Wow, Where's A Guy To Wade ~ Flows Are Raging "Everywhere" 06Jun24

I guess 11 Mile Canyon section of the S Platte will be pretty crowded... and it's kindof low. Elsewhere, river dancing is likely...

New Zealand New Year's Day ~ Fishing Mataura River & Roaming Queenstown 01Jan23

We had a free morning so we enjoyed berries and pod espresso machine coffees in the room as I tried and failed at watching NCAA football. The situation is that ESPN & Hulu don't allow anonymous VPN addresses so even though I bought a Denver IP address they would not enable a stream without geo-location turned "on." Grrr... looked like amazing college football today from the box scores. Instead I fished the Mataura solo with Kala engaging some cows. I learned of the spot from a chain sporting goods store fisherman close to our lodging. It led us along the Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown to the effluent stream. There's apparently some strict etiquette fishing in NZ where you fish the "beat" at which start headed upstream ~ you do not hike downstream and fish back to your car. A signpost so said, but I get it ~ the fish biomass here is much lower than in CO; what is here is big but there are not many fish, and there is precious little bug sign. On my "beat" today I saw no fish in crystal water and caught up to the next guy in 90 min so headed back down. Sheep were my guide and none were too good; Kala read of Osage Murders with curious cows along the river.

With fishing and cow curious just "meh" we headed back to QT for some rambling about the town. I re-asserted the vibe was like Summit, while Kala said Vail, and the nice residences we see are $1M NZD. We parked (nigh impossible here) near the landing field for the paragliders and then went to our adventure station to assure we knew where to meet our jet boat tomorrow... yeah every imaginable was in the concourse ~ boats, choppers, jets, subs, fishing, flying, skydiving, bungie jumping, whatev... weird. We are nearly the oldest in the 'hood... and will board our jet boat for the river tomorrow righteously. We tried to buy something but could not find "it." We headed to a beer tap haunt for locals... Atlas, on the wharf. Good edamame and tacos and good beers in a stellar vibe. We did have to navigate many "tourists" boarding tugboats on our ways back to the car.

We stole out of Atlas for a Kiwi statue pic and then to the (relatively empty) Queenstown Gardens for a walk on the lake through the park... awesome. We learned they planted American Sequoia and have an alcohol ban this week ~ aka, no public drunkenness or carry. We passed a boule event at the QT Bowling palace and enjoyed the skill of these "average" players ~ and look forward to a match at Alan's club in CCH.

 

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.

Renewed Danner Boots & Field Use Report 17Nov20

Some know I've had issues with prior Patagonia wading boots. I loved the fit and the aluminum bar grabbing but the longevity of uppers was suspect and replacing the bars was a challenge if one waited too long. While I waited too long again, I did get my Patagonia-Danner boots' aluminum replaced. Sure I used a Dremel tool and vice grips to replace some of the bars but I did get it done. As for the new boots durability - awesome thus far. The fit and the hiking feel are good though they are heavy, but most importantly they are sturdy. It's an upgrade for sure that Patagonia went to Danner to design and build the new boot; I guess I can't get a new pair under warranty every year now. ;(

Fall On The Blue 07Sat20

I left before wetting a line at the effluent of the Green Mtn Rez on the Blue River. I arrived at 9:20am with 19 vehicles in the lot - half with open and empty rod racks. I was dubious but proceeded to dress and grumble. Given the crowds I chose to throw the new Rodfather 3 weight for fun. As I entered the steep drop in it was very icy but there was a rope to aid my decent. Unfortunately, the rope broke free right at the steepest and iciest spot and I slid 20 ft down the hill. I scratched my hands open, and scraped my net, but worst of all broke off the tip top from my rod. I took all these factors as a sign and headed home to the Nest. Grrr... it really was a fall on the Blue.

UPDATE 13Nov20 ~ Tip top did not break off, it just was levered off of the end of the rod somehow. All fixed; and hands are healing with some time inside ski gloves.

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.

Fishin' Boyz On Arkansas & Gore 22Aug19

The Brown-Hubbs boyz wanted to fish again so we hatched a plan to hit the headwaters of the Arkansas at Hayden Meadows right below Leadville. We got a good start but did not catch much - but I scored some small browns on a green drake nymph (though we did not experience a hatch).  The flows are a little higher here @ ~120cfs than what I'm used to but that couldn't explain the low take of our awesome offers. We dined stream side contemplating our next move, and my broken Winston, as a storm approached.

We decided to head to the Gore for the PM and through Leadville hit Periodic Brewing of course. It was a stormy drive up SR24 up to Minturn but very pretty. We arrive about 1pm and I did my normal guide thing - "here are the bugs, cast there for some good fish, see ya - I'm fishing." In cases it worked and others not so much. The DCEZ WD40 I tie almost exclusively for this stream did it's work for Richard and me... he caught a nice 16" cut bow and I caught some browns. We danced in 80cfs near the mouth with the Eagle River before continuing the brewery tour at VBC.

We then headed upstream to the Dawg Park. I reloaded lines and pointed at the river then set out to find my fish. I did ok and this time I caught the 16" cut bow (with a broken jaw) and some more browns.

Good times.

Awesome Outings In Crested Butte 11Aug19-14Aug19

Irwin Lake Campground - Kala & I headed to Crusty Butt with Scott & Peg for some hiking and chillin'. We scored a keen site @ Lk Irwin CG among the jungle of wildflowers at 10.5KFt. Awesome mountains and people all around... we set up camp and I caught a bunch of stocker rainbows on the lake before heading down to meet some folks for pizza at Secret Stash. We saw a strange ridge-hugging cloud leaving Salida on the way.

Gunsight Mtn Bike Trail - After local brews @ the Stash, sleeping was easy. We arose for breakfast and to meet Ted, a local retired doc, to hike Lupine & Gunsight Connector above Slate River. Local mountain biking is very good and this was one such trail. It was a nice 5 miler with 1KFt of vert through one of the biggest aspen groves I've ever encountered. Later I learned, and drove through, the largest aspen grove in the world - perhaps it is even the largest living organism in the world - unless there's some fungus in Michigan with that distinction.

That afternoon we went to Mt Crested Butte and then on up toward Schoenfeld Pass. We dined near columbines in colors I'd never seen - must be genetic manipulations  We reached the snow plug covering the road about 2 miles below the pass and several miles above Gothic along the headwaters of the East River beneath the Ruby Range. I saw guided fishermen on the headwaters but did not wet a line.

Anthracite Ck In The Raggeds Wild - On Tuesday I chose the hike and selected a jaunt into the Raggeds Wilderness. The trail followed Anthracite Ck, which I fished of course, for 4.7 miles to the confluence with Ruby Anthracite. I had hoped to fish both streams but at the confluence we were several hundred feet above the water so I called it and we turned around. This is a very remote section with heavily overgrown trail and lush ferns and other vegetation, but a rockfall had left a couple huge boulders right on the trail and we encountered some feds drilling holes for later dynamiting the rocks - who knows what will really happed. I caught a half dozen of browns and rainbows but all pretty small (I didn't take some pics as I was mid-stream and didn't want to loose another iPhone) on purple or green chubbies or my peacock prince dropper. I was flinging the 1 weight so expected this result. On the occasions I hooked into much larger - I had some remote releases. The trail was like a jungle and delivered ticks on all but me - perhaps because I wore the Chota waders. This was a gorgeous place in a deep canyon with cliffs overhanging us 2KFt up, on the other side of the stream! I ate the raspberries but others didn't - it felt as if there'd be a bear around each bend, but there was not. So cool.

Scarp Ridge - On Wed AM we hiked up to the Scarp near the campground - 10.5K up to 12.2K over 2.4 miles. This is one of the most spectacular 5 mile hikes on which I've ever been. The wildflowers, old mines, the Ruby Range and all the Elks surrounded us. As we summited above Oh-Be-Joyful basin and Peerler Basin 2,000 feet below we could see Mt Crested Butte (and got great cell service for the 1st time in days) and even Aspen's 14ers of Snowmass and Maroon in the distance! Spectacular God's country. While atop the Scarp the wind came up and I actually lost my hat 12 ft down a 2,000 ft cliff. - I tried a little but nah, not worth it. Many of the cirques remain choked with snow in the <13Kft high Elks and the resulting waterfalls are amazing. These will not clear before snow falls again and we may have glacial holdovers - I was reminded of the cold Gunnison Co can hold in winter as we passed a snowblower parked atop the roof of a Natl Forest building!