Tax Day CutBows @ 11 Mile 15Apr22

On my way to Summit to close Keystone for Easter WE I stopped for some fish in 11 Mile Canyon. Bigger fish this outing; it was pretty cold due to the wind. It messed with my rig on occasion. I arrived late at 10:30am with a decent crowd in place but many left early. I had a strong showing and neighbors showed some chagrin, while others cheered. I was there 3 hours and caught >3/hr including 21", 19", 18" and on down the line. Flow are decent for 11 Mile @ ~120cfs; temp was 45° at Lake George and less in the canyon - it got up to 57°. I was throwing an egg on top which worked, a blood midge 1st drop which worked best on the bigger fish, and a brown midge larvae (Money) or emerger (Top Secret) depending which worked. It's appropriate I used the RF Cutthroat again here in 11 Mile as I caught a "pure" Snake River cutty today (last); not big but cool - I saw him in the run (with his betraying coloration) and targeted him. Targeting was my scheme all day - but with the wind bursts the water became opaque on and off. Good day capped with lunch at ORB in Summit - also grabbed the delicioius River Bend 4 Pack, again appt.

Strong Fish On RFT5 @ PT 14Apr22

The weather flipped to beauteous after the 2 day cold snap so I headed to the PT today. Flows are still low like ~100cfs; usually we are nearer 400cfs at this point. I started at the Nature Center and loaded the RFT5 with an egg and midges and went at it starting at the shallow above the big weir upstream. 2nd cast yielded a cutbow... and there were many more to follow this day. Nothing for me from the farm however. My best spot was the hook weir above the deep carp hole. I was fortunate to get about 3/hour with most of them 18"-21" like these. I did lose a couple too. The egg worked as did a purple 2 wire midge larva, the Purple Reign emerger, the Awesome Midge and others. I saw mayflies at ~2pm but not many; I tied on a MHFBPT early and a purple RS2 later and didn't score yet with mayflies here... soon though. A fun and not too crowded outing in Pueblo.

I headed to the St Park @ Valco for lunch after I landed a 20" sucker at NC. I caught a couple of  nice cutbows at Valco too, but it was noticably slower. I ran out of battery on the GoPro from some fumbling so I had to use the one hander and a point-n-shoot camera.

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The Regrettes ~ Concert Alert & Further Joy Album Review 13Apr22

Ah yes, The Regrettes have dropped another studio effort called Further Joy, and they have added another Colorado concert date. I've seen Lydia and her mates a couple of times but not with the current lineup - which includes a new bassist & backup vocalist Brooke. We and the Yohanans had to cancel planned Regrettes concert attendance in Fort Collins during a wicked storm this February so I was stoked when they added a night, May 17th, at the Summit Music Hall in Denver. That's where I first saw them years ago. Tix are more expensive now but just ~$40 each. We are going. A big bonus is that a favorite Aussie power pop lady, Alex Lahey, is playing with the Regrettes that night (remember this awesome cover of Black Parade or her own Every Day's A Weekend)?

The Regrettes dropped a number of singles and official vids before the album was released so we have had some exposure to Monday, You're So F**cking Pretty, Anxieties, and That's What Makes Me Love You. There's only a couple good live clips recently: from KROQ HERE and on Kimmel Live HERE. The album and new works indicate Lydia is writing about more significant stuff than when she was a teen - but it's still authentic and the punk pop is still in there somewhere. Though, there are new producers and this album is a lot more poppy with many tunes a bit overproduced and otherwise carrying the same upbeat pace... it'll appeal pretty widely I expect. HERE is a decent interview with Lydia if you are up for that kind of review ~ she discusses the pressure and resulting inability to be joyful and mindful during the pandemic and that Further Joy is the light at the end of the tunnel, never achievable. She said most of the album was written on a Joshua Tree retreat by the band. Here's my play by play...

1. “Anxieties (Out of Time)” - Yep, anxiousness and recovery
2. “Monday” - Stress filled with repair required and "it's only Monday"
   
3. “That’s What Makes Me Love You” - Sweetish love song about Dylan Minnette
   
4. “Barely on My Mind” - Yeah, it means the opposite
   
5. “Subtleties (Never Giving Up On You)” - I sense this is self-affirmation regarding her body
   
6. “La Di Da” - Mental anguish from isolation during the pandemic
   
7. “Homesick” - Like it sounds, a song about missing a beau
   
8. “Better Now” - About moving from heart to head and being corralled by thought
   
9. “Rosy” - Syrupy love song
   
10. “You’re So Fucking Pretty” - Bluesy sound; song about lacking confidence
    
11. “Step 9” - Feelings from parental discourse
    
12. “Nowhere” - 2nd guessing great lives and more body issues
    
13. “Show Me You Want Me” - Desire turns to relationship and doubt is overcome
    

First '22 Outing To 11 Mile Canyon Section Of So Platte 11Apr22

Today was strangely late in the season for a 1st outing to home waters. Still, despite gale winds in the PM, fun AF. Caught 7 spawning cuts, including one larger 19"er, and even scored my first brownie in '22. Surprisingly light attendance with 6 cars below the tunnel and just 6 above... there were many more folks on my departure @ 57° than my entry @ 39°. I started at the last bridge but the "corner hole" was already occupied - I moved on with egg, blood midge and money or top secret depending. Best bugs were the lower brown midges till PM. I actually saw smallish mayflies and feeding after 1pm and tied on a trailing purple RS2... which worked on the final 'bow and brown. Good day in 11 Mile despite no 20"ers. Tons of redds but modest occupation thus far ~ gotta hit it soon again, aka this week.

Quick Foundry Ride With Kala ~ Back In COS With GR8 Weather 08Apr22

The 60° weather was great today in COS. It was even better with our taxes in the can. We took off on the trails and grabbed these pics from America The Beautiful Park. We rode our "matching" Foundry bikes... Kala's a cross slaying Auger and mine a hardtail Broadaxe (with DRC carbon fiber layup repairs). It was very nice except we faced a detour onto the frontage road at one point - other parts of the trail were already new concrete gloriousness for 2022.

Redfish On The Fly ~ Op Cobra Kai ~ CoWW In Rockport, TX 03Apr22-06Apr22

Five SoCO fly fisherman boarded a plane for Texas and grabbed rides to Rockport for some redfish on fly rods from the gulf flats. This is a known challenging sport but our 6th, bro Haine, set us up with the best redfish fly fishing guides in south Texas and an AirBnB to match. We were very excited to arrive on Sun night after having stopped for provisions; this'd be the first time on saltwater for many of us and to do it with fly rods in hand, a deep seated need for us, was great. We had some beers, bobbed in our own private pool (& the canal), shaved heads in solidarity with Yvette, ate Rob's killer gumbo, and otherwise readied for Operation Cobra Kai to start in earnest.

We ate eggs your style and fruit every day from the CoWW house chefs. We met our 3 guides early at Conn Brown Harbor for a foray into Redfish Bay and Aransas Bay and the "lakes" and flats thereabout. Jeff took Rob & me, Sean took Matt & Rick, and Gibson led Jim & Greg. Redfish on the fly is a target sighting and casting sport done from a platform above a flat-bottomed boat bow polled slowly along the flats by the guide who is polling and spotting redfish. We drifted past mangroves and grasses growing from the bay. We wielded 8 and 9 wt rods over-loaded with shooting head heavy floating line finished with a 9ft leader and 12# tippet material. Rob & I used the Rodfather Redfish rods (effectively 9 weights) and loaded them with Rob's Hardy reel spun with SA Redfish Cold 9wt. Our imitation fly was primarily a lightly weighted black & purple streamer meant to imitate a baby crab. They are cool looking and pretty easy to cast with the big telephone poll rods and heavy line. The idea is to see/find a redfish, swimming or still, sometimes with its tail up out of the water (as it is feeding on stuff on the bottom of the bay) and quickly cast to it some 3-5 ft in front of and beyond it then strip and twitch the crab in front to elicit a vicious and aggressive kill strike. The reds have no predators in this habitat other than us fishermen. We knew from the outset going would be tough as there was a thick overcast blotting the sun (our sight was mostly gone). The result is that we often came too close to the redfish too quickly and spooked them. Plus, the lack of warmth was putting off the bite much of the day. Unfortunate conditions for a well-coordinated but pre-determined, as to dates not weather, trip.

Unfortunately on day 1 the team managed only a couple of fish; Greg caught a red using a open reel spinning outfit dragging a 3" top water plug and I targeted and landed a red via the desired scheme. Fishing was slow and there was some frustration. Fried shrimp (locally caught) in a decent non-alcohol  restaurant quelled most boiling.

Day 2 was similarly overcast and even foggy and results were only a bit better. Jeff's boat saw  Rob catch a trout (catch that fang) and a small red and Matt caught a nice red on a blind cast near the end of the day. Gibson scored with Rick (fish-on shot) and Jim & I on Sean's craft were skunked. It was maddening not being able to see the fish as typical (nee needed) for this kind of fishing. The sandwiches we made were great and we feasted on killer brat & steak sammies that night, and uh... some bourbon.

Day 3 started similarly but was expected to clear before a low rolled in in the afternoon. That's the way it played out  ~ so for some time we could see, but not cast well due to the building gale winds. Grrr. We did catch some more reds and these boys were happy. Rick even went out hunting for jacks for a bit. Matt & I with Gibson gave it our all and withstood 5ft swells for an hour, returning late to an inebriated team. We prepared awesome fajitas with tasty meats and caramelized onion & chilies with fresh pico de gaillo.

All in all it was great sharing time and catching my $1200 redfish with the boys; we all agreed the sport was cool AF, but we all sure wish there were more fish. I hadn't seen Rob in a minute so that was special - even though he over-touted the Buc-ees vibe ~ I got the pic anyway with some ghetto TX shades. Till next time you lucky redfish.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway ~ Crooked Tree Album Review 01Apr22

This whole track wreck was awful. Twangin' and strummin' all over the spectrum. MT returned to greengrass with a lame assemblage of incompetents and leads them with modest writing and stilted lead vocals and dull lead guitar. Uh... April Fools.

I was fortunate to catch Molly Tuttle and her new bluegrass band recently live at Fox Theater and was blown away at the new material from the just dropped Crooked Tree album. She's leaning heavy back into bluegrass for this release and it is all way good. The record is often better than concert live simply because the studio tracks include a who's who of collaborators in her sphere. She co-produced this album with Jerry Douglas and wrote or co-wrote all of it. So good. The colaborators weren't strictly needed because of her own mad skills, and those of Golden Highway, but I sure bet they wanted these collaborations - and it's evident. I don't think Crooked Tree is better than Rise (1st EP) or When You're Ready  (1st LP) but it is quite different, very good, and just goes to demonstrate MT's wicked range. Click through the cover for the whole album on YouTube.

Here's a play-by-play...

1. She’ll Change - Rousing rapid picking from across the band. I think this is about herself.
   
2. Flatland Girl feat. Margo Price - Price on the fiddle adds fire. Concerns selling the family farm that shaped a girl in youth.
   
3. Dooley’s Farm feat. Billy Strings - Always stellar picking with Strings & Tuttle together. Moonshine baby.
   
4. Big Backyard feat. Old Crow Medicine Show - Upbeat multi-instrumental; come together under one sky.
   
5. Crooked Tree - Great title track; introspection and direction for all who don't fit in.
   
6. Castilleja - Indian paintbrush flower; homage to California IMO.
   
7. The River Knows - My fav of this album is super thought-filled, especially for bluegrass.
   
8. Over the Line feat. Sierra Hull - Always a tasty mandolin add.
   
9. Nashville Mess Around - Hoedown swing.
   
10. San Francisco Blues feat. Dan Tyminski - Awesome melodies.
    
11. Goodbye Girl - Classic bluegrass.
    
12. Side Saddle feat. Gillian Welch - Singing with your vocal idol is cool.
    
13. Grass Valley - Love the imagery; again thought-filled retrospective on being a kid in bluegrass.