Look at that hook jaw

This fish was crazy big! Unfortunately I was by myself so couldn’t get a very good pic.

A few days later Darren and I fished and I landed this 24 incher on a sculpin.

I landed this 24 incher just a few hundred yards away from where I later landed the 25 incher…I like this area!

I landed this fish about 30 yards upstream on the same day as the fish above.  Did I mention I like this spot?

Dave and I fished the spawn and had an awesome day.  This is a sweet fish Dave landed.

This is from ice-off back in may.  Nice 25 inch Cuththroat.

Took the olive sparkle bugger….

I quickly realized what I had been missing.  I parked at a familiar spot that I have fished since I was a kid and got geared up.  It was overcast today and the temperature was about 55 degrees.  I made a few casts in the first couple of holes not really working them much because I wanted to get up river a bit.  about 100 or so yards upstream I came to a really deep long run.  Even though I wanted to get upstream away from the road I couldn’t pass it up.  It was a tough hole to get a very good drift in, but on the 4-5 cast I got a really nice drift and after drifting a few feet my indicator jerked.  I set the hook and the fish immediately came up from the bottom and flew out of the water fully exposed.  It was a huge brown.  When it landed it went back deep and then headed for the far bank where a fallen tree was in the water.  I put as much pressure on the fish as I could and managed to turn it around.  After making some short runs upstream the big fish suddenly headed downstream like a bullet and I could only follow.  I somehow managed not to fall running full speed downriver and eventually got the fish in some shallower water.  Without my net I was still in trouble.  I was able to get the fish close to me and holding my rod high (I should make a joke here) in the air with my right hand I was able to reach the fish with my left hand.  I can normally cradle fish enough with one hand to take the pressure off the line and then put my rod under my arm and use both hands to control the fish.  This time however, my hand disappeared underneath its big belly and I couldn’t balance and lift it out of the water with just the one hand without it slipping.  I tried a couple of times and the fish got its second wind and headed further down stream.  There were several logs and sticks in the water and of course it went right under them.  I let out as much slack as I could from my line so the fish could continue its path without any resistance that would snap the line (I was only using 5x tippet), and then I would lift the small logs and branches out of the way and follow the fish.  Somehow I managed to keep it on the line and got it in some slower water and guided it to the bank in a few inches of water.  All I could think during the whole thing, other than not losing the fish and wondering why I didn’t bring my net, was “crap, no one is with me to take a picture”.  I relaxed to soon….I put my rod down and got ready to measure and take a picture of the big guy and it made one more run…..I still had a lot of slack in my line from letting it get through the branches, small logs, and part of my slack had wrapped around a rock.  The fish swam a few feet before I could stop it and the line snapped.  I held it in my hand and had it landed, but it snuck away before I could snap the picture…..

It wasn’t the biggest fish I’ve hooked, but it was the biggest stream fish I’ve hooked in a while.  I ended up catching a 19/20 inch brown, a 21/22 inch brown, a couple of other smaller browns and a bunch of white fish, but of course the big one got away….at least from the picture.  I think it was at least 24 inches and maybe 26….hard to say without having measured it, but it was way bigger in comparison to the other two really nice fish I landed.  I did get pictures of those fish, although fish next to the rod never seem to do them justice.  Nice fish though….

After my first hunt I was hungry to get out again and try and get the little birds that made me sweat so much looking for them.  I read on someone’s blog that the first time you go chukar hunting it’s for fun and from that point on you go for revenge…I found this to be a perfect statement. I was finally able to reap the rewards of my miles of uphill hiking on a subsequent hunt.  Here is Max bringing back the bird:   

This is what I lost 10 pounds hiking for:   

Friday, Feb. 8th (Day 1)

I left my house around 10 a.m. or so for the airport in Salt Lake.  I met Chandler, who was flying from Boise, and we had lunch while we waited for our flight to Atlanta.  We got to Atlanta around 7 p.m. local time and had several hours to kill before our 9 hour flight to Santiago that left around midnight.  We ate at the food court and noticed our sister sitting with her husband a few tables over.  It was funny to run into her in the busiest airport in the world (she was on her way back home from Costa Rica).

I got a prescription for ambien for the long flight so that we could hopefully sleep a little…..I think I might have slept for a couple of hours.

Saturday, Feb. 9th (Day 2)

The view of Santiago from the plane reminded me a lot of Southern California.  It makes sense, it is on the pacific about the same distance south of the equator as California is north.

When we landed (around noon or so) we had to go through customs and get our luggage.  Our bags were on top, I don’t know why they sort the bags this way…..

I’m amazed at how many people actually think I’m serious when I tell them this.  Well, we had made it to Chile, but we were still a day away from our destination.  After another few hours waiting for our next flight we boarded a LAN Chile flight en route for Balmaceda (with a connection in Concepcion).  The further south we went the greener the mountains began to get.  We saw glaciers and volcanoes from the window.

After our stop in Concepcion (and a good conversation with a chilean guy who I gave a Book of Mormon to), we landed in Balmaceda, Chile.  From Balmaceda we hopped on a shuttle that took us to Coyhaique about an hour away.  Coyaique is the biggest city in Southern Chile.

We walked around the city and found a nice little restaurant called La Casona.  We all ate rack of lamb.  After dinner we went back to the hotel we had checked into earlier and tried to get some rest.  What we didn’t realize right away was that it was Saturday night in South America and we were situated in the center of town.  The bar across the street kept busy until at least 2 or 3 in the morning.

Sunday, Feb. 10th (Day 3)

After another good night of sleep we got up and drove to the small airport in Coyhaique to catch our final flight.   It was about a 45 minute flight to the lodge at Lago Verde.  Here are a few pics from the flight and after we landed:

After the flight Gary and the other guides picked us up and we took a short ride to the lodge.  We had to park on one side of the lake and take a boat across to get to the lodge.  Once we got settled we took a trip over to the Argentine border and then spent the rest of the day relaxing at the lodge.

Monday, Feb. 11th (Day 4)

After a much needed good night of rest, Chandler and I woke up ready to do some fishing.  After a nice breakfast prepared by Maria we took the boat back across the lake and loaded up for our drive to the Cacique.  The Cacique is a tributary that comes in at the other end of the lake.  It took a half hour or so to drive the dirt road to the other side of the lake.

I landed 4 fish in just over an hour.  The biggest (above) was about 17 inches.  I also caught one in the 15-16 inch range and a couple of little browns around 11 inches or so. 

It was 20+ inches (but still a whitefish).  We threw it on the bank and kept fishing (just kidding…even though I wanted to).  A few minutes later Darren hooked another fish but this time it was a nice brown.  I hadn’t even taken a cast yet because I was too busy trying to get a tangle out of my new Lamson reel that hadn’t even been used yet.  Eventually I sorted it out and was able to do some fishing as well.  We spent a few hours on the river and landed a dozen or so fish.  Nothing huge…just little browns like this guy…

On Saturday Kristina and JoAnn went skiing at resort called “Tamarack”.  Chandler and I stayed back at the lodge with Daniella. 

So I was at work today and one of the girls I work with said there was a big Bull Elk out in the field.  By the time we went to look it had already gone into the trees by the provo river that runs parallel to the office.  I thought it was heading back towards the mountains so I got in the car and went to see if I could find it.  When I turned onto University Ave. the big guy was on the side of the road waiting to cross.  He hesitated a couple of times and then went for it…..luckily the timing was good and he made it across safely.  I pulled over and got a couple of shots and then took one of the roads up the hill and came across him again as it headed back up to the mountains. 

BYU again found itself in the Las Vegas Bowl this year.  I went down to the game with Chandler, Josh and Zach.  We drove down in Chandler’s new Armada with Chelsea, JoAnn and Kirsty.  We left late Friday night and had to pick up Josh in Caliente, NV.  I had to meet a car dealer from California by about 10 am on Saturday to pick up my new Range Rover Sport.  We didn’t get to Caliente until about 2 in the morning.  At some point during the night I think someone dropped a bowling ball or something in the room above us (reminds me of a night in a motor home in Mountain Home-Herm will know what I’m talking about)…..not the best night of sleep. We got up pretty early and picked up Josh.  It was great to see him and hear about his time in Caliente.  We drove to Vegas and met the dealer to pick up the car.  After working out a misunderstanding (the car did not have some of the features they claimed it did) we finalized everything and took the new car to the game. 

BYU almost managed to blow what should have been an easy win. UCLA just had to make an easy field goal with a few seconds left to spoil it for BYU. Somehow Manemaleuna got his hand on the kick.  We ran out of the stadium screaming and were in the parking lot running to the car as the fireworks were going off (At some point in the mayhem some dude hugged me).  What a game!