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.

Ragin' Blue River Yields A Few With Daryle 02Sep14

Daryle and I took our AM leadership call and then convened strategy discussion on the drive up #6 and hike into the Jurassic period. It was a nice if not a bit windy afternoon but the flows were up (now I see ~620cfs vs 450cfs) since my last visit. Experienced fishermen we passed were having zero to modest luck on the river. Undeterred we pressed downstream till we could go no further at a fine but now unpassable turn in the river. Fishing was slow and while no rises were visible the only other fishermen we saw got a nice rainbow near them on a medium sized reddish mayfly. I tried for 30 min or so on something proximate but didn't have the same luck. We went back to fishing below the surface, and working our way back upstream but did zilch for another hour or more. I swam... grrr. Finally in a deep run I caught a couple of big healthy browns probably 19" or more. That did not start a torrent of catching but we did catch a number more browns in the 10"-14" range on black ice nymphs and rainbow warriors. As always a day on the river with DD was awesome and a smidge of solace for having missed planned days on the Arki with GL.

Bounty of Browns & 'Bows on Gore Ck 01Sep14

I fished the confluence of Gore Ck & Eagle River right off I70 at the turn at Minturn, CO. I worked a bit in the morning at the condo and got on the water at about 10:15am. My first pass on this ~1 mile stretch was with hoppers and stimis as I saw some nice dark hoppers on the way down to the river and had done well with these in the past here. The water was very  cold and I only mustered one rise and nothing on the dropper. I finally switched to a triple nymph rig at the end of water and quickly brought in several 10" rainbows on a black flash wing WD40. Heartened, I climbed out of the ravine and headed to the car for lunch. At about 1:30pm I hit the water for a 2nd pass - loaded with the nymphing rig dragging the black WD40. I landed many more 12", 14" and a really nice 17" brown (surprising fish for this water) on this pass; I also caught a gob more of the 10-12" rainbows. All fish were on the trailing black midge except three later in the day were on the beadhead, flashback pheasant tail, including the big one.