With Granny’s shoulder surgery only three weeks away and me fishing the Jackson Hole One Fly this weekend then heading straight for the Amazon, we decided to do some old fashion car camping. What I mean by this is, find a cool place that has some fishing but break out the Yeti chairs to relax more than fish. This means cook a meal, fish awhile, have a beer then cook another meal. I let Granny chose the location and she chose Blackfoot Reservoir.
We arrived Monday night and fished some Tuesday and a little Wednesday morning before heading home. There’s no chance Granny will make a cast for at least 6 months but for now she can get around. She walked the banks while I wadered up and stalked the flats for carp. It was extremely windy over Labor Day weekend and unfortunately despite being calm for our days, the lake was stirred up so bad we could hardly spot a single carp.
I’m not too selective in the species I fish for so when the carp fishing was a loss I blind casted a streamer given to me by young fly tier last year at the Marlboro Fly Fishing Show. Although it didn’t find me a carp I caught several of the aggressive little Utah chubs.
The carp fishing wasn’t bad for all. This garter snake certainly found one. Garter snakes are very adapted to fishing and this one had himself a mouthful of mirror carp that took him a few hours to finally swallow down.
It was the exact weekend Granny and I both hoped for. This was likely Granny’s last trip of the year. Her surgery takes place September 24 and from what we hear she will be miserable for about six weeks followed by months of therapy. For me, I’m fishing the One Fly this weekend for the first time in a few years. Then Monday I head down to fish the Marie River in the Brazilian Amazon with my friends from Untamed Angling. I’ll be back just in time for Granny.
Be ready for some fun blogs on the way!