First Cast from Elevation 20Dec14

Fooled y'all with the title! As I contemplated returning to the tying bench for winter work I stopped at Coaltrain to check the stash. I've enjoyed a couple special reserve bombers from Elevation (bourbon barrel aged Double IPA Fanboy and an Imperial IPA 7437). When I spied First Cast (by Elevation in the Blue Series), and knowing it was intended to aid my benchtop creativity, I had to partake. It's pretty hoppy at 70 IBUs with Summit hops (6.5% ABV) and is decent, but not killer... the name though is cool and it is served in pints.

Scourge Of The Dude 08Dec14

Visited Boulder for my dear friend Tom Wilke's 60th celebration. Kala & I figured prominent in the prep and festivities: we sang "Are You Aged" in round, the fab 6 band "The Taste Buds" performed "Atomic Tom," my words stuffed into a mashup of Old McDonald and Miss Atomic Bomb by the Killers, and I delivered "Thoughts on Tom's Aging" at the Boulderado. I tested the knee on a hike with Steve Gordon and Tom on Sunday. Then on Monday, while Tom headed to Florida for a conference, Leslie, Brian (behind the camera), the Gordons, and Kala & I headed for a private tour of Boulder Beer, my 60th birthday gift from Wilkes. It was a blast... the guide was exceptional, the tour was intimate and the lunch and beers were tasty. Boulder Beer is the oldest brewery licensed since prohibition (and 2nd oldest to Anchor Steam otherwise)... I did not know that - they have Colorado license #1. We tried several short run beers at lunch and the best was Scourge of the Dude. The story goes that "the Dude" is the warehouse guy and barrel aged stuff in the warehouse is a pain so all they make have "the Dude" in them... Pain of the Dude, Revenge of the Dude, and so on. Our bourbon barrel aged barleywine was excellent.

Halloween On The Arki 31Oct14

Daryle and I stole a Friday and hit the Arki "one last time" this fall in Big Horn Sheep Canyon. It was a gorgeous crisp fall day and we arrived ~10:15am at Pinnacle Rock (after discussing results of my knee MRI with the doc). I was immediately into fish at the east end of runs there as I caught the final moments of the morning midge emergence - my red-headed black silver wire flash emerger was working. I then crossed to the far bank and fishing slowed but I still caught smallish fish on black midges, an RS2 and the best fish on "the weight," a tung BH pheasant wire wrap thing I do in fall colors. Fishing was not awesome... we saw redds but no breeding; we saw midges but no BWOs or hoppers; we saw no dry fly action; water was clear but still  >400cfs and a challenge to wade and fish IMO. DD hooked one in the afternoon at Lone Pine and I did nadda... 'tis better to have hooked and lost than never to have hooked at all. Still, it was great to be out there.

Fall High Flows On The PT 15Oct14

On a respite from big days at Fluke Networks I took out of Nature Center on the PT. I'm an honest visitor there now with an annual sticker. Morning was kind of slow with the flows up to 600cfs and the water super clouded from rains I guess. Caught some in the morning on a small rainbow warrior. I moved to Valco for lunch and the PM. Caught more there as the day warned then became overcast. Saw plenty of caddis and a nice creamy green smallish caddis nymph (looked like a GR hare's ear kindof) did well as did other bugs in the lineup including silver surfer and red beadheaded black body silver wire midge emerger. I caught a high number of lipless fish strangely. The AM hatch of midges was prolific but in the manky viz they didn't see the fly well I think, therefore I used silver.

Breakin' Through On The Arki 28Sep14

Three fiths of the CoWWs plus a special Texas guest star "broke through" on the Arkansas River. We started on the tailwater in Pueblo with modest success then headed out the Arkansas River valley; Rob & I finished on the PT weaponized with midges. The lovable Irish noob, Rob Haine, dispatched himself well and was immediately into a nice rainbow, and trouble, on the PT... setting the hook so fiercely into a tree is ill-advised but DD ransacked the foliage for Rob's flies. Game the entire weekend, Rob taught the CoWWs a bounce rig and a movable thingamabobber... awesome. We did't have the classic stimi + red CJ 40 fish day fall out BHSC as we'd hoped... but friends, food and other finery more than made up for the tougher fishing. Rob landed his first lone-man brown on day one then schooled us all day two evening @ Rincon with the bounce rig. We even caught up with Thomas Doumas at the county line as he was floating the Arki - his friend was hunting and the hunter joined us around the campfire. We all fared decently on the river, dined at Amicas, slept among the blazing aspen at Hayden Ck CG, and will remember always the gumbo, the margs, the enchiladas and the croque monsieurs.

The Day of Many Rainbows 22Sep14

It was overcast and drizzled several times on me as I set out upstream from the Nature Center on the Pueble Rez effluent of the Arkansas River. It was a great day on which I caught many fish in the AM (10am-1pm)... probably one every 10-15 minutes for 3 hours before lunch! I was flipping a 4 bug rig with green flashy weight (1), flash wing RS2 (some), black FB silver wire midge (some), black WD40 (many). I missed a couple but generally showed a pretty deft and patient hand. The fish I caught were all big and fat. The visibility was still not good but the flows were more manageable; I did not locate my camera as flows were still too high for that. It was a very good day on the PT... here's a sample; yes, just a sample; yes, they are different fish.

Wedded Amidst Smoke & Beauty @ Tahoe 20Sep14

Kala and I enjoyed the wedding of lifetime friend Lisa Jordon, daughter of dear friends Mike and Betsy. Lisa married Julani, a former Harlem Globetrotter and Navy guy. We drove from SFO right through the raging King Fire on #50 but broke into the blue as we reached South Tahoe and Camp Richardson and its marina. Views, hikes and massive Jeffery pines were great as was weather mostly, though shifting winds played hell with the fire and smoke.