Photo Blog: My Fly fishing year

Another Long Time Coming

Its been a long while I think a year to the day that I posted last. A lot has happened, I quit working for the Caddis Company and Bass Pro to come back to Colorado and Work as the Head Guide for Colorado Freestone Fly Shop and Guide service. The Arkansas behind my house looks like chocolate milk and is running at 2020cfs. After a meagre caddis hatch, which Ed Engle wrote an article about me for the Boulder Daily Camera and which made Midcurrent.com, fishing the rivers has pretty much ceased. I am fishing in a lake tournament next weekend in Pagosa Springs also.

I now live in Howard Colorado population 1201. elevation around 7500 feet. I live right above the shop which is located right on Hwy 50. All is going well for the time being.

I fished spinney mountain Reservior last week in 9in of snow on the ground, and snow blowing all day but the rewards were worth it.

Long Time Coming

A lot has happened since my last post. I went to cody for the trials and I placed 12th overall and 4th of the non team members. I went through a lot and almost died by drowning, but luckily I was wearing my wading belt. I will never buy Korkers Boots again in my life because of the removable soles. They are what caused me to slip and get swept away by the river.

Last weekend I fished in a tournament in Monte Vista and we placed second with 42 fish caught. 15 pike, 1 tinch, 25 trout, 1 bass. Good experience.

The area rivers here in Durango are blown out due to run off and so it is time to fish the lakes. Haviland and Pastorius are going off now with fish coming on wooly buggers, some of my own patterns, hares ears, phesant tails, wingless princes.

I have a couple trips lined up so im excited to get started back guiding.

Fly Fishing Team USA Trials

Im off to my second set of trials for the US Fly Fishing team. I'm Traveling to Cody Wyoming to fish the Clarks Fork river and a couple lakes in the area. Ill post a report when I return.

Fishing Season

After a below agerage ski season, the fishing season is picking up. We have had one blow out of the river from the low altitude snow pack, which made the BWO hatch really screw up. The Animas is still rising from the higher elevations of melting snow and the water is COLD!!! If you get out and fish, you should use bigger flies with some flash. ie #14 flash back phesant tails, or some flash back caddis. Fish the seams where the shallow riffles drop to about 3-4 feet. the fish are holding in the slower water. If you dont want to fish for the trouties, the pike are running at Vallecito. Throw big bunny leeches, or clousers size 1/0 or bigger. I moved a 48" er last night at dark. The fish are litterally holding in 4" of water.

Tight lines and screaming reels

A Tip on Tipping

This is an article on tipping your guide from the fellas at midcurrent.com. After having an excellent day on the water and only getting tipped 5%, I wondered if it really was an excellent day after all. Although I will hopefully book another trip with them in the near future on my home waters, well that is if they decide to call me back. I had an excellent time with the couple. Neither of them had really ever been fly fishing before. So what comes with neophytes and fly fishing.......expect line tangles and re rigging almost every cast Make sure you carry about 10 leaders per person. Luckily I got away with having 6 total. I stopped counting at 20 re rigs. Make sure you have 20 of any slingle pattern. You can expect to lose about 19 of them.

Think of it as if you were a guide. For the extra work that you put in for a beginner, would you want to just get a $20? First off, gas is extremely high so figure what the guide has to pay out of his pocket to make this trip worth while. Did you ride with the guide or did you take your own vehicle? Was the guide on time? Were you on time? What did you learn from the experience? How many flies did you lose or how many times did the guide have to re-rig your flies. Did the guide work hard to put you on the fish? Dont tell the guide that you had an excellent day, you had a really good time, and that the trip was more than you could ask for; then only tip 5%!

Those are just some of the things that you need to take into account when you book a trip. For a full day trip, even the worst guide should get momre than a 20!

Awesome Jacket

A premium shell –like our 8x Jacket– keeps foul weather from halting great fishing.

Eaten by the River

The worst thing that could possibly happen to a fly fisherman while fishing is getting eaten by the river. Granted this happens to me just about every time that I go fishing, but not every time I fall in is getting eaten per say. When I get eaten by the river, I mean getting swept down stream and filling up your waders with water, possibly losing some if not all of your equipment. That is a rare occassion. When it happens to me, it usually is the coldest time of the year. The Los Pinos...aka the Pine to the locals, was the first river to "eat" me. In fact, it was the first time that I ever fished it. My boss Brian had just caught a beautiful 20 in. rainbow. Which for the Pine is an excellent fish.

The Missionary Ridge fire had taken its toll on the fishery nad burned more than 30 miles in a straight line from my house to Vallecito Reservoir. The debris and ash from the fires in 2002 pretty much destroyed everything including the fish and aquatic life. But it is making a comeback.

On my way to photograph his fish, I had chosen a spot to wade across that was not too treacherous. So I thought. I had waded about half way across and the strength of the river was too much for me to handle. The Pine is not like the Animas. The Animas is made up of larger rocks and boulders. The pine is made up of smaller gravel and sand. Therefore there is no place to wedge your feet between the rocks. and the current flows strong. In my own ignorance I completely turned around and faced upstream and the river swept my feet out from under me and completely engulfed me. I was taken about 30 yards down stream where I clung to a rock still grasping my flyrod and my pack. I regained my self and was able to wade out of the river with completely full of water and really freaking cold. This all took place in April. In the High country, it stays cold for a while and gets cold even quicker as the sun dissapears behind peaks. Needless to say, I didn't get to photograph his fish because my camera had now become water logged.

I sat naked on the shore so as to not keep my soaked clothes against my body and to help dry off some. NEVER wear jeans under your waders no matter how long you think you will be fishing. I will never forget that day.

To top it all off, I was skunked.

Portugal 2006: World Flyfishing Championships

CONGRATULATIONS team USA. 2nd time in the top 10. Shout out also goes to Lance Egan with a 24th place out of 110 and to George Daniel with a 5th place finish. Finland 2007 is next June.

Bluegill is the New first defense to Eco Terrorism

Bluegills first defense to detect toxins in water, and prevent massive attacks