Fishing The Ark Headwaters ~ Small German Browns & A Cascading Fail 24Apr26

Well, the best laid plans sometimes don't work out. Now in Summit, my trip to Jurassic Pk on the Blue was blasted when flows impulse-changed from 85cfs-415cfs yesterday. I fish the Blue at that level but the impulse change in flows will put fishing off a bit, so I shifted allegiance this day. I checked alternatives and headed to the Arkansas River headwaters south of Leadville this morning. I was a bit concerned hitting this spot at 9Kft elevation in Apr. It was 42° on arriving and my concern was warranted as fishing was slow and my overall outing even worse. I caught some 10" German browns on a brownish/olive #22 flashy midge, as yielded by this fishery often, from my stop at Kobe. I had a cascading set of haps that disabled images for this blog entry however. I forgot to bring the Hero cam as it was recharging, and as mentioned yesterday, the memory card now fails to be read properly by the camera, so I didn't bring it either. At the river I said 'I'll just bring the phone this once.' Prophetic, it was the once and last, as I lost my phone in the river, with the selfie, pan of San Isabels, pics of brown trout, and all my data/music/images/configs on my iPhone 12 Pro. I do not have good luck with phones on rivers and my 'backup' practice is not strong. Dang it ~ I ordered a new one and 'locked' the old one (just in case someone finds it and it still works). With rain & snow pending for Sun/Mon, and my Apple order awaiting me at Briargate, I'll head to El Paso Co tomorrow instead of out to the Colo River tribs I'd expected to attempt this weekend... and so much for Copper Mtn weekend events.

Fishing The Middle Fk Of SPLatte @ Tomahawk ~ Windy & Chilly But Effective 23Apr26

I hit the Middle Fk of the South Platte above Hartsel today as I passed by on my way to Summit. No one else was at the Tomahawk pull out, for good reason. Flows were low; temp was 41°; winds were high and gusty. Undeterred I suited up and grabbed my new v2 version of the 8' Rodfather True 3 and Lamson reel for its maiden field trial on this small river. My first hour at 10:15am was nothing caught or seen. In my 2nd hour though I began to see some small fish in shallow warming water and I was encouraged to keep going, but I did change rigs to include a #22 glass head tan midge. Then, I began to catch a number of 10"-14" rainbows and a couple of 10" browns ~ all on the tan midge. All the pics were taken via my still fish camera, which ultimately wasn't really storing them as the card wasn't recognized... I hadn't noticed; oh well. The selfie is the only thing captured as it was done with the Hero cam. Fishing wasn't off the hook but it was sufficient and I headed on to the Nest at 12:15pm as I was done with the chill and the wind. The new True 3 was fun for this size of fish, and was even pretty effective in the wind.

Fishing The Arkansas @ Breach Below Pueblo Rez ~ Town Runs Slow With Smalls & Nature Center Good With Bigs 22Apr26

Happy Earth Day ~ Nature Center ~ I finally caught a righteous 20+" fish this season! It used to be many outings in a row I could do this in CO; it happens less now and I don't believe it's me. Nonetheless, exciting and fun. I fished the Nature Center section this morning after the Town section seemed slow. I believed it'd be an epic mayfly day with warm 70° temps, low wind, and nice cloud cover. But nah ~ little known bug-sign this day. Nonetheless, this 20.5" cutbow was fooled by an oil can Perdigon and offered a good fight against the Rodfather True 5. Let's start @ the Nature Center from 11am - 1pm. I also caught a nice fat 18" cutbow just prior to the 20.5"er. I left the NC with a  sucker. 

Town ~ I hit the HS football stadium (now marked Scheel's) town section first. There were peeps but it wasn't heavily impacted except at my favorite spot there under the footbridge. The guy didn't move so I moved ahead of him to finish my pass with a few small cutbows. I hit a number of better fish on the nose with mayflies and midges but the bite was not 'on.' Flows seem low, slow, and water a bit warmer in town.

Fishing The So Platte In 11 Mile Canyon ~ Wonderful Pass On The River, On The Run 20Apr26

I arose early at the Nest and cleaned quickly in order to fish 11 Mile Canyon as I passed Lk George on the way back to COS. It was a beautiful day with 70°s and little wind. Flows are fishable but a smidge low @ 75cfs. There were 38 cars in the canyon with 29 above the single tunnel alone. NP. I set up at the last bridge and started there for a "normal" pass upstream on my home water. I skipped around teams as I encountered them so left some very good spots alone. I didn't stay but 2 hrs and caught 10 good cutbows. Most were on #20 Destiny's Child mayfly but some were on the #22 red/black PopTop and one on the Perdigon. It was strong action, the spawn is evident & redds are avoided. Though one guy accused me of fishing on the redds when I wasn't ~ I think he was just bummed at my frequent takes. I left him to lament and didn't even finish my pass ~ I went back to the car and on home. Lots of fun on 17"ers - 19"ers on the Rodfather Diamond Blaze 4 wt ~ including one super cutthroat looking one.

Ripping The Brewers With AM ~ Fun In COS 16Apr26

Alan and I finally closed a plan for a mini-rip in the FlyBox with beers at our best local brewers. I brought the car and AM brought the card for many of our short pours. We hit: WestFax, Fossil, Cerberus (dinner too), Gunslinger, Goat Patch, and Urban Animal. We met some great patrons, great brewers, and great collaborators. A fine tour with a mini-rip back to Peregrine with my newish mate.

John Mulaney Comic Show @ Red Rocks ~ Funny Then Chillin' With Sis' In Traffic Everywhere 15Apr26

Happy tax day. Letha and I went to hear John Mulaney's latest stuff @ Red Rocks last night. My ticket was really meant for Matt but he comped me his when work & taxes called ~ thx Matt. Mulaney was very funny, as he often is, especially in the 2nd half of his set. Openers Mando and Asian woman (her words) were OK, not great. I picked Letha up at 4pm in Windsor and we headed west straight to Morrison; we arrived 90min early for gates at the bottom of the venue, 1st in line. We just hung out there till gates, getting a little peckish. I forgot we queued at the bottom and not on the ramp at RR. It was fine but the queue didn't fill till 30 min prior and being early didn't help Letha trundle up the ramps and steps slowly (from hip issue) in the rush, so we were not first at the ticket takers up-stadium. NP. I went ahead up the steps and found spots for us in the 1st row of GA in the center. And we had stadium seats! I usually pay the premium for reserved seats and closer viewing/listening but it's Matt & Letha so again NP. We still watched the big monitors mostly and the sound was great for voice, but we could see he was there. There are queues and wait-times all over Red Rocks; I went to get our dinner at the burger places and it took 30 min! I was back at my seat in time for. 7:30pm showtime but the openers started 20 min late ~ kindof bad form IMO. Nonetheless Mulaney was good from analysis of devil films, to Vietnamese families, to hating his dryer. You'll probably see it soon on NetFlix. The only downside to the show itself was a wild and loud cackling guy right behind us who laughed at everything, even brief non-funny lines. It got chilly this night ~ we had our layers and I even double-hatted with a stocking cap and put on gloves. Traffic was especially horrible toward Morison at rush hour and worse leaving RR ~ arriving early penalizes you on departure. FINO, first in - never out.

John was on his 143rd show of this tour; he travels with his family, which is nice. He's a big deal and one of the biggest comedians around. Imagine 150 dates, $120/seat gate, 5000 seats/date for gross tour gate of $90M. The $ are broken out somewhat like this:

Fishing The Pueblo Tailwater ~ Good CutBows & Suckers On The Mayfly Hatch 14Apr26

It was a windy forecast and flows are only 85cfs below Pueblo Rez on the Ark. Still, I headed down to fish and at 9am the mayflies began to hatch. It was an ok one as it was partly cloudy, the spawn was over with the cutbows hungry, and the wind wasn't too strong. My #18 MHFBPT worked great and even scored a 20"er, others were 18", and one small one. Most took the PT on the PT, heh heh, but #22 Destiny's Child fooled 'em too. I'm seeing 2 sizes of BWOs on this section right now, along with midges. I was only there for the AM and fishing was decent and the weather great. I did run into a pod of suckers too and landed too many; one was fat 19"; they seemed to like the Perdigon most.