Eagle County - Brews and Rivers 06Sep16

I'm still stag and still fishing the mountain counties. Today I hit some new spots on the Eagle River. I've not done well on the Eagle in the past (one fish in two outings I recall). I fished further west than ever before, in Eagle Co, just east of Wolcott off #6 via turnouts across from the Post Office and then lower, near Edwards, at the water treatment access. It seems the Eagle is pretty wrangled with private property (not that my conservative nature is against that per se) in Eagle Co and my drop-ins were constrained to 1/4 - 1/2 mile stretches. I arrived ~10am and did jack for 90 min ~ I saw the fish I wanted behind structure near the start of a long flat run... but did nada but one strike after six rig shifts. A guy in the flats was doing something on streamers I saw. Then I went in the water on a dancing biff and said to myself: "bail; this sucks." I gathered my shit, dried a bit and endured... I went to the riffles downstream 1/4 mile on the far end of the flat deep water and said to myself I'd fish back to the car. Good thing, I caught some nice rainbows and cutbows in a pretty nice environment... some fighters even escaped my net.

After lunch and pops on the lower section I observed a certain sign of fall - ducks migrating and I watched a guy do jack below the busiest intersection I've ever encountered in the mountains... not a great spot for lunch frankly. Still, aftr a good finish to the AM I stepped into the water and caught a number of weak rainbows below some guys fishing the flats. They seemed like stockers to me.

The smallish spaces and shitty views had me step out of the water at 4:30pm and pursue another passion - IPAs. I was bound to visit every brewery in Eagle Co and chose the best IPA - as I have in Summit Co. And Gunnison Co. And El Paso Co. And... See my next post, and the one after that, and so on...

Muddy Ck - New Grand Co Tailwater 05Sep16

Back fishing hard after a great Labor Day WE of concerts. It was a clear, warm but windy day in the mountains as I headed a smidge north of Kremmling to try a new tailwater named Muddy Ck, a tributary of the Colorado, not unlike Williams Fk or the Blue. Muddy Ck is a the effluent of Wolford Rez. Not a pretty name and not really a pretty place - though a decent fishery. The name came before the reservoir, which might've cleaned the stream, but still this day recent rains stained the river. There are two public access points and I fished both - immediately below the dam first. I hiked down to the private boundary and fished back upstream a mile or so. The river here is slow, choked with growth, but cold. It's not abundant with fish biomass though I caught some great fish among a bounty of 3 fish/hour and mostly 14" rainbows. However I caught a pretty big and strong rainbow and nice 16" german brown too - on purple midge and rainbow warrior.

Then I moved down to the downstream access (off #227 dirt road) and had lunch before reengaging. Here I was hoping to call up migrating big browns from the Colorado. I again hiked down a mile and fished back up. The complexion of this section was about the same as to flow & flatness but seemingly had some deeper sections. I was armed again with the Winston 4 weight for flinging dries - and a nice foam hopper (a number of which I encountered on the hike in). I didn't catch anything but lost two 30" giants ~ my heart is OK. The other dozen or so similar prehistoric beasts I spied, I'd spooked. Bummer the place is kind of ugly, slow and flat (not covering up my crap casts). Good day on new water though.

The Killers Concerts 02Sep16-03Sep16

Matt and I spent Labor Day WE catching the amazing Killers live shows in Aspen. At BellyUp Aspen we experienced one of the most exciting concerts I've ever attended. BellyUp is a ~400 person gate venue with spectacular sound - we secured the best seats in the house - 30 ft away with completely unobstructed views above the mosh pit. The playlist and performance was powerful and amazing - this was a very special engagement. Matt rightly expressed he felt were on some special list of industry insiders - and we were. The guy next to us was the venture capitalist who sponsored the show and there were celebs around the house. For me it was finally getting to catch the Killers live show - and spectacularly in a venue not soon forgotten. Here they're playing Spaceman - my fave.

For Saturday we also secured tix for the JAS Experience in Snowmass where the Killers were Saturday's headliners (Friday was Train and Sunday is Stevie Wonder & Duran Duran - hmmm). We stayed in Snowmass Fri night and Sat AM caught some limited release brews at the Ranger Station there - Watermelon Lime Ale and Hop Kitchen, an unfiltered Mandarin IPA. We endured some rain and cold for the JAS show but again the Killers were outstanding. Big venue sound system and powerful stage lighting were cool. New set list - different arrangements - some new songs. It was outstanding but in comparison to the night before nothing could. I vowed to find the other venues in the country like BellyUp and get their event listings... just wow. Too, a great overdue weekend with the kid.

Desktop Audio Update ~ Schitt Vali 2 01Sep16

I updated the Silverthorne headphone amp to a Schitt Vali 2 tube amp. I'm already liking the amp with stock tube but not as much as my Vali 1 yet - but I have 5 "new" 6DJ8/E88C tubes ready to try. This time the finish is brushed aluminum exactly like my Modi 2 DAC so now it's a matched stack. I also installed a small Rolland powered monitor (which can even mix stereo signals into one) for near-field non-headphone days or to otherwise fill the room.

Taylor River Pink Hogs & East River Kokonee! 31Aug16-01Sep16

After a good day on the Gunny, despite the bear encounter, I spent the next day on the Taylor. I headed up to the C&R/trophy section and was the first to arrive at 9:15am. The canyon is pretty deep here and sun doesn't hit the water early. Still, there was plenty of fish moving and even rising to tiny flies. I would not call it epic conditions but I did best my last skunking on this section and caught several very nice fish. Weird as it sounds given the prevalence of rainbows here - all three were browns. They ran 19-22" and were very pink from their diet of shrimp. I caught them on FBPT #20. I got rejections on my BWO dry but in later talking to a guide I sensed my offer was too large. He likes the mole fly in #20-#22 here. It's hard up there - tiny flies, no indicators, flat water, perfect drifts needed... sheesh. NO PICS - the flash card failed and I lost all the pictures from that day unfortunately. While there I also met a female celebrity angler, Maddie Brenneman, she guides out of Granby... a cute girl with a nice cast being guided by a local shop to promote, hawked by a cameraman. No fish when I left. Who knew it was a job getting 400,000 likes on FB with a fish? - I get like 20 sometimes and I have to take the pic myself :). After lunch at the car I went downstream into the canyon proper and caught some decent ~12-14" browns and rainbows. I was back at camp to catch the PM showers.

Today I headed to the East River to try to catch the Kokonee salmon run up from Blue Mesa Rez. Boy howdy, did I ever catch it; what a blast. I caught a dozen salmon over a 1/2 mile of river below the Roaring Judy Hatchery! Most were on a #20 FBPT dropped at the end of weighted flies. I also caught some browns and rainbows - again ~12". This is wild trout water and therefore unsupported with stocking or other altering behaviors. I wish I'd landed a brookie or a cutthroat to land 4 species in a day - oh well, the salmon was very special. The Kokonee are running up from Blue Mesa via the Gunnison to the East River. The fights these fish put up was awesome including aerials and fin-skating on top of the water. They are not yet super red but do have kype jaws. Most were ~18" and strong. WEAK PICS - I was carefully using my iPhone and I mostly sucked at it. I stopped at Eddyline in BV on the way to Summit Co today and tried the pumpkin ale as well as the grapefruit IPA - meh - stayed with the Crank Yanker for my pint.

A Bear Ate My Lunch - Literally 30Aug16

I'm camping in Taylor River Canyon below Taylor Park, in a nice, developed campground ~ and overnight a bear ripped the rear side window off the Crusher, climbed in and ate all my food! He destroyed my food box and cooler. He forgot to clean his paws and claws on entering my vehicle so some of my stuff got bear-scuzzed... like my fishing hats and backpacks. As if the Crusher could get more ghetto - it now features a duct-taped rear window. So, I had no food and "had to" head to High Alpine Brewery for their excellent pizza and Green Gate IPA.

It must've been good luck despite my hour-delayed start for cleanup and repairs as I had a good day on the Gunnison River fishing. Too, here's a trout lesson featuring browns from the Gunnison River: we have two primary strains of brown trout in NAmerica. The German browns (Von Behr) have orange/red spots and the Scottish strain (Loch Levens) has black spots - both were brought over in the mid-late 1800s and now run prevalent around the west. While it's a cool bear story - there's some trepidation regarding my return to the site tonight with new food - he "knows" the Crusher.

Weird but good day wading the Gunny. I started at Neversink and my "first" fish was a big 19" Scottish brown, close to my put in, on a squirmy worm at ~10am. It was a nice spot and I reeled 6 more browns this morning. My best fly was the quasimodo, a BHFB curved version of the pheasant tail that I'd begun to use instead of a BHFBPT. Seemingly a trico hatch or midge hatch had preceded my arrival and the mating balls were epic - I thought I'd missed it and would need to change to spinners - grrrr. Then a BWO hatch started and I caught more on the quasimodo and rainbow warrior underneath. I even got hits on the red chernobyl ant I used as an indicator. I dined on Subway (since the bear ate my chipotle turkey) and enjoyed another Treasure Chest (saving boobies while enjoying grapefruit/hibiscus/prickly pear-infused IPA). I moved downstream to Cooper Ranch and strangely caught 6 rainbows! Here I was using nymphs led by the stonefly - like the Ark, the upper Gunny runs like a big freestone. I fished so little of this great watershed today (and saw no Kokanee) but will move to it's major tributaries the Taylor and the East for the next days.

On The Ark @ Pinnacle Rock 22Aug16

With flows falling to ~500cfs I chose to hit the Arkansas River in BIg Horn Sheep Canyon today. The morning was nice but above 80° and the PM included sprinkling at 1:30pm and rain at 3:30pm. I took but did not unleash the wading stick - dunno whether that was flow rate or stupidity; I was able to select crossing spots and did so a couple times. I started about 10am with a red chernobyl, red CJ copper and a variety of droppers. The best flies on the day were the red chernobyl (fun hits 10-noon) and the rainbow warrior. The water was off color from recent rains I assume, so I did go to silver beaded stuff and more flash, including the rainbow warrior. I think my choices during stained water is proven, at least to me. I probably caught ~20 fish on the day and lost another half doz, all browns and all 8-14", but decently strong. Shown are representative fish - one each on the "hopper," copper and dropper, plus one other for measure. Fall is looming and the Ark is shaping up - it wasn't a 50 fish day - but soon it may be possible.

I also looked into the why some browns I catch have orange/red spots and others do not... this is the basic finding... many red spotted browns in the US descended from the German strain, Von Behr. The black spotted strain are Loch Levens, from Scotland. Color variations due to environmental conditions and the mixing of various strains can be found.