Pumphouse, Colorado River - April 22, 2010

Darren, Dave and I fished the Gore Canyon stretch of the Colorado River today. It was a great trip. Flows were 530 cfs (which is as low as I have seen it) and the water was dirty with less than 12 inches of visibility.

The day started at 4:45 when Dave met me at my house, we loaded up and were at Darren's at 5, then we headed up the mountain, a wet but smooth trip to Dillon, south into Silverthorne, about to Green Mountain and it started getting nasty - snow and rain and poor visibility. We pulled into the Pumphouse parking lot around 7:30 - checked out the water and suited up. Although the air was a bit warm, the wind and blowing snow SUCKED ASS. Everything was wet in minutes.

On the river soon after and found a great long run up river from Pumphouse where a small creek dumps in and the river makes a huge riffle and then a 90 degree bend. We sat in this spot for a while. Darren was hunkered down and started catching fish immediately - he had 2 or 3 before anyone else, including a chunky brown that ran 17 inches:



Right after that Dave hooked up and he had on a pig - and this fish couldn't be muscled in - we finally got it to net and it was a slab of legit 18 inch brown. Beautiful fish - thick, fought hard and was fiesty - love them freestone browns!







The boys continued to trade fish while I flopped around in the water working on my skunk. I snagged bottom, added a birds nest, lost flies, lost weights, almost fell in....yeah, not so good. The boys decided to head up river without me, I waved them on, because what I was about to do should not be witnessed by anyone without a strong stomach. Yes, that's right - I went whitie hunting! And man did I land one. 19 inches of thick pig, as big and fat a round as your calf. He was the biggest fish caught today and I was sure proud of him! Mark him off my list of To Do's this year!



I caught up to the guys at the bend, where I found out that Dave had basically caught another 5 browns and Darren another 7 or so. Dave took some time to sift through the river bottom with his little aquarium net and man did we find some bugs! In one scoop with his 4"x4" net he scooped up 8 salmon flies - I grabbed these three below for samples for a friend - a crane fly nymph, a caddis nymph and some other larva. all where a drab green. The salmon flies were HUGE - I mean they stretched 3+ inches long and were meaty! Not too difficult to see why the fish get big!



Moving closer to the canyon we traded some fish - Darren slammed this 18 inch slab of a brown in 2 feet of water no more than 3 feet off the bank - where the fish were hanging out all day.



The fish seemed to be taking anything shiny and big - hare's ear worked for me, Darren had luck on some streamers and a wire worm and Dave had luck on a midge/buzzer pattern. All flies were larger than normal - most in the 14-16 range and Dave's midge/buzzer was a size 18 (I think).

I landed a hearty little brown - about 16 inches - and then a couple of others further up into the canyon.



The weather cleared about 2.5 hours after getting there, the rain.snow stopped, the sun slowly came out, the wind died down, and we saw some blue sky. Most of the day remained that way, the sun stayed behind some clouds, but it was manageable. The fishing turned off however - we had a couple hits, but no more than 1 or 2 fish landed in about 2 hours. we decided to head up more into the canyon. Where the BWO's were coming off, however the fish were never really keying on them in the canyon. We did see some taking the BWOs a little later down outside of the canyon.





Around 2pm we decided to head back to the entrance of the canyon and try our luck. Of course our stomachs got the better of us and we headed back to the truck for a beer and a sandwich. We didn't stay long at the truck and suited up again and headed back down to the river. Dave and I fished the same stretch - Dave pulled out 5 or 6 on a double emerger rig and I hooked and landed 1 nice brown.

Darren of course disappeared, crossing the river and heading upstream. The weather started turning nasty again with wind and flying snow. On D's way back crossing the river he managed to hook into this bad boy - you, he got a whitie too!



It was a great day on some new water for D & D. Dave did manage a chunky rainbow - that I think Darren got a pic of - so that rainbow was the minority fish of the day. Great day of fishing! Thanks guys!

Possie Bugger - FOTD

I am headed to Oregon next month and have heard that the #1 fly in Oregon is the possie bugger. I have been tying them off and on for a couple months and they look nice, but aren't great. Brian ofver at Reno Trout Envy has tied up some beauties. I like the speckled hen look as a soft hackle and need to tie some of these up. I will be tying a few of these tonight!

Czech Nymphs & Caddis Emerger - FOTD

This guy (avelino) has some serious talent - I really like the look of these czech nymphs, well tied and very unique.



This is also a very cool looking Caddis Emerger - I like wings coming out the sides.


I'm going to tie up a few of both for my OR trip! Thanks avelino!

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!