I Learned something last week

Today I went out to the Roaring Fork river in Glenwood Springs, to test myself and to see if I learned anything last weekend The water was clearing up from the rain we had last week, just clear enough to try to fish. I missed a major caddis hatch while I was in Durango last week, so today I was hoping to get the tail end of the hatch and some good dry fly action. I got to the river and I did not see any caddis, so I tied on a "rubber leg stone fly" as my lead fly followed by a "San Juan worm" in the middle and a "caddis larva" as the trailer, if I could fish more than 3 fly's I would, (Colorado parks and wildlife Regs state no more than 3 fly's on a line)

After making some depth adjustments to my rig I found where the fish were holding and the fishing became catching. I caught a rainbow, a cut-bow, a mountain whitefish, and several sucker fish. I had a couple of fish break off the line during the fight, those might have been nice fish but I will never know. If I had a dollar for every time a fish broke my line, I would have much better fishing gear.

I think I learned a thing or two last week. I was able to get nice long drifts on most of my casts. I was able to notice the slightest movement in my strike indicator which led to more fish in my net. Like I said in my last post, a good guide trip will leave you a better fisherman at the end of the day. I am feeling better about my angling skills after today's success

San Juan slay fest

Hi Everybody,

I just got back from a trip on the San Juan River in New Mexico. The fishing was great. I went down to visit my friend Jesse. I got 2 days of fishing on one of the greatest rivers in the world.

loading up the boat before the river

Jesse booked a guide for a float trip on Friday. we woke up late and had to get breakfast at a gas station on the way (we drank way too much Peach Street Bourbon the night before.). we made it in time to get our gear  together before our guide Tom from Duranglers pulled up with his boat. We got on the river at 8:30 am. the guide built our rigs with small midge nymphs, weight and set our strike indicators to the proper depth. Tom gave Jesse and me some pointers on how to mend the line as we drift along the river and some other useful tips,

We spent most of the day floating "Texas hole". we would float down and tom would row the boat back up to the top of the run and we would drift along and catch fish each time we drifted through the run. we spent half of the day fishing "Texas hole" 

Jesse and our guide Tom

After a lunch of a turkey sandwich and a beer, we headed down river fishing as we drifted through the runs, catching fish the whole time on the way down the river. We caught so many trout I lost count. my arm was beginning to get tired by the time we got close to the take out

one of the hogs I caught. 

.I recommend everyone should fish with a guide at least once. I have done it twice now. A good guide trip will leave you with more fishing knowledge and a better angler for the next time you go out.  the next day we went back to the river and I caught fish right away. we moved up to the upper flats and I caught fish. we went back to "Texas hole" and I caught fish. This trip has made me a much better fisherman and I cant wait to get back on my local rivers and test myself and what I learned.

Back at it again.

got one

Hola amigos, I know its been a while since I rapped at you, but I have been busy and not fishing enough. I am back at it now that the weather is warming up and spring time is coming.

Last week I was able to get out and fish the Roaring Fork River in Glenwood Springs,

I started out the day at a spot near the airport, I set up with a three nymph rig. a egg as the lead fly, a stone-fly pattern below that and a jujube midge as the third fly. The fishing was good, I caught a brownie within five minutes. I worked the area below the airport and got some more bites and caught a white fish, always cool to catch a true native species of fish. 

(the rainbow trout and brown trout were introduced to Colorado in the late 1800s.)

While fishing the airport run I ran out of tippet material, I went to the fly shop in Glenwood and picked up some tippet and some fly's, I talked to Tom at the fly shop, he told me of another spot in town to try. I worked the same rig at the new spot near the park in town and caught a nice rainbow, as I was reeling it in the fish did a spectacular tail walk across the river and shook loose. after that I got all tangled up and decided to call it a day.

Today, 

I decided to stay close to home, I went to the river park in Silt. I got to the river and there was still Ice on the shore line. I walked along the river for a while until the ice started to melt. after about a half hour the river started to warm up and melt the ice. I was fishing with a three nymph rig again, a stone-fly as a lead, a san juan worm in the middle and a chartreuse  midge as the trailer. I worked the south channel for about a hour and had no luck in that area, so I moved to the main channel to the north. I started up stream and worked back to the parking area. I found some nice water along the bank and caught a nice brownie. I caught it on a chartreuse midge pattern I tied myself.

nice brownie

 

 I had some more bites while working this area. If I was a better fisherman I would have caught many more.  I will be better about keeping this blog updated and hopefully I have some good story's to tell this season.

Many thanks to Marisa Vines for her excellent photographs

slow going on the river

Hi everyone, I know I have been slacking with the blog. I have been going out on the rivers as often as I can, but with the hot weather the fishing has slowed down. I have had a couple of good days on Rifle creek north of town. and with the run off finally over I can go and fish the Roaring Fork and Colorado rivers, this is good news because I don't have to drive 1.5 hours to get to a good river.  I have also been tying a lot of fly's to use on the rivers around here

here are some of the fly's I have tied

Some of the fish I have been catching

Good times on the river

Hi everyone. I know its been a while since my last post, but the fishing has been very limited this spring due to the high water on the rivers and a bad case of pneumonia that put me in the hospital for a couple of days. I am all recovered now and have gone out fishing on some lakes around here. this last weekend my best friend Jesse drove up from Durango to go fishing for his 30th birthday. I took thursday and friday off of work so we could get lots of good fishing in a few days.

The only river that has low water is the Frying pan River below Reudi reservoir. The river was higher and faster than normal but not as high as some of the other local rivers due to the control of water coming out of the dam. We got to the river around 9am thursday. We found a spot in the flats directly below the dam and started fishing. I caught one within 15 minutes but that was the only one of the day. Jesse over herd some people who had a guide with them saying "I caught it on a candy cane". I had no idea what a candy cane fly looks like. After a while we got lunch and tried to pick up some candy cane fly at the local shop. The guy at the shop had no clue what we were asking for and recommended a mysis shrimp pattern to use. We drove back to the upper river and got back in the same area we fished in the morning we had some bites but caught nothing. We went back home and looked up candy cane fly and tied up a bunch for friday.

                  These are the flys that we tied up and caught a bunch of fish with

                          some of the shrimp from the shop in Basalt. they do catch fish

                                      some of the "candy cane"  flys we tied up

Friday we headed back up to the flats below the dam. We got there around 7:30am and very few people, so we were able to get the spot the guide and his clients were fishing on thursday. We both set up with a shrimp and our own versions of the candy cane and the fishing was great. I started the day by catching 2 brown trout on the first 2 casts. I caught a few more and Jesse still had not caught any. I wanted to help but did not know what to do, he came up here for his birthday and hadn't caught a single fish. He made some adjustments to his rig ,and next thing I hear is "I got one". Jesse was on fire. A fish slayer. He kept catching fish. It was awesome. The two of us with  the flys we tied were catching fish all day long.

                                                                  a nice brownie

                                                                another brownie

                                                                  Jesse on the hunt

      sometimes nice people will help net your fish and ask if you have a extra fly that has been working all day

                                          

On Saturday we returned to the same spot about 7am nobody there. We tied on the same fly patterns we were using on friday. I started the day the same way I finished friday. We had a great day. and caught a bunch of fish.  after a long day of "combat fishing" (jockeying for position on the river for the best spots) we decided to go home and celebrate a great fishing outing with cold beer and local whiskey. 

Day 4&5

The other day after work the weather was nice, I decided to go fishing. I went to Lion's Pond at the rest area here in Rifle. It is a nice spot that is close to home. I walked to the far side of the pond with my dog, I noticed some fish rising to flys on the surface. I casted a caddis pattern out near where I saw the fish rise. I caught a bluegill. Bluegill are a small warm water fish. Not as regal as a trout but a fish none the less. I kept catching these bluegill all afternoon. the only problem is they don't put up a fight like a trout, they kind of play dead until they get released, kind of boring if you ask me. The next time I go to Lions Pond. I will bring my camera and get some pictures.




Today I went back to the "Pan". It was a great day for fishing. The weather was lousy, but the fishing was awesome. Started out slow, I has a couple of fish on the line but I lost them. As the day progressed the fishing became catching. It was a slay fest. While I was setting up in the parking area I met a guy picking up litter around the river. His name is Pete, he told me he is a guide at a shop out of Aspen. We talked about the river for a while, he went to his truck and came back with a fly box. He gave me some of his flys he likes to use on the Pan. What a cool guy. I thanked him for the flys and he left. The upper parts of the river were hit or miss fishing. I moved around alot the first fish of the day was a small brownie. no pic. left the camera in the truck. I caught the brownie on a pattern called a Roy's emerger, named for Roy Palm, a local legend on the Pan. I fished the upper river for a few hours until I got too cold. Jumped in the truck and headed down river.

I found a spot on the lower river, nobody was there so I scouted it out. The fish were rising everywhere I looked. I kept the Roy's emerger tied on and added a jujube midge to trail behind the dry fly. I had a fish on the first cast. It was a small rainbow trout. about 10'' long

I kept fishing this spot for a couple of hours and caught some more fish. most of them shook loose before I could land them (I blame barbless hooks) but I got a few of them to the net. The fishing finally slowed down around 4:00. I was cold and the dog was too, so I called it a day and headed back home. Maybe the Roaring Fork River tomorrow.

I'm not a writer or a fishing expert.

I wanted to apologise to everyone for my poor use of punctuation  marks,./; I have a idea where they go and how to use them, but as a electrician I don't do much writing. I also want to apologise for lack of detail in the storys, and using fishing terms only a fisherman would understand. maybe by the end of this I might learn something about writing.