Just in Case

A few pack rods, reels to match, and a small selection of lures and terminal tackle live in the back of my car. Just in case. Because I never know when I might notice a bridge crossing right-of-way beside an intriguing looking stream or a park with a little lake in it and have some extra time. I don't use them that frequently on trips where fishing wasn't already my objective, but pack rods really don't take up much space in the back of a wagon, and when I do want to make a few casts, I want to be prepared. Plus I'm a step ahead on packing the car for a planned fishing trip, when those rods are right for the task.

I can't claim to be prepared for everything. The rods and reels I regularly tote are pretty light, so I wouldn't cast a weedless bass lure across matted vegetation or cast out in a marshy area where I think the most likely fish to bite would be a redfish. However, if I'm around those kinds of waters, I'm farther from home, and often it's a larger fishing trip, and the back of the car is loaded with all kinds of fishing equipment. The pack rods are more for local outings or for sampling a stream I might pass on the way to some non-fishing destination, and more often than not, fairly light tackle gives me a good option for sampling those types of waters.

I discovered how much I like pack  rods when my then-10-year-old son Asher and I traveled across the country on a tripped dubbed the RebelTroutTrek. We traveled for nearly a month in a Ford Fiesta, so we had loads of gear, and simple pack rods stayed out of the way but were always handy, and though we carried a handful of rods, he and I mostly used one rod each for the entire trip.

The rods I currently carry are Fenwick Eagle Travel Spinning Rods. I've had them for a few years and use them quite a bit in trout or smallmouth streams and on ponds for my regular fishing, and have been happy with their performance. They cast smoothly, despite being three or four pieces (depending on model), and they are priced reasonably for the quality at about $70.

Gazing at the picture as I write this reminds me that my car gear is just lying their awaiting a call to action. I wonder if it will get used before the day is over?!

Middle of Nowhere Bluegills & Blog Reawakening

For starters I must acknowledge that the pond trip I'm reporting was more than a week ago. I've fallen woefully behind with posting blogs. More so than since I started this blog, I'm pretty sure. Plan is to fix that, beginning immediately. I also haven't fished enough since my return from the Trout Trek as I've been playing catch-up on writing. Plan is to fish at least three full days this week, so that part should be reconciled too!

On our most recent pond outing, Asher and I weren't getting much action by throwing the usual stuff around the usual cover. Then I randomly threw a Lindy Watsit Grub toward the center of the pond, let it sink, and started to work it a little deeper than we had been fishing. Almost immediately, I caught a bluegill. Naturally, I repeated the cast, and the result was the same. That showed Asher and me what we needed to know, and we proceeded to catch a bunch of bluegills and a couple of bass.

I found no rhyme or reason to what the fish were relating to, and they weren't in the deepest water, near the dam, like they sometimes are during the summer. They were in the middle, but up the pond, maybe relating to the channel that divides a shallow flat. The pond is small enough that you don't have to get really precise to catch them if you find the right general area. I've never really noticed the fish positioned the way they were on that day, but maybe I haven't cast to that area enough to have found them when they've been there. You can bet I'll try it again when the fish aren't around the regular stuff!

A Few More Favorite Things

Yesterday, I blogged about a few of my favorite things from the Rebel Trout Trek. Specifically, I shared my favorite wildlife sighting, forest, mountain range and fish from the trip. I'd like to jump in where I left off and continue with trip favorites for one more day.

Favorite Fish I Caught
Although my favorite fish of the trip were a couple of fat rainbows that Asher caught, I also had a clear favorite fish of my own. Oddly, I'm not positive what species it was. I initially dubbed the big trout I caught from one of the Delaney Butte Lakes as a rainbow, but from closer examination of the colors and looking at reference photos, I sort of think it was Snake River cutthroat. Whatever the species, it was a whopper that hammered a Rebel Wee-Craw, fought hard, and barely fit in the net.

Favorite Landscape

In terms of overall scenery in a single place, nowhere comes close to Yosemite Valley in my mind. From El Capitan (highest sheer cliff in the world) to Half Dome to all of the waterfalls, everything is just so grand. In truth, everything towers so far above the valley that it's hard to grasp how big any of it is. Our visit was too brief, and visiting such a popular national park during a weekend probably wasn't the best strategy. Nevertheless, seeing the valley again and fishing between the cliffs still ranked as one of my favorite overall trip experiences.

Favorite River
I should say "favorite rivers," I suppose, because this one remains a tie in my mind. I thoroughly enjoyed fishing the Madison River in Montana and the Provo River in Utah, and both left me longing to have more days to explore other river sections. Both produced really good action from quality trout and offered outstanding public access. Also, at both rivers, Asher and I were pretty much the only anglers who were not fly fishing, which to me spells opportunity for showing the trout something different.


Favorite Lure
Asher and I caught fish on a bunch of different Rebel Lures and at times stream size or conditions dictates using some specific lure. Rebel Tracdown Ghost Minnows were the top producers, though, and the lures we ended up using the most frequently. A Ghost Minnow's slender profile makes it look like an easy meal to most fish, and reeling steadily causes a tight wiggle that's fairly subtle. That said, the weighting of this bait helps it handle fairly strong currents nicely, and twitching the rod tip makes the action much more erratic and prompts reaction strikes.
 

Favorite Fishing Accessory
Asher and I were repeatedly impressed by the design of the Cabela's Burl-Handle Landing Net that we used throughout the trip. The handle itself is comfortable in hand and doesn't slip when it's wet. Plus, the netting is rubberized, which make it easier on fish, and makes the hooks less likely to get caught in the net. The best feature, though, is a stretchy lanyard with a magnetized break-away design. I could hang the net out of my way from a vest or pack loop, but it was still in easy reach, and if Asher needed it or I wanted to go beyond the stretch range to land a fish or hold it in the water for photos, we could simply separate the magnet from the metal.

A Few of my Favorite Things

Since my return from the Rebel Trout Trek, quite a few people have asked about my favorite stop we made. So far, I haven't been able to answer that, or even narrow it that much, and I'm not sure if I ever will. Several stops, though, offered a favorite "something," so I thought I might highlight some of those. This might turn out to be Part 1 of a blog. I'm not sure yet!

Favorite Wildlife Sighting

Despite Asher and I having seen bison, antelope, elk and much more, including a few bears, my favorite wildlife we spotted was the group of the 10 bighorn ewes that were right across Rapid Creek from us in the Black Hills. They ignored us completely while we fished, and it was indescribably cool watching how they walked and bounded along the edge of the cliff.


Favorite Forest

Similarly, we roamed through a lot of very pretty woods on our trip. Still, no other forest struck me in quite the same way as the old-growth forest that bounded the North Fork Skomoshish River in Olympic National Forest. Enormous trees and boulders, most of which were blanketed by moss, and a forest floor covered with ferns and woodland wildflowers, created a fairytale-like display of colors, designs and textures.







Favorite Mountains
One thing that surprised me on the trip was how much the mountains varied in character from one
location to another, including some areas that weren't that far from each other. The specific group of mountains that struck me the most was the aptly named Snowy Range, which is located just west of Laramie, Wyoming. The Forest Service campground we stayed at is open from "snow to snow," the campground hosts told me, and on average that means Aug. 1 through Labor Day! The entire recreation area is higher than 10,000 feet, with the highest peaks a few thousand feet higher, and it's dotted with high-country lakes. We passed within touching range of a couple of big patches of snow as we hiked to a few of the lakes to fish.

Favorite Fish

This one is really a tie because Asher caught two piggish rainbows on back to back presentations at Dry Run Creek, and while we think the first was a tiny bit bigger than the second, I can't say that I enjoyed seeing him catch one more than another. Either would have been the largest fish of any kind that Asher had ever caught, and both provided a mighty nice launch for the whole trip. I also had a favorite fish of my own, and if you followed the trip you probably could guess which one it was. I think I'll save that, though. I'm thinking of more favorite things from the trip, even as I write, so there needs to be at least a Part II.

Fiesta Passed the Trek Test

I won't deny that as the Rebel Trout Trek gear amassed on the dining room table I wondered a bit about the decision I'd made to travel in our smallest family car, a 2012 Ford Fiesta hatchback. Beyond what we would pack the night before leaving on our 3 /12-week trip, we would be picking up rods and reels, float tubes and their accessories, and a tent and sleeping bags from Cabela's along the way. The only other option had been my Expedition, though, and based on my estimates, the cost difference in gas would be about $600. Good enough for me.

Having now returned from 8,008 miles of travel, I can say that the Fiesta, which I jokingly call my go-cart from time to time, worked wonderfully. Despite its small overall size, the design is very space efficient, and with the seats down, it actually holds quite a bit of junk. And the front seats are big enough for comfortable travel, especially with a 10-year-old passenger. We had to maintain at least somewhat of a system for placing stuff, but that's not a bad thing when you're toting that much gear, even if you have a bunch of extra space.

The Cabela's folks had put the float tubes and all their accessories in one big soft duffel and the camping gear in another, and we kept them that way, storing them atop or beneath our personal duffels, and that system worked really well. We generally sought to keep waders and stuff like vests and tackle boxes right in the back so they were easy to access from the hatch, and we only kept the two rods and reels that we were using out of the rod tubes most of the time.

I reset the car's MPG calculator before we left, and we got 41 miles per gallon for the total trip. The Fiesta also did fine on some steep, rough dirt roads and had no problem climbing to some pretty high passes. There are quite a few things I would plan differently if I was starting over, but the car I would drive is not one of those things.

Beautiful Backpack in Sight

I couldn't convey how delighted Asher and I were to see my backpack lying exactly where I had left it on the final morning of the Rebel Trout Trek.

Our plan that day included a couple of hours of fishing in the Snowy Range before we got on the road, with the primary destination being a small stream that was maybe 5 miles from where we had camped. However, we'd started the morning with a few casts into the lake that was closest to our campsite and then had driven to the nearest town, where I had a cell signal and could send my previous day's blog and photos. It wasn't until we got to the creek and began getting ready that I realized I'd left my backpack beside the other lake, which was right by the parking lot for a popular recreation area. By that time it had been at least an hour, and the morning was progressing, so the area would be getting busy. I feared the pack might be gone, but we got back in the car and hurried back to the other lake.

From a practical standpoint, of course I wanted my backpack back. It's a good fishing pack that I've had for many years, and it contained three boxes of lures and my multi-tool and had very nice Cabela's net attached to it. It also had my Wyoming fishing license in it, and there was no time to get a replacement copy. So if the pack had been gone, I'd have been done fishing.

Far beyond the practical reasons, though, I was delighted to find my pack right where I had forgotten it simply because I was glad that people had left someone else's stuff alone. Almost certainly a few people saw it and suspected it had been left but chose to not take it, and I'm thankful for that.

By then, our time window had narrowed, and we weren't able to fish the little creek. Instead, we just fished a while in the little lake that was right there. That wasn't all bad, though. Asher caught two brook trout to cap off our fishing before we got on the road. And before we drove away, I made sure the backpack was in the car, not on the bank of the lake!

Thank You for Following

Well, Asher and returned to a wonderful welcome at home last night, having logged 8,008 miles,  fished in nine states and traveled hrough 22. Quite the adventure.

I'm very thankful for all who followed, commented and encouraged us along the way. I admittedly had a tough time keeping reports as fresh as I would have preferred on this page, but I do hope you found my daily blog on the Rebel Lures Journal page and Asher's blog, which included photos and his descriptions from every day of the trip. If not. maybe you'd like to peek back! Several also followed and responded to posts on my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and Asher and I very much appreciate every comment and "like."

I still have photos and stories to share, so I'll likely have several more posts about #RebelTroutTrek discoveries and lessons on this page.

No Rain Delays

Something cool that Asher and I noted a few times during the Rebel Trout Trek and that thankfully never changed is that we fished almost every day for more than three weeks and lost zero time to rain or other weather. It rained lightly one day while we were setting up a tent and a few times while we were in the car, but none the entire time we were fishing. Granted some of our fishing was in the desert. However, some was also in rainforests, and most was somewhere in-between. We could have fished in the rain, but soggy conditions aren't great for photos. Plus, heavy rain can blow out a stream, and lightning will keep me from going at all. We are thankful to have enjoyed great weather the entire trip!

One Rod Trek

Over the past few week, Asher and I have fished everything from creeks we could leap across to fairly large lakes, and have used everything from tiny Rebel Micro Craws and Micro Minnows to 4-inch Rebel Minnows. Fish likewise have ranged from tiny wild creek trout to a thick-bodied cutthroat that probably weighed close to 7 pounds. Despite all the variety, I fished the entire Rebel Trout Trek with a single rod and reel: a medium light 6 1/2-foot Cabela's Fish Eagle 50 travel spinning rod and a 2000 series Cabela's Verano 2000 spinning reel.

Both rod and reel performed flawlessly, and I spent a bunch of time with them in hand to really put them to the test. The rod cast my tiniest offerings amazingly well but still had enough muscle to battle fish in the current and to land my biggest fish. I also would never know it was a four-piece rod from fishing it. It truly handles like a one-piece rod, but it could be broken down an put in a travel tube and carried on virtually any fishing trip.

Tiny RV

Long story short, something got mixed up with our lodging reservation in an area where everything was booked for miles. After more than a little searching we stumbled across an RV park with a couple of vacant sites. It had the WIFI needed to do my blogging work and some other computer junk, and we could park to sleep without driving way into the mountains after dark to get to Forest Service land or get picked up for for vagrancy!

So a little after midnight, we finally parked the car. We weren't up for putting up a tent and really didn't want to make that kind of commotion, and of course my little car is filled to the gills. So we're just sleeping in the front seat till daylight or discomfort gets us moving. The good news is that we are camped on the banks of the Middle Provo River, which is exactly where I want to start fishing in the morning!

Ralph Rainbow

If we hadn't seen Ralph, a brightly colored rainbow of 16 or 17 inches, Asher and I would have left the Owens River content with a few bass we'd caught and a handful of other strikes. We did see him, though. In fact we saw him very clearly, holding in a current line where a spring branch flows into the Owens. He was right across the stream from us and holding steady.

If you fish much, you likely know where this is going and may have a similar story. Short version is that Asher and I spent probably 45 mintes of our day standing in one place and making short targeted casts to present lures to a single fish, which actually hit a Rebel Micro Minnow once and which turned on other offerings just often enough to keep us interested. I couldn't help but think about how pretty Ralph would look in pictures. In truth, though, the motivation to keep casting was much less practical than that. Being boys, Asher and I simply wanted to win.

We didn't win, and we left Ralph Rainbow sitting in the same spot where we first saw him. In truth, though, the game of trying to make that one fish bite might have created a longer lasting shared memory for Asher and me than if we had caught the fish. At least that's how I prefer to think about it!

#RebelTroutTrek

Rockin' The Sacramento

I had a new experience today. Asher and I fished a pretty section of the Sacramento River with a live metal band playing the background.

You might guess that wasn't planned.

We stopped by a fly shop in Dunsmuir, California and asked advice about a spot that would provide a decent look at the Upper Sacramento but in a fairly short time window. A helpful person in the shop suggested the Dunsmuir city park. Though not exactly wild feeling, it offered a good representation of the upper Sacramento's water and produced quite a few fish, and it was very close. He said it could get crowded, but he didn't think it would be bad mid-afternoon because the best summer fishing, by far, occurs early and late.

What he didn't realize was that a festival, complete with vendors and live heavy metal music, was taking place in the park. We parked well up the hill, walked through an atypical river crowd, and heard plenty of drums, guitar, bass and screaming vocals as we fished. I also noticed the air sometimes smelled a lot like the concerts I attended in my teens and early 20s.

I have to admit that I like bird sounds and solitude better, but it certainly was interesting!

Farthest From Home

Tonight's home and office is a cabin in Forks, Washington. If you don't know Forks, maybe peek at Google Maps. It's the farthest we will get from home and fairly close to as far as you can get from Georgia in the Lower 48. Some of Washington's Pacific Coast is even farther north, but I think it's fair to say that we've traveled to the far corner of the country and that we've seen a pretty good slice of the landscape.

Tomorrow we'll point the car south completing our tour of the Olympic Peninsula and then continuing through Mount Hood Country in Oregon and then on into California, where we'll eventually turn left and begin moving west once again. 

So far we've traveled 3,780 miles!

Asher's Diligence

If you've been tracking the Rebel Trout Trek at all, I hope you've kept and eye on Asher's blog. He has posted photos and some kind of account every day since we left town one week ago, so that's a great place to learn where we've been and what we have seen.

I know all daddy crows think there little crows are the blackest, but I have to tell you that I've been hugely impressed by Asher's seriousness about his commitment to maintain his blog on this trip. He considers it his job, and works at in in the car and in the evening when we have access, and sticks with it till something is posted every night. He's likewise taken seriously his role in helping me get good photos every day we've been out and is joining in the task of finding and telling stories in every way he possibly can.

Though days are very long and we're having to spend less time in places than we like, Asher and I are having an extraordinary time working our way through the West. We've already caught a lot of fish and learned so much about ever changing landscapes as you cross the country. Friday, which we spent in Yellowstone National Park, was truly an amazing day with all the wildlife we saw between fishing stops. Asher had never seen a bison before we got to the park. Now he has seen hundreds. In the same day we also got looks at many elk, a mama black bear with two cubs, an antelope and a couple of mule deer bucks. Not to be forgotten we caught a bunch wild brook trout from a beautiful little creek. 

Today, we caught fat rainbow and brown trout from Montana's Madison River. Tomorrow we drive west again to Olympic National Park, where we'll spend three days exploring rainforests, tidal waters, mountain streams and even the Pacific Ocean. I'm reporting daily on rebellures.com and here as often as I can get in an update, but don't forget to check out Asher's posts!

Rebel Trout Trek Update

For starters, I should remind all that the BEST place to follow the Rebel Trout Trek is at rebellures.com. I'm filing a blog post there every evening that tells what I believe to have been the day's main story line. I'll do my best to share posts here, and I've put some photos on facebook and Instagram. However, between driving and fishing, we've been going dark to dark, and the Rebel posts and pictures get first priority at night. I have had more I have wanted to share, so maybe I'll slip in some backtrack posts at some point!

That said, I did want to share a few things. Most significantly, with 2,000 miles logged, I finally got to go fishing today. Actually Asher and I fished most of the day, hitting three different areas (and catching fish from all three), and the brown trout were quite cooperative, despite high flows. The water was too push for the Crickhopper bite that I'd hoped to enjoy, but I still expect to find that on down the road.

The only diversion we took from fishing today was at mid-day, when we had lunch at the No. 10 Saloon in Historic Deadwood and watched Wild Bill Hickok get shot. The hardest thing for Asher and me so far has been wishing we had more time to do everything. I'm a big fan of Deadwood and fishing in the Black Hills, but tomorrow, we'll it'll already be time to leave the Black Hills behind and continuing along our loop.

Digging My Duffels

As Asher and I were packing the car for our cross-country trek, I was reminded how much I like my XXL Cabela's Ripcord Duffels. I use one for all but my shortest trips, but Asher and I each packed one for this trip. I like these duffels because they hold an enormous amount of clothes and other gear, but unlike other bags I have owned, they have virtually weight of their own, and because they are fully flexible, they really don't take up any more space than whatever gear I tote on any given space. That's extra important for this trip because 3 1/2 weeks of travel and fishing calls for a lot of stuff and because we are traveling in my Ford Fiesta, which though roomy for its size is not exactly a giant car.

I've also owned one of these duffels for three years, and I've never gotten a tear in either or had any problem with zippers, despite extensive use.

Final Preparation: Rebel Trout Trek

It's getting real now. I started this morning getting four new tires for the Fiesta, making certain it was fully travel ready, and have spent most of today packing, taking care of things around home, charging batteries, clearing SD cards, and doing other things to prepare for travel.

I can't believe six months have passed since the crazy idea about a cross-country, father/son trout trek started spinning in my head. Now it's truly upon me. The car is partly packed, and we plan to pull out of the driveway in less than 30 hours. Soon Asher and I will be driving toward Arkansas. By this time on Monday, he'll be wrapping up his first-ever afternoon at Dry Run Creek.

Dry Run crowds concern me a bit. Nathaniel and I were always able to visit during spring or fall, when school was in session, and I saw on Facebook tonight that a giant brown caught recently at Dry Run earned national acclaim. It's not a big creek, so having more than a few angles there could really limit opportunities. We'll  take what we get, though, and I'm excited for Asher just to see the stream and it's offerings.

Tomorrow we'll ready Asher a Dry Run box with all single-hook, barbless lures, and will finish packing the car. I'll also wrap up whatever work still needs to be done. Then hopefully we'll get to sleep at a pretty good hour. And speaking of sleep, I'd better go find some of that now!

#RebelTroutTrek

Slow Days OK

Although Asher and I will fish some of the most acclaimed trout waters in the United States when travel west, beginning in a week and a half, I fully expect that on at least a couple of days the bite will be super slow, and we may have totally fishless days. That's OK. We'll discover new places, enjoy the settings, and take in everything from streamside wildflowers to passing wildlife every day we explore. And on those days we don't catch them, I'm confident that we'll learn lessons about water levels, stream temperatures and other western variables. Maybe lessons that will help another day.

We've intentionally planned the Rebel Trout Trek with no guides, float trips or privileged special access. Not that those are bad things. I'm very thankful for guides and the services they offer and improved opportunity for anglers to make the most of limited time in places. Ours is a discovery trip, though, and we want to share the stories of places where anyone who wants to travel to the same general areas can just wade into the stream or launch a float tube and simply go fishing. Figuring it out is part of the fun and part of the story we want to tell.

I've done my homework, reading stream and lake descriptions in various places and talking with friends. And the research will continue as we go through online fishing reports and fly shop visits. Even so, at some point either I'll guess wrong or weather will change stream conditions and make things tough on a stream section I still want to fish while I have the opportunity.

As I said, that's OK. It's all part of the adventure.

Long Past Due Eye Protection

I'd hate to think about how many days I've spent on the water or ice and how many miles I've driven over the years with no protection for my eyes from the sun's most harmful rays. And I'm sure I wouldn't want to know how many more fish I would have caught on many of the same days if I'd had polarized sunglasses to eliminate glare and better reveal fish and cover.

I've needed glasses since I was in elementary school, and my eyes aren't good enough to drive legally or safely without them. Therefore, I've never gotten in a habit of grabbing sunglasses whenever I fished or for driving. I had contact lenses for a few years and wore them only for fishing and driving for the very purpose of being able to wear sunglasses, but I never got to where I liked them, and they made my eyes tired. And when the near vision went, since I didn't like contacts enough to invest in the bifocal sort, I could barely tie knots with contacts in my eyes. I've also tried the over-glasses sorts and clip-ons, but have never found any of either that I really liked. I have sometimes traded my glasses for sunglasses when I didn't need really sharp vision on the water.

The obvious answer to all that is a good pair of prescription polarized glasses. I've known that for a long time, and just haven't don't anything about it. Until now, that is. I finally ordered the glasses I've needed. The arrived just a few days ago, and after a single afternoon pond outing, I really don't know how I went so long without them. It was so incredibly nice seeing clearly, near and far, shaded and with a good polarized look at the water.

The sunglasses are Onos Oak Harbors. As I mentioned, I've only worn them a couple of hours, but they are super comfortable, block the sun nicely and offer a really good look into the water. I'm confident in durability, although I just got them, because Onos offers a lifetime guarantee. If course, I'll have more to report when I have worn them more. For now, I'm just thrilled to have them, especially considering the fact that I'll be driving 8,000 miles and fishing trout waters almost daily throughout the Rebel Trout Trek.

Trip Promotion & Preparation

With the Rebel Trout Trek less than two weeks away, I'm turning ever more attention toward making certain all our stuff is in order and sharing the story of our upcoming journey so folks can follow. This morning, Asher and I had the opportunity to visit WCHM FM in our own town and talk about our plans. It was Asher's first taste of live radio, and I think he did a fine job. There may be opportunities for us to share from the road, on radio, podcasts or television, so now he's a broadcast veteran!

I'm also working to pass along word to friends in the outdoor media, in case any of them want to write a blog or column so that their readers can follow our travels or in case someone wants to catch up with us along the way.

The need for serious focus on trip preparation has been accentuated by the fact that I'm going to Florida for the ICAST show next week. We leave on the Trout Trek two days after I get home from ICAST, so I pretty much have to treat this week like my final week for getting ready. Fun stuff like packing fishing tackle and planning stops is mostly done. Now I'm having to get more practical and think about things like paying bills ahead of time, getting an oil change for the car, how we'll handle laundry on the road and much more.

The best places to follow the Rebel Trout Trek are at rebellures.com and on the Rebel Lures Facebook page. I'll also share on this page, and Asher will share on ashersamselsblog.blogspot.com.

#RebelTroutTrek