Finally, a spark

Today Stefan and I went fishing.   Although we'd been numerous times before, usually with me hooking the fish and him reeling it in, this was the first time I woke him "early" before mom got up. 

At 6:00 I got up and put two rods and a tackle box in the truck and then went to wake Stefan.   Although we talked about it the night before, I was not sure we would wake up raring to go.  I was wrong - he jumped out of bed.  We whispered as we got some breakfast and sneaked quietly out the side garage door so as not to wake up mom with the main door. On the way to the lake, I took a longer route over dirt roads, rather than the highway, and snaked through the countryside as the sun began to brighten.

At first he was bored and I thought it would be another quick trip.   Then, he took the spinning rod I had rigged with a slip bobber and Powerbait and dropped the bait into the water 12 inches from shore.  Immediately small bluegills darted toward his bait and teased the bobber under.  He was able to see the fish take the bait and he set the hook himself, lifting in small fish to shore.   Now he was excited, and he continued for 20 minutes pulling 8 fish to shore with countless others falling off the hook.  "This is fun", he said.  One monster, abut 2 inches long, gave us a laugh.   He also figured out how to work the spinning reel...opening the bail, tripping it, casting a bit.

Afterward, we topped it off with fine dining at Denny's for breakfast.

Roaring Fork Valley

Spend the last weekend of July doing some recon for an upcoming trip with my dad.   We'll be staying on the Pan and Fork cabin style.   I wanted to scout the area so that we minimize the time spent looking for places to fish.   As this was my first trip to the valley I doing a fair bit of driving around, but the fishing I did get in was good.

I started driving up the Frying Pan, marking likely spots on my GPS as I drove upstream.   I ended up below the dam and caught some nice browns and rainbows on 18ish emergers and nymphs.   Drove to the Crystal and was amazed at how low it was - if I pee'd in it it would have risen   Scouted the Roaring Fork and went back to the pan.  Caught a really nice 18" brown on the surface during a spinner fall at dusk.  No-one on the stream at this hour, which was quite opposite earlier in the day.

All in all, about 5 hrs fished and 8-10 trout landed, with most 16"+.

Eagle River

I had a few evening hours open up while we were in Edwards, CO.  It was the middle of a string of 95 degree days and I hit the river upstream of Eagle just south of the Diamond S Ranch.   Caddis were everywhere, thick, thick, thick.   Swarms of them hovering above the willow bushes, crawling on their limbs, racing upstream over the riffles.  But nothing was stirring on the fish end of things.   As the sun met the western mountain tops a few fish finally rose.  I had three take caddis on top but couldn't get them to net.  One good fish switched from a splashy rise to a rolling emerger chaser before I hooked him.  At one point I looked across river and saw two large elk at waters edge, with about a half dozen or so of their relatives in the field beyond.

Morning run scenery

Turkey Hunting in PA

I had a chance to spend some time with my parents last weekend in PA.  Played chess with mom, ate a few good  meals with them and my sis' family, and I had a neat little turkey hunt with my dad.

We arrived just as dawn broke, and as we drove back a dark, single track lane the headlights illuminated tall trees on either side.  For some reason I flashed back to Wales where friend Andy and I drove the back winding roads looking for sea run brown trout late at night, during what he referred to as the witching hour.  At the end of this lane was a white farm house, a barn and a few out-buildings  nestled beside a pond.   The geese were awake by now, two pairs of them, honking their spring mating calls.  We would hear them echo off the hillside down the valley throughout the morning. 

We walked quietly up a small hill and followed a bench on top of a hardwood forest hill covered with last season's leaves. About halfway down we sat on a log facing east and watched the morning arrive.   Eventually we heard turkeys gobble - a group of 3-4 down in the valley plus a single up top behind us.  We worked them off and on through the morning, once bringing them from several hundred yards away.  My dad worked the calls expertly - yelps, clucks, purrs and cuts.  Never too aggressive, sometimes subtle, always the right balance.  We never did see them, but it was pretty cool hearing them gobble closer and closer, and then hang up 50 yards away just over the crest of a hill, and then turn and slowly gobble their retreat.

Steve Courtright's Bin: Arkansas River Fishing with Dean

Steve Courtright's Bin: Arkansas River Fishing with Dean: It was a fine day in Colorado on the Arkansas River with longtime friend and expert angler, Dean Lippold.  For more details see his blog: ht...

Steve Courtright's Bin: More on the Arkansas

Steve Courtright's Bin: More on the Arkansas: All pretty self-explanatory actually.  Browns and Bows.  One of the most beautiful places on the earth.  Enough said.

Arkansas River April 20 2012

Steve, whom I've known for almost 20 yrs since the time I moved to Evanston, flew in from Chicago and we fished the Ark for the Mother's Day Caddis at the Gravel Pits.   The fish were on to sunk green emergent pupae and elk hair dries (tan wings, peacock herl body), though I took two on an emerger in the film.   I think we landed almost a dozen fish fish and had at least that many on.   For some reason, we had a bunch of fish on that threw the hook, including one nice fish Steve had on that took line from his reel.  We started seeing a few caddis at 11:00 and the fish started rising at 2:00.   At the (very) low end of the public lands we found a nice run that had fish rising all around us.  I caught a nice brown after wading across the river to get at a spot behind a boulder.  I saw this fish rise from the bottom almost vertically before he took the EHC.  All the fish were nice 14" plus fish mostly browns.  The bio-diversity in this stream was amazing - I pulled rocks and saw mayflies galore, caddis, stoneflies, etc.  One twig was covered entirely with small caddis larvae.  In addition to the herd of bighorn sheep that came to drink the river water, we also saw a few mule deer bounce across the river.  Great to spend some time with Steve again.

Flows were low (250cfs), water clear, skies clear, temps 60s

Prepping for the Mother's Day Caddis

#12/#14 Elk Hair Caddis w/ peacock herl body

Arkansas River

Monday was a tough day.   I started on foot at 5-points around 10:30 and immediately hooked up with a few browns on a Copper John.  At 12:30, I met up with Tommy and Troy and we drove up the river trying to escape the wind to no avail.   Very strong wind and stronger gusts caused whitecaps to form and hats to blow off.   We picked up a few fish here and there, and I missed a few rising to BWO that were being knocked over. 

Tuesday was great.  Troy and I floated 12 miles from Salida with guide Larry from Ark Anglers.  We had 40 plus fish in the boat and I lost the fish of the day.   The morning was hot, but the fish went to sleep in mid afternoon.  Most of the fish were on a #14 Two Bit H, but did manage to catch a few on my golden stonefly pattern.

Water 330cfs, temps 70s, skies blue.