Grouse Fly - FOTD

ON NO! The roughfisher done it again - another brilliant tie. Simple, sexy, and they catch fish! And, he's recycling! Or reusing? Or something like that! Nice road kill and nice ties! Thanks again for a brilliant (yes, I used the word twice) pattern!

Oh, and I'm a sucker for Chartruese......

Brassies - FOTD

I know I posted some similar flies like this from Dave Wiltshire - but these pics are amazing!

Dave continues to be one of my favorite tiers! Thansk again Dave for the great patterns!

October 11, 2009 - Fly Tying Night

Last night I had the boys over for a fly tying night. I was expecting between 7 and 11, and got 5 that showed up (6 with me). It was a pretty good turn out - and if I had too many more I wouldn't have had room for all the food on my back up fly tying table!

I don't have any pics of these guys ugly mugs, but I got pics of their flies! We had a bunch of great tiers (CarlP, Scott, Darren, Tim), a crappy tier (me) and a newb (Steve - actually Steve has never tied a fly in his life). Here is what they all tied:

CarlP tied up his killer golden stonefly - and man was it nice! He did one with and without a bead, and both are unreal looking flies. The photos do not do it justice - look at the one with the funky background to really get an idea of how this thing looks!









Scott (FryFish1971) tied up a bunch of patterns, including his orange rabbit scud (which is straight from an orange rabbit pelt - that he went home with only half of since Darren, Tim and I stole most of!), his famous Chatfield shad pattern and a red yoke egg. Yeah, the egg looks pretty simple, but it has a red glow bead under there that looks unreal when wet.







Darren (TheFlash) tied a killer Stimulator that is straight off Charlies website, with some slight tweaks. That puppy took a full 20 minutes to tie - mainly because I asked so many damn questions! He also tied up a killer spawn egg that has some white egg yarn that he forgot to leave me some of!





Tim (TSyl) tied up his famous Dirty Matini that he had shown me once before. That was all Tim tied - as I think he was scoping everyone's materials out! He made out pretty well!



I tied...nothing. I was too intimidated by all the great tiers, and my micro-thread midges weren't going to cut it tonight. I had fun hosting, ribbing Scott and Darren and getting my ass handed to me at the tiers table!

A couple thanks to Darren for bringing the 200 fly boxes - I only managed to give away about 30 of them, so I have 170 more in a trash bag in my basement (um, thanks). And thank you to Chad (ChadTrout) for sending me a whole bag of goodies and samples that everyone took a little of, showed me how to tie some eggs with and some materials we thought were cool but have no idea what to do with or what to tie!

Everyone had a great time - and I can't wait to do it again. I wish we all lived a little closer as we could do this more often. Scott came from Conifer, Steve came from Denver (like 120th Street), Carl from Lakewood, Darren from Littleton and Tim from one street over in HR. Quite a wide range, luckily I was kind of right in the middle.

Thanks again guys and thanks for leaving all your flies for me!!

My Hometown....and the foliage

Keene, NH is one of the most beautiful places for fall foliage. I lived a block from this church for 8 years. I didn't appreciate it (Keene or the foliage) for the time I was there (ages 7-18), but thinking back it was a beautiful place.

A good idea for everyone...

As most of my friends know, I'm a numbers guy, and all those numbers mainly relate to money. And, as most of my friends know, I'm cheap, so saving a buck and helping the environment at the same time is always a good thing.

Lately we have been seeing lots of ways to help the environment, mainly be reducing our dependency on oil and reducing the wasting of energy. One great idea are these Energy Dashboards that people are starting to invent/create/hack/use.



These are great ideas that could help all of us reduce our energy needs and reduce energy waste. Of course these things aren't available yet in our area (although I think Boulder, CO has something similar) and they aren't 100% as useful as they could/should be. But, they will get better and I hope that all utility companies find a way to get these gadgets into everyone's homes. Although - what is the incentive? The energy companies don't want to fork out the dough for this box and give it to you - and they don't want you to stop using the gas/electricity (lowers their revenues and profits). The utility companies will not be pushing these on us, and this is where capitalism will fail us.

Luckily, we have a world full of hackers, inventors and idea people and they will find a way to make these things work - and work well with your utility company, it is only a matter of time.

Personally I can't wait to get one of these. I know the first day I will be running around unplugging stuff and seeing how much my usage goes down. The sad part is, that I should probably just unplug all that crap now - or put the items on those powerstrips with on/off switches.

I guarantee that everyone who uses one of these (or something similar) will become more energy efficient. Being more efficient is not just a way to save the world, but to also save a little more money and spend that money in the economy (on fly fishing stuff) and thus pump those funds back into the vicious circle of our economy.

There, I said it, now I feel better.

Ultra Thread Company by WAPSI

I have had this spool of UTC thread for a while - but honestly, never used it, mainly because it was pink. It's not a normal pink either - it is a nuclear pink. I tied up some of those midges last week that I had success on Clear Creek - and really liked it. I liked the way it laid flat and was virtually inpossible to twist, the wax in the thread really added to the durability and strength - and it takes nail polish well also - leaving it look nice and shiny. The stuff I bought was the 70 denier stuff, which I think is the equivalent of 8/0 thread. But, it is easily as strong if not stronger than regular 6/0 threads.

Well, I headed over to Discount Tackle today and got some more colors - including chartuese green, steel grey, olive brown and a tan color - I can not wait to tie with it. I was disappointed to find out that they either didn't carry, or were out of plain old black.

If you've never used UTC, check it out at the WAPSI website.



Although the thread was around $2 a spool, and my thingamabobbers were $1.25 apiece (I got 12 of them), I did get some great deals. I'd tell you about them, but you wouldn't stop drooling. Discount (on Santa Fe) is a dump, but man, you can get some killer deals in that place!

Thursday, October 1, 2009 - Clear Creek

Thursday, October 1, 2009 - Clear Creek

The day started out for the suck - I managed to get the day off from work (even though it is the day after quarter close). But, I still planned to get up early, work for an hour or two, and then leave for the Blue with my buddy Darren. Unfortunately when I got up at 5am, I couldn't log in to my work server as it was down. I called Darren and told him I needed another 30 minutes. The work guilt was starting to set in and I called Darren back in my allotted 30 minutes, and luckily this time he allieved me of my guilt by talking me out of going - he really wanted to go, but he told me the weather in the high country was plain bad - ice packed and slick. So we decided to put it on hold, and I decided to go into work. I hit work normal time, and luckily the system was back up and I finished my stuff by 10:30. I gave Darren a call and he was up for anything - so we decided on Clear Creek.

The wind was ferocious, blowing through the I70 corridor down from the high country - it was actually spitting snow off and on, even though the sun was mostly out the whole time. We landed at about 11:30 and started fishing just West of Idaho Springs. This river is always a bit off color, and this time of year it had leaves, twigs, etc blowing through the water - making it virtually impossible for the fish to see our flies. But we managed, and had a great day. I brought Cabo along too - it is an easier river to keep her out of the water - so that made it an easy decision - she really enjoys being outside, in the water and getting to see the fish. It was a beautiful day (except the wind) and the colors were all changing up in the foothills/high country. The water was relatively low and ice cold. Our hands burned after handling and releasing fish.

We started right off at the parking lot with the tree in the middle of it - for those that know CC, you know exactly where this is. Darren was onto a fish immediately - and soon was changing up his rig to take advantage of the excellent dry/dropper "hatch". He caught fish all day - often times doing the "round the world" move on an unsuspecting little brown. For those that don't know the move - it is when you go to start picking the dry fly off the water for your back cast and you have a dink fish on and he ends up getting tossed over your shoulder, and you just save it by swinging the little guy back over the water. If you are lucky, he is wiggling so much that he pops off over the water and you have a clean release, if you are unlucky you flip him in the bushes and have to rush after to him to save his little life. But more often than not, you just swing him in a vicious circle again and again as you try and get him closer to you so you can catch the line and release him. Darren did this move at least 6 times today - it was quite entertaining.

We were into fish all day - they weren't huge, but were willing, dumb and fun. The most memorable fish is the one below - it was my first cast with the pink midges I tied the other night - I hooked and landed a pig of a rainbow - 14 inches and fat. That is a big fish for this river and was the biggest fish of the day. On my very next cast I caught an identical rainbow only about an inch shorter - I actually used the net on both fish!



The wind started getting to us around 3:30, so we packed it in and headed home. Had a sandwich in the truck, shot the sh!t on the way home and just enjoyed being outside and not working. A day of fishing is better than any day of work - I don't care what you do for work! Good company helps, and Darren and Cabo provided that too. A bit of an extreme weather day, but it was well worth it for a half day trip. Thanks man! Oh, and Cabo got to kiss many fish today, she was a happy girl.




Pics courtesy of Darren, I didn't even know he had a camera!

Just a note on Clear Creek - on September 9 Trout Unlimited did a river clean up on the Clear Creek River - I have done it 3 of the last 5 years, but was unable to this year. The river is filthy dirty and is in a sad state of cans, bottles, glass, etc. Also suffering are the fish. On three occassions today I snagged bait casting equipment - I hooked some 15lb test line/hook/weight that was snagged on the bottom, then hooked another hook and swivel that was snagged on a stick, and finally I actually landed a small fish by hooking the swivel eye that was attached to the line he had sticking out of his mouth - in which he had a hook down his throat (I clipped the line as close to his mouth as possible) - amazingly the little guy was still alive. If anyone thinks bait chuckers aren't deteriorating the environment that we all fish in they are kidding themselves. 15lb test? Egg containers laying around? It is a shame. Clear Creek deserves better.

Some Home Grown Flies - FOTD

I tied up some pinkies for this Thursday's fishing trip to the Blue River:








And I re-filled some of my chironomids:

Brassie Rouge - FOTD

More fly porn from Dave Wiltshire!!

This Brassie Rouge is a definite hot redhead - I love the color!



Thank you (again) Dave Wiltshire from the UK!

Tungsten Brassie - FOTD

Want a little fly porn today? Well, here you go!

This Tungsten Brassie is simple, sexy and I know this pattern works great on tailwaters - it is easy to tie - can be done in many many colors, I just wish I could photograph my flies this nicely!



Thank you (again) Dave Wiltshire from the UK!

Golden Stone - FOTD

My buddy Carl is a professional fly tier and a recent pattern of his, the Golden Stonefly, is a beautiful little fly with a great use of materials we all use. The biots, ribbing, scud skin, light dubbing and pheasant fibers are all perfect on this fly - and the golden color is just fantastic.



Thanks for the great fly Carl, and congrats on getting it picked up by the Montana Fly Co.!!

Sept 19, 2009 - South Park

Saturday, September 19, 2009 - South Park

Had the opportunity to go fishing with Scott so we decided on a South Park Res since we heard through the grapevine that it has been fishing well. We had an amazing day of weather - 80 degrees and not a breath of air until about 3pm when a storm rolled in and we got off the lake quick.

I met Scott in Conifer at 5:30am, and we were on the water right around 7:30. We headed to the far side of the Res and searched out some high weeds and fished it hard. Scott got a beautiful 17 inch rainbow that was as fat as it was long - showing it's fall red colors. The fish was thicker than any fish I had ever seen that size.




But, there wouldn't be another fish after that one for about two more hours and a few different spots. The rest of the day we had some spotty fishing - catching a few more, but nothing consistent. Scott even tried for some pike, but none were to be found.

This was my first fish - a nice 18 inch rainbow, just shorter than the opening in Scott's net.



This was by far the fish of the day - a lunker of a log - a 20 inch legit rainbow that easily filled the net. That bad boy didn't want to come near the net and Scott had to pull him off the bottom a couple of times.





This was the last fish of the day - in a spot that I didn't think the trout were cruising - it was a nice surprise - about 19 inches and very colorful.



Not a great day of fishing as the fish were few and far between and hard to find, but the weather was amazing and Scott and I always verbally abuse each other - so it was a good time. Almost didn't make it as Scott wanted to ram an antelope with the truck - his mind wandered a lot before we even got to the lake.

Congrats Scott on your first fish in my presence, I was beginning to think that maybe I was bad luck....but now I just realize it was all you buddy! Thanks for driving, thanks for taking me out on the boat, thanks for the Old Chub and thanks for letting me out fish you again!

Czech Nymphs - FOTD

Some simple, yet beautiful Czech Nymphs over at Fly Tying Forums by

Dave Wiltshire.

Very impressive, and a great use of Raffine backing!

Jay Morr Photography

Found some awesome photography by Jay Morr.

Check it out - enjoy!

Damn humans always trying to get in my photos! Gonna have to Photoshop them out of this one too!

"Hey, can you email a copy of this pic when you get home?"

The M&M Flymph! FOTD

The Flymph has made it's first appearance on this website - mainly because it is beautifully photographed and a relatively easy tie. LuciV is no stranger to this blog - he/she has been on here with some beautiful Dun patterns.

The photography on these patterns is stunning - check them out:

Union Reservoir - Sunday, August 16, 2009

This was a WTF were we thinking trip - I mean, with so many cold water fisheries available to fish and having access to a boat to boot, we had our pick of any destination. Somehow I got tasked with putting this trip together and I royally screwed it up. I did manage to find two other guys to screw it up with - and to them I owe an apology. Please read the disclaimer - no fish over an inch and a half were harmed in the making of these photos - with the exception of some Old Chub's, which were drained and abused.

Scott and I met up at 5am in Morrison - that's early, especially since he has to wrassle up the boat and drive down 285 for about 20 miles to get there. I managed to slide into the Conoco at right on time. We met Steffan just after 6am at Union - would have been a few minutes earlier if Scott didn't have a disgusting, dirty gas station, plastic wrapped burrito urge that he couldn't say no too - and if we had paid attention to those big brown UNION RESERVOIR signs on the side of the road. Anyways, we made it - and we on the water in no time. We slowly set out for the shore and marked a few bait balls and fish, until we reached the eastern shore. There we started casting aimlessly at fish that didn't seem to be there.

The Chubs started cracking early - like 7:15am early - I needed to get a liquid breakfast in and what better way than with a little Scottish Ale! The boys were all business - well, just long enough to get in some serious pics:






Scott swore up and down that he couldn't drink the Chub because it made him feel bloated and irritable, but soon even he couldn't deny the charm of ice cold Chubs! Steffan and he started drinking them too - we killed off about 6 in the first 45 minutes. Then the action really started picking up - we trolled, and trolled and trolled, and trolled and found....nothing. The weather was decent - not too windy, just a steady breeze and the weather was about 75 degrees and no sign of bad weather yet. By noon we were about 5,000 casts into a skunking. We were again patrolling the east bank when it was obvious there was a lot of bait activity on the surface. Now, being the skilled fisherman that I am I can just sense when the bite is going to be on and my instincts told me to go with the brown and black Andrew's Slider carp fly. A strategically placed cast yielded our only catch of the day - but it was well worth the wait - although not my best fish, he was fairly hooked right in the mouth.



Now, he doesn't really look that big, but that is because I have really small hands and face and glasses, and I have him right up close to the camera. I don't think he broke the 1.5 foot mark or the 1.5 inch mark, but he was a keeper. We passed him around a couple of times for pics, but he was safely released into the wild.





We met up with MarkM later in the day and chatted with him while we ate some lunch. We did a lot more lounging than fishing in the afternoon, and did manage to spook 3 carp out of the deep weeds. We did manage to get stuck a couple of times in the deep cattails, but it was worth it.



Scott managed to scoop out a few baby catfish that were as black as coal and had long whiskers - there was a school of hundreds of them up in the cattails that Scott managed to get the boat beached in.



It ended up being a great day, the weather was good, the beer was cold, the conversation was good, and I didn't have to wear a shirt. We were out of there just after 4pm and home by 5:30. Not too shabby. I went to bed at 8:30 that night and don't remember anything until morning. 6 Chubs, a wicked sunburn on my gutt and my feet and three crab salad sandwichs did me in. Thanks guys for not letting me over do it!!