Ellis Ward Guide Service

Garret making every spot count...

Fished the absolute hell out of the big water on Saturday.

The fish came up through the surface, next to the boat, and toooooorched a meat dawg that Garrett was continuing to fish and pop around in a good spot, even though we were anchored.

When it doesn't happen exactly how you draw it up, words like "luck" get thrown around...but being in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing consistently...doesn't really sound, look, or feel like luck to me 🫣

Come on and get some!

Ethan and Dane throwing up the extremely rare alley-oop on this animal of a brown trout

Dane in the front seat gets swung on and says
"There's one there for ya", Ethan casts there from the tailgunner and plants the fish.

This was not long after is somewhat short-lived encounter with what would have been the biggest fish I have seen out of either of these Rivers. Thanks to a fly rod coming apart and fly line quickly wrapping up around the reel handle, the three of us get to live with that memory, and I'm pretty sure all of us are okay with it.

You boys were a blast to fish with and I'm looking forward to the next time.

Lil biscuit has been getting munched

We've left a few in there on recent trips that would make for better advertising, which is always the case with mousing.

Early June and we've already had more than a few heart stoppers...when the fishing is so focused on the auditory and the tactile, the good eats have their own unique fingerprint.

Sometimes it's the silence preceding the tense noises from rod and angler, as everything from fish to cork refuses to move. others are more obvious, with a low frequency to match the cavern creating the commotion, followed by the sounds and the feel of the ripples dampening, as the mouse swings back and forth between dropped jaws.

Most, hookset or not, are accompanied by some turns of phrases varying in theme - excitement, bewilderment, pride, denial, acceptance.

This game is up there with post spawn streamers and fishing for muskies.

Summer is young, but don't let the good moons pass you by - book a trip. Streamers, dry flies, then mousing after sunset.

🍹

Active night 🐭, and always a blast fishing with ya dude! Bart will be holding a slobbering demon of a brown trout in my boat soon.
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Trip information, for the unfamiliar (you can get a much better sense of things on YouTube at ):

We have a couple program options in place for the foreseeable future, which is more or less the next couple months:

Afternoon big water: predominantly streamer fishing and dry fly fishing. Both of these Rivers can have some fantastic hatches in the afternoon and evenings, yielding a lot of sight fishing to rising trout. In between stopping for risers, we are floating big water and fishing streamers for browns, and it is one of the most fun ways to fish I can think of.

Half Mousing: with the most predictable schedule of releases resulting in low water options on both Rivers at dark, one way to take advantage of how much fishing we can do here is to fort big water in the afternoon for 4 to 6 hours, then finish off our time in darkness, waking rodents and brown trout.

Double points for that wordplay.

Give me a call, text or visit elliswardflies.com to learn more and book your trip

Crafty nigh nigh time

Bill showing off with a 21" ambushing bank dweller

For the second half of the day, our streamer fishing has been even more tactical than it usually is - all of the intention and spot selection and casting/retrieving, etc. etc. is emphasized in low water.

The shots with the highest probability are generally in fast water, which comes with high gradient. What does this mean? You get one shot per spot, we're either in the middle of a chute or dropping into and out of pockets while you ignore that the boat is a few feet from boulders on boat sides, and the prime real estate requires a little sidearm action with an appetite for sniffing the rocks on the bank in between and under trees, bushes, and roots.

As much as I'll tell everyone to get risky, you also know that if you hang up in that root ball, the next few shots are blown along with the one you're trying to hit. Slowing down is the key, as it is almost always. Thoughtful ex*****on and intentional use of the fly rod results in both accuracy and speed, which are required when timing is so critical.

This is arguably the hardest way to catch fish with a fly rod, and it follows that it's the most fun, and rewarding.

Nice work dude!