9/20/14-9/24-14 Boulder Creek Fishing Report

We have had some nice weather this last week; with highs hanging around the upper 70's and lower 80's. With that great weather, came some great fishing. I had a chance to get out myself Saturday and then had a trip out today. Here's what's going on.

When I went out Saturday, I crushed trout for about 3 hours; from 10 a.m. to about 1 p.m. It was about that time that I broke my rod. OOPS! First fly rod I have ever broke, but second time on the same rod this season as a client broke it earlier in the year. What a great time to work at a fly shop, right? So I headed down the canyon and back to the shop. When I got back to the shop and asked Randy to borrow a rod, he said sure. On my way out the door, with rod in hand, he came out and asked if I wanted to try the Tenkara rod. Google Japanese Art of fly fishing if you don't know.

Having never tried the technique, because it was described to me as art and not fly fishing, I was at first hesitant. He then stated that if I wanted to try it out and I took to it, I could take a client out Tuesday for a Tenkara trip. Why not, I thought. Another technique under my belt, and a chance to make more work.

So he explained the set up, which is way different, and off I went. Well, crush on. It was like I didn't miss a beat. I actually caught one within the first minute on that Tenkara rod. I think I got it figured out I thought. For the next hour and half, nothing changed. It was just straight lights out fishing. Long story short...these things are pretty fun, especially if you already enjoy fishing small water.

Highlights of the Tenkara experience include:

• Being able to cast to the other side of a 30' wide river without having to pull out line (an impossibility with Tenkara as there is no reel).
• Having your fly achieve a perfect drift by just lifting the rod/elbow.
• Catching fish with no net is sort of fun, not great but still fun. 
• Playing the fish on a super lightweight 13' rod almost always guarantees a fun fight. 

So that's that. I don't wanna take anymore time on that subject so if you are interested, check it out for yourself, or better yet, let me take you out and show you some stuff!

Now to the report part...Fishing great. I am finding that they are liking attractor nymphs, natural dries, terrestrials, emergers, stones, and I think you got the idea, right? Just try it. With that said, here is a list of flies that have been working lately (roughly in order of most successful to least successful):

Mirage Nymph (size 16, only available on this site), Caddis (foam, green), Screaming Banshee Caddis (available on the site soon, a Charlie Craven original and a real fun pattern to fish), Stimulators (smaller, yellow), copper johns (size 16 and red), Para Adams (large and small), RS-2's (gray and small, although larger will work too), Beetles, prince nymphs, rainbow warriors, etc. 

Another fly that I have been playing with lately is this crazy looking pheasant tail that I have designed that has a crazy purple hue (yeah I said it) glass beadhead, a flashback abdomen, and all kinds of other fishy things connected to it. Once I name it, I will put it on the sight. Both days I fished it, it really had trout moving. I mean cast it and you see trout dart to it like a grasshopper pattern landing 6" off the banks. Crazy action. Very similar to the Mirage nymph, which was the loose inspiration, it just catches trout. A twice proven pattern, I will it throw it on the Flies for Sale page soon. 

One thing I also noticed was that if the fishing slows, at all, just throw something else on and keep em' coming. 

Well get out there as the fishing is great. Stay low. I have been staying below Four Mile and it's been great. Another guide went up to the Sugarloaf/Magnolia stretch today and said he had the same results. 

By the way, I got back to the shop and Randy asked how I did with the Tenkara. I told him I crushed it from the get go and his response told me that he knew I would. That was a good feeling, having the confidence of your fly fishing peers, especially one that knows his stuff like Randy. 

As Always...Tight Lines!

9-17-14 Glacier Creek Guide Trip, and IT happens! So Big T Too!

After the crazy season that I have had with my Jeep (needing a new engine), the trips out have been few and far, understandably. That goes for guide trips, and Chris trips. So I am always happy at the opportunity to get out whether it may be for work, or personal relaxation. I feel like every time I make it up to The Park, it may be my last trip for the year so I have really tried to enjoy each outing to it's fullest.

The same could be said for my trip today. I got the chance to take out a couple from Wisconsin that were more or less, complete beginners. We started lower down on Glacier, near the campground. Temperatures were low in the valley coming up; a chilly 48 degrees upon coming into Estes Park. But as we rose up towards our destination, the temperature did too. A classic temp inversion, right!? So by the time we got to our spot at 10:00, the temp had risen 6 or 7 degrees or so to a now pretty decent 55. A beautiful late summer morning, for sure.

We got to fishing and I set up my clients in a long & wide straight away to get their casting down. Once that was a go, we moved up into our first half promising hole. The Para Adams was getting some looks, but no takers. We had a few strikes on some pheasant tails, but couldn't get that hook set quick enough. We even had a few lookers on a new Screaming Banshee, but again no takers.

As we moved on up, it was the same story. However, we were now getting some bites on the Adams in some of the slower riffles, as the water was slowly warming from it's 50 degrees that we had when we arrived. After only fishing for about an hour and a half, the clients wanted to take lunch. We found a nice bench for them to eat, and I went and scouted our next hole, further up towards Sprague. One of my absolute favorite stretches was taken, so I opted towards one just down the hill from there. I like the spot right below the boulders sections, below Sprague.

I went to pick up the clients and one of them decided that she wanted to go on a hike, which she had already mentioned earlier. I thought about discouraging her, as I felt the fishing was going to be lights out in the afternoon, but chose otherwise as I knew she was pretty content on hiking. It's all about the client I say; whatever they want, they get.

So the other client and I set out to the spot that I had scouted. We started with the same set ups, and had a few that were interested, but not much going on. I set up the client on a yellow Stimulator and a yellow copper john about ten minutes into the P.M. session, and it was quite simply...on.

Bites everywhere! Slow water, fast water, behind rocks and in front. Riffles and runs, pools and slicks. Great fishing. And if one hole didn't like the Stimulator & Copper John, we threw a prince nymph and Para Adams and they would eat that too. It ended up being a really good afternoon. But then...around 3:00 the client said we should head back to meet his wife, post hiking trip. He mentioned on the ride back that he wanted to go hike with the wife in the afternoon somewhere and could I recommend a few spots. Was this really about to happen?

As we arrived to meet her, he said "let me go see what she wants to do and I think we'll go hiking most likely". So I waited around the truck as he went and discussed. I couldn't help but think of the possibilities if this really did happen. Was it gonna happen? I could only wait and wonder. I smoked a cigarette and waited for what seemed like an eternity. At one point I peeked around the corner and noticed that his waders were now off.  Holy trout! This was gonna happen!

Sure enough, he walked around the corner and he did it. He said those magical 9 words. The greatest 9 words in the guide vocabulary. Wait for it...

"Well Chris, I think we've just about had it".

There it was. It! It happening!

Allow me to explain. "We've just about had it" means we had fun and were ready to go. Now those aren't usually magical words, but today, the client drove themselves up and followed me. That meant now, at 3:45, with no clients, it was my turn.

Unbelievable! Why? Just refer to the first paragraph of this report. So I headed over to the T one valley over. I grabbed the already rigged Para Adams rod and went for it. Pretty slow for the first ten minutes so I switched over to the Stimmy, this time chartreuse. Below that, I dropped a Mirage nymph about 12" deep. This nymph is so heavy and the water so shallow, so I didn't want to get too deep.

I ended up catching a couple on that, and got a couple more bites as well. But that Mirage nymph did it! It was pounding trout left and right. And once again, as was the case last time when I performed initial testing on this C.L. Hull original pattern, it was catching nothing but larger trout. Every trout I caught with that fly was at least 3-4" bigger than any other fly. Like a new age 20 incher. It just doesn't like catching small trout. Who does right? (I still do...it's better than no trout at all...but you got the point). If you want this fly, and you do, head over to the Flies for Sale page.

The new age 20 incher...the Mirage Nymph. Go get some!

After I got done slaying trout with the Mirage nymph, the clouds came over and the bugs came out. I took a break with MJ and saw one little mayfly hit the surface and immediately get swallowed. I decided that since I saw that happen and there was about 4 different bugs coming off, I would go with a Para Adams again and this time connect an RS-2 to it, floating. 

Money! Again. Caught about 10 on that rig in an hour or so and missed more than I could count on the drifts where I lost sight of the top fly. Just great fishing though. Brooks and browns everywhere. 

With the sun beginning to set, I headed out. A great day on the water, both working and recreating. I definitely got the most out of this day. And some better news...I landed another trip for tomorrow, so I ain't quite done in The Park yet. 

And the best news...Saturday is game on as I have the wife's car and kid in tow. 

Watch Out Trout. Watch Out. 

Tight Lines...

And big fish, if you got the right fly.

Elk Hair Caddis, Stimulators, New C.L. Hull Original

   Check out the 'Flies for sale Page' for some new patterns, including a new C.L. Hull original and some old standards, including the Elk Hair Caddis and the Stimulator; 2 must haves for any trout angler. The Elk Hair Caddis is your standard old caddis. You can get them with an indicator tied in, but I keep em pretty simple.

   As for the Stimulators, imagination is the only limitation. You can purchase the basic plain stimulator, or you can add on all your options such as an indicator wing, sparkle wing (crystal wing), or even some rubber legs. Buy these trout killers in some 'different than what you find at the shop' patterns and colors; including a really hot all olive pattern, and a peacock stimulator with an abdomen and thorax completely tied out ofpeacock herl; a real beautiful fly.

All Olive Stimulator (Plain)

Yellow Stimulator (Plain)

Olive Stimulator (Plain)

Yellow Stimulator (W/ Indicator, Crazy Legs, & Flash)

   Also, check out my new original pattern, the Mirage Soft Hackle nymph. This fly is a culmination of tying with different materials, using different tying techniques, and drawing upon some basic fly fishing principles, eg. pheasant tails and prince nymphs catch fish and you got to get the fly in front of the fish. So with that said, and really feeling the desire to just throw something different in front of some high pressured trout, I got to thinking. And thinking. And then some more. And then I thought I had it. So I went to the bench, tied one up. Looked at it. That wasn't it. So I thought about it some more. Then I came back to the bench a couple days later. Tied it up. Immediately knew that was it.

   Took it out a few days later on a guide trip. Fishing was good, not great. I pulled out the Mirage, and it was game on. This thing was pulling trout in every other cast, and they were all larger than normal. Final hole, it pulled out a 15" brown out of Boulder Creek. That was it.

   So below is a pic of that new little fly. Let me just say, the photo does not do this thing justice. I have tried to capture all the color, but it's hard with my camera. And I have a decently nice camera. Once you see these things in real life, you are immediately drawn to them. Lots of color, lots of weight, lots of fish. I picture the peacock color, but it is available in lime as well. Check it out.

Peacock colored Mirage Nymph (Side View)

Peacock colored Mirage Nymph (Skewed view to show close up of back)

 'Flies for sale Page'