Eric. First thanks for watching. Especially one of the first videos we ever put out as a channel. There is no doubt that staying in the water and treating a trout like it’s super fragile is probably best practice. At least lots of folks get their underwear in a bind over it if you don’t. With that said. A few quick seconds out of the water for a pic or even if you are in a spot where you can get to the water is not the end of the world. These are a fish that are often thrown off bridges or out of planes to stock. I believe if you watch our earlier videos a lot of the landing and release are heavily edited as we figured out how to film it with only go pros and alone often early on. So what you see is not everything that happened often. I believe in our later videos you will be able to keep your blood pressure down about the fish handling for the most part. Enjoy the sport.

@@bluelineoutfitters3964 Thanks for the response. Like i said was just asking as it is what i seem to see/read about handing the fish... Consider it part of my learning. "No blood pressure was raised during the watching of this video"... 🤷🏻‍♂️😉 I did enjoy this video and will definitely watch a few more on your channel. Keep it up!

Jack I won’t but it’s really no secret. Google search Greenback cutthroat restoration and it should be there. There are several streams in the same general area now with greenbacks.

I appreciate it. Glad it helped you out. I hope it helps you catch more fish and fish water you otherwise wouldn’t. Thanks again

First thanks for watching. Having done the bass slam one year and coming up a fish short and completing it a second year. For most species a 8” isn’t terribly hard to come by. But an 8” Chattahoochee Bass is the most challenging. My best is only around 11”. The majority are less than 8” though at least in the upper Chattahoochee watershed. Thanks for watching again.

No particular reason. Not trying to hide it. We honestly go fishing sometimes and filming and don’t think about sharing set up, flies etc. We appreciate your comment and try to use your feedback to improve future videos.

Appreciate that Rob. There are a couple of more in depth of the videos from Shenanadoah and PA from on our channel.

Appreciate it Greg. Always nice to have local viewers that can appreciate the challenge and terrain

So if you are doing this cast on a small stream you want a leader including tippet to be about the length of the rod or even a little shorter if it’s extremely small tight water.

To continue that. Having a leader as short as 4-5 feet is fine with a 5.5- 7 foot rod in tight water. A short leader helps keep a little fly line out the end of the rod and makes getting hung up on your nail knot etc happen less frequently.

Appreciate you watching. I have no issue with folks keeping non native trout out of native trout habitat. Lots of places across the west need the brook trout removed for sure. Thanks again for watching.

It’s unique cutthroat country for sure.

@@bluelineoutfitters3964 Also Widow Creek that runs into the John Day river between Dayville and Mt. Vernon has Redsides below and cutthroats above the falls. All private property unfortunately

Appreciate it!

Each one is its own little piece of artwork. Thanks for watching.

Thanks for the kind words. One reason we do these traveling and native trout videos is because I felt like there is limited content out there for the guy looking to check off those bucket list fish. With that said I won’t give a name. With that said it looks like a place a large wild dog might live and someone see it and name a place after that event. 😉 Thanks again for watching!

It’s an adventure Jesse. Do it. Thanks for watching.

It’s a hellbender net.

That is the best the part. Thanks for watching. Hope you enjoy the channel.

Appreciate it. Hope you got something out of it that helps you on the water.

Appreciate the comments and we will keep you in the loop about the classes going forward. We have are looking at late summer/early fall most likely to get it all together.

We appreciate the support over the years. Hopefully you will enjoy some of the things we have planned for the summer

Len thanks for watching. The net is a hellbender net. Made from locally sourced bamboo in South Carolina. We aren’t sponsored by them but wouldn’t mind 😉 JP Ross Flyrods sells this particular model made by them so check out his page and he has some nice net retainers that go with them as well

Pretty solid. I ( Hamp) told Adam they all looked 5” to me but he assured me they weren’t. lol. Thanks for watching brother.

@@bluelineoutfitters3964 I’ve caught four Brookies that size before. Of course it took me all Spring and two creeks to do it. 😂

I hear ya. We are gonna fish for Rio’s in August. You doing Colorado or NM?

@@bluelineoutfitters3964we’re doing New Mexico. Attempting the New Mexico trout challenge while we are there for the Rio. Completed the Wyoming cutthroat slam last year. Trying to knock out all the cutthroat before I leave this planet. Outside of the various Redeye Bass species here at home, cutthroat are my favorite species to fish for.

Steven that’s awesome. I have saw your post on Redeye FB pages. I am a NM brook trout short of that challenge. Hopefully we can both get that certificate. I am sure you got it planned out but if you want to chat about it send us an email.

Thanks. Appreciate the input.

Thanks Paul.

Thanks Jim. September is a beautiful month to be in the American west.

Thanks for watching. It is a beautiful area

Hope you enjoy the series. Lots of neat water on this journey.

It is. Thanks for watching Josh. Hope you enjoy the channel

The fly is a Mr. Rapidan. It is a good all purpose dry in the south and you can see it well with the yellow wings in the darker conditions under the rhododendron. Thanks for watching.

It’s a fluid situation. I often adjust it for every pool. In this video it was night and fast so basically the length of the 9 foot leader in most pools. But I remember moving it to about 6 foot in a couple pools. If you adjust your indicator depth often to match the water you are fishing you will catch more fish. You have to figure in how fast your flies are sinking so you probably add slightly more than the water depth. Give it some time and play with it and you will catch more fish. Euro nymphing is so effective often because they flies are down where the fish are more than indicator fisherman where the indicator is 4 foot from the flies and never gets moved.

@@bluelineoutfitters3964 thank you. and do you recommend split shots for these waters?

Yes. Size and weight and is situational. Also be aware that it’s more and more common for lead weight to be illegal in many places so keep that in mind and use an alternative like tungsten or tin when in those places. I usually put the weight about 8-12 inches above the lead fly.

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For me the exposure without shade will dehydrate you on the chattooga quick. It’s a good idea to stay hydrated and use sunscreen. I have had to sit in the shade more than once on the chattooga.

Appreciate you James. Enjoy the countryside

It’s free flowing without a dam. The river is the line between GA and SC. So half of it is in GA anyway

Hi Mike. Thanks for watching. I would like to say we are reasonably intelligent fellows and read pretty well. The creek we got washed out on was an out of basin population of Paiutes. It wouldn’t have counted for CHTC but I really would have liked to held one since it’s one of the only cutthroat species I haven’t caught. As law enforcement officers we really aren’t into breaking game and fish laws on camera and putting it out for the world to see. I spend months researching these trips and we have the proper licenses and read the regs well for each state. As of today 4/1/24 I received my CHTC certificate from my legally caught fish over two different trips to California between 2019 and 2023. As for the Eagle lake rainbows when we were there in Sept of 2023, Eagle lake was still around 70-72 degrees and to hot to ethically fish without killing the fish. We didn’t have to have it to get the 6 but here again I was happy to catch them in Crater lake for WNTI which does accept them since it’s in the same watershed. Hopefully that answers your questions. Have a great day and go fishing.

Jeff. This spot is no secret. It’s the Chattooga upstream from Hwy 28 at the head of the DH section. I promise you won’t have it alone this time of year but it’s always a pretty place to fish. Thanks for watching.

I have spent a lot of time in the west and understand the cattle grazing allotments but it does seem unnecessary to not have trout streams that hold rare trout fenced off and better taken care of

We appreciate the kind words Preston. Hope you enjoy the rest of the series and channel. Thanks again.

Appreciate you watching Mike. The Warner lakes redband doesn’t give you many options in California and we checked that box even though I probably won’t ever fish for it again. Goose lake was a fun place. We caught a few apiece for the challenge then put the camera away and enjoyed another couple hours of fun on that creek. When we left We fished a Trib to the Upper Pitt that was amazing with a fish in every pool but we didn’t film it since Upper Pitt isn’t officially on the challenge. You have a beautiful state with lots of wild native unique fish. I recommend the CHT challenge to everyone.

That is true Bill. Thanks for watching.

I will always love my home watershed brookies but I truly believe the last great places in the world are where native trout still live.

They have a lot of Unique trout that are worth the effort. Northern California was nice and avoids all the stereotypes you think of with larger cities like San Fran, LA etc. we met some really nice folks that are just hard working Americans and in the mountains we really didn’t see anyone fishing. We went several days fishing without seeing anyone.

Appreciate it. I owe the old man a lot. Thanks for watching.

I really enjoyed the foxfire rod. It is definitely a fun blue line tenkara rod that helps smaller fish feel bigger on the line. The Driftless is one of those places I would love to fish and just haven’t made it.

Tell him we sent ya.

I did. You already know he loves you. Getting my rockhopper 5'6" s-glass soon!@@bluelineoutfitters3964

It ain’t got no gas in it. Thanks for watching.

Thanks Wesley. It’s tough cutting down a days footage into something folks will watch for 10-15 mins

Hard to beat pb and j in that fresh mountain air. Thanks for watching Bill. It was a nasty day today.

@@bluelineoutfitters3964 yeah made a good call

We only saw one couple camping then some yahoo that drove his Jeep almost into the lake so he could take pictures of it. It is a nice place to camp though if you found yourself in that area.