Birthday / Spring Fishing

It has been a long, although mild, winter for me and I am ready for some fishing.  Over the past few months, I hit a tail water once and hit a local stream once with limited success.  But Spring is starting to get some momentum here on the Front Range of Colorado.  In our yard, the grape hyacinths and periwinkle (some of our earliest spring flowers) are blooming.  I had faith that the longer, sunny days would soon warm our streams, the insects would start to hatch and the fish would return to more confident and consistent feeding.

This past weekend was my birthday weekend and I had the opportunity find out.

On Friday, I visited a Front Range creek that I have had success on and was excited to fish again.  The incredibly blue skies and warm weather along with a bump in flows due to the sunny day seemed to keep the fish interested in things other than my flies.  All I caught was a buzz and a sunburn, but what a gorgeous day.  I did check out some new water that looks like some fun pocket water for later in the summer.

Saturday started overcast and I was hopeful the change in weather and incoming cold front would have a positive impact on the fishing.  I also chose a different Front Range creek at a lower altitude.  Both the insects and the fish were more active.  Midges and blue winged olives hatched and danced along the surface of the water, as trout made splashy rises.

It took more fly changes than I would have liked, but I was able to land fish on a pheasant's tail (size 18), a red zebra midge (size 20), an adams (size 20) and an extended body mayfly (Size 18).  The dries did not work until there were a few mayflies on the surface.  It seemed like the trout were targeting emergers and I was unable to figure out the pattern.  I had changed to the dries just to see if they wanted them and they worked as the naturals were present on the water.

The fish in this creek are typically not very big, but they can sometimes be very picky and give a fairly nice fight for their size and the size of the creek.  Fishing this creek is definitely satisfying when you are able to figure it out.

It seems to me that fishing has been a little slower to get going this year compared to last year.  However, it also seems like the fishing is just starting to get going, so I guess I haven't missed anything so far.  And no one else has either.  I look forward to getting out again.  It is time to start thinking about getting out to your favorite streams.  Have a great day on the water when you can!



Fighting Cutthroats 2013

It is cold outside and there is snow on the ground.  My favorite streams are frozen and the warm summer sun seems so far away.  I take this time to relax, eat good food, drink some good beers, refill my fly box at the vise and revisit my footage from the previous summer and fall.  For a fourth year in a row, I have created an edit of my footage chasing cutthroat trout though the Colorado mountains.

I hope this edit helps you get through these cold winter months as much as making it has helped me.  We will be back on the streams before we know it, but in the meantime, enjoy. 

Fighting Cutthroats 2013

Day of the Brookie 2013 / What I'm Thankful For

Turkey Day is tomorrow.  It's a time when you remember what you are thankful for.  I am thankful for a lot of things including family and good health.  But I am also thankful for a small group of fishing friends that have gotten together each summer for the last four years to spend a weekend together in the Colorado mountains.  The weekend is basically a competition, but the winner is really the person that has the most fun, not who catches the most fish. 

 

 

Each year, I put together a video to relive the weekend and I have a lot of fun doing so.  I hope you can appreciate the good times with good friends.  Enjoy your turkey and pumpkin pie tomorrow and everything you are thankful for.  Happy Thanksgiving!!

Gotta Have Faith

The last few weeks have been good to me.  After a few bad calls by the umps and great pitching performances by the Cardinals, the Red Sox prevailed and won their third championship in under ten years. I had faith.  As mentioned, I thought the fishing season was just about over after my last cold, raining day outing, but it continues.  I didn't have faith, but was glad to be proven wrong.

 

The weather has been a lot nicer than expected over the past few weeks and I have even had some really nice late season dry fly action on one of my favorite, small front range creeks due to the sun and higher temperatures.  Nymphing has done well earlier in the days, with a bead head hare's ear reliably producing numerous small brown trout.  

Other than the nice weather over the last few weekends, the only other surprise has been the couple of rainbows I have caught.  The State does stock rainbows in this creek, but it is my understanding that they do not naturally reproduce.  The brown trout are a sustaining population and typically significantly out-populate the rainbows.  Cutbows have also been stocked in this creek, but I have only seen them caught by other anglers.

A simple adams dry fly produced several fish which was a nice change from nymphing.  I love watching a dry fly float along the surface waiting for the boil of a strike and setting the hook to feel the weight and pull of a fish that has just taken the fly.

 

I found my fall afternoons on the river in the sunshine to be totally relaxing and made a point to take a few moments to enjoy my surroundings.  I know that the inevitable cold snap is right around the corner which will all but end our season.  But until that time, we all have to have some faith.  Throw your gear in your car, drive to your favorite water and give it another go.  Yes, one day will be the day you get skunked and hang up your gear for a few months.   Until then.....get after it while you can. 

Enjoy it and I'll see you soon.

 

Fall Classics

The Red Sox are in the World Series, the air is crisp and cool, I have already had to scrape ice off the windows of the cars in the morning, the leaves are almost all off the trees and the fishing is starting to slow down.  Having your team in the Fall Classic definitely makes the end of the season a bit more palatable.  I was here in Denver in the stands of Coors Field for Game 4 of the series when they swept the Rockies for the championship, hopefully they can do it again.

I have gotten out the last few weekends, and like I had predicted, my target species has switched from high country cutthroats to brown trout in the lower elevation front range creeks.  Flows are still high, but manageable.  The difficult part has been the spookiness of the fish in relatively high water, so it is tough to see them and when you do it's typically as they blast out of their holding position for cover.

I know streamers would be a good choice for this time of year, but I have never had a lot of success with them on smaller streams.  I have seen reports that they are working for others.  Beadhead hares ears on a dead drift have been working for me with enough weight to get them down in the higher than average flows.  I like to use a split shot with a soft weight on top to provide some depth flexibility.

This past weekend, I barely avoided the skunk, with too reaches that had been good to me this summer yielding nothing in the context of fish in the hand.  Air and water temperatures were both much lower than previously.  I thought the grey skies would result in a nice afternoon hatch, but I did not see any bug activity and not much feeding activity.

With rain moving in and starting to fall, I hopped out of the car at one last location to see what I could see and spooked one more fish.  Things were not looking good.  It's been a while since I have been skunked, so I was not prepared for it and was feeling a little down.  Almost accepting the impending end of the season.  As I peeked over a diversion dam, I spied a handful of fish holding in the pool just below.  I didn't have a lot of faith, but went back to the car to grab my rod nonetheless.

As I got into position, I realized these fish were not spooked and were actually feeding, taking something just under the surface.  Fish came on every few casts on the same beadhead hares ear from the previous week that I head been casting all day.  I had started to doubt my fly choice after throwing multiple casts to the few fish I had seen earlier in the day with no hook ups.  

I haven't gotten into any big fish these past few weekends, although a few felt bigger than they were with the flows up.  It has been nice to get out and a good surprise to pick up a few fish to extend the season.  I can usually catch fish at least into November here and on a neighboring stream fairly reliably, so I wasn't ready for the fishing to be over.  With the rain picking up and the temperature dropping, I called it a day after reaching double digits from my skunk salvation hole.

With my success, I figured a snack from the wing place across the street was a good reward.  It made the cold, wet, grey drive home all the better.

Fall classics for me are cool weather, football, raking leaves, peace and quiet on the streams, brown trout, good beer and baseball which is made all the better when the Red Sox are in contention for the championship.  If you can't tell, I am a Red Sox fan, so Go America and Go Red Sox!

My First Bonefish

We went to the Turks and Caicos Islands during the summer of 2012 for our honeymoon.  I wanted to go bonefishing, so we included a guided day out on the water.  After 6 hours of casting and watching shark and barracuda swimming in the waters around the boat, the guide turned to me and simply said, "No Catch Man".  And he was right, no bonefish for me.  So, when we had the chance to return this year for our 1-year anniversary, I  took another shot at getting my first bonefish.  Apparently, the end of July is one of the worst times to fish for bonefish in these waters.  But I got one.  I put together this short video of our day out on the water.  Hope you enjoy.

The rest of the trip consisted of some good beach and swimming time. 

And plenty of Turks Head.

 

 

Oh, I wish I could be back there now instead of here in Colorado staring winter's approach in the face.  Alas, that is what makes it so special.

Fall Days

I was finally able to catch a small brown trout out of the eddy behind Powderbuzz this past Sunday morning and I thought it was a sign of a great fall day of fishing to follow.  The breakfast crowd must have found it a bit odd for me to place an order, go to my car, grab the fly rod and walk around to the side of the building for a few minutes.  I don't care.  I'm a fisherman.  And I am guessing you are too, that you do odd things at odd times and get odd looks for it as well.  Good.  That's why you are here.

I made a point of getting a least one more day on one of my favorite stretches of water before the end of the season.  Rain from Friday night had increased stream flow to a bit of an unmanageable level for this time of year, more reminiscent of the end of runoff in late June or mid July than the middle of Fall.  Somehow, the fish were both hard to see and extremely spooky at the same time while also being pretty picky about what fly they would take and what flies they would ignore.

 

Fishing wasn't as hot as it has been over the last month.  The day started with nymphing using a small bead head pheasant tail.  When I was able to see fish holding, my casts had to be very accurate as a cast a foot to one side or the other would not result in a strike.  Dry flies were totally ignored as they sailed past.  Based on some minimal early day success, only few fish were enough to justify a mid-day celebration / relaxation beer enjoyed while resting on the bank.

Later in the afternoon, the fishing got a little better and I even found a run where fish were rising to take emergers and / or small flies on the surface.  I was able to catch a few of those fish on an adams dry and a couple other nice, healthy cutty's that made me feel like it was a day well spent on the river.

Fall is definitely here.  Although the fishing is starting to slow down higher up, that just means we will all have to take advantage of lower elevation opportunities.  Maybe this weekend will be the beginning of targeting some brown trout with streamers.  We will have to see.  If this does end up being the last cutty of the year from this stream for me, I will be happy as it was one more nice, colorful, healthy fish added to the list of others caught there this year.  I love this creek and will be dreaming of it until next year.  Enjoy the season everyone.