First Cast from Elevation 20Dec14

Fooled y'all with the title! As I contemplated returning to the tying bench for winter work I stopped at Coaltrain to check the stash. I've enjoyed a couple special reserve bombers from Elevation (bourbon barrel aged Double IPA Fanboy and an Imperial IPA 7437). When I spied First Cast (by Elevation in the Blue Series), and knowing it was intended to aid my benchtop creativity, I had to partake. It's pretty hoppy at 70 IBUs with Summit hops (6.5% ABV) and is decent, but not killer... the name though is cool and it is served in pints.

Scourge Of The Dude 08Dec14

Visited Boulder for my dear friend Tom Wilke's 60th celebration. Kala & I figured prominent in the prep and festivities: we sang "Are You Aged" in round, the fab 6 band "The Taste Buds" performed "Atomic Tom," my words stuffed into a mashup of Old McDonald and Miss Atomic Bomb by the Killers, and I delivered "Thoughts on Tom's Aging" at the Boulderado. I tested the knee on a hike with Steve Gordon and Tom on Sunday. Then on Monday, while Tom headed to Florida for a conference, Leslie, Brian (behind the camera), the Gordons, and Kala & I headed for a private tour of Boulder Beer, my 60th birthday gift from Wilkes. It was a blast... the guide was exceptional, the tour was intimate and the lunch and beers were tasty. Boulder Beer is the oldest brewery licensed since prohibition (and 2nd oldest to Anchor Steam otherwise)... I did not know that - they have Colorado license #1. We tried several short run beers at lunch and the best was Scourge of the Dude. The story goes that "the Dude" is the warehouse guy and barrel aged stuff in the warehouse is a pain so all they make have "the Dude" in them... Pain of the Dude, Revenge of the Dude, and so on. Our bourbon barrel aged barleywine was excellent.

Halloween On The Arki 31Oct14

Daryle and I stole a Friday and hit the Arki "one last time" this fall in Big Horn Sheep Canyon. It was a gorgeous crisp fall day and we arrived ~10:15am at Pinnacle Rock (after discussing results of my knee MRI with the doc). I was immediately into fish at the east end of runs there as I caught the final moments of the morning midge emergence - my red-headed black silver wire flash emerger was working. I then crossed to the far bank and fishing slowed but I still caught smallish fish on black midges, an RS2 and the best fish on "the weight," a tung BH pheasant wire wrap thing I do in fall colors. Fishing was not awesome... we saw redds but no breeding; we saw midges but no BWOs or hoppers; we saw no dry fly action; water was clear but still  >400cfs and a challenge to wade and fish IMO. DD hooked one in the afternoon at Lone Pine and I did nadda... 'tis better to have hooked and lost than never to have hooked at all. Still, it was great to be out there.

Fall High Flows On The PT 15Oct14

On a respite from big days at Fluke Networks I took out of Nature Center on the PT. I'm an honest visitor there now with an annual sticker. Morning was kind of slow with the flows up to 600cfs and the water super clouded from rains I guess. Caught some in the morning on a small rainbow warrior. I moved to Valco for lunch and the PM. Caught more there as the day warned then became overcast. Saw plenty of caddis and a nice creamy green smallish caddis nymph (looked like a GR hare's ear kindof) did well as did other bugs in the lineup including silver surfer and red beadheaded black body silver wire midge emerger. I caught a high number of lipless fish strangely. The AM hatch of midges was prolific but in the manky viz they didn't see the fly well I think, therefore I used silver.

Breakin' Through On The Arki 28Sep14

Three fiths of the CoWWs plus a special Texas guest star "broke through" on the Arkansas River. We started on the tailwater in Pueblo with modest success then headed out the Arkansas River valley; Rob & I finished on the PT weaponized with midges. The lovable Irish noob, Rob Haine, dispatched himself well and was immediately into a nice rainbow, and trouble, on the PT... setting the hook so fiercely into a tree is ill-advised but DD ransacked the foliage for Rob's flies. Game the entire weekend, Rob taught the CoWWs a bounce rig and a movable thingamabobber... awesome. We did't have the classic stimi + red CJ 40 fish day fall out BHSC as we'd hoped... but friends, food and other finery more than made up for the tougher fishing. Rob landed his first lone-man brown on day one then schooled us all day two evening @ Rincon with the bounce rig. We even caught up with Thomas Doumas at the county line as he was floating the Arki - his friend was hunting and the hunter joined us around the campfire. We all fared decently on the river, dined at Amicas, slept among the blazing aspen at Hayden Ck CG, and will remember always the gumbo, the margs, the enchiladas and the croque monsieurs.

The Day of Many Rainbows 22Sep14

It was overcast and drizzled several times on me as I set out upstream from the Nature Center on the Pueble Rez effluent of the Arkansas River. It was a great day on which I caught many fish in the AM (10am-1pm)... probably one every 10-15 minutes for 3 hours before lunch! I was flipping a 4 bug rig with green flashy weight (1), flash wing RS2 (some), black FB silver wire midge (some), black WD40 (many). I missed a couple but generally showed a pretty deft and patient hand. The fish I caught were all big and fat. The visibility was still not good but the flows were more manageable; I did not locate my camera as flows were still too high for that. It was a very good day on the PT... here's a sample; yes, just a sample; yes, they are different fish.

Wedded Amidst Smoke & Beauty @ Tahoe 20Sep14

Kala and I enjoyed the wedding of lifetime friend Lisa Jordon, daughter of dear friends Mike and Betsy. Lisa married Julani, a former Harlem Globetrotter and Navy guy. We drove from SFO right through the raging King Fire on #50 but broke into the blue as we reached South Tahoe and Camp Richardson and its marina. Views, hikes and massive Jeffery pines were great as was weather mostly, though shifting winds played hell with the fire and smoke.

Reefed Among The Whitecaps & Gorgeous Gore 'Bow 14Sep14

It was a very windy weekend... but I still set sail daily (not completely fearlessly), and with no crew nearby I was again single handling Mon Ami. I arrived mid-day Sat in Summit and started by buying a new dishwasher. Then with whitecaps aplenty I set out with just the main and among few sailors on Lake Dillon. I quickly learned why there were few folks sailing as the blustery fall mid-day made sailing quite "sporty." I made it back to the slip unscathed but fully heeled and observed two harbor master rescues just after. I rested at the Tiki Bar on it's closing day before heading to the condo to enjoy a special release 7437 DIPA with 95 IBUs.

Sunday was a work day but I reached out to Summit mid-day and again faced fierce winds. I needed to test another boat system so I double reefed the main before setting sail. Setup was a bit lengthy but Mon Ami handled great and was fast despite just a reefed main as power... no matter - a blast all around the lake investigating the distant golden aspens and gathering storm. My plan was to close my last summer weekend in Summit with another jaunt to Gore Ck. The Gold Medal Lower Gore water did not disappoint. I arrived at 5pm thinking again that late summer, late in the day dry fly fishing would be good... but as last time I hit prime spots with great casts from the Winston #4 flinging smallish stimi/caddis and got jack but for one rejection. I switched to dredging with a variety of nymphs and again turned my "luck." My last outing here was all browns and it started that way again; fine of course... but under the I70 bridge I again raised a nice 16+" fish - this time a nice  rainbow on a small blue ribbed silver surfer. It's cool to be a Silve(rt)horn(e) resident.

Lost On The PT 10Sep14

I stole an afternoon to hit the PT at Nature Center. It rained almost the entire trip to Pueblo then the skies cleared and it was very nice as I exited Subway. No one was on the water at the PT but the flows were not very good and the viz was still a milky 12-18". I went 3-5 before "lunch" with fat two 19" rainbows out of the same nice hole. The evidence was lost however at the bottom of the Arkansas though, in about 4.5' of water at the 3rd great hole upstream from parking. Yep, a $250 waterproof camera goes to whomever gets there with river clarity or flow levels right. I chose not to go diving for it but I did sweep down to the rocks with my net, soaking my upper body and vest pockets (that's why I go with waterproof boxes) and shuffle around for something "smoother" than the rest... I also swore a lot. Caught the biggest fishes on ObiWan... goes to reason with the AM rain; "luckily" I laced up with that. My boxes are gettin' slim and my tippet reels are low - it must be fall in Colorado. So, good footage but not me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS3GYEwfV2Q... waitin' for winter so I can score like this youngster: http://www.intheriffle.com/frontend/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/arkansas-river-pueblo-tailwater-fly-fishing.jpg.

Single Sailing The Big Genoa 06Sep14

I closed out some Summit Co time with an awesome single-handed sail about the lake. It was late AM and I loaded up the sails at dock in light winds so I chose the big yellow & orange 135 genoa from North Sails. After I was underway I headed toward the dam to catch the wind shift and it picked up nicely as typical. It did not get out of hand though I did release pressure on the main a number of times to manage it. In the pics you see even a wing-on-wing downwind configuration which really had me going. On the way back to dock mid-afternoon I was fast enough to pass through a race underway. Colorado is so cool.

Fifth Day - Fifth River - Fiftieth Fish - Fun 05Sep14

Yestereve brought the 1st good high elevation snow of the season, and rain around Silverthorne. It was cooler today and some aspens are changing... it didn't reach 60 in Summit but was warmer further west. After another mornin' at the laptop I snagged some lunch and headed to the Eagle River out Eagle Co way. I packed to do some work on the boat but that didn't happen. This was my 5th afternoon in a row fishing in the central mountains of CO and my 5th different stream - today's spot on the Eagle was new to me. It seems like brown trout dominated outings as that's what the Eagle yielded to my offering of yellow+orange wire prince nymph, red-headed black nymph emerger and black or olive beadhead WD40-alike. I saw PMDs launching but no rises so stayed subsurface. My best "luck" was at the head of deep runs or in deep rock cover and I landed fish, lost fish, and dropped fish (without pic) from 10"-17" aplenty from 2:30-5pm on the Eagle. This is kindof vindication as my last outing to an alternative location on the Eagle was a bust last year (see the 20Jul13 post - "the eagle did not land"). Each fly in the triple scored its takes and I think two fish which broke off were bigger than the best landed 17"er. I was really surprised of the size of some of these fish in this water - I sketchily waded mid-stream on large rocks between apartments overhanging the river and with the buzz of I70 in my ear. I then rode 15 miles on the Vail trail before dinner. Colorado is so cool.

Big Fish Day On The Blue 04Sep14

On my first outing on the Blue River tailwater in Silverthorne this year I was fortunate to land a gigantic 21" (maybe longer) ultra-chubber rainbow. Sweet. She jumped 3 times right in front of me and shook furiously above and below water but didn't come off. She then took off downstream like a rocket... I got her onto the reel and loosened the drag as I ran downstream with her. She hung out for bit ~200 feet from original catch-point and then took off again upstream almost as fast and I was dancing on the rocks. She nestled multiple times on the far bank rock cover but I kept decent pressure on so as to not allow a rock scraping line escape. Ultimately she tired (good thing as so was I) and I was able to get her nose up. I took the pics quickly since she was exhausted - reviving her took another 5 minutes in direct flow and I was glad when she made a mighty jerk and my hand flew off her tail. I could not get her entirely into the frame as my arms weren't long enough and the pano didn't really work at this proximity.This is probably my best fish of the year so far though there are contenders from the PT. I caught some other stuff including small browns and other decent rainbows. I hit the water after a full morning of work and some repair work out at the boat. I went 4 for 5 over the 2.5 late afternoon hours on the river. I caught ever fish but one on a mercury head, flashback, black wire-wrapped midge; one was on a mysis. I caught Lucy right in my favorite hole pretty far up the Blue across from the ball field on an overcast day spitting rain. Woohoo.

10 Mile Ck 03Sep14

After an AM of work I visited Officer's Gulch and fish 10 Mile Ck. I hiked downstream and fished back up this fabricated new route for 10 Mile. No one was on the stream though I could see riders on the bike path and the traffic on I70. This was not an epic outing, just a quick fish and another first for me. It was cold, super clear pocket water - not a lot a hits but caught some up top and subsurface... I used an electro-stimi and a tiny olive-chartreuse beadhead. I also dined on some wild raspberries before heading to Dillon for a sunset sail and brats on the boat.