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West
Coast Trip Summer 2005
By: Don Mathews
Grand Teton
from Jackson Hole area
 In
July we took the proverbial "West Coast Trip". Growing
up my family talked about making the trip but busy
schedules never let us do it. Myself and my wife had
seen the west thru a Boeing 747 window but somehow
figured we were missing out on the big picture. We
decided my we had better do it before our daughter got
too old and didn't want to go with the folks.
Don and John
doubles on Madison River Montana
 So
we set off in July on a family adventure. Fishing wasn't
priority one. We visited 14 states and traveled just
under 8,000 miles. We spent 25 days on the road and
concentrated on the Rocky mountains with the Olympic
Peninsula in Washington State as our final
destination. We decided to travel light and stay in
hotels to save on time setting up and tearing down
campsites. I only took a minimum of fly fishing gear.
Traveling and sightseeing took up the bulk of our time
but I did get to wet a line in quite a few streams along
the way. Usually we would pull over for a hour or two
break from driving. Just enough time to get a license
beg for some local advise and fish a bit. I did spend a
day floating the Madison in Montana during the Salmon
Fly hatch. I also went on a Sol Duc Washington steelhead
float.
Madison River
Float
I
caught fish in most of the places I fished. Usually
just a fish or two. I really never caught a real large
fish. I did catch a couple of 21" Dolly Varden and a
couple of 18" browns but mostly I caught small native
fish and I loved it. I only fly fished with the
exception of a day on the Cowlitz in Washington when I
had my cousin Glenn from Olympia's spinning gear to use.
Montana Cutt
I had
terrible fishing in Washington but it was because of
time of year. I had hoped to catch a good run of
Skamania somewhere but they just weren't running yet,
everything was behind. I kept hearing you know last year
at this time...... Oh well, that's fishin. Actually
there were still a few Springer salmon in the river but
I couldn't get any takers. I thank my cousin Glenn for
working his butt off to get us into the few fish we did
get.
Wyoming Bull Elk
I
was a little disappointed in the Madison and the Henrys
fork. I found both rivers to be very heavily fished.
Heck, even the Gibbon and Fire hole in Yellowstone were
crowded. Crowds that equaled "steelhead Alley" in lots
of places. I floated with Hyde Outfitters and we had a
exciting day when we assisted another Driftboat that had
the misfortune of hitting a rock and flipping. I enjoyed
my time there. I caught plenty of fish. The scenery
was great But the area just wasn't what I expected. I
suppose if you got to know your way around there are
lots of places to get away.
Blue River
Colorado Brown
I
only wish I would have done the trip sooner. Just
fishing in the mountain settings in glacier fed streams
puts you in a spell. I fell in love with the Big Horn
Mountains and Dillon Colorado both places seemed to have
exceptional fishing. One thing for sure is. I'll be
back..!!
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Deadly combo #16 light Cahill dry and #16
mercers biot nymph |
Breckenridge Colorado Brookie
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SE
Utah mountains |
Don
and Hyde Outfitters Guide, Luke |
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Getting Lucky at wall Drug South Dakota
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Upper Sol Duc River Washington Air temp 101
/ water temp 39.9 |
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Salmon Fly Hatch Madison River- 6" fence
post |
Steelhead Shangri-La Quinault River Olympic
Peninsula Washington |
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Hoe
river Olympic Peninsula Washington
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Cowlitz summer steelhead on Bubble Gum worm |
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Sol
Duc River Olympic Peninsula
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Yellowstone River |
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Far upper Sol
Duc near glaciers and the hot springs
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