Fly Fishing and Backpacking
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Backpacking and fly fishing are two pastimes that go well together. I did quite a bit of trail crunching to find fish until a few years ago. While I still fish as a solitary pursuit, I don’t just backpack. I enjoy camping, I enjoy hiking, but to put together a weekend or week’s worth of equipment and provisions, that can easily be shouldered, just to tromp to a destination solely for the purpose of pitching a tent and boiling lots of water doesn’t appeal to me much at all. I want to have something to do once I reach an end point; for that, fishing is perfect.
Some of my fondest memories are linked to such trips. There was a time in the third meadow on Slough Creek that one of my best friends, my youngest brother, and I were forced to retreat to our tent due to a sudden thunderstorm/flash flood/wind event that lasted most of the afternoon and well into the evening. For hours we sat against the tent wall shoring it from winds that buckled the poles and threatened to blow us across the meadow floor like sagebrush. During a brief lull, and exhausted, bored, and starving–and breaking several park rules and laws of common sense, we dashed to our bear bag, grabbed a stove and some food and cooked a quick meal inside the vestibule. Later that night, after the storm had subsided, we were jolted from our rest by a loud snorting and some wild animal raising the rainshield by stuffing its snout under the vestibule.
There was a trip to Yosemite where we bushwhacked from lake to alpine lake, often through waist high snow, looking for brook trout. Steeple casting from scree to two story house sized boulders and watching trout rise a dozen feet to take a size 14 hares ear nymph. Another trip at 8,000 feet when a night of talking around a campfire and sipping single malt scotch from a Nalgene bottle turned into the worst hangover of my life, and the next morning, the most miserable six miles of hiking I have ever had. A time that I found a five dollar bill in the middle of Alaskan muskeg. Most aren’t life changing or prophetic memories, but memories that often make bad days tolerable.
Anyone else enjoy both pursuits and have anything they would like to share. There is still five hours before the Super Bowl.
Bryan
Bryan,
Thanks for posting…..we have a lot in common. This August will be by ninth time traversing the Yellowstone backcountry with pack and pole. I have a few stories about my encounters with Ursis Horriblus as well. I am happy to say that neither the bears nor myself were injured during these meetings 🙂 3rd Meadow is one of my favorites places. Two summers ago I did a cross-country (with a shuttle) from the mouth of Pebble Creek to 3rd Meadow and then back down to the Lamar. Beautiful scenery and great fishing! I want to explore the area above Silvertip and Frenchy’s Grave! This summer I plan to hike/fish the Bechler drainage. Have you fished it?
I’ve backpacked/flyfished most of the Great Smoky Mountain N.P. and enjoy that as well. Last summer I did 3 weeks in AK….and boy was that an adventure!
Anytime you need a partner, shoot me an email. I’m into lightweight backpacking now and can honestly say that I can do a 5-day trip with a 35 pound pack. I plan to whittle that down a little more this summer when I ditch the tent and go to a silnylon tarp (8 ounces versus 3 lbs.)!
Anyhow….thanks for the story….and let’s go hiking!
Drifter
I live for the backpacking fishing trip! These pictures are from a trip that I took with some old college roomates two years ago in the Beartooths. Our base camp was at just over 10,000 feet at a lake named Jasper Lake. The fishing was good and there were a lot of nice sized Yellowstone cutthroat in this and near by lakes. I fished every morning and every evening. Spent the days climbing peaks. (We bagged 3 peaks over 12,000 ft in three days!) The memories from this trip will remain with me forever!
Moosedog
Moose….thanks for the pics. Ain’t nothing like it is there? I’ve awakened in the morning to find a herd of elk outside my tent…..and remember one morning when I heard a gosh awful racket….only to unzip the tent flap to see a flock of sandhill cranes. Sitting around the campfire at night….listening to the wolves and coyotes howl is neat as well!
Just curious…..when you fish backcountry lakes….do you carry in a float tube? I want to hike in to Heart Lake this summer….but am a little leery of strictly wading the lake….lots of marshy areas 🙁
Drifter I have packed in a float tube on several occations, but it all depends on how long I am staying and how much gain in elevation there is along the way.
I grew up in the town where Gary LaFontaine use to live and he took his float tube everywhere! I use to use a pack goat to do his dirty work though and the older I get the more that sounds like a really good idea! 🙂 If you have never packed one in I would highly reccomend doing it at least once. There is nothing more peaceful in this world then being in the middle of a high mountain lake fly fishing in your float tube. You will experience peace like you have never felt before.
Moosedog
This is something that I love to do. Blending these sports/hobbies is incredible. You can have so much fun and see so much more of the country. I plan on exploring more of GSMNP this summer and hiking some of the Virginia Creeper Trail and enjoying some of the waters along the way.
Thank you for posting this.
It’s pretty cool to read that so many on the board enjoy both so much. We should put together a long weekend trip to Eagle or Hazel Creeks, for those of us living in the SE. I would still like to organize a Spring car camping to Elkmont or the Hiwassee. Both have advantages. The Hi fishes very well from late March until the rafters take over in mid-May. I believe it is one of the most beautiful rivers anywhere. It also offers several good day long floats for those with boats, canoes, pacs, and float tubes. Elkmont is great because–it’s just great.
Moosedog, thanks for posting the pics. I’m attaching a few that I’ve taken while in the backcountry. The first two were made with a cheap Polaroid.
Somewhere in the Sierra
Deer in camp, Pebble Creek
Elk on the bank of the Madison
Camp in Sierras
Bison at Hellroaring Creek
Buddy eating instant pudding, shore of Ostrander Lake.Bryan
Splitshot….I plan to fish Pebble Creek in August….my second time fishing this stream….and to quote Forrest, “That’s all I’m gonna say about that!”
Would love to do something in GSMNP or Hiwassee. I live in Nashville, so they are both quick trips for me.
Drifter,
I’ve hiked and fished Pebble just the one time. It is beautiful and scenery and the fishing warrants another trip.
I live in Nashville and used to make about three trips to the Hiwassee each year, usually December, March or April, and again in September. I used to camp at Quinn Springs, and I still prefer it to the other camping areas, but it began to get too much night time traffic to make me feel I, or my things, were really safe. The Outfitter is good because it is somewhat monitored, right on the river, and they have those cold showers to look forward to at the end of the day–as part of the cost of admission.
Would you want to look at a weekend in early April for the caddis, Hendrickson, and bwos? We could throw out a date, keep it informal, and make it an all comers are welcome?
Splitshot
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