Yampa River @ Stagecoach Tailwater 11Apr16

Bit the bullet and drove two hours up to the Steamboat area to check the Yampa. I drove over Gore Pass into the Yampa River valley from Silverthorne - pretty windy road but little traffic - looks like killer snowmobiling area. Arrived at parking about 10:30am to find a hoard of cars. Undeterred I suited up and headed to the river - at first it looked pretty nice; from parking the best water is likely toward the dam. But reaching the river the crowds came into focus - I went all the way up tot eh dam and all the seemingly good spots were occupied by one or two fishermen. So, I turned around and went downstream and got away from the crowds by hiking trecherous ice shelves above deep stuff. Once stable I fished a bit but no action. I made my way back to safer ground but crowding had intensified. I hiked out, had lunch and left. Pretty meh sensation while there really as not only was it very crowded but it is a small piece of pretty narrow stream to fish.

Ride & Rod, Not 08Apr16

I drove out to Oil Well Flats for a ride on the new steed. Great road out behind Canon City and good vibe at the trailhead with camping bikers and others - right up until I discovered I'd forgotten my bike shoes! Grrr. I looked around for a few minutes and I will be back - it looks awesome. Off to Big Horn Sheep Canyon... I stopped at Pinnacle Rock and actually encountered two other parties getting ready. I was pretty quick and was second to the water and first to cross the river to the far bank. I fished up that far bank the entire time and stayed away from the others as a result - you can cross the Ark right now. All bugs caught fish but the best was the stonefly. I rigged with each: stone, caddis larva, mayfly emerger and midge. I caught a number of fish 9"-13" (~4/hr)  but I didn't see the others with fish. Here's a pic of representative brown but I dropped the two bigger ones. I only fished two hours as the wind started ripping down canyon and it became too hard. I saddled up and came to Summit via #9 - 2nd time on that one - great road. Snow on Hoosier but rain in Frisco and Silverthorne; we'll see what tomorrow holds as I have designs on both skiing and fishing. Picked up my new skis with remounted bindings, new fatty skins and a tune... I'm cooler now.

Scored A Broadaxe 08Apr16

I've been working with Wilke to get him a used bike but he's pretty thrifty, yet I found him a pretty nice Niner Air9 Scandium GX2 with XT stuff for only $1,000. That's not the issue... I've missed the steel hardtail 29er MCR here in COS and in the process of hunting I found a cool Foundry Broadaxe with XT, DT Swiss 350s/Stan's Crest and a nice carbon crank in my size. I know the frame is a US design but China build... so much is these days... but it was a perfect fit and match to my hardtail "spec." I went to the guy's six acre place at the base of Mt Herman (cool funky place) and tried it and bought it for just $1,350 - it's probably a $2,700 list bike 2.5 yrs ago. Tires are a bit big but I love Maxiss Ardent otherwise and the Reba is heavy but it has remote lockout. It's ~24# all in right now. Frankly the bike is cool as hell and in great shape. I may bring my Niner back to COS and take this more trail-adept Broadaxe to Summit - depends on gearing for the steeps as this is "just" a 2x10.

Fluctuating Flows Fouled Fun After Four In 40mph 06Apr16

I expected to head to 11 Mile but warmth and winds looked better on the PT. I arrived on the river at 9:40am met with 40mph gusts and flows much higher than prior, probably 650cfs, but no fishermen. I tied plenty of new #18 RS2s last night with some new material called UV2 dubbing - still Adams grey but more iridescent. I'm rigged and ready, shooting into the wind with my long line casting technique, and caught a fish on first cast on the new fly - great I thought. Flows were so high I wasn't able to cross to the far/sunnier side so stayed pretty short of target casting spots. Wandered upstream from NC hitting each weir and expected the best at the bigger weir #4. I wasn't disappointed and caught two big football shaped male rainbows but after I played out that hole and as I moved upstream again, only 90 min and four fish into the day, I saw more debris coming down and greater water turbidity. The river was rising and reduced viz and made even simple wading a danger. At weir #5 even I assessed it too risky and returned to the car and home - I checked, the river had risen to >1,000cfs. While I should've chosen 11 Mile Canyon, I could not've caught 19-20" footballs there. No landing fails today as I took more time with each strong fish.

Springtime In The Rockies Too 04Apr16

So while it continues to snow and my new skis are being prepped I headed down to the Pueblo Tailwater of the Arkansas. The BWOs (they are big) and little grey midges were popping and I had a great spring day, especially 10-2, despite the 500cfs and fluctuating flows. The RS2, FoD and Reimagined Black Ice did the heavy lifting and Awesome Midge and green vinyl KF Flasher got their share as midges. The BWO hatch was thin (70+° and sunny) but evident. I caught two fish over 20" and both were very strong kype-jawed and a smidge embattled from the spawn - all the females I caught were <20" but strong too. Only gorgeous rainbows this day, but I also lost 50% of the fish hooked! Dunno if that's early season, unpracticed technique, strong "smart" fish headed for the logs and rocks or what but it happened last year too in April I recall. Fish had not moved out to the mid-stream triangles and best catches were feeding mid-column behind the weirs. I lost a lot of bugs too... back to the tying bench - at least they are bigger and easier to tie. Awesome.

Captain Fun & Clear Creek Browns 02Apr16

Captain Fun (me) took advantage of the end of ski season and snagged some cool new tools for on piste or in backcountry. Since my tele turns are no longer practiced and therefore sketchy, I longed for some heel down stuff so I could be cool like Daryle & Greg. I found a guy selling a size 30 (perfect) pair of Scarpa Freedoms and bought them - they fit great, are basically new and are tighter, stiffer and lighter than my current boots. Plus, these can be fitted with AT-compatible soles or DIN soles! I also scored some sweet 2014 SkiLogik Bomb Squads in 188 (148-122-143) with Dynafit TLT bindings. With everything used I am only out ~$550 (but I still need skins - couldn't find any used stuff that was wide enough). I am having the skis remounted to my boots right now. I still need to get some skins for these fatties and expect I'll choose BD GlideLite Mix STS skins. Of course I did a comprehensive analysis (spreadsheet) of alternative weights, features and costs comparing about 6 alternatives. This setup will be ~20# but I don't need to pay the ~$1,200 to get 18# and I don't need to endure the 24# leveraging boots on frame bindings. Seems like the right trade-offs. Oh yeah, I met Fritz Sperry (http://makingturns.com/), the author and artist, from whom I bought the skis; his house was a treasure trove of gear and artifacts in Edgewater. He switched sponsors to rmu skis and was getting rid of multiple SkiLogik sticks. We need to check out his guidebooks.

I was also able to stop and fish Clear Ck on the way back from Silverthorne. I looked up where public access was decent and fished two spots... near the zipline company and right near CO6 + I70. Both spots were still very cold with snow and ice on banks and little bug activity. Nonetheless I caught a couple of ~9" browns on the Cheeseman Emerger and ate green chili and drank a brew at the Tributary right near the intersection at the bottom of Floyd Hill. Decent day.

Springtime In The Rockies 31Mar16

As you perhaps saw on FB, Wilks and I scored some in-bounds and some backcountry during the recent storm. We skied Beaver Ck as it had good snowfall. But on the way to the slopes, descending Vail Pass into Eagle Co, I got a flat when I picked up a chain link I think. It was snowing and icy and changing the flat was sketchy without more shoulder - I could feel the trucks right off my shoes... sheesh. Undeterred we hit the slopes by ~9:15am and got Wilk's his buddy pass for $99. This was Tom's first ski outing since he broke his foot and had surgery - he did great and we skied all over BC - Grouse Mtn, Larkspur Bowl, Rose Bowl and Birds of Prey. Good day netted like 23K vert.

For day 2 of the storm I contacted DD who pointed us toward Rock Ck. Here we parked at the bottom of the hill and skinned up past the gate to the TH via the Rock Ck road... pretty easy and well used. We took the trail system to Boulder Lk (ok - part way) by using the Rock Ck trail and the Gore Trail through the Eagles Nest Wilderness... this was less used, more snowy and more undulating terrain (a number of herringbones or side-steps for me but TW went straight up). Tom had never telemarked before but was game to use my stuff and I used my new XCD gear. This was a great test for me and while Tom's full skin traction had him beat me on some ups, my glide was awesome on the reaches. NP, made it using the kicker skins. From the high point I was able to ski the trees and catch a number of new lines... woohoo.