The PT Is Not Ready 15Oct20

I figured with "fall" conditions from a low pressure system, the PT would be worthy. It's not ready and there are things I hate about this place. Turbidity was high & viz was bad, as while flows seemed stable by the data, they seemed higher to my eye; others must've thought fall was here too as it was a smidge crowded out of Nature Center. Fishing was < meh as a result, just footlongs like this; mostly caught on Purple Reign. No sign of browns on redds; not even a sign of fall breeding redds (of course there are no brook trout here). Again on the Arkansas as yesterday on the So Platte, I saw and caught a bunch of fingerlings (stocking?) and it was kindof of a pain. Though - It might've been why this "guy" was fishing there right with me. Maybe that's why many other humans were there too - back east we had mobs on stocking days as the PA fish & game at the time managed too many streams as stock and eat, which was weak. Anyway... another thing I hate is the disrespect, especially in the St Pk, the image is of the junk I gathered and tossed was just within 15' of my parked car at Valco. WTF are folks thinking?

 

 

Fall In 11 Mile Canyon 14Oct20

I didn't fall in, it's fall and I was on the So Platte in the 11 Mile Canyon section. Flows were kicked up to ~120cfs, so that's good; the bottom of the river is choked with skunge, so that's bad; the browns are on their redds getting randy, so that's good; it is still a pretty crowded place and I did not get to fish a number of notable spots, so that's bad; it was a gorgeous day, so that's good. I caught a number of fish but didn't film but one due to battery outage. Here's a nice 17" cutty  caught on Jimi's Axe. The cutbows & rainbows were about this size too and again on the keen purple & black starling bug. I missed one really nice larger cutthroat who threw my bug. In total strangeness I caught several fingerlings today - that's never happened to me in 11 Mile. I picked up ORB's Azacca Solo Series IPA for my October allotment - very good, especially in a sublime environment like 11 mile Canyon in fall.

The Week With Jim And Visiting Boulder & Summit 09Oct20-11Oct20

I completed the Yoho-trifecta with a round of golf with him and Wilkes in Lafayette. Warm but fine day on the links. Prior days were riding and fishing.

After dining and gaming with Tom & Les in Boulder that evening, Kala & I headed to Summit for errands. I put the sails away on Mon Ami before an early fall storm rolled in and dumped a wet 6" on us.

Rainbow Falls With Andy Holley & Yoho 08Oct20

Jim and I were hosted by Andy Holley today at Rainbow Falls Mountain Trout private water. Wow. We caught many good fish on the stream sourced from a spring and as an effluent from their pond structure. The stream is like many steps down over tiny falls and good holes. While it was pretty crowded, Andy directed us sharply to great spots and while the water was low and slow, it was cool enough and feeding fish were observed all day. There's a ton of fish biomass at this place. I mainly caught rainbows, including a couple 20"ers, on #22 CDC BWOs. Plenty of times I thought I needed my bigger net but couldn't carry it as we were simply wet wading and I didn't have "the belt." I did catch one nice brown ~18". I caught the 1st big fish on my 4th cast of the day on a purple reign midge and my Godfather Cutthroat snapped during the end of the fight. While I still landed him with a broken rod, I am pretty disappointed in the flawed blank. There were no etchings on it as it was just the 4th good cast of its life. Hmmm. I used the Sage One for the rest of the day, without incident. We had a number of double hookups but not any triples.This was a really fun day fishing; thanks Andy! Of course we took him to Cerberus once back in town. Now, what to do about the drc #3?

 

UPDATE 14Oct20... CTS NewZealand acknowldged the flaw in the blank and will replace it. The vendor is recovering my guides but still, I have to rebuild that section. We'll see; I was SO hopeful of that blank and I may need to find an alternate.

Blue Aspen Hike With Brantleys 06OCt20

Kala & I headed out to Dome Rock SWA with Scott & Peggy to attempt to catch the blue aspen phenomenon at sunrise. We did it! If you go, you need a fishing license even though you may not be fishing. Despite hopping from the car at the trailhead (Dome Rock SWA parking), the lone car, in brisk 27° air, we made the 7 mile hike NP. We were shedding layers all morning - as we needed plenty of warmth early - including stocking hats and gloves but by the end were one layer across the team. The blue aspen effect was very cool but we have no full explanation for what causes it ~ I climbed the opposite hill to observe and I posit that it's caused by the just risen sun shining through the evergreens (higher on the hill) and into the aspens. Whatever caused it, it's rare and remote and occurs only early in the AM and is best when the aspens' canopy has changed to fall colors. This area had some really big aspens and we actually also observed some very big, very old Ponderosa pines as well in the Sand Ck valley by which returned to the car. The aspens are still ablaze out here. On the final leg of the hike we crossed Four Mile Ck a couple times and walked alongside it's steep rake of plunge pools on the final climb out - I saw a number of 6"-12" brookies there, which was cool. A really GR8 hike capped by some fine DDH hazy IPAs and lunch at Cerberus - we were served by the Key Master and the head brewer is Zuul.

 

Building The Rodfather Cutthroat ~ A Sage Buster 2020 [drc #3 9' 4 wt 4pc Fast] 15Aug20-04Oct20

I am now upping my buy pricing on rod components and blanks in search of a Sage buster; that is, a fast mid-weight rod able to rival my better factory purchases like the Sage Z Axis or One or X. The blank I've chosen is the CTS Affinity X from New Zealand (arrival took some weeks). I got the 4wt 4pc fast action blank in golden plum. The finished rod is measured as ERN 4.5 and AA 69°.

To mate with the gold plum coloring I chose to fashion a custom grip with some serious cutting and gluing - the likes of which I've never seen and even a grip maker will find it hard to parse exactly how I did it - but I'll disclose it. The top half of the grip is a varying checkerboard of red and beige cork burl and the bottom is a variegated horizontal mix of burnt & regular cork. I cut and glued sections then cut and glued again before mounting on the mandrel for assembly in my grip vise.

I upped the buy price for my reel seat to nickel with a California cocobolo wood insert to best match the rod and grip. I built the reel seat with a removable fighting butt! That move required I trim the hardwood reel insert a bit - no faint heart can be had as one cuts into a nice piece of turned wood. I marked the blank's pieces for modality as usual and turned the custom grip with my favored full wells design, and then mounted all the stuff with epoxy to the butt section of the Sage Buster, careful to align everything. Awesome thus far!

I also upped the buy price to better materials for my stripping guide lined with zirconium as well as the snake guides and tiptop of titanium lightwire. The proof will be in the winding and casting of course but if I can make this combo beat a Sage for "just" $275 in parts and my time and skills, it will be worth it. I chose to wrap the rod with brownish and gold thread. To highlight 18" & 22" marks I used gold; to strengthen ferrules I wrapped the thread in spirals; to highlight the guides I made micro wrappings in gold to start and finish. Here they are before epoxy.

With this build I've taken a new brand name as well, The Rodfather. There are t-shirts but no builders with the name... so now there is. This 9 ft, 4 wt, 4 pc, fast action HM graphite rod with removable fighting butt in plum & gold is the Rodfather Cutthroat ~ SB 2020. It's awesome IMO; it may indeed be the Sage buster as it is light & fast & true and really strong for a 4 weight - plus I made it cool as heck. Proof will be in the field of course. Here shown loaded with the Galvin reel from my Winston 4wt but I'm getting a lighter Redington Rise reel in amber to match best.

In backyard casting, the Rodfather Cutthroat is every bit as powerful as the Sage X, and as accurate too. Sage X system with Hardy reel weighs 9 3/8 oz all in and the Rodfather with Redington will weigh 8 7/8-9 oz all in with fighting butt. Wow... I didn't really expect the power similarity, just hoped. The flex profiles are the "exactly" the same!

UPDATE 28Oct20... Got the Rise and 4 wt Mastery MPX installed. Sweet, light canon.

It's Not Really "Fall" But I'm Back On The PT 02Oct20

Before we left Summit Kala and I were able to catch up with old friends Kathleen Brewer and John Meiners at ORB.

I headed to Pueblo early-ish today as temps are still summer-like and I'm in COS for a few days. Flows are 100cfs, so pretty low, and overnight temps are starting to fall so the water early was cool enough. Bug sign in the AM was wicked with tricos (#24), fall BWOs (#22), and red quill (#20) and there were plenty of smaller fish top feeding. I caught a number of 12"ers like these on RS2s and Purple Reign but I spied a couple of lunkers in a hole and spent a half hour fishing to the biggest one; he was probably 2 feet long. After 20 floats with different depths I finally hooked up... after a torpedo run for the hinterlands I lost him when my bug rig snapped off with him. Nutha day; I know where you live.

Afterward we headed to Brantley's for awesome pulled pork from Scott's Traeger and hazy IPAs from 4 Noses &  Sidecut and Grenache from Herman Story. Matthew was back from Montana!