Too busy fishing!

I have to admit, I have been too busy fishing to keep up on the blog. A good problem to have I guess. Between my days out and guide trips, I have been up to my elbows with fishing, tying, and teaching. The guiding has been busy!! Great news.
But from here on out I promise to keep up on it. In the end it will only benefit me more, and it will also keep everyone excited about getting back out there.
So I will go ahead and cheat today because if I did a full report on every trip then we would just never get caught up. I will give you my "halfway though the summer (kind of) highlights".
Primarily I have been guiding/fishing 3 areas: Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), Big T, and Boulder Creek; with a few other random spots thrown in.
Rocky Mountain National Park:
Loch Vale-early June.
What a great day. Great hike and a great lake. Caught several beautiful cutthroat on griffith's gnats and a couple fat alberts along the banks. Had the lake to myself primarily. Get up there if you can. Great fishing and easy wading.

Ouzel Creek-
Another solid day where I was catching brook trout by the handful. Several holes yielded up to 8-10 brook alone. Fun time. Planned on fishing the lake but too busy catching in creek on the way up!

Pictures of Ouzel and the hike up. Pretty Land.



Glacier Creek-Took a guest there and man did he nail it. He nailed the rainbows, the browns, the brooks, and then...with about ten minutes before departure...he nailed the cutt! Amazing day. I think the funnest thing about this day was having a guest enjoy it just as much as I do. I couldn't have been prouder when I saw that. The best thing-we tied on a Stimulator and Rainbow Warrior at the beginning of the day and we never retied. It was that great all day. What a blast....

Roaring River-
I have had two great days here. One with the brother and one with a guest. Both days were poppin. First day we had to change it up quite often to keep up with em', second day we used two rods and never changed our set ups once. Pheasant Tails and green and black wire BH Prince Nymphs are money here. Try some attractor dries for some easy to spot dry fly fishing.



Fall River-
Nice trout in there but man are they spooky. I like the technical "predator" fishing but man, those trout spook easily. I would still recommend it. You can go ahead and feel a small sense of accomplishment here if you catch one. (Don't be surprised to see me out there when September and October get here).



Big T (Below Olympus Dam to Caddis Flats)-
Nothing too memorable that sticks out although I will say I really appreciate the variety of fishable flies in this river and also the quality of the trout. One item of note about the Big T this year. I have never in my life seen so many trout consistently take off downstream once caught. The bigger ones present a decent challenge..."The tug's the drug"
Also, did get the Pops out for a day on the water. His first in a while. That was a lot of fun and my treat. I think we got em' hooked again.

Boulder Creek
Living true to my slogan, it is one of the most underrated streams on the front range. Quality fishing every time and never too much of a crowd. I really love that Roger's Park section for guests. Easy to wade, good holes, a lot of variety on stream structure; riffles, pockets, big still holes. Good teaching spot.

My random spot (for now)-South St. Vrain.
The North sure does seem slow this year, including below Button Rock Preserve. I have never spent too much time on the South but finally one day I went to the North after the big week of rain and it was moving. Although I gave it a shot, I left empty handed. I moved on to the South and what fun fishing. Usually when I check this place out it is either too high or too low. Just perfect. Ended up losing 2 and missing another. Walked home with a big white stripe smelling of skunk.
Went back 2 days later for revenge and got it. Could not stop catching for a couple hour period. Real redeeming, and a lot of fun.

Well that is about it for now. As I said I will update sooner from here on out and maybe even post a real report.

Tight Lines

My Blue Heaven



The Blue River in Summit County is a real anglers dream. And living on the east side of the Continental Divide, that is about all I do when it comes to the Blue River. Dream about it. I recently got an opportunity to change that however. 
I planned on fishing the Blue for most of the day but due to a company party at Arapahoe Basin, I was temporarily delayed. After finally saying my goodbyes, me and my brother set down towards Dillon. I stopped on the way deciding that I should explore the Snake River coming through Keystone a little bit. Throwing a PT and an original Caddis pattern, I had no luck. I picked up several rocks in the stream and saw only a few size 28 midges in the sub 40 degree temperature. Good enough for me to know it wasn't quite time yet. I did however discover that this is one beautiful stream. It has a real nice meandering quality about it and I will be back sometime soon for sure to spend more time.
So we headed to Cutthroat Anglers in Silverthorne to get the 4-1-1 on the river. I figured they would tell me mysis shrimp but I wanted to stop in anyways. Sure enough, the soup du jour in town was the mysis shrimp. I bought an epoxy back sz. 20 and just a plain ole' mysis size 20. Talked with the clerk a few minutes, and headed out. Drove straight to the outlets and got busy. I found a nice spot on the river south of the overpass in between 4-5 anglers. Threw on the gear and hopped in. A beautiful stretch of freestone river here with clear water allows for optimum wading right now. I couldn't believe the water quality. Just as fertile as could be. There were several holes that expanded forty feet by 60 feet and I was in disbelief at the conditions. You don't get to fish rivers like this much living where I do in the front range area.
I got to throwing and within 15 minutes I had my first ever Gold Medal water trout on the end of the line. Problem was I could hardly see the little guy as measured over just 3". As beautiful as the native trout was with his markings, the only impressive thing I thought about the whole thing was catching ANY kind of fish in a Gold Medal stream. So that made me happy but the 3" fish did not. And neither did the next two 3" trout. About this time my brother headed out. He was not fishing and was really just spectating. I think you can only catch so many 3" trout, and you can be a spectator for even fewer. Thus, his departure.
Well I knew I was onto something as I was indeed catching fish; and the little fish eat the same things the big fish do. So I kept fishing. I did mentally remind myself that the gentleman in the fly shop told me that the bigger guys are further downstream however. After about another 20 minutes or so the weather started to come in. This made me optimistic as the beginning of a storm can start a mad feeding frenzy. I kept casting, the temperature falling even lower. Kept casting, snow falling harder and harder; temperature falling even lower still.
At last, I got a strike. A nice strike. One that can't be made by a 3" trout. I set the hook and out it came. I saw the 14" trout turn towards me as if to say 'nice try' and he moved on. I quickly turned excited now as the temperature seemed to phase me less now with the thought of bigger trout on the end of the line. I moved upstream to the next hole and there it was...a group of about 5-6 trout right in front of me. Each of them was pushing no less than 18" and I couldn't believe it. I turned back slowly and moved behind a boulder to stalk them. I started throwing again, with the snow now turning to a sleet and just making everything down right wet and cold. I kept casting and casting and finally, that little green indicator of mine sank 2 feet in a real hurry. I set the hook and I knew it was time. He gave me a great run, almost 60' upstream. To the left, to the right and in and out of the current. After about 6 or 7 minutes I finally got him near, pulled the net and scooped him. Success! I took one look and I was in my Blue heaven indeed. A beautiful male with huge shoulders, he measured just over 18".
I let the monster go and kept to casting.
A few minutes later, I just couldn't believe that I would be rewarded with two of these incredible specimens, but that was indeed the case. This one gave me an even bigger fight. And when I went to re-set the hook to make sure I had him on good, he ran straight upstream like he was not very happy, at all. My reel singing, I let him go. He got about 80' out and turned towards me like a torpedo. I don't think I have ever stripped line so fast. He got below me and I retreated further downstream to keep him above me. Again, he took another 80' run and jumped out of the water at the end of it. I knew then that he was bigger than the first one I had released. He once again got below me and feeling like I was the best fly fisher ever to dawn the planet, I did not retreat. He did however, and so did my fly. Lost. I was pretty disappointed with my stupid decision. I knew better and decided to not listen to myself.
The weather passed and I thought I lost my chance. The bite slowed and I began increasingly worried that my 'good time' on the Blue was short lived, producing one real trout only. I regrouped and took a five minute break. I decided to fish the whole entire whole again. So I set off downstream and jumped back in. Now I was right at the bottom where I had first started. I made my way up stream aggressively this time, just sight fishing for the monsters. Again, I found them. I cast to them and within my first few casts, it was on. This time I could see the coloring on the brute and I could tell that I caught a native. Beautiful color. I struggled to get him in as he was the biggest of the day yet. Finally I managed and I was once again in Blue heaven. This one measured out to be about 22".

Here are some pics. Don't mind the date. My camera resets every time I turn it on so I don't even bother usually. The actual fishing day was April 19th, 2012. Hope you enjoy! And a shout out to the guy who took the pic from me and gave me some locals advice. Brandon?? Can't remember.

Enjoy!

Tight Lines!

Spring Exploring

Working up here in the mountains all winter sure has had me curious about the area around us and the more it all melts, the more I wonder what lies out in those areas I have never been to, but now see everyday. It reminds me of one of my favorite times of the year, spring. And spring is a wonderful time to get out and go exploring for new spots. The goal when exploring in the spring is to ultimatley find more spots that you can spend more time at in the future, like the summer.
I do however take a rod with me when I explore and the idea for me is to 'just see what's out there'. I like to throw on a general attractor nymph or dry, or even a specific pattern that you just know is common for the season, and just see what happens. Often, you can entice a strike, but not a bite. This is not a complete loss though, as this tells you that you are in a fertile spot indeed. Sometimes I will move on to the next stream when this happens, because I am only exploring, and sometimes I will fish it out. Often, the fishing can be slow (or non-existent). And if so, were just exploring anyways. But other times you find that you don't need much time to receive the benefits of a new location. And if the fishing is on, it's usually a pleasant surprise.  Such was the case yesterday.
We had a crazy storm come through; rain, hail, wind and even enough lightning to shut the mountain down for a little bit. Definitely a typical top of the rockies spring storm. A little bit of everything. So my plans for afternoon fishing were done, I thought. With the weather the way it was, I decided exploring was the way to go.
So faced with an early afternoon off from work, I set off down the hill and instead of going straight home, I turned west at the bottom of the hill and followed the middle branch of the Boulder Creek up towards Hessie. Not but a mile or two up was a bridge with a great drop in spot. I had to wait for the storm to pass, especially the lightning and rain.
I geared up and having not much time to spare, I left the waders in the truck and fished the shore. There was plenty of pockets and really only about 1 or 2 big holes in the stretch I fished. I was throwing a PT and Z combo; a killer in the spring time in just about any creek in Colorado.
After about an hour or so of fishing and moving up stream very slowly, making sure to work all the pockets to the max, I got a strike. I set the hook and out of habit used enough force to lift the little guy out of the water about a foot. I got the line over and discovered it to be my first brookie of the year. A pleasant surprise indeed. I had been fishing lower on the creek looking for a brookie, but I suppose with the early high temps and melt off that they have already made their way up to cooler waters.
I headed down the hill with a huge smile on my face. The first brookie marks a whole new season for me. The high altitude season when brookies and cutthroats dominate the catch list. My favorite season for sure.

An afternote: I went to the same spot the next day and the weather was great. I had more time and so I put on the waders. Spent probably double the time fishing and got exactly 0 bites. It goes to show that sometimes spring exploring is just that. Exploring. Don't always get hooked into one spot. The weather changes quickly in the spring and so does a fish's diet habits. Perhaps I would have been better off going further upstream and 'exploring' for even another spot. One can never say.

Tip of the day: Just get out there! Sometimes it only takes a few minutes to stop somewhere and throw your line in. You don't always need waders, but you do need creativity in where and what you fish.
Find a spot. Tie it on and throw it in. See what happens. Repeat.

Enjoy your spring exploring and hopefully it becomes summer catching.