Gr8 Fish: March 2020

Monday, March 30, 2020

Virtual Happy Hour With Da Boyz 30Mar20

Respecting shelter in place the Front Range Fishing Boyz plus their wayward Houston-based buddy, together the CoWW, held a virtual happy hour using Skype. It all ultimately came off well but background blur is not great... DD had the best drink and the best picture, Haine was youngest with the cutest family stories and the only vertical image (for a while) and the least complex cocktail - OJ & vodka, Yoho had jiggy video feed from handheld iPad and Belizian rum, Greg and I had beer and the most recent fishing stories. We'll do it again with the approved DD corollary - I'll spec a bourbon or rum drink we all must make for the VHH. Thanks boyz.

Fast And Slow On The PT 30Mar20

I set out for the PT after seeing flows down to 430cfs or so, but on arrival the river was very high and there was bad visibility and tons of crap floating down.Yea, in the time I'd driven to the river flows were nearly doubled. I managed one cutbow on a rainbow warrior but left soon after. Just a net release as my perch was pretty precarious. Grrr... I wish I could read the mind of the guy making the "change the flows" call.

Saturday, March 28, 2020

Tying The Purple Dubl Trubl Stone 28Mar20

I thought I'd review tying the new purple stonefly. Unfished but super buggy looking ~ for which I'd hoped. This is a variant on Craven's Problem Child and working with the spinner, Coq de Leon, biots and ice dub seems right. Too bad I canceled my WY trip... I still have the Ark and Blue and Colo. Recipe...

Hook: #14 Diaichi 1160 (Klinkhammer)
Beads: Two black nickel 2mm tungsten beads
Thread: UTC 70 purple (could use 140 at this size)
Tail: 2 trico colored goose biots
Body: Ice Dub mix of bright UV purple & UV purple
Rib: Small opal mylar
Thorax & Legs: Spun light speckled Coq de Leon
Wings: 2 trico colored goose biots

Beads on; hook in vise; base thread wrap to back
and build a small ball to splay tail

Tie in goose biot tails; curving away from hook

Tie in 2nd biot

Tie on mylar for rib and a generous tube of dubbing

Wrap dubbing forward to beads

Spiral wrap mylar rib and tie off

Select Coq de Leon soft natural

Coq de Leon prepped


Lay a very light bit of dubbing in a blanket; place a layer of dark CDL fibers on blanket; place a second layer of lighter fibers on blanket

Move thread to between beads;
create a dubbing loop and add a spinner;
lightly wax the loop and then place the
entire blanket inside the loop

Spin the CDL loop

Wrap spun CDL and preen backward; tie off

Add more biots for legs and whip finish

Many images are shit. I spent a bit more time and camera to get some better ones on at least the completed fly. I also show the "hair clip."

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Boxes Are Ready & Lines Are Repaired 26Mar20

I am nearing fully ready for unsequestered fishing. Time in the abode has led to frantic tying which filled my boxes pretty well. I even got along to some summer stuff like terrestrials and dry stones and caddis and even fall top off of streamers. I now have dedicated boxes for terrestrials, streamers and big top bugs, courtesy of a couple months in WYO.

Mayflies

Dry Mayflies

Midges

Worms, Eggs, Leeches, Shrimp & Scuds

Caddis

Stoneflies

Terrestrials

Big Bugs

Streamers

Mobile Streamers

Extra High Runner Midges & Mayflies

I also checked my lines and they were sinking on my #4 and #5 rods. There were irreparable cracks and gouges in the line near the tips. To get some additional time on them, as they are still pretty new @ less than 1/3 season, I just cut off the final section of ~ a foot and used a line to leader connector. I also cleaned and dressed each line well. We'll see.

New Weights ~ BH Biot Trigger Nymphs 26Mar20

While leafing through Mercer again I saw the PMD Trigger and decided to tie up my variants as an alternative to Rainbow Warrior and Black Ice as my weighted top mayflies. It's early to tie PMDs but I was intrigued and have been experimenting with dyed turkey biots. Here are the PMD and BWO variants...

Hook: #16/PMD & #18/BWO TMC 3769
Tail: 3 PT fibers ~ bronze side/PMD & olive side/BWO
Thread: Carmel/PMD & Olive/BWP
Bead: 2mm gold tungsten/PMD & 2mm black nickel tungsten/BWO
Body: Turkey Biot: Rusty/PMD & Olive/BWO
Thorax: Tan UV2/PMD & Olive/BWO
Wing/Legs: Hungarian partridge feather fibers
Thorax Topper Attractor Flash: PMD Ice Dub/PMD & Olive Ice Dub/BWO

The trick (beyond tying with biots in general) is very sparse ice dub lifted above the base thorax and then squished down the thread onto the the top of the fly - then whip finish. It's called a trigger because the ice flash should trigger a fish response.

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Upping The Stonefly Game 25Mar20

Early season golden stones are evident and active on the freestone rivers. My typical tie for the stonefly is Pat's Rubberlegs, a strong fly but a bit brutish, or the 20 Incher. I went to Mike Mercer's epoxy back techniques for the BH Biot Poxyback Golden Stone nymph here. I'm trying to improve my stonefly choices and find the right fly for the Ark and the Blue. I like it, but only the test of time in fishing it will tell. If it works I can expand coloration to mimic those found later in the year here. I worry a bit on the durability of the turkey biot tail and antennae... they are so accurate but perhaps rubber might suffice. Dunno what's going on with the over-saturated images - sorry; you get the idea though.

I was enamored of and impressed with purple stonefly productivity last year on the WY waters and always wanted to replicate something like them for Colorado rivers. Recently the awesome tie-master Craven showed spinning Cog de Leon on a stonefly so I tied my variant - a curved hook, double bead, Coq de Leon in electric purple . It's awesome and continued my work with biots... it's the Dubl Trubl. I also include below my other stonefly for 2020 - a version of the BH 20 incher; I doubled the beads and try to hide them. It came out fine and juicy. These will sink like stones; heh heh. Gotta get out on the Ark freestone in May with these and some caddis.

Greg tied a few nice iron sallies - they look simpler to tie than the Mercer biot poxyback above.

Monday, March 23, 2020

Now More Than Ever - Listen To/Watch Radio Studios Live & Recorded 23Mar20

With congregation ill-advised during C19 outbreaks, many will be wanting for live music. If the radio industry can keep it up - they've got a great format to solve our issues. As long as their engineers and hosts, and their guests can practice great aseptic behaviors and "socially distance" themselves from each other, then they'll deliver a great service through a fabulous infrastructure I've come to adore. Many of the best music radio studios in the US are public radio stations ~ so if you are so inclined, as with PBS, keep building. A few great ones like Paste and BBC are not public, per se, and they are insanely great too. There's of course national public radio, NPR - typically spectacular ~ especially Tiny Desk. It is easiest if stations publish on YouTube but not all do - some have alternative renderers that work within browsers. Here are my top live/recorded radio streams based on my assessment of quality of recordings and the capability of guests - no duh, biggest urban markets are the best. I do have CPR/Denver high as they publish local/Colorado band stuff. All are searchable and seemingly still being updated often. My links click through to the "top page," if I found it.

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Rod & Ride In Pueblo 22Mar20

We braved a Sunday and the unexpected happened. We didn't catch fish. I don't think I've ever been skunked on the PT but today I was. All we could muster were remote releases of cutbows. Weather was great. While flows had recently increased to 450cfs, they were not too out of line from expected spring conditions of ~300cfs. Nonetheless there was low viz, high winds foiling rigs, crap in the water and precious few fish.

Rather than tempt bad luck further we didn't go to Valco but straight to the Pueblo St Pk trailhead. It was packed and we parked in overflow there. We had a quick lunch and donned gear for a ride - the recent weather missed this southern CO spot so trails were great. I brought the repaired Broadaxe and Da Boyz brought their fancy new full squish systems with all the trimmings.

My choice made me pay on a 1 mile canyon rock section accessed after pushing up a gully. Oh well, most of it was awesome and the hardtail was fine. The canyon was a good, successful, test of my carbon fiber repair anyway. You might think I am social distancing here but the extreme nature of my fall back position is more one of fat boy distancing.

I found a poor soul's canister and tool on the ride and gave it to a guy back at the trailhead. Jim showed us the way into a submerged trail. I got the triple selfie from Pedro's Point (with our return destination, the marina, in the background).

We rolled on back via the south shore trail after crossing an inlet. I shared an aptly named hazy IPA from Snake River, Earned It. The 14mi and 1Kft vert ride saved the day.

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Cancelled Show & Safe Listening 21Mar20

I'm bummed that the 1975 and Phoebe had to cancel; I'll get my money back. Yet from the cubbie that is my headset I found Mandy Moore accompanied by Jackson Browne & Phoebe Bridgers (not in black!) covering the Beatles. Yea; so there's that. One'd think the artists and studios have a big hand to play now - we can't go out but if they release new shit we'll explode on the Internet. Go for it (but they have to play somewhere with some engineers).