CoWWBoyz Crush The Colorado River Basin ~ It's Haine-aRADo Time 17May26-22May26

The Front Range CoWWBoyz blew off the So Platte as the drain of Antero troubled our vibe and my  campsite in 11 Mile Canyon. I canceled my rez for modest return. We went up-mountain and never rested at the Nest. These 5 days of Haine-a-RADo had many moments and bad decisions.

Day 1 [17May26)] Arriving In Summit & Blue In Town ~ Not Much Now 17May26... I grabbed RH in The Crusher  from DIA and we ripped out I70 to Clear Ck where we donned gear in significant hail. Uh - Tommynocker instead. Then we ripped the tunnel to Summit (ahhh) later and ventured the Blue in town... most fish are gone! I landed a couple of 6" browns instead of greater truths. Uh, let's go local @ Angry James then grab the next CoWWBoy at ORB - Yoho! We sucked fishing but rested well @ alpine, after some tunes and brews.

Day 2 [18May26] Arkansas Headwaters ~ Decent Fish & Big Snow... Greg caught up with us at Kobe. We outfitted for rain and took on 30 min of heavy snow instead. Fine. We all caught a bunch of German browns and a few 'bows on the headwaters of the mighty Arkansas. We headed back to Summit for pizza & pasta dinner at Sauce, capped by an evening of competitive tunes on the Nest Music Theater. 

Day 3 [19May26] Colorado @ Pumphouse ~ There's Something In The Water... We dined well at Mtn Lion before being rerouted through Heeney due to a tractor trailer crash on 9. We finally headed out Trough Rd to the Pumphouse section of the Colorado River on a variable weather day. We headed upstream from Pumphouse to the tail end of the Gore Canyon to begin. Unfortunately I'd forgotten my net and had to hike back down to the car ~ I did not hike back up but went downstream to fish along the campgrounds and boat ramps. Mostly I hiked alone this day as a result of my eff-up. We all caught and lost some nice browns around structures; the best was actually right around the boat ramps. Stones, caddis larva, and BWO nymphs all worked but best were the mayflies. Mr Haine was a particularly adept fisherman on the Colorado and Greg scored with streamers as well. 

Day 4 [20May26] Gore Ck @ Mouth & Dog Pk ~  Some Doubles... After a good Sunshine Cafe breakfast we jumped Vail Pass into Eagle Co to fish the Gore. We also said goodby to Yoho, who left in the AM for a golf match. We started at the mouth with the Eagle River and fished upstream for 3/4 mile. 160cfs flows were high on the Gore for fishing and the willows & wind were a further issue, but we got it done. I did catch a number of fish, including a double on this pass, most on the BHDCEZWD40 ~ everybody caught some. Since we were in the area, we stopped at VBC for a beer a bit of pizza. 

After VBC we headed upstream a bit to the dog park. There were lots of dogs and fishing slowed a bit but still yielded fish. Another good day on the water. But also another day without bigger fish. We hit ORB and ordered take-out from Summit Thai on the way back to the Nest. We said 'see ya' to Greg as he was heading home in the AM. 

Day 5 [21May26] Blue River @ Jurassic Pk & N Of Town ~ The Blue Sucked... We knew it was weak in town at low flows but the same stable 70cfs below Green Mtn Rez dam should be decent. I didn't verify the flows before we left however. Unfortunately water authorities took this day to really ramp flows out of Green Mtn rez, which is already down 40 ft from full. Grrr... the Blue tailwater sucked this day and was gusty and cool. I caught one medium brown on the Perdigon and the descent to the river was tough.

We hiked back to the car to try another section of the Blue north of town... it was not any better there. We had decent nosh back in Silverthorne at the Eclectic. 

Day 6 [22May26] Arkansas River @ Pueblo Tailwater ~ Bigs In The Bag... With the balance of decent fishing spots in Summit Co flowing very low or very high, we packed up early and headed to Pueblo to fish the PT. We simply grabbed Subway breakfast on the way to Nature Center. We were looking too for some bigger fish to fight ~ I found them and caught a 17.5"er, an 19"er, and a 20"er among my bounty. The Perdigon and squirmy worm were most effective. It was much nicer weather than we withstood recently.

This whole week was a great outing with great friends.

'Nutha Trip To PT @ NC On A Nice Day ~ Kitchen Finishers Had A Day Off So Kala & I Both Did Stuff 14May26

I hit the PT again at NC, but late. I arrived at ~10:30am to warming waters and daytime temps. Little pressure fortunately but little action early unfortunately. Flow were lower at ~70cfs; too low. I ultimately hooked into a decent 19"er mid-day; fooled him with Purple May Reign. Then late in the day @ ~2:30pm, the bigs came in droves to shelves and flats to feast on emerging midges. So fun but I didn't match well enough as hookups were somewhat random on PopTops (an emerger), Juju larva, and Cheesseman Emergers. Two much bigger fish broke off my 5.5 tippet. Grrr... more good 'experience' for the Rodfather Green Machine.

Kala & I hit Il Vicino tonight for fine 'za and totties; we've been aced from pizza Tue for a while now, without a kitchen. We also stopped on the way home to get a wine for tomorrow's 'Wine & Friends' event, so I grabbed a chaser of NZ hops laden hazy IPA from Verboten of Loveland. Worthy.

Green Machine Gains Strong Experience ~ Big Fish Day On The Pueblo Tailwater (PT) Section of the Ark 11May26

I headed to the Arkansas tailwater seeing mostly stable flows ~125cfs for 5 days below the Pueblo rez. Plus, Kala was on-pointe for the remodel this day. This is not high enough for this time of year but visibility was good, and bigs were sighted. The big cutbows were deeper, or in the tail of runs and holes most often ~ though I need heavy flows to float my bug choices through and caught my best in faster water around rocks. There was a strong mayfly hatch at 8:30-9:00am (yeah - I was there early for me) and great bug-sign early/similar for many species; I tried to match the PT-like stuff but caught some on cobalt bead Destiny's Child too while mayflies flew. The best producer on the day yet, flung from Green Machine, was the #22 Awesome Midge. I caught 2.5 fish/hr at the Nature Center 1st (AM) then similarly during the PM session at Valco Ponds and upstream. The bigger fish were a 21" cutbow from the Valco section and an 18.5" cutbow from Nature Center. I spotted a weird tangle of prior drowned bikes at NC too. Stopped a Red Leg for a celebratory pop in the sunshine.

Replicating The RF SageBuster 2020 As The Rodfather Green Machine aka SB26 ~ Stolen But Very Fine CTS-Based 9' 4pc 4wt Is Born Again 14Mar26-07May26

Context... Some know I've sold all my manufactured rods from Winston, Sage, Scott, GLoomis, and Orvis at this point. No problem as I've built solid, most better IMO, Rodfather replacements. Unfortunately one keen SageBuster 2020 (CTS 9' 4pc 4wt), the Rodfather Cutthroat, my 3rd build ever in maroon & gold, was stolen along with the mated orange Redington reel ~ this build is about fashioning a replacement... the Rodfather Green Machine 9' 4wt 4pc with the venerable Ross Evo LT reel.

Unlike the very close cloning of the Rodfather True 3 that was also stolen, here I built a similarly specified rod, but altered the color scheme from the RFCT. The new rod, the Rodfather Green Machine, RFGM, came out great in an all green motif: a custom colored dark urban green CTS blank, green variegated wrap accents and a green on green custom handle. The new CTS Affinity X blanks have gone to a more robust and accurate ground ferrule system that I prefer on high performance rods ~ another upgrade from the original Cutthroat/SB2020. It did add to the speed and strength and true casting weight of the rod however, so not as close to a true 4wt this time. Such is often the case with modern graphite blanks. The specs and look are great though: ERN: 5.1, AA: 72° Wt: 4.1 oz (plus a .4 oz removable fighting butt), and a nice 7.4oz swing weight for a 9 footer. I am reticent to repurchase all the reels lost in the ripoff but that's OK here as the the RFGM balances and matches spectacularly with the dark green Ross Evo LT 1.5 now loaded with SA MPX WF4F line. The reel is very experienced from it's frequent use on the So Platte in 11 Mile Canyon adorning a great manufactured rod, the Winston GPX, acquired 20yrs ago during amplified fishing on So Platte 'streams.' I sold it for 70% of buy price so yeah. The new system is beautiful and casts decently with the half weight heavy line; it will likely serve as my goto 4wt this season ~ and my most used rod in CO, where the 8.5' Diamond Blaze has served well recently and is now resting.

Handle... I bought green horizontal variegated, green died, and green rubber butt rings to fashion an all new 6.5" double wells handle for the Green Machine, complimented by a 1.25" removable fighting butt with an inverse color scheme in order to use up otherwise wasted parts. Too, I went from 1/6th checkerboard in the forehand to 1/4th checkerboard in the palm ~ it's disturbing but cool IMO.

Hardware... I got my favored REC reel seat in nickel silver with a maple insert, including the removable fighting butt hardware (for a custom butt). These just feel and work nicer than others to me ~ worth it for mating to a more costly CTS blank. I also got the super-slick Snake brand double footed guides for this rod, and a Fuji stripping guide... all in bright silver; again these are worth it for this blank.

Wraps... I used variegated green, black, & brown for the guide wraps. ~ this stuff wraps out with cool moire patterns, but I needed to use colorfast fixative before epoxy. As usual on my rods I added fish length length markings from 16" to 24" ~ these are useful, not just hopeful. CTS oddly (IMO) ask for guides to be adjacent to ferrules so some need to be incorporated together as shown.

Measure & Feel... Well the rod is color-matched and balanced very well with the classic Ross Evo reel. Later Ross designs have harder edges and are less enjoyable than this gen Evo. Loaded with MPX WF4F it casts great in the backyard but I might look for an even tighter/heavier live match to the 5.1 effective weight of the rod. The RFCT, which RFGM replaces, was butter, but this one is more like a tenderloin: beautiful, lean, and powerful. Let's go ~ 100 ft casts and 6 lb catches will be no problem.