South Platte (Wildcat Canyon)

Got to some new water this weekend. It wasn't always pretty but fish were caught, only minor flesh wounds / deep muscle trauma were suffered, and every bit of it was a blast.

A good friend of mine, David Fitch, had taken his fly tying sweat shop and guides (Sons Stephen, and Michael) there earlier this summer and I've been wanting to hit it ever since he told me about their trip. One of those things that sticks in your mind. In a moment of clarity it became un-stuck and I thought, hiking to go fishing on a holiday weekend would make some sense (impressive I know). Get to a thin section of the crowd, get some exercise, get Marty (on the mend from a shoulder injury (trust me - how that happened is crazier than anything you are thinking about right now)) out for some fresh air, and catch river fish!

My Old Man and I used to hike into Cheesman Canyon a bunch in the 90s and I had learned the comfort of packing in your gear so I put together a day pack with just the essentials. I remember hiking out of Cheesman in July at 4PM in waders. WTF were we thinking? Cold Coke never tasted so good.

I hardly ever (unless I'm fishing with my Dad or have a guide) plan a trip more than a few days out. It can make things a pain in the ass for my friends I'm sure but it also makes it a bit more fun I think. I figured I better figure out where to point the truck so I shot David an email. David provided turn by turn with pictures within a day! Good Dude!

No cars at the trail head. It was a perfect morning. The hike in seemed to go by in a flash except for

discarding the morning's coffee. The one downer was (spoiler alert) hiking for 25 minutes only to pretty much walk through someones backyard. It was a minor distraction and we would wind up getting to some spots that felt like BFE.

We hiked past a half mile of good looking water and I dropped my pack. We rigged up and continued to hike downstream past a long stretch of very rocky terrain. The trail makes its way down to the river, then up over boulders, then down to the river again. I was happy I had dropped my pack when I did. The hike was good exercise and the plunge holes were unreal. We hiked past a section where the canyon opens up a bit and decided to start fishing our way back out. Time for the real fun to begin!

It took half a dozen casts to hook up with a pretty brown. There are a couple of flies that work everywhere. Poopah Brown Velvet Micro Chenille San Juan Worm catches fish anywhere I throw it. Wildcat canyon is no
exception. Some guys don't like fishing with SJWs but I love them. They catch fish. Lots of them. The best three characteristics of a fly in my book are, how easily it is to tie, durability, and most importantly what the fish think of it. SJW is easily in the top 5 in two of those categories. If it isn't working, cut the Chenille off above the hook eye. Sometimes fish don't like the way the Chenille looks when it bends back on the fly in the water.

Another go-to fly is a simple thread body with a CDC feather tied in to look like an RSII only have the CDC feather extend to just before the bend of the hook. Can imitate anything depending on size and color of CDC and thread. No tail, no bead, no ribbing, no thread change. It works! Trim the CDC on stream and add some weight between hatches and it'll represent the nymph. You can tie a dozen of these in 20 minutes. Plan C, small Mercury Black Beauty with flash run along the back of the entire fly under the ribbing.

I absolutely love this type of water. Every 20 - 50 yards you get an entirely new river to figure out. Spend a minute to change your indicator and weight (mold soft tungsten like Mojo Mud) over a very small split shot and use Thingamabobbers for quick indicator adjustments. When you dial in to the run your fishing, fly selection becomes less important. Just get down to the trout with a good drift and if you are close with your fly selection you will hook up.

We hooked up pretty regularly throughout the rest of the day. I landed at least a dozen and missed half dozen more. I think the biggest was 15" but I know this water is holding some larger trout (see stoneflies below). 

We had perfect weather for fishing. We got back to my pack just in time for the thunder. We changed into our dry shoes and started the hike out. After a day of crawling over boulders a hike like this really stretches the legs. We must be living right because we were treated to a light drizzle the entire hike out. Getting the heart rate up in the rain in this scenery really recharges the batteries. The fishing was icing on the cake.

Very cool place and will be back for sure. We saw two other people the whole day on a holiday weekend. I imagine you would have the place to yourself on most week days. Very clean trail. It's a scramble in some places but nothing hard and most of the trail is very well maintained. I can see where the canyon gets its name. Look up every now and then when you are on the trail. Looks like perfect land for big cats. I expected to see something looking down at me a few times. Probably a good idea to fish with someone on a trip like this. You don't have to be as fast as a big cat. You just have to be faster than your buddy. Sorry Marty! :-)

Think there are big fish in Wildcat Canyon?

Yakima River Washington

Hendrix Woodstock Axe

Got out of the great state of Colorado for a few days to catch up with my Girls in Wenachee Washington. They had flown out to my In-Laws house a week prior. Two and a half hour flight, quick step off the curb and hop in the truck at Sea-Tac, and vacation was on.

We headed directly to the EMP Museum located in the shade of the Space Needle to check out a Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana exhibit. They just so happened to have on display the guitar shown here. I didn't realize what I was looking at at first. Then thought no way.... Then I read the display and realized that it was in fact the Woodstock Strat as seen here. I couldn't help but stare for a minute or two. Talk about a dude knowing his craft. Just goes to show what level can be reached when you do what you love to do. One of the great things about Fly Fishing is that you decide what success means. And when you get a taste of whatever that is for you, it can be a truly kick ass moment. I think that's why its so fun teaching people how to Fly Fish or in my case, how to develop bad Fly Fishing habits. If I can pass along just one of those bad habits and it leads to someone getting a taste.... That's a deposit in the Karma bank peeps.

Turns out my Father-in-Law Gary was down to give it a go. Gary is an experienced fisherman and has caught a lot of big fish but hadn't yet whipped a trout river. I figured what better way to introduce someone to Fly Fishing than book a full day float trip. I had recently been ruined by Ben who signed up with me to float several days up in Wyoming (that was a helluva trip) so I figured what the hell. Spoil a beginner and feed the beast. Two birds one stone. And when you are with someone like Gary, it's going to be a great time!

Yakima River

 We met up with our guide Craig at Red's Fly Shop. I gave Gary the 10,000 foot overview of the basics on the way to the shop; what a dead drift is, how it's called a strike indicator and not a bobber even though you use it just like a bobber, how to shadow cast like Brad Pit, etc, etc.  Craig had us on the water in a half hour and we anchored up so Craig could go over how things are really done.  He had Gary casting and mending in no time. Gary picked it up so fast that he started the hooking before Craig could even get to that part. It was a nice segue into the fighting fish part though. We kinda skipped the hook setting part (more on that later).

A Natural

We were fishing in 20 minutes or so and were hooking up fast. Gary hooked and landed his first Trout on a fly rod in about 10 minutes (all on video being subjected to all sorts of experimental torture on my computer in various video editing programs (coming soon)). Not bad! It took me half a dozen trips. My first fish on a fly rod was caught on a single fly nymph rig. Had a size 14 Royal Coachmen nymph barley tied on 6" below a split shot.  A small bow hit it on the swing (and by swing I mean not even close to paying attention). I've since learned that a Royal Coachmen is a dry fly and to pay attention at the end of your drift but you see why it took me a bit :-) Oh and turns out swinging sunk dry flies works really well. Seriously try it during a caddis hatch and hold on.

We were using a big Rubber Legs up top and a size 16 olive Pheasant Tail as a trailer. The trout were taking both. Almost all of the smaller bows hit the Rubber Legs. Gotta love the ambition of these little fellas.

Fish of the day 18" bow

I got a good take just after Gary landed his first and saw pretty quickly that it was a good fish. Craig said that a big bow on the Yakima is 20". I knew this one was 18" class so it was an exciting fight. Fought well and was a really healthy fish. Always nice to get that first nice one in the boat. They are all fun but there is just something about seeing a trout that's been around the bend a few times. Both of us learning from each other. Or conditioning in my case where I become more and more addicted to it. (Gary's hat that day - "Fish Control My Brain"- think about it).

Gary continued to get hits but was fighting the urge to hook set to the side which as a general rule (yes not all cases) is less effective than a vertical hook set. We got a good laugh out of this a few times (remember what Gary's hat said?). I'm a firm believer in laughing when you're the joke and Gary's reaction to missing a fish was hilarious. He had Craig and me in stitches a few times. Got some video of this but the audio is pretty much going to be a long peep. Gary got caught with a little extra line out when a fish completely gobbled his fly. We could see the little guy swimming around like crazy while Gary's fly line zipped around the boat. Craig chimed in, "you got one, you still got one, it's on, it's still on, you got one", LOL!!! We were dying. Gary finally got some tension on him and he spit the hook. That little fish is going to have serious problems.

Gary was a good sport about it all and got his digs in for sure. Gary gave Craig some advice on how to fix his truck earlier in the morning. After about the 5th missed set, Craig let out a laugh that set him and I over the edge. Gary said, "that's ok, I was going to tell you what was really wrong with your truck". Ha!

Craig was a great guide and kept us in pretty steady action all day. We hit plenty in the 10"-12" range, a few in the 15"-16" range and one just under 19" (don't worry about zooming in on this one. No ruler there :-)). Very cool to get to Fly Fish with Gary. I don't think Craig is going to forget this trip. I sure as hell won't.  We had a great time and I'm sure it's not the last time we'll get to fish together. I'm thinking Steelhead on the Wenachee :-)

Battle at Boxwood 2013

Ben Lewis

Ladies and Gents you are in for a treat! We have, for the first time ever, a guest writer on JFFJ. Ben Lewis fished on a team in this year's Battle at Boxwood. He asked if he could do a write up and I told him absolutely on the one condition that he keep it real (the only "rule" I have for the blog). Ben's write up is good. Almost too good. I might have to rethink this guest writer thing.... Without further ado, Mr. Ben Lewis.

Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing - 2013 Battle at Boxwood

Battle at Boxwood (BaB) is a Fly Fishing tournament hosted by Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing (PHWFF).  “Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc. is dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and disabled Veterans through fly fishing and associated activities including education and outings.”

I watched 2012’s Battle at Boxwood on The Fly Rod Chronicles hosted by Curtis Fleming last year on the Outdoor Channel. It immediately hit me that I want to be part of the 2013 event. What could be better, helping wounded Vets while fly-fishing, what a brilliant idea! Both Jamie and I work for a large IT firm named World Wide Technology and I approached my Regional Manager Scott, who worked with our Marketing Business Unit to snag the last open slot out of 10 available. WWT promotes community service, so this event lends well to WWT’s core values. Unfortunately there was only one open spot, so Jamie was not able to be an official participate, however, he is now WWT’s official event photographer.

I was initially informed that Curtis and the Fly Rod Chronicles team would not be at the 2013 event. No problem, that was not the reason I wanted to attend, it is about the Vets. Admittedly it would be kind of cool to meet Curtis, he seems like a really decent guy, at least on TV. Then in early Aug, BaB event coordinator Steve Payne (yes former NHL-er Steve Payne) let me know FRC will be there filming and showing the event in Oct! Steve is a really nice guy who has a huge heart for our wounded heroes. I knew this was going to be a great time before doing any fishing.

Boxwood Gulch is a private water ranch on the North Fork of the South Platte River. They have multiple guide services/outfitters which will put you on some huge S. Platte Rainbows, Browns and others.

Now, on to the fishing…….

Aug 17th, 2013 5:06 AM my text to Jamie . . . “you up”, Jamie . . . “no”. It is going to be a heavy coffee day for Mr. Roth! We needed to leave around 5:45 to be there by 7:45. Jamie showed up on time and off we went.

On the ride up

The drive on 285 W from E470 is incredible. We get to Boxwood at 7:45, once in the gate we drive by pool after perfect trout water pool, we start to drool…the trout-pool-drool. Oh this is going to be good.


After meeting up with Steve Payne, Jamie gets his 5th tub-o-coffee and we all get ready for the day’s events. I was assigned to a team with two guides and two Vets. Mike and Vince are the Vets, both awesome guys and about as easygoing as it gets, funny how people that have gone through life changing events are the easiest to get along with. I have heard it puts life into perspective. Our pro celeb was Jimmy Johnson of the San Jose Sharks. The team was rounded out with our two guides, Ken Robak and Tom Caprio of Ken’s Anglers. It was apparent, with the first fish hooked 5 min into the tourney, that Ken and Tom knew their stuff at Boxwood. Vince hooked a BIG bow, I think he got a bit excited and horsed it a bit too much, bink it was gone. Once I saw that I knew it was going to be an excellent day.

JJ fighting a hog

After a couple here and there, admittedly it seemed a little bit of a slow start, it started picking up. JJ (Jimmy Johnson) proved to be the ringer of the group in the morning. He was picking up fish, it seemed, every 5-8 mins. Once we (that would be Ken and Tom) figured out the right pattern, I held my own as well as Vince. One Vet fished in the morning, and one in the afternoon (Mike joined us in the afternoon).

Vince showing us how it's done

We hit two beats of unbelievable water in Long Meadow in the morning session, with the “hogs” waiting for us later that day in Boxwood. About an hour before
lunch I guess I was a little too hot, so I decided to take an unexpected quick dip. A refreshing swim will do you wonders! I did seam to focus my fishing though and I think I landed 3-4 more. I am not sure how many fish the three of us landed, it must have been 20-25. BaB measured total length of fish, I think we had an average of 18” or so per fish, so we were off to a pretty good start.

JJ and Ken with a 24" bow

Lunch was great, it was catered by a BBQ company, forgive me I don’t recall the name of the company, I think we were all recalling the great session we just finished. After a huge steak, potato and corn lunch, we headed out to Boxwood Gulch. Expectations were high, we knew some very large trout call this place home. We were fortunate enough to get two more very good beats. Once again Jimmy started off strong and stayed that way the remainder of the day. Mike Sugar was the second Vet to join us, and he jumped right in and did very well. It was hard for me to

Mike and Tom gettin er done

tell how many my teammates were landing because I was concentrating on my drifts, cast, back casting etc. With the help of Ken and Tom, they once again dialed us in and I started to pick up quite a few, some on the first cast through a riffle, sometimes it would be three or four. I KNOW Jamie was eager to hit this water and I felt really bad that he couldn’t be officially part of the team. Jamie WAS part of the team in helping spot fish, taking photos and video, getting the nets to the guides, etc. He was careful not to do anything to disqualify us, but really this was an event for the Vets, not us, so even if that did happen as long as we were having fun, all is good.

Tom and Ben puttin up numbers

The afternoon session did not disappoint, I don’t think there were as many fish as earlier, but they were bigger for sure. I lost 3-4 really nice rainbows, 18-20 inch at least; due to the strong current, once hooked they headed straight for the fast water and would pull the hook. We were using 2 and 3X tippet and even that would break once in a while. That should tell you how strong these beasts were.

Right above a small waterfall, Jimmy hooked into a real hog, this one instantly headed up stream around a big boulder and headed for the next one. Jimmy did a great job of getting his line off the first boulder, but this is not this slab’s first rodeo, he broke off Jimmy on the second boulder. This must be a well known path for this chunk. The best part once he got off, he tail walked no more than 10-12 feet in front of me, so I got a great look. It was an easy 24-25” bow, that is not a fisherman’s guess that was genuine. The current makes it hard to land these things, but we did manage to land a number of good sized rainbows and browns. I think I saw Mike land a couple nice bows, so that mean all of us were doing well.

Vince, Ken, Ben, Tom, and Mike

The afternoon beat went way to fast, I actually thought we had another 90 min when the tourney ended. We all gathered and were like teenage girls chatting and laughing it up, no care in the world for any of us, Mike and Vince included, PHWFF mission accomplished.

Once back to the main building we all peeled off waders, talking of the day’s fish, friendships and life experiences. Jamie and I were at my truck getting cleaned up when Curtis Fleming of The

Me, Curtis, and Ben

Fly Rod Chronicles and David Folkerts Plans and Operations of PHWFF walked up and we had a great conversation. I was initially skeptical of a TV personality, we all know there are huge egos in and around fly-fishing, but Curtis was a GREAT guy. He is more down to earth than a lot of people I know. He truly cares for our Vets, BaB is not to sell his show, but is a true passion of Curtis’. His shared a story of a lodge that would not donate a week for two Vets, so Curtis pulled the plug on The Fly Rod Chronicles taping. He did not mentioned the name of the lodge, he isn’t that way, but it really showed his true Red, White and Blue colors! He has gain two big fans, I liked his show before this, but after BaB and meeting Curtis, it cemented me a fan for life.

Winners!

Jamie, David, Curtis and I were BS’ing for at least 45 min, maybe more, when Curtis mentioned he thinks he hears them doing the awards, so we head over to the big tent just in time to hear the second place team. So I thought maybe we got third and missed it, oh well, just as long as Mike and Vince
were recognized I’m good. They announced the second place team with roughly 730 inch of fish. Steve Payne then announced the winning team with Ken and Tom with 790 inches or so, WOW, that IS us. Both Jamie and I looked at each other, both a bit surprised, but sure enough, Ken, Tom, Mike, Vince, Jimmy and I had pulled it off!

What a great way to finish one of the best days on the water I have every had! I couldn’t have asked for a better team, JJ was really stoked to win this thing. I guess for a NHL coach winning is winning. I think it is his bragging rights over all the other NHL’ers at BaB. He was one cool dude, again, I thought maybe some of the celeb’s would be the high maintenance type. Not Jimmy, another guy I could fish with no problem. I don’t fish with A-holes, I don’t have enough time to do that!

Left to Right - Ken, Vince, JJ, Ben, Mike, Me, Tom

After a few rounds of photos, Jamie and I look at the water and want another few hours. Jamie spoke with Steve Payne . . . all Jamie heard was “sure, no problem”. We jump in the fish-pimp truck and

Bears cutting into my fishing time

head back down the last beat. Once there Jamie notices a cinnamon black bear and two cubs across the river. We snapped a few photos, and hit the water. I just fished up 6 hours of fishing and could do another 4! I didn’t get into any fish in the first 15-20 min, so I decided to man the net for Jamie and just watched and learned. He definitely schooled me once again. No hits forced him to change up to a Black Beauty, it must have been 8-10 fish in the next 45 min. Jamie in his element. Although none of them were huge, “small” in comparison to what we know are in those riffles. Small should be taken in to perspective though, because they ranged from 14-17” or so. I would call those nice anywhere we go. He did get into one big fish, but once again, and true to all fly fisherman fish are smarter than we are and he was broken off. We finish up right as night falls. We jump in the truck and head home, talked the whole way back about what an unbelievable day we had!

Looking forward to BaB 2014!

- Ben Lewis

Great write up Ben! What an unbelievable day. I even had to call Alicia on the way home to tell her I just had the best day of my life! She was thrilled.

Rainbow Falls

Love the fact that I can catch myself thinking about fishing at work, shoot a quick text to Ben, get picked up in a fishpimped out Tacoma (to include custom rod holder that holds 8) at 4 , and be casting at 4:40. My Rainbow Falls card is the most valuable plastic I've ever had.

24 was closed but the rain had passed and nothing but clear skies up the hill so Ben and I hit the road. No traffic, 24 wide open, quick 35 minutes to the gate. Catching fish like this 10 minutes after that.

The weeknight trip up the pass is a great way to pause everything and recharge. The fishing is fishing. Best way I've heard it put is that it's a "target rich environment". It is. And 20" fish are common. Catching a 20" trout every week is good medicine. And I'm a better fisher for my troubles. Rainbow Falls is streamer school. If you want to learn to fish streamers, get a membership and you will learn just about every possible way a trout can take a streamer.

You'll also become a better fly tier. I've come up with several patterns trying to match the caddis and have had real success on some pattern variations. Some are prettier than others. One I named "The Purist". Not something you teach the kids and surely not a caddis but the trout gobble it up...

Creek and lakes were both on. Good grabs on slow slump buster retrieves in the lakes, and fish every other cast on caddis in the creek. This gal took a natural rabbit slump buster with a silver cone. I cast out and let my fly sink and wait. Sometimes it takes a good 10 seconds and all you'll get is a "tic". That tic equals fatties like this if you strip set.

We decided to call it on a good note after Ben landed this nice one just above Cougar Lake. This was after Ben and I landed half a dozen each in half hour. We didn't even make it to Cougar. The fishing was too good in the Creek.
Gonna have one hell of a Rainbow Falls picture album this winter :-)

Frying Pan River (8/8 and 8/10)

8/8 - We made it to Basalt with minimal damage to the truck (see Roaring Fork post) and had about a half hour of daylight remaining which meant plenty of time to head up and hit the Frying Pan for a few. By the time we parked by the dam and rigged up it was dark. I flipped on the head lamp, walked toward the dam, looked up, and saw this.... 100 feet? Anyone hear anything about this? Usually I fish about 10 feet away from the plant... Hmmmmm... I will say that while it would suck to not fish right up against the dam, it would be good for the fish. They'd have to fence it off though and even then I'm sure people would poach it. Imagine the freaks of nature that would grow in a private toilet bowl (a sentence I never thought I'd write in a fishing blog).

We fished below the dam (101 feet away, rough estimate) for a few and then decided to cruise the flats with streamers. Ben and I covered most of the flats with streamers and didn't get a hit. I couldn't believe it... Not sure if our head lamps were spooking them or not but I thought we'd at least get one grab. Anyone fish the Pan at night? What gives?

We made it down to the bend hole and decided to fish it for a while. Nothin.... Not a thing. I could see fish and Ben and I both saw several really nice fish. It seemed like our headlamps were dazing them a bit. I saw this big mamma and we walked right up to her. I got the wild idea to get a closer look so I grabbed my net and lined it up just downstream from her in the water. Took a step, she turned and mozied down stream right into my net! Wow.... I didn't know it could be this easy. Ever have a fresh 24" pig in the net? They don't behave well.

This was the only "fish" of the night. Crazy... This sport never fails to surprise. It's a never ending game that you get to play in some of the prettiest country on earth. Even at night it's amazing. When's the last time you saw stars outside of city limits and pulled a pig out of a mountain river ninja style?

8-9 - Fished the Roaring Fork and it was awesome

8-10 - After 12 hours of solid fishing, plus the 100 foot snag, we decided that we'd sleep in a bit and not worry about getting the toilet bowl. We drove up around 6:30 and there were several cars below the dam. I'm not one to point elbows but there was some sub 100 foot fishing going on. I think this sign is probably seen by all and spoken by none. Well one.. on the internet. Can we just take it down and call it a mulligan? I'm not suggesting anyone break the law but I do have some wall space open in my office.

I've always enjoyed fishing downstream but haven't done it much over the years. Hard to pull away from the pig rig. Everything below the dam was filling up though and I have heard that streamers on the lower Pan are fun so we jumped in the Taco and headed down past the first long stretch of private water below the dam.

Fish geek

First cast was a downstream presentation with a natural rabbit slump buster and resulted in a tight line grab and a nice little brownie (see vid). Oh this is fun! A few casts later and a nice rainbow was following my slump. He chased it all the way into the main current. I put some heat on the streamer and he totally pulled a Jaws move and gobbled it. Way better view with polarized sun glasses.

We mixed it up with nymphs and streamers and had steady action. A size 6 natural rabbit slump buster with a silver cone, body, and

Recovery room

ribbing was the ticket for streamers. A size 18 BWO emerger (from the private reserve - hit me up if you want the pattern) was the hot nymph.

We were walking downstream and Ben spotted a really nice bow feeding heavily. This was a really good fish which looked to be 22-24" (see vid). Nice male bow with great color. With polarized glasses he stood out great. I'll be looking into getting a polarized filter for the GoPro. If they don't make them I may go into business. If you steal my idea make sure you take me to some good water.

We got schooled for the next 20 minutes. There were some small BWOs coming off and he seemed to be grabbing emergers. After each of us tried half a dozen patterns we decided to move on. Before we left though I got some good underwater footage of him.

We hit the road around lunch. We were both starving so we decided to get some grub and get home at a descent hour. The first part of that plan worked out. The second part of the plan died as soon as we got a good look at this water. We decided we could spare a little time and hit a few runs. We threw on the wading sneaks and jumped in. Holy sh1T!!! My heart seized up and started crawling up my throat. Damn cold water!!!! You get used to it though after about 40 minutes. Your feet go numb and then it's pretty comfortable actually.

We hit some nice bows and brookies on a hopper copper setup. This water is pristine! Crystal clear with post card runs. 3 hours went by in a flash. On the way back I almost ate it big time. I was getting ready to cross the river and was stepping off a bank into the creek about 3 feet below. My foot caught and I started falling forward. I was going to belly flop into the heart stopping water. At the VERY LAST second my
foot pulled loose and I took a hard step into the creek splashing water up everywhere. Ben was amused to say the least. Almost went swimming two weekends in a row.

What a trip! Lots of fishing of all types. I love this state. The pictures don't come close.

Have to send a shout out to Marty Murphy who is on the bench with a shoulder injury. Hope you heal up soon man. Let's hit some new water when you are back in the game.

Roaring Fork River (Carbondale to Glenwood Springs)

This weekend's highlight was a float trip on the Roaring Fork River. Ben won the trip in an auction at a Cheyenne Mountain Chapter of TU event. I was out of town on business but Ben would shoot me texts on what was up for bid. A full day Naturalist float on the Fork? Hell yes!

Ken Neubecker and Paula Fothergill had offered up their boat and a full day on the river to support TU. Awesome! We have had this trip planned for a while and it was a long time coming. We were counting the minutes on Thursday. We hit the road around 4:30 and it took everything in us to keep working till then! I believe I shot Ben a text at 9AM letting him know I was ready to fish.

We headed over Independence Pass on Thursday afternoon. Independence pass is my favorite pass in Colorado and it never gets old driving over it. I don't know how many times I've been over it but every time feels like the first. I was reading Neal Young's book and he actually tells a story of trying to take his tour bus over Independence!

 "It was the wildest ride I have ever been on. When we got to the peak, there was a curve on the side of the mountain with a sheer drop down several thousand feet on the left side and a rock wall straight up on the right. The road was about fifteen feet wide at that point, less than two lanes, and slightly narrower than on a straightaway. I couldn't see around the curve because the rock wall was cutting down my angle. I swung the front end out over the line a bit to make it around the curve, when suddenly a car appeared coming the other way! Quickly I turned away from it and simultaneously heard a sickening scraping sound on the right-hand side of the bus where it had kissed the mountainside. We couldn't stop up there or anywhere, so we just kept going around the curve and down that road. We had peaked the summit and were on our way down into Aspen, and after about twenty minutes of driving we got to a place where we could pull the bus over and take a look. Holy shit! There was a gaping slash in the bus. The generator and the air-conditioning unit were both heavily damaged. We continued into Aspen and went for a series of beers". Anyone who has driven over Independence Pass knows exactly what section he's talking about!

We met up with Ken and his wife Paula at Alpine Angling in Carbondale. Really nice folks! Paula and Ken did a quick check of our fly boxes and then we went in to grab a few more flies. We were on the water a half hour later. Paula was nice enough to drop us off and pick us up! Paula and Ken were a wealth of knowledge and meeting them really added to an already good weekend. I really wished we had stopped for a group picture. Next time guys!

We headed out of Carbondale floating towards Glenwood Springs. It took a minute to get dialed in but we started getting into some nice trout. The browns were really pretty. Nice spots and really yellow. A sparkle worm up top and a size 16 Hares Ear (shown) variant or a 20 incher was the ticket for nymphs. I tie my Hares Ear with a few slight modifications. I rib the body with Medium Hot Yellow Ultra Wire, use Peacock Ice Dubbing for the thorax and brush out the sides for legs, and use Mottled Bustard Thin Skin under medium or large opal Mirage Tinsel under Clear Cure under clear nail polish. Let's call it the PK Hares Ear for Paula and Ken.

Any streamer seemed good for a take. I had a test pattern I call Lady Gaga which was basically a little of any white material in my fly tying materials. This thing sounded awful hitting the water and just looked nasty underwater. Kinda like it's namesake. Trout smaller than Lady Gaga were helpless against her power. Unfortunately Lady Gaga hit rock bottom and was the victim of a retail snap (I believe Pat Dorsey calls it that and I'm stealing it). A size 8 natural slump with a silver cone, body, and ribbing was the best producer though on streamers.

We floated 16 miles or so on this awesome river and had fun every bit of it.  Paula and Ken are great folks and I think they should offer up this trip for bid again next year :-)

On the way back to Basalt we snuck in a quick 2 hours or so on river just outside of town. Couple of nice browns for our efforts. Basalt has got a great location. I think I'll go back.

South Platte (Deckers)

Awesome trip up to Deckers on Saturday night with Ben. I hadn't been up to Deckers in a few years. The Old Man and I fished Cheesman Canyon heavily in the 90s but never really fished it much after the Hayman fire. I was pleasantly surprised. I've heard that it's been fishing well for years but I've only been up once or twice in the last 10 years or so and had descent days but it just didn't seem like the same river of my childhood. Last night reminded me of the way it used to be. Only difference is I was fishing with size 16 caddis and stones now! A #16 chartreuse caddis pupa was dynamite for the first hour. After that there was a nice BWO hatch and when that died down they hit a little golden stone pattern. Awesome evening of fishing! Steve at the Covey was spot on with his fly recommendations.

Almost a perfect night of fishing until I stepped on a flat rock that slanted toward a drop off. Thought I might recover for a split second but I was wrong. Only had a quick second to switch the rod over to my other hand before going in. Woke me up quick! That water is cold! Gotta love the GoPro. Got home and it's the first thing I watched. Madison thought it was hilarious. It is.

Rainbow Falls (Night Fishing)

Decided to go after some big browns at Rainbow Falls Friday night. Ben and I met Joe Van Havermaat at the gate around 5:30. Turns out we picked a pretty busy night to do some night fishing. There was a church group there that was camping out over night. Ben and I didn't handle the news as well as we should have. I apologize to the gate guard for the grim faces. Something about hearing that there are going to be 60 dudes on site the night you decide to do some night fishing chapped our arses. Then we learned that they wouldn't be fishing till the morning. Praise the Lord!

We hit the creek for a while before dark and just killed it on caddis pupa. It was damn near every cast. I fished the creek below Cougar for the first time and had a great time. Some really nice fish in that section. Incredible site fishing. Joe V missed a really big brown we were all chasing down there.

We hit Elk lake after dark and within a few casts I landed a 20-21" bow on a black Meat Whistle. This take really got me going. Right at my feet, big grab, and huge first run. I thought I had hooked the brown I was after. Still a nice fish though and really got me excited. Unfortunately things didn't improve after that. We fished for another hour and a half without much to speak of. Photographer for this trip sucked and didn't get a single fish shot.

Not giving up on the night fishing though. Looking forward to doing some this fall when the water is cooler and the browns are tweaking.

Rainbow Falls (Alicia's first 20"+ Trout)

Alicia's first 20"+ trout. 21" male. Really nice fish!

Last minute spontaneous trip to Rainbow Falls tonight with Alicia. Been a busy week so far and we found ourselves with a little free time all of a sudden. 40 minutes later we were fishing.

Fishing was really good tonight. Had to change tactics a little but once we started fishing the right caddis it was great action. Alicia is on "The Board" with her first fish over 20"!!! That is a major phase in the development of the sickness. Next step is to get her to start tying flies :-) Oh life just gets better and better.

After giving Alicia a big high five (which was really weird) and putting the camera up it dawned on me that I was on a fishing trip with my Wife and she had caught a bigger fish than I had. "Hey honey, time for a fly change. Let me put something better on for you". he he he he he

Not to be outdone... an hour later I caught the same fish. NO I wasn't trying. Seriously. But we recognized his beat up grill. Technically he was a little bigger when I caught him because he was back feeding for a while after Alicia caught him. I think it shows in the picture too. 

Richard was out with Asia feeding the fish just before dark. What a site that is. Really gets the water boiling. What was already good fishing became just downright unfair and I really didn't feel good about myself. Not bad enough to stop fishing but bad. I'm over it now though and it was a really great trip. A memorable first 20" trout trip!