A Few Moments For A Few 'Bows 29Apr15

The long days of April allowed me to steal the late afternoon and early evening at 11 Mile on a nice 60 degree day. It was a fast ride out and I was on the water at 3:30pm and off by 5:30pm. I could have fished for another couple hours but action had really slowed so I headed to the car and home. I caught several rainbows including a decent ~16"er. The Awesome midge again took these late-in-the-day fish. On the way back to Colo Spgs I grabbed a new beer I'd missed at Trinity when there last... the 45th Parallel, an Oregon-inspired IPA recipe, continually hopped. It was delicious and my fav at Trinity now - fairly bitter (60 IBUs I think) and very citrusy; it's only a seasonal though so check it out soon.

Arkansas Shizzles Update 28Apr15

Per discussion with Greg, I remedied my prior error of not tying flash on the shizzle (black razor foam bodied yearling elk hair caddis). Below are the prior and reimagined shizzle (sporting olive krystal flash underwing) for the Mother's Day Caddis Hatch on the Arkansas headwaters as in BHSC. That underwing will lay right on the water with the foam and catch light - it's a fabulous addition, especially for a flash-manic tyer.

Scunge, Shizzle, Stones, Summit, & CaddisS 24Apr15

BK came up lame from scunge and DD and Superfly had better offers so just half the CoWWs hit BHSC for the '15 Arkansas caddis hatch outing. Comparatively this was an awesome year - not epic but I did have caddis in my ears, eyes and nose; bugs were everywhere!  Jim didn't have to operate in the field though as I had a buff - and we all caught fish! Saturday was gorgeous as we rolled into 5 Points to set up camp and convene. We hit Pinnacle Rock in the AM and I braved the forge to the far bank and fished subsurface and upstream. Fishing was slow but I caught some on stoneflies. We headed back out after lunch and some Stones; Greg & Jim hung near Pinnacle Rock and I headed upstream from lunch. We all switched to dry-dropper rigs in the PM initially. I'd tied some ShizzleCaddis (which needs reimagining from a conversation with Greg) that morning and Jim & I used these in the PM. It's a black razor foam bodied, black hackled, yearling elk hair caddis (reimagining requires a flash underwing - what was I thinking not including this initially?). Fishing continued marginal but the Shizzle fooled a nice 16+ incher for me and ultimately aided Yoho's breakthrough 4-bagger day. Congrats Jim. Greg was frustrated and took the Ram to Texas Ck area at 3pm and killed it on dries... a 20+ brown trout day. Jim and I stayed near PR and also scored a number of fish on the dries. We both switched to dubl dry rigs at 3:30pm (mine was Shizzle, unreimagined + Caddistrophic, still un-renamed or RoboBWO). We really all enjoyed the rises to caddis and BWOs till about 5:30pm... dry fly fishing is so cool. I confirm the Z-Axis is a better dry fly rod than the newer One. By canyon sunset we convened at camp for fine brats with fixins and more Stones and Deviants. Late conversations near the fire were robust but it ended ~9pm when the boys had to head to COS and I had to bed down. After finding Greg's keys, they departed. I awoke knowing the AM fishing sucked so in a java-induced moment I headed up instead of to the river; I summited the canyon rim, prob +700 ft at camp, pretty quickly for the view and a pan' and then descended in rain. Rain & sleet never let up this Sunday and I packed up wet and headed home. I left $18 on the table but saved a whole Monday for work; what was I thinkin'?

Chilly BHSC Recon 18Apr15

With the sloppy road and 10" of new snow in Perigrine yesterday I did not head to Silverthorne for an appointment. Today therefore I stole out to Big Horn Sheep Canyon on the Arkansas to recon for next weekend's caddis hatch outing. I wasn't really looking for caddis but "epic BWO hatches" which didn't really happen this day. I'm not sure it was a righteous test... the water and air were kindof cold and the fishing was slow all day. Water was up to 650 for the last two days out there but I heard it would be reduced and it was, to ~400. It was wadable but cold and not too clear. It was kind of an ominous day really as I caught only a few fish, stood in cold water, had snow on me, pass a half dozen CSP guys, and broke my Wintson BX 4 wt. Though, any day fishing...

Awesome Midge - I'm Just Sayin' 17Apr15

By far my most productive tailwater fly this year (reimagined) and last year (unreimagined?) is my Awesome Midge, a variant of Smethurst's Midge. I've not really provided good images of it so I thought I would so do. I had to tie a bunch more of the #24 after the recent "Tango" so below is a composite pic rendered on brown and on black-grey. You see I like stuff tied very "buggy and rough." To repeat the recipe... 2488 hook, rusty brown thread, stripped peacock herl body finished in Sally Hansen's "Hard As Nails" nail-polish (the herl is a great color and nicely segmented while the nail polish provides the sheen often seen on midge bodies as well as strength to the herl), tiny olive KF Flasher wings, thorax of grizzly hackle duff spiced with peacock herl stripping (the thorax is stuff you usually throw away but here it creates an "awesome" flowy/swishy/buggy/flashy thorax and legs). Must be yummy - and sure mimics those tiny segmented grey-brown tailwater midges well. I have to say #24 is sometimes too big... perhaps I should do some #26s or even less.

Tailwater Tango Day 2 - 11 Mile Quadruple Threat 11Apr15

The CoWWs, minus some, hit the 11 Mile canyon section of the So Platte river. We arrived pretty early, at 42˚ and hit the water just below the dam by 9:30am. We fished till 1:30pm or so in the first outing before lunch, which was provided again in superior but unceremonious fashion by the guide. Fishing was good to great starting at 10:30am but cloud cover and wind and continued cool kept it chilly enough we all wore coats. We caught plenty of trout. Jim sported a white feather for the CoWW look and a bounce rig fashioned by outfitter Rob and nailed a couple nice fish in the PM. It might've been the rig but the 4 bombers for lunch helped. We shared Dragon's Milk, a stellar barrel aged vanilla stout (I know, right), and re-enjoyed the American Beauty IIPA, to some Dead tunes, along witth Vampire Sparkle, or sumpin' like that, and others. Special TX guest star Convivial Rob, aka  Superfly, was active on good fish all day and hooted on many occasions, "let's do this bitches..." he actually scared Greg a bit. Greg and Dave hit triples with nice 'Bows, Cut's, and Browns all netted along with their buddies. Best flies were smallish dark mayflies for the BWO hatches (2 of 'em I think) and my far outperformers were the black #24 KF Flasher and my #24 Awesome midge though other stuff worked. I caught two on sparkly dry midge imitations. The CO vibe penetrated the situation, the surroundings and the friends. Colorado is so cool.

Tailwater Tango Day 1 - Mighty Rainbows & Mighty Fishermen of the Arkansas PT 10Apr15

A small portion of CoWW-dom approached the Pueblo Tailwater with anticipation. Most were not disappointed on a gorgeous spring day filled with midge and BWO hatches. Honorary member Superfly Haine was into a nice fish upstream from Nature Center parking in hole #2. After switching to a visible indicator, a drag-free drift of a smaller fuzz-ball thorax midge took the fish. Landing was deft (if one excuses the awkward leg squeeze on the net required)... awesome. Yoho was unfortunately thwarted - but his persistence was undeterred as his day two of the Tailwater Tango was productive (see next gr8fish entry). Entirely notable and delicious was the early PM lunch break at the Crusher consisting of habanero mango chicken brats, with Dave's fresh mango-chipotle salsa and roasted chilies - and other stuff like Yoho's sampler of IIPAs, including our first tasting of American Beauty (Dogfish Head barrel-aged with oats and almonds... almost cracked open for breakfast). We carefully navigated to Valco Ponds after lunch and fished till about 5:30pm. There were fishermen around but we were able to find some feeding lanes and catch some fish. Frankly GR8 Fish Man Dave slayed 'em with 3-4 twenty inch (or bigger) mighty rainbows netted and a passel more smaller but still huge. The 'bows are fat and strong now on the PT and many sport the tough looking kype jaw from spawning activity. A number of flies worked but far out-catching the sparkle wing RS2 and the KF Flasher was the #24 Awesome midge again - this bug on tailwaters is just technically devastating. We stopped at The Drift to get Rob a license early and he was provided weaponry to "outfish the locals;" hmmm, Springtime in the Rockies baby.

Easter Bounty- A Basket Of 'Bows From The Arkansas PT 04Apr15

With the kid at college I didn't hunt for eggs or bunnies, but for Easter rainbows instead. I arrived at Nature Center parking at 9am as the only fisherman, and was soon on the river in a midge hatch. Awesome and Black Vinyl KF took their share as I worked my way hole to hole, each with a couple nice fish - many without the detector attached for fear of spooking. Flows were down to perfect 325cfs and super wadable; water was perfectly clear. Fab' morning went from good to better as BWOs started showing in smallish numbers and I had my Reimagined Black Ice weight and Medora FB RS2 to match the bug action - everything was working. Fish were still mostly in the holes and had not moved out into the diamonds in the stream (I thought - see PM). Shocking but I was patient and netted all that I hooked! I didn't even fish the "best" spot as someone occupied it as I reached my typical upstream turnaround... back to the car for lunch at noon. I drove to Valco parking and it was teaming with activity - I dined and contemplated how to approach the afternoon - duh, more of the same. I did skip the spot next to the car given experience that the fish had not yet spread out to the diamonds and went right for the pigs behind the first full river weir. There were fishermen bait-whacking and lure fishing on the way but amazingly the best hole was open - I crept out on the weir and saw huge fish taking something in the middle of the water column. I tried for 20 minutes without indicator or luck really at 1:30pm... I netted some "small" stuff but didn't repeat last weekend's 23" grab. I moved ahead to the stream proper and more mayflies appeared. My head spun as I landed and lost fish after fish in mid-stream on the RS2 and a black midge from 2-3pm. While it finally slowed a bit and I really lost count I knew I'd had a great day fishing with nothing over 20" but also nothing really under 16" and a passel of fish seen. Here's a few from the Easter Bounty on the PT.

Reimagining The Bugs 03Apr15

As we prepare for steadily improving fishing conditions I reviewed and reimagined some of my "go to" flies for springtime. My "weight" is a spring (bigger, darker, purplish) mayfly nymph, the Reimagined Black Ice - derived from Larry Kingrey's ice nymph... I tied some this year with legs. My dry springtime BWOs are the Shucked Up Snowshoe BWO (added sparkle to the thorax) and the Yummy Paraloop BWO (bigger thorax profile on the water). Previously declared and instantly productive as my best midge (displacing the KF Flasher variants) is the Awesome Midge... an all natural black brown (stripped peacock herl) with thorax of grizzly hackle duff dotted with peacock trimmings and tiny flash wings, fashioned off of Frank Smethurst's work when he fished the Gunnison. As the Arki caddis hatch looms close, the chosen dry could well be the Caddistrophic, a variant of Mike Mercer's stuff, reimagined with blue dun underwing and some flash in the thorax. For the caddis swing subsurface, a variation of John Barr's Graphic, tied with a bright butt to mimic egg laying... the HotButt Swinger. Of course an Arki chartruese clone of the CJ was prepared, but easier to tie, the New Style Tung CJ includes light & air catching antron in the thorax dubbing. You can't get this stuff in a store... my pics are still so variable and sketchy but I don't want to spend too much time on that versus tying right now. See you on the rivers.