Breezy on the Ark

Mr. Greene with a nice little bow

I had my eye on the weather last week and Saturday's forecast was pegged as awesome by several people on TV that guess weather for a living. If more than two guesses on different channels happen to be identical then you can be 100% sure that 60% of the time they're right every time. A little Anchorman humor there for you.

Mike, Ben, and I also had the pleasure of having my better half, someone that actually knows how to take a picture, out with us for a little fishing and picture taking. Not only did Alica take some great pics, she managed to get out of 8th St. Walmart on a Saturday morning with a fishing license in hand before the bus left the station (10 minutes, which was announced by some ahole as Alicia was getting out of the truck).

Again, my fellow Colorodeans did not disappoint and were out in droves taking advantage of another beautiful sunny, warm, winter day in Colorado. The only catch was the gale force winds that came along with that warm sunny weather. I always learn something new when I fish and this trip it was not to tell someone how good a run is if it requires them to cast directly upstream into 40 MPH winds! Mike didn't think the run was that great :-)

We weren't on fire by any means but we all caught fish and had a good time. Main thing that came out of this trip for me is that it seems like on descent days in the winter you can pretty much set your watch to the midge hatch that seems to be heaviest around 12:30 - 1 PM. I've tried a bunch of test patterns based on samples I've taken, but to be honest with you a black beauty is hard to beat. Mike did find another midge emerger pattern that was also pretty hot which I will share with you all after the Frostbite Fish-off!

Location:  Anticline Bend
Time: 1:00 PM
Water Temp: 40
Weather: Sunny / Windy 58
Hatch: Midge (fair)
Stage: Pupa/Adult
Size: #18-22
Abdomen Color: Olive / Brown
Thorax Color: Black
Head Color: Black
Wing Color: Clear / Dun
Shuck Color: Light Tan
Sample: Yes

Notes: Sample contains an big adult midge as far as midges go. It was pushing a size 18. Big damn midge!