Antero Reservior - Thur, May 28, 2009

My buddy Darren and I hit up Antero on Thursday and we had a great time. Met him at his house at 5:30am, we hit Antero by 7:30am and on the water by 8am. The morning was dead still - no wind at all and we could see lots of jumpers. I brought the kayak with me and I'm glad we did. I have a 14 foot Advanced Elements inflatable kayak and although it wasn't built for "fishing" the thing is completely stable and with an anchor system you can get anywhere and hunker down. That is exactly what we did - we went to the North Boat ramp area and saw a bunch of fish jumping and decided this was a good spot. The kayak takes minutes to inflate, snap the seats in and we were on our way. We paddled over some weed beds and decided to anchor just on the far side of the weed beds and cast back into them. The first hour or so was pretty slow as we kind of got our bearings and our "feet wet".

I remember a small boat came trolling by and right in front of them I hooked into a monster. The fish wasn't fighting real hard, but it was towing me around like I was in a dingy. I tried to muscle him in with no luck, he just kept pulling me. Luckily we had the anchor down, so we didn't get towed too far. The fish swam sideways right under the boat, and it looked like a large mouth bass (not kidding). Darren said it was a silvery rainbow and no kidding the fish was 14 inches TALL! I would guess the fish was 5lbs plus. He popped off right under the boat, so we never got him in.

I got into a couple more fish, including a 14 inch sucker and then a nice 19 inch rainbow. The bow was thick and wouldn't fit all the way in the net. While popping the fly out of his mouth, he fell back into the water before any pictures were taken. Darren started nailing the fish soon after - landing numerous suckers, and the occasional football rainbow in between. The average sized rainbows were 14-16 inches and they fought awesome and were just so thick.



The fishing went off around 10:30 and then started picking up again around 11:30. Again, we were into lots of fish. Suddenly the belly boats and pontoons started circling us within 30 feet - I'm not kidding, these assholes were literally getting within casting distance of us. A couple of times these guys casted over our lines or were within 3 feet of our indicators. I made some loud mention of it, but they just didn't get the hint. The reason why this pisses me off so much is because outside of the 3 guys that were circling us within a 100 foot radius, there wasn't another boat within 600 yards! These guys were assholes, and if you were fishing Antero yesterday just east of the North Boat ramp you should be ashamed of yourself, if this was one of you guys. Next time I'll be pitching treble hooked streamers and I promise I can hit anything from 30 feet away.

Anyways, the fishing was good for another hour or so - still not a breath of wind. We could not believe how beautiful the day was - South Park is known for it's wind, but we weren't experiencing it. Of course with the good comes the bad, both of us had to pee like race horses, but no way we were moving from this spot! We contemplated peeing in a bottle, peeing in our waders, peeing at the belly boaters so close to us, but we sucked it up like true wader wearing gladiators. The 11:30 to 1pm fishing blitz was highlighted with Darren catching an 18 inch thick Snake River Cutthroat. The fish fought hard and was beautifully colored.



I had on a beautiful Hofer Rainbow about 17 inches as well - it was dark dark green and the coloration was beautiful, but again he popped off right in front of me. This one popped off because it is virtually impossible to land a fish when you have a 13 foot leader out and an indicator at the top - you can get the fish close, but it is a tug-o-war. We lost a lot of fish right close to the boat due to these reasons - that is just reservior fishing for you. I did lose another beauty, this one wouldn't show itself too much, and we could see it in about 4 ft of water as it circled the boat - it had white tipped fins and we were sure it was a splake or a brookie. When looking at pics I'm pretty sure it was a splake. It too was about 16 or 17 inches and fought nicely.

At about 1pm the wind kicked up and put a ton of chop on the water and the fishing shut off. The jackasses in the belly boats circling us got sick of getting skunked and had gone in for lunch. We decided to go in as well - to pee and eat. We took about an hour and rummaged around on shore and in the shallows looking for bugs, we were marvelling at how large the chironomids were and then Darren found a cool damsel nymph - the thing was huge (around 2.5 inches) and I tried taking a pic in macro mode (not so good):



We headed back out around 2:30 to the same spot - this time cutting through the wind and fighting the waves. We didn't catch anything consistently, but Darren caught one every 15 mins or so. Amazingly the wind stopped at around 4pm and again the reservoir was like glass. Darren continued to hammer them and landed a few more footballs.



I pretty much was on the skunk - which was ok with me. We wrapped it up around 5pm, and were packed and on the road by 5:30 headed home. It was a great day of fishing, although the fishing wasn't "on fire" it was certainly consistent. I think we did very very well for a bunch of rookies in an ugly kayak.

A couple of observations/comments from the day:
- Darren can cast a mile from the sitting position with a three fly weighted rig and 2 inch thingamabobber - he literally got about 60 feet on some of those casts.
- The kayak is so comfortable that Darren said it was like fishing "from a park bench" - as both of us would sit sideways in it with our feet in the water and fish the same water.
Sitting on the park bench fishing.
- We witnessed a 1 in a million day of weather at Antero - although the wind came up (and it looked like it would storm) it was mostly a calm day.
View in the morning.
- Lake fish look like footballs - seriously - how is it a 14 inch fish could be 8 inches tall/wide????
- I need a boat net - it's impossible to land big fish in a tiny net when you can't reach them. Two feet extra of length and a larger net is money.
- Bring beer, or an iPod, or a book, or something - bobber fishing is boring - even though you catch pigs, the waiting is extremely boring. Darren and I just ragged on each other all day - I'm glad he's not sensitive.
- If anyone is around the North Boat Ramp and finds a pile of fish lips and assholes, it's because Darren ripped them all off on his wild hook sets from 60 feet away. I'm apologizing to the fish on Darren's behalf.
- Man, is Colorado beautiful - the peaks and the background settings of South Park are beautiful.
- Always bring a good friend to put your thingamabobber on. Oh, and one that pays cash for gas too!
- When your buddy says "hey, can I see your fly box for a minute" always count the flies in it - so when it comes back with 25 less flies you have proof when you ask him "How many did you take?" and he says "1" you know he is lying. Just sayin'.
- When a sucker spews on you that is good luck - seriously, it is. It happened to Darren multiple times and he hammered them right afterwards, happened to me too and I did the same.
- The flies that were working were all size 16 - hare's ear, grey scuds, black thread, silver wire and grey dubbing chironomids, and a black chironomid with green holographic tinsel/super hair around the body. The white beads weren't really working yesterday.

Thanks Darren - it was a blast. We'll hit that other "lake" soon.

Some home made dubbing!

 

I didn't say that I made it! A friend of the blog - KBarton over at Singlebarbed.com hooked me up with some of this home made dubbing (straight out of the coffee grinder!) after I made a small donation to his addiction fund. His addiction - is it beer? whiskey? women's underwear? Although I can not rule those out, I do know he has a steady addiction for anything that looks buggy at the craft store. Yes, KBarton is a craft store junkie, ready to buy a skein of this or a dash of that and put it on a size 12 hook and throw it at fish and see if he'll eat it. (Imagine what he makes his kids eat???)

He has assured me that no old ladies at the craft store were harmed in the making of this here dubbing!

Great mixture and thanks again Singlebarbed! It will come in very handy.

Carp fishing at Chatfield

Well, I finally had the chance to get out and see if I could spook up some carp. This weekend has been crazy and I haven't been able to find any time - and the couple times I did have some time it was pouring rain (which it is right now again).

I took Cabo over around 3:30 today and we walked all the way out to the point. The inlet bay is dry - only a stale puddle of water and nothing in it at all. The open bay side was beautiful - the internet is saying the altitude of the lake is at 5429.29 ft, but that is still way too low. I seriously think it needs to come up at least a foot more and flood the bay again. The could happen over night with all this rain.

The bay was beautiful - complete wind free and like glass. Of course the huge fish were jumping out of the water - some were within 50 feet of me. I tried a carp slider and a damsel nymph, then dropped the damsel and tried a green streamer with bead chain eyes. Nothing, not even a bump. I think I blew up a couple hundred fish without knowing it - they probably swam right up to me in the dirty water and then blew it up getting away from me. The amazing part about the bay is that I can walk out 100 feet and it still isn't more than waist deep.

Well, long story short, no carp, and it's raining. We have gotten more rain in the past 4 days than I can every remember.

Chatfield Update

The water dropped over a foot since the last time I was there (a week). My inlet bay is completely dry and the lake side bay has easily receded about a foot and a half of shoreline.

But, I can still see the carp jumping and moving. The shallow water makes it easier to see them moving around. I plan on heading out (today) and fishing for them for a couple of hours.

I'll post how I did later in the day.

Chatfield is close!

I went over to Chatfield today with Cabo to check out Chatfield and see if the water has dropped and if the carp are starting to get their swerve on. I do have to save that due to some decent snow, some decent rain storms (in particular last night!) and some cooler weather, the Chatfield area is looking very very green - everything from the grass to the bushes to the trees is all green - it's nice to see.

The wind was up a little bit, but luckily the water was down. It is still about 6 inches too high, but they are letting a ton of water out the dam and down the Platte, so the reservoir should come way down some more. I walked all the way out to my bay, and made it all but the last 20 yards walking on dry land. I saw some guys walking around my flats with bows and arrows and round canisters on their bows. I assumed by the looks of this rig that this was carp fishing gear (not exactly the fishing I had in mind though). There was three of them and they were just kids. I chatted with them and they told me they got one 30 inch+ carp over in the shallow muddy bay and he was tied up over there. I felt a little bad knowing I lost a potential tug-a-war partner, but it is good to know that the fish are starting to show themselves.

However, today the fish weren't tailing, not getting their grooves on quite yet. I think we need about another week. However, the water was very warm - not sure if it was over 55 degrees, but probably pretty close. I stood in it up to my knees and was never really cold. I stood on the reservoir side and did see a couple of jumpers - one huge jumper in particular, but not as frequently as you do a little later in the year. I'm excited - we are about a week away and I plan on taking full advantage of it.

I'll keep you all posted, and drop me an email if anyone wants to join me on a carp hunt.

Stillwater Fishing - Fri/Sat May 8/9, 2009

I got a chance to still water fish for large trout with some friends from the RMF board - it was my buddy Steffan and I's first time for stripping streamers and lake nymphing. The trip was to an anonymous water about 4 hours from Denver. We left early afternoon on Friday - leaving work early made it possible to do some night fishing on Friday and fish all day on Saturday. We got up there around 6:30 or so, met our friend Mark at his camper, we said hello's, created our plan of attack and were fishing by 7:30 or so. We decided to strip streamers, it was just getting dark and the sun was bouncing off the mountains in the foreground - it made for a beautiful evening.



We were lucky enough to be up there under full moon conditions and we were blessed to get into some fish as the night got darker. The temps up here get cold very very fast, and it dropped from about 55 degrees when we arrived to the 30's by about 45 minutes after sun down. What made stripping difficult was that your fingers are always touching the wet line and when you catch fish your hands are wet when releasing fish.

We all caught fish - the first being a beautiful brown by Mark - he caught the 20 incher on a skinny streamer with big lead eyes and a fat body. Steffan hooked up next - a 20 inch rainbow that was spewing eggs into the net. She was a beauty and we were all pumped that we were into fish.



I switched rods and on the way back down to the water Mark was headed up - his hands were frozen and he was ready for some relief. I jumped back into his spot and hooked and landed a large 20 inch brown, the fish had some pretty muted colors, but was thick just the same.





The night continued to get colder - as we fished under a full moon. Steffan and I then traded fish - he caught another thick rainbow of about 20 inches that he dropped before I could get a picture of him holding it - I did get this picture in the net.



I hooked a 19 inch brown that was dramatically thinner than my first.





We were off the water by about 10:30 and back at camp. We set up a nice fire and drank some of Steffan's home brew - not too shabby!!



Steffan set up sleeping bag and mat outside in the cold and I slept in my waders in the truck with nothing but all the clothes I had and a blanket. Big mistake. I was frozen by 3:30am as the temperature dropped to a low of 22 degrees! I tossed and turned until 5:30 then decided I had to start the truck and get some heat. We also revived the fire and got that going. I napped in the warm truck until about 7:30 and then we decided to fish again. We took the kayak out and tried trolling streamers - to no avail. We did meet up next to a guy who was a total diehard - he had fished from midnight to 2:30 am and had pounded 17 fish over 20 inches. He was a streamer pro and fished a huge 6 inch pattern literally on the bottom. He was amazing to watch as we sat next to him stripping streamers in about 15 feet of water. He caught fish after fish and never stopped. The wind kicked up around 10am and he was out of there.

We chased fish all morning. I sat in the kayak and cast backwards into deeper water - nymphing a size 14 green microtubing fly and a size 14 black zebra style midge - I picked up a lunker rainbow right off - probably only 18 inches or so, but the fattest 18 inch fish I had ever seen (these fish seriously needed Weight Watchers!!). I picked up 3 dinks after that - all about 11 inches long.



Steffan was shut out until early afternoon when we were fishing the fringes of some cuttbows that were staging to spawn - they were chasing each other and porpoising all around - some of these fish were in the high 20 inches and could have weighed over 10 lbs. I hooked a huge one and he just went on a straight line out - he ripped off over a 100 feet of line in about 8 seconds and there was no way to turn him - he popped the fly off at the knot. Steffan hooked and landed a brightly colored cuttbow that dwarfed his earlier fish - it had to be about 22 inches and fat! We wish we had a picture, but he dropped that fish too!

We said our good byes around 2:30 and were back in Denver around 6:30. It was a great quick trip and we caught some major hogs!! Thanks again Mark for letting us fish with you, and no worries, your secret is safe with us!

Stillwater Fly Tying

I have a stillwater trip coming up this weekend - so I started tying some big old chironomids - I like tying big flies - easier on the eyes and finger tips!!

 

 

Flies for a friend - FOTD

Having just been to the Bighorn and had great success with a new pattern I created, I wanted to repay a friend of mine (David) for floating us down the river on Friday. These are pretty simple midge patterns, but they are killer on the Horn. These are 5 dozen of my best in sizes that range from 16 to 20.

These are my newest creation - no name yet - but I was thinking maybe the "Simpleton":


These of course are my Killer Midges:

Super Float Stonefly - FOTD

Ivanbogda is one of my favorite fly tiers out there - I think this is the 2nd or 3rd fly of his that I have linked to - I have wanted to link to more, but don't want to promote the guy too much until I get a few of his flies as payment (hint hint - kidding of course, but donations are always welcome).



This is the Super Float Stonefly that is just a great looking fly - it was a little salmonfly in it and is an amazing tie. I'm not sure how he gets the biot tail to stay in there - but it looks great.

Check out all of Ivans flies at Fly Tying Forum.

April 16-19, 2009 - Bighorn River, Ft. Smith, MT - PART 2

Saturday

We had high hopes for Saturday, as it was supposed to be the best weather day of all - with temps in the mid 60's and low winds. Unfortunately that was not how it would turn out. We got a late start, trying to figure out boats and when toleave. We got word from Alvin the campground owner that David had left a message the night before saying that he had to rush home to Billings because his wife was ill and he wouldn't be there to float. (Just to let everyone know his wife is ok, althouhg they can't seem to figure out what is wrong with her). Chad went with Jason & Eric again, Bill borrowed Willy's single man pontoon boat, Steffan went with Sid & Don, and Willy and I broke in his new 3 seater raft. We got a late start - probably closer to 9am - leaving from Afterbay bound for Bighorn Access. Just as we left the cabin, a huge burst of wind kicked up rattling the monsterous Cottonwood trees at the campground, it sounded like a jet plane, but never stopped - it was a steady 25+ mph wind. The weather was still below 40 degrees and this wind made it seem much colder.

We met Tim (tplane), his dad and buddy Tim at the boat ramp - where Tim showed me pics of the whitefish trophy winner - a 17 inch beauty that he had caught the day before. I taped it based on the picture of the fish against his net - this would be tough to beat. Willy and I pushed off and Willy used his new oar locks and oars on the raft, but it was quick to be determined that this was not the best method. We switched to paddle style and it worked much better. Although, neither of us would be able to fish out of the raft as we each needed to paddle.

All of the normal spots were well stocked with people - as there seemed to be a lot more people than normal out on the water. We skipped the Meat Hole, and settled on the right hand bank of the Aquarium just below Suck Hole. Unfortunately we had no luck after about an hour. Bill kept warm by cracking a beer at around 9:30am. We moved down again and again, with little luck. Finally we settled at 3 Mile Access in the same run that David had fished the day before. I set Willy up with a nice rig and his first indicator (a tiny thingamabobber) and had him fish the same stretch. He had a couple of bumps, but no takes. I fished just ahead of him in the riffles - and hooked a monster rainbow that took me 60 yards to land. When I did land him, he had the tippet wrapped in his gills and I saw a little blood come out and paniced, I just cut the tippet and let him go - he bolted out into the middle unfazed.

We moved down again, this time to a spot just under some cliffs. Tim, Tim and his Dad were stopped just across river from us enjoying lunch. It was starting to warm up and the wind was off and on. The wading was tough since we stopped at the cliffs, basically all of the boats fish this bank, but no one could get out because it was too deep to drop anchor - but with a raft it was perfect. I missed a brown right off and then Willy had a big hit - I heard him give a little hoot and I waded down to the raft to help him net his fish. But this fish wouldn't move - it basically stayed deep and he couldn't turn it's head no matter what he tried. The fish basicaly stayed within a 10 foot radius, and moved a bit up and down, but it took Willy about 7 or 8 minutes to land the beast. When he did it was all worth it - it was a legit 20 inch brown with beautiful coloring and a nice hooked jaw. Willy had broken in his new rod on a beauty!



We moved on again, this time stopping at the pool just after the Drive In Hole. This spin out held lots of fish and I was hoping it would be an opportunity for Willy to catch an easy one - and he sure did on his first cast:



It was a nice 16 inch rainbow and Willy was on the board again! I had quite a good time in this hole. The weather was now clearing up and the wind was down. I fished the whole stretch - all the way past the two downed logs to the end of the pool - I picked up 6 or 7 fish and missed some hogs as well. Here are a few:







We kept moving - jumping from spot to spot with not much success. We saw a great hole where the big flat turnout on the left is with a huge shelf and the boats land on the shelf and fishermen stand arm in arm and cast into the flat pool - it was stacked with 4 boats so we drifted by it about 200 yards and again landed right on the cliffs. This time there really wasn't any place to tie off the raft - so we made a tie off with sticks and large pieces of shail. No boats could land here again because it was too deep to drop anchor, but every boat fishes this section as the swing by. Steffan/Don/Sid pulled in across river from us.

We had to walk next to the cliffs and slightly in the water to get to the slow parts of the run, but Willy did and caught a little guy right off. Then I started hammering them - I caught 4 18-19 inch rainbows on the red midge, and 1 little dink brown. The fish were beautiful and fiesty and I didn't think I would land them after they would run out into the deeper/faster water - but I managed to land them all.





After that we kind of made our way down river - stopping a couple of times, but not having much luck. There is a deep section of river that is towards the end of our trip - there are huge flat rocks next to the shoreline that run a 100 yard stretch or so and they drop off into 15+ foot water. While coasting over one of them I saw a huge carp (had to be about 3 feet long and over 30 lbs) just kind of slide off the rock he was sitting on down into the deep water - the fish was just so huge that you couldn't miss it. The day was winding down, we were hungry and in need of beer and we landed at Bighorn right around 7pm. Bill was waiting there for us. We loaded the truck and were back at Cottonwood around 7:30pm ish. We had a nice turkey bruger dinner, shot the crap with Sid and Don, and reluctantly packed most of our stuff in the truck in preparation of a long drive home the next day. We hit the sack around 11pm.

Sunday

Got up around 7am, on the road by 8am. As we were pulling out we saw Jason's nice camera bag laying just past his camping spot at Cottonwood - so Chad grabbed it. It was an uneventful drive - stopping a few times for gas, food and potty breaks. About 2 hours into the drive we finally got cell service and Steffan listened to his messages and found out his basement had flooded - 2,000+ gallons had to be removed after the power went out and his sump was useless. He stressed the whole way home about it, and there wasn't much he (or anyone) could do as the damage was done. Dropped Steffan off in Longmont at 2:30pm, Chad and Bill off in Denver at 3pm and was home by 3:30pm. Of course the kids were asleep - so I went right to the carwash and spent an hour detailing Jen's truck.

15 inches of snow had fallen in Highlands Ranch, and there was still some left on the lawns and in huge snow banks where the snowplows were nice enough to leave them. Water was flowing out of every drain, sump, lawn and down our street like a river. When you stepped on any exposed lawn you sunk in at least 6 inches.

Ahhhhh, so nice to be home.

April 16-19, 2009 - Bighorn River, Ft. Smith, MT - PART 1

Flows 3,000 cfs, clear.

Thursday

Wednesday night around 10pm I tried laying down to get a couple hours of sleep - of course I was fully packed and fully clothed. I never really did get much sleep, maybe a couple of hours before my 4 month old son woke me up around 12:15am. I handed him off to Mom and got my shoes on, grabbed a Pepsi and out the door at 12:45am. Hit the gas station, and made it to Chad's house at 1:20am. Bill (Flashbck) and Chad (ChadTrout) were out front waiting with headlamps on - they threw their stuff in the truck and up I25 to the 119 Longmont exit we went. Steffan (Naffets) was just pulling into the park and ride as we pulled in too. It was just before 2am and we were on the road.

The weather reports were iffy, but we were just getting out ahead of the weather. In Cheyenne we stopped at the normal gas station and grabbed gas and snacks and the potty. Just outside of Cheyenne we hit some fog that seemed to get worse and worse. The roads stayed relatively dry, and the fog came and went until about Casper, where we stopped again to fill up and hit the head. The weather outside Casper started getting nasty, so Steffan took it easy for an hour or so. The weather cleared nicely after an hour or so and we had it cranked back up to 75 mph as the sun started brighting the cloud cover up. We hit Sheridan making decent time at around 8:30am or so and hit our normal Rock Stop gas station - where we saw this familiar face:



I'm not exactly sure why the sculptor decided to bronze out a tiny little penis on this guy, but it doesn't do him justice...

Knowing that the MT border was 25 minutes away we hit the road - hit the Lodge Grass exit and were in Ft. Smith by about 9:45am. We hit the parking pass machine, then Bighorn Trout Shop for a hat, weights and small thingamabobbers, then on to Cottonwood to check in. Our cabin was open, so we threw are stuff down - got our waders on and Chad's buddy Jason and Eric show up with their popup camper - great timing.

We all hit 3 Mile Access by about 11am. It was still chilly and the water was ice cold (38 degrees), I knew this because within a half a minute of stepping in the river I had a left foot full of water. Within 30 minutes of trying to not stop fishing I had to give up - the water was creeping up my leg to my jewels and was coming in just too fast. I left 3 Mile and headed back to Cottonwood - but, their cheapest pair was $200 Dan Bailey's. I headed to Bighorn Angler where I found some nice Simms waders that were mis-priced. A little pissed because of the bait and switch the shop guy went in the back and brought out $140 Simms that I could tell were 100X better than my Hodgman's hip waders.

I was back on the water by 12:30pm or so and met back up with Steffan - we weren't having any luck at all and decided to fish to the easy dinks just down from the boat ramp that were slamming the top water over a 100 foot stretch. I just took my weights off and slid my indicator down and landed a bunch right off. I had Steffan do the same and he was suddenly into tons of fish. Steffan pulled out a beauty - a 15 inch brown that was hidden among the dinks - not a bad little fish, and a great fight!

We decided to hit Afterbay at around 4pm and all 4 of us drove up there. We hiked down to the Meat Hole and had it to ourselves. The hole has changed a ton, the shelf is much longer and the pool at the end much smaller. Worst of all, we didn't see a whole lot of fish. Chad caught 5 fish before we got there, and I managed 1 nice brown of about 16 inches on a red micro tubing midge. We didn't have a whole lot of luck and it was getting dark quickly - we headed back to Cottonwood at around 7:30pm. We were exhausted, so we made dinner - stuffed halibut with asparagus (by Steffan), drank some beers and then passed out.

Friday

We woke around 7am all ready to go - but the cold weather kept us in the cabin and David (BlackOtter) showed up around 8am. Kyle (Kyo) and Doug (OliveBugger) showed up a couple minutes later and we suddenly had spots in boats for everyone. Steffan and I fished with David in his boat, Chad/Jason/Eric rented a boat and Bill went with Kyle and Doug. David and Kyle's boats lauched from Afterbay while Chad's boat launched from 3 Mile. Steffan and I were into fish almost immediately - as we traded whities right out of the gate:





Steffan's whitie was 15 inches while mine was 14 inches - so he had an early lead. I managed a nice 17 inch rainbow as well - I was off to a good start, as I always seem to fish well with David.

The fishing was hit and miss throughout the first three miles - with most of the good spots already spoken for. Steffan picked up a nice brown out of the boat and at least someone was catching fish (I wasn't).



We didn't really hit another spot for all of us to fish until 3 Mile Access where David picked up a fiesty brown on the island drop off next to the main channel - she was a beauty and he got her on his first cast.



As we pulled out of David's spot we slid next to the boat ramp and tried hitting the slow/deep stuff just next to the ramp - it is easily 12 feet deep here, so I put a ton of weight on and put 10 feet between my indicator and flies. I hooked and landed a beautiful rainbow that went 19 inches long - I hooked him on my Killer Midge that David likes so much.

We kept on moving, hitting the Drive In Hole where we all picked up some fish - Steffan hooked a nice brown (below) and David was trying to pick some lunkers off with a streamer, with no luck. I managed a nice brown as well.





We kept moving down river - settling in across from the Colorado Club where Steffan and David tore it up - David pulled 4 18+ inch fish out on 5 casts, I had 3 decent fish on (including a lunker of a rainbow that was a boot licker) - but couldn't land any of them.

David let me row the rest of the way down the river and it went pretty uneventful - I only did 3 360 degree turns, but didn't bump into anything and actually avoided a spin out that the guys were betting I'd hit. All in all it was a good day, although the fishing was so sporadic and the weather was teetering on cold/almost warm. It was partly sunny, but there was a steady 10 moh wind and it was only in the upper 40's. Back at the cabin we were greeted by some more RMF board members including Don (flybop), Sid (MTNole) and Willy (WillyC). We all at a nice pork roast dinner and drank our share.



I somehow managed to drink 16 beers, including about 6 in the last hour or so before bed. Chad/Jason/Eric pulled in late shit-faced on 2 bottles on Maker's Mark before noontime! Sid and Don had to have their arms twisted to drink our beer, and Bill was feeling preety happy as well after a nice day of catching fish!

4 advils later, around 11pm I was out like a light.

Saturday is coming up next......

Canadian

I love everything about Canada, the beer, the hockey, the ladies in the Montreal men's clubs, the fishing, the outdoors and so many other things. My ancestory is French Canadian - although from Nova scotia as well.

I also love their flag - straight red and white with a nice maple leaf. Simple.

Chatfield - scouting the water levels

I hit Chatfield today to take Cabo for a swim, headed to my carp flats because I wanted to see the condition of the water and if the flats were filled in yet - HOLY COW! The water level was at least 8 inches higher than it's highest point last year. I tried walking through to my little bay, but couldn't get there without waders.

Rumor has it they filled the other reservior on the other side of C470 and they are keeping some of the water for themselves. Of course they will probably open up the flood gates in May and push a ton of water out of there. It has to be close to carp season on Chatfield.

Ants in Your Pants - if you are into that sort of thing - FOTD

I'm not a big ant fan, I don't think I have ever used the pattern in my life - but these Forest Ants are sweet!



That has to be some sort of epoxy on the butt (I'm wrong - it's hot glue stick - which actually makes this fly even harder to tie!!), that is an amazing job getting the color so even and getting it to be that polished. perfect hackel, nice antron and the red body is sweet. Did I mention the photo is sharp, in focus, multiple flies and has a good background? That's the grand slam of fly tying photography! Very nice job and my FOTD!

Hot Damn, I'm in Love! Diving Raffine Caddis - FOTD

Ok, I'm still searching for the perfect fly, and I found another - yup, it's a caddis, it's small, and it is beautiful. Size doesn't matter in ff, think golf and your score - smaller is better!

I found this beauty while searching another members blog buddies, damn is it nice. This is the Diving Raffine Caddis from Dave Wiltshire Fly Tying Blog and I like the simpleness and the use of the Raffine wing/case.



This guy has some amazing photos on his blog - he does some amazing caddis patterns that don't look too hard to tie (but I couldn't tie them), but look like they will definitely catch fish.

And I saw this little guy below that I would like to get a closer look at.



Thanks Mr. Wiltshire for some great looking flies!

A Wicked Stoner - FOTD

Ok, so I'm checking out all the blogs that people who belong to my blog belong to (confused yet?) and low and behold - there are some awesome bloggers out there with relatively unknown blogs.

Here is one by Luke C at Proven Patterns Blog that is just fantastic - there are so many good things with this fly that I can barely type I'm so excited - for instance, the lighting and color matted behind the fly is awesome (not distracting and highlight the fly perfectly), the biots are completely straight, the legs point down and are great, the body is well dubbed, the scud back is perfect and she is as sexy as blonde in a little black dress. Ok, I might have gone overboard there, but you get the point.



Oh, and did I mention he was a hell of a photographer as well? Check out his Flickr page for some unbelievable photos, like this Sulphur.

Sulphur
Originally uploaded by Tuberson1

For the Love of Caddis - FOTD

Just saw this beauty on the Fly Tying Forums.



I love caddis pupa/soft hackles - the lime/chartuese green bodies are so easy to tie - and better off they really do mimic the natural. If you have ever gotten one of those little cone shucks on your hook when fishing and you think it is a stick - take it and squeeze it from the bottom up and see what oozes out. It will have a black head and a lime green body - exactly like this fly.

I would tie this slightly different - I would use the micro-tubing instead of vrib to add less bulk and make the gap between hook and body slightly larger.

Even better! Brett just sent me a link to his site with tying instructions on another pattern. Check out The Trout Addictions Fishable Flies Blog.

Good Looking Bass Bug Photography - FOTD

I'm a sucker for good photography, and an even bigger sucker for flies and good photography. I saw this article pop across my Google Reader and I love the photos.

Check out the Fly Tying Forum thread on this guys bugs - and check out isaacviel.com for the photographers work - these are just amazing pics.

Below are just a couple of these amazing photos (I like to call it Fly Porn):







That is quite the set up for photographing flies - the most elaborate (and expensive)spread I have ever seen.

Yep - I fished....

...but not a whole lot more to tell. The day was beautiful (a weekday off too!) - got an early start with my buddy Darren, on the road at 5:30, to our destination (the Ark) by about 8am. No one around, bright sun, wasn't too cold, a little wind (but a cold wind), the water was the right flows (550+ cfs to be exact). Rigged up quickly, in the water soon after, about 1,000 casts, 4 rig changes, 2 blue heron sightings, 2 mean Canadian Geese that were giving us the evil eye(s). Oh, how was the fishing? It was great, the catching...well not so good. Darren did ok, about 6 fish and at least that many hook ups. Me - I got nothing - big ole SKUNKED!



We fished my secret spot and then moved to below Brown's Canyon for the afternoon. I was stone cold and shut out.

I was surprised to see some HUGE stonefly casings at our first stop - they looked like last years casings, but I'm not sure since they were very close to the water line and there was 6 or seven of them all together.



This sucker ws easily 3 inches + long, and most of the others I found in this "pile" were only slightly smaller. So next time you doubt how big/small the stones are on the Ark, here is some evidence!



Most of the other stones were this size - which is less than a half inch long!

Although I hate getting skunked, it was well worth the trip. Good company, beautiful day, good bugs, nice trip - I can't complain.