Colorado River- 5/31/15

Added a couple new experiences this past weekend to the old belt; fly fishing from a raft on one of the most famous stretches of river in the world and trying to catch the mystical Colorado River salmonfly hatch.

One of my buddies just pulled the trigger on a sweet raft outfitted with a fishing frame, giving us the capability to start exploring different waters than we are used to, starting with the Colorado River from State Bridge to Catamount.  I have traditionally been a wade angler, carrying my large pack full of flies around my shoulder, and exploring our local waters on foot.  While I will always love this style of fishing, it will be a complete new experience learning how to catch fish from a boat.  Even though I was a little apprehensive, I had the opportunity to get on the sticks for a few hours and start learning how to maneuver a boat down a river.  It really is a team environment from the raft, because if the rower doesn't get the raft into the correct run, the anglers just float down the river missing all of the fishy water.  

We had heard the Salmonflies had hatched on the Upper Colorado, and we were stoked to be heading up with the chance of catching this short lived hatch.  While we saw lots of the bugs flying around the river, and lots in the water, the river was just too high and dirty for the fishing to turn onto that epic level.  With a float that typically takes 7 hours, we flew down the river and got to the takeout 14 miles later at Catamount in just under 5.  Pretty crazy seeing and hearing these massive insects fly around the river, and can only imagine how crazy awesome it would be to see the all of the fish in the river take notice and start gorging themselves on them.  Now with this boat, there will be more chances to do this kind of thing in the future, and really use it to see some beautiful areas of the state and chase some pretty fish.

Still Here and Still Got It

Woke up bright and early this morning, and spent an absolutely perfect Colorado morning on the pond, re-learning how to cast and feeling that sweet bend of the rod.  Felt great to be out in the water, and felt even better to feel some nice Pike smack your fly.  Looking forward to more time on the water in the coming months, and really anticipating when the little guy can start coming with me on the water.  Perfect way to spend a nice Saturday morning off from work!

Lazy Sunday Morning

Spent the morning lazily looking through my fly boxes, swapping flies from one to another, and making a list of flies I need to tie to get them back up to my expectations.  If the fishing is going to be hard to come by in the near future, at least I can be ready for when I do start getting back on the water.

Brody Thomas Vibber

Sorry for the lack of blog activity over the last couple months, as the fishing part of my life has taken a backseat as my wife and I got ready to welcome the newest fisherman to the family, Brody Thomas.  Born 2/27/15, this little guy has turned our world upside down.  I'm counting down the days until I can get a fly rod into his little hands.

Deckers- 1/10/15

Ahhh....that's better!  Finally found a free day from work to hit up the local ditch with my Pops, making our way up to see how the South Platte was running on an absolutely perfect Colorado winter day.  Spent the morning shaking off the rust while searching for fish in the holes around Bridge Crossing, and looking through my deplenished pack for the perfect midge.  Felt great to get back into the waders, and feel that tug at the end of the line.  With my life about to change in a big way here in about 7 weeks, not sure how much time I'm going to have a fly rod in my hand this year, so I need to enjoy every minute that I am able to sneak away.

The river looked great as usual, with many nice, healthy fish spotted.  Even with the Fly Fishing Show going strong down in Denver, the river was packed full of anglers, looking to get out and enjoy a perfect January day.  Although the fishing wasn't on fire, we managed to bring some fish to the net and enjoy the area around Deckers for the morning before heading back to Denver.

Holidays and Withdrawals

After starting out the year with a bang, the end of 2014 has been a big dud on the fly fishing front.  This is the longest that I've gone without having the rod in my hand since I first picked up fly fishing 5 years ago.  With my very challenging (aka stressful, terrible, worst ever, etc.) construction project just about to come to an end, I know that brighter days are ahead, filled with leaping rainbows and monster browns ( I can hope, right?).  I spend my days dreaming of the water, and reflecting on some of the amazing experiences that I had this year, spending time with my fishing buddies and catching some pretty amazing fish.  I have never had withdrawals like this in my entire life, and I need something to make this feeling go away.

With the end of the year fast approaching, I would like to extend a very Happy Holidays to all my fellow fly fishermen.  May Santa bring you all new Scott Radians and Fishpond packs this Christmas.  I would like to close out this year with a few of my favorite photos from the year.  It are moments like these that come to mind, and make me excited for when life slows down a little bit, and allows for more time on the water.

Signs

Stagecoach Tailwater- 9/11-9/12

Continued on our journey towards Steamboat and the Yampa River below Stagecoach Reservoir.  I've fished the Yampa through the town of Steamboat and below town on some private ranches with great success, so I was really excited to fish another section of this incredible river.  Without a doubt, the river through Stagecoach State Park is one of the prettiest sections of river in the entire state.  There is nice trout water holding some very large, very tough fish.  I would have to say that this river requires the same techniques that we use on another famous tailwater: the San Juan.  6X tippet with miniscule flies were needed to draw very subtle strikes, with annelids and midge the majority of the fishes source of food.

I really enjoyed to continue to fish the Blue Halo glass rod.  After fishing mostly graphite rods for the last couple years, it is such a different feeling to use a slower rod, forcing you to slow down all aspects of your fishing.  When you get a fish on the line, it really enhances the connection you feel to the fish, as you can feel every powerful run and head shake with the sensitive tip.  I need to figure out what color and I'm going to order, and the rod will be making its way from the Blue Halo guys in Salt Lake City.  I'm so pumped up to add this amazing fly rod to my arsenal and continue to fish it across the west.

With every trip, they come to close, and it's time to point the Jeep back home.  This was a great little trip with my Dad, fishing some new water and catching some nice fish.  This trip also continued an ongoing trend that I hope to put to an end soon; my Dad catching the biggest fish of the trip.

Blue River- 9/10/14

After catching a few pike early last week, it was time to head up into the mountains to catch my first love: trout.  I left Denver bright and early to beat all of the rush hour traffic, and almost felt sorry for the people out there heading to work.  Almost.  Pulled into Silverthorne just as the sun was coming up.  I love early mornings on the river, stringing up your rod and pulling your waders on, with the anticipation of the day ahead of you.  You never know if you'll catch the fish of a lifetime, or on the other hand, not catch a fish at all.

Big shout out to Cameron Mortenson (The Fiberglass Manifesto) for hooking me up with a brand new Blue Halo fiberglass fly rod as part of his rod demo program.  I've been looking at these rods for the last couple of months on the internet, and was super excited to find the 5 wt in my hands just days before I was to head out for this trip.  I had casted this thing on my lawn and really liked the feel, and thought it would be just perfect for playing some Blue River monsters on 6X.

Started the day up by the dam, sight fishing to fish in every pool.  With the higher flows all summer, it appears that the fish have been feeding heavily on Mysis Shrimp.  There were fat and healthy fish everywhere, and they were feeding hard.  I wasn't sure how the softer glass rod would perform with a nymph rig compared to my graphite rods, and I was thrilled to find this rod more than capable to do pretty much anything I wanted.  Roll casting this rod was my favorite part, as it was effortless to cast the flies wherever I wanted them to go.  Ultimate test was hooking some big trout, and I just loved the feeling of this rod bending over when a  big trout was on the line.  Even though the rod was softer, it had more than enough backbone to corral in some big fish, and with the supple tip, you knew the fragile tippet was going to be protected throughout the fight.

After spending the day fishing by myself all through town, I was eager for my Dad to make the drive up the hill and meet me.  We had decided to fish some new water, and were headed out of town to see what kind of fish we could find.  More about the trip in the next post.

Lake Ladora- 9/9/14

I have the rest of the week off to chase trout in the mountains, so I started my time off by chasing some toothy critters at the Arsenal this morning.  The best feeling in fly fishing is having a large Pike inhale your fly, and listening to your rod hum as it takes off like a torpedo.  Was able to land three this morning before the lake turned off, giving me the rest of the day to prepare for what is in store the rest of the week.  Gonna load up the Jeep and head west, fishing new water and hopefully catching some nice fish.