Runoff Approaches...
Get ready for water! We've had some weird weather of late in Colorado with sunny, warm days followed by rain and snow. Don't let that fool you though, very soon the water will be "coming down the mountain" and flows will be very high for an extended period of time.
The fishing has been good on the freestones and the tailwaters here in CO. The flow on the Deckers portion of the South Platte was way up above 400cfs, but has now been dropped back down to 220cfs or so. That's a nice flow and all areas are accessible at the current level.
I have read reports of people catching fish on bigger bugs such as scuds, stones, and annelids. A friend of mine caught a BIG rainbow on a little black RS II today so don't forget the midges because they are always present in the South Platte system.
I have been able to get out a few times, but with school winding down I was busy preparing my kiddos for their AP World exam and wrapping up all of the end-of-the-year fun. This is the end of my 12th year in education and my 4th in Colorado. Oh how the times does fly...
So, the fishing. Little stone flies have been working well for me and it has been a nice change to fish flies bigger than size 20! Always seine the river and see what's not only under rocks, but also in the water column. It helped me have a great "stone fly day" recently. The spots on the dorsal of this brown were priceless. I love orange spotted browns.
I also scared a mother goose and she was none too pleased that I accidentally forced her to leave the nest. More geese are on the way!
I also had a great streamer day recently. I don't fish streamers enough. It's fun. You get to chuck big flies and try and make them look as lifelike as possible. "The tug is the drug." A friend of mine, Jared Clark, showed me how he ties his woolly buggers many years ago and although they're simple, they work. I made some weighted buggers recently using an appropriate sized grizzly hackle to bring this fly to life. Fish streamers because when they're hitting it's GAME ON!
I mentioned how things have been busy at school and I wanted to share a photo of our senior hallway after the kids blew up over 20,000 balloons for their senior prank this year. I probably blew up about 100 of them, haha. It was awesome to see the underclassmen come in Friday morning to this:
Good times were had by all.
Back to the fishing. I got this gorgeous brown on a little stone fly as well. His spot pattern was impressive as well and I was very happy to land this beauty!
I also got into a very nice bwo hatch recently and although the fish were picky because of the number of bugs on the water, I was able to land this guy and admire his blue chrome:
The scenery of late has also been spectacular!
I will be heading back to New York next week for our annual Camping Trip on the Genesee as well as my highly anticipated annual return to the mighty Delaware River. New York State has had nothing but rain since last July so there will be water, that's for sure.
I'm also going back to Portugal this summer to see family as well as head to Barcelona and northern Spain for some hiking and fly fishing for big brown trout!
It should be a fantastic summer so stay tuned for more pics and stories of my "old haunts" back home and some new haunts in Spain!
Stay safe on the water everyone and remember to enjoy every minute out there. I have been listening to some new/old Orvis podcasts lately and one theme that stayed with me was the importance of enjoying nature. Catching a boatload of fish in one day is nice (trust me!), but why do we really love our sport? Do we love it for a trophy fish? For a laugh on the water with friends? To see something we have never seen before? Maybe it's all of these things and a million more, but please don't forget why we fish. If you catch 3 fish and your buddy catches 10 does that make it a bad day...of course not.
Remember:
Until next time, tight lines everyone!
The fishing has been good on the freestones and the tailwaters here in CO. The flow on the Deckers portion of the South Platte was way up above 400cfs, but has now been dropped back down to 220cfs or so. That's a nice flow and all areas are accessible at the current level.
I have read reports of people catching fish on bigger bugs such as scuds, stones, and annelids. A friend of mine caught a BIG rainbow on a little black RS II today so don't forget the midges because they are always present in the South Platte system.
I have been able to get out a few times, but with school winding down I was busy preparing my kiddos for their AP World exam and wrapping up all of the end-of-the-year fun. This is the end of my 12th year in education and my 4th in Colorado. Oh how the times does fly...
So, the fishing. Little stone flies have been working well for me and it has been a nice change to fish flies bigger than size 20! Always seine the river and see what's not only under rocks, but also in the water column. It helped me have a great "stone fly day" recently. The spots on the dorsal of this brown were priceless. I love orange spotted browns.
I also scared a mother goose and she was none too pleased that I accidentally forced her to leave the nest. More geese are on the way!
I also had a great streamer day recently. I don't fish streamers enough. It's fun. You get to chuck big flies and try and make them look as lifelike as possible. "The tug is the drug." A friend of mine, Jared Clark, showed me how he ties his woolly buggers many years ago and although they're simple, they work. I made some weighted buggers recently using an appropriate sized grizzly hackle to bring this fly to life. Fish streamers because when they're hitting it's GAME ON!
I mentioned how things have been busy at school and I wanted to share a photo of our senior hallway after the kids blew up over 20,000 balloons for their senior prank this year. I probably blew up about 100 of them, haha. It was awesome to see the underclassmen come in Friday morning to this:
Good times were had by all.
Back to the fishing. I got this gorgeous brown on a little stone fly as well. His spot pattern was impressive as well and I was very happy to land this beauty!
I also got into a very nice bwo hatch recently and although the fish were picky because of the number of bugs on the water, I was able to land this guy and admire his blue chrome:
The scenery of late has also been spectacular!
I will be heading back to New York next week for our annual Camping Trip on the Genesee as well as my highly anticipated annual return to the mighty Delaware River. New York State has had nothing but rain since last July so there will be water, that's for sure.
I'm also going back to Portugal this summer to see family as well as head to Barcelona and northern Spain for some hiking and fly fishing for big brown trout!
It should be a fantastic summer so stay tuned for more pics and stories of my "old haunts" back home and some new haunts in Spain!
Stay safe on the water everyone and remember to enjoy every minute out there. I have been listening to some new/old Orvis podcasts lately and one theme that stayed with me was the importance of enjoying nature. Catching a boatload of fish in one day is nice (trust me!), but why do we really love our sport? Do we love it for a trophy fish? For a laugh on the water with friends? To see something we have never seen before? Maybe it's all of these things and a million more, but please don't forget why we fish. If you catch 3 fish and your buddy catches 10 does that make it a bad day...of course not.
Remember:
Until next time, tight lines everyone!
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