Juan's Golden Stones - FOTD

Hopper Juan's Golden Foam Stones

I really like these stone flies for a number of reasons - they use foam as the wings (a cheap and recycled material), their color is amazing, and they seem like something that I can tie and will catch fish with. Not to mention they are tied by a local tier Hopper Juan.

Juan uses his caddis cutter to cut out the computer foam for the wings and adds some brown marker to color them. The result is some very cool looking and realistic wings. I do think that the foam may cause the fly to want to float (which is the opposite of what a stone should do) but I am guessing that is why we should add weight to the fly.

Juan also does an amazing job in photographing these flies (see his website for all the pics), I only show a couple here.

Thanks Juan! Can't wait to try and tie a few of these.

Check out Juan's website for his other patterns.

North Park - Oct 21-23, 2010

The North Park Fall Fling almost didn't even happen. With bad weather imminent, we had to make a decision to tow a camper (with no brakes) over the two passes, find a hotel or cancel. Basically with the weather deteriorating quickly, dragging the camper up there was out (which in hindsight turned out to be the best decision of the trip). I started calling around to the Walden hotels on Wednesday night, only to find NP Inn to have only one room with a single bed, another hotel out of business, another to be completely booked and finally Antlers Inn to have a luxury room for Thur, but only a tiny room for Fri and Sat - we took it.

As the weather report got worse we started losing attendees - Scott decided he wasn't hunting in freezing weather, so the dog was out. Then Scotty (a teenager with a texting problem and a girlfriend) was talked into staying home (second smartest move of the weekend). Then Cory decided Friday night was going to be too messy to drag the camper over the pass, and Kyner bailed due to the uncertainty of the weather as well. Steffan wasn't coming anyways, because he's @#$@#&^%@#%*& and has his priorities messed up (work and wife). So basically it was Werms, Scotty and I and hopefully we'd see Mark.

Thursday
Werms was headed up early on Thursday, fishing with Darren on the Colorado River during the day, and then he'd head up to Walden in the afternoon and get the hotel and meet us at the lake. Scott was working a full day, but he was going to leave on time. I on the other hand found out at 2pm that I was expected to be on a conference call from 3 to 5pm - no leaving early for me. The call ended up lasting until 5:20 and Scott graciously waited for me in Evergreen so we could ride up together. We met at El Rancho PnR at 6:15 and loaded up my gear in his pickup and were on our way.

The ride was pretty uneventful (except the Check Engine light coming on 5 miles outside of Evergreen), and we actually hit Walden at 9pm, meeting John at the road in Walden that heads to the lake. We were geared up by 9:45 and had the boat in the water. Problem was, we forgot the plug and before even leaving the dock we had to pull the boat out again, drain it and start all over. The one thing Scott always told me not to do was "don't sink it" and that is the first thing he does. To be fair, it was late, we were tired, but we knew we had to fish. The almost full moon was out and the Lake was calm. All three of us in the boat is crowded, so we needed to take it easy. We hit the inlets and fished streamers for a while. Scott managed one big brown in the first 3 hours, and that was it. The fish hit hard, but was hooked on the side of his head.

I'm gonna be honest with you, I have no clue if this is the first fish Scott caught or not, all the brown's look the same.

We decided to head over to the dam area and along the way we would troll streamers along the west bank. The night was very bright, but we used head lamps to see indicators or tie flies and land fish. We got about 3/4's of the way there and Scott almost got yanked out of the boat. The rainbow was long, like 24"+ long and he wasn't in any hurry to be landed. It was however the only fish to actually get a fly in it's mouth of the night. The fish was huge and it got us pumped up.



We kept trolling towards the dam and anchored up just west of the dam in the inlet. We were bombing the banks and occasionally a fish would skyrocket straight out of the water and splash back in. These fish were fairly good sized and they'd jump right next to the boat (think flying carp - but not as many). We could see that they were everywhere. We hooked a bunch, I think I got 2 and Scott hooked 3 more. Fun fish - all browns - all about 19-20 inches and all hooked on various parts of their body - mine hooked on the top of the dorsal fin (I would have never believed that you could land a fish hooked there).







We were pretty pumped, but when I looked at my watch I realized it was 3am. It was not cold, but we were over dressed, and we were surprised at how bright it was even though the moon had cloud cover now. Werms had literally fallen asleep twice sitting up and only awoke to net a fish (not kidding). So we decided that since we had this fancy hotel room we might as well use it. Honestly, Scott and I could have fished for another couple of hours and crashed in the truck for a snooze in the AM. And we probably should have - we would have gotten more sleep. We hit the boat ramp, loaded the boat, headed to Walden. Once there we parked on the street, locked everything down, threw a tarp over the load in the back of the truck, grabbed our stuff and headed upstairs to the hotel. The room was amazing. We literally dropped our crap and hit the hay.

Friday
Unfortunately Walden is a one road town and a redneck town and everyone owns a diesel or a 1980's shithole pickup truck and they like to ride up and down, up and down, up and down, the main street until all hours. Well, Scott and I didn't sleep a wink. Next thing we knew it was 8am and we wanted to get on it. I received an email from Mark (Zackdog) saying he was on his way (at 7am), so I emailed him back saying we would be up there - but not for an hour or so. We hit the restaurant for breakfast on Werms. The food was damn good too. We were back on the lake by 10am.

The boys fished in the boat and I blew up the yak. They were nice enough to give me a tow across the lake to the inlets again.



As you can see the day was cloud covered, but it wasn't too windy (yet) but we could see it was only going to get worse (and it did). The north inlets were completely full of wading fishermen by 10am and you could learn all of the good spots by where they were standing! We didn't really see anyone hooking up, but we split up and tried our luck. The only person catching was Werms. He landed a good half dozen fish and Scott and I pulled out the skunks. Werms first fish of the day was his best - a hog of a cuttbow that stretched 23+" and was fat as hell.



Werms got another brown as well that was a fun fish.



We stopped for a bit and met with Mark (Zackdog) and chatted and had a beer - it was great seeing him and the inlet he was fishing had some beautiful browns pushing up into the creek that was trickling in. We decided to fish the area around the inlet. The weather started turning and it was windy and sprinkling - but we kept to it and Werms was into more fish and I finally stuck a little brown - that fish was beautifully colored - but no larger than 16 inches. This fish just after Mark left and told me to use a green egg - I had just switched and on my second cast landed this fish. Nothing fancy, but skunk off!!



The weather got progressively worse. Cold, wind, rain, snow, mist, rain, cold. We trolled a bit, then decided it was time to set up a camp on the west bank and have lunch (at about 3pm). We set up the canopy, started a fire, ate some lunch, drank some beer, shot the shit and dried off a little. But it was raining sideways, was getting colder and didn't look to be letting up. We fished a little - the boys trolling in the boat and I was on shore. It was also getting darker quicker and before we knew it, we needed get camp packed up, and get the boat of the water. By now it was full rain and snow mix and everything was soaked through our layers. We headed for the boat ramp, loaded the boat in the dark, threw our shit in the pickup and headed to Walden. The trip took a little longer than normal, since it was a full on blizzard. Hitting Walden and trying to parallel park the boat was fun. We locked everything up on the boat, tried our best to "cover" the crap in the truck, grabbed our gear and headed for the hotel.

We had a new room, but the hotel hadn't moved our stuff from our old room - so we had to do that too. It was only about 8pm, but we were flat exhausted, soaked and weighing about 400 lbs with wet clothes and gear. The room was still amazing, but smaller this time. We unloaded all of our wet gear into a back hallway and put a fan on blowing into the hallway to dry our stuff (it worked believe it or not). All unchanged and exhausted we soon lost DirecTV to the snow storm and Werms talked us into going drinking. We decided to hit the Stockman Bar across the street. Clue #1 you are in a locals bar and don't fit in? They had a dog laying in the middle of the bar. Clue #2 was the place had a fog of smoke in it. Clue #3 was the bartender hadn't heard of Killian's or Molson (both Coors products I might add). Clue #4, they didn't take credit cards. A shot of Tequila, Makers Mark and a pitcher of Bud Light and we were out of there.

We hit the Antlers Inn bar for some Newcastle's and Onion Rings and shot the shit in a more tourist "friendly" site. We were back upstairs at 10pm and Werms decided to give us an egg and juju tying show. I learned how to tie an egg that came out perfectly, but I made it half way through the juju and had to pass out. I woke up an hour later to the boys going through my closet screaming about something - while they had tshirts with the words "HAVE YOU EVER FISHED THE FRASER?" on the back. Wiseasses the who bunch. Thanks Darren for making an appearance - I hate you too. Honestly though? I was barely conscious.

Saturday
I was in no hurry to wake up. Finally at 8:30 or so I got out of bed. Werms and Scott followed - moaning about something, pissy we had to get up. We got up, showered, shit, packed our gear and headed down for another killer breakfast. Scott and I had the Chicken Fried Steak and it was awesome - you know it was featured in National Geographic (surprised you didn't know that).

We geared up, got waders, boots, vests on and back out to the truck for our trip to South D's this time. It was cold, about 2 inches of snow on the ground, cold and windy too. The boat had a nice 3 inches of slush in the bottom. Here is a nice pic of the morning as we gassed up.



We were at the lake around 10am again. We were just going to make this a fast day, fish until 2 or 3 and then head home - we cancelled our last night at the hotel - not looking forward to a wet cold day and huddling at the hotel. We all started right at the parking lot by the bluffs, and not 5 minutes in Werms had a fish. It again was a beauty a 20+" cuttbow to start the day off right. Werms and Scott traded fish and I was skunked. So I headed over to the willow trees. This is one of our favorite spots and we know it holds fish. Werms soonm joined me and immediately I was hooked up. I landed the beautiful pink sided rainbow that had a hook jaw and was close to 20"s. The fish fought hard and was caught on an apricot egg that I had tied the night before with Werms tutelage.





I continued to slay them, catching a few more hogs, some decent rainbows and cuttbows. One was super fat, but not very long - maybe 18"s.





After a half dozen fish I decided to give my spot up to Werm's. He immediately had a hit and hook set his rig into the tree behind him. He reset and was soon into a fish. He hooked and landed a couple of fish while we set there and chatted. I was helping him land a fish when my bobber, no more than a couple of feet from us went down and started heading to deeper water. It was fun getting my skunk off on a bunch of fish, some of which were good size. I missed a bunch too, but by about 3pm I was just content. Werms with a nice action shot.





Werms decided to hit the road, but not before we both sat on the bluff, drank a beer and threw rocks at Scott while he caught a couple of dinks.



As you can see the wind completely stopped for about 30 minutes, the weather was almost tolerable, and it was a pretty scene. Werms hit the road, I broke down my rods and packed the truck as best I could. Scott walked over to the willows to see if he could get a fish of some size, but about 30 minutes later he was done. He stripped out of his gear, we packed the rest of it in the truck and were on the road by about 5pm.

The ride home was wet and slushy over Willow Creek Pass, dry through Fraser/Tabernash/WP, and wet, slick and foggy over Berthoud. The ride from Empire home was uneventful and I got my truck in Evergreen and was home before 8pm to see the kiddos go to bed. It was a great trip with the boys, and thanks Scott for driving!

The best fly of the trip? The bottom one. No kidding, you could throw a cigarette butt on there and slay them - but it had to be on the bottom. We killed them on pigstickers, eggs and jumbo juju's - all colors - didn't matter.

Thanks boys for the fun trip.

Saturday, Oct 2, 2010 - Clear Creek

Fished Clear Creek today with my neighbor Tom. Fished under the bridge by Kermits from about 8:30 to 12:30. Nothing fancy, just big nymphs/midges. Caught about a half dozen each, all were browns, the smallest being 5 inches, and the largest about 12 inches. The fish were a little more picky than I remember. We could see a lot in the bridge pool, but couldn't hook them - we caught a couple, but not like every other cast.

The river scares me, truck tires, rebar, hub caps, rubber tires, deer carcasses, garbage. Yes, I said garbage. This is the same exact spot that Avi and I cleaned up last week and there was at least a garbage bag full of new trash just laying around. Sad. Depressing.

I forgot my camera, so no pics.

South Park River Fishing - Sept 21, 2010

Darren and I decided late on Monday that we were going fishing today. D met me at 4:35am and we were on the road, hit Sonic in Woodland Park around 6am and were in the parking lot at 6:30 am or so. The weather wasn't that bad, although it was 34 degrees, there was some breeze, but otherwise pleasant. We jumped in the bend pool and fished some small flies. Darren hooked up right away with a small cutthroat, then lost a couple, then landed a couple more. The first two fish Darren landed had hooks/flies in their mouths and had tippet/line hanging out their asses. D clipped the lines and pulled the hooks the best he could. We would notice at least a half dozen fish today with the same problem - flies and fly line still in them. Sad to see.

This was a pretty bow that Darren caught:



The sun popped over the canyon and warmed us nicely. Darren continue to pop fish left and right but I could not even get a hit. I went the first 4 hours of the morning fishless. I was a little nervous I had forgotten how to river fish - it had been quite a while. The day continued to be picture perfect - in fact, kind of hot - probably low 70's and a few small puffy clouds in the sky.

This was a funny action scene of a fish that just wanted out! D couldn't even hold onto him.




I was amazing at how many boot lickers there were there - and big fish too - close to 16 inchers that would come right up to you and there would be a dozen or so within a 25 foot span down the river perpendicular to me. Crazy.



Around lunch time I finally hooked a boot licker and landed a pretty cutthroat. Then a BWO hatch started coming off and the fish started going nuts. Large fish were popping in the back side of the bend pool behind the logjam. I switched to a size 24 griffin's gnat kind of fly and landed two sweet cutts of about 15 and 16 inches. These fish were gorgeous, when you see them in the water they look red on top and golden on their bellies and they have beautiful bright orange red gashes on their throats.



We had still not seen a soul come into the parking lot and we had the bend pool completely to ourselves. We did however want to catch some more fish so we stopped at the car, had a beer, peeled off some layers and then headed back down below the bend.



Darren got ahead of me and we fished separately for about an hour - we met back up further down river - D had seen a ton of other people, so he was headed back my way. I managed a few fish in the shallow wide section of river - including this thick (but short) brown that was beautifully colored and had bright white tipped fins.



Darren and I fished the rock pool at the end of the long run. We saw tons of fish and caught a few also. At the big pool at the end D managed to catch some pigs - 3 or 4 of them, including a nice brown and a bright colored rainbow. I tried streamer fishing, but lost it and basically reeled in and called it quits. I acted as a guide for Darren back towards the parking lot - pointing out all the fish I had fished to on the way down. Here is D hooking up next to a log - he lost this one, but this is a cool action shot.



Then we saw a lunker - probably the biggest fish of the day. I spotted him and D got in position for a good cast. 3 casts and she was on. This is her when we landed her and this is her spilling her eggs. Weird for a bow to have eggs this time of year. Pretty fish and the best (largest) of the day.







Not the best day as for numbers of fish for me. I just couldn't get in the groove and was getting a bit frustrated. We hit the road about 2:30 and were home by 4:30. Thanks for driving D and thanks for taking me.

Saturday, Sept 25 - TU Clear Creek Cleanup

TU Annual River Clean Up

I think I will be taking my daughter Avelyn and heading up to Idaho Springs on that Saturday. Might not be there right at 9am, but will be there. I think she will really enjoy helping out and I want to be sure she knows that fly fishing isn't just about the fish, but rather about river/sport conservation for everyone.

I might even take the fly rod and see if we can catch a fish or two.

I did this for 3 or 4 years in a row - the last time out I met a couple of nice guys from other TU units. I also spotted a couple of nice holes where the fish are at - so it was good to learn a little something about Clear Creek.

I hope you all can join me in helping out.

Sunday, Sept 12, 2010 - RMNP

I have been dying to get up to RMNP for some fishing for quite a while, and when my co-worker told me his fly fishing brother from LA would be in town I used it as an excuse to get a hall pass and head up to RMNP. My neighbor Tom was added at the last second, so he met me outside my house at 5:30am, we headed over to Englewood to pick up Oliver and we were on I25 by 6am. Going through Estes we saw a huge herd of elk next to the lake - they almost looked like statues - always cool to see them there. We pulled into the parking area right before 8am. My buddy Steffan was waiting for us. We dressed quickly and started the hike in. Oliver and Tom got their butts kicked due to the quick altitude increase - Steffan and I made several stops to let them catch up and catch their breaths. We did manage to make it up the hill though. This time of year the water is super low, the question was how low would it be now. I wasn't really sure what the fishing would be like in September (I've fished it in July when there was still some late stage runoff happening).

I don't have to explain to anyone how beautiful RMNP is. It was especially beautiful today. Highs of about 70 degrees, lots of sunshine, a few clouds - just beautiful. A slight breeze, but it wasn't cold. The water however was ice cold, and it stung to put my hand in for the first time. Steffan and Oliver dropped off the ledge and found nice fishing holes. Tom and I made our way to the bridge to start. This was Tom's first time ever fly fsihing so I wanted to show him all the basics, set up, tying knots, flies, etc. We took a few minutes and I showed him. A guy on a horse came running through - right through the water we were going to fish. No big deal really since this water is full of little dumb fish who go right back to doing what they were doing 5 seconds before the interuption.

I am not a good teacher at all - so I knew I would get frustrated quickly - I was hoping for the best. Surprisingly, Tom was a pretty quick learned. His casting was a mess, but let's be honest - there isn't any room up there to cast. We spotted a fish right next to the bridge and I pointed the fish out. Tom couldn't see it - I literally almost poked the fish with the rod tip before he finally saw it. We had a dry/dropper on first and tried working that. Tom casted pretty well and had the fly right over the fish pretty easily. The fly went past the fish one time and stopped - I told him to set the hook, then after what seemed like a 2 second delay he set it and we had fish on. First fish in less than 5 minutes of fishing.

Hey, you can't teach a guy to pose with his first fish caught on a fly rod!

We hole hopped after that and Tom basically went out on his own the rest of the day. Since the water was so low you had to hole hop, looking for water that was wide and slow enough to hold a fish. I would find a nice hole, catch a fish then have to move - the pool would be too spooked. We met up off an on during the day. I saw Tom and he told me he caught 2 more on his own - and he was hooked. Oliver caught a few as well and got a photo of a beauty for his "wall of species". He was very impressed with the coloration on these fish.

Steffan finally appeared, fished with us a litle, then told us he had to go. I had no idea what time he left, mainly because my watch was dead. At 3pm Oliver asked if we were ready to leave, I looked down and said it was only 1pm (that is what my watch said) - he showed me it was 3pm - so we packed up and headed out. We hiked out and were home by 6pm. We did notice the huge plume of smoke behind us when we hit I25 in Longmont - that fire in Loveland looked scary. Here are some more pics - sorry, not a bunch of scenery pics.









I took a bunch of underwater videos with the new GoPro Hero Cam. I would find a deeper hole with lots of fish, fish to them, spook the pool enough and then put the camera in it - let it settle, then come back and get the camera after getting some footage. I was surprised to see just how fast the fish would go right back to their normal routine. Here is a stillshot of a fish that came right up to the camera - not camera shy at all.



Here is a great video of me catching a little guy - just dumb luck I would get one on my second cast.

RMNP Roaring River from Brandon Harnois on Vimeo.

A very good day of fishing the Park. It was relatively quiet - only saw 4 other fishermen and only for a brief few minuts until they moved on.

Sept 4-5, 2010 - Camping & some fishing

Avi and I decided to hit Guanella Pass to do some camping with a neighbor and his young daughter. His daughter and Avi are a year apart and are best friends, so this was going to be a fun time with just the Dad's. We left HR around 9, got to Scott's around 10 to pick up the camper and then found that it had a flat, did a quick pit stop tire change and decided to hit Big O tire to get the flat fixed. Luckily it was only the valve stem and was fixed in less than 10 minutes for free. Big O is a great place.

We hit Grant and took a right and headed up Guanella Pass. There were a lot of people at all the low altitude camp sites, but it started thinning out pretty quickly. I was a little nervous because everyone had told me that it would be very crowded and all the good spots would be taken on a holiday weekend (especially leaving Saturday morning) - this was (thankfully) not true. We drove by a few spots that had people in them but went deep into the woods and had no one in the deepest parts, the third place we drove into was right at the base of the winding paved road that heads up to Guanella Pass. We drove into a big meadow and found a very nice spot, large enough for about a group of 10 tents/campers - but I didn't want to take up this huge area, so we found a spot right next to the road, but right on the creek. It was perfect.

We set up camp and then took a ride up to the pass and walked down to the lake.



You can see Mt Bierstadt (14,060 ft) here in the picture (top right peak).



It was a beautiful day, a little windy, but about 60 degrees - even up there.

We hiked around our campsite a bit, checking out the creek that went through it. I tried to take an underwater video of an undercut bank that held a couple of tiny fish, but the water was took dark and nothing came out (too bad). We did play in the water and did see quite a few small fish.



That night we played an hour long game of Uno that wouldn't end. Then Avi decided to do something extremely stupid and put her finger on the lantern glass and burned her fingers. She screamed for over 40 minutes, saying she wanted to go home and wanted her mommie. It was a bit embarrassing and out of control - I think neighboring campers over 100 yards away thought something terribly wrong happened. I iced the finger and tried my hardest to calm her down, but she was over tired, hadn't napped and was just hysterical. Fun time. She passed out around 9:30 and I slept with her on one side of the camper - along with a passed out mutt at my feet. To say the least I did not get much sleep.

Avi and I got up at 7, made a fire and started some pancakes. Miraculously the finger felt fine - just the normal bubble on the fingertip from a burn. My neighbor woke up, ate breakfast, then we went to try to get some of thise fish on a fly rod. I cast a caddis to a few fish, had one really good look, but no bite. We did see some beautiful fish including one 12 inch brookie that was green on top with a bright orange belly. Beautiful fish. The water was very very low - which I assuem is normal this time of year. We packed up cam and were home by 1:15pm today. I cleaned the camper and restocked it the rest of the afternoon.

This is the girls showing me their muscles.

August 29, 2010 - Sunday - Stillwater Fishing

I'll be honest, I didn't sleep at all - sure I closed my eyes, but I woke up at least a dozen times to glance at the clock, each time it inched closer to when the alarm was set for. But I never made it, I never do - my eyes popped open at 4:15am and I decided that was close enough - turned off the alarm clock and got dressed in the dark. Pretty standard rituals for us guys who want to hit the waters not so close to home. Some of us do this every day just to get to work - I don't know how you do it Darren!

I pulled out of the driveway at 4:35am, the truck already fully packed the night before. Now it was time for the 2 hour journey to South Park. I hate making these trips alone - I usually need a second mate to blame the trip on (you know - "I went because Werms wanted to go"). I tried for about the first hour (almost all the way to Kenosha Pass) to talk myself into turning around, calling Scott and telling him I wasn't going to make it, then crawl back into bed with the wife. I tried, but no success. After Kenosha Pass I had decided that I was past the half way point, and it was going to be dawn soon - so the trip would get easier. It really didn't. Sure, I was awake, awake with anticipation of a good day - but in the back of my mind I was always thinking - what happens if I get skunked? It could happen.

I pulled into the North Boat Ramp at Spin at 6:35 - no sign of Scott and Scotty. Maybe they ain't coming. I'll kill'em. I call Scott's phone, and he answers - finally - bastard didn't pick up all Saturday when I wanted to know how the fishing was with Werm (yeah - where the hell is the report and pics??). He's right behind me - and we are pushing off from South Ramp - so I peel out and head to South. We pull into the lot together. Exchange handshakes and a couple quick barbs at Jr and before I know it we are on the water. It isn't cold, but it isn't warm. Wind is already up a little, not a good sign for the rest of the day.

We head straight to the other side of the lake - into a nice little cove area in the NW corner. Scotty starts dragging a big Club Sandwich trying to imitate a big ugly caddis skittering along the water. He manages one huge hit - but land nothing. We decide to hole up right next to a weed bed. It was quiet for a long time - Scott had two on, but lost them, Scotty had two on but lost them - I managed the only fish of the morning a nice 20 inch rainbow.





We decided to move south along the shoreline, not much to tell for the next couple of hours - lots of misses, no fish in the net. It appeared the fish were not in the shallows and we could see them on the fish finder when we moved from spot to spot in the deeper water. So we decided to hit a huge weed bed out on the middle. We anchored down and Scott hooked up right away - a nice fight, but soon the fish broke him off. It was not a good sign for the day - in fact I could see Scotty and I's day about to head for the shitter if Scott didn't land one of these big hits soon.

The phone rings....Werms! Dude - we got nothing - 1 fish and Scott is pissy, I gotta go. A few minutes later Scott's phone rings - it's the wife, she'd meeting us and is almost there, come pick her......wait, I have a fish, I have to go. Then bang - another fish pops off. We decide to go get Kelly at the dock. A quick trip in and a quick return right to the same spot. We need to get Scott into a fish or we might all die.

About 2 minutes later Scott is hooked up, and as I'm getting the camera ready to film Scott landing the fish I feel a tug and next think I know we have a double. These fish were twins (not technically, Scott's was a 1/2 inch bigger and a lot fatter) - and it was a nice break from losing fish. Maybe we were onto something.





I'm a big fan of harassing Jr, I mean the poor kid better get used to it. The problem is when the kid slams back to back 22 inchers in a matter of 15 minutes it makes it a lot tougher to pick on him. Don't feel too bad for him, the kid can dish out the shit too. Like father, like son.





Although we had some luck, we weren't exactly lighting it up, we spent about an hour and a half in the hole with not a ton more success after the initial few fish - so we decided to move to the bluffs. We never actually made it to the bluffs - Scott was watching the fish finder when we did about 100 mph over a ton of fish, so we scooted back to a nice shelf that looked promising. I don't have a whole lot more to say then WOW. We didn't "kill them" here, but we caught some of the biggest fish we have ever caught in here. Between the 3 of us we fished from about 12:30 to 3:30 and landed about 10 pigs. The largest being a 23 inch almost 5 lber by Scott and I had 23 incher that was slightly skinnier, here are some of the pics:







We lost a ton of good fish - I had on a nice looking colorful pink rainbow that I lost at the net. I missed a pig of Scott's when I hooked the top fly in the net on him (sorry bud). Scott also had a fish sink him - straight into the weeds. It stopped fighting and Scott was still hung up on the bottom - just waiting - he had to break it off. So strange. Lots of other unbuttons, but that is pretty typical day.

Oh, and our last fish of the day - by the pike slayer:



Not a knock'em dead day, but it was pretty damn good. The morning SUCKED! But the afternoon more than made up for it. About 15 fish boated - only 4 were smaller than 18 inches, 5 were at least 22 inches. Unreal.

Flies of the day were size 14 orange scuds and a size 14 damsel. I had some on chiro's but not consistently. Water temp was 62 in the AM and 65 when we left. Lots of big clouds, but partly sunny temps were about 72-75 degrees.

Thanks for the great trip Scott and Scotty and thanks for putting up with all of us Kelly!

FOTD - Roughfisher Scuds

Roughfisher has some nice looking scud on his site this AM. Great colors and great ties. These look like they would work great rolling on the bottom of the river.

Wish my scuds came out looking that nice (not to mention the photography!). Great ties Ruf!