In case you haven’t looked out your window, summer is waning. There are a lot of signs. It’s getting light later and later and dark earlier and earlier. And from the sounds of groaning around my house, school must have started. (My youngest daughter is in college and my wife is a school teacher.)
But despite all of the signs of impending doom, we still have a few weeks left for some prime backpacking. I know that I ought to be up in the mountains archery elk and deer hunting, but I find myself doing backcountry fly fishing trips later and later every year.
How can you not love late summer/early fall backpacking and fly fishing trips? Everyone else is focused on hunting and you’ll most likely have the woods to yourself. The rivers have dropped down and are easier to wade. The fish are congregated in holes. The fish have been feeding all summer and are big. To sum it up: It’s all good!
If you love to fly fish, then you need to start backpacking. It allows you to get farther away from people, so of course the fish are larger and there are more of them. You have the world pretty much to yourself, and the scenery is beautiful.
So what does it take? Here are a few basics. I still use an old school Kelty frame backpack. But you’ll also want to take along a daypack to carry your water, snacks, lunch and rain gear for your day hikes.
I take a light-weight sleeping bag due to the mild weather I’ll encounter, but I also throw in some base layers to sleep in. I just discovered a super compact and light-weight pad by Klymit and started using it this year.
For cooking gear, I take a small aluminum coffee pot and an old Army mess kit or Boy Scout kit. I do 99 percent of my cooking over an open fire but if there is a fire ban, I take a Camp Chef backpacking stove.
For meals, I eat flavored oatmeal for breakfast and make PBJ sandwiches for lunch. Take some Lipton tea to flavor your water, and I use motel packs for coffee. They’re light-weight and free. Then for dinner, I splurge and buy some MRE backpacking type of meals. I just discovered a new company named Bushkas Kitchen, which has a variety of freeze-dried meals. I’m going to be testing these out next week.
Take a flashlight, and I just discovered SneakyHunter Bootlamps, which will be great for hiking in the dark. I’ve done it quite a few times, but it’s not real fun hiking in by yourself in the dark. Once on a 3-mile hike in, my light went out 500 yards down the trail.
Always take a pistol. There are just too many wolves, bears, cougars and moose not to.
For fly fishing, I don’t pack in waders. They’re too bulky and heavy. I just wear some Chaco sandals or hiking boots. Although with the slippery rocks, you could justify wearing some wading boots. I wear some nylon shorts that will dry out fast.
This time of year, I expect to catch some lunker bull trout, so I’ll be throwing some black bead head wooly buggers. I’ll also use Elk Hair Caddis for the late evening hatch.
Writing this article has me excited. I’m ready to go. Usually my daughter goes with me but as mentioned above, she has already started school. Ugh. I also had a cow fall on me three weeks ago and crack my knee cap and break a rib. But a guy has to do what a guy has to do, and the show must go on, so I’ve gotta go.
If you see me gimping along, stop and carry my pack for a couple of miles. If this works, I may milk it for a while.
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana.
