B-day Fish/Shorty Leaves Us

 Shorty (far right) passed away on my birthday this year in a tragic car accident. He will be sorely missed to say the least.

 While walking this stretch we talked about Shorty (2 days prior to his passing) and the trip we had all made to this exact spot 2 years ago to the date. Some funny stories involving Shorty and his motor cycle rig had us chuckling. On that trip I drew Shorty a map from Preston Idaho to our secret spot. We left little arrows and things along the dirt road. At about 10:00 that night we had wrote him off but a little light way of in the distance kept getting closer and closer to our camp. Shorty had made it! The next day as he packed back up his motor cycle with his dog in its dog cage strapped on the back with bungy cords, he left his helmet on the back and as he floored it up the steep hill it bounced right off into the dirt. The cowboy that was hanging out in our camp that morning saw this and jumped on his horse and chased Shorty down to return the helmet. The cowboy came back in a sweat 30 minutes later and said he had to chase him for 2-3 miles before he got him to pull over. Classic! And this trip goes down as a classic as well...

 The first day we had scattered snow showers and we were cold! The fish were active though and the streamers were on!

 Dalt with a nice Cutty.

 I have had a double cutty and a double whitty but on this trip I got my first ever double brown. I need a double rainbow now!

 Big Cutty's

 Got this guy on the first cast in lunch hole.

 Big articulated streamer.

Biggest Cutty of the trip!

 We always joke that Dalt gets the big ones on my birthday but this year I had the magic sauce for once. I was catching some big ones!

One more big brown.

Dalt with a big Cutty on a streamer.

 Walked the biggest/longest stretch to date. We figured it was 5 miles up and 5 miles down. We covered all our favorite pools and runs and found a few new ones.

 Leaves were turning and we both caught over 30 fish each. Quality was at every turn. No "all timers" but several that were close.

 Right near the two creeks coming together.

 Fresh Mountain Lion tracks in the mud.

Dalt taking in a nice fire.

That night I heated rocks in the fire and buried them 4" under my tent. I did not get cold once but I didn't sleep worth a damn thinking about monster trout. Good heat trick that was taught to me by Beesley.

 Second day we ventured further down and came across this guy below...

 Streamer!

Round up! taking the cows out of the hills back to the ranches.

Thanks,

Chris Giles