Under Cover Hopper

I want to take you to a Day with a friend on the mighty Gunnison. It's Dry fly season here on the gunny in August. Hoppers stimulator's. caddis, and yellow sally's all make the fish jump!..
As you might know Fishing is very much a mental game for me.
Hopper season is well past its peak by August but the fish still take them if presented properly. To the water where were floating along on the old flat bottom. My Friend up front and me on the oars we proceed to hook up every 5 or 10 minutes on caddis..



Then the caddis are gone and a switch is in order. I suggest a hopper with a small stimmy behind it. Justin quickly replies, "dude I haven't caught jack on a hopper this year". From the oars, I was getting a pretty good look at what was going on with the bugs and I had a hopper in my box that would later prove to be a perfect match, little yellow guy with bright red legs. Knowing that there were a lot of this style hopper on this section, I had to drop anchor and fix him up. One small problem. He isn't going to be able to fish the hopper with confidence. This is big to me. So now, not only do I have to fool a fish but I have to fool the fool in front of me. Fish are, coming in this boat today! He, like many, isn't always down with two flies. So I got out a single stimulator for him, little yellow thing with a red butt.. do you follow? Fish could take this for that hopper, or a yellow sally which wasn't present at the time. We drifted alongside the stimmy for a few drifts as I sat with my eyes glued to his fly, my peripheral vision kept picking up on some dancing caddis. not many, but something to keep the fish looking at the top. Then as we approach this rock that makes me hear jaw music was coming up. I moved the boat in to perfect position. Before I go on I must tell you how we had been working on a technique that I do with a dry that is a mend in the air so that when the fly lands you don't have to mend again... Cool huh? well if there is a time for my fishing buddy to pull off one of these then this is the time. Then he does it! Perfectly! A no mend dry fly cast on the move. Then you guessed it The disappearing stimmy trick with a gnarly tail flip. Go! I say loud enough for anything in the canyon to hear. Fish on! I know this fight was a learning experience for Justin it had it all. In the net and here's a pic.


So what do you think? did I fool the fish with a hopper and fool a fisherman with a stimulator?
He still doesn't know what I was doing.
Bonus to me, we were camped out on the river and this was going to be one of 5 more trips down a 4 mile streatch of river. Next time is my turn to fish. We arrived at camp to down a Mikes and do the shuttle thing. On the ride to the launch, the subject of him not catching any fish on a hopper this year comes up and Justin says to me, "comon Josh catch a fish on a hopper".. Is this a challenge? Hmmm. is now!! I vowed to use only hoppers for my float, just to show him that if you smack the grass, kick it twice and wait for the turn... your golden.
After some reckless driving by the new captain and several "almost in the drink". OK reckless driving is an understatement I mean hauling butt down the river hardly able to hit the edge with the fly let alone mend 125 feet of line. After some, lets say patient drivers ed coaching. we finally got a perfect speed, on a perfect drift. I Smacked the grass, pulled it in to the water, popped it twice and out of the air comes an 18inch brown.

Why do I think this way? Why do I make easy things hard? Why so much thinking?.. One Word... FISH. Point Made.
I hope I made you think today.

Knots

Here are some knots That fly fishermen use

The Clinch knot


Improved version of Clinch knot





The Nail Knot


The Surgeons Knot

I Got The Blues

If you read my last post, you may have gathered that I felt defeated because of a blue midge that I only had one of and gave to the water. boo hoo. After testing my hands at Colorado Angler's, Best Damn Scud Pattern Period. That of witch is a beautiful fly, created by a real fisherman/friend.

I was drawn back to the thought of blue, Truth is I had a grudge match with the very thought of the color blue all night and into the morning blue nymphs were dancing in my head.... that's right not midges this time nymphs.. When I get this feeling I always act on it, mostly to avoid becoming a statistic of a fly fisherman who can't or don't execute. I quote,... I don't "tie flies", I quote again " I put flies in fish's mouths" I'm not a try-er either I'm a do-er. make a note of that. Never the less, this is what my hands did after the scud.
Time to take these baby's down to the river and see if I wasted my time. The weather is just what Bigerrfish ordered, mostly overcast, 31 degrees, calm, and even the air was a little blue, I think...You might be wondering about The Scud at this juncture, Aren't you going to fish that scud,,, yea maybe but I got the blues baby!, until I get over it, I,m running the blue on top and I'll be switching midges every five cast if needed........what should we call it? Hows about PRINCEONAMID ? (Dad)....... On top of that, I don't think it would be fair to run the best damn scud. Until I get the ones in the mail from the creator of it. Fair or not that's how it's going down.
For the first hour, nothing on the blue and only one little guy on a gold zebra, a little later, faith & confidence with the zebra was deteriorating, both for that matter, Sticking to my guns I made my way up the river switching midges every few casts. Switching, both to hook up on the midge and present the PRINCEONAMID a little differently.

Running short on time I hustled to one of my favorite little shelf's. First cast no joke I hook up. "please be on the blue, please be on the blue" I say Until it gets close enough for me see that it was on the bottom fly, Released it and rolled it back out there, picked up a chunk of moss early in the drift, cleaned up inspected my rig, rolled it out there again.......Jaws music playing in the background........Go!!!! fish on! "Please be on the blue you bastard" I say. And It was!!!

I had a plan, made it work, me, and my love for fish!

Bye Bye Sub-Zero

Thanks to a weekend of warm wind melting a little snow and ice.



I awoke this to a beautiful Monday morning to the temp reading 28, this is 20 degrees warmer than the highs for last week. Thas meant I was goin fishin.

While I waited for it to get good and light I thought I might challenge myself to a new fly pattern. I sat a the bench with a cup of coffee and dreamed up a cool little blue midge, inspired my neighbor for cold weather. My hook order wont be in for another two weeks and I only had one more size 20. Taking my chances I created just one of these cool little blue midges.
I never ever go with one of anything but this was an exception. I guess..

crappy pic I know but what da ya do?

Things started out real slow and faith in the blue dude was wearing thin. Then all the sudden...time to set the hook... In a chunk of crap on the bottom. Pops off the little solo midge. One for the water and One of a kind, it was, for another two weeks anyway.
Needless to say I fished long, I fished hard, made all the necessary changes, got cold hands, hooked up with a couple a tiny ones, and was finally rewarded with a good little rainbow.

Playing Catch In The Back Yard

All Dads like to play a little catch in the back yard with the boy. My Son and I embrace this tradition with a slightly different definition. The back yard isn't really in the back yard. It's the river that runs through the town that I grew up and currently live in this is why we call it our back yard. As my son has grown to the age of 8 he has witnessed his fathers passion to make fish eat things tied to a string. The boy figured out how to catch a fish with a lure on an open face reel at the age of three, With Dad showing him the basics, telling him the rules and watching him cry about tangles and want to "Go Home" he, just as I did came back for more. He now chooses the fly. After a year of practice of fighting a fish on a fly rod, by spending some time with drys going for bluegill and bass from a boat.. It was time to play a little game of Catch In The Back Yard. To test the skills on trout. It was time to head for the river for a day of fun on the river and execute a plan. we made our way to a sweet little bend with plenty of room to back cast I rigged him up with a deadly fly called 10in10 and let him have at it. I sat quietly observing from a nearby log Away from the flailing line to quickly discover that the boy was rapidly moving from a beginner to an amateur caster. I'm thinking he just might catch a fish if he isn't careful.

After a few empty casts, he steps up for a cast at the heart this would require a new style of mend but I didn't have to say a word, a nice quiet mend down followed by a quick mend up and a perfect hook set... Catch and release as always. He managed to land one more nice little brown. Then it was Dads turn to see if there was anything left.. I passed the camera over to Dylan, quickly inspected the rig, made a few cast then hooked up with something fierce a big strong rainbow, I'll tell ya he should have broke me off. Shoot I was only using 6x. Mid way through the fight Dylan turned on the video camera and he got away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!............. Awww the big one that got away Just kidding here's the video.

Had a cute little smile too didn't it? Well that was it. Father son catch in the back yard on a warm summer day. That's the American way!!

Real Men Wear Pink

The wife and I have plans to go the river for a little midge fishing. This bums her out a little because she likes fishing with drys so much, I guess not enough fish come to the indicator without a hook. Or she would rather see the floater go up not down. Either way she trusts me that shes going to catch fish.
The night before were were supposed to go, I was reminded of a fishing trip with her just after we met where she caught a ton of fish on a little purple spinner, I think it worked so well because she was the one fishing it. None the less it made her happy to be girly use girly colors and catch fish. That night I headed for the tying bench in hope of coming up with a super girly fly that would work. I'm going to Base it on another pattern you all might know as a hatching zebra. You have seen one right? They're not too girly. So how do I do it and have it still catch a fish..........What a challenge.
I finished the fly, showed it to the wife and of course she says, "its cute!" "oh its pretty". as she turns around and rolls her eyes. I replyed with, "Babe your gonna catch a fish on this cutie".
Long story short... Something came up that night and she wasn't going to be able to go. As soon as I got the news I looked at the cup of pink zebras and began thinking, what's happening to me? do I have to go alone? Sure enough she couldn't go fishing but I have got to go down there to try that girly midge.



IT WORKS!!!
Heres a list of crap to make one..

Tiemco-2457 size 18
6/0 white thread
clear glass bead
white hairline fine dubbing
Pink nylon
5m gold wire.

Tie some up, take a girl fishing, she might wanna snuggle later.

A case of bull dung

It's been stupid cold here the low this morning was 5 below, I'm pretty brave and love fishing in cold weather but there is a limit. I don't think I'll could take away from it what it could take away from me. So until it climbs to a blistering 20 or 25 and sunny or 30 something and snowing I'm afraid ill have to say pass.None the less I just had to stop by the river and see what it looked like, here is a picture from my phone, taken at 8:00 this morning. Pretty Picture but still a little bit bull crap.

A Day To Remember

I'm About to share with you just a piece of why I love fly fishing and tell you about a day on the river that was totally a day to remember.
A good buddy of mine gave me a custom 4wt Scott A-3. I was just dying to get out and try it. I also had a few new fly patterns that I needed to try out.
I set out Alone early in the morning with a cup of coffee and a mission to see what this 4wt would do with 20 trout. After rigging up a 12 foot leader with two mean nymphs, I began the stomp down to river which was roaring like a hungry bear. this river is high, has big fish, a whole lot of holes and it demands respect. Each cast must be thought out and a plan is going to mean loose or land. These waters are fierce and you must work hard. There was a small tributary to cross before reaching the river but the beavers had beat me there dammed it up with a down a tree which made my crossing line a deep one. Once on the other side I couldn't resist throwing them in a sweet little spot where the tributary bends. Three feet deep, a little less than a 90 degree bend, two large rocks 6 inches below the surface right in the vertex. First drift snagged the rocks. I quietly snapped off the flys I tied an hour ago. Tied on new, this time...."Better Cast Daniel-son" planning the drift just on my side of the rocks, the flys hit the water start to sink a suttle mend drives them down, hit the bottom and...Son of a gun 21 inch brown bending the new rod down town. The best part is that he's hooked good, Zipped right out of the hole he was in and has no where to go. I forgot my camera today, I know you probably heard that one before but I did have my Cell Phone and it takes great pictures!!!



After that, two more fish wanted a bite, one was another good brown.



Eager to get to the main river I hustled through the brush to find a sweet hole just a little downstream. I could fish it from this side but if the big boy is home he's going to execute the make my day law on me. After assessing the situation I made the decision to make it out to a little island, more like a gravel bar that stuck out of the water. Once there I approached it like I always do, start down and shallow and work my way up deeper towards the heart of the hole. From my knees I lay it down perfect give it a wave, stack, style mend sending the flys to the bottom and putting them to sleep, A donkey was was about to make Bigerrfish smile... Sure enough out came another way better than average brown working the current in its favor and now I'm seriously wondering if this 4wt thing is going to work out. I got the donkey in my hand, got a picture and let it go as always.


5 or 10 casts later another great brown. I'm wondering where the rainbows are today..




I moved up the river a ways to a spot that I know the biggest fish in the Uncompahgre visits from time to time. Crouching down, I rolled out a few casts close to me on a deep shelf.. The water was moving super fast and flow were up so I added a split-shot and gave it another roll. a small mend then before I could say holy crap! all my junk was in the heart of the hole and another 18-19 inch brown is just raising hell in the drift I was after in about 23 more casts.. I don't like it when they do this so I horsed it a little still landed it and got another picture.




Figuring the heart of the hole was ruined for the time being I wanted to dissect the riffles below It. Looking at the water and getting a plan for the take would prove to be difficult. I'm thinking The fish needs to run into the heart of the hole like the last one did or its just going to be gone!! I added a small indicator. Three drifts later, out a ways where you don't have a chance at sight fishing you just have to use a little intuition, I was the only witness of the disappearing thingamabob trick and it's big!!! And where does the fish go? Not up to the heart... oh no that wouldn't be fun, so he runs Down. He was planing on eating and running. Well that's not how dinner dates go in my back yard.. So I got a drink of coffee checked my email from my iPhone and proceeded to put the big time breaks on this fish. Line peeling off my reel, a gave that Ross drag a few clicks and put some added faith in my blood not then... Oh yea! It turned, faced upstream and sat there, catching its breath while the 4wt sat in slow motion bent to its max. I cant go down to it and if it runs any further down I'll have to break it off or jump in. I gathered my thought and came up with a plan to land this fish the hard way with no choice of how it was going to go down, I was playing by the fish's rules this time. I put on the game face and worked it up foot for foot, I had to let it rest bit by bit so it would have the energy to swim back up to me. So I landed this fish after a nasty 20 min battle, this was becoming a day to remember.

"Thanks Buddy"



Well Back to the truck?... Nope, not without running a few through the heart of this honey hole. I removed the indicator, retied my flys to make sure I was ready for something to come out of there and run down again. Scary thought huh? Bring it!! 2nd drift 18 inch brown. He stayed where I wanted him and came to me relatively easy.




Well this spot is drained. However I've been eye-balling a little riff on the other side that would be the highlight of this trip if I could execute a good plan and come up with one more of these bad boys. Crossing is out. I'll have to go to the truck and drive up the road to a bridge where can walk back to basically where I was but on the other side. I made it to the eddy I seen from across the way. This place wants me to put the indicator back on. Gave a few drifts close to me in the shallows, then realized I had added that weight, ditched it and right away hooked up a small brown that apparently had issues with shaking like the tail of a pit-bull, this ripped a hole in it's lip big enough to eject the hook. After inspecting my rig I hucked it out to the heart. Son of a gun!!!! 21 inch pissed off brown running out, running in, jumpin, freaking out, splashing, finally settling down enough for me to put some pressure on him, then submitted for me like a beat dog.

What a day! New rod, high water, big fish, the rainbow of a lifetime for this creek, beautiful weather, and a Happy fisherman, What A Day To Remember.