Saturday, December 19, 2009

Tailwater Fishing, Wed December 16, 2009



Darren and I fished today at a nice little Tailwater south of Denver - and although it wasn't below zero, it was still cold as all hell.

Got there around 8am and it was about 7 degrees. Darren was immediately into fish - they were hitting eggs and jujubees all day - mostly yellow eggs and grey jujus. Basically any thread midge worked - mostly in a greyish color. Darren was catching them here and there while I was just trying to warm up. I snagged a little 15 inch brown right on the tip of his dorsal fin - not sure how I dragged him in, but it never broke off - just goes to show how strong that cartilage is.

The sun poked over the canyon around 11am and things started to heat up. Darren and I stopped at one spot in particular and just slayed them for over an hour. We had over 35 hook ups but only about 15 fish landed, but those fish were fun and fought nicely. We worked the hole from top to bottom a couple of times and then decided to move on. But not before this last beauty by Darren:





I'd love to show it to you, but unfortunately the fish couldn't wait to get back in the water. That bottom photo is the hog just after re-entry! Anyways, it was a nice fish indeed. Here are a couple more pics of that hole and the fish we landed:







We worked our way back to the parking lot - stopping for a brief time at the hole we originally started the day at (but had no luck in the morning) - we camped there for another hour and Darren again started hammering them on a small yellow egg. He pulled probably 8 fish out of there - and lost another dozen or so. This hole had some of the biggest fish we have ever seen in there - including a half dozen suckers that were easily 5 or 6 lbs. The prettiest fish had to be Snake River Cutt and a cuttbow that had an orange underside.





It was getting late and I wanted to see the infamous bend pool by the dam, so Darren took me up to the pool and I was astonished at how the fish could be stacked in there like cord wood. Literally there were 300 trout visible. Darren and I both slayed them in this hole for about 30 minutes - some were foul hooked, some were fairly hooked - none were all that big. The biggest fish of my day was this ugly girl - she was maybe 19 inches but her tail was decaying in the net.




We fished for a bit, but ultimately were in the car and out of the canyon about 3:45. Lots of fish were caught - many many many more were missed, and we my nuts are just starting to get defrosted as I type this. It was a very smooth trip - in and out, no delays, lots of fish and lots of stories (as usual).

Some of the craziest things we saw all day were a bald eagle at the head of the canyon, tons of kokanee carcasses, a 30 inch long blue carp, and two brown trout that looked like someone had cut the middle section of their bodies out and glued the head and tail back together - they looked like Bass (a new breed of fish known as Br-ass).



It was a great day - thanks for taking me Darren!

And here are some artsy photos from the day:



Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Daytrippin' Utah Style

Great video out there on Vimeo by Ian & Neil Provo - amazing stuff with a Canon 5D2 DSLR. Love the crispness of the video and the stills - great software work on putting it all together and adding effects. Cool stuff.

Fisherman Style from Ian Provo on Vimeo.



I wish I had a buddy who was this photo-taking inclined and wouldn't just leave the camera in the bag and fish all day.....

Hot Wire (Ultra) Prince - FOTD

I just saw this on Reno Trout Envy and love the Hot Wire Prince - aka the Ultra Prince - great little tie and a great pattern on the Arkansas River here in Colorado.





Great looking ties Brian!

The Ultra Prince from the Platte River Fly Shop up in Wyo ties a killer pattern very similar as well:



Being that it is supposed to be -18* tonight - I am only dreaming about fly fishing!

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Step by Step Para-Hackles - FOTD

Step by step Para Hackles (made very easy) by GlobalFlyFisher!.

I never understood how to make the hackle stand up so nicely - and this is a very "how to" method. I will be tying some of these very soon!

Step 9:


Step 10:


Step 11:


Man, this tutorial is excellent! Thanks again GFF!

Killer Scuds - FOTD

Wow, just wow - check out these beautiful killer scuds put together by LuciV.

Great photos as well - showing you exactly how to tie them.







The detail in these photos shows just how amazing these scuds look. And using CDC is a brilliant idea.

Thank you again LuciV for being a repeat offender here on CMFS!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

PTs

I scored a bunch of fresh pheasant tails from my buddy Scott today:




And put them to very good use!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

My Depth Charge Bird's Nest

 

 


Just a couple I pounded out tonight. I figured out on fly #4 how to do the biots, but still having problems getting the hackle to lay down flat.

Depth Charge Bird's Nest - FOTD

I love this fly - it was featured in Fly Fisherman Mag last month and I just like the way it looks. I wish I could tie these as good as these look - I need to spend some more time on these, and I should get better.




See instructions on how to tie it here.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

CarlP's BWO Nymph - FOTD

 

 

 


Well, at least my version of it! Check it out at CarlP's Blog.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Little Trigger Baetis - FOTD



These little beauties by Dubb J B (from Carbondale, CO!!) are going to be next on my tying bench - they look easy to tie and super effective! You can also change up the coloration pretty easily between olive/tan/black/red as needed. Nice ties!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

HDR Photography



Photo by Coy Aune.

Flickr truly is an amazing place of some very very talented photographers. I love HDR photography - and wish I had a good camera that takes different exposures manually - but I'm a point and shoot guy. Of course being damn good at PhotoShop helps too.

It is very difficult to get a good HDR photo from shots of a trout - because you need to hold it still long enough to get 2 or more different exposure photos, but if anyone finds one, email the link!

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

David Burdeny Photography - ICEBERGS


Wow, just wow. Take a look at his website and you will be in awe of some of these images. I have no idea how he does these photos, but they are pretty amazing.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Drew Rush Photography


www.drewrush.com

I stumbled upon this great article by
This is Fly that spotlights Drew Rush, a outdoors guide who has guided everything from fishing to snowmobiles! And he has some amazing photography as well. He has some amazing work, some of which has been published in some of the magazines we all peruse, and has some photo tours on his site. I love fly fishing and outdoor photography, and he captures some breath taking images. Thanks Drew!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

North Park - Thur & Fri October 22-23, 2009

North Park - Thur & Fri October 22-23, 2009

The boys and I planned an overnight trip a great stillwater in North Park back in early September, and the day finally arrived. Planned for two weekdays (Thursday 1/2 day and all of Friday) of getting off work, I was very surprised that I managed to talk 4 of my buddies into skipping out and playing hookie! Shows how much of a good influence I am on them!

The plan was for Werm and myself to drive in one car, Kratt and Dave in another and Scott to come by himself with the boat. We all left at various times on Thur, but we all managed to land in North Park within 30 minutes of each other. Werm met me at my house around 12:30, I changed quick, threw everything in my truck and we were on the road by 12:45 or so. We had a pretty uneventful ride - went very smoothly and a stop at the Fraser Taco Bell.

Pulled into North Park around 4:30, and not 10 minutes later Kratt and Dave pulled in. We chatted, set up tents, pulled out gear and of course started drinking. Kratt, Dave and Werm all hit the shitter at various times to start the trip off right. Scott pulled in after taking a lap around the lake (the scenic route) about 25 minutes later. We chatted some more, put on our gear and hit the lake. Scott and I jumped in the boat and trolled the "outhouse". While the others belly boated-up and hit various spots on the lake. As soon as we set anchor I was into a nice fish on my nymph rig - and although I didn't get him to the boat (14' tippet/indicator rig) I did see he was a nice fish. Not a minute later and Scott was dragging in his first of the day on a streamer.



This was Scott's attempt to make the fish look longer. The crazy thing is that this fish crushed a size 4 streamer that had to be about 5 inches long! The fish were fiesty! Soon I had on a beauty on a streamer as well. It would prove to be my only fish landed on Thursday and one of my best for the whole trip.



Scott tore it up for the next 2 hours or so - working streamers off the bottom. The hot colors were orange/brown streamers, and the fish nailed them pretty good. Each fish got larger than the last and Scott kept pulling them in. I of course did my best net boy immitation and landed them all. It was great to be catching fish, but it was cold and it got dark there very very early (it seemed) and was pitch black by 6:30 or so.

The fish here are all around this size - 18 inches or so and fat as pigs. All are well fed, and they all vary in color and agressiveness. One thing that didn't differ is that Scott and I only caught rainbows - which is a disappointment because this time of year the browns are as colorful as ever.

We all met back at camp around 8pm, had some beers and decided to fish the North side. I have had luck here before, stripping streamers in the moonlight just off shore. It wasn't very good tonight and after only an hour or so, no hits, and getting cold - we all decided it was time to eat and drink. We got a roaring fire going and just sat around and talked smack (most directed at me).

Great headlamp pic of everyone chilling instead of stripping....streamers.

Scott feeling a little fuzzy, maybe it was all the Crown??? You think?!?!?

Dave and Kratt. Kratt always has the drunk smile on his face.

Somehow the flash worked on this pic, and caught Werm off guard!

8 jalepeno sausages later, 2 cases of beer, a bottle of Crown and some frost bite, and I called it a night (yes, I am the party pooper) - I rolled into the truck at midnight - the first to call it a night. I got a lot of ribbing for that, but I'm not much of a drinker, and those guys were passing around the Crown and were nice and warm. Plus, it was going to be a long day tomorrow.....

Friday

Friday started around 8am - which is when I rolled out of the truck and out into the frozen tundra of North Park. It had snowed slightly the night before and in front of me was a pile of lawn chairs, wither waders/boots/vests/belly boats and other gear frozen solid and covered in snow. We got the fire rolling and the sun popped up over the east mtns. You couldn't actually feel the sun in the 20 degree frozeness, but the fire was nice. We all put our gear around the fire to defrost and we ate breakfast - and Kratt broke out the Coors Lights. Yikes.

Around 8:30 we got a visit from Mark as he was rolling by headed to North. He was wide awake, and showed us some killer pics of the 23 inch brown he had caught the day before. This fish was spectacular - the kind of fish that most guys put on the wall. It was in full spawn colors and had a black under side to it - absolutely beautiful fish and a trophy for anyone except Mark and his posse who fish this place 50 or 60 times a year and know it like their remote control (in the dark, after a case of beer, even with out all their facilties - they can still push it's buttons!). I was so nice of Scott to get the hell up around 9:15. Of course he wasn't mobile for another half an hour. Crown Royal makes Scott's eyes squint for at least an hour or so after waking up.

It was a nice morning - just cold. Mark mentioned that they were dumping water into the lake and we should start at the inlet to try for the fish that were feeding near the highly oxygenated water there. The boys headed off to wade fish and Scott and I jumped in the boat. We pulled into the inlet and the guys started hooking up - Dave had the first, then Kratt, then Werm - all were slaying them. The fish were all beautiful and took the edge off a cold and windy morning.



Scott too started hooking up, including two beautiful slabs out of the back of the boat - both over 18 inches.

This is Scott's hangover fish, after this he was feeling a lot better!

I, of course, was pulling the big goose egg. I couldn't hook up with anything. Basically I was netting Scott fish and taking his picture, and he was letting me know it. Thank God he didn't ask me to tie on his flies or make him lunch. We kept fishing. We tried moving the boat over to North, but after launching it, we decided that the 2 foot chop was probably not our best bet. Werm and Scott fished a spot near the dam (where we did see a gorgeous 20 inch rainbow in about 4 inches of water - and a foot from the bank - fanning it's tail), with little luck. Werm did manage an ass hooked brown - the only one for all three of us. I moved down, fishing closer to the fence, but had zero luck. I was starting to get a little bummed and worried I'd get skunked.

We all met back at camp to eat some lunch - which was kind of a joke since we didn't feel like stopping fishing, but the bite was off. Werm decided to hit the spot right next to camp - and he parked there for 3 or 4 hours. Scott and I decided to try our luck on the far side of the lake, under the cover of the bluffs and scrub brush that provided some wind relief. It didn't provide any fish relief for me - and we both stunk it up. We decided to troll over to the inlet and I did manage a dink on a streamer. Of course 3 seconds later Scott yanked in a beast of a fish - this one had a beautiful black belly on him.



We trolled the bluffs next to the inlet and hooked and landed a couple more fish - nothing fancy. A few friends were fishing the inlet and we stopped to say hello - MarkB, Sam and Shoe were all on their way out, just trying their luck at the inlet before heading home. It was great to meet up with some more RMF guys and put faces with screennames. We peaked at the browns that had run up into the skinny inlet and were trying to spawn next to the irrigation water flow nozzle. Damn things were colorful as hell and probably 20 inches and 7 lbs each. Of course you can't fish there, or net them, but they were fun to watch. We shot the shit for a bit, and then decided it was time to keep fishing as the day was winding down, and the wind was somewhat tolerable. We said goodbyes and jumped back in the boat.

We decided to troll over to where Werm was fishing next to camp, he was constantly into fish and we knew the spot was on fire. We got up close to him and set anchor. Scott again was slamming them - hooking one of his biggest fish yet - this thing was the size of an oar - literally!

Notice Scott still has the hangover face!



I did managed to get the skunk off in a good way, landing a few 16'ers and I did miss a much bigger fish that I had to horse because it was headed for the anchor.




Werm continued to tear it up to - he was nymphing an egg pattern no more than 70 feet away from us and had on 14 fish the whole time we were there. Here is one of his pics:



We were about done around 5:30 and headed for the boat ramp. On the way there we decided to troll streamers for one last chance. We got about 100 yards away from the boat ramp when I got a slam, then Scott got a slam, then I lost my fish, then I had another fish on, then Scott landed his (a nice 16er), then I landed my fish (a dink of 13 inches), then we turned around and troll back (had to hit the spot again!).

I threw a cast into a foot of water and had a fish on immediately (another dink). We trolled down about 100 yards, and turned abck to the boat ramp. Within minutes Scott had a tank on, this fish was big and wasn't giving him an inch. The fish took forever to reel in, yet never showed itself to us. The boat was going in circles as Scott faught the pig. He got it within 15 feet of the boat, but it was getting too dark to see it - and finally it broke him off. He was pretty bummed, but not nearly as bummed as I was when my line got caught in the prop and broke off. We knew that was a sign the day was over and headed in. We trailored the boat and headed back to camp.

Kratt and Dave had already headed out, Werm had broken down camp and was drinking anything with alcohol in sight, and we knew the day was done. We said our goodbyes, and hit the road at around 6:20pm. It was already dark and the ride home would be a nervous one crossing Willow Creek Pass in the dark. Werm and I hit McD's in WP, and then I had to do a slight pitstop on I70 somewhere in Evergreen to drop a biscuit - it was a brief stop - yank the truck off the road, hit the hazards, grab the tp, drop the drawers, squeeze, wipe, back in the truck. (Ok Werm, are you happy???). We hit Jenny's Market so I could finish and Werm could smoke 6 cigarettes that he couldn't have in the truck (nearly killed him too).

We were at my house at 9:30 and Werm was on his way back to the big P a few minutes later.

It was a good trip - the fishing was ok, nothing spectacular. We didn't catch the big one, no one caught a fish over 18 inches or so. Actually we all had big fish on that we all swore would have broken that 20 inch barrier - but of course the big ones always get away. It was ok weather, so sun, a ton of wind and freezing cold. The best part of the trip was the company - we all (except Dave) knew each other from the RMF board, but none had fished together (I was the guy who had fished with Scott and Werm) or even met each other. We all had a blast - ripping on each other when needed and keeping the egos in check. I did receive a FryFish beat down by Scott, who has now passed my in # of fish and size of fish in our brief angler buddy history. He was quick to point this out, just as I was on previous trips. We had some good laughs (Kratt falling on his ass off the bank and into the water), some bad laughs (I scared the shit out of Scott about 15 times jumping around in the boat - he thought he was going in), and some bad luck (Scott's boat ate Werm's and my fly lines!), but it all worked out! Everyone got there and home safely, everyone caught fish, everyone shortened their lives by drinking too much and eating jalepeno sausages.

Thanks for the good times boys!

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Poppers - FOTD

I don't do any popper fishing, but these beauties by LuciV are some great looking bass/panfish flies. Not only that, but they were made in Transylvania! Which is cool in it's own right! Thanks for some great looking poppers.





Friday, October 16, 2009

Hot Wire Stone - FOTD

Awesome pattern by Fly Slinger over on FTF.






I saw a great pattern this past weekend - a golden stone tied by CarlP - and I really like this pattern as it adds a ton of weight with the wire body. Also, you can get very creative with the colors of wire - I would tie this pattern with hot yellow wire - I just like that color!

Thanks Fly Slinger and welcome to the FOTD!