San Juan River

Dad and Grandpa

This river has a bit of history in my family. My Grandpa and my Dad used to fish it in the 70s. I remember a few times begging to go when I was little and remember getting told that walking in the river is dangerous and that I had to be bigger... Funny the things you remember.

70s Rig

The money rig in those days was a two burlap nymph setup dredged with a slinky weight. They would use a spinning rod and tie a slinky weight on the end of the line with  two 6" droppers  12" and 24" or so above the slinky weight each with a burlap nymph. They would cast out into the current and keep just enough tension on the line to detect a strike. They used to KILL it with this setup. This was back in the day when you could fish right up to the dam and they would be able to cast out to the main current coming out of the dam and get their flies right on the bottom.

Yikes!

I guess hearing about those trips stuck because as soon as I got into fly fishing I was asking to go fishing on the San Juan. My first trip was in 94 I think. I had just barley started fly fishing and actually started out fly tying with burlap nymph patterns.  My Dad would take my buddy Nate and I down to Colorado Springs Sports on Academy and Austin Bluffs to talk to George who was learning us in the ways of fly fishing rigs. He got us tying thread and disco midges once he heard we were planning a trip down to the San Juan. This was a bit of a challenge going from size 12 burlap nymphs to size 22 disco midges! The killer patterns on that trip as I recall were a chamois leach, size 18 red hot, and size 22 olive thread midge. I caught the biggest fish I had ever caught on a fly at that point which was a 19" rainbow on a chamois leach. I was shocked when I netted it!

So after a 20 year hiatus, and a trip up to the North Platte that was canxed due to weather, Ben and I decided to head down south the day after Christmas and get two days, Friday and Saturday,  of fishing in and then drive back Sunday morning.

Not a whole lot has changed in 20 years. Abe's shop is a little bigger and he added a few rooms but it's still Abe's. Rizzo's is now Fish Heads and there is a third shop now which has a descent selection of fly tying materials if you need to tie something up in the room.

Fish Heads has a restaurant which I highly recommend. We were actually able to score prime rib Friday night which was great. They also offer rooms which I may check out next trip. Abe's was more than adequate however if you don't require anything fancy. If you are in your room for anything other than sleeping or showering in Navajo city during daylight you probably need to do more fishing. 

Upper Flats

We hired a guide for the first day which was a good call because it was hard to read the water with it being so off color. Chris, out of Abe's,  put us on a few runs I would never have fished and they fished well.We fished the Kiddie Hole and landed a few to include a nice 18" bow I fumbled trying to get a pic. We then moved up to the upper flats and continued to hook fish fairly consistently.

After lunch we moved downstream. We started a ways above Baetis Bend and worked our way down to the end of the bend. I missed a 20" class fish as the sun was setting on Baetis Bend that hit a midge emerger that I was testing in

Pueblo. I guess that goes to show that a midge is a midge is a midge. Not too much to change other than color and size.

We spent Friday night tying up some flies and rigging up for the next day. Ben has a very unique saying (which I can't repeat here) when he realizes that he missed a rod eye after rigging up. Let's just say that it's probably not the best thing to yell when two dudes are in a hotel room with thin walls.... 

On Saturday we decided to hit Texas Hole. Figured anyone who fishes the San Juan needs to hit Texas Hole at least once and this was Ben's first trip to this river. We hit the water around 8:30 and it wasn't too crowded. That changed quickly though.... Fishing was good and I landed 2 in 4 casts. The fishing tapered off though as the dude hatch progressed. Ben landed a nice 18-20" fish at the top of Texas hole and I missed a nice one in the same area.

After lunch we decided to work our way through the braids. I remember this section from the last trip and have always thought it would be cool to work your way through them searching for large trout. I was right. It was very cool. You can really get back off the main channel of the river. It feels like small stream fishing. The difference is that you are catching 20" brick red bows!

Leach patterns were definitely the ticket this trip. Most of my fish, including these last two shown here took a leach pattern I developed for Rainbow Falls. A chamois leach worked well if tied large enough. The standard 1-2 inch pattern didn't do squat but a 3-4 inch pattern got bit fairly consistently. By the end of the trip we were fishing double leaches. Not the prettiest rig but very effective.

It was a really fun trip overall. It brought back a lot of memories. It's comforting to know that a river you fished 20 years ago is still fishing the way you remembered it. I don't think it'll be another 20 years before I return but I sure hope it continues to fish well for years to come.

Arkansas River (Pueblo)

Ben and I decided to get in a few hours on the Ark on Christmas Eve Day. We are trying to get an idea of the current situation on the Ark in Pueblo before the Frostbite Fish-Off in Feb. I didn't do great on our last trip but I took some insect samples and had a few patterns to test drive. I figured things would start to heat up a bit.

Well..... it was another tough day. We started off at the Nature Center and ran into Ben and Lou padding up. We hit the rock pile and worked our way upstream. Ben Lewis managed to hit one right at the Nature Center drop off on a red annelid. I came up empty all around the Nature Center. Not even a hit in the riffle above the rock pile.

We worked our way upstream to the Flag Hole and pretty much finished up the trip there. I had to WORK for the only fish that I caught all day. I knew I was in front of fish but couldn't put the pattern together. This bow hit a 22 Black Beauty which I tied on after Ben and I saw a midge crawl out of it's shuck and fly away on my seine. Awesome thing to watch. It really surprised me how fast it took off after crawling out of the shuck. Ben grabbed it and we saved the adult and the shuck which is a pretty cool thing to have.

After landing the bow above I figured I was on to something but that would not be the case. I wound up with a single hit and a single fish for the entire day. Hmm....... Need to learn a few new tricks before Feb!

Speaking of new tricks - Ben learned that if you don't flip your old man magnifying glasses up after tying on a fly, it'll burn your lips. LOL!! Hilarious.

Location:  Nature Center
Time: 10:45 AM
Water Temp: 41
Weather: Sunny / Windy 40
Hatch: N/A

Location: Flag Hole
Time: 12:00 PM
Water Temp: 42
Weather: Sunny / Windy 40
Hatch: Midge (sparse)
Stage: Pupa/Adult
Size: #22
Abdomen Color: Cream / Grey
Thorax Color: Black
Head Color: Black
Wing Color: Clear
Shuck Color: Light Tan / White
Sample: Yes

Notes: Sample contains an adult midge and the shuck it hatched from. Did see a single BWO Dun at this time.

Arkansas River (Pueblo)

It's been a while since I've fished the Ark! Too long! And Team Chuck and Duck need to knock the rust off our Pueblo skills!  (I need to knock the rust off my blog skills as well - still working on my RF wrap up) Man I'm excited though. This tournament is going to be fun (unless we place last). This year is about trophy fish and we hooked a not my rod breaking fish last year!

Ben and I decided to hit one of the beats if there was some open water. It was an absolute blue bird day and people were taking full advantage as they should as any respectful Coloradoan would.

Turns out the rust is pretty thick. I think it was a pretty slow day but we have some figurin out to do before Feb. We managed to catch 5 or so and miss a few more but it wasn't our best day on the water. We did catch some pretty ones (shown above slightly enhanced :-) The one on the right (majorly enhanced) hit on the edge of the hatchery outlet and looked like a mini hog. STRONG little dude.

But... he only ate after finally going to an egg. I have decided to start paying more attention to the bugs instead of jumping into patterns that have worked before. Everyone knows you should do this but not everyone can stop fishing long enough to do it. Anyone who has figured some of this fly fishing stuff out will tell you to know your bugs. I want to understand my hatches a lot better and come up with, or start using again, a very few simple, durable, fast to tie patterns and tie them in lots of sizes and colors.  I will always have some crazies in the box though because it's fun to make up your own stuff. The more crazies I try though the more I realize how good some old standbys really are. Why has it been so long since I fished a standard brassie?

So a few weeks ago I decided to make a little waterproof hook chart that I can look at bugs on to see if my fly size guessing needed some calibration. Yep. Way off. By two sizes in some cases.  I also decided to stop asking my fishing buddies to kick rocks up when I seine. I figure if I'm kicking stuff up, I'm looking at bugs that in some cases won't hatch for a year or more (I know that because of this and this and these guys). So even though I don't seine nearly enough, meaning rarely, I decided to make the hole process take longer.

I have taken Robert's (The Bug Guy) class and know how to collect and identify aquatic insects, plus I've read a few books that connect some dots. I need to stop being lazy about it. Plus it's fun. Just a hard activity to start. Especially when you start seeing bugs popping up. And since I'm going to attempt to be studious why not through in water temperature for the hell of it. Seems important......

So here it is. What I gathered during a few time outs from the whipping. Could be right, could be wrong. Use at your own risk :-) - Cool macro pics by my better half!

Location:  Anticline Bend
Time: 10:57 AM
Water Temp: 39
Weather: Sunny 40

Midge Emerger

Hatch: Midge (sparse)
Stage: Emerger
Size: #26/24
Abdomen Color: Chocolate / Cream / Flashabou Rib
Thorax Color: Black
Head Color: Black
Wing Color: Clear / Light Brown (case)
Sample: Yes

Caught 2 small bows just upstream from mid bend sand bar on #18 Red Hook
Hooked one on #22 Two Bit Hooker (w/ red beads). Missed a few on #22 Dorsey brown Top Secret Midge (looked like the perfect match for the midge emerger I found but I think I need them in #24-26 - maybe add the Flashabou tail). Decided to head downstream to join up with Ben at the hatchery outlet. 

Location:  Hatchery Output
Time: 1:10 PM
Water Temp:41 out of Hatchery
Weather: Sunny 40

Hatch: Midge (sparse / fair)
Stage: Adult
Size: #26/24
Abdomen Color: Chocolate / Cream / Brown / Rib
Thorax Color: Black
Head Color: Black
Wing Color: Clear
Sample: Yes

Location:  Hatchery / River Channel
Time: 1:20 PM
Water Temp: 44 main channel
Weather: Sunny 40
Hatch: Same midge seen at 1:10

Caught 1 small bow on #18 Red Hook. Caught 1 15/16" fat bow on 4mm yellow Otter Egg with yellow bead

Notes: Sample contains various midge adults / emergers, a baetis nymph (I think), and a caddis larva. One midge in sample is just emerging from the shuck. You can see a clear shuck hanging off the abdomen (shuck is same length of abdomen). Shuck looks exactly like a single strand of clear Flashibou. Very cool to see.

Test Pattern / Shotglass

I've been playing with a few patterns and this is the latest. Needs to be thinner though. Actually looks like a good baetis emerger. Pretty much the same thing as Shea's Shotglass as my buddy Justin has pointed out. After checking out that pattern again it is spot on for what I found in the water. No shortage of brilliant fly designers out there!

Flow: 61. fs

Streamer fishing - The Benfinity Retrieve - Rainbow Falls

Yikes! Late Entry here. From Nov 1st -

Ben had done very well the previous weekend on streamers. He started experimenting with different retrieves and found a pretty counter-intuitive (at least for us anyway) way to fish streamers that we hadn't figured out before or heard of.  He texted me that he had a new technique but left it at that. This of course got the wheels turning. We finally caught up and he explained what he was doing (Jumping forward here for a quick second but since I've had a chance to fish this technique for at least 5 hours water time, I've since come up with a name for it). Ben came up with the technique and it seems to take an infinity to complete one cast so -

THE  BENFINITY RETRIEVE

Ben began to explain the Benfinity and it went as follows

. Cast  your streamer out and when it hits let it sink. For a LONG time. Just barley keep enough tension on your line in order to pick up a hit. This means pointing your rod straight at the fly with rod tip just off the surface of the water. Run the line over your pointer finger of your casting hand and pull straight back with your non casting hand until you can JUST BARELY feel tension. You don't want to move your fly much. Let it sit for 5 - 10 seconds on the bottom and then pull VERY slowly to move your fly along the bottom a few feet and pause again for 5 - 10 seconds. If you see your line move (just where the tip starts to go under water) in any sort of unusual way or feel a slight "tic" STRIP SET!

Sounded good to me. I couldn't wait to try it out so when we showed up Friday evening I jumped out of the truck and grabbed the streamer rod. Two casts later and I was hooked up. I was fishing just off the side of the bank and I could see them picking up the streamer off of the bottom during a long pause. Crazy.... Some would pass it over and then come back and clobber it when you barley moved it. A lot of hits came on the sink. Just as the fly was about to hit bottom it seemed. That's how I picked up the brown shown above. She hit about 5 seconds after my fly hit the water. Probably about 2 foot off the bottom. And the take was barley noticeable. I would say that has been the most counter-intuitive thing I've learned over the summer streamer fishing. Takes on streamers can be super subtle. . 
It's fun when you can see the take. Bigger trout don't always get all crazy every time they hit a big streamer. From what I've seen that is the exception. It does happen and it's awesome when it does, but most bigger trout will simply swim up deliberately, open their mouths and swim forward over the prey item. It's very casual! I've seen it happen a lot on the end of a retrieve when a trout has followed the fly in. Lots of calories, not a lot of exercise. Seems to be the big trout mantra. I seem to be following the same pattern lately!

Rainbow Falls Fishing Fix

I am a slacker. Just a bit behind on the blog. Between getting a cold and work getting a tad crazy, I have totally neglected my little fishing blog. I am spoiled too. I'm a little bummed to have to postpone a trip with Landon Meyer on the Dream Stream this fall due to extremely low flows out of Spinney. I'm stuck having to catch torpedoes like this instead. Ehhhh I really shouldn't be whining. Well just one more complaint. Summer went a little too quick this year. It goes quick every year. It goes quicker every year. I'm starting to sound like a goth chick. Gotta pull this write up out of the gutter!

Ben and I had such a great day with Project Healing Waters the day before, we had to deal with the only possible drawback to a day like that which is that you are left absolutely jonesing to fish. Had no choice but to go back up Saturday morning. The fish were enjoying a perfect day and were out in force to eat.

Marty and I rode up early. We started in Eagle Lake and hooked fish regularly in Eagle and in Spring. I almost made Ben wait at the gate and watch me catch fish every few casts in Spring. The fish above was hooked about 5 minutes before Ben showed up. Had to put the rod down and let him in the gate. I was a little worried that I would lose the pattern as so often happens at RFs. Things can change in a minute. Oh yeah, you didn't know? Fish are fish, even at RFs (haters, you know who you are :-). But I did the right thing and only made Ben watch me catch one. OK that's a lie. I let him in.


Didn't really matter where you fished. After letting Ben through the gate, I took a few steps over to the inlet at Palmer Lake and landed this one. Marty was hooking up like crazy in Eagle. He had no reason to leave Eagle. He was hooking up like crazy.


Ben headed down to the creek and Marty and I stayed up top for a while and landed a few more. We met up with Ben who had been killing it on the creek and headed down to Cougar. We started off in our normal spot and fished for a few minutes without a ton of action. I remembered something Ben said about a show he watched where a hardware guy always went to the side of the lake the wind was blowing towards and cast into the wind. When I got to that side of the lake I realized that the sun was throwing long pine tree shadows on the surface. There were defined shadows on the water with the sun glaring through the trees. I cast and tried to land my flies just on the sunny side of the shadow line at it's furthest point. Fish were more than willing and I landed this hog within a few casts.

Ben came over to help with the net. After that quick pic he hooked and landed this thing. Action kept up for another half hour or so and we landed a few more nice ones.

Another great trip to RF in the books! Only a month or so left this season. Should get up there at least a few more times and hopefully land a colored up brown.

Rainbow Falls with Project Healing Waters

Ben Lewis and I were lucky enough to get on the Mentors list for the Project Healing Waters - Colorado Springs trip up to Rainbow Falls. Cool for a variety of reasons. Long weekend, Rainbow Falls, October in Colorado, sunny day after a cold windy night, and getting to be a Mentor and fish with a Vet for Donaldson's (Super Trout! (good band name)), bows, cuttys, browns, and brook in a place that I've grown to love over this past summer.

Mick Stefan took the wheel as Trip Lead and coordinated an early morning meet up at Angler's Covey. Mick and Jeff Stahnke took care of business and had everyone heading up the hill in no time. Ben and I rode up ahead while the guys made a subway pit-stop and noticed a lone Jeep Cherokee Sport parked in front of Eagle Lake. 

I don't know if there is a cooler Dude than Dave Herber. First off he sealed the deal on the Rainbow Falls membership Ben and I got at the Fly Fishing Expo this past winter. He started talking about 20 inch trout taking a size 14 Adams on a quick weeknight trip up the hill after a hard days work and Ben and I were toast. Where do we sign?

When Ben and I pulled through the gate Dave was already getting a fire going and when we pulled up he offered us Doughnut Mill doughnuts and hot coffee! This guy is a Saint! Don't let the soft exterior fool you though. He will absolutely out fish anyone. I saw him fish for like 2 minutes during lunch break and he hooked 2 and landed 1. I think he had his subway in his left hand and he was casting with his right. Dave you are the man and thanks for breakfast!

I was teamed up with Rick Rood. This guy has been EVERYWHERE. The grand Army tour so to speak only the places he's been you wouldn't want to visit. Talk about some crazy stories. I had a hard time concentrating on the fish. Rick has been through a lot so I'm glad we were able to spend a day on the water. Thank you for your service Rick!

We wound up putting a dozen or so in the net. We nailed this brown right off the bat. Even prettier in person. We fished the creek in the morning and fished in and around Eagle Lake after lunch. Rick was all over the fishing. I just had to put him in front of some fish. He did the rest. It's a good thing too because I didn't want to impart any of my bad habits!

One of the best days I've had at Rainbow Falls! I can't wait for next year.

Dave put together an awesome vid of the trip. You can see a fancy net trick at the 4:10 mark!

Arkansas River (Pueblo)

Poor little guy lost his lower lip somewhere in the bait section.

With a late night trip to RF the evening prior, Ben and I got a late start on the Ark on Saturday. We decided to fish up towards the dam. The water was dirty and warm. I NEED to get a thermometer. I've been saying that for years. Need to just make it happen. I'm not sure how warm the water was but it seemed noticeably warm. I'm going to go ahead and blame the fishing on the warm water. I've never done great in dirty water but have certainly had better days than we did on Saturday in it.

The flow was in the mid 200's. Great flow for that river. It was harder to find the deeper runs below the dam with the dirty water. I have a general idea of where they are at but without being able to see the bottom they were harder to find. We sort of worked our way down the north bank to find the drop off. I did find one pod of fish but only managed to snag one brown and a sucker. Ben pulled probably the biggest sucker I've seen come out of the river. Now he has the record for trout and suckers between us! Show off.

After fishing this section for a while we went down and hit the Martini hole off of 4th street. We fished it hard and Ben fished the nice runs above it but we didn't have much luck. 4th street section seems to either be great or terrible depending on the day. 

It's been a tough October fishing so far! We are putting in our dues for sure this month. But you know what they say about a bad day fishing....

Rainbow Falls 10/4/13

Another weekend kickoff at Rainbow Falls last night. Temps dropped significantly yesterday and it was a cool 40ish when Mike, Ben, and I pulled up on Cougar Lake. It actually started snowing on us a bit! What happened to summer?

I decided to mix things up a bit and fish the lakes with a two "fly" nymph rig instead of slinging meat right away. I used a pink San Juan up top and a Chartreuse egg on the bottom AKA Steak and Eggs. Now if you fish with a bamboo rod and don't use synthetics when tying flies this might not be the rig for you but it catches a TON of fish so it works for me. This 20 incher hit the egg. Yes the grass is still green and I'm all bundled up but I'm not used to fishing in the cold yet!

We pulled a few more out of Cougar and decided to run up and hit Elk where I don't think I'd be comfortable wading knowing the beasts that lurk in it's depths. I keep expecting to see Jeremy Wade filming there after hearing about some of the yellow alligators pulled from Elk (like this one caught earlier in the year - yes have to show it again - look at that kipe! - and since the water is shut off on the Dream this will have to fill in for my big brown this year). Sad... how many selfies I have. My teenage daughters aint got nothin on me.

Elk was on fire for 20 minutes or so! We were all hooking up regularly on pink, apricot, and chartreuse eggs. Mike hooked up and lost one due to a poor knot and right after that Ben and I hooked up. If someone could tie a knot we would have had triples on Elk! Sorry Mike..... (by the way Mike didn't tie that knot....)

On top of my crappy knot tying I turned to Ben and said, "Man I hope this keeps up". Strike two, someone flipped the switch and everything
stopped. Why does anyone fish with me?  At that point I decided to go hit the far corner of Elk. I walked all the way to the far corner and was still receiving direct mind bullet hits from Ben.

We continued to fish for a while after dark without much luck. Still haven't figured out night fishing at RF. I'm thinking we need to hit the wee hours of the morning. That may take some smooth talking with Richard to pull that off.

Black Magic Woman (Dream Stream Take 2)

How can a place so pretty be so cruel? I had a major flare up of troutenvyitis and decided to hit the Dream Stream again last night after work with Ben. Facebook is filling up with MONSTER brown trout supposedly caught in this beautiful yet cold hearted bitch of a river. And I only say that because of what she pulled with me last night.

We started at the bridge and fished our way down. We hit the bridge hole for about half an hour without so much as a bump. I did have a large brown follow me right up to my feet and then turn at the last minute. That gave me false hope. She knew what she was doing. We worked our way downstream as the sun was setting. The river is LOW. Very hard to find deeper water. Especially in the dark. We worked our way down a ways and then came back up to the bridge without a hit.

It was completely dark and with the water being so low we figured we'd just try to get dialed in better at the bridge hole to see what we could snag. For me that managed to be a massive clump of weeds. I pulled my line in and grabbed the clump of weeds with my left hand and brought it up under my head lamp so I could clean my hook off with my right. I noticed the two giant meat hooks in my hands at precisely the same time the freak of nature I had pulled from the depths started moving frantically to get back in the water. My heart was still in my throat when I stopped peeing. I didn't know there were lobster in the Dream Stream. Oooooo you evil woman.....

Big thanks to Ben for not being around at the time and for taking the awesome pic (the only pic) of the trip. I did manage to catch a 6" brown so I didn't get skunked but she got her dig in. I'll be back!

Dream Stream Take 1

It's that time of year again where all I can think about are large spawning browns. It's like a mental disorder. Really. I'd like to say it doesn't affect other aspects of my life but I would be lying to you. I will freeze my butt off, lose sleep, go hungry, whatever it takes to stick and land that trophy brown. But, just because you are willing, doesn't mean you are able :-)

I've been fishing the Dream Stream for years. I've never quite figured it out. I am usually able to snag a few anywhere except for the Dream Stream. It has become my nemesis. I have the uncanny ability to miss the spawning browns. I'm usually too early or too late. Or I'm walking right past them and don't see them. I think it's a combination.

There is hope though! I can feel it coming together. I'm learning more and more each year. I have to slow down and start doing more looking and less fishing. I have the tendency to rush into things when I'm excited and when I get out of the truck at the Dream Stream my arm wants to start casting before I'm on the water. The Pros will tell you to hunt these beasts. You need to spot them and then carefully plan your approach and presentation.

Spotting fish is something I've worked on for a long time. It is not a talent I was born with. Some guys have X-Ray trout vision. "You see it? Right there, about 50 yards out 6, feet down in the plunge pool, I just saw it take a midge". Uhhhhhh...... yeah.... sure did. On top of that it is VERY hard for me to stop fishing long enough to really focus on spotting fish. I know this is a problem. Solving it is going to probably take regular days of leaving the rod in the truck. Something I'm not really prepared to do.

The battle rages on! I'm going to be up there several more times this year. It may or may not happen. The Dream Stream for me is like day dreaming about winning the lottery. Even though I've been schooled day in and day out up there I still keep going. It will happen! Maybe not this year but it will happen!

As for the fishing, I thought (my first mistake) that it was early enough still to see if there were fish staging in the inlet of Eleven Mile. If they were they didn't like the barrage of Streamers Ben and I were throwing.

Wait a second! Wait one damn second. I almost forgot. I need to give Marty crap on this post! How could I almost forget that? How should I politely say that Marty's lady parts kept him from getting up early and caused him to miss the fishing bus? Maybe Marty knew all along that it was a schooling in the making? And if he did, why did he not warn us? Hmmmmm.... Does Marty know more than he is letting on...... Hmmmmmm Very suspicious... I've got my eye on you Murphy.

 Back to the fishing. After a few hours of slinging rabbit strips in the inlet we walked back to the truck and headed up stream. By this time it was an absolute MAD HOUSE on the river. I have never seen it so packed. We counted 80 cars in the three parking lots! That probably equaled over 100 peeps throwing multiple hooks. What a gauntlet these fish have to swim through!

Instead of elbowing in, Ben and I decided to head up to Spinney. We walked along the dam and managed to hook a few on streamers to include the nice 20" bow shown above. This thing took some serious runs! My original Ross Cimarron hasn't screamed like that in a while. Really a good looking fish.

I also hooked and landed a small pike. Very cool fish. I have been saying for a long time that I was going to target pike on Spinney. Just catching this little guy was a lot of fun. They just look built for killing. Fresh water barracuda. Ben and I agreed that we need to learn the pike game next summer at Spinney. Would be sweet to be pulled around the res in a float tube by a 40" pike!

Spinney saved us from being skunked. The Dream Stream has landed yet another direct hit on my ego. I will be going back for more punishment soon!

Frying Pan River (9/21 and 9/22)

Oh where to begin..... This might be a long one. If this weekend is any indication of what fall fishing is going to be like this year, I may be getting a replica made. 30" brown is the goal. Two bugger barns full of nastiness, new pair of long johns, and first trip with gloves. More on that next post.

Back to the Pan. The toilet bowl has to be one of the most unique fishing spots in the country. I'm not going to make a brown trout joke, but the name just doesn't do this place justice. The Old Man and I have been fishing the Pan for the past 20 years. Dad has been fishing it since the 70's. He's got pictures of Baetis Bridge from way back. He confirms that it was as good as you think it would be.

First 24" Trout / Authentic Bill Dance polarized glasses

We started fishing in the lower sections of the river in the early 90's. Back then we fished hardware primarily. Mepps #2 red and white. Only spinner you really needed in any of our rivers back then. We slowly made our way up river and found out about Baetis Bridge, The Bend Hole, and The Toilet Bowl. By then my buddy Nate and I were deep into learning to fly fish. We would hang out at Colorado Springs Sports with our buddy George who taught both of us the basics of fly fishing. The hook was in deep and Nate and I learned to cast (well it gets the job done) at the park and learned to tie flies mixing burlap nymph recipes from my Dad with the patterns we were learning about in Roger Hill's book. We quickly realized that fly fishing The Pan was something different. I had 40 fish days standing on a rock just above Baetis Bridge. We would have Blue Wing Olive hatches at noon where a size 18 Pheasant Tail is all you needed. No bead, no flash, just a good ol' Pheasant Tail. It was every cast on some afternoons and one of those afternoons lead to my first 24" trout. Lots of memories on this river which just adds to the enjoyment of fishing it.

The Folks and I decided to mix things up a bit and leave on a Saturday morning instead of the usual Friday afternoon departure. We arrived in Basalt around noon and checked into the Green Drake. We were scoping out the river on the way up. Pretty busy! No way the bowl was going to be open.

We pulled up to the dam and there were several cars. The Old Man walked up and struck up a conversation with the guy fishing the bowl. He was an awesome guy and after receiving a few tips from Dad invited us to fish with him. Dad's tips lead to our new buddy John landing a pig of a 24" bow. Now that is how you fish the toilet bowl when it's busy. You don't walk up, demand to cast, and state that, "you live here". Seriously happened this trip. I don't like to be mean but if you are the guy who pulled that crap and you are reading this - You Sir, are a tool. We would have been more than happy to share the run, some tips, and probably some flies if you had just been nice. Anyway....

Back to the good peeps. John was an awesome guy and we fished together for a few hours. He landed a few other really nice trout during that time including the bow in this pic. Thanks again John for sharing the bowl with us! I hope to get to fish with you again.

What can I say about the fishing? It was good. Real good. We all caught 20"+ fish. Several of them. Dad landed a TOAD. Not your typical angle in this picture but I have to show you how thick this thing was!

Dad's 25" Bow

Mom was killing it too. She landed 3 over 20". All together we landed 70+ fish the afternoon of the 21st and the morning of the 22nd. 9 of them were over 20". Nicest fish of the trip were Dad's 25" bow and my 22" brown. We fished the typical Mysis shrimp patterns and some home grown Mysis patterns and all seemed to work. I have a theory on Mysis. I think they swim in schools. My suggestion is that if you are fishing next to someone who hooks a fish on a Mysis, hold on! Usually when one eats a shrimp another is about to. I think
it's because a school of shrimp is getting sucked through the dam.

Most people fish the edges of the heavy current but you can also fish the main channel both on the left side of the opening against "the wall" or to the right side of the opening by "the post". Watch the water coming out of the dam. Most of the time it's all white water but sometimes the water is less turbulent and you'll see areas free of white water. Not sure why this happens but if you time your cast right, you can get a slow drift right up against the wall or slightly to the right of the center of the opening. Cast all the way up to the dam. Try to cast under it if you can. This is where the big boys are. They don't get fished to much. If they do the flies are usually zipping over their heads. If you wait for calm water you can get down to them. Use a LOT of weight and ditch the indicator. Pull up before the current runs your flies into the fly shop that is certainly the rock out cropping that you stand on.

Something new that I tried this trip was to dead drift a streamer right on the bottom. You have to put on a LOT of weight with this technique. Use a heavy streamer, and put on a quarter ounce weight. Cast up under the dam as far as you can. Tight line it and bounce it off the bottom. You will feel either a "tic" or pause, or your rod leaving your hands.

It was an awesome trip and a great way to wrap up an unbelievable summer to which I am still desperately clinging too! Lucky for us Colorado Natives, fall in the high country here is very hard to beat and we have several rivers that become infested with yellow alligators. That is the focus for October. Big spawning browns! More to come :-)

Rainbow Falls Round 2

You shouldn't be surprised at all. With a night of fishing like we had the night before it was only natural that Alicia would want to get in on it after hearing about it.We left around 5 and the weather was looking great for another night of really good fishing. It was even a little overcast. By the time we were fishing it was drizzling some. Perfect!

We stopped at the culverts on the way in. Water level was down quite a bit but was still higher than normal. I knew exactly where I wanted to put Alicia and knew exactly what fly was going to be eaten. 

Game had changed as it always does. Not a fish to be had with the flesh colored Slump Buster. Talk about a backfire. I was talking this up big time. Pretty much guaranteed Alicia a big fish on the first cast and wound up looking like a chump! That's what I get for assuming what I knew the fish are doing. That is never a good thing to do. After a little looking around it was apparent what they were eating. A quick rig change and Alicia had me netting full time.

When things slowed down a bit I was able to take a few casts and wound up landing a couple of really nice bows. This trip was a good reminder to never assume anything with trout. They have spent thousands of years figuring out what to eat when. That beats a summer's experience at RF any day of the week. Lesson learned! At least for a little while.