Aaron Otto
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Earlier this year, I was on my way out to a very remote lake in the White Mountains here in Arizona. This same area has reportedly made the news many times nationally for Bigfoot sightings. Unrelated to the story, but an interesting fact none the less. The body of water sits 56 miles inside a national forest, all of which is unpaved. The later 12 miles is mostly old forest road with very little travel if any. Unkempt and rocky, a hazard to anything rubber and inflatable. (Tires- guys- get your mind out of the gutter). The plan was to meet up with friends to photograph, while fishing, for a short destination piece on the water for a regional magazine. Somewhere around mile 37 or so I swerved to not hit this elk.
Please note as a disclaimer – All photos are bad, I either took these through the window of my truck or in complete disgust at the day. I recognize how poor quality they are, and apologize.While swerving, I drove smack over a football size rock. An awful hissing sound told me how bad it really was. The start of my day, was going to involve changing a tire. After digging out the jack and lifting the truck, I looked at my watch, 815am, and cracked a beer. Less than twenty seconds after my first sip, I watched my jack implode as the head slipped back down into the body. The entire truck sank 8 inches, my heart much further.
After further inspection, it was obvious that all the seals on the Jack had been blown. I had a decision to make. With a car full of gear and a cooler full of food, I could stay the night and hope someone comes by. Or hike out to an intersection that is frequently traveled by Fish and Game, and anglers alike, the downside was, according to the map, it was 15 miles from my current location. I choose the later, and after gearing up a daypack with everything I needed for a four hour hike I was off. GPS in hand, leaving a digital breadcrumb path back to my stranded vehicle in case anything happened. Close to 2:15PM I came across a Game and Fish Truck driving a lone dirt road with a very strange, UHF – like antenna on its roof. I flagged the driver down and explained my situation. He had a Hi-Lift and offered to help me out. At that moment, I marked a waypoint on the GPS, it said 11.6 miles.
During our ride back to my wounded Rover, we got to talking about his role at Arizona’s Game and Fish department. He explained to me he was a scientist who was studying wolves. The crazy antenna on he had was part of a setup to locate the collard Mexican Wolves in the area. We chatted back and forth, and he mentioned he had not made contact with the pack all day.
As we turned down the fire road four miles from my truck, the speaker attached to his CB radio made a familiar ping. Similar to old WWII movies where submarines would pick up enemy ships on their radar. The closer we got to my truck, the more pings we heard. With a sneaky suspicion of what the pings meant I finally asked him what they were.
He confirmed my fears, the closer to my truck’s locatin, the shorter the duration between pings. By the time we had pulled up to my vehicle there was a constant ‘PING’, PING, ‘PING’. His words not mine,
“Don’t worry, wolves are harmless. The pinging mean there within 500m of us, that is plenty of space.”
Why he’s trying to quell my fears, I’m thinking this guy is nuts. Wolves are harmless? Those F#ckers were hunting me. Why else would they be around my truck out here in the middle of nowhere?
Anxiously we jacked up the car, swapped in the spare and snapped one picture for memory sake.
We shook hands and parted ways. I wrote a very nice thank you letter to AZ Game and Fish, extending my gratitude to their scientist. I never did see a wolf that day. However, I swear to you at the price of burning in Hell, the cover of the local paper a week later featured an article about high school kids getting chased by wolves in the town marking the turn off from the freeway to the dirt road that I was on. A younger child was mauled less than a week later and they had to hunt most of the pack down.
Sounds good can everyone who wants to participate PM me their mailling address, home and cell # along with pattern they will tie. We’ll leave the joining period open for a week, or ten participants which ever comes first.
Dates are as follows;
1. Roster period: From today (6/12) unitl Next Thursday the 19th.
2. Tying Period: 6/12 through 6/27.
3. Mail to me by Weekend of 6/28.
4. I will mail out what is in my hands 7/6. If I haven’t received your flies you will not be mailed any
of the exchange flies.
Folks should have Streamers week after the 4th.Does that work for all folks invloved?
Roster to date:1.Scot
2.Bob
3.Mark
4.Leonard
5.Tim
6.Aaron
7. Simon
8. TBD
9. TBD
10.TBDThanks Chad I really appreciate it. I have an SB800, but not sure that is the right ticket for the job.
David,
Can you may be suggest a couple names of high quality strobes that could handle the hard lighting conditions above?
After a lot of trial and error, empahsis on a lot. This is the bug I fish 80% of the time now, In the four color patterns you see below.
Tim if you’re interested shoot me a PM I will send you a couple. They’re about a 30 minute tie each. I have to get my Yak hair imported from China, and dye the rabbit myself to match the Yak (in the garage). I’m happy to send you the recipie, but I’m sure I can part with a few for a fellow Minnesotan. The one next to the Twenty, I retired this season, after repairing it dozen or so times (takes later). Muskie do a lot of damage to the snowshoe tied in front,even after I cover it with Hard As Nails. When this fly was in working order it had three times the mass at the head. The idea is to push high volumes and simultaneously shed, water too.
You could create a proposal that would prove Two Year ROI for him based upon annual savings in a travel reduction. IE calculate the cost of him buying a hybrid and forgo his fuel consumption on an annual basis for his 4 wheel play toys.
Tim,
Hayward is a nice area to hunt, if you’re so inclined. You ever get up to the Upper St. Croix? I’d love to see the pic of the fly you hooked him on if you don’t mind sharing.
I hear the trout fishing can be marginal here on the Guadalupe River, during the summer, if you go at sunup and fish for the first hour or so before the 100 degree heat/humidty, and the tubers. .
John, I feel you I live in AZ.
Sounds like you had an enjoyable day Aaron good for you…everybody needs that once in a while. I really like the forth (can’t count sorry) one DOF and lighting is awesome but personally I would crop that bad boy down just a bit so that you get my subject in a third of the picture. Just my opinion. You could probably turn it in to a portrait style photo easily.
It was a great time. Very unusual for us, but we allowed ourselves to settle into it somewhere between mile marker 70 and 100 from our respective offices. Thanks for the thoughts, I will crop it down and post and see how it looks.
Corey – I personally like the last one. The depth in the top 3rd of the picture intrigues me a bit. I want to repeat that shot, with a little more DOF. So you can really see the bottom of the waterfall in the distance and more detail around the stones in the water behind the fish.
In the vein of this thread I was looking through some shots. More like what was origionally being asked for, fish in focus and soft face in background. I wasn’t so much shooting for that here, but it was a lucky accident.
I found this helpful on others shots so thought I would include 105mm at f/2.9
