Mayfly Musings

Sorry for the long delay.  School and soccer started up in August and the past two months have gone by in a flash!  It happens every year and yet I am always surprised when I have to write 10/1 on my whiteboard at school.  Crazy. So, Montana.  I loved Montana and specifically, the city of Missoula.  I visited a friend that I used to work with and he was nice enough to let me crash for several nights at his new house by the college.  I had never driven through Wyoming so my first time was an experience.  Seeing the Speed Limit signs say "80" was fantastic and I enjoyed the scenery and the views.  I ended up crashing in Sheridan and I found some delicious food at Wyoming's Rib and Chop House.  I had the juiciest pork chop of my life.  If you ever end up in Sheridan go there. As soon as I arrived in Missoula after a beautiful drive through Montana my buddy put me straight to work moving some heavy items around because they were redoing ...

Until this summer I had never fished for trout outside of the United States.  I was lucky enough to stumble across @fishing.emotions on Instagram and the rest is history. I contacted him, made a plan, and made it happen.  My friend Sarah was traveling with me to Barcelona and eventually Girona, which is near the river, so I was able to fish three evenings looking for BIG rising fish. Many people know I love dry fly fishing, but over the past year or so my nymphing game has picked up.  However, in Spain, on this river, dry fly fishing was by far the best way to attempt a shot at a "big guy." If you check out Ekaitz's Instagram, you will see what I mean by "big guy."  He catches (and works very to hard to help his clients catch) giant brown trout on dry flies. The river is wild and beautiful.  The experience was surreal and enlightening.  The new sounds, the Spanish wildlife, and the incredible scenery made it a truly special trip. If you ever fish ...

What a summer it has been so far.  The only issue with summer is how fast it always seems to go... You always have time until there is not time. The last month literally flew by (as it always does when you're not working) and as I am sitting with my AC on this evening in sunny Colorado I am reflecting on my annual trip back to New York. Returning to old haunts can be enlightening, but there's also a simplicity about the pace of things in Steuben County, New York.  No rapid changes ever occur.  The same people work at the same places and I know I have reflected on this point before, but every year I am reminded of how different a big city like Denver is compared to where I grew up.  I know why I moved and I don't regret it, but I also enjoy visiting good ol' upstate New York every summer for that exact reason; simplicity. We had our largest crew to date for our annual camping trip and we arguably had a little bit too much fun, but one credo I live by is to do ev...

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....

Finally, spring has arrived!  I have been all over Colorado fishing since my last post and I am happy to report that the fish are biting.  There has been some early season runoff as the low level snows are melting away to Spring.  The midge hatches have been strong and the olives are coming off as well.  As the weeks progress the Caddis hatch will also intensify so don't forget to fish some larvae and pupae especially if you see some Caddis adults on the water. The freestones are clear in the mornings, but on the warm days the water has gotten cloudier before it clears again overnight.  My friend Tim and I had some banner days on the Eagle River fishing all sorts of nymphs and some dry flies as well.  Stoneflies have been working great down deep and some attractors also got us into some nice fish.  Prince nymphs, PT's, Caddis larvae, and midge patterns got us into plenty of browns and some rainbows on the lower Eagle near Gypsum over Spring Break bac...