Last Call For February Browns

Being that, It's the last day of February, and being that I haven't accomplished a whole lot. Being that my streamer box is overflowing along with the others, and Being that, the weather was 55 today and the water was crystal clear... I decided to do some road hunting (driving around with a fly rod) where I hop out of the pickup and stomp some river bank. I was wearing street clothes again but mostly because I had accidentally left my waders behind. Figured I would long line from land but wound up toughing it out and crossing the river three times with slick shoes and jeans on.

The browns were out and about today and smashing things up! I'm talkin SPLASH'S on the take and alligator rolls baby!

Here are some photos from the day.

On Your Marks

Get set..... With your waders on..... Stop!



The crowds were a little out of control for the big big holiday. We got all geared up and looked around, felt sorry for the fish and didn't want to be rood in asking one of the other million people if we could squeeze in there and try to catch a trout with hook slices in its mouth..
Instead we dressed down hit the road and did the old hop out of the truck and run down to a hole trick.

Not catching fish was not in either one of our plans for the day.
My boy was enthusiastic about fishing this single run, as I watched him my lips stayed sealed, and the mechanics were all up and running, I had more fun watching Dylan mend in this run than I could have any where else on earth..

A few minor adjustments to the rig and it wasn't long before he hooked up with fish a whole lot bigger than was expected to be seen in this run. That fish bossed the boy to submission and we will both admit that the first 7 seconds kicked his butt but good.

The water moving pretty quickly and the presents of fish over 20 inches, Tell's me to get the kid on 3 or 4x... That's not a sacrifice I'm willing to make, nor one I am willing to teach.. I did bump his lead fly up to 5x but fished the tailing fly with 6..
Dylan's second hook up was unbelievable and made the first one look like a shiner minnow. While rushing trying to get the fish on the reel before it was truly on the line, The fish found a rock to u-turn on just as soon as the boys eyes left the fish and looked at the reel... "what did you learn son?" "I learned to get them {on} before I get them on the reel, never take my eyes off of my opponent and keep my rod tip high and bent when the fish is deep around rocks"

The next fish to take the fly, got "sock it to em" and a perfect job he did in getting an energetic trout to the net in a hurry. Winding up with a 2/4 ratio of hooked to hand. Fair enough.
lessons learned... Takes the day from good to great!


"Young marks" a term Dylan started when he was in my pack... those lighter bigger spots that the younger fish have will be called "young marks" for ever.

Pump It Up

Been pumping up the streamer box with a few cone heads... I am partial to the cone for some reason, and in the color of gold. I'm pretty sure that it comes down to balance. I don't want my wiggly streamers doing headstands everywhere they fall... They are a little head heavy so they can scoop food from the bottom but a pack as much led in to the middle of these flies as I can possibly get away with. As heavely dressed as some streamer's are with material, it still slows down the sink like the parachute of a skydiver... In other words the more lead you can get in it, the more material you can tie to the fly and thus giving you more freedom to vary your retrieves..

These flies are tied with the colors that I know, the colors that they know, on size 4, size 6, and I skip over 8 and go a size 10 for the double streamer rigs.

Often times leading with a small black one (which has a purple under body) and then I tail a bigger size 4 behind it. Nothin like a little game of chase, three fish deep!

I also play the light color game in a big way and I match it. A sunny day gets a sunny fly and a dark day gets a dark one... When those afternoon thunder storms roll in and the sky turns grey with stirring clouds... the grey ones light up my life!

Please forgive me if my photo is a little out of focus, I am not a photographer but a fly fisherman who may have things like water and mud on the lense of the camera. I gave it a lick and a wipe with my dirty finger, pulled the trigger.

Curtain Climber

This One of my Streamers to entice a brown to eat one of it's own.

Curtain Climber is a name that a childhood friends father would call us kids as we ran in and out of the house. That's what little brown trout do, until they get reprimanded. I'm pretty sure He was just comparing us to a litter of wild kittens.

The Curtain Climber will work wonders in water with a large brown trout population.

I suggest researching when the eggs from the brown trout hatch in your stream and plan the Curtain Climber streamer accordingly..

If you need this pattern or tying instruction... Just lightly beat it out of me.

Utah.... You better watch it! (wiggle wiggle)

What's on Your Plate

I received this news flash today regarding the fishy license plates for the state of Colorado.

Dang!
Greetings!
We are disappointed to report that House Bill 11-1034 to establish the 'Protect Our Rivers' license plate was defeated in the House Agricultural Committee. There were a variety of factors in play, but the bottom line was that several of the committee members did not want to see CTU become better funded.

At this point, we are considering options to modify the bill and bring it back at a later time, but it will not be in the 2010 legislative session. We would like to thank you for supporting CTU and the license plate bill by signing the petition.


If you would like to be informed of future updates, we encourage you to sign up on the CTU email list by clicking the link below.

Sincerely,

The Colorado Trout Unlimited Team

Colorado Trout Unlimited
1536 Wynkoop St.
Denver, Colorado 80202
(303) 440-2937

The Only Thing

The only thing stopping me now is a great big giant wall of frozen water seeping a jelly of Ice razor blades.

This spot gets so cold that the bottom of the river gets taller with ice by the minute, If I were to try to fish and I have, My leader gets as thick as the butt of the rod. while under water even. Not worth it. I'll tell you what is though. That's making the trip to the river to see it like this, and just know that the fish are beside them selves with happiness in that cold water. There is enough little stuffs in there to keep their belly's round.

I wonder how much slush a fish eats in the winter?

Fine Then

I'm Just going to tie some huge streamers!

The weather has been brutal to say the least and fishing is just out of the question. Been working over the streamer box Instead. As a way to get even so to speak, I'm going with big junk to make them chase, flies that nearly kill fish rather than sticky little stuff for the insect connoisseurs.

Steps:

1: Bead the hook and load the vise.

2: Tie in some brown or black marabou at the tail and add a small piece of rabbit strip to that tail.

3: Tie in a strand of silver wire.

4: Dub the body with something that looks and smells good.

5: wrap the wire ribbing

6: Tie another strip of rabbit to the top of the shank, trying to get the length to stop with the other piece of rabbit previously tied at the tail, but leaving room to work your deer hair.

7: Tie in a clump of white marabou as the throat.

8: Deer hair heads can give you a headache but the point of it is, to keep the fly upright and not spinning. Tie in a pinch of deer hair, tightening the wraps as you go. When you get it secure with 5 or 6 the run your thread through the butt ends of the hair fibers letting them fray and spin.

Tip: Keep your thread at the breaking point!

9: Whip it, half hitch it, glue it, or tie your thread in a a bow and then, Neatly trim the butt ends of the deer hair.

(note): If the space behind the cone is too big, (mine's pushing it) just add some Ice dubbing or something of th sort... I like the look of red Ice. It may resemble gills or a bloody wound from a previous attack.

10: Slap the bank, let er fall, wake it up, Wiggle wiggle.........