Broadaxe Slashed Falcon Trail 25May16

Still in search of the right tune I took the Broadaxe through some paces on Falcon trail. I used to do it in much less time so despite some riding, I do have some extra weight and had a generally long time on the loop - I was only the 5th fastest person on the DAY. It was still a blast and compared to the Yeti I sped on ups and slowed on downs. I reduced shock pressure to 75-80# in the Reba, and slowed rebound, and put 24# in 2.4" Ardents and it behaved better but I think I could even do with less in both as I didn't bottom out and I did get some bounce on smallish stuff - though Falcon is not too radical. I forgot what more carefully picking lines was like but with a hardtail I was surely doing that and even with that I danced through the babyhead fields.

Cool Wind During Galvan Field Trial @ 11 Mile 23May16

Today I was on 11 Mile in mid-50° weather but with stiff cooler winds. I was out to fish of course and was testing the new Galvan Torque reel. The reel was nice and had a feature/aspect I appreciated right away... there is ~zero incremental startup inertia when on the reel and drag sets in. Most other reels I've used have an incremental force amount as to pull to initiate feeding line out with drag; the Galvan flows smoothly and instantly into proper drag - much less scary with big fish on. This was needed today as I did catch some bigger (for 11 Mile) rainbows of 16"-18". Nothing but rainbows today on my triple threat purple rig of black ice (weight), Dave's FoD and Jimi's Axe - the latter two doing the damage. I did fine but I still thought the fishing a little slow and pretty technical in the very low flows. It was pretty busy with fishermen too as I think this is one of the only non-ragin' fisheries around right now. I left early ~2pm when weather rolled overhead.

Galvan Torque Reel 17May16

I can't fix my GLoomis Syncrotech reel. They are discontinued and there are no used ones floating around and no parts suppliers. Bummer, it was light and I had an extra spool with sink tip (though I rarely used that since I now have a sink line 6 wt streamer weapon) and I really liked it. Only saving grace is that I got it from a guide sale for a great price. My research led me to the Galvan Torque. Reviews are stellar, weight is right, value is very good (price v quality & features)... I got the green to match the Z-Axis green.

Fixed Camper Power! 17May16

I thought I was at root cause and bought a new 30A power system & inverter on Amazon for $100. I went through the pain and two hours to tear out the old one and install the new one - plenty of wiring in confined spaces. I was not at root cause. I finally discovered the issue was simply my high amperage plug end on the camper 110v hook up - a wire had simply come loose inside the plug. I fixed that and it's all good now. I don't know whether to hold or sell the "old" power system. Sheesh; at least its fixed.

Snagged 'Em On The PT 13May16

I was a late arrival on the PT but there were not too many fishermen upstream from Valco. I had not hit the upstream section in the AM yet this year but the hot day suggested it might be OK. It was windy and still slow for the first hour but picked up 11am to 2pm. Topping it off were rising flows while I was there... ~200 to start and seemingly like ~350 on departure... sheesh. The combination of factors had me strangely snagging more fish than hooking them righteous. The biggest ones I took fooling them however. I did land a mess of fish in the AM and then in the heat of the day 2pm-4:30pm I was skunked. All was not lost then as I did observe monster rainbows feeding openly at the Nature Center... I was not stealthy enough to fool these beasts but I know where they are. Too as noteworthy, I was at the big weir just below the hatchery effluent in the morning with a big fish on when my reel failed again. It seized and I lost that fish after a big downstream run but fishing was good so I attempted field repair and dumped some parts into the river - but fishing was good so I saddled up and landed some using strip retrieves and deft hand. Now I gotta chase a repair of my GLoomis reel. Satisfactory day but the bigs are more elusive.

Good Trails In Boulder - Ridin' With Wilks 10May16

When I started to look for appropriate trails in the Boulder area on which to initiate Tom Wilke and his new orange Air9 steed, I was amazed at the dearth. This may be mecca for spandex and road rides but mtn bikers are disadvantaged. I finally chose the Dowdy Draw-Spring Brook Loop-Marshall Mesa just south of Boulder west of #93. It turns out these were great trails, especially the Spring Brook section. It starts with a 600 ft climb on rocky ST over the first 2.5 miles and Wilks complained a bit. It was a smidge rocky in spots and wet in others but in general a great fun trail - recommended when in Boulder. I was glad the weather held off on the day, especially since I had just come from Summit with 8" of new snow. Despite Tom feeling a bit under the weather even though he'd whipped us in golf the day prior, he accepted the challenge and is now a true mountain biker. He and his Niner held up great - I guess it can be crowded but we really only saw 4 bikers (2 of 'em on fat bikes) on the day. At the end of our ride mid-day we did pass 4 lycra-clad cross bikers on the way up and provided them trail status; I don't know how well they did in the wet sections on the way down - I wouldn't want that equipment on these trails this day. Gorgeous views of the Flatirons and the whole Front Range on much of the ride. Way to go Wilks (check out the leather gloves, tennis shoes and retro-helmet)! I saw his good Boulder-based friend Gary at Tom's book talk that evening and he was actually a little "pissed" I found the hardtail 29er as Gary wanted to get Tom on a road/cross bike... I just need to get Tom on the right tires for the rides with Gary and he'll be fine - the hardtail is a more flexible single quiver bike - I stand by that.

CoWW Outing To Oil Well Flats & BHSC Caddis Hatch 06May16

Weather was stellar for most of the outing along the Arkansas River - though it rained a smidge on and off and was chilly overnight. We started with a good ride at Oil Well Flats Thu after work but DD did indeed have a flat so we rode in shifts. Then we headed 16 miles up the canyon to a nice open camping spot along the river near Texas Ck... we were mostly alone on Thu PM but by Fri night the place was full. We met Rick & Gary, software guys from FedEx whom Greg knew - plus, this time it was not Yoho who broke the tough guy pose, new guy Gary smiled. We dined on fine white chili Jim had prepared with "the best cut cilantro ever" and had great campfires. We really didn't see a caddis hatch and the river seemed a bit cold, a bit high and a bit off color from optimal conditions. Those factors were borne out in mediocre fishing though we did catch some fish (mostly 10"-12" browns but a few "14 rainbows) in faster deeper water on Friday... all on subsurface stuff like stonefly nymph, mayfly emerger and caddis larva imitations. Greg said my hydrophobic mayflies sank... hmmm. Saturday was harder yet and the flow chart explained that some with a 15% hike in flows to ~440cfs. I caught one in the AM but I risked wading pretty far across @ Pinnacle Rock to so do. The fishery needs multiple warm days and steady flows to really turn the caddis on - it may not happen this year in a big way given the late storms and likely runoff pretty soon; we'll see. Still, its always a treat to get out with the guys.

Games & Bugs On Cinco de Mayo 05May16

I drenched a bunch of my dries in hydrophobic solution and let them dry overnight. We'll see if the new tech notion works well and I'll expand it to all dries. Faster and easier than field silicon dressing - which may still be required after fish slime gets on 'em.

I built a cool new game, Jumpin' Jokers (or just Jokers) that I'd learned in NC. It's a simple but strategic game not unlike Parcheesi.

Just Good Fishin' At 11 Mile Canyon 03May16

I headed to 11 Mile as planned today. Awesome sunny day but a little chillier out there... plenty of snow on the ground still but the road was pretty dry. There were plenty of fishermen but I found spots ;) - flows were very low and fish were easily spotted. I used this to target feeding fish which were more at the heads of runs and riffles rather than lying in the holes. Water was pretty cold with the snowmelt but many fish were feeding. I fished from about 10am-2pm and while I didn't see a hatch to speak of, my bugs were working great and I caught over two dozen fish - including the first 3, which were ugly (scunge on the back of the rainbow, colorless brown and check that weird cutty with a broken jaw), but gave me an immediate triple. It was still mostly rainbows and cutbows with the biggest probably ~18" - most were ~14". I tried an all purple rig for a while and finally caught my first fish in 11 Mile on the black ice. Jimi's Axe (purple haze variant) fooled the most fish but Top Secret, Olive KF Flasher and mercury head RS2 did plenty too. It is worth commenting too that I'm trying a new indicator rigging which seems handier, more secure and more easily tuned. Its called New Zealand strike indicator for which a little piece of plastic tubing is slid over a loop in the leader (using the tool) and then "wool" is pulled through the loop and tightened... worked well at 11Mile where I wanted to trim the wool down significantly. It also seems a bit more sensitive to hits than thingamabobbers, and it doesn't slip. Speaking of sensitive - I just took a spin in Yoho's new Maserati - holy F3^*. Looking forward to the CoWW outing at BHSC!

Just Good Fishin' On The PT 02May16

Its May but the fishing is still very good on the PT... I hope you guys are getting some of this. Today turned the corner on weather so I headed south and found no snow and no fishermen on the Pueblo effluent. I was resigned to 600cfs and outfitted appropriately but by the end on day flows had dropped to 200cfs - weird. The AM was stellar out of the Nature Center and while the PM was a little slower out of Valco, it still produced. I've been gone a couple weeks and fish have moved out from the weirs downstream but are still mostly behind them upstream (or it might've been the flow drop). The entire stretch upstream from parking at NC was great - every spot a fish or two. The weir right below the hatchery was then again astounding on midges at 4:30pm. My rig was consistently attacked at the RS2 and even more at the Awesome Midge. The hatches were gargantuan in the AM - spinner fall was there and guys were sippin' but I stayed with emergers and nymphs. I caught some big fish as typical on the PT, and a few small ones, and one brown in the bunch. I lost a half doz too - my reel broke mid-AM and seized on a torpedo resulting is a disappointing loss but then wouldn't reel in well at all so several landings were by stripping and feeling it. I fixed it I think. The day was sweet - now off to the So Platte and then the caddis hatch in BHSC.