Dayz On The Arkansas In Pueblo & The Pop Top Works 07Nov22-08Nov22

I took some more fall days on the Ark in Pueblo. Day 1 led me to Nature Center. Most of the cottonwoods have lost their leaves here ~ and I  spotted lots more evidence of nighttime brown spawning as the beds are more obvious now. It was a foggy and overcast morning, which was a little cold, but that led to a great mid-day mayfly hatch.. definitely #22 and greyish-brown. The fish especially loved the spinner fall but I hate fishing those things, so I stayed nymphing and things go slower for me. I caught a number of fish today but nothing too big... catches seemed to strangely to land mostly on even numbers this day, all cutbows - 12', 14", 16", but a 17". The rainbow warrior weight worked, Destiny's Child worked best during the hatch, the mercury midge worked and the new Pop Top midge worked! Visibility is a bit better than on my last outing, but not clear - I tied on a silver surfer thinking that'd work in the green haze but it didn't; other #22 BWO imitations were better. The RFT5 was a mighty and useful tool. I did loose my entire rig once on a seeming larger fish but alas...

Day 2 I was bound for town. I was the only fisherman car at the football stadium... but others park elsewhere I guess ~ even by 9am this day the run above 4th street was occupied, as was the walkbridge hole. Undaunted however, and wielding the lighter Rodfather Diamon Blaze 4 wt, I dropped in above 4th street and fished up to the bridge then skipped there to fish the weirs above it. Again I caught lots of fish, many ~12" rainbows looked like stockers to me, but a caught a couple better fish. Today again there was a #22 fall BWO hatch mid-day, and then the pesky spinner fall (note to self: "tie some drowned spinners"). I did scare a couple of big fish with a clunky approach, but did not catch any. Destiny's Child, mercury midge, Pop Top and rainbow warrior again did the work. The day was a gorgeous 70° in Pueblo but the town section is just trashy ~ why folks don't care for these fisheries I just don't know. I did catch an 18" sucker and a weed packet with 2 other guys' lines and flies in it.

With the Pop Top working well, I am out, and I need to find a more certain way to keep the attractor tuft in place; it migrated sometimes.. I'm guessing cyanoacrylate if that won't clump the thorax too badly.

Suzanne Santo 06Nov22

Suzanne Santo is a multi-instrumentalist with a soulful & sultry sound, and some sad songs. She's excellent. Good range, awesome control, fine playmanship... way beyond the alt-country that drew me to her initially. I'd missed a couple solo albums, which are excellent, till recently. She last dropped Yard Sale and has been booked for a number of good live studio sessions with good sound where she played songs from this album... click through the album cover for the playlist. YouTube will give you official audios or official videos via this scheme. I'll provide some live versions later. Bad Beast is money... channeling some serious blues.

Here are the very recent live studio sessions on YouTube of Suzanne Santo... including Joe Rogan's show where she did unusual previously unrecorded stuff, and at the spectacular Audiotree.

• Suzanne Santo @ Joe Rogan 04Nov22
  
• Suzanne Santo @ Audiotree 03Nov22
  

But the previous solo album, Ruby Red, was every bit as good ~ and a little darker... click through the cover to the playlist.

Or, catch some of the keen live performances she gave on songs from this album...

• Suzanne Santo @ Paste NYC 10Aug20
  
• Suzanne Santo @ Audiotree 03Oct17
  
• Suzanne Santo @ Sofar NYC Best Out Of Me 24Aug17 
  

Prior to all that she was part of the alt-country/Americana duo HoneyHoney, which was also awesome - primarily due to her lead vocals and multi-instrumentalism. If you were watching her recent stuff you see & hear her solo shows don't "allow" a lot of alternative instruments ~ she has to play guitar to match the range of the songs. In HoneyHoney she played fiddle, banjo, guitar, whatever she wanted. They were very good, but, starting in 2017, she had to break out, and her more recent stuff is better, despite it "disenabling" the cool instrumentation. Still, worth a look back for sure...

• HoneyHoney 3 From 3 @ Relax 12Jan16
  
• HoneyHoney Ohio @ Bing Lounge 30Apr12
  

The Best Caddis This Year ~ Coffin's "Wired Up Ice" 04Nov22

It definitely doesn't just need to be a Mother's Day caddis hatch for caddis in our Rocky Mtn rivers ~ though that's fun. From May to August there'll be plenty of caddis in many of our waters, so I often add a weighted caddis larvae when nymphing. There are so many useful caddis patterns out there (like LaFontaine's awesome sparkle pupa) but I haven't really seen what, in 2022, was my most productive imitation. It might just be that I went to it more instead of something else for caddis during summer ('cause I made quite a few of 'em), but I caught plenty of fish in all my regular haunts on the tungsten head, wire body, CDC variant I'll describe here. On a #18 TMC 2457 I mount a 2mm black tungsten bead and use black thread to tie on a Ultrawire brassie-sized chartreuse or green wire body from back bend to front. I then make a smallish thorax of dubbed peacock-colored ice over the wire and open spot. Then I tie in natural CDC feathers by the tip and wrap 2-3 turns for air bubbles, legs, antennae and a buggy feel. I finish this fly with a smidge more peacock ice dub to force the CDC rearward - and then whip finish. I gotta get a better name than TH wire body CDC caddis, but I'll be prepared for next summer in any event.

OK... As is my practice to name my flies after music-inspired stuff, I am naming this caddis pupa "Wired Up Ice" ~ it's good for the fly and it connotes the cabling like MIDI and other interconnects in audio gear, and the "ice" make the 3 word name very unique.

Lissie ~ Rock Island To Oja To Iowa ~ Sweet Americana Happy Haloween22

Well there's a backstory but there's little time. This entry is "just" a feature on Lissie (Elisabeth Corrin Maurus), an Americana/Rock artist on her 4+ album release with Carving Canyons.

Great voice, especially on low lady stuff, and stellar songwriting all along the way. She's ranged full from aspirational beginnings, to breakout artist, to serious full band sound, to now, a stripped back sound with a killer voice & accompaniment offered. Every drop in the history is stellar and pretty uncompromised, which is not easy. It's nice for her she looks as chill as she does always (never seen her in makeup) but it's the writing and breakout voice keeping her top of mind... and it still continues... just start at the top and move back in time 10 years. Awesome.

• Carving Canyons @ WXPN 30Oct22
  
• Cowboy Take Me Away @ Paste/NYC Chicks Cover 08May19
  
• When I’m Alone @ BBC/Quay Sessions/Scotland 06Apr18 (Toni Lindgren here accompanying)
• Best Days @ BBC/Quay Sessions/Scotland 06Apr18
  
• Blood & Muscle @ Paste NYC 28Feb18  (Toni Lindgren again!)
• Hero @ Bridge Studio KCPT KC, MO 18Feb16
  
• Go Your Own Way Live Studio Fleetwood Mac Cover 20Feb12
  
• Bad Romance Live Studio Lady Gaga Cover 10Sep10
  

Fishin' & Skiin' & Drinkin' In Summit With Brown 29Oct22-30Oct22

We figured Saturday after opening day @ Keystone would be mobbed so we headed out to fish the Blue. I had thought to chase the big browns on the Colorado and/or Williams Fk but construction messed up the CO and Bill's flows were jumped to 280cfs. NP. We got to Jurassic Pk TH about 10:15am and there were a number of cars - both a good and bad sign. Some might've been hunting though as we saw many hunters, ATVs and campers on the way to Green Mtn Rez dam. It was pretty chilly at the start but it warmed into a gorgeous 45° day. The "first step" descent is a doozy right now and I slid on my waders quite a distance. Steve descended fine with the aid of a rope which showed up again. Despite decent bug sign in the AM the catching today was weak... I had several on but lost them and only managed to net a small brown. We left and ate at Pho on the way back to watch the World Series on the Nest Theater.

 

Last night we dined at Bistro North; Steve had not been there yet and it was very good again. We did not take the outside seating alternative. We stopped at the new Syndicate taproom after pho. It's an excellent add to Silverthorne ~ they moved all their brewing capacity into the new spot next to Tuesday Morning. Steve had the Amber and I had the Zythos IPA, but we tried almost all the Syndicate beers, which were all pretty darn good.

We watched the Astros tie it up and laid plans to ski again today. I sanely called for a later, 8:30am, departure assessing the impact of 20° temps on Sunday's likely turnout. I was right as we parked and rode the gondola up with no wait at all. It was another good ski day on Schoolmarm with ~15K of vert and a pattern looking exactly like opening day. It will be another week before riding to the bottom is possible ~ we took the gondola down.

GR8 Opening Day Skiing @ Keystone ~ Woohoo! 28Oct22

While opening day for skiing at Keystone was later than last year (we had to wait over 5 months from out final outing last spring), it was much better. The man-made snow on Schoolmarm was fine; it was mixed with a decent dumper yesterday and temps are cold in the evenings. It was just 12° at 8am headed from Silverthorne over to Keystone! It warmed nicely as the runs required effort and the sun rose in clear skies. While the base was mobbed for opening at 8:30am, we got on the gondola in just 15 min after it started to roll. The snow was corduroy initially but softened with sun and runs. The day in Summit was gorgeous with the trees packed in snow but the sun bright. We bombed 15 miles down Schoolmarm, avoiding traffic, and then rode the gondola back to the bottom (no access all the way down yet). Today with Bro Brown was a gr8 start to the new ski season. Steve brought a present from the best brewery in Minneapolis for me... a couple of crowlers of Dangerous Man Peanut Butter Porter. Yummy.

The nice fall day in Summit allows a good pan of the Gore Range and Dillon Reservoir from Keystone.

Dreams Of Winter Midges ~ The Pop Top 27Oct22

I've been doing some tying recently so the boxes are becoming less decimated. And strangely, my dreams right now are helping with tying decisions... as my dreams tend to do with my then current work efforts ~ why not cook on stuff day & night. Of course with the seasons' change I know midges are becoming ever more important. I had a pretty vivid dream about a greyish, two thread midge I've never seen before. I call it the Pop Top. On #22 TMC 2488H, I tie in black and white threads (concurrently, from mid-hook bend in back) for a body... 2 contrasting colors are for segmentation; make sure to align them next to each other without twisting as you wrap. I then wrap an Adam's grey thorax from the eye back to in front of hook point. Then I lightly dub on and squish down, so as to fit on top rear half of the thorax, some Adam's UV ice dub mix (grey & lavender with a smidge of black). I pull the thread over top of the thorax and tie in at the eye, then whip finish. I cut back the ice dub some but leave a smidge, say 1/2 hook gap in height. I haven't fished it yet but it looks like my dream: ice dub as a "wing" and attractor and obvious but thin 2 thread body segmentation. Love it.