Non-Dexterous Man vs Ganglion-Equipped Salmonid 29Mar14

In the epic battle of non-dexterous man vs ganglion-equipped salmonid, who wins? The sun shone on the Arkansas tailwater as this hobbled angler landed his first 22" rainbow of the year... it was not pretty but I imagine a fish >2X cast length merits the win. The PT is is moving into prime time and while I didn't experience a BWO hatch, larvae versions worked well. I was long-line nymphing and fact is, everything sub-surface worked when I saw the fish and hit the feeding lane stealthily and accurately enough. I caught fish on tung BH black ice #18, sparkle loop wing RS2 #20, BHPT #20, mercury BH black beauty #20 and olive krystal flasher #22. The day started at 28◦ but warmed to 70◦... the good action started at ~9:30am and lasted till I left at 1:30pm. It was a blast but stripping was much harder than expected and I tested my index too much - landing was easier than expected as I tucked the rod in my armpit and went all righty with the net (the fish had to be decently tired) - removing the fly was often hard and tying new bugs on was sloooooow. I caught many fish moving upstream from Valco Ponds; it was not too crowded; I lost only 3 via long distance release; below are some of the 'bows. I couldn't do the cool hand-holding-fish pic with the broken paw so they are all grounders... it helped me land fish anyway.

PT Redds & Icy Steep Tree 15Mar14

Went 2 for 6 in the AM on the PT. Lost one really nice one and landed the 17"ers. All hooked on mercury flashback black beauty midge. Saw two active redds, a decent midge hatch but no mayflies yet. Fish are moving out into the stream now but the flows are still really low and a bit murky.

Crashed into a tree when my binding released on a steep icy drop off Santiago at Keystone. Went to emergency at Penrose and then had hand surgery days later - a plate and 6 screws for my life's first surgery!

Timing Is Everything 01Mar14

Skied all over Breck on Fri on a gorgeous day after a decent snowfall on Thu PM. Won "skydude" pin or something like that for skiing all the black spots at Breck. My luck was excellent as I was basically in line for opening of Imperial lift and got to ski that early (but Lake Chutes wasn't open) and so too on 6 and Kensho. Also caught Falcon, E and TBar, all with fluff - I stayed on the north facing slopes to avoid the prior week's snowless sunshiney effects. The hike up terrain was opened by patrol almost just as I arrived at the top of Kensho and some did head skier right to rad lines on chutes there... I was a bit lazier and went looker right to the new deposits above Wonderland.

Then on Sat I hit Keystone in a blizzard. I70 was closed at Silverthorne creating gridlock even exiting Wildernest and too many folks being fed onto Rt 6. It took 2 hrs from condo (passing many lame vehicles unable to gain traction) to the top of Dercum in gondola. The day was decent there though wind howled on the Outlook hike-in ridgeline and sapped my enthusiasm for that... plus the lines went beyond weekend long. I took advantage of the rarely skied (as it's usually dirt) trees adjoining WayBack which was awesome too and scored some other tree runs off Dercum.

No One In Wonderland 21Feb14

The new Kensho chair dropped me at 12.3K ft elevation on Peak 6 @ Breck. My new Liberties led the way. I took the ridge-line to and though the trees early since #6 wasn't open yesterday and the snow was fresh... then I had designs on steeper tera. I dropped lonely into Wonderland, dodging some wind-swept mank and rock outcroppings but caught piles of spindrift on the leeward sides and slid smiling through the trees. I looped that gnar all day with "my" lines being "the" lines, all 15K, nobody in Wonderland. I lost my glove to the wind on the selfie and had to ski an "inappropriate" line to retrieve it and I did once lose a ski on a hard stomp on hard stuff and cascaded down 100 yards... fortunately the loose ski mostly followed. Wind was up but it and the traverses were worth it. Colorado is so cool.

22Feb14 & 23Feb14...Follow up to looping gnar at Breck's #6 on Fri was two days at Keystone. Saturday was awful... I got there late on a cloudy, cold and windy weekend day and had to take the shuttle from north lot... wasted time in the bus and on the mtn as the new snow was nil, the weather was crap and the base was crusty. I took 3 runs and went home. Sunday was sublime however with Keystone being the weekend snow winner at a reported 6 inches overnight and sun shining and 24 degrees on my back. I went early to get a real River Run parking spot then looped Outback hiking to North Bowl for multiple runs in 6-10" of fresh off a nice steep cornice. Caught some stuff on Dercum like Cat Dancer too. Colorado is so cool.

Slow But Satisfying 19Feb14

The PT was chilly but calm this morning as I ventured upstream from Nature Center parking @ 9:15am. The 2nd and 3rd weir-formed holes yielded some rainbows on blue wire & peacock herl Ninja-like midge and the blue Nothing Subtle midge. The nice hookjaw 19" fish here was one of 'em. Didn't catch anything on ObiJuan worm (weight) or Cheeseman Emerger. I was 2nd person there but it ultimately filled up and I missed having a go at two favorite spots. Fish were in the tailouts of deeper holes. I moved up to Valco after lunch but it was crowded too and I didn't fish long and did nothing but review the structural changes/additions, which seem almost complete. Weather was decent in the PM and I am looking forward to the inbound snowstorm (but not the raging winds).

Shucked Up BWO Emerger 02Feb14

I studied Jim Cannon's use of snowshoe hare and Richard Strolis's "shucked up emerger" stuff and created a BWO emerger pretty close to Strolis's with a few twists. I'm hoping this new fly in the box will bridge the cycle from the RS2 emerger (which is usually submerged for me) and the BWO duns. It's to be fished in the film and while I have CDC-based BWO emergers created last year, I'm needing one to get dry more quickly, hence the snowshoe hare. Ingredients... olive thread on Klinkhammer hook, 6-8 strands amber Z-Lon trailing shuck, olive goose biot abdomen, olive ostrich herl abdominal collar, partridge hen legs, aligned snowshoe hare foot "wing," olive BWO superfine dubbed thorax. I'm hoping there'll be a lot of swishy stuff (partridge legs and ostrich) hanging down in the water to be attractive. Again I goofed up the background.

Documenting the Elite 31Jan14

Who knew documentaries and elite flyers had come so far. Kala and I were hunkered down at the condo under two feet of snow when I wasn't skiing and caught up with some documentaries. We sought elite human situations on the planet and found three good documentaries worth seeing. The 1st is Birdmen; less than 40 people on the planet dawn birdsuits and do proximity flying at over 100mph... unbelievable. I had no idea we'd come this far. The 2nd is Jiro Dreams of Sushi; Jiro is a sushi master with the most expensive restaurant in the world - 30K Yen for one meal with Jiro. The 3rd is Somm; there are less than 200 master sommeliers in the world, a level achieved only upon passing a grueling test of wine history, regions and tasting. My net is that the humans are amazing and many documentaries have become very good. These are all on NetFlix Enjoy.