(Connor Fields) On today's episode of Outdoor Nevada, I travel north to Elko.

Here I meet up with Joe from the Elko Fly Shop for some fly tying, a lesson in casting, and fishing in Lamoille Canyon.

Then I visit The Star Hotel, established in 1910, where Basque culture and traditions are alive and well.

And finally, I hiked the Sky Island trail with James from the US Forest Service to an amazing glacier lake.

All this and more right now.

♪♪♪ I'm Connor Fields, your new host for my favorite show Outdoor Nevada.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ -Hey, good morning, Joe.

How you doing?

(Joe Doucette) I'm Well.

Good morning.

-My name is Connor.

I am super excited to be here.

-I'm excited to have you here.

-I hear you can show me how to fly fish.

-I hope we can do the job for you.

[laughter] -Fly Fishing is a lot of fun.

You can make it as simple or as hard or as inexpensive or expensive as you want.

It's just up to the individual.

-All right.

I have some questions, because I don't know much about fly fishing.

-Perfect.

-What is the main difference between fly fishing and other types of angling?

-So there's two main differences: Number one, because we're primarily fishing for trout, but you can fish for any species with it, is you're imitating the actual food that they eat.

-Okay.

-Trout are insectivores.

They are predators that eat primarily aquatic insects.

So you are imitating with the flies, that's why they call it fly fishing, the aquatic insects that they're eating.

Then the other difference is the equipment.

So in spin fishing or baitcasting, you're actually casting the weight of the lure or the weights or the bobbers.

In fly fishing, flies are really light.

They provide no weight.

So what you're doing is you're casting a weighted line, and the fly is just going along for the ride.

So the techniques are a little bit different, especially in the way you cast the rod.

-Okay.

-And a lot of people think fly fishing is complicated.

Like I said earlier, it can be as simple or as complicated as you want.

When I first started back in my early 20s, Oh, it's a brown bug.

It's about this big.

What do I got that looks like it?

I caught fish!

And you can do that.

You don't have to know, Oh, that's a stonefly.

That's a caddisfly.

This is a mayfly.

You don't have to know all that stuff.

And then if you go to your local fly shop, they can help you get going.

And then the Department of Wildlife, for those who really want to get started, they offer free fly fishing classes.

And you can try it without investing any money in the gear, because they'll provide the gear if you don't have it.

-Oh, wow.

-If you go to the Department of Wildlife, Nevada Department of Wildlife's webpage, which is ndow.org, go to their education page, they'll have a list of classes coming up.

In Northern Nevada, they generally do those classes in the spring and the summer.

In Southern Nevada, they generally do them in the winter.

So it just depends on the time of year, what part of the state you're in.

And they're free; they cost nothing.

All you got to have is a fishing license.

-And so this shop here, you've had it for how long?

-15 years.

This is our 15th anniversary this year.

-Oh, well, congratulations on that.

-Thank you.

-And so do people come from all over the state, all over the country, or is it mostly locals?

-I get a lot of calls because I'm only open a few hours a day.

I get calls from both locals and out of state.

We get a lot of people from Utah, California, and Idaho in.

But I've had people from all over the country.

In fact, I had a customer from Australia.

His daughter works here in the mining industry, and he comes twice a year.

We've turned into good friends.

And back three weeks ago, we were up in Idaho fishing together.

So you meet a lot of cool people fly fishing, and most fly fishermen, when you meet them on the water, are more than willing to share their expertise with you.

-Every once in a while, somebody says, Oh, I've only been doing it a year.

And you say, I've only been doing it a week.

Can you help me?

And they will.

[laughter] -So it's a lot of fun.

And you know with a an hour or two of casting lessons, and then morning on the water, most people get started to go out by themselves.

-I hope you're right.

Do you want to start off with maybe tying some flies?

-Let's tie some flies.

♪♪♪ -All right.

So let's learn to tie a fly.

It's fairly simple.

We've got to give you some equipment we have.

-Now, don't get me wrong.

I appreciate Joe, but we can't show the whole process of tying the fly.

Why, you ask?

Well, it took a half hour.

Joe was incredibly detailed and attentive to every step of the process.

We walked through the tools, the pieces and parts of the fly, the reasons behind the pieces and parts, and in the end, I successfully made my very first fly.

I'll be using that when we head out to fish.

Next up, learning how to use the fly, rod, and reel.

And for that, Joe took me to a local park for a lesson.

-Being able to learn from a guy like Joe is amazing.

He has the patience of a saint and the knowledge of a pro.

He walked me through the action of the rod, the use of the reel, and the technique of casting.

And I gotta tell you, the casting... not easy.

-There are four parts to the cast, and I don't want you to do them.

I just want you to watch me.

So the first thing is that we have to lift the line off the water, we power, cast, drop.

You'll notice the tip of my line is going like one o'clock, eleven o'clock; one o'clock, eleven o'clock.

I'm keeping it here.

-We went through the basics to get a feel for the rod, a feel for the line, and the motion of the cast.

Quick note: Because we are doing this in a park, there is no hook at the end of the line.

Joe tied a small piece of yarn on the end of the line to mimic the feel of a fly.

Safety first.

After some coaching, it was time for me to cast.

Now, I know all about practice.

This casting with a fly rod is all about just that: practice, practice, and more practice.

It took a minute, but I finally felt pretty good about it all.

I think I'm ready for the real thing.

But that's for tomorrow.

-There you go.

-That was the best one I've done yet.

-Very good.

-Everything about that one felt smooth.

Next, it's time to take in a bit of Northern Nevada culture.

For over 100 years, The Star has been an Elko staple and still is.

It's been a home away from home for ranchers and herders who emigrated to America for the chance at a better life, the majority being of Basque heritage.

The Basque country is located in the region of Northern Spain and Southwestern France.

The Basque people are known for their unique culture and strong sense of identity.

The vibe of The Star is like a museum featuring a rich family history steeped in Basque traditions with Elko as its new home.

The pictures tell a story of a proud and hardworking people.

You see it and feel it.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Scott, the current owner of The Star Hotel, and Scott's parents to talk about the Basque culture and his father's life as a sheepherder.

(Scott Ygoa) The way they handled the sheepherders in this area, what they do is in the summers, they come--and our summer range here was like the Ruby Mountain area--they come into the Rubys, and then you slowly start.

Like right now, they're going south.

They'll go down to Tonopah or-- (Alfonso) Lower.

-That's for warmer weather?

-Because plus, it gets snow, less snow.

-So if they have snow, they can't eat?

-Yeah.

They feed all the way down, and they get down by Mina.

-Mina.

They turn around in Mina.

-Mina is down, way down south.

(Mary) They trail.

They walked them all that way.

-That's walking all the way with the sheep camp.

-300 miles.

-And then by-- -Do you use horses or dogs?

How do you kind of help guide them?

-We had dogs.

-Yeah, they had dogs.

-And horses, yeah.

But the sheep knows.

-They know the trail because they've done it for so many-- the older sheep knows.

-It's instinctual?

-Yes.

In the springtime and like the end of February or so, them sheep, they knew.

They turn around, they head back.

-They start coming back.

-Exactly the same way.

-Isn't that crazy?

300-some miles, and they'll slowly start working their way back.

I have respect for these guys that came over, young and just you're walking every day, miles and miles on your feet.

-28 days.

-And very lonely.

They wore out a pair of boots in 28 days.

A lot of people passed through here that came here with nothing, you know, and worked hard.

And that's my goal is to keep that going.

That's what drives me every day.

-Somebody's gonna drive through Elko.

Why should they stop by The Star Hotel?

-If you want to get a little bit of a history of Elko, The Star is really the place.

-And the food.

-The food is good too.

-Now, I'm not saying I was hoping for it, but I was hoping for it.

Scott asked me if I was hungry.

For those of you who don't know me, the answer to that is yes, always.

I am always hungry.

And I'll tell you what, this meal did not disappoint.

Had a little bit of everything.

We had wine, cabbage, soup, salad, bread, green beans, spaghetti, french fries, beans, lamb chops, and garlic, lots and lots of garlic.

It was a meal on top of a meal, a legit Basque bounty.

Chunks of garlic on top.

-This place is a very special place.

You know, it's... -It's cool for me.

I can really tell how much this place means to you and how much you've poured your heart and your soul into this.

And I think it's really special.

Cheers!

-Yep.

Thank you.

-Wow!

That was so cool.

When I woke up this morning, I had never even heard of the Basque culture.

And to be embraced like I was here at The Star Hotel, learn about it, try their food, and hear some of the history and how Nevada embraced them was one of the most special experiences that I have ever had.

I'll definitely be back.

Tomorrow it's time to give fly fishing a try with Joe.

♪♪♪ -It was up at the crack of dawn, gear up, bundle up, and hopefully remember everything that I learned the day before.

Joe had a spot picked out.

We made our way through the brush, over a stream, to an overview of the beaver pond.

We talked through some important details before we got to our spot.

-So a couple things to think about when you're going fishing: not just having fun, but also being fairly safe.

We have the polarized sunglasses.

The idea behind the polarized sunglasses is twofold: One, it lets you see through the glare on the surface of the water so that you can actually see the fish that you're-- you know, see where they're at.

A lot of times with a brand new water that you've never been to before, you'll want to get up a high point and get a lay of the land or lay of the water, so to speak.

And then the other thing that the sunglasses do, you can feel the breeze we have up here.

It's probably about 8-10 miles an hour right now.

It's a down-canyon breeze because it's morning.

In the afternoon, it'll be an up-canyon breeze as the air warms up and moves higher.

But it can move your flying or fly line around.

And so this helps protect your eyes.

And then finally what I recommend is always leave a trip plan at home with somebody responsible.

Three Ws: where you're going-- okay, we're in Lamoille Canyon on Lamoille Creek.

It's not that big of an area, because the creek is all along the road, that somebody can find us if something were to happen, relatively quickly-- when you're going to be back, and then who you're with.

And who you're with, if you're by yourself, description of your vehicle, license plate number, that kind of stuff.

If you're with somebody else in their vehicle, again, the same thing.

It's easier to find a vehicle than a person.

And so you put all these things together and, as a general rule, you will, if something does happen to you, God forbid, they can find you in time to help you.

Dress in layers, because as the day goes along, it warms up and you can take those layers off.

And if you've got a bit of a hike, let's say you're going to a high mountain lake, take that outer layer off before you start hiking up, because you'll get too hot and sweat.

And then what happens is that sweat gets your clothes wet, that perspiration gets your clothes wet, and now you can become hypothermic very easily.

Because when you get up to the lake, Oh, I'm hot, you take it off.

Now you're exposed to the winds.

And hypothermia can occur at 60 degrees as long as you're-- if you're wet.

I always carry an extra set of clothes in the car when I'm fishing because believe it or not, I have fallen in the water before.

And so hypothermia.

Moisture is your biggest danger.

So if you can stay dry even when it's cool, you're okay.

-Once we quietly settled in, I got right to it.

The thing about fishing, it's all about patience.

I really enjoyed the fishing.

I did.

Joe was great too.

He continued to help me with tips and support.

What really struck me was being able to slow things down and be present in the moment.

It really is a decompression, a calm.

The location also helped.

Lamoille Canyon in the Ruby Mountains is incredible.

It's so beautiful, especially now in the fall.

The leaves are changing.

The mountain peaks are capped with fresh snow.

If you've never been here, put it on your list.

It is truly incredible.

Suddenly, a bite.

And another.

Then it happened.

I caught a fish.

-You ready for it?

Boom!

Fish.

I know, I know.

But it is a trout, and I caught it.

It's actually bigger than it looks.

Joe's hands are just huge.

We caught a few more, six in total, all of them needing some more time to grow.

Nonetheless, an amazing day for my first time fly fishing.

I wouldn't have cared if I didn't catch a thing.

I mean, look where I am!

And you know, the day wasn't over.

Next, I was meeting up with James from the US Forest Service to take a little hike.

♪♪♪ -All right, James, we are here in Lamoille Canyon.

It is absolutely breathtaking up here.

Tell me a little bit about the canyon.

(James) So, yeah, we're here in Lamoille Canyon on the Humboldt Toiyabe National Forest.

And the canyon is a glacially carved canyon that faces to the north, and it provides a lot of neat recreational opportunities for forest visitors to come engage in.

It's got a paved road all the way to the end, a couple of vault toilets, and it's got three different trails that come out of it.

One is a national recreational trail, and the one we're going to hike on today, the Island Lake trail.

-Why is it called the Island Lake trail?

-It has the eponymous Island Lake at the end of it.

-I guess that makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

-It does.

-All right, let's do it.

-Cool beans.

-The Island Lake trail is four miles roundtrip.

The hike is rated easy to moderate.

The trailhead sits at an elevation of 8,780 feet.

The lake is at 9,720 feet, a little under a 1,000 foot elevation gain.

It's beautiful right now doing it in the fall.

-Yeah.

Couldn't ask for anything better, could you?

-I bet being part of the Forest Service, you probably know every kind of tree that we're going to walk by today.

-I could name a few.

-Let's test you.

What's that?

-Well, that's actually not a tree.

It's the remnants of some grass.

[laughter] -So that wasn't the best test, but James passed.

Kidding aside, James is great to hike with.

He's super knowledgeable about a wide variety of topics.

One of those I wasn't too thrilled about.

All right.

You just picked this up and made it look so easy.

That thing is disgusting!

What the heck is it?

-So this is a Mormon cricket.

And this year was a pretty incredible year.

They are a native species that's like a migratory insect, and they-- I guess they're making it up here a little bit later than they were lower down where they were quite the pest.

And so this one is, you know, doing its thing.

-Are they venomous?

That looks like a big stinger on the bottom.

-No, they're not venomous.

But they do have this apparatus to use to essentially regenerate their next year's worth of themselves.

And so they use this to put eggs into the ground, and then you'll have more Mormon crickets next year.

-I don't like that.

-It's a tough life.

-What do they eat?

Are they just eating other smaller bugs?

-Well, you know, I don't know for sure.

But being that they're a cricket and, you know, some crickets will eat each other.

Like, they do eat each other.

-Cannibal crickets?

-Yeah.

But I don't know for sure.

That's a great question.

-Well, you know, what?

What are you gonna do, take him with us, put him in your pocket?

-We could eat it.

-Okay, I'm done!

I'm leaving.

See ya!

[laughter] ♪♪♪ -Yeah.

So, no, I am not into the whole bug thing.

I know a lot of people are.

All good.

It's just not my thing.

Moving on.

So far, this is a great hike.

The trail itself is clear and even.

It's a gradual incline with crazy views.

As of right now, this hike is in my top five.

And if the payoff is as amazing as everyone has told me, it could bump up closer to number one.

Here's the thing: If you had shown me a picture of the Ruby Mountains, I would have never guessed that it was in Nevada.

People have called this area the Swiss Alps of Nevada, and I totally understand why.

Here I am hiking along the canyon that was carved out by a glacier on my way to a glacier lake right here in Nevada.

Pretty cool.

With everything to see, I did notice the further we moved up the trail, the more trees there were.

And as James pointed out, there is more going on with these trees than I knew.

Oh, wow!

We came over this ridge.

It looks totally different over here.

There's a whole lot more trees.

-Yeah.

-What's going on here?

-There's a couple of things.

One of the reasons that there's more trees is that the aspect is starting to change, and so we're starting to have more of a north face.

So there's more shade, more moisture, and more trees.

But then also you may notice that some of the trees are dying or dead already.

-This, all these right here are.

-Yeah.

So that's a great example of a couple of issues that we have going on, on this forest, and in some cases, all across the West, where all across the West, there's a bark beetle that is getting into trees.

And it burrows in, and it causes the trees to put sap out.

And it just drains the tree, essentially, of its life force.

-Is the sap like its defense mechanism, they're trying to get rid of beetles by using the sap?

-Sort of.

What it's kind of doing is plugging that hole that the beetle has bored in and stop it that way.

But it can only do so much, because the sap also is what has nutrient uptake to the tree.

So without that sap, it's like our blood.

We can get cut only so many times.

-Right.

-Then the other thing that we have going on with some of our five-needle pines, like whitebark, bristlecone, and limber is that they have this rust.

There's some kind of other pathogen that is carried by another native plant.

But it was introduced.

It's a foreign, non-native pathogen, and it also kills them off.

So they're really getting hurt.

-So a plant from a different part of the country or part of the world was brought here and planted, and the pathogen jumped from that to this tree?

-Essentially.

-Interesting.

It's like a tree flu almost.

-Kind of, yeah.

It's a rust that gets on it and affects it, and it'll eventually kill it off.

-We need some tree antibiotics.

-We're working on it.

-All right.

♪♪♪ -As we continued up the trail, I knew we were getting close.

A stream.

We crossed a small wooden bridge over the small stream, and James told me how come springtime, this small stream will transform into a raging waterfall, tumbling down from all of the winter snowmelt.

Another reason to come back.

-Glaciers once covered the Ruby Mountains, sculpting the landscape, creating depressions and basins where meltwater collected, ultimately forming alpine lakes like Island Lake.

It was glacial erosion that shaped the surrounding terrain, leaving behind all of this stunning scenery and distinctive features.

-When you go on a hike, there are so many moments: the effort, the challenges, the adventure, the sights and sounds, all of it.

A hike gives so much.

This hike gave me all of it, and it gave this... Oh, there it is!

-Oh, yeah.

-Wow!

♪♪♪ -I now see why they call it Island Lake.

-Yeah, it's incredible, isn't it?

-It's beautiful up here.

-Yeah.

-I will say this is a very random location for a lake.

Why here?

-It's a great example of like when we talked about the canyon itself, below.

There's a lot of glacial action here, a lot of glacial history, and so we have things like this that get created.

As glaciers move, they create little tarns.

-So is this like glacier melt or snow runoff, or what is it?

-The lake water that we see now is just more, you know, like last winter's snow melting and what little precipitation we get throughout the year with the lake can exist because of glacial action that in the last ice age was able to create this little pocket that-- -To catch it?

-Yeah.

-Beautiful.

Wow!

♪♪♪ -God, that's beautiful!

-Yeah, this is incredible.

-The snow on the side right now, as well.

-Yeah.

♪♪♪ -A little bit of everything up here.

♪♪♪ -James, thank you so much for bringing me up here.

That hike was gorgeous.

The view at the end, absolutely stunning.

What a day.

-Yeah, I agree Connor.

It's incredible.

Thanks for coming up here with me and just taking this amazing hike.

It's like two miles to get up here.

-Decent, decent little hike to get up here, for sure.

-Yeah.

-Quite a bit of elevation also.

-Yeah, 800 feet.

-Definitely feeling the altitude up here.

-Yeah, big climb.

I think it's-- we're at 9,600 feet up here.

-Well, I'm feeling snow coming down a little bit.

It's getting dark.

We should start heading back so we don't lose any light.

-That's a great idea.

-Lamoille Canyon as a whole is amazing.

This whole area.

Here, Elko, amazing!

A true testament to the spirit of Nevada, history, culture, a community with a strong foundation and hard work, dedication, traditions, with a connection to the land.

Now that I've been here, I can't wait to come back.

There is so much more to do.

So till next time, I'm Connor Fields, and this is Outdoor Nevada.

♪♪♪