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.

Tying

I am in a cabin in the mountains near Nathrop, CO. The family is asleep and I am in the main room, tying blue winged olives and pheasant tails in anticipation of two days on the Arkansas this week. My vice lamp and the crackling fire are providing the only sources of light and direction.

Rodeo by Stefan

Joe's Night

The night had come, and weary in every land
Men's bodies took the boon of peaceful sleep.
The woods and the wild seas had quieted
At that hour when the stars are in mid-course
And every field is still; cattle and birds
With vivid wings that haunt the limpid lakes
Or nest in thickets in the country places
All were asleep under the silent night.

- Virgil

Sleep well, Joe.

Sled Riding

Fresh powder.

        Upward trudging.

                Soft quiet.

                     Numb faces.

                            Hearty laughter.

                                   Hot cocoa.

Fall Hunting

Sunrise Wisconsin

Sunrise WI

Sunset, NE Colorado

Colorado River Oct 14 2011

I fished the Colorado River for the first time this past Friday.   I walked in at the Sunshine Bridge access just below Parshal.  I found the river to be a beautiful river.

It was a bluebird autumn morning when I arrived.  I walked from the truck over a dirt path that led across the semi-arid mesa, which was filled with sage brush and muted colors of dusty brown, clay red, and sage green.   When I first saw the river I was looking down on top of the cotton wood trees that lined the banks of the river.  Suddenly, the color wheel changed to bright yellow and pine green with a ribbon of shiny blue in the middle.  It is a large river.  I found a spot at the tail of an island and fished it just about all day long, never having to move far since there was so much holding water in this one area nearly 100 yards long.   This is different from the small to mid-sized streams I am used to, where the idea is to move up and down the river to find more, smaller, likely looking spots.

Water flow was relatively low and I could cross the entire river.   I figured I would swing black wooly buggers down and across to hit some large browns.  I had 2-3 hits in one run but didn't connect.  I kept the BWB on for what was probably too long.  Immediately after switching to a dry-dropper (Green Humpy with #16 bead head hares ear)I had a fish on.  Another one soon followed after landing the first.   I caught about 6 fish on one of these two flies before having to pack up and leave.

South St Vrain Sept 11

I hiked in, from the Cera St Vrain trail head, about 2 miles through a really nice forest. It was a crisp, cool autumn morning and I found my way to where the stream went one way and the trail another. My plan was to go downstream off-trail. After a few major boulder climbs and a few small browns I determined I was spending more time bush whacking than fishing, so I went back upstream to the more civilized part of the stream. Wet wading, picking pockets on my way up stream I hooked a dozen or so browns. They were all skinny and hungry and very nicely colored.