Fishing in Granby

 

 

 

Stoned!

I was at the fly shop this weekend and saw some really cool stonefly patterns - of course I don't think I can tie them - hotwire, 20 inchers, turkey biots, on and on. So I've done some research on the net and come up with a couple of cool patterns. Please feel free to send me links to a few more.

Black Stonefly



Rubber Legs




Black Biot Stone



Yellow Stone



Hotwire StoneFly




FlackBack Brown Stone




Brown Tubing Rubber Legs Stone

Awesome Possum by Wapsi ROCKS!

I'm not much of a dubber, actually I own very few types of dubbing - mostly just antron and a few other various flavors that just get me by. I found a fly pattern on the internet that I really liked and couldn't tie the pattern with the antron dubbing crap I have - yes, I had the right colors, but it wasn't "stringy" enough - it needed more "guard hairs" (I found out what these were called) too make the pattern look much more buggy.

I wasn't exactly sure what to look for - I knew I needed to hit one of the fly shops in my area - and I knew that the best shop in the area was Anglers All on Santa Fe in Littleton. So Avi and I headed over on Sunday to check them out - they have some of the best selections of Awesome Possum by Wapsi dubbings and so much more.



Avi loves playing with Bridger the black lab, but he was away on vacation in BC this time - so I had to bribe her with a fruit snack to be good. She played with the foam bodies and checked out all of the fly boxes (as usual) - and she did well not to get into too much trouble (or hurt herself). I found the dubbing and in the perfect colors for the new fly. The fly is known as the Orange Caddis (a BlueAngler pattern).




I tied up a handful on Sunday night while watching football and really like how they look. I can not wait to try them this weekend. Hopefully I will get into some fish this weekend - as I have a day off and some of my buddies are able to come, I think I am going to do a full day trip up in the the Granby/Tabernash area. We should see some browns and maybe a Koke (if we hit a different area). Should be a good time.

Week 3 - Steelers lose to Philly

What a miserable game - absolutely bad. No other way to explain it - the offense just could not get any momentum and the OLine sucked. When Willie Parker can't get 2 yards a carry - that is s very bad sign.

The obvious problem with the game was teh offensive line that allowed 12 or so sacks - it was just stupid how poorly these guys played and the fact that we couldn't change the protection at halftime has me a bit concerned. Yes, I agree that many of those sacks are on Roethlisberger - due to him moving around and stepping into defenders. It makes it very very hard for an OLine to create a pocket around the QB when the QB is constantly moving.

I'm not sure what the Steelers coaches were game planning - when you have pressure like that on blitzes, just dump the ball off to the blitzing side - but Ben just couldn't do it. And they kept getting eaten up - which is dumb, because the Eagles didn't change their defense all game. That is a bad sign. A winning team knows how to shift their skills to take advantage of changes in their game plan and coverages mid game. We obviously are not that team. It seemed like Tomlin was just waiting for the Steelers to do something on Defense and win that game.

The defense played very well - holding the Eagles to 13 points and numerous turn overs and big stops. An offense has to be able to score more than 15 points every game - or else you should expect not to win.

I was not impressed with the D as much as I probably should be - Woodley played ok (although I caught him taking a play or two off on runs to the other side), Polamalu played well, Ryan Clark played well too, Timmons played well in spurts, but he kind of disappeared. The run defense was decent. But, they couldn't stop the screen plays - which is unacceptable with the LBs we have.

The offense was pitiful - Heath Miller was a bright spot I guess. Other than that they were sh!t.

I'm disgusted just remembering this game. Oh, and Philly fans are horrible - I heard crickets a few times in that stadium during the game.

Steelers beat the Clowns

Ok, I still like this team - although we weren't as impressive on Defense in Week 2 against the Browns. The Browns are better than the Texans, they have more offensive weapons and seem to play the run a little better. That said, the weather really slowed the Steelers down - wind and rain played a major role in the low scoring game.

What I was impressed with:

Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes are great receivers - and they make Ben look good.

Ben makes a lot of good decisions - but he still holds onto the ball a lot. I will never understand how he holds onto so many balls when he is getting smacked and tackled.

I still love Heath Miller.

Jeff Reed is money.

Casey Hampton looked good.

10-0 vs the Browns!

What I wasn't impressed with:

Where were the LBs today? No pressure on the QB - that is bad news.

Polamula can't jump - two balls he should have batted away after the receiver caught the ball - but instead he jumped for the ball instead of playing defense and batting it away.

Our Fullback (Carey Davis) does not impress me at all. When Krieder was here he would make 2 or 3 pancake blocks on some LB during each game - we don't have that anymore.

Where is Nate Washington? Where is Dallas Baker? Limas Sweed? We have more than 3 receivers.

Mitch Berger waits too long to punt - I'm nervous about it.

Sodded the Yard

Took Friday off and sodded the back yard in 2 days.

Friday was rainy and crappy, but I started anyways - kept the bugs down which was nice. Sod cut the whole thing and moved it to the curb/side of the house/hill where Cabo runs. John the nieghbor helped me move about 30 wheel barrels. Paul showed up at 3pm and started on the sprinklers. I spread 30 barrels full of compost - only about 1/4 the pile in the driveway. I stopped around 7pm.

Day 2 - started at 9am, the boys were waiting for me. They started moving dirt while I helped Paul finish the sprinklers. About 10:30 we started spreading the dirt to thin and level it out. At about noon we started laying the sod - Eric/Dan/Steve/Johnny/Paul and me - done around 3pm. Clean up wasn't much fun either. I have 1/3 a pallet of sod left and a huge mess in the front yard for them to throw away. Let's hope they take it on Monday when they come and pick up those bags.

Here are some pics.

Hockey 9/11 - Thursday League - Championship Game

Game 3 of the playoffs
I've been in 4 championships in hockey and lost them all
no goals, no assists
the kids were amazing - we were down 5-0 to start, we won 8-6

my first championship in inline hockey - I got a t-shirt

referees were HORRIBLE as usual

Hockey 9/11 - Thursday League

Game 2 of playoffs
no goals, no assists
played D
played with the kids and John the goalie
we lead the game 5-2 quickly and then we were losing in the third 7-6
but we won 8-7
1 penalty for "kicking" although the ref admitted he wasn't sure if "kicking" was even a penalty
we played at 9 for the championship game

Foam Biot Emerger

Hey Scott - I figured I'd make a post for you on one of my favorite patterns to tie - I haven't had a chance to fish it yet. Someone gave it to me in a fly swap and I liked it a lot - I tie it slightly different with wire rather than a biot - but it is essentially the same thing.




I tie these in multiple colors - olive, grey, brown, tan, black - might even try red. I mix and match the color of the body and the the color of the antron. For instance I might use an olive body and white antron - or olive body and brown antron.

I assume you would fish it behind a dry as a dropper, or you could fish a couple of these unweighted as nymphs.

Send me your address and I will send you a few to try - my email is brandon722@yahoo.com

Steelers look good!!!

I'm impressed - simply impressed.  The Steelers looked amazing - offense was super efficient, while the defense was stifling.  The hits were hard, whether it is the offense slamming into guys or the defense slamming Schaub in the dirt - the team played smash mouth football. 

These are my observations:

Heath Miller - I have so much man love for this guy - he catches everything, and he stretchs out the defense because they can't handle him.  Ben has so much trust in him that he knows Miller will catch anything and get the first down.  Oh, and the guy can not be tackled by one tackler - he carries two or three guys with him.

Aaron Smith - it's great to have you back. Seriously - the guy was filling holes and in on a lot of pressures and tackles. I saw him sprint out on a screen and disrupt the play as well - nicely done. Welcome back big guy - we missed you.

Ryan Clark is a hitter - he slams into the run and whacks receivers constantly.  He went out hurt in the game, but came back to bitch slap a guy later on.  Yes he got a penalty late in the game, but it would have been a TD had he not.  We missed his presence last season.

The OL was tough. Mario Williams beat Smith once but MW is awesome. Williams was invisible after the first quarter though. The OL got better as the game went on. 

The LBs are unreal. We will easily lead the league in sacks - although I think they didn't try rushing all the time.  The pressure is amazing - the LBs were everywhere and physical.  Farrior is an animal - and Woodley will be the AFC defender of the week.

Ben had only we completions and 137 yards - but he was money. No mistakes, nothing fancy, accurate passing, don't do too much. Smart smart smart.

ST were good - no mistakes, nothing fancy.

Hines Ward is amazing.  He got a BS penalty on a PI against a LB who was grabbing him.  But he did manage 2 TDs. He just keeps smilin'.

FWP is simply an amazing back - somehow he had 130+ yards and 3 TDs.  He had a nice 30 yard run at the end of the game - then he came out and Mendenhall came in. 

Mendy looked mediocre - but I'm gald he got a chance to play. He'll give FWP a nice rest.  I would have liked to see the Steelers throw him (or any other RB) a pass.

I feel bad for that rookie left tackle for the Texans.

Reed is money.

Tomlin is money.

1-0, bring on the Clowns.

Flies to Tie this Winter

These are the flies I have to tie this winter:

RS2

Killer Midges

Mercury Midge

Black Mercury Midge

Black Beauty

WD40

Chironomid Bomber

Zebra Midge

Pheasant Tails - with legs

Copper Johns

Skinny Nelson Flashback

Scud/Czech

Baetis Emerger

Ultra Prince

Tricos

Hare's Ear - Olive

Green Machines


Larva

More to come....

Hockey 9/4 - Thursday League

first playoff game
no goals, no assists
played D
played with the kids
John was the goalie
played against Chris the goalie
Chris stoned me 4 times - one went off his hand then post then hand again and fell at his feet
won 11-2

Manny again!

I turned my Red Sox calendar to September today and there he was - Manny Frickin' Ramirez. I don't want to have to look at him all month. Bad enough he's hitting something like .450 with 10 HRs since leaving - which is a joke - because it just shows he wasn't really trying in Boston. The best part is? Even if he hit 1.000 he couldn't get those Dodgers into the playoffs!!