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!!

Best Fly Fishing Photographer FOUND!

This guy is by far the best outdoor/fly fishing photographer I have found. He has the amazing ability to turn items we see every day on the water into vibrant, colorful and unique photographs. Basically I want to reproduce Brett Colvin's entire website here - but obviously can't do that - his pictures are amazing, as he makes art out of everything from dogs to fly reels. Amazing, amazing, amazing stuff here. Here is just a sample of Brett's work - unique and colorful:





I added Brett's blog to my Blogs feed on the right hand side of the page - here's to hoping I see his at the top (meaning it gets updated frequently!!).

Greenland is Free (well almost)

Check out the photos on the The Big Picture of Greenland, which gained partial independence from the Danes. With only 57K permanent residents this place is one of the few untouched beauties.

After almost 300 years under Danish rule, the island of Greenland has just taken a big step toward sovereignty. Greenland passed a referendum last year requesting more powers from Copenhagen, and it was granted, taking effect on June 21st, 2009. Denmark still retains control of finances, foreign affairs, and defense, but will phase out an annual subsidy, and give over control of most of the islands natural resources. Additionally, Greenlandic is now the sole official language, and Greenlanders are now treated as a separate people under international law. Although the island is massive - with an area of over 2 million square kilometers (825,000 sq mi), its population is small, with just over 57,000 residents, 88% of Inuit descent and and 12% of European descent. Collected here are some recent photographs from all around Greenland.

Bass Fishing - Chatfield - Sunday, August 2, 2009

Chatfield - Sunday, August 2, 2009
Water in the lake is high - around 5,432 ft - whcih is 2 feet higher than "normal", and the water clarity was not so good. The wind was also a factor - as it gust from 6am to noontime.

I hooked up with a buddy of mine from the RMF board - Scott - who was a pro Chatfield fisherman. He's been out on this lake a lot and wanted to get me into some small mouth bass on a fly rod. Since I have never been fishing for smallies on a fly rod, and had technically never caught a thing at Chatfield, I was eager to get a shot at some real fish.

We met up at 6am, I literally left my house at 10 of 6 and still made it on time - how sweet is it to live that close to a great fishery! We had the boat ramp open so we dumped in and headed out. Everything went smoothly and we were running along the dam even before the sun cressed the top. The wind was up - more than normal - and never really died off - it was always blowing.



I tied on one of Scott's secret weapon shad patterns and started casting towards the dam and retrieving. The dam has a road that runs parralel to it and it goes from about 10 feet to 15 or 20 feet pretty quickly. The fish sit right on this ridge and attach the bait fish. There are tons of bait fish in Chatfield - as witnessed by the fish finder and later on we could see them in the shallows. The Shallows of the lake on the far west side allow for much warmer water and the water gets pretty skinny & shallow - the bait fish hang out in these areas, but start to cruise in schools once they get a bit larger. We saw plenty of fish jumping out of the water, including some enormous carp, some trout and some unknown fish (probably bass, although bass don't usually jump out of the water like that).



After an hour or so I managed to hook my first fish, it was more by accident than anything else, I hooked him on a slow mis-strip that I kind of let the fly drop a little more than normal. The fish here love the bottom and hang ups on rocks are inevitable, so you need to keep moving or strip like crazy or you will (and I did) lose tons of flies. The fish was a cute little bass, maybe 9 inches long - and he basically swallowed the fly whole - somehow he got a size 6 hook, with barbel eye in his mouth. It just goes to show how these fish slam and devour anything. I'd love to show you a picture, but that fish was only bait worthy.

I lost that shad pattern a few casts later. I tied on my crawfish pattern next and hooked up a good sized fish, only to lose him at the surface before I got a decent look at him. Soon after that I lost that fly as well. We went another couple hours of trying different flies, fighting the wind, shooting the sh!t but no fish. I changed back and forth - finally settleing on another crawdad pattern I had tied - and I hooked up again. But again the fish was very small - about 9 inches again. Not exactly picture worthy.



Hang ups were happening for me a lot - and I got one final hang up that cost me a rod. I broke my rod just below the first eye - and I was barely cranking on it. I wasn't bummed nearly as much as Scott was for me - but it was a backup rod, and it has a stiffer action than I am used to - so I wasn't too broken up it (that and a 25 year guarantee from Orvis!). We decided to try and chase some carp. I rigged up the 2 piece rod with a floating line and we headed for the banks. Chatfield is so flooded that most of the brush on the shore is under water - carp love this water - although we never saw any. About 10:30 we headed all the way across Chatfield to the far west bays and scouted it out. We saw some movements, but never saw any carp. I showed Scott my secret bays and we cruised them. We werein less than a foot and a half of water and Scott's boat and trolling motor still held up. We trolled the whole thing with no problems at all.

11:30 came and we decided to get off the lake. The water skiers and crowds were too much and we headed back across the lake. The boat ramp was packed (as usual) and after a few minutes we had the boat on the trailer and we were out of there.

It was great meeting another board member - and he opened up a whole new world of fishing to me. Although I had tried belly boating in the exact same spots as we were - I had never known "how" to fish for the smallies. Thanks Scott for showing me how it was done.

Oh, and I dropped the rod off at Orvis today, and bought some barbel eyes and some Frosty Fish Fiber material to tie some of those shad flies. I owe Scott 3 or them!

Some Duns - FOTD

Check out these great dun patterns by LuciV over at Fly Tying Forum. Some great dries and some great pics.

Unclaimed Freight - FOTD

This is some "unclaimed freight" from the Roughfisher. Again, he turns a simple pattern into a beauty (and some nice fly porn). I like the ribbing on the fly, seems like either an olive micro-tubing or some lime wire. Nice tie - and thanks for finding this beauty in the discard pile!

It's MILLER Time!

That's right, Heath Miller has resigned with the Steelers for 6 more years. He is my favorite Steeler and a class guy. If you have ever seen this guy play, you know he gets very few accolades, but is one of the most reliable, bulldozing, team players that has ever played the game. He'll never be the best TE from a stats standpoint, but he is the MVP of the Steelers offense in my opinion. I TiVo every game on TV and re-watch the game and watch him on every play - he always makes some one pay! Now he is getting paid. Steelers, thank you for getting this done!

Our Vacation

As you know by now I spent a week in SC, and although it isn't my next future residence, it was pretty cool.

The campground we stayed at (Lakewood Campground in South Myrtle Beach) was very cool - like it's own little town. Over 600 spots to camp/tent/trailer in. My mom and dad rented a trailer for the week and invited us down. Now, the trailer is like a mini-mobile home and sleeps 6 (barely). It wasn't spacious, but was nice to sleep in AC and eat meals out on the porch and use the golf car to fart around in. This place was so huge it had over a 1/3 mile of beach front, 2 pools, paddle boats, playground, water slides, 3 ponds, store, mini golf, cafe and I'm forgetting so much more.

The down side is that I didn't have WiFi at the trailer - I had to go to the cafe which was a few hundred yards away. The beach was really nice - but it was like any other beach - sand, waves, water, sun. The views were nice, although after a while all the bikinis just blended in. The weather was damn hot - high 80's and early 90's every day and the nights dipped into the high 70's. The humidity was unbearable. I went shirtless the entire week, so I am sure the views weren't so good for everyone else when I was around.

We had intentions of going out and doing a lot of things - but we left the campground 3 times - we hit the local tshirt shops, did a dinner buffet for my birthday and did some mini-golfing (which Avi absolutely LOVED!!). The cafe/beach/pool/food/beer/playground/food/beer/sleep/repeat was our routine.

Avelyn had a great time with Nana and Papa, and visa versa. Zach was just a little too small to know that anything was different than home. He did go in the ocean and pool and had a good time.

I tried going fishing - made an effort to go to Orvis, buy a saltwater license, look at the tide charts, but never found the time to go. The flights were decent, and the kids did well on them. The flight times were way too early for us - getting up before 4am was hard.

My wife has pics on her Picasa Album if interested. Click my link at the top right corner.

Here are a couple of our normal activities throughout the week:










It was nice to get home and see the mutt on Sunday.

Frank the Tank

My new favorite Steeler is (move over Heath Miller):

FRANK THE TANK





A few things to like about Frank Summers:

The guy can catch the ball out of the backfield.
No way do I want to hit that guy with a 5 yard running start.
He's a true Steeler - great upbringing, great kid, he is special.
He wears my frickin number 44!!!!
Look at those calves!
We need a FB - and a short yardage guy - and a smile (besides Hines) all game long.

I love this guy! Let's start the chant "FRANK THE TANK...FRANK THE TANK!!"

Oh, the reasons why we live in Colorado/ the Rockies...

I have just returned from the Southern East Coast - specifically Myrtle Beach, SC which I had never been to. I have been to the beaches of NC and FL and every state north of DC. I will say that it just reinforces why I live in such a beautiful place and not in some other places. I like Myrtle Beach, it was nice to be near the ocean and the seafood was great, but...

Let's just remind ourselves why we (I say "we" because most of my 3 readers live in/along the Rockies as I do) do live here. Let's please be reminded that I am not trying to insult you in any way, I am merely just pointing out some differences between us and the Southern East Coasters. So, for all you Southern East Coasters shaking your heads sideways, there is 20 rocky mountainers shaking their heads up and down.

Also, I have to add this legal jargon to make the wife happy. The opinions and views expressed on this blog are in no way those of my wife, Jennifer.

10. Rental cars suck, especially when you drive an SUV at home. Oh, and Colorado is the king of SUVs, more SUVs per capita than big hair in NJ. I asked for an SUV at the rental car place and they wanted to charge me $25 more a day for a Murano - dude that ain't an SUV! Almost everyone in beach towns drive cars (unless pulling a 5th wheel or camper - although I saw Hyundai SUVs pulling huge pop-up trailers, which I thought was frickin' insane, then remembered - no mountains and passes in SC!!) - and they all don't know how to drive them. I love the feeling of being up high and seeing everything...which leads us to..

9. Trees are nice, wow, they are so green and beautiful. So lush, so...right next to the road, so clumped in huge sections of overgrowness. Oh yeah, people come to Colorado and go through tree-withdrawal. Yes, that is funny. But when us Coloradans go back to the East Coast we can't see shit! Who needs GPS in Colorado? No damn trees to block the view - just the way we like it. Feel free to keep your tree hugging highways to yourself. After a while it got old seeing nothing but trees - I want to see what was behind those trees. Also, if you want a fence, just build a mound of dirty and plant trees on top - in 5 years it will be impenetrable. Whalla! DIY fence!

8. Beer has absolutely no effect on me at sea level - I drank 6 beers during the 6pm to 10pm hours and didn't have a hang over in the morning. Yes, this sounds normal for most heavy drinkers - but not me! I'm a light weight. I don't see the cost effectiveness of having to drink 6-12 beers to get drunk when I can do the same thing with 3 beers at a mile high! (everything boils down to money, sex and sports with men - that is a true story). Which, by the way means that I couldn't get enough alcohol in my wife (without taking out a second mortgage) to get her drunk and take....ok, onto #7.

7. Salt water is gross. Yes, it makes cuts/scars heal in 3X less time, but....I don't want it in my mouth, eyes, nose...anywhere. We don't have any salt water in the rockies. Oh, and water isn't meant to be 75 degrees - it's meant to be ice cold and put into beer. Yeah, that is the kind of water we have in Colorado. Big deal, the east coast has the ocean, but we have high mtn lakes and beer water! My kid wouldn't go into the water because she didn't want salt water in her mouth or eyes. Yes, this means that my kid is a little bit of a priss - but I'm ok with that. She had no problem swimming in the cloudy watered, heavily chlorinate, suntan lotion clouded pool! Can't be TOO much of a priss then!

6. I just want all southerners to know that the Confederates lost the war, and no, there aren't any re-dos. So take your stupid flags off your trucks, and your trailers and your mobile homes with no wheels. You lost. And you look like jack asses flying your flags. Technically I'm not even sure if Colorado is north or south of the Mason-Dixon line...but whatever.

5. What is the deal with no recycling in the South? I guess I have no idea if it is a southern problem or a SC problem or a campground problem - but a campground is the #1 place that they should be pushing recycling. I mean, everything at a campground is portable - beer, soda, water, bags, boxes, paper - everything, so they all come in containers that are usually recyclable! I did not see a single recycling bin, not anyone recycling (for their benefit they had no where to put recyclables) and no emphasis on it. I think in a resort town everyone thinks they can just abuse the environment (because they are either leaving - and going home) or they are capitalizing off it (the locals). Sad. Very sad. We don't have as bad of an outlook here in Colorado/RM - although I sure wish Highlands Ranch would pay for my damn recycling!

4. Why the hell were there so many SC and NC license places at the campground? Can't you people drive a little further to something less hot/fat/salt watered/treed? I mean the frickin' Canadians (lots of Ontario's there) can support your local economy on their own (God Bless Canadians! I mean this - since I am 2 generations away from Canada - not to mention the Rockies roll through Canada!!). And SC and NC aren't that big - so why pack up your 5th wheel and drive to the beach that is what 2 or 3 hours away? When we drive 3 hours out here we are only in the the next cowtown over! Yellowstone is 11 hours, Ft Smith MT is 7 hours, Durango is 6, Moab is 4. Get up off your lazy asses and drive somewhere! And what the hell is up with the accent's down there? By the end of the week I sounded like I was born and bred in the south. You couldn't tell the difference between me and a pure bred. It's like a virus or something. And I just can't use the word "y'all" out here without someone laughing at me.

3. Where did all these "big" people come from? Now, I know I have to be politically correct (whatever!) but there is just heavier people on the east coast - well, at least heavier than in Colorado/RM. But, when I think about it, everything on the east coast is geared to eating - buffets, GREAT food, fatty foods, etc - or not working out - mosquitoes, beaches, buffets, etc. People in Colorado/RM are just much healthier - maybe because we have such amazing scenery that goes vertical (the mtns). There seems to be a slacking attitude in the east, my wife and I noticed that because we weren't pressured at all to work out while we were on vacation - like we are every day we are home.

2. My poor daughter has welts all over her body, and although she is in her terrible 3's, none of these welts were inflicted by me (although trust me, she is a handful). They are of course bug bites, mosquitoes, flies, whatever. The poor kid literally has over 20 bites. She has bites on top of bites - one on each ankle, wrist, elbow, knee....everywhere. Guess what, NO FRICKIN BUGS IN COLORADO! Yes, we have some this year because of all the rain, but none in the mtns, none in your backyard most of the time.

1. I basically sweat non-stop for a week. What the hell is up with the humidity? It constantly feels like I was going through alcohol withdrawals and the sweat was pouring out of my body. It is disgusting. Then you need to go into an air conditioned building where it is 20 degrees cooler - except you freeze to death! Only to go back outside and have a huge weight put back on your chest. It is draining. No wonder everyone in the East is fat - how the hell do you get the energy to exercise in that humidity. Colorado has very low to no humidity. Oh, and when I woke up this morning it was 57 degrees! It did not get below 76 degrees the entire time I was in SC - not even at night or during rain storms! The AC never shut off.

Yeah, this sounds like I'm bitching, but I'm really not. If you want to know why I live out here, I think you need to ask yourself why you would tolerate where you live. Then realize I live in paradise.

Just kidding - Colorado is horrible, way too much snow, cold winters, no oxygen to breath, sunburns, too many cows, neighborhoods with every house looking the same, and the schools just aren't safe. Come at your own risk.

SC Fishin'

I realized that just because you drag the rod along, buy a few flies and even get the fishing license, it still doesn't mean you can find the time to fish.



I never did get to fish.....

Congrats!

Congrats to my buddy Chris and his wife Mandy who yesterday had a little boy, Whitaker. Everyone is doing well, and he should have a fly rod in his hand by the end of the week.

Congrats again guys!

Headed to SC on vacation!

I'll be away for about a week on vacation to Myrtle Beach, SC. Of course I will find a way to have access to the internet and I will probably post pics, but not sure I will be doing much fishing. I need a vacation.

Edit: Ok, I have broken down and packed a fly rod - and some old flies I got before my Cozumel trip - and of course added a bobber and some plain hooks - want to see if I can get Avi into some smaller fish.

Sparkle Larvae - FOTD

The Roughfisher is at it again! Yup, he's gone and tied one gorgeous fly after another - and using materials we all have hanging around. Easy ties (it looks like) and something we can all do - oh, and probably catches more fish than some of these patterns that take 15 minutes to tie! Just sayin'.



This is my favorite - I love blondes....



Thanks Roughfisher for the great pattern, let me know if you need anyone to test them out (hint hint).