Mountain Wind 30May14

Well I did it... I found a 25 year old sailboat I like in decent condition. Rather than Majorca, Kingston, or Miami, it was thankfully somewhat nearby. We now have a 23.5 foot racer/cruiser; it's a Beneteau First 235 with wing keel designed by Finot group. For such a small boat it has all the fittings of a cruiser like stove, sink, ice cabinet, marine head, chart table, nice cabin, double sleeping birth and more. But it's also a high performance design with a great polar chart (a chart showing theoretical relative speed at each heading of wind). There were only 450 of them made and many are in Europe so finding it (and seeing it's good operating condition) is great fortune. The interior and trimmings will need some TLC but that's expected for this age. It's well named Mon Ami now but that'll likely change to Mountain Wind or GR8 Wind or something. The trailer was a bit of a surprise though, the prior owner had fused the surge brake system so the trailer was without brakes. This would not be the ticket for descending the pass so I'm having brakes installed and will tow it to Dillon later. Woohoo.

Grape Creek Outing 25May14

Half the CoWW went to the Bear Gulch access of Grape Creek and slayed it. We had 40 fish days in decent weather (though there was a spate of sprinkle in the PM). We hiked downstream from parking for an hour before we started fishing - though we did assess later we didn't need to go in that far at all... we actually had to hike back out for 20 min at the end of the day since we didn't fish but 2/3 of the creek back upstream by 4pm and the fishing was consistent and good the whole way. We basically saw no one on the stream all day though there were 2 cars in parking on arrival and 2 different cars when we returned. Every pocket and hole held good fish. We used giant #8 green stimulators and BH droppers all day and had most of the action top water. This tributary of the Arki fishes like the Arki. The creek was a bit off color with low visibility from rains and it was higher than I've fished it before... no fish were rising, except to our flies and while we were a bit worried during the hike in, that soon abated. 85% of the fish were ~12" browns and the rest were generally larger rainbows... we had some smaller, some larger, some oranger, some golder, etc. but in general I was exhausted pulling the 12-13" brown guys off my line... at times I even hoped for remote releases and there were plenty of those too. I got the chance to wield my new GLoomis GLX #3 Whisper Creek... it was great rod for this stream though I could've presented a #24 gnat with it and the #8 stimi was a smidge clunky. A fox came down to drink nearby too. We capped off the "many fish" day with a stop at Green Man Taproom for a variety of good IPAs... a worthwhile stop where we talked with the Slovak woman owner and her pro runner bar maid.

Sexagenarians Enjoy Snowy Jacuzzi for Mom's Day 11May14

Happy Mom's Day Kala! We enjoyed a jacuzzi with ~2" of snow on the ground at home in Colo Spgs with blustery conditions, and it is still falling. Springtime in the Rockies is sometimes whack... but it's so cool. Mom's Day is always whack... and it's so cool.

Return to the PT 10May14

Decent day on the PT "stolen" before the snow hits tomorrow. Fished upstream from Valco and did best at the first big weir. Black midge (black KF flasher) performed best all day. Minimal and inconsistent hatches of midges and BWOs... still pretty fast water >700cfs but better than 1100cfs. Caught a fish on my 2nd cast at 8:30am but then not for an hour... 10am - noon was best and I came home a little after lunch. Caught a bunch of 15"ers including a brown, and some nicer ones like the 18"ers shown, nothing bigger though.

Big Fish Day @ 11 Mile 07May14

You might recall my lamenting not catching a cutthroat during the CoWWs jaunt to 11 Mile recently. I surely remedied that today by landing the biggest cutthroat I've ever caught... a nice 21 incher with spectacular gold and orange colors. I nabbed the hero shot with my self-timer and tripod on the bank. The big cut plus one other cut, a bunch of rainbows and a couple of browns got me the triple for the day... most were ~14" but several were bigger. In general it was nice but often windy... flows were ~80cfs, so decent. I fished upstream around Spillway in the am and downstream from the last tunnel in the pm (that's where I got the cut). I used triple and quad bug rigs with mayflies and midges subsurface all day but I softened my indicator to yarn. There was a decent mayfly hatch at 2pm and the RS2 worked well then but the true outperformer on the day was the miracle midge (a brown flahsy midge emerger). I can't say it was easy but I was catching fish consistently. A fox and a crane came to visit. GR8 fishin' on the home water - Colorado is so cool.

Cult of the White Wing at 11Mile 27Apr14

Those who will now be known as the "Cult of the White Wing*" descended on 11 Mile Canyon after a Manningesque audible was made when agreeing the Arki BHSC caddis hatch trip was foiled by an increase to 1100cfs flows (that is, the Arki was blown out). Daryle, Bruce, Jim, Greg and I braved raging winds to make some casts, land some fish, lose some fish, drink awesome IPAs, and share some good times on the South Platte. Daryle joined for Friday and showed us how it was done - in a stellar move, as we pulled into stadium viewing to assess his technique, DD promptly hooked and deftly landed a big fish for us - cool. We dragged the camper into 11 Mile Canyon wondering what "closed" meant on the sign - we discover it meant closed as all the CGs were gated and locked. Undeterred we parked in a picnic spot for jambalaya (yum - thanks Greg) and GR8 beer (thanks Daryle) - JimY joined. We then went to camp in a Natl Forest CG, which was also closed and gated... so we went native on a horrid road but found level land next to a firepit and stopped the insanity - everybody's car navigated the road fine... we did not start the fire there for obvious reasons. The fishing was decent but challenging in 40mph gusting winds (multiple lost hat chases); Sat AM was so brutal that we lunched and split from the prime Spillway area seeking cover downstream. We found it and had a beautiful and mostly productive afternoon starting at the last tunnel and fishing both up and downstream. I had quite a few fish both days with most taking a sparkle RS2 or miracle midge... most were ~14" or so with one 17"er. Sat PM featured a really nice BWO hatch but switching to dry/dropper did not bring fish up for me. The water was gin clear running 100cfs. Daryle ruled Fri PM as mentioned but lost probably the biggest of the weekend; Greg had two good days as expected; Bruce caught 4 fish, including 2 browns on Sat PM.; and Jim had some on (we gotta fix that to keep "the bug" alive). Fajita dinner Sat eve was tasty as were the many varieties of  GR8 IPAs (thanks Jim and Bruce). Bruce made Sun breakfast and we all decided that the snow overnight, howling wind, and 37 degree temps made an early withdrawal the right plan.

He was that close.

* Daryle's Cult of the White Wing feather being held by Dave till next meeting.

New Day on the PT 19Apr14

Enjoy By with Kala capped a fine day on the PT. Flows were substantially up >400cfs today which made wading much more challenging but surely spread the fish out to the structures throughout the river. I recognized no hatches to speak of due to the increased flows on the day but I still did fine catching big rainbows when dropping tiny bugs directly in feeding lanes upstream from Valco parking. I only landed about 50% of the fish hooked up - causes were probably both my one-handed fishing and the heavy flows. The bummer was that right as I was planning to leave at 5pm I hooked a really big golden colored rainbow and fought her for 20min but she never seemed to tire (though I sure did)... I ultimately lost her with yet another mighty twitch and run. There were others with lost rigs, rock breakoffs and more. But the day was sublime... I caught two in a row in one structure which was then fished by a falcon who swooped down and snagged a 14'er right next to me - so cool. Here are some of the bigger ones... most over 16" and some over 19" today... all really healthy and strong. Springtime in the Rockies... Colorado is so cool.