Fishing by Satellite

fixed line fly fishing
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adam
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Fishing by Satellite

Post by adam »

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Our target by Google Earth

Stream X

crew: mikeytwoshoes, me and jeepster
location: White Mountains (don't even ask), East Central Arizona
duration: 4:00a take off 260 mile one way drive, crash camp, a.m. fish drive home
tackle: 3 and 4-weight modern bamboo & Tenkara
catch: expected: (brook, brown, apache, hybrid rainbow)

I am no stranger to using Satellite imagery to go "exploring" before I go fishing. Before Google Earth was available, I've even used a light plane to scope out streams and have even written an article about that more than 10 years ago...

The last couple of weeks, I've been fishing a stream in the Whites. It's a nice stream, not unlike many others. But I like it and mikeytwoshoes and I found a great place, a hidden valley and it was pretty cool. I want to fish once more, a place I've never seen that is just as good so I explored it by satellite.

Below is a section of the stream we fished and I know what it looks like on Google Earth. Taking that image and comparing it to memory from being there, I search the area with Google Earth and see what I can come up with.

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Google Earth image of the Hidden Valley we found on foot

Below is the the point where we have to march in. It's about a mile and a half in to our spot and fishing abounds getting there. I have a Garmin GPSMAP 76Cx that I use for my paragliding flights. It has topographical maps of the four corner states. Complete topographical maps on a tiny chip, unreal. So I call up my creek on the GPS and find it on the topo map memory. I mark a waypoint of my destination and compare it with my paper topo map of the area. I'll then search my put in point and make a waypoint. Then I make a "route" on the GPS to my destination for a couple of reasons. One, the configurable data entry fields allow me to punch in "time to destination" in addition to the shortest routs out of there.

I can lay down a bread crumb trail on the way in, see if I am making headway to my destination so that I know if I can get back to the truck before night fall.

The thing of fishing is that I do it to lose myself in thought. The last thing I want to do is get lost in thought miles away from the point of escape and twilight is closing in...

In my life, time is at a premium. It is 260 miles on the road to my destination, 145 miles as the crow flys. I don't have a lot of time to explore my target area so I do my homework with Google Earth and my GPS so that my time onstream is absolute quality.

Lets see how this works out when we get back...

Image
the march in
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adam
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Post by adam »

Made a list and packed the bags.

Now it's a choice of spirits and finding the right bacon for breakfast... G~d I love the smell of coffee, bacon and eggs in the forest.

Really stoked about this. Mikeytwoshoes sounds like he is too.



I'm taking a little blanket so I can take a nap in the cool grass after drinking a bit. Some crespone salame' and a bit of stinky cheese for a snack after hiking in, exploring and hunting for the best undercut and sending a stealthy cast to it.



Major stress relief is on the way.


Going fishing in a mountain valley stream.


Ahhh.
greendrake
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Post by greendrake »

Interesting!!!!!!!

But I have a question.Considering that it is a looooong drive to get there and time is at a premium,how do you insure that the stream you are hiking into has a trout population? Or any fish of catchble size.

Will
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adam
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Post by adam »

Faith and lite line weight trout rods only go so far.

In Arizona, wild trout water is found above 5,000' unless, that is, the water flowing is from a bottom release dam.

And we have books that tell us where the trout are, someone did their homework and shared it. I try to learn from the past, if I didn't, I would be doomed to repete it.

My search by airplane taking notes was prior to the bible of Arizona Trout being written. By and large, the book proves each time I explore a stream new to me that the words are true. Having that book and knowing how to fish is all you really need.

I just use the satellite images because I am looking for more evidence in what I think is a beautiful stream to fish.

But to answer your question more specifically, I will have already fished a section of the stream first and explore up and down with Google Earth and or fished a stream adjacent to it that looks like trout water, comparing it to my own experiences.

I'm just looking for beautiful streams, targeting brookies makes things much easier. They refuse to live in ugly places.

There are 300 plus streams in Arizona that contain trout. Only a few contain trout that are natural, the Gila (prounounced "he luh") and Apache trout. Everything else is planted and or becomes wild and survives on it's own.

I have fished water after a map search and a hike in of a couple of miles that was devoid of trout, sadly enough. My excursion ended up being a nice hike with a few half-hearted casts before capitulating to stupidity. I've heard that the definition of stupidity is behaving the same way over and over and expecting a different outcome. :D
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HortonCreek
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Post by HortonCreek »

I love those kind of trips. Before google earth I used to spen hours studying my Delorme and reading "the book", hoping to perhaps uncover a little gem of a feeder that might have been overlooked. Or perhaps figuring out a new access route that would get me in deeper and more remote than most would ever dare unless they were on a multi-day journey.

I never found an "unkown" gem, but I sure found myself in some extremely remote places that had no visible signs of humanity being there recently. I like to think I got myself into some stretches of streams that I truly believed I was the only one there for that fishing season. What a high!

Other times like Adam I was met with failure after several hours of hiking and boulder scrambling. But I did LEARN and did not attempt the same trip again, as in the case of trying to navigate into Hells Gate from the bottom in hopes of finding that stray lunker who may have come downstream. That was a long day.

Good luck today my friend's, I am truly jealous.
HC
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adam
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Post by adam »

Well heck, don't be jealous... Just share in the stoke with us. I'm really stoked, going to go get a few Samuel Smith's Ole Pale Brewery Ale, a bit of blue cheese, some thickly sliced bacon and I'm all set. Tonight I'll go to bed with the alarm set at 3:30a for go time.

I am fortunate to be able to fish with a couple of friends the way I do.
greendrake
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Post by greendrake »

Full report and pictures when you return :wink: Lookin' forward to good news. Hope you all have blue bird skies,good fall hatches and tight lines.

Will
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adam
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Post by adam »

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Target via Satellite and GPS accomplished!


It worked.


I caught a dozen little fish and this meadow was aptly named "Dinkville" by my compainion, mikeytwoshoes.

Blue bird day indeed, not a cloud in the sky.

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Rest and a little celebration. Can you spot the Tenkara rod?

We stopped at the bottom of the meadow and dropped our packs. I had brought along a lunch of Crespone Salame', Swiss Cheese and Garlic Roasted flavored Triscuits with a bottle of Jose Cuervo Margarita. But first we fished and explored the valley. I caught about a dozen small brown trout and hiked back to the start of the valley where we dropped our packs. As we sat there, I pulled out the iPod and clipped it into the dock and the music filled our immediate area. It was not distracting at all, the cool grass was soft, the snack was good and I rose the pirate flag for good measure...

I had a Sage Smudge Stick and lit it. I love the smell of Sage, perfect for the Apache Reservation stream we were on, good mojo.

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Mikeytwoshoes kicking back.

All in all it was a good weekend. We camped and drank some beer and caught up on stories. We saw a wild buck, turkeys and squirrels along with soaring Hawks and a huge Blue Herron that mikey said it looked like a prehistoric Teridactyl flying down the valley. At nite there was Elks buggling, and some sort of big rodent that came in camp and checked us out. Steve said that the racket in the middle of the night was an Owl. I made us a stir fry dinner and a bacon and eggs breakfast.

I think mikeytwoshoes has some great pictures and a story or two to tell about the trip.

Ask him about the homosexual fencer.

Image Image
aguafria

Post by aguafria »

I do have more. I'll only add a few shots that aren't redundant...

we hooked up w/ steve here for the caravan into the heart of the forest.
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set up camp here around noon. obi wan was getting antsy.
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hiked up this trickle a ways...
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gin clear and skinny (now the working name of the 1wt I'm currently building myself) heading up into the target valley now known as dinkville.
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I really didn't see many fish worth casting too. obi wan launched a couple handfuls of dinks into the pasture at his feet. somewhere near here a gay fencer was spotted. I suspect he may be french and have a tattoo of a pirate somewhere on his body.
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I tried to snap a picture of the ninja jedi fencer obi wan tempura in action, but by the time I got into place his pose had changed. I snapped a long range shot of some stealthy tenkara voodoo.
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I was eating lunch around the time I shot that...
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this however is the highlight of the trip in my mind...the hike into the canyon was great, hike out easy. scenery beautiful and the creek gorgeous in its skinny clarity. I saw one fish worth fishing to all the way up to the top of the meadow and back down to the lake. one fish. and my rod was broken down when I spotted him. maybe 10" most likely a brown. all the time I was up there though I kept thinking, "this would make some mighty fine..."
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gosh that's just sweet.
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adam
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Post by adam »

aguafria wrote:ninja jedi fencer obi wan tempura
humorous

We did have fun.

I'll admit, when you have nothing in your free hand, it tends to balance things a bit. Approaching a section, crouching low...

Nevermind.

I like hiking in and NOT threading a fly rod through the sticks. Can't wait to make and get a pack rod in fly.

Thanks for ringing in Mike.
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