Fishing is Fun!

Years ago, Lucas Horm Young and I traveled to The Land of the Long White Cloud in search of freedom and fish.  We found these and much more on the South Island of New Zealand.  In the small town of Athol, resides a man who loves fishing as much as anyone I've met.  Stu Tripney owns and operates Stu's Orgasmic Fly Shop, on which is noted "Fishing is Fun!"  The three of us have kept in touch over the years and with Stu in the States on a road trip this summer, we were able to rendez-vous for a weekend of fishing.  It was a great chance for Lucas and I to start to repay the favor to Stu for showing us his home water.  The great photos below were taken by Stu.  Enjoy!

 

First stop, Hood Canal.  Lucas and I took Clyde here last fall.  It's a great place to have some fun fishing, catching, camp firing and hanging out.  We piled just enough gear into Stu's van.

More rigging.  You can see Stu's great van, complete with salmon artwork.  He dubbed the van "Chinook" until he was informed that the salmon on the side of it were Coho.  Unfortunately we couldn't find any silvers to match the whip.

Camp fire cookin'.  Friends and fire equals fun!

Some cool rod tubes and my vest, given to me from my father at age nine.  It's been a few places.

That night a flying termite hatch came off.  While the cutthroat keyed in on the big, floating bugs, we were left to our clousers and baitfish patterns.  Besides a massive pink gurgler, not a single dry fly was carried with any of us.  Bummer.

The Basstards do coffee.

Ol' Jess catches one!

We crammed Lucas into the van with the YETI, a half-cord of firewood and the trash bags.  He also had the beer back there, so we didn't feel too bad.

A D on the Duc.

We spent a day with Jim out on the coast, sight casting to pods of coho.  This was very fun!

I think the name of this pool was Mossy Rock, or something like that. 

Floating in the sun is fun!

Chilling in the sun is fun, too!