South Park - Sunday, May 20, 2012

Scott and I met at the K&G at 4:30AM, gassed up my truck and the boat and were at the Gate at 6AM(ish). We hit the boat ramp by the dam and had the boat in the water at 6:30. Scott parked the truck and I held the boat while he fired Big Red up. Problem is, she wouldn't fire up. We tried for a good 40 minutes, drained one battery and the other was close to broke before we decided we would be ditching the boat and hiking in. We pulled the boat our of the water and in the parking lot we started tying her up - Scott straightened the engine and decided to give it one more crank - and Big Red started right up.

We got her back in the water and were over to one of our favorite spots at around 7:30. There were already 4 or 5 boats over in that direction, but no one directly in our spot. We anchored up and threw our lines in and it was slow. Scott ass hooked and landed two fish within a few minutes and it was just slow.

We fished multiple spots throughout the day. All areas produced hits, but they were very sporadic. Lots of smaller stockers found, lots of jumpers and fiesty fish, but nothing of any size or special - all were rainbows, all caught on chiro's of grey/black/yellow/tan.

The cool part about the day was the bugs - LOTS of huge chiros hatching, mostly grey and black with a chartruese ribbing (cool looking). The chiros were to be expected, but what wasn't expected was the callibaetis hatch - on the east side of the lake the callis were EVERYWHERE and huge - they were easily size 8 or 10's, and they were all over the water. I tried a calli pattern to no avail. I did not see the fish hitting the surface taking callis. We did see lots of fish slapping the surface on the west side - but no notable slurps - mostly just jumping. Lots of 6-8 inch fish doing aerials out of the water about 50 feet from the boat. Maybe the fish were full from the week or two prior of a full menu of chiro's??

Honestly the trip was disappointing - our hopes were an epic chiro hatch with the fish taking our flies easily. I think we missed that first hatch that makes the fish nuts, and we may be in summer mode in South Park already. Water temps were 55 degrees all day. The weather was very nice, a low cloud cover took until 9am to burn off, then it was mostly sunny all day long - the air temp rose all day and the winds stayed down all day as well. Very nice day to be on the boat.

Catch of the day was finding a bell anchor attached to our anchor.

I think we caught 20 fish all day - most in the 14-15 inch range, a few much much smaller and maybe 3 fish in the 16-18 inch range. Like I said, nothing special.

South Park Fishing Weekend - April 26-28, 2012

I got a chance to spend a few days with some friends in South Park - wasn't the planned trip to the Bighorn, but was still a lot of fun. The weather was CRAZY, we drank way too much beer, and the fishing wasn't great, but it was still a great time. Enjoy the fish porn!

South Park Stillwater - April 7, 2012

I fished a famous South Park stillwater on Saturday with a bunch of buddies. It was epic. I'm not going to say the name because I'm sure you all know which one - but luckily you don't know this spot.

We all caught tons of fish, all fish were healthy and it is going to be a great year for this lake. We have a bit of a tradition amongst my buddies - it is the Old Chub Chug - my buddy Scott had the honors after landing a fish on his first cast.





I managed double digit fish for the day all about one or two at 18+ inches. Including this 23.5 inch rainbow that looked like a steelhead - it was my first fish of the day.





That was a nice surprise.

I saw a couple videos on the internet where a guy had put his Go Pro camera on his net and took videos of landing and releasing fish - it was an awesome idea and I hooked mine up to do the same. Lots of videos and a bunch of still shots - great tool to have during a fishing outing. Check out these pics I took from the videos:















We fished all day, wind was up a little bit, but calmed down at the end of the day. Home by 7pm - it was an awesome day - thanks guys for hitting it with me!

Blue River at the Outlets - March 25, 2012

Had a couple of hours to kill this afternoon and figured I'd try the Blue river at the Outlets in Silverthorne. A couple weeks ago I was there and saw a huge 15# fish feeding right at the bridge. I watched as a redneck tried to hook him with 6 feet of tippet between indicator and flies. I knew I could do better.

I took Cabo and was at the Outlets around 12:30 - beautiful day, around 54* at the summit of Eisenhower Pass and about 68* in Silverthorne. I was lucky to find the spot empty, so I jumped in. It is a little weird being in a fish bowl with people walking above you and making comments, asking questions and throwing rocks. I should have started throwing rocks back - but I figured these fish have been through this 365 days a year for many years, a few rocks aren't going to slow their feeding down.

It took about 20 minutes, but I hooked a pig, fought him nice and landed him - got him on a size 22 red midge with gold ribbing - don't remember the name of the fly. He was a nice fish - probably 4 or 5 lbs and about 18+ inches - very health and very colorful. I held him up for Cabo to "kiss" and the crowd of onlookers gave an "AHHHHHH!" and then I released the fish to an applause. I felt like a stud.

I managed to hook another big fella in the pool and he literally ran a 100 yard dash around the pool and the spit the hook - he was a biggie too. I moved down the watefalls to each pool - finally the one right above the tunnels I saw a fish dancing in the faster water and slammed him - he was a fun fight too - but he was only about 15 inches.

I walked back all the way up to above the highway and saw some sketchy characters sitting on the rocks ahead smoking something and decided I was done. Man, that river has changed SOOOO much. I don't even know where to fish that river any more - its a mystery to me. The hole under the highway (Asbestos Alley) is about ankle deep. Sad.

I did see this HUGE cuttbow dead on the river - made me sad. He was easily a 6 lber and looked pretty healthy, except for the fact the he was, errr, dead and all. I saw another large fish that was dead as well - looked to be about the same size - he was on the other side of the river and I didn't get a look.



Cabo and I stopped at Good Times to get spoonbenders - she loves her custard. She's knocked out on her bed snoring now - poor mutt can't take the abuse of fishing any more. Good day - glad I got out and glad I didn't get skunked.

Aurora Res

I fished Aurora with some buddies today - not a place I would go to wet a line, but my buddy wanted to give it a try and it is close to home. We found some nice looking water, but no luck. The water was cold cold cold and the wind was up - but it was relatively warm. No luck though, but then again, we are rookies there. It was nice to see my buddies and get out on the water and wet a line.

Colorado FF Photographer - Angus Drummond

Being a Colorado guy and loving great fly fishing related photographs of Colorado, it was nice to see a new site with lots of Colorado photography - plus, I recognize a few of these places. I have taken pics of some of these places as well and they never seem to do their beauty justice (ie, my pics suck) - Angus' photos on the other hand, do a great job of showing these amazing places in a photograph (although nothing is as good as actually being there - but these photos are pretty close).

Check him out:

GlobalFlyFisher article

www.angusdrummond.com

T-Minus 60 days until the Bighorn!

I'm getting excited! A bunch of buddies and I are doing a Bighorn trip this year - first time in almost 4 (I think) years since I have been back. Not looking forward to the 7+ hour drive (one way), but looking forward to 3 full days of fishing!!

www.frontsidefly.com

I'm not sure if you guys read other blogs, but this one has popped up quite a few times this year on my Google Reader feed with new videos from a couple of kids who fish the Artic/Nordic (not sure of the difference). The cool thing about these kids is they aren't showing off, no swagger like the Felt Soul guys, no expensive equipment, just huge trout, unbelievable scenery and just having a good time.

Check it out when you get a chance.

www.frontsidefly.com

About to freak this - frontsidefly from Rolf Nylinder on Vimeo.

Colorado River - Dec 27, 2011

Fished the Colorado River again in the same spot as last week with Steffan. Same result, just much smaller fish this time. Nothing really over 16 inches - and only 1 that big - all browns, but it was great to get out with Steffan.











Attached are some pics of the river and Steffan catching some fish. Steffan broke 2 tips to the ice - it was an expensive day for him.