Guide Net

I recently had a request for a guide net from Alan Peak of The Hatch Fly Shop. When we were discussing what types of wood he wanted in his handle he told me he would leave it entirely up to my artistic judgment. I was a little bit nervous by this because Alan went to art school for college, and I studied Political Science. I dug into my scrap pile, and found some scraps of the zebra wood I used on a smaller net I made for him earlier in the year. During one of our phone conversation he mentioned that he like Birdseye Maple, so I decided to do most of the handle in Birdseye. I was happy with the way this net came out.



The best part for me is seeing my work in pictures like this. Here's Alan after netting this girls first fish ever on the flyrod. Look at that smile!

Moonlight stroll above 12K

A couple weeks have past by since I did this trip. We left Denver Friday night around my kids bed time, and made our way to the trailhead. Carper got lit up by the police on the way there, but no one went to Jail this time. After a midnight stroll in the high country we arrived above 12K at the lake around 1:20, and set up camp. We all crashed right away and started fishing when morning came.

The lake was tough. Fish were stacked up in the outlet, and fish were spawning. Carper was the only one to put a fish in the net.

After a few hours we broke camp and fished the creek down to another lake. We all caught smaller fish there, and then started making our way down again fishing the creek.

　

If you have kids at home, and are as big of a mountain junky as I am then you can appreciate the 24hr kitchen pass. A little bit of backpacking, hiking, and fishing all in under 24hrs with 4 total hours of driving. I was home for dinner on Saturday evening. It was a great time!