In Search of a Blue Wing Olive

Late March and into April means one thing to me...Its BWO time and I better start my annual migration to "The Middle" of no where. I don't know why I act the way I do, it just happens like a goose flying 1000s of miles ever fall and back again in the spring. There is no where I would rather be than on a familiar stretch of trout water, as an rainy overcast sky invites 100s to 1000s of little olive bugs to start and fulfill their life's purpose. It is truly a magical time to be a fly fisherman. On this stormy cold April morning, I found myself fitting the pieces to the trout puzzle more than usual. Even though it is supposed to be the best fishing of the year it doesn't mean you will still catch a single fish. To be successful one must be one step ahead of the prey. For example: Today was a prefect bwo day, overcast, rainy, and just a little cold, but I didn't see a bug until 2pm. In the mean time when all 7 guys around me were using bwo dries to the rising trout. I was catching 99% of the fish in the area on tiny midges. It was fun to watch them all in amazement asking "What is the hell is he using, that is so good?" I just keep quit and landed, sipping brown after brown.

After I had fulfilled my taste for shallow sipping browns on light technical material, I switched locations in search of my days quest. As I walked the small stream I noticed the trout feeding was more war like, then I saw it, floating like a sailing ship in the Caribbean. It was my first BWO encounter of the season and I was stoked to find a pod of rising trout. After scanning a productive location I found just the spot and the fish were thick and shopping for a meal like it was their first of the year. After an hour of non-stop enjoyment, the rain and the dropping temps pushed me off the river shaking with only my light shirt on and back to my life. So if the BWO hatch is so great, why can only a handful of anglers on the river really enjoy its bounty it provides? I guess it all lye's in the eyes of the beholder...fish or not I will always love the bwo hatch no matter what, it is part of me and my culture.

Gear Review

I don't know about the rest of the world, but every fly fishermen I have ever met likes to take pictures and usually has a little point and shot camera with them on every trip. One of the great things about having a camera is to, 1 show off your big fish, 2 capture the experiences and 3 act like your important enough to post them on a blog. (like myself) The down side to carrying a camera is that where you fish has water and water and cameras just don't play nice together. In fact I would have to say this is one thing I am a specialist at, I have successful donated $1000s of dollars worth of electronics to the water. So after all the pain and verbal abuse I have gotten from the wife and family. I have finally learned my lesson. This weeks product review is on my brand new Olympus - Stylus Tough 10-Megapixel Digital Camera - Orange. This camera is a fisherman's dream come true. It is water proof and it can be dropped and still hold up. After using this camera for the past two weeks I have been very happy with its performance. The first week I was in Mexico on a cruise testing its ability to withstand hours of saltwater and snorkeling. See the results: The next test was last night I decided to take it to my home trout stream. It took a couple cool pics and once again I drooped it in 4 ft of water, (Gotta get one of those foam things) but when I picked it up it was still on and ready to take another picture.

I am still figuring out all of the different settings and which works best for what, but for only $299, I would recommend this camera to anyone who has lost a camera to the water demon or who can't take their camera to the river because the wife doesn't allow it.

What's Included

Olympus Stylus Tough 10-Megapixel Digital Camera
1 lithium-ion battery, battery charger
USB cable, A/V cable, microSD adapter
Wrist strap, Olympus Master 2 software
Owner's manual
Product Features
10-megapixel CCDCaptures high-resolution images up to 3648 x 2736 pixels.
3.6x optical/5x digital/18x total zoomFor precise zooming and accuracy.
Dual image stabilization Minimizes shake and vibration distortion.
Face detection technology Tracks faces within the frame and automatically focuses and optimizes exposure.
White balance modes Include auto and daylight, overcast, tungsten and 3 fluorescent presets.
Built-in auto flash With red-eye reduction, fill-in and off modes.
Panorama mode With image stitching for creative landscape photography.
Scene modes Including portrait, landscape, night scene, night and portrait, sort, indoor, candle, self portrait, sunset, fireworks, cuisine, documents, smile shot, beach and snow, snow, precapture movie, underwater snapshot.
Also includes underwater wide 1, underwater wide 2, underwater macro and movie.
Special effects Include red-eye fix, shadow adjustment, beauty fix, cropping, resize, black and white, sepia, calendar and saturation.
42MB internal memory Supports xD-Picture Card and microSD cards with an adapter (media not included).
USB interface Connects to your PC. PictBridge-enabled to connect your camera to a compatible printer and print photos directly without using a PC. Olympus Master 2.0 software helps organize and add special effects to images.
Durable, sleek, all-weather design For great pictures of your on-the-go lifestyle.

Cheep Fix-Aquapac

As a side note I have also used the Aquapac for a couple years. It is cheep ($25) and it worked ok, but it was hard to take pictures in the pac and they didn't always turn out as well. But it is better than nothing.

Free Fly Fishing Weekend Give-A-Way!!!

It’s about time the Frenzy did a Give-Away

Alright Frenzy Nation, the Fly Fishing Frenzy is giving away a 3 day 2 night stay at our Cabin in Victor, Idaho (20 miles west of Jackson Hole, Wyoming) in the Teton Springs Development.
The Development is a 27 Hole Johnny Miller Golf Course with many ponds around the development stocked with Native Cutthroat and Brook Trout. I know that for many of our readers/subscribers it might be a ways to travel to Victor, but the journey will be well worth it.
The area is ripe with great fly fishing. Not only will you find trout taking flies on the ponds surrounding the golf course in Teton Springs, but here are a few rivers/creeks that are within a short drive:
Teton River
Bitch Creek,
South Fork of the Snake River,
Henry’s Fork of the Snake,
and many more.

Jackson Hole is a short 25 minute drive over the pass and the nightlife over there is much better than in Victor. You definitely will not be disappointed.

Here is how the Giveaway works. It is really simple, there is only one way to put your name into the running.
Enter your email below to subscribe to our blog (make sure it is a valid email and one you use because that is the only way we will be able to contact the winner) and we will do a drawing on April 20th 2009 out of the list of current subscribers at that time.
The winner will be announced on our Blog that day.
The winner will need to send over 2 - 3 potential dates that work for him/her and we will get it on the calendar.
We will not use your email for anything besides sending you notifications of new blog posts.
The cabin is a 4 bedroom 4.5 bath. It is 4000 sq ft and is fully furnished. Here are a few pics.
ENJOY!

Here is the link to put in for the Give-Away: http://www.flyfishingfrenzy.com/2009/04/01/winner-winner-chicken-dinner/

As a side note, I want to put in my two cents about how amazing this give away is. I was fortunate enough to stay at the Victor Cabin (My Dream Home) last year. The place is a fly fishers dream home. It's location is perfect and you can't beat chasing 18-22 inch Native Cutties in your own backyard! I will never forget fishing one of the many ponds in the middle of the night right outside the cabin. It was a full moon and the over sized Cutties were taking my mouse fly with reckless abandonment. It went a little like this: Long cast, big slash, suck ! I missed him, strip once, big slash, got him! After they started to get wise to my mouse fly, a big black wolly bugger, picked up where the mouse left off. Hancey and I left at 3 am, just in time for a couple hours of sleep before we were off to the South Fork of the Snake. Whoever wins this give me a shout and I'll share some of my other secrets of the local waters.

Dr Gillespie

2008 Big Fish List

There are many reasons why I choose the fish I do for my big fish list. Some are huge, others have a huge story and others are so beautiful they seem bigger than life itself. So here is a look back to at some of the biggest, most beautiful fish I was privileged to witness. Congrats to those that made the list and to those that didn't, hold the fish out farther and you might just make it in 2009.