Tying up some stuff

I've been completely focused on fishing this week. I don't know what's going on but I gotta get a fix. I'm like a crack head lookin' for a rock. The new issue of Catch Magazine is out and there is a blond gal who lives up in Alaska and she knows how to throw a spey rod like no one's business and I have been wearing that video OUT!!! She makes multiple double digit Steelhead write bad checks. I was planning on going up to Spinney Ranch and seeing what was up tomorrow. I've been watching the flows. For about a week straight it was right at 150 cubic feet per second. This isn't great but I'll take it for this time of year. A few days ago it dropped to 100cfs. Last night it dropped to 58cfs. I'm bitter about this. The water will be gin clear under these conditions. A blind man should be able to sight big fish but...they are going to be very spooky. Sometimes under these conditions you can be walking upstream and see a nice fish and then get down and crawl to it but they can dart off when you go to backcast. That's the worst.

We're also supposed to get snow tomorrow and that can make sighting fish a little harder too. My buddy Scott is coming down from Denver and we're gonna meet up and hike down into Cheeseman Canyon. This afternoon it was flowing at 170ish which is ok but the canyon can be brutal this time of year. Anyway's...since I had planned on going to Spinney Ranch, I tied up some flies for that location. It's been a while since I've tied anything. I love tying flies. Scott texted me after I had already started working and we changed locations but that's ok. These are #22 hooks. Here's how things started out.

I tried desperately to get more pics of the process but for some reason, I couldn't do it. Don't know why the camera cooperated so much for the first one. These are some of the finished ones. This fly is called Pearl Jam. It imitates a stage in the life of a natural fly (deer flies, gnats, skeeters, etc.). Natural flies make up close to half of all the food in the trout's diet in the South Platte River. These little guys have tubed bodies and kind of resemble worms at this stage. 22's are very small. These are sitting on a laminated business card so the size of those letters gives you an idea.