My Best Fish Of '22 20Dec22

As typical, I provide a roundup of my best fish of the year. Here are the top 13 (there was a late year 11th landing in Colorado and two big fish in New Zealand).

20" Male Cutbow On Ark @ PT Mar22

19.5" Male Cutbow On Ark @ PT Mar22

21" Cutbow On SPLatte @ 11Mile Mar22

20" Male Cutbow On Ark @ PT Mar22

21" Redfish @ Rockport, TX Mar22

22+" Cutbow On Ark @ PT Apr22

21" Cutbow On Ark @ PT Apr22

23.5" Cutbow On SPlatte @ 11Mile Jun22

Triple On Gore Ck Aug22

22+" Cutbow On Blue @ Green Mtn Oct2

22" Slab Male Cutbow On Arkansas @ NC Dec22

25" 5+# Brown In New Zealand On Baton Dec22

Another 25" 5+# Brown In New Zealand On Baton Dec22

PT In Brutal Winds, Waist Pack Field Trial & Perdigon 08Dec22

My main reason for an outing to the PT today was to field test the new waist pack setup. While the temps were decent at ~50°, what I really got was a brutal & uncomfortable cold wind rendering wind knots and chills. Sheesh. At least NZ is featuring 75°F days and 60°F lows.

Nonetheless, I wore and debugged the butt pack a smidge between untangling my rig. I introduced the pack HERE. So, first, right away, access is a big issue ~ one must remove the net and drop it in the water or on the ground simply to flip the pack frontside for viable use. I don't see any way around this, as fly boxes will be inside the pack, but for using a smaller alternative net hanging on the side. Second, I definitely put the nippers on the wrong side and will flip with the lesser used weights... I could barely reach them. Third, the chosen hero cam setup is at a weird angle to get a good "show" pic (as you can see) and it also requires spinning the pack around my waist in order to be in front for the pic ~ that's probably too much to handle with a good fish on the line. In NZ I may try to affix the cam, using the same magnetic suspension idea, in my shirt breast pocket.

No bigs and no bugs today... I did manage a 14" cutbow on my perdigon jig weight again (as on the 22"er two days ago)... the river might be telling me something about this fly.

 

The perdigon is a tie invented somewhat by a Spanish competitor, José Carlos Rodríguez, and adopted & adapted widely by the French competitors. These are all Czech nymphing guys but I work it too on a long line nymphing rig when in fast water. It is designed to fall hard in fast water (slim epoxy body, small slick tail, and oversized tungsten bead head) like a bullet and elicit strikes from fast decisions, due to the flash. Good news is that "down there where the fish are" the jig rig doesn't snag. Whether invented 15 yrs ago, or 6 yrs ago, or this weekend, the perdigon is now my lead fly when mayflies are not obvious. While there are plenty of variants in my box, here I tied one with white UTC 70 thread (black Sharpee during whip finish) on a TMC 413J #16 with a 3mm tung jig bomb bead (on the #18 I like a smaller bead), classic natural Coq de Leon tail (shank length), peacock Krystal Flash body (I like olive and purple too), thin UV epoxy over-body, and Solareze black UV epoxy wing casing.

Building The Rodfather Cobalt Cutbow (drc #22 RFCC Rainshadow E2 RX9 9' 4pc 5wt) 04Dec22-08Dec22

With the RFCO2 "out" for likely too long (that is, after departure for NZ), I needed to find a potential replacement to take to New Zealand. Enter the Rodfather Cobalt Cutbow. The Kiwis really suggest a 6wt but I think a stout 5wt will suffice, and I like that weight more for CO. I  will load a heavy 5wt on the RFCC, and first measurements on the blank indicate an ERN of 5.9 and AA of 71° ~ so yeah, perfect. I just need to finish it before I leave in 7 days! I got her done; power & speed measurements remained the same after buildout; she delivers line deftly with a sweet swing weight of just 9.65 and a scant buildout weight of 3.5oz... this makes the RFCC as light as my Sage 5wt rods! It is perfectly matched to the Hardy Ultralight loaded with SA Amplitude Infinity WF5F (line is 1800 grains and measured rod power is 1815 grains).

For this build I bought every component, except the grip cork, from Batson companies. The blank is a Rainshadow Eternity2 RX9 (means high modulus) 9' 5wt 4pc; the reel seat is an anodized aluminum uplocker in matte grey with carbon fiber insert; the guides, hook keeper, winding check, and tiptop are standard weight Alps guides in titanium chrome. Everything arrived in the same shipment costing me $240 all up. I began the build by aligning the spline, measuring the blank, and assembling the reel seat... the only sacrifice with an all-Batson build is that I couldn't get an appropriate removable fighting butt, so the RFCC is buttless.

As usual I want a custom built handle appropriate for the rod. The blank is HM graphite painted cobalt blue and so to match that and jibe with the carbon fiber insert I used stuff from my inventory of cork rings of some purple premium burl cork accents and lots of natural flor grade cork rings (these are always lighter than burl or burnt or colored). I cut and reassembled with diamonds and thin sections. Some side diamonds and unbalance front to back make it appear to be turning and unbalanced while steady; I call it the Spun Purple handle. Here's the build up...

The RFCC wrapping scheme was chosen mainly to match the reel seat and play well off of the cobalt blue rod; I used grey & black threads in differing wraps: a two thread spiral near the butt and on ferrules and then black-in & grey-out for the snake guides. It wrapped out classy I feel. The 2nd section was right at 26" so it needed a measuring dot. I was even able to stick a cutbow decal on top.

Unfortunately I've only gotten backyard casting tests done thus far but my sense is that this Rodfather is a demon I will really like; it should rival the CTS and Epic-based rods ~ I will be taking it to New Zealand for sure, along with the RF Stripper 6wt and RF True Five 5wt.

Small Fly Fishing Pack For New Zealand & Alpine 07Dec22

I really needed to lighten up and de-bulk my fishing kit for our trip to New Zealand. And, I needed an improved "alpine kit" anyway for CO. Our gear bag for flights and trains can only be 50# and we are there for a month. So, at 60% off, I got an Umqua ZS2 500 waist pack and fabricated the attachment schemes need for floatant, nippers, weight putty, hemostats, etc. as well as water, raincoat, snacks and net, and fly boxes of course. I think it will be OK despite not having many internal pockets to organize other stuff. And, swinging around in front to access stuff will require removing the net ~ it sports an nice integral net sleeve/pocket in the rear. It is comfortable. I can wear it wet wading (it is a southern hemisphere in late spring after all) or with wading pants. I even found a scheme to mount my hero cam to help with first person videos. I've worked on & off several days to devise the right schemes but maybe I need to hit the PT one last time before departing, mainly just to try it out. Here's the setup...

 

We did get a new Osprey 130L wheeled shuttle, the biggest they have, for the trip. Fortunately the forecast arrival date of Dec 5th was far beaten and it arrived in early Nov. It is slick and will tote the gear we don't always need - even scuba veterans laud the Shuttle and I am a huge Osprey fan.

 

UPDATE 08Dec22...

 

Big Fish Day On The Arkansas River 05Dec22

I caught a very nice 22" slab male cutbow today; it was probably near 5# as my hand only went halfway around. I fooled him on the weight, a barbless #18 jig-tied silver tung bead electric perdigon-like nymph. It was a nice 60° day, despite the wind and partial clouds, on the Arkansas River tailwater out of Nature Center. I was on the water by 9:45am but the "real" action was a bit slow till ~11am. Fortunately now the visibility is improving some ~ it is still hard to see the bigs but viz is >2ft, just not complete. I saw very few hatching bugs today, the wind likely held them down some, as might've the flows rising 12% to 77cfs, but still I saw a minuscule fall baetis hatch and some more tiny grey midges. I caught a half doz in 3 hours but the bigs were late in that timeframe. I also fooled a decent 18" male on my Destiny's Child tie... so some fall baetis feeding. Others took Pop Top or Awesome midges. There were quite a few folks so I only fished from the big weir through the farm to the hook weir before heading home. It was serendipity mostly that had me rig up the Rodfather Stripper (EPIC graphene 9ft 6.5wt 4pc) with Orvis Mirage III reel loaded with WF6F today and fight the nicest cutbow very effectively in 5 min ~ I was really just wanting to see how it cast in the gusty wind in time for our NZ fishing. Yeah... gr8 rod experienced a gr8 fish; the larger fighting butt was useful lodged into my forearm ~ I will have to decide whether to take the Orvis 7wt line or the SA 6wt to NZ, which scored today (but was frankly a little light in the wind on this rod). Colorado is so awesome ~ I'm gonna have to update "Best Fish of '22" entry with this boy. Celebration brew is the fine Cerebral Anniversary IPA with nectron, citra, & strata hops.

Spending The Golden Ticket & Sliding With DD 02Dec22

Still in Summit, Steve & I sought to burn our Summit Club Golden Ticket "Day Of Haze" at Outer Range Brewing. We sought to try the pho at the Bird Cafe on "Pho Wednesdays" there. The pho wasn't nearly as good as at the main pho place in Silverthorne. We kept it sane with Richard Hubbs providing transport and imbibing being moderated with 10 oz pours. The beers were excellent as usual and I was able to enjoy many of the hazies... at the counter I was known as Hazy Dave. It was a fine night with my good friend.

In another standout event, I was able to catch some fresh snow runs with DD after a storm trashed the roads and I chose to not drive home on Friday. Daryle & I headed to Keystone ~2pm and caught a number of good runs, including several on North Pk (my 1st time back there this year). It was a good ski in decent snow with my not oft seen friend.

We capped the day with stops at breweries that Daryle had yet to be able to hit. We debated and solved a number of world problems from our bar stools. The 1st stop was @ Steep, directly over the River Run bridge over the Snake River. It was good news as every tap was flowing Steep brews, somewhat of an anomaly from my past visits there. We enjoyed their hazy IPA. The 2nd stop was @ Syndicate, the latest brewery in Summit, close to home in Silverthorne. Again we enjoyed the Zythos hazy IPA but tasted a few others. Unfortunately DD was detained when he was rear-ended on the ice at a stop light in Dillon. Big bummer, but it didn't detain him long after getting all the needed pictures and info - best luck with repairs DD.