I fished several times with my good friend Eric last year, even convinced him to [...]]]> I did quite a bit of fishing last year, but I didn’t write about it much. It was somehow refreshing. But now I’m beginning to feel the urge to write again, so maybe I just needed a good break.

I fished several times with my good friend Eric last year, even convinced him to give fly fishing a go, and I think he’s hooked. Eric just became a proud father, so his fishing will no doubt be curtailed a bit this year, but I think he’ll still get out there a few times. We took three trips to different spots in East Tennessee over the summer. First was a spot Eric had been on me to try for awhile. It basically amounts to a private stream across his dad’s property. I call it Eric’s Stream. Under normal conditions, it would be purely a warm water proposition. But, thanks to spill-over from a trout hatchery and a few cold springs, it contains a fairly healthy population of escaped rainbow trout, some of them reaching hefty sizes. We didn’t have incredible luck the day we fished it, but did manage to catch a handful of 13-17″ trout.

One of the trout we caught from Eric's trout stream.

Eric learning the cast a fly. I had just caught a nice trout on a wooly bugger just below where he's standing.

A group of us did a quick backpacking trip on National Forest land along a secluded stream a bit later in the summer. The fishing wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, but we caught a few. Eric got his first fly-caught trout. This particular stream had more hornet nests along it than I’ve ever seen in such a small area. In less than 2 miles of stream, we counted around a half dozen. You can see a real dandy in a shot with Eric below. This trip also included the apparently-necessary torrential downpour. It must have rained 3″. The creek nearly rose up to our tents. Typical TVangler fishing trip.

Note the hornet's nest in the lower right. Talk about being careful on your backcast!

Eric climbing through a tough stretch on a mountain stream.

Eric's first fly-caught mountain trout.

Eric fly fishing a pretty stretch of a mountain stream.

Finally, we visited the Hiwassee River for a couple days. Our first afternoon there, we received a good tip from Hiwassee.net founder Don Denney. We met him along the train tracks smoking his patented corncob pipe. Between us, Eric and I caught better than a dozen trout in a short time, all on dry flies! The next day began with the water very low with only slight current. The fish were very skittish in the low water, but we managed to catch a few. Then the generators came on, and we spent the remainder of the time exploring down in the trophy section, which I’ve never fished much. The catching down there was slow. Nonexistent in fact.

The Hiwassee River at low flow.

That’s about it for last year’s coverage. Itching to get out there and start a new year of memories. If it’ll ever stop raining. Take care,

Nathan

I came within seconds of letting TVangler die a quiet death. The bill for renewing my hosting services appeared in my gmail inbox, and I was just about to delete it. But I couldn’t. I’m not sure why. I haven’t done a [...]]]> That is if anyone out there is still awaiting anything from TVangler…

I came within seconds of letting TVangler die a quiet death. The bill for renewing my hosting services appeared in my gmail inbox, and I was just about to delete it. But I couldn’t. I’m not sure why. I haven’t done a thing with the site in quite awhile. But I just couldn’t let it die for some reason. So, I’ve resolved to begin posting again. We’ll see how it goes, but I’ve got to do something to justify the costs. First order of business, the Yellowstone write-up I promised 5 months ago…

Like many trips this one began with a minor disaster: the airline lost the bag containing our camping gear including tent, sleeping bags, camp chairs, etc. We scrambled to find replacements in Billings and found what we needed at Cabela’s and Walmart. If all had gone well, we would have arrived in Yellowstone around 4 PM, but instead we arrived around midnight.

The remainder of the trip went well, relatively speaking. We (meaning myself, wife Jacqulyn, sister-in-law Gina, brother Jonathan, and his wife Trish) spent a couple days as typical tourists, visiting the sites, hiking in the Tetons and even doing the Cowboy Cookout out of Roosevelt Lodge (which I thought would be unbearable, but which ended up being – and for some reason I’m ashamed to say this – pretty fun).

We experienced all the typical hardships like rain, cold (even a freak storm that brought a bit of everything including lightening, rain, hail and snow), hordes of biting bugs, heat, traffic jams and tough-to-catch fish. But we also experienced all the really great stuff like incredibly beautiful scenery, rewarding hikes, a few big fish, Moose Drool beer, big Western skies, and all that wonderful unpredictableness that comes with vacations. I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story.

My brother Jonathan and I spent the first morning on the Yellowstone River. There didn’t appear to be that many fish in the river, but we found a few risers. And did I mention that I managed to catch a nice one?

Jon stretches out some line on the Yellowstone River.

Yes, had to include another shot of my big trout from the Yellowstone River.

This was a common sight: buffalo jam. The two bison casually lead a 3 mile line of cars.

Grabbed this shot while driving up toward Dunraven Pass on the way back to camp after a day of fishing.

Moonrise from Mt. Washburn

We found tougher fishing on the Lamar River than we did in ’08, but we still found a few willing fish. The river was getting hammered by fishermen, and our normal spot was ground zero. Jacqulyn captured me fighting a decent fish.

That's me fighting a nice Lamar River cutt.

A Lamar River cutthroat.

We spent the majority of a day down in the Tetons sight-seeing and hiking. The scenery in the Tetons is spectacular. The trail to Hidden Falls is highly recommended. Insider tip: hike on up past the falls and into the mountain pass beyond. That’s where we saw the moose.

Jacqulyn looking across Jenny Lake toward the Tetons.

We walked right up on this big bull moose while hiking in the Tetons. Luckily he ignored us.

One day we stopped to fish a stream (which shall remain anonymous) that was supposedly good fishing for small cutthroats, but we found it to hold much larger fish. There were no other fisherman in sight, although we did see a few hikers, a few of which were carrying rods.

Jon fighting a good fish.

Jon landed this nice cutt from a stream where we didn't expect to catch much.

I happened upon this little family on a hike to Cascade Lake.

A family of ducks near Cascade Lake.

After the Cowboy Cookout we headed back to Canyon Campground over Dunraven Pass, and a storm began to gather off to the right. The temperature dropped nearly 30 degrees within 15 minutes. It began lightening, then raining, then hailing and finally it began to snow. Never thought I’d see a snowstorm in August, but that’s just what happened. Pretty cool.

This is the beginnings of a storm that would slam us as we crossed Dunraven Pass. It would include wind, lightening, rain, hail and snow!

Huge wet flakes of snow smash into our windshield as we try to make our way across Dunraven Pass.

On our last day of fishing, Jonathan landed a nice trout from one of the many lakes in Yellowstone Country. Lucky dog…

Jon's nice fish from one of Yellowstone's many lakes.

And that’s about it. Can’t wait to get back out there.

Regards,
Nathan