CoWWBoyz Spring Fly Fishing ~ Upper Ark, 11 Mile Canyon, Trout Ck & More 14Apr24-17Apr24

Rockin' The Upper Ark On Day 1... We first hit the upper Arkansas River near Salida at Rincon & the Chaffe Co line. We crushed it around Rincon with many fish caught on many different bugs in the morning. Rob was into fish and farmed the lower corner. For me the black ice Perdigon, MHFBPT, and Wired Up Ice caddis were the main producers. For most, the mayflies, whatever color, were the main producers. It was a completely gorgeous 65° day in the banana belt, with flows bumped a smidge over 250cfs and the water murky just a bit. Here are some CoWWBoyz (GL, Poop, Rob, & me) in their element on the river and the Murk Brothers (Rick, Matt, Rob & me) on the tailgate of MdB's new tricked Taco.

I caught some 15"-16" browns, one a decent Scottish looking guy, and even scored a rarer rainbow out here. Nice. A good time was had by all.

I was pleased to vacate "Matt's spot" when he rambled down to the upstream section at Salida East with Rob to catch him some more. The freestone Ark is a very cool river, especially when fished with friends.

Slaying It In The Wind On S Platte In 11 Mile Canyon On Day 2... fishing was good despite the cold wind; we slayed many fish today in 11 Mile. There were not even many fishermen ~ the weather forecast likely held many back. We arrived at the last bridge in the canyon at 9am and quickly hit the water to assure decent spots, including "the hot corner." No bug sign but the fish were feeding on our imitations. We even had a couple of doubles for Matt & me and Rick & me. Best bugs were eggs and midges still: money, maroon pop top, purple Manhattan, top secret, etc.

Matt & I hit a double as shown below. Strangely Matt twice hooked into a pike in the depths with a streamer. I wasn't there but hear-tell it was a monster torpedo >27". Thankfully Matt's streamer dislodged before he had to deal with it in earnest. Matt & Rick also did a little comedy act one fish caught.

I roamed the river more than most of the CoWWBoyz, but that's the norm. I caught a number of good fish using the Rodfather Bombadeer and the bugs mentioned above. The browns really liked the egg.

90 Fish Day With Andy @ Rainbow Falls On Day 3... Just wow; we availed ourselves of Mr Holley's generosity and skills (fishing & cooking) today by heading out to Trout Ck & Big Springs. The awful weather forecast and 2" of new snow in Woodland Pk scared most folks away. We were the smart ones ultimately as we threw caution to the wind and were served with an actually gorgeous day of weather and fun. We went early to secure the waterfall spot but the lack of fishermen allowed us to roam all around the bests spots on the property ~ it was amazing.

We all landed fish from our 1st casts, and mostly thereafter to boot! We changed bug strategy as the day and bug activity moved along. Midges in the morning, mayflies mid-day, and a mix in the afternoon. Andy regularly scored nicer fish from holes recently abandoned... impressive. He used the Rodfather Bombadeer all morning (till rigging a dry fly rod). Rob too landed big fish, including the largest trout of his life; on top of the most fish in a day in his life, he scored some nice PRs this day.

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I on the other had kept my catch small & tasteful using the Rodfather Diamond Blaze, while I spent considerable time re-rigging. I capped my incompetence with plenty of failed camera work too this day.

Andy grabbed some keen drone footage. I don't have one so was impressed with it's stability in filming us and the grounds. I caught a pair of eagles circling overhead of the pond where we dined on Andy's fine veggie-free lunch. What a great spot to inhabit given the plethora of their prey... the palominos seem especially easy targets.

At the end of the day Andy took us on a quick tour of facilities including the fish hatchery runs full of trout of all sizes... released on one Saturday per month throughout summer, beginning next weekend! We also stopped at the source of a lot of the water for this private water; "Big Spring" is just that at the base of a ridge on the edge of the property.

It was a remarkable day for many reasons ~ thanks so much Andy. Thanks everyone for coming out for HaineoRADo.

11 Mile Fish On The Run 11Apr24

I did a final recon on the S Platte in 11 Mile by stopping there on the away home to COS. 50 cars lined the canyon this decent 45° day. The cuts and bows are on the redds now more but the water is still very cold. It was a decent day with a half doz fish over 3 hrs mid day ~ but no bigs landed. Best bugs are midges, including money midge, maroon pop top, and top secret. I did not see bug sign, just fishermen. I toted the newish Rodfather Bombadeer; it was effective but the wind called for a smidge more length.

New Experiments ~ Eclipse Golf Outing, The Best Disc Ever, Pint Day, & Speed Of Sound 08Apr24-10Apr24

Golf With Matt... I met MLC @ Kennedy for our first holes of the season; yes, it was during an eclipse. The course was in great shape for the date and Matt slayed it with 320yd drives, pin seeking approaches, and drained 10 footers... wow. I didn't suck. Of course we stopped at Comrade before I headed out to Summit Co to make some pickups.

New NestMT Configuration... Out in Summit I reconfigured the NestMT to use the Sony TV speaker array as a center channel, extending the killer dual DRC Onken CC. I could do this because the Yamaha AVR drives the amplified outputs simultaneously with the pre-amp outputs. The augmented CC improves dialogue and is quite good for tunes. I also dropped in a DVD player to check what cool concert discs could offer on the music theater.

Best Disc Ever... To show as a premier in the DVD player on the NestMT I chose the best concert disc ever, Roy Orbison Black & White Nights. This full 6 channel discrete Dolby Digital & DTS DVD from a 1987 concert at  the Coconut Grove in LA is spectacular. When can you see this array of headliners playing backup together in one show? When it's Roy Orbison; his friends for this show include Jackson Browne, T. Bone Burnett, Elvis Costello, k.d. lang, Bonnie Raitt, J.D. Souther, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, and Jennifer Warnes. That says everything about the eclectic crowd too, including Chris Kristofferson, Daryl Hannah, and Billy Idol, along with many more celebs ~ normal humans couldn't get these tickets. Unmitigated success ~ so good on the NestMT, on Colorado Pint Day.

Colorado Pint Day @ ORB... Sure it's snowing on 4/10 in Frisco... it's Colorado, and it's Pint Day statewide. I gotta tip the Colorado Brewers Association with a purchase and commemorative glass from my fav brewery. Plus, when it's on tap, the In The Steep DDH is all that. Cheers y'all.

Do I Need To Adjust Delays For Differences In The Speed Of Sound @ Elevation... Not really. Let's say the temperature declines ~3.5°F for every 1Kft of elevation gain. Temperature is the dominant effect on the speed of sound in air on earth. The speed of sound, c, is Latin for "swiftness" and is know by the Newton–Laplace equation c= sqrt(Kₛ/ρ) where Kₛ is stiffness of the medium (air/water/whatev at whatev elevation) and ρ is density (folks, Newton considered this before exploration of thermodynaimcs!). Anyway, my gear adjusts delays (like due to distance from transducer to listener) in 1 msec increments. The difference from sea level to 10Kft elevation changes the speed of sound by just 25mph on 761mph (assuming all else equal); this'd require an adjustment of ~475Mft/s. So, at just 6ft listening distance, the reduction in the speed of sound at elevation is far below the tolerance of my gear to adjust. Good thing, it is hard enough balancing the, more significant, equipment processing delays well.

Fun In The Sun ~ Ride, Lounge, Fish, And Ski 31Mar24-04Apr24

Kala & I had another nice bike ride on a sunny day on the Front Range. There we quite a few people out on Sunday on the rec path but we navigated around 'em. Kind of an 18 miler. No pics from the ride. We stopped for refreshments after at Red Leg, where my face got totally fried in the sun. Still time for a spa soak.

On the way to Summit I stopped again in 11 Mile Canyon. I fished just briefly but caught some; the wind was up and it was chilly despite a decent 47° and sun. It's still midge weather and while the redds are evident I saw little spawn action yet. Very late start this year on this section of the S Platte. I wielded the Rodfather Diamond Blaze this outing and the maroon pop top and the money midge took the fish.

I caught up with bro Brown arriving in Summit. We tried the new Screaming Pika taproom. Surprisingly it is one of those "by the ounce" spots and we each had several tastes. It's a very nice spot with cool furnishings and outside area right on the Blue River. I guess we'd both rate it "meh" though ~ sensing stops at our local breweries were more fun. We moved on for nosh at Dillon Dam Brewery. Of course we capped the night with totties & tunes on the latest 5.1.2 NestMT. Fun day; good to see Steve again.

We hit Keystone pretty early for the late spring season. The snow was not soft at 9:15am. We headed straight back to Bergman Bowl as its mostly sunshine there. It got better as the day moved on but we did have some teeth chattering bump runs and screaming corduroy rips till it softened. I did get a good pan of all of the entire 10 Mile range though.