Fine Day On Blue @ Jurassic 30Jun21

Yoho, Brown and I dropped into Green Mtn Canyon on the Blue River for some fishing today. While heavy weather was expected in the PM, it turned out clear all day! We did have a doubling of flows to 210cfs to deal with so while that's much better for the fishery, and still very wadable, the impulse of water made fishing a bit slower and wading a bit tougher. We saw modest bug sign but had hoped for the green drakes ~ not happening yet. Nonetheless some caught a goodly number and size of fish in this beautiful spot. I caught a number of browns including a couple of 19"ers; I caught a number of cutbows too, like that shown, but also lost two bigger 'bows after long fights and fancy river dances - Steve caught the footage but ultimately ran out of storage I'd taken so long. Best bugs were MHFBPT and some trailing BWO emergers.I was weilding the Rodfather Stripper with floating line and was mostly nymphing. We also enjoyed a great after-fishing meal from Kala, aferwhich we very much enjoyed a special gifted Ice Wine  for desert.

Refinishing Our Ipe & Camaru Deck 29Jun21

Whoa that's a lot of work. I refinished our deck of Brazilian hardwoods in COS. It's only been 2-3 years so I decided to find alternative processes and materials (to how we've proceeded previously) by studying online for a day. I first power washed the whole deck at close range (pic #1). This cut off the prior surface which was grey-black at this point. It's amazing that ipe doesn't splinter or crack and what was revealed, while a bit greyer than original, was in great shape. This took ~1.5 days and then I let it all dry out. I then treated with acetone on tough or stained spots. Then, instead of semi-transparent Mesmer's UV, I am trying a simple transparent penetrating oil from Behr (still for UV protection and waterproofing). I applied the oil with a sheepskin pad. This time also I only let the oil sit on the surface ~10min, then I rubbed the excess off with another (cloth) pad (pic #2 shows the oiled & rubbed vs dry surfaces).  Finally I am all done with the needed 4 hours to dry before today's rain (pic #3).

No Browns Or Bigs In 11 Mile 28Jun21

I headed out to the 11 Mile Canyon section of the S Platte today. It was an overcast day of low-60°s and flows have been bumped a smidge to 81cfs; the river looks better and I was looking for clouds to enable mayfly hatches. I was gonna hit the PT and ride afterward but flows were bumped from 500 to 1250cfs, so no way! Fishing was just OK ~ I caught many cutbows but nothing of good size was even visible to me. There wasn't much bug sign today, the tricos must not have started yet, though I did catch some on my trico emerger/drowned trico imitation (black EZWD40). As to mayflies, the PMD PT worked in the afternoon ~ sensible as I did observe a small hatch of red quills and PMDs. The rest were caught earlier on midges whether olive vinyl KF, Top Secret or Juan's Money Midge. While I caught plenty they were all just emblematic of a 14"-16"er day, including one with a dislocated jaw and one lipless. It's kindof crowded with campers beating up the water. I used the Rodfather All Blacks today though it was too much gun (the 4wt is broken). I got a nice strong & accurate feeling from it for sure, and of course mending is dream, but the swing weight of the full 10 feet is more than I am used to with my normal 9 footers.

Cul de Canard & Amadou 25Jun21

I've been tying and fishing a lot more CDC (cul de canard) flies recently - whether fished dry, emerger, or wet. I tie loop wing emergers (BWO & PMD) and mole flies mostly with CDC. I prefer the natural color as it seems more oily and bouyant but I used the medium dun (blue-grey) as well. I often just use the already harvested "puffs" but many use the feathers.

Cul de canard comes from wild mallard duck's preen gland area near their tail. The oils there keep ducks water repellent. CDC feathers are super webby and fibrous and loaded with the gland's oils. This naturally oiled duck fuzz makes great flies but they need to be treated carefully and are not too rugged; they pretty quickly get soaked during fishing and need to dry out fully before reuse and are lame if they get too dirty - CDC cannot be treated with floatant, except CDC oil itself, and then the CDC must be completely dry to apply the oil. All is not lost in the field though as a special Amadou patch can be used to dry them out well, and it dries other flies fine too. 

Amadou is a specific fungus known as hoof fungus, horseshoe fungus, beech tinder and more. The word is derived from French and probably means kindling. The patches are made from sections of the material harvested from birch, ash, and beech trees in England & Ireland. It also can be used as kindling or tinder to start a fire. It is super light, dry and absorbent.

 

Now go tie some CDC and catch more fish ~ dry them out with Amadou.

Fremont Co Rod & Ride ~ One Weight Fun On Grape Ck & Cholla Attack On Temple Canyon Trails 24Jun21

Yoho and I headed to Grape Ck today for some fishing for mostly small browns on this fine Arkansas River tributary. We first hit the creek after plunging down the West Bear gulch access. The Crusher Too navigated the 4WD road with skill. Fortunately we both caught gobs of fish, mostly browns yet some rainbows too, but we also attracted many little brown gnats seeking every orifice.  Some deet offered a bit of respite but you still knew they were there. Flows of ~85cfs seemed perfect for this stretch, which we hit when other rivers are raging from runoff. We were wading light today and we were both wielding ultralight 1 wt Rodfather gear for extra fun - rigged dry dropper with a cream UV chubby Chernobyl on top and various caddis or mayfly BH droppers. I did manage one larger stronger 14" Scottish brown which took me 200ft downstream on the 1 wt - I finally landed him right near Jim who snapped the pic.

 

After lunch we chose to try another section of Grape Ck of which I knew, which was closer to some new MTB trails in Temple Canyon Park we intended to try. The bridge over Grape Ck at the west end of the park had good parking and easy access to the creek but it was more overgrown with willows here than @ West Bear ~ same damn brown gnats though. We again caught many fish on the same rigs, mostly browns. The 1st field trial of the Rodfather SB1, an 8'4" 4pc 1wt, was successful ~ I quickly learned I needed less leader in order to load the rod properly on a smallish stream. The rod is a lot like the Sage and is a lot lighter and less powerful than the Rodfather #1.

We wrapped up fishing at 5pm or so and headed over to the upper parking lot of the Temple Canyon MTB trails. We took Great Escape, Hard Times, Shivs, Redemption and the Road. Great ride but for the attack of an unseen cholla which rendered my right leg and butt numb for a bit... I'm still removing the needles.

 

Tunes @ Botanic Gardens & Dining @ Plimoth With Wilkes 23Jun21

We saw some keen, but very moderately amplified, music at the Denver Botanical Gardens tonight. It was a special event where they spread out all the performers to their own stages throughout the gardens. We preferred the bluegrass & Americana folks but the lady singers were fun too. Anytime were are out and about with T&L is a fine day.

Lemont

Liat Arochas

Eric Wiggs & Dylan McCarthy

We dined at the nearby Plimoth; yep that's the olde English spelling of Plymouth. It was excellent.

Cassandra Jenkins - Poet/Artist/Musician 23Jun21

Here's a keen poetic storytelling NYC artist/musician. Some dark stuff like Phoebe and probably the same age - she's also on her 2nd studio album, An Overview Of A Phenomenal Nature, released earlier this year. The first album, Play Till You Win, was dropped in 2017. I learned of her yesterday from my KEXP feed and then listened to her body of work - the KEXP @ Home session features songs from the 2nd album. I like it all but the recent stuff doesn't always include the beat backing that earlier live sessions did... accompaniment from an ethereal but "shinny" guitar is unusual but also a smidge tiring to me; the woodwinds are cool though. New arrangements with a full band will be great no doubt. None the less, this is an artist who is very real with plenty to say and pretty unusual for the fiercely candid writing. Good dreamy voice when but expect lots of storytelling in nearly spoken prose too. Her albums and she are excellent with kind of an alt country/indie shoegazing kind of feel... not much like her out there. As usual I offer just some live sessions, here in chronological order, but she has plenty of pretty official videos. As usual, click through to YouTube vids...

Bryant Music Fests, NYC - Aug17

Paste Studio, NYC - Aug17

AudioTree Live - Mar18

Full Daytrotter Session, IA - Aug18

Relix Session - Apr21

KEXP @ Home 21Jun21

Paravacini's On Dad's Day 20Jun21

 Kala took me to Paravacini's for Dad's Day. So good.

UPDATE 21Jun21 - Also hit Mood Tapas with Scott & Peg tonight. Pretty fine.