Progress?

Last night I tied up a few more JuJus and HE's - this is what I put together. I got a tip from Juan Ramirez that maybe my hook was too long on my original HE - so I shortened it to a 1X. I think these came out better. I just need more practice.

Possie Bugger - FOTD

Roughfisher has a sweet little Possie Bugger up on his site today. This is perfect timing since I need to start tying for my Oregon trip in late May. This Possie Bugger is one of the most productive flies in Oregon and I need to tie up a few dozen.





He's tying these in size 10, which I think is about the largest I could go without it looking too large. However, my Oregon buddy swears you can tie these as large as 6 or 8's and still be effective. That seems HUGE to me!

Great ties Mr. Roughfisher!

Fly Tying

Darren came over last night and showed me how to tie the JuJuBe and the Hare's Ear. I know these aren't tough flies to tie, but I needed to get past the first wrap of super hair on the JuJu and my Hare's Ears never looked right (still don't!). I also managed to tie a Kaufman's Stone Fly. My buddy Tim showed up as well. It was a good time tying and it was good to see D and Tim.

Here are some pics of the flies I tied.

Sunday 3/14/10 - Cheesman Canyon

I decided to fish Cheesman Canyon with the boys yesterday - met down at the Gill Trail parking lot at 6am - Carl was the first to show, followed by Adis and then John and I showed up a couple minutes after 6am. The weather was surprisingly warm - not like in the 50's or anything - but it wasn't windy at all and was over the freezing mark. While waitning for the slow pokes in our group Wermers and Adis decided to hit the Coors Extra Gold - which almost made me barf, but to each his own. I wanted to see him slam an Old Chub, but no go! Scott and Scotty showed up at 6:15. We all took our time dressing, and just as we were ready to hike in another car pulled up and the guys in it were getting dressed like it was a fire drill. I guess they were afraid we would be taking their holes and they weren't expecting 4 cars in the lot that early in the morning.

I don't have a lot to tell - since I got skunked the entire day, but everyone else caught fish.

There was some terrible competition for the good holes and some members got creative on how to free up some space in the river. Scott was sure this wouldn't spook the fish for too long.



John working a nice long hole:



Adis telling me I'm #1 - thanks man, I love you too!



Scott and Scotty - scheming to steal my Old Chub:



Some little critter tracks:



Adis working a pig:



The day got progressively worse, with the wind kicking up, the temperatures dropping and tiny snow flakes flying sideways. The snow was just enough to soak your top layer and be annoying, nothing really accumulated in the canyon. The temp must have warmed up to because Gill trail was a muddy mess.

We all hit our separate holes in the morning - then met up for lunch - sandwiches, pizza and power bars were eaten, Old Chub was drunkened, Brandon was repeatedly beat on, 3 fish were hooked - none landed. Scott and Scotty had to beat it home, so the 4 of us decided to head back down river and fish our way out.

I took Adis on a hell of a trip up the steep path that is about 70 feet above the river and straight down into it. We had great views of a hole with a ton of fish - and Adis popped into it. He landed 6 nice fish out of that hole. But that was about it for the fish catching for the day. We headed out of the canyon at 3pm. The roads home were sloppy, but by Sedalia it was only raining.

Colorado River, Parshall - Friday, Feb 19, 2010

My buddies Darren, Werm and I all got the day off on Friday and decided to go fishing. Although we had a bit of a battle trying to decide where we wanted to go, we knew the general vacinity and honestly, it didn't matter where as long as we were fishing.

We hit the road around 5:30am - headed for the Parshall hole - no matter what the roads looked like. The morning drive was pretty uneventful, no cars off the road, and the road actually got better as we got closer to Kremmling. Werm brought the chocolate covered Entemann's donuts - so he scored big points there. But then he lost those points when he made us stop in Idaho Springs at the Kum and Go because he has a tiny bladder (you should probably get that looked at Werm).

We pulled into Parshall Hole at 8am (ish) - we were the only car in sight - and it was easy to see why. The weather was in the teens and it was hell putting on your gear.

D tying on Werm's flies....no, I'm not kidding.

The morning was a typical winter morning on a river - the sun was fighting the clouds to come out and shine, the river was steaming, everything was covered in snow, the river had ice sheets along the edges, and the water was very very close to freezing - at least it felt that way. One fish or strip of your line and your fingers were buring, then frozen then they were useless. We fought this the entire day, off and on, until our gloves were soaked and we just gave up and let them freeze.



The day started out very quickly. As the three of us lined up on the road side of the river in the riffles, slicks and flats of this stretch. Darren immediately started hooking fish, and we had instant info as to what they were taking - green thread midges size 18-20. Werm hooked up next and I soon after and the skunk was off. After that we just had fun.





The sun tried it's hardest to stay out, but would dip behind the clouds for long periods of time. No matter the light we just kept catching fish all along this 100 yard stretch, in the deep riffles, along the slack water, at the very bottom of the riffles in the slow slicks. Most fish were close to the edges in knee to waist deep water - just outside of the moving current. The hits were mostly subtle, with a few strong takes.

Werm and I were hit and miss all day long, sometimes we'd have a good 20 minutes and catch 4 or 5 fish and then it would turn off for 40 minutes or so. Darren and I stuck the whole day with a nymphing rig, Werm tried dry flying for an hour or so with no luck. The fish were popping all day long and the bugs were all over the water. They turned out to be grey midges and the fish porpoising along the far bank - some showing their entire bodies. One particular fish looked larger than the rest and Werm started hunting for it. He switched back to a midge rig and hooked up hard on a sweet fish - definitely the fish of the day - a beautiful 17 inch rainbow. It was only the 2nd rainbow of the day and the only 2 of the 80 or so browns caught by all of us.

Acrobatics





The browns were a ton of fun to catch - I would estimate that 95% of them were between 13 and 15 inches. The occassional 12 incher and 16 incher was thrown in here and there - but the rainbow was the largest and fattest. All of the fish were very healthy and in great shape - and every single brown fought fiestily. Most browns would tail walk on the water and spin uncontrollably trying to get off - many of them would spin your tippet into a bird's nest and strangle themselves on the line between flies. They wouldn't give up and lots of times the fight led you to believe you had a hog on, only to pull another 13 incher out. Either way, it was a blast.

The 17 inch Bow - remember, Werm has large hands...

The day was highlighted by several doubles and even a near triple (Werm had just released his fish). We also had a weird warm spell where our fingers stopped hurting and I could almost feel my feet around 1pm. But that was only temporary, as it started snowing sideways again and the sun slipped behind the clouds.

Around 2:30 we all caught a fish and decided to call it a day. I can honestly say that there was no way the day could have been any better.







I was home by about 5:45pm, and just as I was unloading my gear, I just started to feel my feet again. I was sore as hell that night - my finger tips hurt, my feet hurt, I took some Tylenol PM and was in bed at 8pm!

Great day, great friends, good beer, great fish, gotta love Colorado!

Wet Flies - FsOTD

I was surfing the Fly Tying Forum and found these beauties. They are tied by Artur Buczkowski from Poland and are amazing examples of some great Wet Fly patterns.

The first pattern is a classic brown with a red thread head.



While the second pattern has a cool looking under body with a grey thread head.



Both are very nicely photographed and professionally tied. Great job Artur!

BWO Nymphs - by Reno Trout Envy

Ok, I'm a fly fishing/tying blog junkie, and I love midges, I especially love fly tying blogs about midges - and I love it when the flies are nicely photographed. This blog Reno Trout Envy has a beautiful BWO Nymph on it today - in two colors - grey and olive. Nice little ties.





He also has a tutorial on his Grey Winter Midge which looks very effective as well.

Adam Barker Photography

Check out the amazing work of Adam Barker - he's located in Utah and does some amazing work! He is spotlighted today on This Is Fly and you can check out all his images on his website - just amazing stuff!

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:

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!