Deckers Carp Fishing?!?!?

Nice surprise fishing Deckers today!  My buddy caught this on a size 24 Mercury Midge!! Who would have thought!

Juanna Be Hopper Juan

Wanna send a huge shout out to Juan Ramirez for hooking me up with some of his packs for the Juanna Be Hopper Juans.  I bought some of the Hopper Juan packs from him at the Fly Fishing Show, but I wanted to tie some of the little brothers.  Spent the evening tying a few of the Juanna Be's up, and I think they turned out pretty good.  Cannot wait to throw these on Bear Creek this week to see how much the fish like them.  You can check out Juan's incredible blog at hopperjuan.blogspot.com.

Upper Colorado- 5/25/12

South Padre Island Fishing

Had a chance last Saturday to do some fishing around South Padre Island for a few hours.  I really wanted to fish the flats for redfish, but I didn't want to spend 500 dollars to hire a guide, so we went out on a boat and fished for Red Snapper and Grouper.  Not the Rockies, but at least it was fishing.  Highlight was catching a Bonita while trolling out to the Red Snapper zone.  Fish fought real hard.

Bonita

Red Snapper

Mayfly Nymph Side

After spending almost 10 weeks in South Texas, I am coming back home on May 11th for good.  And I am coming ready to fish!!  I am nearing completion on the other side of the Umpqua fly box, meaning I have tied nearly 500 flies since I've been down here.  I tied mostly classic Colorado nymphs, but messed around with some of the other cool patterns out there.  Also, I have a few newbies that I played around with (not to say I didn't borrow some ideas from other tiers).  I cannot wait to get home and try them in the mountains to see if they work out.  I will be showing some tying steps for the ones that I have created in the next few weeks.  All I can say is I have never been more excited to get home, and attack the rivers, and I know I will be ready to roll as soon as I get home!!

From Bottom Right: Pheasant Tails, Biot Emergers, Turkey Tail Nymphs, Beadhead Flashback Pheasant Tails, Mercury Flashback Pheasant Tails

Dorsey's Mercury Mayflies, Gray and Olive Mercury Sparkle Wing RS2's, Ramirez Glossy Back Baetis, Pennington's Stuffed Olive Nymph

Ramirez Glossy Back Baetis, Pennington's Stuffed Olive Nymph, Craven's Flashback JuJu Baetis, Cutthroats' Nymph TBD #1, Tyvek Baetis

Tungsten Skinny Nelson, Cutthroats Nymph TBD #2, Cutthroats Nymph TBD #3, Gunkels's Shot Glass Baetis, Cutthroats Nymph TBD #4

I still have one full row to fill up, and I'm thinking that variations of Barr Emergers will fill that row.  The bottom row is a collection of throw aways.  I will probably give those to my father, and fill that up with another pattern when it feels right.  In the last 10 weeks, I have either done two things, work or tie flies.  After looking back at what the box has become, I am happy with the results.  My fly tying is continuing to improve, and I look forward to building off what I have started.  It makes me more excited to start the next box, and just keep stacking them up.  You better watch out Colorado, cause I am coming for you!!

Deckers 4/16/12

My flight back to Texas wasn't until late Monday, so I took the chance to head up to Deckers to fish for a while.  I spent an amazing morning on the river by myself, not seeing another angler until noon.  I brought about 10 to the net with a mixture of midge and BWO nymphs.  Flies of the day were Top Secret Midge (#24) and Mercury Flashback Pheasant Tail (#20).  My time in Texas is starting to come to a close, and I will soon be back in my beloved state of Colorado, chasing trout all the over Rockies.  Until then, all I have is the memories of fishing trips to get me through.  Enjoy the pictures that I got!!

Gorgeous morning in Deckers

First fish of the morning

Midge Box

My job has recently taken me very far away from my beloved Rockies, and forced me to miss out on the fantastic spring fishing that I have been reading about.  South Texas is home for me for a few months, leaving me to only dream about the caddis hatch on the Ark, and the rainbows on the Dream Stream.  Luckily, I brought along some of my tying stuff to keep me busy down here while not working.  I bought an Umpqua Fly Merchants medium box, with the goal of filling up the entire box by the time that I get back to Colorado.  My plan is to fill one side completely with midges, while the other side will be a mixture of BWO, PMD, and caddis nymphs.  It took me three weeks to finish the midge side, and I think it turned out pretty swell.  I focused on small patterns for the midge side, tying nothing larger than a size 20.  Most of the patterns are South Platte River patterns, focusing mostly on midges that I have had success with in Cheesman Canyon.  I feel confident that I go to most tailwaters in the state, equipped only with this fly box, I will be successful.  Being down here in South Texas,  at least tying helps me to stay connected to the sport that I love, dreaming about the day I get back to Colorado, grab a fly rod, and chase trout in the mountains.

My tying desk in the Marriott I've been calling home.

Midge Side of Box

From Right: Dorsey's Mercery Black Beauty, Ramirez's UV Pearl Jam Midge, South Platte Specials, Variations of  Garcia's Rojo midge, Shuck Khan midge, and Kleis' Mojo midge.

KF Midge Emerger, Dorsey's Mercury midge, Cream thread midge, Yong Special

Assortment of Yong Specials, Assortment of Barr's Pure Midge Larvae, Red Hot midge, Red Mercury Brassie, Cinnamon midge, and a white variation of Mercury Blood midge

Dorsey's Mercury Blood midge, Christmas Tree midge, and annelids

New Goodies (Part 2) GoPro Camera & Broken Hand

So the second installment of my new goodies section brings a little bit of bad luck.  I've been skiing my entire life, and have been lucky to not suffer any major injuries.........until last weekend.  I was skiing through the trees at Breck, probably shouldn't have because of the lack of snow, but the little snow we did have looked oh so tempting.  I slashed over a large group of rocks, with my trailing hand also hiting the rocks.  At first I thought it was my thumb, but later found out that I had broken the 2nd and 3rd metacarpal in my hand.  No fly fishing or tying for me until I get this damn cast off on Feb. 29th.

Which brings me to the goodies part.  My beautiful fiance bought me a GoPro camera for Christmas.  I look forward to filming my fishing and skiing exploits with it.  I think it will be a very cool addition to the blog.  So here is my first video, showing the run with the broken hand.  Sorry for being short, but it's tough to type with only one hand.

New Goodies (Part 1)

Happy 2012 to everyone!!!

Have not posted in forever, and my New Year's resolution is to post at least once a week all year.  I already missed the first couple weeks, so here is my first post of the year.

I received some BassPro shops gift certificates for Christmas, and had spent the few weeks after Christmas thinking about what I wanted to spend them on.  I was determined to buy a wading jacket for winter fishing, but the selection left a lot to be desired, so I settled on buying a new vise.

Heading to BassPro, I knew that the Peak Rotary Vise was the only way to go.  I spend a fair share of my time sitting in front of my fly tying bench, and this vise has been the absolute best purchase to improve my fly tying.  I really enjoy tying up miniscule midge patterns, and I had been working with a crappy old vise that I constantly had to adjust to keep the damn hooks in the vise.  With this new vise, problem solved.  I have yet to have a hook even think about slipping.

I sat down today to break in the vise, and tied up a couple dozen little midge patterns.  Size 24 Top Secret Midges and size 22 South Platte Brassies.  There is just something that I love about tying flies, and watching football.  Probably the thing that I think about most while trying to get through another work week.  Hope all is well with everyone, and here's to an awesome year of fishing in 2012.

San Juan River (aka Heaven)

Haven't posted in a while, so here is a big one loaded with a bunch of pictures.  Spent four days fishing the San Juan below Navajo Dam last week.  I fished the San Juan back in June during high water at 5500 CFS, so was not sure how  different the river would be 10 times lower.  We absolutely slayed it!!!!!  Never had so much fun fishing in my entire life.  One of the best parts of the trip was hiring the famous Andy Kim for a day.  It was crazy to learn the A.K. system of fly fishing.  First thing he said to me after looking the Yong Special that I had tied up and was using, "Not a bad fly Mark, but let's tie on a real one."  We had a good laugh at that.  Pretty incredible the way that man catches fish.   Flies of the trip were Yong Special, Yong Flasher, Yong Wing, Mercury Pheasant Tail, and sparkle wing RS2.  Here are a bunch of photos that do a pretty good job of explaining the complete awesomeness of this place.

My father being "schooled" by Andy Kim

Look how fat this fish is!!!

My favorite pic of the trip!!

Last fish of the trip.  Right at Sunset