Pike on the Fly!

Going to start this one out earlier this summer..... Ben said he had a little surprise for me and that he was on the way over to the casa. Had no clue what he had planned but was totally blown away when he showed up in my driveway with a Pontoon boat!!! Wha!!! Ben found a killer deal online and was tired of me talking about getting a Pontoon so he decided to do something about it. Really one of the coolest things someone has ever done for me. Ben is a good fishing buddy
and friend and I'm happy to have him in my life.

We've had some fun on the Pontoons this summer. So much so that I haven't really felt like spending more time than I had to on the computer so I skipped a bunch of trips on the blog here. It was a fun summer all in all and we had some good times for sure.

Back to the Pike - We had heard that the pike bite was heating up at Spinney. I've always wanted to target pike at Spinney and now that Ben and I were armed with the pontoons we had no excuse not to get after it!


The night before I started thinking about Pike flies. I had a few articulated flies I've used for trout but I wanted something truly nasty. I decided to take stock of the fly tying materials and I had ample chartreuse marabou and rabbit strips so chartreuse it was! And what the hell, why stop at two segments for an articulated fly. Why not four? Maybe I'll get lucky and get a good corner mouth hook on the last trailer and my line wouldn't get cut up in the mangle. Good friend told us that steel leaders would cut your takes in half so we went with 20lb flouro. Fly turned out plenty nasty and wasn't too tough to cast. It was easiest to just toss it 20 feet or so and then let line out while trolling.

It took an hour or so to figure out what sort of action would trigger a take. I got my first take by VERY slowly kicking to troll the fly. I started pulling about two feet of line in and letting it go quickly in order to create a diving action during the troll. I had only done this for about 5 minutes when I got my first grab. I wasn't too confident at all about what I was doing so I wasn't really expecting a hit but it came and I froze! Totally different type of fishing and I am definitely a newb.

I missed the hit but I knew I was doing at least something right so I stuck with it. Ben was getting some action by fishing a similar action only he was lifting the fly with the rod. I don't think it really matters but that day they did seem to key in on a sinking fly after a quick dart.I do think the fly shouldn't be too heavy. It should sink but it should sink as a fly and the head shouldn't dive down. This creates a very smooth look in the water and to me it looks like a ton of easy calories.

After another half hour or so I thought I felt a small bump and started tightening up the line and BAM!! These takes do not feel like a snag. I thought it was a pike due to the take but I wasn't sure for the first 30 seconds or so until he took a run right at me and almost went under the pontoon. Pike for sure! Awesome! I can't believe this amalgamation of marabou, rabbit fur, cactus chenille, and rubber legs actually worked! What an awesome feeling when a plan comes together.

Not the biggest pike in the pond but I sure was proud of it. Really a fun fish to catch. I'll be back out before the end of October for sure. I think the same pattern in more natural colors will do well.

Memorial Day at Spinney

I wasn't planning on fishing this weekend. I could only get through two of the three days this weekend. I decided last night that I'd set the alarm and if I wasn't too comatose when it went off I'd get up and hit the road.

This turned out to be a fail safe plan for not getting a good nights sleep. I was awake before my alarm went off. Not comatose at all so I hit the road.

I figured it would be packed when I got up there but there was only one other car at the dam. I walked out and spoke with the guy a bit. He left at 2AM to get there early. I'd say he's crazy but the Old Man and I used to leave for the Taylor/Pan at 1AM.

Fishing was descent early. A 6mm fire orange egg trailed by a #14 red Copper John was the best thing I could come up with. I landed 3 or 4 trout and at least that many suckers. Sucker burn was in full effect today. I didn't catch many trout but 2 of the ones I caught were 19". Fat too.

The wind never materialized and it got just as packed as I thought it would so I decided to beat the flash food to 24 and get home early.

Still a great few hours on the water. I did have something interesting happen. I was fishing with Lady Gaga (a hideous huge white streamer I toss from time to time) and got a full stop. I thought I was on the bottom but I always wait for a few seconds. I felt some movement and then my line came flying back in my face.... Pike??? Not sure. It felt strange, like a log, and the movement was very subtle. I figure a big pike would move a little more. Probably a stick but I got some good daydreaming out of it.

Stillwater Zap

Ben hooking up early

Been in a bit of a writing slump as of late. Have two half written blog posts that I just can't seem to whip finish. I like to write when I can just sit down and have it pour out and that just hasn't happened lately for one reason or another. But today I have a sudden urge to write pages. I got two shocks to the system yesterday, one good and one bad but both have me dying to type away. Let's start with the good.

I met Jon Kleis a few years back at the Angler's Covey. I think it was at a fly tying night but can't remember for sure when I first met Jon. Sometimes you run into people and you instantly know you are on the same wavelength. Jon and I got along right off the bat. There are a few areas that we line up perfectly on. Fishing is an obvious first. Not just fishing in general but our thoughts on the sport like why we enjoy it, why we fish flies that catch fish, why we like to keep the BS to a minimum, etc, etc, etc. List just seems to go on and on.

Jon Kleiss

We have been wanting to fish for a LONG time but life happens and it's just taken a while to sync up. Things have a way of working themselves out though and through the power of the interwebs I received two tantalizing bread crumbs that lead to an awesome day of fishing at Spinney Mountain Reservoir. The first was an email from Angler's Covey that, in summary, said that I spend way too much money in their shop. They didn't come right out and say it but that's the message I got when they told me how many Perkville points I've accumulated through purchases in the shop. I started to do the math to figure out exactly how much I've spent to get those points but I don't like math and I didn't really want to know anyway. What I was interested in learning was that I had enough points for a full day guide trip for two. The next thing that hit me was that Spinney had just opened and Jon had been up there dialing things in twice since opening day. Pretty much a no brainer at that point. We toyed with the idea of Cheesman but we both knew where we should really go. It took a ton of arm twisting to get my fishing buddy Ben Lewis on board. Lots of phone calls and emails back and forth..... but you know that is a lie.

Other than Rainbow Falls, I haven't fished a lot of stillwater. I've fished Spinney once in the recent past and caught a few nice fish but I've never got the same feeling fishing stillwater that I do on a river. I hate to say it but the stillwater fishing I've done in the past felt a lot like bobber fishing. I don't have a belly boat so other than tossing streamers I'd just cast out and stare at my bobb.... errrr strike indicator until I went cross-eyed.

Had to get a shot of the doubles!

The fishing this trip started out as expected. I figured we'd be casting nymphs and working them slowly, with a twitch every now and then. That's pretty much what we did at first. We were catching fish though. John had us rigged up at a perfect depth so that our trailing fly was just barely catching some underwater vegetation every now and then. That really kept us on our toes because ticking the bottom and some of the takes we got were identical. Fly selection was not as I expected which was good. We fished a two fly nymph rig and fish were biting on both flies. We were using...... ah, gotcha on that one..... Sorry but for that juicy tidbit you'll have to hit Jon up! Ben and I both caught fish and we even had doubles. I can't ever remember getting a picture of two fish in the net. What a blast (guess which one is mine :-))! We were just getting settled in when the wind showed up.

Wind coming in on Spinney

Have you ever gone fishing and been happy when the wind showed up? I didn't know it at the time but I was about to change my mind about wind when it showed up in force mid morning. It was like someone flipped a switch and I went from calm relaxing casts with gentle takes to battling chest high white caps that made it hard to just keep upright. I was fighting like a mad man to cast and then to keep my line mended in the waves. That is where our Guide made all the difference. Jon stepped in and showed me how to work with the wind and waves and not against them. Totally counter intuitive for a guy who has spent years keeping his line mended on rivers. I was basically getting a drift on a lake! Totally opened my eyes to stillwater possibilities.

FUN FUN FUN

The wind really picked things up. We had the right rig, flies, and technique and we really started to hit them. The takes in the morning were pretty subtle but when you have two foot white caps and a trout grabs your fly, your indicator goes under! This was unbelievably fun. It felt like hooking up on the swing at the end of a river drift. Every cast was ripe with anticipation and for good reason. We spent the rest of the morning into the early afternoon landing one fatty after another. It was a mixed bag of hens and bucks. All of the boys had kypes. It was really fun fighting and landing fish in waves. I can imagine that surf fishing feels a lot like what we were doing in the middle of Colorado! I can't even describe what it's like to see a trout fight waves on it's way back out to "sea" after the release. Unreal... 

Chad Ries. Miss you already Man

It's times like these that you can take for granted. We get in our day to day routines and hopefully pepper them with experiences like this but all too quickly we are back to the grind stone waiting for the next weekend. It's rare to get a zap that level sets you again and makes you really think about how good you have it. For me that zap came from my Buddy Chad who tragically passed away on Friday doing what he always did which is to help people. You hear about "shirt off their backs" kinda guys all the time but Chad truly did set the standard for living right. Chad, you passed this life with flying colors. You are missed by many. On to the next Brother.

All of these pictures were taken by Jon Kleis in between helping us out with technique and netting fish. We didn't even know he was taking some of these. What a treat it was to get these the day after the trip. Chad, this is our church and these are for you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 RIP Brother

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!