Tuesday, February 28, 2006

What's been new....

Well, I have some time to blow off here at work and wanted to write down some thoughts.

The last year and a half have been absolutely amazing to me - so good that I've been playing the lottery thinking I have a good shot at it!

October 2004 - the Red Sox beat the Yankees and Cardinals to win their first World Series in 86 years. They did this is amazing fashion - coming back from an 0-3 deficit to beat the Yankees and then sweeping teh Cards - that has never been done before - ever.

December 2004 - we finally get pregnant - I won't get into the details, but it took 11 months of trying.

December 2004 - we sell our condo and buy a house. Its an amazing house - and the condo was a pain in the ass to sell - finally.

December 2004 - I catch my first bonefish in Cozumel - an amazing experience.

April 2005 - first trip to the Bighorn River in MT - an amazing experience. Some of the best fishing of my life.

June 2005 - I finish my basement - my Red Sox (and now Steelers) shrine adds a bedroom, full bath and huge TV room to my house.

August 2005 - Avelyn Jade Edwards is born - in perfect health, and mom is perfect too.

January 2006 - Pittsburgh Steelers vs Denver Broncos - I go to the game, and watch the Steelers roll over the Broncos. Best part about it is that I will never have to listen to Bronco fans again.

February 2006 - Pittsburgh Steelers win the SB (honestly it hasn't sunk in yet) - and they do it in amazing fashion - winning 4 games on the road as a 6th wildcard seed.

I've been pretty blessed in the last 1.5 years or so. I'm hoping to continue this string of luck in the coming years.

In about a month the Red Sox start spring training - of which I am excited. The 6 weeks between Super Bowl and Opening Day Baseball are the most boring times of year. Of course we still have March Madness in between.

I have compiled a list of several places I want to fish this season - this will be a hard list to achieve with a new baby and my best fishing buddy about to have his 2nd - having the camper and a wife that likes to camp I may get lucky with some of these):

Bighorn River (in April)
RMNP (in summer)
Fryingpan/Roaring Fork
Williams Fork
Gunnison (in June)
Grey Reef (I'm dreamin')
Colorado float (Pump House to Radium)
Eleven Mile Canyon (probably during run-off)

I'm hoping to do a Yellowstone trip in the next 2 or 3 years. That is quite a hike for the family, but I know it will be a good one. I'd like to get up to the Cody, WY area and fish those parts too - I hear that there are some amazing water up there.

That's all from me. I'm going to try and post a little more often in this thing as time progresses - of course some of it might be Red Sox related - but oh well.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Sunday, February 26, 2006 - South Platte River, De

Sunday, February 26, 2006 - South Platte River, Deckers.
Flows about 160 cfs, clear water in the morning, soon after the water started rising and it became off color as thick as mud – capped out at 209 cfs (even higher below Muddy Creek). Weather was beautiful – bright blue sky, temps about 60 degrees.

Fished with Nate today – his first day out. Got down there a little after 11am. Fished down the dirt road first. Nate hooked a couple of small fish on a streamer/nymph rig. I went empty handed. We moved down to between the bridges. The water started to run a little off color and I thought it was because of Muddy Creek flowing in. I fished the far side of the island between the bridges. Right up above the lightning strike stump I was fishing a brown wooly bugger and wasn’t really paying attention when I got a slight strike and then a major pull. The fish slid down the river corridor a bit shaking its head furiously. I only had him on for maybe 15 seconds – the fish must have been over 22 inches long. I could see him as he shook his head. He broke me clear off – everything.

Some guy with a spin rod had hooked a nice rainbow on the other side of the island as I was standing there. A 10-inch rainbow that dragged him about 60 feet down the river. He said that there were two of them right up next to the bank – most likely spawning.

I fished up the island and back after that, then tried to go down to the bent log. The problem was that the water was getting darker and darker and it seemed to be getting slightly higher and harder. In one of the normal spots the water felt like it was going to sweep me away – which was pretty unusual. We decided to pack it in and leave. When I got home I looked up the cfs – 209 cfs and a bunch more for the run off from Muddy Creek.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Sunday, February 12, 2006 - South Platte River, De

Sunday, February 12, 2006 - South Platte River, Deckers.
Flows about 117 cfs, clear water in the morning, slightly off color by midday. Weather was beautiful – bright blue sky, temps about 45 degrees – very cold in the shade.

Fished with Chad again down in Deckers. After the previous weeks good luck I was ready to go. We met down at the first dirt road parking lot at around 11am. Chad had Quinn, so it was going to be a quick trip – which was fine because I wanted to get home too. I jumped in at the riffle right next to the head of the parking lot. Since the water was higher, this run looked pretty nice. As I was rigging up a streamer and nymph rig I could see the fish moving in the riffle. The water was gin clear and you could see sandy run areas between strips of rocks and green weeds – the fish would dash in and out.

I hooked an 11-inch rainbow right off that crashed the streamer, soon after I hooked a 12-inch rainbow that took the size 18 zebra midge. After that I was done. I proceeded to lose two green secret weapon streamers – not sure how, I think it was because of the tippet (the Wal Mart brand). After re-rigging twice I fished a nice little run on a bend. Chad had said he caught a huge fish there on Monday – but both of us worked the bend and the run and got nothing. Soon after I moved down to between the bridges – where again, I couldn’t scare up anything. I fished the streamer hard, but got nothing. I did see one small fish (maybe 7 inches) hit the streamer twice. We actually went back down the dirt road, but still could catch anything in Chad’s favorite spot – the Rock Garden. We decided to head home around 2:30.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Saturday, February 4, 2006 – South Platte River, D

Saturday, February 4, 2006 – South Platte River, Deckers
Cold morning about 30 degrees, warmer in the late morning about 52 degrees. Water was clear above Muddy Creek, slightly off color below it, flows about 54 cfs

Fished with Chad again – pretty good day of fishing. We fished the stretch of river by Wigwam first and then made our way back to the bridges. I hooked into a bunch of small rainbows right at the lot before Wigwam – most on size 20 gunmetal black midges. We fish down into the mini canyon down there and I hooked a couple more – nothing bigger than 10 inches. Chad had a slow morning, but started hooking up inside the canyon – including a nice 18-inch fat rainbow that we got a picture of. I was nymphing all morning and had limited results. On the other side of the canyon is a nice deep hole next to a rock that Chad let me jump in – on my second cast I hooked and landed a nice 16-inch rainbow – again, he was nice and fat.

I drove down to between the bridges while Chad walked the stretch – he had some amazing luck, hooking about 12 more on the trip to the bridges. I didn’t have much luck at all – so I decided to switch to a streamer and fish the section right after the first bridge. Well, I hooked 3 fish on that stream, a small 11-inch rainbow in cloudy water, a nice 15-inch fat rainbow in the same hole, and a small 11-inch brown trout a little further down. Chad fished the stretch just after the downed log and said he caught 4 fish in 20 minutes or so and all were larger than 20 inches – all on a streamer/mercury midge pattern. All told I caught about a dozen or so fish and Chad caught upwards of 35. A very nice day.