Ninth Place

This past weekend was the 24Th annual Jackson Hole One Fly, a fundraising event that takes place every year, the weekend after Labor Day. Forty teams of four compete over two days, floating on the Snake River, and the South Fork of the Snake, with the best guides in the region. Each day, the individual angler can use only one fly, and if you lose it, you are done for the day. The event raises over $100,000 each year for stream improvement projects in this area. Everyone wins with the One Fly. Over the past ten years, I have guided for this event for Jack Dennis. This year, I was asked to compete in it on team This Is Fly. I joined John Holland, Jon Wylie and Peter Chung on the water this weekend on our way to a ninth place finish...not too bad for our first year! I fished the Snake on Saturday from West Table to Sheep Gulch with guide Sean Clark, and we had a blast. My small brown chernobyl ant performed well, thanks to Sean's strong rowing skills. Sunday, I was guided by Worldcast Angler guide Kasey Collins; he had me fish his own creation: Kasey's Creature, a large dry fly that I drifted all day over big fish water. I had an even better day on Sunday scoring twice as many points on the Upper South Fork. It was a great weekend...thanks to everyone! The last few days leading up to the event on the Snake were tough. The fishing was getting very spotty, with many fish refusing flies in the bright conditions. Finally, some cloud cover arrived on Sunday. I think that this helped my day on the South Fork. Today was rainy to start, and fairly cloudy all day. The fishing on Moose to Wilson today was much better than it has been. Mahoganies and drakes netted us the nicer fish, while large attractors moved many smaller fish. More rain is forecast tonight and tomorrow, which should help the fishing. Look for fishing conditions to kick into high gear locally as we get nastier weather this month. Don't forget to visit my link list below, and click on The Jackson Hole One Fly and This Is Fly link. Stay tuned!