Apparently, today was amateur hour. I got to the river at 11 and realized I didn't have any tippet. Tippet is the very fine line that you tie to your flies. All I had was a leader that eventually got pretty fine but not nearly fine enough. I ended up using the end section off another leader to connect an additional fly to so I could still run a 2 fly rig. I figured it would work but I knew it wasn't gonna fool the older/bigger fish. Then while walking, I managed to snag my lead fly on the back of my shirt. This was a big problem b/c I couldn't just break the line and re-rig since i didn't have any tippet. I also couldn't get my backpack off with the fly snagged. It was quite the predicament. I eventually got it figured out and got moving again but I feared it was a bad sign.

The flows on this stretch of the South Platte have been almost 250 for about 10 days straight now. Yesterday they shut her down and brought things down to 70. It's amazing how even a difference of 100 cubic feet a second can completely transform the river.

This is a Snake River Cutthroat. I love these fish. This one took an egg pattern.

This was the second Rainbow of the day. This one took another egg pattern (you san see it in the corner of her mouth). The first one completely demolished a fly that I just tied a few weeks ago. There is nothing quite like seeing a trout go bat shit crazy on one of your own flies.

This was another Snake River Cutt that took a small worm pattern. Not a worm like a night crawler. There are some worms that are present during the spawn. They actually eat the eggs along the bottom of the river. This particular one was a #20 that had been tied with brass wire and also had a clear bead head on it.

I only got to fish for 2 hours today before I got an ugly wind knot. I was kneeling down in the grass solving the puzzle and had it but when I went to stand up I guess I was hooked on a twig cuz it broke off the lead fly and that was game over. I was very happy though. It was a gorgeous day on the river except for the knucklehead that was trying to muscle into the hole I was fishing. We had a short talk about ethics and he moved on. I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Tonight

After a craptastic day at work I decided to go fishing to relieve some stress. There's not much better way to wind down then throwing big streamers to brown trout. I got to the river at about 4 and clocked in. I wasn't expecting things to be all that great as there was still a lot of sun in the sky and it wasn't ideal streamer conditions. I was actually beginning to think that I was gonna get skunked tonight. Then...BAMMMM!!! I actually heard and saw the hit before I ever felt it. This was a skinnier hen but she was still about 16 inches and gorgeous. She was pissed off to say the least.

This river is so special to me. Not too far up from this spot is where I asked my wife to marry me about this time of year.

Normally I like the self-portrait but this is special. I think it screams, "I'm too sexy for these waders". Heather said it looks like I'm either pooping my waders or that I'm special ed. I'm not too proud to keep it from you though. Say what you will. My skin is thick.

The sky never looks as good as it does in person.

Trout on the brain

I've been watching a lot of trout movies here lately (Trout Bum Diaries, Drift, etc....thanks Rob). I'm starting to tie flies again. I'm making the trip out to the river during the week. Things are getting serious again. Heather has always liked it more when I fly fish versus when I ride. She says I'm never happier than after I've been on the river and she's right. The fall is a special time. I'd rather fish at night than during the day. Big shadows start to appear from the edges. I know it's serious when I come home from work and grab something to eat and then head to the river to cast in the dark. There are angry monsters hiding in those undercuts and they only come out at night when its safe. There's a reason why they're so big.

Casualties

There were many this weekend. The list looks like this:

1. My Eddie Bauer down sweater practically went up in flames like some sort of cartoon when embers from the fire got on it. I woke up in the morning with about 10 holes in it and feathers were coming out of each one. That jacket is stupid lightweight compared to my North Face Nuptse one (which I've had for over 10 years now and sat around multiple fires in) but it is definitely NOT fire resistant.

2. Similar to the above. I bought a new pair of REI convertible pants for this trip and they are riddled with holes as well. Again...I've got 2 pairs of North Face pants that have sat around loads of fires, hiked multiple 14ers, ridden hundreds of miles in, and generally been abused and there are no holes in them. Dharma even once found a left over piece of hard candy in the pocket of one pair and chewed on them while trying to get to the treat. She mangled that area of the pant but no hole. Now that's a testimony.

3. One of my favorite pieces of gear is a pair of fleece mittens from Simms. I've had these for 8 years and they've seen tons of action while fishing and riding. I loved them because I could really quickly flip open the mitten portion to reveal half finger gloves on the fingers and the thumbs. I went to grab a log from the fire and relocate it. Said log was hotter than I thought and it burned through the right mitten portion. I let the explitives fly. Simms still makes a version of this glove but mine used velcro to keep the mitten half of them out of the way and now they use a flap. Looks like I'll be buying some new ones and cutting the flaps off and then sewing on some velcro. Also looks like I have some nice Simms half finger gloves now.

4. Perhaps most devastating of all is something that I just discovered I left up there next to my bivy spot. Dr. Slick is a company that makes fly fishing tools. Having a good pair of Forceps (or clamps) for fly fishing is critical. The flies are tiny and these allow you to quickly unhook the fish so you can get it back in the water and revived. Most guys have stainless forceps. Not me. Several years ago I found these tie dyed ones from the good Doctor. I got compliments on them all the time. They were the shit. They were buried under the snow. The irony with this one is that on my hike in, I knew I was catching up to Scott and the others. The tracks kept looking fresher and then I was finally seeing watery boot prints on rocks. Then...I found a set of forceps. Nothing fancy...just stainless ones. I knew no other jackasses would be heading up that high to fish during an early storm so I grabbed them. They were Scott's and I gave him a healthy rash of shit for dropping them. Now that I've put this out there...I expect him to chime in at any time.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Every year some friends of mine get together for a manpacking trip into the mountains. The requirements usually include a remote spot, plenty of fishing, a good hike, good times, usually some alcohol and always some laughs. We go somewhere different every year and usually it's inside RMNP. I was supposed to head up Thursday night but I ended up driving up on Friday and hiking in solo that afternoon. Some years we have incredible weather but last year it rained and was cold and this year we weren't sure what to expect. My camera was having issues due to the cold. I'm pretty sure it dipped into the 20's at night. Enjoy.

This is the Blue River as it runs through the town of Breckenridge. It's pretty skinny water right now. It's more technical with all of the trees along the bank. To make matters more interesting, I decided to throw a streamer today because things were so overcast. A streamer is a larger fly that is fished sub-surface. They can imitate all kinds of stuff but today I was imitating small baitfish. I love fishing with streamers but I don't do it all that often. This river consists of much more pocket water. These are small holes, maybe the size of a car but not more than a foot or two deep.

I started at the north end of town and worked my up.

I could have fished this river with a nymph (which is what we typically use out here) but I wanted to get into something bigger. Within half an hour, I had this really nice buck that demolished the fly as soon as it hit the water. When the male brown trout get older their jaw starts to take on this hooked shape and you can start to see that happening with this one. The other way to tell he was a male is by what was on his fin and all over my leg. He was happy to see me. Looks like a big ole stick of butter with spots on it. I know I say this all the time but these are one of my favorite fish. This is the best picture of him as it was raining pretty hard at the time.

This is a cool statue that was made in honor of the 10th Mountain Division camp that was nearby and all the mountain training the troops did in this area.

Hope your Saturday was fun. Thanks for checking in.

Heather and I made a commitment that, with her new job, we were going to really try to take advantage of our surroundings and do more fun stuff on the weekends. Too many times, we just end up staying in and say, "We'll do that next weekend" and that never happens. We were going to go over to Crested Butte today but I knew I wouldn't be able to drive past the Taylor River below the dam and not stop. So we headed over to Breckenridge.

How's your Aspen? The ones on the way up Wilkerson Pass were in full, golden effect.

As we made our way out of Alma and up Hoosier Pass, this nasty storm was brewin'.

This is actually just outside of Fairplay.

Heather said I could stop and fish a few spots if I wanted to so I brought along the 5 weight.

We grabbed some food and a few beers downstairs at Eric's and then did some shopping. I stopped by to see the boys at Breckenridge Outfitters. The flows on the Blue River as it flows right through town were probably in the mid-30's but the water was perfectly gin clear.