Deckers Madhouse 11May18

With the PT bumped to 800cfs, the Ark flowing 1200cfs and my just having fished 11 Mile I decided to head up to Deckers. Bad idea ~ I only fished for 1.5-2 hours as it was so crowded and fishing was just meh @ 70cfs flows. I caught several small fish but was locked into basically 2 run spots as I was fenced in above and below by folks. If you know the So Platte along 67 near Deckers you know there are turnouts or parking lots every 1/3 mile for many miles. I went north from Deckers probably 5 miles with every turnout holding 4 or more cars - WTF. I landed in a lot with just 3 cars and fished a bit but left at noon thinking I'd try greener pastures at 11 Mile. Yet, when I got to Woodland Pk the wind had picked up and I decide to just bail. 

Magic Muffin Machine & The Spoils 09May18

As I rip into disc 350 of my library, nearing somewhat toward my 550 goal, I often sit in repose in the cool exec chair adorning my listening station. This was from the spoils of the Microtest acquisition by Fluke and closure of the PHX site.

Noteworthy, but through direct purchase, is my new Magic Muffin Machine. I can make egg, ham, cheese sammies on muffins in a flash now - cool gadget making tasty breakfast.

GR8 Escapes @ 11 Mile Section South Platte 08May18

Another glorious day on the Front Range prompted me to fish the 11 Mile Canyon section of the So Platte River. This because flows jumped on the Ark freestone and likely putting down the caddis hatch for 2018 - I basically missed it. Mine was a good choice as I caught oodles of fish and scored a triple by landing a brown, a rainbow and a cutthroat today. I caught smaller fish (15"-19") today and broke an amazing streak of 20" fish landed on every tailwater visited this year. I tussled with rigs and escaping fish all day. Not much bug sign really but BWOs and midges worked all day in the riffles and behind structures at just 80cfs flows still. It was kind of crowded and the Crusher was dirtied by the dust following vehicles up canyon. Nonetheless ~ gorgeous, and funny, and fun. The vest cam was flawed with shmutz on the lens so pics are not good - plus, I flailed multiple times on the on & off buttons... I guess I need to go to voice control. Here are the triple and some other nicer ones - do check the escapes in the last 4 images too - funny.

Oh Shit Movie 08May18

I compiled some funny moments captured on vest cam - seems like I comment "oh shit" a lot on remote releases...

GR8 Movie - PW: GR8F1sh

Date Night And Rod & Ride 05May18-06May18

Conditions were miserable in the BHSC section of the Ark River today. I departed believing 400cfs and arrived with 710cfs coming at me and <1' viz. Weather-wise conditions were great for caddis (warm for 2 days) and mayflies (warm but cloudy) and I did see plenty of caddis. First though I had to deal with a nearly flat tire on the Crusher... fortunately I have a SuperFlow pump and returned it to full pressure - highly recommended on-board maintenance tool. Then however, I could find but (strangely) just one 14" rainbow; no pic as the vest cam was reversed. I left after 2/3 of a pass in <1hr at Pinnacle Rock and headed to OWF for a ride.

Did the Road>Uncomformity>Fracture>Tectonic. Kindof hot at >80° but this is a fun trail system for sure. The Sangre's still have plenty of snow so the views were cool.

The Movie

The night before it was Cinco d' Mayo and we avoided Mex but caught an awesome dinner above Paravacini's @ Sopra (including premium margs for the ladies) and then an outing to a new distillery, Axe & Oak. It's a tasting room so they can't have ANY alcohol other than their own... cool. Yoho and I had Dead Man Walking cocktails - a zombie variant with falernum moonshine and apple bourbon laced with live music. With a good spot inside and outside Ivywild this spot is recommended

Trialing YouTubeTV, Lax Tourneys and Beer 04May18

ESPN changed their policies and offereings and my access to some lacrosse games through SlingTV credentials were deprecated. Basically there's a $5/mo ala carte OTP offer to all ESPN now, ESPN+, which is good. However, I already had access to a lot of ESPN stuff, but with the advent of ESPN+, I lost some. I pay $25/mo for SlingTV with their Sports Extra and my own terrestrial setup employing a Win7-based DVR from Plex to view & record local TV shows. A strong alternative now is YouTube TV ~ a $40/mo alternative with most of the stuff on my SlingTV + Sports Extra offers, plus locals (FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CW) from COS, AND full DVR capability with unlimited storage in the cloud. The reliability, UI, response times, etc. are all better on YouTube TV than my SlingTV/Plex combo - I do lose Outside TV, a channel I like, and I'd pay $15/mo more and a fatal flaw is that YTTV doesn't allow me to fast forward through commercials, but I would get out of some hardware and server maintenance duties. If I didn't have access to terrestrial signals as I do in COS it'd be no contest but with my current setup, hmmm...

It's nearing the NCAA lax post-season and Lehigh made it to the Patriot League championship game. After a great first half which ended tied 5-5, Loyola, a much more highly ranked team, ran away with the win. I'm using YT TV now to watch the Big 10 and Ivy League playoffs.

Finally, a tasty Florida IPA from Cigar City named JaiLai - maybe it's a smidge sweet for me but still surprisingly very good.

KJM Big Fish Day On The PT 02May18

Kala and I headed to Pueblo to fish the PT and try some Pueblo green chilies and Leadheads at Brue's. It was a big fish day for Kala who landed a strong 20" cutbow at the big weir upstream from the Nature Center. She used an olive KF Flasher midge at 10:30am to fool him. She lost another couple fish later in the day and untangled several bird's nests. A really game outing on spookier 165cfs flows where bigger fish were less accessible. Weather was on and off sprinkles and clouds - producing a decent BWO hatch and a comfortable day. I caught a number of fish including another 20" cutbow from this fine fishery. We went on to Brue's to celebrate and enjoyed the grinder and the huevo's rancheros with green chilies.