Back to the Sveum River

by | Aug 17, 2012 | Uncategorized | 9 comments

A neat thing about being in the heart of the fly fishing world is that you make a lot of friends that trade out their work skills to you if you help them catch more fish.  My doctor for example trades me a check up for a day of fishing.  Providing the local bar tender with up to date fishing info gets me a free beer.  The list of swaps goes on.  The best tradeoff ever was with my friend ken Holder.  Twenty or so years ago, Ken, who works for United Airlines, was a customer of mine at the fly shop in Jackson, Wyoming.  He became quite the regular and I set him straight on all his fishing needs for years.  Ken not only spent a lot of money at the shop but he often brought us lunch when we were busy and all kinds of simple acts of kindness that meant a lot.  Then one day he wanted to build me a website as a favor.  Ken convinced me it would be good – just a couple pages about me and something to help promote my books and artwork.  Well, ten years later, 250 web pages later, my site is like a second job for Ken.  So every time he visits Jackson I take him fishing.

Today I took Ken and his girlfriend Nadi on the Sveum River.  Surely the Snake or South Fork would be a better choice but lots of small fish and no other boats to contend with sounded best to all of us.  After a big breakfast we were floating downstream by 9 AM.  The skies were clear of clouds but hazed by smoke.  There wasn’t and ounce of wind and temps were a comfortable 75º

Ken hasn’t fished since last time I took him.  That was slightly over two years ago – a terrible thing.  Yet despite the lack of recent practice he casted well and right away he landed a nice little marvelously camouflaged rainbow.

Ken caught about a dozen or so small rainbows and brook trout, all on dry flies.  Fishing was decent for sure.  The highlight however was the wildlife.  As always there were plenty of great birds including a great horned owl that we woke up several times as he kept moving downstream of us.  Best of all we saw about six moose.  Last month when I was here with Granny and her friend Jessica, we floated a fly past the knee caps of a velvety antlered bull moose.  Today we saw another, might even have been the same one only this time he was laying down in the shade actually in a foot deep of water.  He was cooling off.  We floated nervously right by him – literally twenty feet away from the massive animal.  We had to get past him.  Amazingly, he stayed laid down right in the water and cautiously watched us float by.

If you get out enough you see a lot of amazing things.  I’ll be catching up on some things this weekend around the house then flying to New Hampshire on Monday.  For those who haven’t followed the blog of late, my dad is getting brain surgery on Wednesday in hopes it will help his severe Parkinson’s disease.  With luck everything will go fantastic and I and the family will have him home by the weekend.  If this works out, I definitely plan to spice up the blog with some bass and pickerel fishing on Lake Winnipesaukee

9 Comments

  1. Erik Moncada

    We all know how you like to deal with Great Horned Owls Jeff 🙂

  2. Jeff Currier - Global Fly Fishing

    I may have to write that story up on the blog this winter when I’m not fishing so much. That is one of the best fly fishing stories of all time!

  3. David McKenzie

    Everyone looks comfortable, including the moose. All the best to your pops.

  4. Erik Moncada

    I say leave it for bar talk… good stuff

  5. Killer

    Hey Jeff, it looks like Ken is holding the fish closer to the camera to make it look bigger!
    I trust your trip to New Hampshire will be successful, and gods speed to your fathers recovery.

    JS

  6. James

    Hi – Will you please post this Blog at The Fly Fishing Community at vorts.com? Our members will love it!
    It’s easy to do – just cut and paste the link and it automatically links back to your website. You can also add Photos, Videos, Classifieds, etc. It’s free and easy…
    We are looking for contributors to share with our members. Please help.
    Email me if you need any help or would like me to do it for you.
    The Fly Fishing Community: http://www.vorts.com/fly_fishing/
    Thanks,
    James Kaufman, Editor

  7. Anonymous

    Best of luck to your father…. Will be thinking of you.
    NF

  8. Fishing Blog

    That camo fish shot is great!

Welcome to the Blog of Jeff Currier!

Contact Jeff

I started fly fishing at age 7 in the lakes and ponds of New England cutting my teeth on various sunfish, bass, crappie and stocked trout. I went to Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin, where I graduated with a Naturalist Degree while I discovered new fishing opportunities for pike, muskellunge, walleyes and various salmonids found in Lake Superior and its tributaries.

From there I headed west to work a few years in the Yellowstone region to simply work as much as most people fish and fish as much as most people work. I did just that, only it lasted over 20 years working at the Jack Dennis Fly Shop in Jackson, WY where I departed in 2009. Now it’s time to work for "The Man", working for myself that is.

I pursue my love to paint fish, lecture on every aspect of fly fishing you can imagine and host a few trips to some of the most exotic places you can think of. My ultimate goal is to catch as many species of fish on fly possible from freshwater to saltwater, throughout the world. I presently have taken over 440 species from over 60 countries!

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