Alaska Adventures - Morrison Files

Hi Lyndsey,

Another great trip, this is another one of those that we will more than likely do again and again. We lived aboard a 56’ boat, it had a 17’ beam and there was plenty of room for six guests and three crew. We fished four different islands and never saw another footprint other than ours. Even though Petersburg receives an average 130” of rain per year we had rain on our first afternoon and then nothing but nice weather after that. It was cool to cold in the morning but comfortable in the afternoon. Everybody caught fish and they were beautiful wild Steelhead. One day we fished for Halibut and anything else that would bite and caught three Halibut and four Yellow Eye. Those became dinner for two different nights and everyone still got to bring fish home. The Steelhead were all catch and release. I managed to break one of the switch rods, it leaves today to get repaired. Luckily it waited until near the end of the last day. Jeanette caught on to Spey casting like a pro thanks to the skipper, great teacher and Jeanette was a great listener. This was her first real trip to Alaska, you can tell how much she enjoyed it by the smiles in the pictures. I did tell Jeanette that we could do this for the next twenty years and never have weather like this again.

Home for seven nights

Sitka Spruce

Cuttie

Hope all is well, I just had to share this with you guys.

Take care,

Art

South America Adventures - Morrison Files

Limay River

Hi Lyndsey,

Hope all is well.

I wanted to get these to you earlier but just didn’t have a chance. This was one of those trips that after twenty one days we did not want to come home. It’s the longest I’ve been away from home since I was in the service (50 years ago). The trip started on the Alumine River in the northern Patagonia region with eight of us, seven guys and Jeanette. We have fished with all but three, we met two on the trip to Christmas Island and another one on the Middle Fork of the Salmon. After the first 9 days two of them went home and we were down to six. We got in a van and went southwest to the Limay River and what a river it was. It’s about the size of the Snake, quite a bit shallower and crystal clear, a deep spot might be 20 feet or so. A couple of the pictures show how clear the water is, at 10 feet deep you could still see all the colors of the rocks. In April the big browns are in this system and get up to 30+ pounds.

 Every fish Jeanette caught was on a dry and she caught a bunch. We camped on the Limay for three nights and fished it a total of four days. Then back in the van, we went on a sightseeing road trip back north, we went the equivalent of Eugene to Vancouver Canada. The scenery was unbelievable, it was an area they call the Seven Lakes Region. If you google seven lakes region, Argentina click on images and you’ll get an idea of what we saw. Anyway next year we want to find a way to spend at least three weeks there, that’s how good it was.

Good Friends...Good Times

The good news is I did not break a fly rod, that’s just about a first. In some areas we used the 8wts especially if we were fishing deep and with streamers. On the big browns you strip set the hook or they’ll get off. In one picture there are four of us, the other couple are friends from Emmet, Idaho and were working as guides for Diego the outfitter. That was another thing that made the trip, having good friends along. They also guide for Jeff Helfrich on the Middle Fork of the Salmon, and the Rogue. April 7th to the 14th we’re going to Petersburg, Alaska with Dino, Seda, Jeff and another friend from Vida (upper McKenzie) steelhead fishing. That should be a good time too. That’s when we get to try our luck with the switch rods.

So there you have it, take care,

Art

Morrison Files: Great Christmas Island trip

"We caught lots of doubles"

A Great Christmas Island trip

Hi Travis,

We came home last Tuesday but turned around and one day later we were camping, whew. It about wears a guy out.

OK, on to the cool stuff, the fishing was actually really good this time. The best day Jeanette and I had was the last, I caught 31 she caught 21. She just happened to catch the biggest fish out of four of us for the trip, they figured it was 9 lbs, I caught one just minutes later that was 8 lbs. When they get that big they really are fun, huge long runs, almost get them in and they take off again. One of the pictures is Jeanette with her big fish just as it decides to leave and go straight in the air, the guide got the picture.

One of the things I learned this time was never look at weather.com before you go on a trip. I was looking for weeks leading up to the trip and all I saw was thunder storms, wind and pretty much terrible weather. When we got there it was heavy overcast and we figured the forecast was pretty much spot on, even the first day of fishing I don’t think we saw much sun but from that point on it was beautiful. Tom one of my really close friends keeps a tally of everything we catch and at the end of six days of fishing we caught 350 plus bone fish between four of us. We didn’t keep track of the small trevally, goat fish, yellow snapper, blue trevally, small grouper, trigger fish, puffer fish and whatever else might take a small fly. We had one guide between us and if he was with Jeanette I would just blind cast to anywhere it looked like there might be a fish, she did better than that one day she caught 17 and spotted every one, the guides got a kick of it.

Michael - Our Guide

Michael, the guide we had on the last day, a really good guy. Jeanette was getting tired of casting into the wind and handed him her rod, on the second cast he got a really nice bonefish, 8wt Sage Method, Nautilus reel, with the Bonefish Quick shooter line, great combo. That’s it for now. Thanks again for getting me the line on short notice.

Morrison

Morrison Files: Summer Edition

Morrison Files (File #061714)

Christmas Island

Hi Lyndsey,

Well we're back from trip #2 to Christmas Island. Here are a few pictures that Jeanette forwarded to me.

Fit for a Queen

The trip as a whole was way better than the first one, I think we just knew what to expect and could also spot the fish much easier this time. Another thing, the first time we were there they were in the middle of a two year drought, I think it's over. It rained so hard that it was just waterfalls coming off roofs. That was at night, during the day when we were out on the flats you could see it coming from miles away and when it hit it just poured. Even with that the fishing was really pretty good. We were catching anywhere from 15 to 25 bones per day along with all the other aquarium type of fish. I had two great shot at big GT's and both times I must have gotten buck fever and instead of pulling the
fly line to set the hook I would raise the rod like I was fishing for trout or salmon and remove the hook from its mouth. Tom, a close friend that was with us caught one that was something over 50#'s, a really nice fish. There were four of us from the US and six from Australia, great folks and it just made the trip that much more fun.

All Smiles

Next week Jeanette and I are going down to fish the McKenzie river for a couple of days and a week from Saturday Craig, our son, and I are going back to the Waterfall Resort on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska. The magazine guys we know have invited us to go back again this year and we both felt it be rude to say no. It isn't fly fishing but on this trip it doesn't matter because it's a chance to catch some big kings, halibut and other bottom fish.

I didn't mean to drag this on like this but now you know it all. Hope
all is well and business is good. 

I'll talk to you later,
Morrison

"Fly Fish the World with Us"