Wire-Wrapped Squirmy Worm 11Jul16

I've begun to use a new "San Juan worm" tie recently and mentioned it several times. It works very well and is much "wormier" than chenille and therefore better at catching fish than my Obi Juan tie, though tying with the silicon squirmy material is a bit challenging. Squirmy can be readily cut by tying thread so I've adopted tying it on with brassie sized wire instead. This also has the advantage of weight to sink the worm.  I'm showing fluorescent pink here (to try on stupid inlet trout) but the best colors are San Juan red (pale pink), blood red and tan, and bi-color ties of these. Here are the steps to tying the wire-wrapped squirmy worm (pics are in reverse order): 1) on 5487 hook #16 (down eye heavy nymph) with red 140 denier thread, tie in red brassie wire to hook bend and return thread to eye, 2) wrap wire 1.5 times on hook then loosely wire-wrap in squirmy (with 1" showing off hook bend) using 2 wire wraps then wrap wire 5 times around hook directly, 3) tie in squirmy again with 2 loose wire-wraps, then repeat 5 wraps on hook and 2 wraps binding squirmy near head, 4) wrap twice on hook near eye and secure with thread wraps then whip finish. The WWSW works great and this tie recipe/technique makes it a little sturdier and sinkable than others, but they are still somewhat fragile due to the silicon material and the nature of toothy fish.

Hot Fun In The Summertime 10Jul17

Flows on the Arkansas River below Pueblo Rez just dropped today to ~600cfs from above 1Kcfs two days ago so it beckoned me and I complied. While temps reached 100° there, at which time I departed, I caught ~30 fish before departing - just rainbows and cutbows. It wasn't too crowded but for a number of tubers floating the river and billions of grasshoppers... I went upstream from Valco, thinking the upstream water would be cooler; I fished 9:45am to 1:45pm or so. Most of the fish were 12-16" but I did catch one really fat ~20" lady behind the 1st very big weir. The flows are still high for completely comfortable wading, and still poor visibility with green opaque cast; I only crossed/recrossed once and therefore mostly fished the south side. My rig was the same all day given reasonable success and consisted of a BH peacock prince nymph followed by a rainbow warrior followed by a wire wrapped squirmy worm... the prince and squirmy took the most fish but rainbow got several including the biggest. After landing the big bow as a tuber crowd pleaser I promptly lost my second rig to the submerged tree in the big weir - I guess there's always a sacrifice at that hole; I know it has my offerings aplenty. Fish were ~6 ft deep mostly in drop offs. It's good to be fishing again.

Little Fish During Runoff 05Jul16

I visited the Curtain Ponds along I70 near Copper and caught some more small brookies. It was a rainy morning but I was still out there with the bikers. I tried a number of flies but the best was still the Orange Roughy wet fly. No pics. I also hit the Dillon Rez at the 10 Mile Ck inlet and caught a number of smallish stocker rainbows. The most productive fly was a San Juan red (really pinkish) wired squirmy worm. I am getting a little anxious to hit the alpine lakes and the post-runoff alpine rivers but that seems a week or so off I sense by watching flows.

Sailing The Fourth 04Jul16

Kala's sister Karla and her husband Kevin wrapped up their car trip of six weeks through western NPs with us in Summit Co. The crappy weekend weather deterred outdoor activity till later but we did play cool games inside till we were able to get out to hike McCollough Gulch and do some sailing for Independence Day. Good time with good family.

Paso Vino Tour 28Jun16

Hitting the beach, visiting with our friends Steve & Anne, dining delicious and riding & hiking around SLO are all great but we fill the cellar from our visits to the Central Coast too. We hired a driver and hit six esoteric wineries around Paso Robles this day. Perhaps it was because it was our final two or just because they were the best but Bodega de Edgar (picture with Edgar himself) and Alti Colina were some of the best. Kala and I gravitated to the rarer blends on this visit so have Tempranillo, Conlignan and others Rhone varietals in the cellar now. The facilities at LaW, Halter Ranch and Sextant were over the top gorgeous; the views from Douw (high point in SLO County) were amazing; the food was always good where we went. And of course the wines and wine tastings here are much better value and more laid back than Napa or elsewhere. I did taste the brews around the county during wine down-time and found Firestone Luponic Distortion, Barrel House Brew Company IPA and Central Coast Lucky Day the best. We even caught a surprisingly excellent Chicago concert (they'd hired a young, excellent signer) from the 9th row. SLO is cool (but was pretty hot when we landed and then chilled nicely).

LaW

Villa Creek

Brecon

Douw

Tablas Creek

Alta Colina

Bodegas de Edgar

Herman Story

Desparada

Barrel House Brew Co

Sexton

Bishop Pk Smears 27Jun16

Climbed the highest point in SLO County - a Moro named Bishop Pk. 1600ft elevation or so - had to solve some boulders and smear the summit blocks at the end of the trail. A moro is and old volcano coney worn down - there are seven around here.  Did both peaks on a pretty hot day so I walked down to Central Coast Brewery and grabbed some Gold Medal brews - a world medal IPA named Lucky Day and a session collaboration gold from GABF named Faciitator. Yesterday I had a Paso Robles IPA from BarrelHouse Brewing Co (BHBC) IPA. All west coast citrus and excellent. I'll have to see if I can get the team to go to Firestone Walker but we have so many wineries.

One Weight Field Trial @ Grape Ck 22Jun16

I made it down to Grape Ck before we head to SLO. The snow melt is kindof late and the big waters are still raging - even the tailwaters other than 11 Mile and a few other spots on the So Platte. Plus going to Grape yeilded a chance to fling the new one weight rig. It was very hot, there were 4 cars there when I arrived, the river was still a bit high and pretty dirty (perhaps from the heavy rain last night)  and the no-see-ums were bothersome but there were yellowish hoppers everywhere. I tied a hopper to the top and my new two color squirmy worm as a dropper. The new worm (wire wrapped super gummy and flimsy strands) worked great but bigger fish tried the hopper. I turned one big brown over but no bite and I caught a decent rainbow but dropped him before the pic. The one wt rig is very well balanced and is plenty accurate but a lot less stick than I am used to casting. I had to get used to that and not overpower the rod. Catching and fighting these smaller fish was more fun though. I caught a mess of fish but didn't fish long due to the bugs. It's also worth noting that I brought Ska's new Hop Ivy ACA for lunch this day - I enjoyed it at the recent festival and decided to reprise. This is an excellent beer in my opinion - ACA means "all Colorado ale" and all ingredients are sourced in CO! It's pretty hoppy so it makes me pretty happy - probably won't replace Modus but it's close.