Arkansas River (Pueblo) - Alicia's First Fish!

Alicia with her first fish ever. And she caught it on a fly rod!

The Girls are in Grand Junction with the Grandparents this weekend and Alicia and I were sitting around eating breakfast at Uncle Sam's Pancake House thinking of what we were going to do when I decided to offer up teaching her how to fly fish. She looked at me and said, "yeah that sounds fun". What! Oh Yeah!!!! 15 years of persistent prodding on how fun and relaxing it is finally paid off! Alicia had never caught a fish before so fishing to her was just staring at a lake or a hole in the ice waiting for something to happen.

I decided we should take a short trip down to Pueblo. There are some nice runs that can easily be fished without wading when the flow is low. We hit the water around 11. I seined the water and showed Alicia some BWO nymphs and "San Juan Worms" so she could get an idea of what she was imitating. We went over the three Cs of reading water (current, cuisine, cover) and I pointed out a nice run that provided all three. I showed her how to rig up a two nymph rig and we talked about the approach, casting, line control, detecting a strike, and what to do once you have a fish on. She picked it up really quickly! 

She was getting good drifts within 10 minutes and she hooked up within 20. The only mistake she made was to look down at her hands to get the line on the reel and when she did the rod tip dropped and the barbless hook pulled out. No worries there were more where that came from. She hooked up again 5 minutes or so later and got a good hook set. This fish was a little nicer and went on two nice runs. I really enjoyed the look on Alicia's face when the fish ran. During the first run Alicia yelled, "what do I do!!". It was pure excitement! Once the fish settled down a bit I said, "OK now slowly reel him in and keep your rod tip up". I immediately saw the rod straighten out and the line go limp. I looked over at Alicia just in time to see her reeling backwards sending line shooting out of the reel! LOL!!! I grabbed the rod and stripped line in and got her on the reel and she was able to bring in a nice bow! Fist fish ever and it was on a fly rod! Very cool! In the video she is trying to tell me that it's cool but I have to hear it twice before I admit that it was in fact cool :-)

She wound up hooking and landing another small bow and a sucker. She knows what it feels like now to think you have a nice trout on only to see a big sucker mouth staring at you. She did have a 16-18" bow on for a few seconds but the hook pulled out.

We had a great time on the river and I really enjoyed spending some time on the river with my best friend. Now we need to gear her up!

Eleven Mile Canyon 9/22/12

Back up to Eleven Mile Canyon today for a morning of fishing with Ben and the folks. Alicia came along and got some great pics. The leaves are changing and the scenery was great. This is my favorite time of year in Colorado. Crisp mornings and room temperature afternoons with blue bird skies. Can't beat this state!

We fished just passed the third tunnel. Small Tricos and Blood Worms were getting bites. Nothing huge this trip but we caught some beautiful trout with great color.

Mom was fishing a nice plunge hole and her persistence paid off in the end. She hooked two fish but didn't have any luck landing them. She never saw either fish so they were probably really nice!

At one point Ben was across the river from me and he was casting around a rock. I was spotting his indicator and was yelling "set!" when he got a take. Below is a cool vid of him fighting a nice bow in that run. (if you are viewing this in an email you'll have to go to the site to see the vid)

Another great trip. Even if you don't catch fish it's just a great feeling to spend time in such an awesome place.

WWT Trip - Eleven Mile Canyon 9/14/12

The first WWT Fly Fishing Trip took place in Eleven Mile Canyon on the South Platte River. We hired the Angler's Covey to provide transportation, lunch, and most importantly, guides! This trip was a real blast and everyone had a good time.

We met up at the Angler's Covey at 6AM and loaded up the van. After a short stop in Divide to pick up Joe V we hit Lake George and headed up into the canyon. We met our guides at Camp Alexander who were ready to go. We all geared up with the equipment that the Covey had provided and split into groups of three. Each group was assigned a guide. We all loaded up and headed off to fish.

Ben Lewis with a 23" bow

My group included Joe V and Keith. We linked up with Greg Blessing. I had met Greg before in the shop and knew that he was a very experienced guide. You would never know Greg was a guide by the looks of his truck. Three rod holders mounted on top, paint barley visible through the fishing stickers, fly boxes stacked on the dashboard, back loaded up with gear, etc....! This guy does a lot of fishing!

Mike with a nice cutthroat

We made it to Greg's office after about a 10 minute drive and jumped out. Greg handed us each a fully rigged setup and we started hiking down to the river. Greg positioned each of us in a run and gave us some pointers to get us started. We had all landed fish within the hour. We worked our way upstream and continued to catch fish throughout the morning. Greg was an awesome guide and we all learned a ton from him.

Aaron with a nice bow

After four hours of fishing we headed back down to Camp Alexander where Phil was grilling chilli cheese burgers! Talk about a sweet day. We all met up and ate lunch and swapped stories about the morning's fishing. Everyone caught fish. Ben wound up with the fish of the day and it was a trophy! A 23" bow that he caught right of the bat that morning. Several guys on the trip had caught there first fish on a fly rod that day.

Todd with a nice cutthroat

All in all it was a really great half day of fishing. I was more than happy with the Angler's Covey and will be calling them again for next year's trip!

Arkansas River (Pueblo)

Solid 16" bow.

What can I say - love fishing this river. This has really become my "home water". Really starting to learn this river well. Had a great half day fishing with Mart. We hadn't been to Valco bridge in a while so we decided to hit it at daylight and fish till 11 or so.

We hit the parking lot right at sun rise and were at the bridge around 6:30. The bite was on almost immediately. I think I hooked up on my 3rd or 5th cast. The flow was around 70 which makes fishing my favorite run in that area perfect. Not the easiest run to fish but WELL worth the rewards.

The bridge is called Valco but the unofficial name is Heartbreak bRidge. She giveth and she taketh away. Within an hour I had hooked my first 20" class fish of the day. I had seen an article on Orvis about the Forget-Me-Not Midge and had tied up a dozen or so the night before. These things absolutely glow under a black light. The takes I was getting on them were HARD. They don't sip these flies. Had the fish on for about 20 seconds and the hook pulled out. Just didn't get a good hook set.

There are big fish in this channel and they eat big fish flies. I tied on a large San Jan Worm and dredged it with about a pound of mojo mud. Had a monster take and a very large bow came up and broke the water several times. Didn't come out of the water because it was so big but threw several huge wakes on the water. These fish have been hooked before and they know exactly where to go. He headed straight for the pile-ons under the bridge and broke me off. I'm getting used to being owned under this bridge. This guy was easily 20" and was probably a good 22" and FAT. I hurts to loose fish like these but one of these days I'm going to land a 24" class fish in this hole. It's just a matter of time!

Good hatch activity. Midges, a few BWOs, and some Tricos. Mart hooked half a dozen or so on dries. Missed a nice bow on a dry. Activity up top only lasted for 20 minutes or so but Mart took full advantage.

We landed 16 altogether in 4 and a half hours. Not a bad morning of fishing.

Arkansas River (Pueblo)

Finally a trip with some fish pictures to post! It's been a little while since my last post. I've gone fishing twice since then but I didn't have many fish pictures to post. The first trip was to South Boulder Creek. I stared at private water most of that trip. If you have money and connections this is the place for you. The second trip was to Eleven Mile Reservoir. Ben Lewis, Mike Greene, and I rented a boat and tried our luck at trolling. Three fly fishers trying to get our gear on the bottom. Didn't catch a thing. Turns out we were supposed to be about 20' down. If we had done our homework before hand we could have saved the time rigging up 3Oz of weight on our rigs!

Decided to head back into the comfort zone and hit Pueblo on Sat. Mike, Marty, and I hit the river around 7:30. We parked just below the Nature Center and worked our way upstream. The flow was around 80 and had been most of the week. Luckily the water coming out of the damn is around 55 so the water was nice and cool. Not too hot when we started but that changed quickly. The only relief was also a curse. The wind picked up around 9 and really started blowing. It really blew. High wind when fly fishing blows. You get the point.

Pretty slow day on the river. We each caught fish but nothing big. There was a huge midge hatch from about 8-9 and a size 22 Top Secret Midge took a few. Size 22 rust Barr's Micro Emerger also took a few. Later in the afternoon size 20 Pheasant Tails seemed to be about the only thing the trout were interested in.

The most exciting part of the day came when Mike and I spotted a nice fish crusing around in some still water that pools up at the Flag Hole. We started sneaking up on it and I noticed it was missing an eye. I was wondering why it let me get so close to it. I took out my landing net and held it under about two feet and slowly slid it under the trout. As soon as the net was far enough under for the trout to see it I lifted straight up and netted him! It was a true Bear Grylls moment. Mike was quick to mention that netting a fish was not a proper fishing method and that the fish didn't count. Too bad because it was the nicest fish of the day!

Middle Fork (Tomahawk)

Mike Greene making a cast 

Got away from the crowds this week and headed up to the Middle Fork of the South Platte River. This river is typically less crowded than other rivers around Denver / Colorado Springs. If you can go on a weekday you can basically have the river to yourselves. We only saw two other anglers the whole day!

Tomahawk has some of the nicest water within an hour and a half from Colorado Springs. It winds through a beautiful valley with snow capped mountains in the background. Every bend of the river offers up perfect runs, riffles, and undercut banks. The trout aren't huge but they are aggressive and each run holds several nice rainbows and browns.

We started fishing around 7 and worked our way upstream from the dirt parking lot. We immediately started hooking fish. The hot ticket in the morning was a San Juan Worm / Bead Head PT combo. There was a heavy midge hatch in the morning and a sporadic BWO hatch but the trout seemed to be keying on to BWO nymphs. The trick to this river is stealth. You need to keep your distance and stay low at each run. These trout are wild and spook easily. If you stay low and make a descent cast you will be rewarded with little gems like this.

After lunch we hiked downstream about a half mile from the dirt parking lot and started fishing upstream back to the Jeep. This section of river opens up a little and gives you a little more room to cast. The trade off is less deep bend runs. Never-the-less we continued to hit trout on just about every bend. Mike switched to a dry dropper rig and had some luck on a size 14 yellow Simulator. It was fun seeing little 4-8" trout coming up to eat that fly! They couldn't even fit it in their mouths.

We each landed over a dozen trout and had many many more on. This is such a fun little river and it's very refreshing getting away from the pig chase. I will be heading back up here this fall for the chance to land a large brown from Spinney in such a fun little river to fish. Had a great time with Mike who is always a pleasure to fish with.

I wanted to get a little fish catching action on video and since we were regularly hooking fish I thought it would be a good chance to do so. Below are a few videos of Mike and I hooking into fish. Not huge by any means but you get a feel for how peaceful it is fishing here.

Note: If you are reading this in an email from subscribing to my blog you will not see the videos. You have to go to http://jamiesfishingjournal.blogspot.com/ to see the videos.

Gunnison River (East Portal)

20" Slab of a buck (photo bomb by Dad's finger)

The East Portal did not disappoint. I was hoping our first trip there wasn't a fluke and it turns out that this section of the Gunnison, in my opinion, is one of the best kept secrets in Colorado fly fishing. Since I can count the number of my blog readers on two hands I feel safe in writing this. For my faithful reader(s) this is your reward for reading my ramblings several times a month.

Henry Comp with a nice brown

Henry Comp, my Dad's lifelong friend, flew out from Missouri to join us for a weekend of fishing. My Dad has known Henry since they were about 6 and it was nice listening to some of the old stories they had. I always learn some nugget of info about my Dad when Henry is in town. Henry is a huge Pike/Musky fisherman and knows how to fish. He landed this nice brown on the Taylor (took a quick detour to the Taylor on Thursday night on our way to the Gunnison). Dad is seen here showing Henry how to properly hold a phantom trout. As you can see by my Dad's hands, his phantom trout is still smaller than Henry's brown.

We hit the river shortly after daylight and I went straight to the hole I had missed the huge rainbow in a few weeks back. I have this run dialed in and knew exactly what files to fish and what depth. This hole is DEEP and I use my biggest split shot covered in Mojo Mud along with weighted flys to get down fast. Since it was early in the morning in oxygenated water, I knew the trout would be on the lookout for golden stones. I was right. For the first half hour of fishing I had a take on almost every other cast. Tungstones, Tungteasers, Pat's Rubberlegs, and Disco Worms were on the menu. These fish hit hard and fight harder. 4X is a MUST. Especially if you don't want to chase every fish 100 yards downstream. This section of the Gunny reminds me of the Frying Pan in the mid 90's. Fat, red, aggressive rainbows that are always hungry.

We fished the spill over for most of the morning. We moved downstream to fish some faster pocket water just before lunch. I hooked about a 14" brown on the edge of some fast white water and was to my backing within 20 seconds. Dad was with me and we started running downstream. During my run I noticed a nice simulator laying on the bank and took a quick pause to pick it up. Nice bead head stone attached to it. Quick stop for some free flys and it was back to the races. 100 yards later we netted the little brown that got both of our heart rates up. I couldn't imagine hitting a large Gunny bow in this water.

After lunch we went upstream to a nice long bend run that we had found during our first trip to the East Portal. Around this time (noon or one) a nice PMD hatch started developing. I was unprepared for this hatch. I had gone into the fly shop a few weeks back looking for PMD superfine dubbing and they were out. No big deal then, HUGE deal now. I'd have to go  with some BWO Bar Emergers and hope the fish I was fishing to were color blind. I told my Dad to tie on a Bar PMD Emerger and he was out too. But after taking a second look in the dark recesses of his fly boxes he found an old size 16 PMD that was barley hanging on to the hook. The fish loved it. He hooked several really nice rainbows at the head of the bend run.

The fish started rising pretty regularly and I decided to tie on the closest thing I had to a PMD dry. I had a few refuses on an Adams but the fish knew what they wanted. I will be better prepared for the PMD hatch next time. July and Colorado and I don't have any PMDs. You would think I would have learned something over the last 20 years of fly fishing...
  
We decided to head back to the spill way for the last hour of fishing. Dad decided to cross the river with me and hang out with the net ready. I rigged up again with heavy line and a boat anchor. Large Tungteaser as an attractor and a beadhead flashback Bar emerger as the rider. On about the 5th cast I set the hook to a bow that absolutely wen berserk! This thing jumped immediately after being hooked. She jumped and ran on top of the water several times. It was all I could do to give some slack and hang on! After 20 minutes of long runs, head shakes, and net scares Dad was able to corner her up against the bank and net her. She wasn't done fighting when she was netted! Amazing strength to this trout. One of the hardest fighting fish I've ever hooked. She fought like and 8lb trout. She turned out to be just a hair shy of 20" but she has earned her way on to the 20" board with that fight (and my arm extension). Truly a memorable trout on a fun and memorable trip.

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Same 20" buck as shown above