Fighting Cutthroats 2017 - Fly Fishing - Edit

Fishing for cutthroat trout in small Colorado mountain streams is one of my favorite ways to fish. Away from the parking lot, a good ways up the creek, I almost never run into another fisherman. Stopping only for water, a snack and maybe a beer later in the day, I move from pool to pool sight fishing mostly with dry flies, but with nymphs when appropriate.

Below is an edit of a few of my days from the Summer of 2016 on one of my favorite Colorado cutthroat trout creeks. I am excited for and am looking forward to this summer and its fishing opportunities.

I hope you enjoyed my edit and are also excited for your upcoming fishing season.

Thanks for watching.

Alma State Wildlife Area - Fly Fishing - Edit

After wanting to fish the Alma State Wildlife Area north of Fairplay and Alma, Colorado for a long time, I finally got the opportunity this past summer.  A nice high altitude stream with nicely colored  little brook trout.  I only fished half a day, but would fish here again given the chance.

I hope you enjoy this short edit of the my half day on the water.

Catch you next time.

Fly Tying - Barr's Hare Copper and Holy Grail Caddis

The tying continues.

The Barr's Hare Copper's were a success last year, so those were tied to replace lost flies.  Similar to the Copper John, a simpler tail of partridge allows for an easier tie, two-toned wire ribbing gives the fly a little more detail and the natural hares ear dubbing thorax lightens the overall color of this nymph imitation. 

Similar to the Guide's Choice Hare's Ear, the Holy Grail Caddis is a wet-fly style caddis pattern that provides for a significant amount of bugginess in a relatively easy tie.  Definitely fun to tie up.

The Holy Grail Caddis will be new for me this year, but should at least make a good spring offering on one of the local creeks.

I'm not sure what the next tie is going to be, but there's still some room in the boxes, so something needs to fill that vacancy.  The warm weather in Denver has me thinking of spring, but it's still at least a month until real spring starts.  Which means there are still a few more weeks to get a few more patterns prepared.  Good luck in preparation for your spring.

Edit - East Vail, Colorado - Fly Fishing

The last few weeks have allowed for a review of footage and memories of fly fishing for trout in the mountains of Colorado during the summer of 2016.  It's always a pleasure to have the opportunity not only to fish, but to relive those warm summer days on a cold winter night with a nice porter or stout.

Here is a quick edit of one of those days from last summer that I am enjoying reliving.  A day on Gore Creek in East Vail, Colorado.  Most of my fly fishing is deep in the woods with trees choking the stream, but this creek is wide open with a bike path, runners, families and developments lining the banks.  No less enjoyable than my typical experience, this creek runs cold and clear in the fall with a nice mix of cutthroat trout, brook trout and from what I have seen (but not caught) brown and rainbow trout as well.

I hope you enjoy the edit and if you get the chance to be on the west side of Vail Pass, you might consider stopping in to say hi to some of these friendly Colorado trout as well.

Fly Tying - Red Quills and Copper Johns

Any fly with hackle is still somewhat intimidating and a new body method (the quill body) was something new to learn as well.  However, I had wanted to take on this challenge for a while and finally decided to give the Red Quill dry fly a try.

Not as difficult as feared, especially in a size 14, a group of new flies soon developed for the fly box.

I can see how a few different sizes and colors of this high riding dry fly will provide good mayfly imitations through the height of summer.  There is one creek I fish that has a nice black mayfly in about a size 14 which this fly could match well with the right materials.

After the Red Quills came the start of the Copper Johns.  A classic standard that needed to be retied and tied in additional sizes and colors.  I started with the gold Copper Johns in a size 16 and will move on from there.

I am considering some size 18's, size 20's, a few different colors and then tying up hare coppers as well.

I hope your winter fly tying is pursuing well and will continue to fill your boxes in preparation for spring and summer.