Here is a really cool video that I just saw from Yukon Goes Fishing. Many of you have probably already seen it but I still thought is worth sharing:
Check out the Yukon Goes Fishing blog for more great fly fishing posts and videos.
I went out to the South Platte in Cheesman Canyon with my buddies Esteban and Jason over the weekend. We chose Cheesman because it’s one of the few places to fish during the winter here in Colorado. It was an abnormally warm January day. The high was in the low 50s! Cheesman is already a tough place to fish, but the winter makes it even tougher because you have to use tiny little midges and if your fly isn’t real close the trout won’t budge. And Sunday was even tougher because the water wasn’t as clear as normal, making it difficult to sight fish. So needless to say, I was skunked. I had one hit, but couldn’t set the hook. And wouldn’t you know, Jason was able to catch two. What was his secret you ask? He was using a Rapala!
On the hike back Jason was drinking a beer and when he got to the last of his it he poured it out and we were like “what the heck are you doing?” He said it was just the foam. Then Esteban said he was pouring it out for his homies who didn’t catch any fish. It reminded me of the Snoop song, “It ain’t no fun if the homies can’t have none.” And even though his homies didn’t catch none, it was still fun being out on the water. Stay fly.
Fly tying the night before.
It looked and felt like spring.
Jason with his second brown.
There are a few sayings that go along with my fly fishing outing to the South Platte in Cheesman Canyon on Saturday. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” “persistence pays off” and “the third time’s the charm.” It was actually my fourth time to Cheesman and a quite satisfying time it was.
The first few trips to Cheesman Canyon were either alone or with my buddy Esteban. This time Esteban and my other buddy Jason came along for the adventure. All week we explained to Jason how tricky the fishing was and that the trout were very particular in that stretch of the South Platte. We didn’t want him to have high expectations of catching a bunch of the nicely sized trout that call Cheesman their home.
The morning temperature when we arrived was a brisk 21 degrees and surprisingly enough, the parking lot had just one other car in it. We bundled up, grabbed our gear, and headed up over the mountain and down to the river. When we got down to the river Jason went downstream just a little with his spinning gear and lures. Myself and Esteban fished on either side of the river with our fly rods.
Probably not even a half hour in we started seeing just a few fish eating off the top. It was still quite cold and I couldn’t see what they were eating so I switched to a midge pattern, Matt’s Midge. After only a few cast’s, wham fish on!! The previous three times visiting Cheesman I was skunked. This was the first time that I even had a fish on the line and let me tell you I was quite excited! All I had to do was net him. I played him for a little bit and slowly eased him in and when he was about four feet away he got off the hook. So frustrating!!! When you go to Cheesman to fly fish you generally have to use small flies and light tippet. So once you get the fishy to take your fly, the next challenge is netting him. You have to be gentle and take your time, otherwise your line will break or the hook will wiggle free.
There were still fish rising here and there so I dried off my fly and tried again in the same vicinity, but closer to a big boulder. Several casts later I had another one on my line. This one didn’t stay on the line very long because he swam to the other side of the giant rock and when I attempted to guide him back towards me he managed to unhook himself. Two fish on and none landed. I wondered if I would ever catch a fish here.
After the early action we moved upstream a little ways and didn’t have much luck. We met back up with Jason and wouldn’t you know it he caught two nice bows during the same time I lost my two fish. That lucky SOB! First time to Cheesman and he get’s two right off the bat.
We all moved upstream even more to a nice looking spot. The sun had been shining down for a little while now and a hatch was starting to go off. The fish were rising everywhere. I still had my Matt’s Midge on so I tried that for a bit, but that was the wrong fly. I could see the trout weren’t interested. I switched over to a size 22 comparadun and immediately that got the attention of these feasting fish. It took three strikes before I was able to hook one, but when I did I told myself this guy is not getting away! After several minutes of play and slowly bringing this fool in I got my net out and attempted to net him, but I couldn’t quite reach. I didn’t want to risk it so I handed my net over to Jason and quickly got the fish safely in my possession. Finally, I have caught a fish at Cheesman! The saying goes that “If you can catch a fish in Cheesman Canyon, you can catch a fish anywhere.” Looks like my next stop is anywhere.
I definitely prefer the summer over the other three seasons. The days are longer, the temperature is warmer and it just feels like there are more days to fly fish. That being said, no matter the season, any day with fly fishing in it is a great day. I decided to stay close to home and do some warm water fly fishing even though it was not particularly warm out.
My goal was to land a huge carp. You know like the ones you see on Instagram or flyfishforcarp.com. I have tried several times to catch one of those big guys and just like before, no carp for me. No one likes to be skunked and I’m no different, so after trying for the carp I changed it up to see if I could get some bass or bluegill. I found a nice fallen tree in the pond and could see a bunch of bluegill and small bass hangin’ out.
To keep this story short, let me just say the bluegills were all over my little mosquito fly! I could have spent all day there catching those aggressive little fish, but it was getting a little cold and rainy and I had to bring lunch home to the wife. Below are some pictures and short video from my morning.
For months and months I have been following Shawn Bichsel on Twitter, Instagram, and his blog Lines in the Dirt. And for months and months I have admired Shawn’s work. Shawn is a fly fisherman and he is an artist. He creates some of the coolest and most interesting pieces of fly fishing art that I have seen. He will use a pencil or a sharpie or an iPad app to craft some amazing flies and fish. He has even made an awesome dry fly out of wood!
Ever since I started following Shawn and watch him do his thing I thought, “he needs to put this stuff up for sale.” Finally, in August he started an Etsy shop to start selling his work. And just few weeks ago he finished up “Trout, Line and Fly.” Being the trout-lover that I am, I just had to have it.
To see more of Shawn’s artistic masterpieces check out Lines in the Dirt. And if you love the art as much as I do, you can purchase some at his Etsy shop.
Stay Fly.
Two weekends ago we packed up and met my up with my dad again for another camping trip. This time we went up near Salida to Monarch Park Campground. This beautiful campground was near the top of Monarch Pass and had an elevation of over 10,000 feet!
That weekend was my son Vinny’s birthday and so what better gift than a fly rod and a vest. He was thrilled and couldn’t wait to try it out on the nearby creek and beaver ponds.
After we set up camp we headed down to the beaver ponds to see if we could catch a few. It was pretty slow going and I managed a couple, but Vinny didn’t get anything.
The next day we took a pretty rough road up to Boss Lake. It was about a 2 mile trip up some pretty rough terrain, but after moving a tree out of the road and battling the rocks on the road we made it. And the view of the lake was amazing. I managed to catch one little greenback cutt, but sadly Vinny wasn’t able to set the hook on is one opportunity.
Vinny very badly wanted to catch something on his new fly rod, so after getting back from Boss Lake and chilling at the camp site for a while we made our way back over to the beaver ponds. I am glad to say that this story had a happy ending. Vinny got his first trout on the fly rod!
The weekend before last my buddy Esteban and I decided to go on another backpacking/fly fishing trip. Originally we had planned to head to a lake that was south of Vail called Whitney Lake, but because it was only a 2.5 mile hike (we wanted to go a little further) and there were still fire restrictions in that county, we decided to head up to Lost Lake near Green Mountain Reservoir. As far as the scenery goes we made the right choice, but as far as the fly fishing goes we did not. We were both skunked and did not see one fish in that lake!
The most exciting part of our trip happened on the hike down the mountain. I was walking behind Esteban with my head down so that I could avoid tripping over one of the many rocks in the path. And just as we approached this little creek I heard Esteban say, “Oh Shit!” I look up and see two small black bear cubs just staring at us about 20 feet away. Not a second after I looked up to see the cubs, the mama bear jumps out of the creek and takes off up the mountain! It was a very intense and unexpected moment. I grabbed my bear mace he grabbed his pistol and I told him “we need to back up slowly” and he told me “get out your camera.” I was pretty nervous right at that moment because I have always heard that the most dangerous bears are ones with cubs. It was a little confused though, because this mother bear didn’t appear to be too worried about her young as she took off up the mountain and never looked back. By the time I did get my camera out the cubs had run off too far to snap a good picture, but were close enough to keep watching what we were doing. Esteban was able to get some video of one of the cubs climbing up a tree. Running into those bears, although quite nerve racking at first, was one the coolest moments I have ever had up in the mountains!
Now it’s time for some pics and videos:
Here is a look down to the Blue River Valley on the way up.
Me posing in front of the Brush Creek Trailhead.
A few pictures of the lake.
Trail intersection.
We haven’t been able to have a fire in over a month.
A little video about the flammability of whiskey.
And finally, the bear cub climbing up at tree.
It’s been a while since I have made a blog post. I have been fly fishing and camping four times since my last post. Four times!! What is my deal? Well anyway, I need to catch up. So here it goes, part 1 of the last month’s adventures.
Around the 4th of July every year my family heads up to the South Park area for some Colorado mountain fun. My favorite part of this trip, besides hanging with my extended family, is the fly fishing. There are numerous places to fly fish in this area, including Elevenmile and Spinney Reserviors and the South Platte river that flows between them, a.k.a. the “Dream Stream.” But the fisheries that I usually frequent are Tarryall Reservoir and Tarryall Creek, mainly because of their proximity to our cabin.
Tarryall Reservoir is a nice little reservoir that is mostly full of Rainbow Trout and Northern Pike. There is camping and boating at this lake, though I normally fish from the shore. My only gripe with Tarryall is that it is always windy. Day, night, summer, spring and fall. No matter the the time there always seems to be wind.
Tarryall Creek feeds right into the reservoir before it makes it’s way to the South Platte. This small creek winds back and forth for miles in a small valley. It’s a very nice setting with smaller mountains all around and no trees or brush to impede casting. There are mostly smaller brown trout with an occasional 12-14 incher hanging in deep undercut banks.
Here’s some pictures from that weekend:
Rainbows from the reservoir.
Nice looking sunset.
Little brown from Tarryall Creek.
My buddy Esteban and I decided we wanted to do a backpack trip and since I love fly fishing, I found us a place that we could hike to and also get some fly fishing in. I chose Native Lake which is near Leadville, Colorado. It has an elevation of 11,293 feet and is home to brook trout and greenback cutthroat trout. This lake was very beautiful, but too shallow along the edges to be able to catch any fish. We saw a couple jumping in the middle, but without a canoe or belly boat there was no way to cast to them. I only caught two fish, one in the creek entering the lake and one in the creek leaving the lake. Here are some pictures from the trip.
Trailhead.
Little stream flowing down the mountain.
Esteban with Mount Massive in the background.
Me with Mount Massive in the background.
Native Lake from above. The most difficult part of the hike was from the trailhead to this point. From here to the lake was all downhill and much easier.
Here’s the part where I show you a bunch of different pictures of the lake. Make sure to check out the lake at sunset. Very pretty.
Our beer cooler.
Wait, where are the fish?
Here is the brook trout I caught in the creek that leads into the lake. The little guy squirted out of my hands as Esteban took the shot.
There is another lake, Rainbow Lake, we decided to hike up to and see if we could catch something.
Looking back away from Rainbow Lake.
Esteban found some snow. Thankfully we didn’t run into any polar bears.
I’m not sure why I am smiling because it was quite windy up there and I wasn’t able to cast out far enough to reach any fish.
I had a great time roughing it high up in the mountains. I would have loved to hook up with more fish but it was still a nice little adventure.
Catch ya later, Native Lake.
Oh, you might be wondering about the other fish I caught. He was a nice little greenback cutthroat trout. I didn’t get any pictures of him, but Esteban got it on video and I haven’t had a chance to upload yet. I’ll post the video once I get it ready. Stay fly.
This past weekend I went to the famed Cheesman Canyon to fly fish the South Platte River. For the third time this year I saw many large trout and also for the third time this year I was skunked in the Canyon! It’s quite frustrating to see so many beautiful fish ignore what you are offering. Even though I didn’t catch anything, it was still nice to be out on the water.
It’s hard to see, but in that clear water there is a fish that was unwilling to cooperate.
The weather was just about perfect on Sunday.
My buddy Esteban before he knew he would have to hold up a giant boulder on the hike back.
That rock is larger than a house.
Check out the close up. He was not really holding up the boulder.
I haven’t been able to write a post in a couple weeks now and thought it was about time. If you follow me on instagram, the these pictures may look familiar to you.
Spring is here and the flowers are blooming!
The weekend before last was cold and rainy so we had to come up with some indoor activities like fly tying class.
Some of the finished flies with a sweet looking sticker.
Drowning my sorrows because I can’t go fly fishing.
Printed a special edition too cool for school shirt for a graduation present.
And finally we hit the local pond to catch us some bluegills. No fish, but it was nice to get out and start teaching the little guy how to use a fly rod!
I was really excited to do some river fishing today as I hadn’t been in a couple weeks. Right after work I headed straight up to the foothills, past Golden and into Clear Creek Canyon to fish Clear Creek. I slapped on my gear and hiked down to the river.
Any luck? Nope, not luck at all. No bites, nothin’. I didn’t see any fish, but that was because this river was fast and definitely not clear. Looks like I will have to go again this weekend! Check out this “exciting” video of the river.
