He Returned To The Scenes Of The Crimes 26Apr17

After a "snow day" of camper repairs and errands & chores yesterday I hit the PT again today. Flows were down to a most excellent 370cfs and the bug activity was great while the crowds were minimal (due I think to expectations of an off day from the precipitation). Nothing could be further from wrong actually - I caught 2 dozen fish including many large ones of ~19" and the biggest brown I've ever landed on the PT, a nice 20"er. The PT looked cool with the snowy mtn backdrop. The AM was cool and dominated by BWO nymphs and midges; in the PM I switched to all mayflies (2 emergers) and continued strong. I did lose a couple nice ones to boot - stole a couple of bugs each. I left a bit early so I could get the camper to storage before the rain & snow begins again. Here are the nicer ones with nicer pics. I tried to do the "at you" pose with the brown but it's hard solo and looks like crap.

Cheeseman Canyon Spectacular 24Apr17

I hired Chris Ramos to take Jim and Rob (& me) into Cheeseman Canyon to fish the most technical waters in CO, if not the country. We did well on a nice day and Chris outperformed as expected in sighting, rigging, lunching and coaching. Rob got his wish and outfished me... Rob and Jim both smoked me on the South Platte as I took no pics and here are just some of the beasts landed by my boys, both newly anointed master fishermen. Congrats. This was the most fish I've seen a team catch in Cheeseman which is usually more stingy - great timing as CC is fishing well. Water @ 100cfs and weather were excellent. AM flies were grey and black midges and the Cheeseman Emerger and PM flies were olive BWOs like the Olive Loopwing.

Karma and The Catch - Repost - Spring CoWW Outing 20Apr17-23Apr17

The annual spring outing of the Cult of the White Wing convened on several waters in SoCo these last few days - the Arkansas @ the Pueblo Tailwater and in Big Horn Sheep Canyon and the South Platte in Cheeseman Canyon. The awards ceremony, accompanied by a case of beer, recognized the accomplishments of recent fishermen: author Tom Wilke and wise Karma sage Scott Brantley. Tom proclaimed he'd catch 3 fish since this was his third year and that was an established trend - after a dubious snub on the freestone Ark he proceeded to get his 3 on the PT. KarmaSage, also on a dubious start where Rob snapped Scotts pole in half on its maiden stringing, proceeded to land fish, including a very nice PT brown, on every day we were out! Great weather, great friends, great times. The cool weather has delayed the caddis hatch and new cool weather may indeed again make it a Mom's Day thing. We found plenty of good fishing anyway as the PT was in prime, if not a smidge high & colored, condition. Y'all know the players in the pic (L to R): SuperFly Haine, KarmaSage Brantley, GR8FishMan Coffin, Yoho The Magnificent Yohanan, Cerevisiaevelo Piscator Lehmann, and Author Tom Wilke. We all met objectives and all caught good fish. On Fri we stopped in Pueblo since the BHSC Ark and weather looked iffy for the caddis hatch. We did very well on the PT with all players on fish - Jim & Rob caught big fish. We moved out to BHSC that night and coordinated with Wilks to come to 5 Points instead of our target in Hayden Ck (thinking the caddis were closer to popping lower on the river). Fri was Haine's Gumbo and we decided to invite him back again, and Scott's wines and we decided to invite him back again. We fished tough conditions near 5 Points in the AM and some caught some small fish. The rain and cold had delayed the hatch again so fishing was slooooooooow - after lunch we headed upstream above Hayden to find clearer water - and take some nice group pics at Rincon. The rods were prepped (where's Greg's?) but the freestone Ark was still not offering much - some caught fish and I was lucky to get a decent brown. Our evening back at camp featured dinner on Dave's Fajitas and copious beers including Yoho's selection of crowlers from Epic, err Equinox - nobody got a clean crush on those cans. Poor conditions forced us out of the canyon and back to the PT on Sunday. Again on this water the team crushed it - SuperFly landed fish after fish, KarmaSage caught a big brown, the Author backed up his proclamation, Jim landed more big fish, and Dave & Greg did their thing too. Notable super-coaching award goes to SuperFly who got Tom and Jim on hot water and into very nice fish. We capped the weekend with celebration and brews at Brue's in Pueblo - good food and a swell IPA. No fish were killed during the making of this event. Greg sustained a massive blowout on the way home - two trips in a row we had camper damage - I sure hope that's not a trend. On to Cheeseman for a few....

Cuttys @ 11 Mile 20Apr17

Some days on the water seem to stick to a theme - today @ 11 Mile Canyon on the South Platte I was into more cutthroat (or predominantly cut) than usual it seemed. Despite the Thursday, it was kindof crowded at the upper end of the canyon but I found my spots and landed a goodly number of trout on midges and BWOs. I went out this day expecting to be with RobH but he rejiggered to arrive tonight instead - that didn't stop me from getting out of course. :) Here are some of the better ones.

Spectacular Day @ The PT 17Apr17

I saw the flows on the Pueblo Tailwater were down to a manageable 450cfs and the weather was stellar. I headed down with rods and bike, just in case. I had a spectacular spring day landing many large fish, and missing another half doz. I did best in the AM out of the Nature Center and began with just one other guy, Bob, wetting lines at ~9:40am. I was quickly into fish and observed strong bug sign including little midges and #20 BWOs. My rig worked up and down the line from a new "weight" fav called #20 2 bit hooker, to #20 UV RS2, to #22 mercury midge, to #24 awesome midge. The 3rd and biggest hole above the NC parking was a huge producer for me... I jumped Bob and left him several holes after I fished a bit below him to no good. I was able to land 5 and miss 2 more big ones in that hole alone. I kept advancing and kept sleighing it will very few folks on the water. This was the spring day on the PT I recalled and for which I hoped. I caught a many 18"-21" fish as shown here with several really big (one of which didn't cooperate as you see)... and more (but unworthy in this group - yeah, they're all different). Here and 11 Mile are great right now and we need to consider modifying our agenda this coming WE in order to partake.

Daddy's New Boots & Williams Fk 15Apr17

Yesterday was a work day in Summit - fix my wading boots, fix the spa, bait for the vols, etc. Fixing the boots with new aluminum bars was a bitch... I must've let them go too long, probably 60 outings - and they were down to the nubs with barely a purchase on the screws and some bars were even broken. Note to self - change sooner! Today I employed the new boots in the Williams Fk. Fishing was meh and pretty crowded (weekend crowd I guess). I caught a half doz 12"ers in both browns and 'bows on rainbow warrior, FBPT and midges. No net needed so no pic warranted of the fish. Passing the Gore from the north side yielded a worthy shot of the rez way down awaiting runoff, and sun on the peaks.