The fall Brown Trout spawn is pretty much in full effect right now and there are plenty of big Browns, Bows and Cutts in the South Platte looking for a meal. I've been getting out a lot but it' mostly been at night. I think last weekend was the first time I had fished in the daylight in months. It's different. At night only the hammer heads come out to fish but in the day there is no shortage of folks that have no business holding a fly rod in their hands. Oh well...we all learned at some point. I just hate to see anyone mis-handling a fish.
Friday I had the day off work and it was a bit of an odd day. Heather and I decided to take some old jewelry down to a coin shop that buys that kind of stuff. Some of the stuff was hers but a lot of it was her fathers. Once they were done looking at it all they started bagging it up. I got choked up and started to cry. I still miss that man and would give anything to smoke a cigar with him.
A friend of mines father has been in ill for a bit now and he finally made the difficult decision to take him off life support earlier in the day. He passed away at about 2. I got to the river at about 5 and started walking in. At 6:10 I got a text alert. I never get texts up there but it was from my friend telling me that his dad had passed. I stopped fishing and sat on a rock by the bank. This is what the sky looked like. Although I was baptized Catholic, I don't really believe in God. I have my reasons but I've not been real happy with him or whatever exists out there for years. Years ago I studied Buddhism and I'd like to learn more about it because I felt like I identified with it. Maybe my father in-law and/or my friends dad had something to do with this light show. Either way it was beautiful.
I saw some huge fish that night. Most of them spooked from my headlamp but this guy was camped out with several others. I didn't shine my lamp directly on them but kept looking at them out of the corner of my eye. I knew they were not on a spawning bed and was pretty sure the other 2 were both Bows (and they were). I wasn't out far enough and my fly kept swinging in front and then past them. I switched to my non-casting hand so I could get out a bit more and finally was able to get it to stall out right in front of them. It took about five minutes of teasing and this Buck took it. He was close to 24 inches and gorgeous. He took about 10 minutes to catch his breath but I love watching over the trout until I feel comfortable leaving them.
On Saturday I fished some still water with my belly boat but didn't do too much. My waders have so many holes in them that I was freezing after an hour. I got out and hiked for 3 hours. Tonight I tied up some eggs because I think I'm gonna get out in the daylight soon here. Here's a peach colored one.
I also got some new boots and waders today. My current waders are made by Simms and they are about 10 years old and have done me really well. I won't use any other brand of waders. My boots were Chota because I have issues with laces. I hate them for fishing. In winter they always get frozen and they end up coming untied a lot of the time. I saw these Simms boots a while ago and was intrigued. They use the Boda lace system. We'll see how I like them. I also bought the Headwaters waders. I was stunned to find they were on closeout at a local shop for 60 bones off. I am not going to mention the name of the shop because I was very hesitant to give them my money because they were assholes. I dropped almost 500 clams and they wouldn't help much at all. One guy was way too interested in talking to a set of boobs. It was like he had never seen a set before. If I had not known how waders should fit, the differences between each model and how boots should fit I would have been clueless. Ironically, twice I've been in there in the last year and gotten shitty service, the same dipshit has been working. I'll see the owner on the water soon and maybe talk over a beer.
I also tied up some pink eggs, some clown eggs, and a few with milk casing.
That's it for now. It's incredible in the mountains right now. If you live in here get your ass outside and enjoy it. I can't remember when we've had a fall this nice. Hell I might even take off work tomorrow and go stalking. Supposed to be in the 60's!!!
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