The Latest…

Evening Spinner Fall on local waters…

Eric and I were instructors at last week’s Team USA Youth Fly Fishing Tryouts…

Chile!!!

Spring creek brown in Chile…

This is my first attempt at writing “the blog”.  For those of you who haven’t met up with me yet, my name is Lance Wilt and I joined forces with Eric, Tracey and the Spruce Creek Fly Company this past March.  I grew up on the waters of Big Fishing Creek and Penns, and started guiding with Eric and the Spruce Creek Fly Co.  After several years and places later, I’m back with Eric…and now Tracey, and couldn’t be happier.   As I’m writing, Eric is still on the water, I had an early trip today and Tracey (the boss) has put me in charge of writing the blog that is in serious need of being updated.

Now for the low down:  The fishing has continued to be some of the best Eric and I have witnessed.  So far (knock on wood),  Mother Nature has continued to bring us consistent rains  that should keep the streams in good shape for the next several weeks.  

Both Eric and I have had the pleasure of guiding some good “sticks” over the course of the last month.  May’s hatches are just starting to get going and the angler well versed in nymphing can expect to see good action underneath when bouncing the bottom with the correct imitation.  The numbers of fish have been stacked up in the faster riffs while the big boys still seem to be hanging in the deeper runs and glides.  We’ve had some great shots at sight-casting to some of the larger fish hanging on the banks.  Most of them haven’t left the soft hackle float by!  Anglers looking to see some heads on the surface stand a good chance at consistent shots at rising fish.  A few days ago we found ourselves casting at consistent risers for over 5 hours.  Cold weather over the course of the last 2 nights has limited rising activity but the nymph bite has made up for the visuals on the surface.  The next few days are supposed to be warm.  I still think the best is yet to come. 

One reoccurring question I’m asked on the water (unrelated to the guided day) is what Eric and I do in the off season.  Eric spends most of his time in the summer and early fall in Montana working with Donna and Jake  at Upper Canyon Outfitters which sits on the Upper Ruby River outside of the town of Alder.  Over the course of the last few seasons, I have worked extensively with outfitters in other parts of the country and world to develop travel opportunities for anglers interested in doing unique trips in exotic locations.  This year, Spruce Creek Fly Co. will be offering international trips to Chile as well as Mongolia with outfitters that I have developed excellent working relationships with.  If anyone is interested, shoot Eric and Tracey an email and I will be happy to forward brochures, pictures, and video. 

Hopefully this is the first of several updates that Tracey lets me do. 

See you on the water!

Lance Wilt

Fantastic Early Season Fishing!

Well, the guiding season is in full force right now and it has been absolutely tremendous! In fact I would say that the early season has been one of the best I’ve ever witnessed. The trout have fed non-stop and we’ve had several clients experience fish counts in the thirties.

Here are a few tactics I’ve been using in my guiding that may help you improve your success.

First, I have not been fishing the surface in spite of the fact that there are thousands of Grannoms. This is one hatch that usually brings them up, but I’ve not seen them rise with any consistency thru the entire hatch, so I stayed underneath…and DEEP.  Second, I have been fishing BWO nymphs in a size 16 since the beginning of March, and they’ve been eating them since. I’ve yet to find a reason to change rigs, though I’ve been looking.

The rig I’ve been using is a three fly rig. The top fly is a BWO soft hackle hanging off of a three inch dropper. Eighteen inches under that is a heavy tungsten bead olive nymph and six inches off the bend of the hook is a non-weighted olive nymph. 90% of the fish caught are on the last fly. The weight (split-shot) is applied between the top two flies. (usually 3 to 6 #2 shot) 

I have tried to change the rig over several times to match the caddis, but the olive nymphs worked better. I did find some moderate success with a deep sparkle pupa as the point fly.

Look for water with a moderate chop to it at the bottom end of a riffle or heavy run. The trout have been stacked in there and have fed from sun up to sun down. Here are some pictures from the past two weeks.

Wing Shooting-Fly Tying Materials with Walt Young

Our friends from Rise Form Studio came out to vist with us and our good friend Walt young. We did some wing shooting and Walt taught us more than a trick or two about materials, storage, and feather selection.

Eric

Fantastic March Fishing on the Little J

Eric Stroup with nice Little J brown

The temperature hit 25 degrees yesterday and we decided to hit the river. As expected, we didn’t see a soul and the fishing was fantastic! There was some desent midge activity, and a few olives, but nothing rising. I put a three fly rig on consisting of a size 20 pheasant tail on a dropper, a size 14 green weenie and a size 16 white caddis larva. Caught fish on all three patterns consistently.

Introducing my good friend, newest employee and absolutely fantastic guide, Lance Wilt.

Lance began working for me a few years ago and has now come back to join our SCFC family. He is a remarkably talented fisherman and an even more impressive guide. He’s the rare type that actually understands what this game is all about. If you’ve used our guide service in the past and have not had the opportunity to spend a day on the water with Lance, give us a call and arrange it. You will not be dissapointed, . I promise!

Preparing for the Season

Sorry I haven’t posted much recently, I’ve had my ass glued to this chair for the past several weeks. Outside of a few road trips to go talk about what we do, and a few articles I had to get done, I’ve been tying away and trying to stay warm next to the stove. It better warm quickly over the next few weeks or we’ll run out of wood!

On a Bright note, our bookings are great this year and we’ve added to our staff. We will be making a formal announcement/introduction on the site sometime this week!

Montana Dreaming

Found August 30, 2008

Do you see the arrowhead?

Madison Bow

View on the Madison from the captains chair

Clark Canyon Rainbow

Lunch on the Madison

Rainbow at the ranch

Tyler Bardwell-Future Guide!

Troy and Son in the National Forest

ANOTHER ONE! within ten minutes!

Ruby Brown

SHHHHH….we found this prarie dog sleeping on the road….

Lake fishing at 9000 feet

WOW! I make Tracey look good!

Tracey and I get a night off!

Mark on the Upper Ruby

Bill on the Lower Ruby

Bill and Mark Bumgardner

Traceys Best Catch!

Touchdown! My greatest score of all time!

Storm

Ruby River Greyling

An approaching storm in the valley

Morning in the Ruby Valley

This morning as Tracey and I were having coffee, we began discussing warm days in Montana. Appropriate discussion, as our humble abode rose to a balmy temperature of fifty-eight degrees and out side was measuring twenty-one with a wind chill of fourteen! We dragged the Comforter with us, along with our hot coffee to the computer to view our photo’s from last years trip. We thought you might enjoy some of these.