fly fishing Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Fly Fishing T-Shirts and Cool Fly Fishing Apparel from The Fly Trout

Posted on April 22, 2012April 22, 2012 by The Fly Trout — Leave a comment

Sunday Fly Fishing (bait and lures were used too)

I had a very nice day fishing with the family and a friend at Antero Reservoir. It was a nice 63 degrees, mostly calm with a few small periods of light wind.

I only landed one small rainbow, but still had a great time nonetheless. I was happy that he went after the wooly bugger I had just tied up on Friday night. Doesn’t it kind of look like this little guy has a mustache? He must have gone through puberty early.

My buddy was using lures and had a few hookups and landed one. My wife was using lures and bait; also only landing one. It, however, was definitely the catch of the day. She used dreaded powerbait, which I do not condone nor condemn, to land her a nice 17-incher. Below is the video of its release.

Posted on April 21, 2012 by The Fly Trout — 1 Comment

An action packed day

Yesterday was action packed. First my free stickers went a little viral. I had been offering them for about a month and I have been sending out a couple a day. But yesterday a couple web sites posted that I had free stickers and my site was slammed. I had to turn off the order form because I didn’t have enough stickers to send out.

Then I went fly fishing after work for a little bit and had a few hookups, but was only able to land one little brown. Seeing my shadow on the creek means that winter is over right?

When I got home from my short fishing trip there were two packages waiting for me. The new family tent and my sweet new Allen Fly Fishing reel.

Next, I had some shirts I needed to print and get packaged to ship out.

I had some delicious deep dish pizza from Jimano’s Pizzeria. This was especially good because it was half off!

And to finish the day I decided to tie up a couple flies for Sunday (because Saturday is yard work day).

Posted on April 11, 2012April 12, 2012 by The Fly Trout — Leave a comment

These Boots were Made for Walking

When I started fly fishing a few years ago I barely had any gear. My fly fishing mentor picked me up some old wading boots for $5 from an estate sale and suggested I use them until I could afford some nice new ones. So I have been using them for a while now and they did their job of keeping me from slipping and falling. The problem with the old boots, however, was the lack of support and cushion. After hours on the river and hiking to and from the river my dogs would be killing me. Also, these old boots weren’t that great too look at. They kind of remind me of old tan Chuck Taylors with felt soles instead of rubber.

It was time for me to get with the times. I gathered all the money from the wash, the junk drawer and all my jacket pockets and got me some cool new boots. After talking to the guy at the fly shop and trying on the boots I was sold on the Korkers Redside boot. The main selling point for these boots is the interchangeable sole system. These boots allow you to change the soles depending on the wading condition. There are 5 types of soles available; rubber, felt, felt with studs, rubber with small studs and rubber with big studs. The boots I bought came with both rubber and felt soles and I bought an extra pair of the rubber with small studs.

So how did the Korkers perform you ask? Well I will tell you that first day on the river I decided to try out the rubber sole with the studs. They were great on my hike and in the river. Good traction and no slipping. But the most impressive part was the comfort. My feet and back felt great after hiking and wading for hours. I did have a problem though. When I was finished I took of my new boots and the right sole was coming apart in a few places. The edge was a little ripped and in two spots the studs had come loose and torn the rubber. Not good. I took the soles back to the fly shop to get a return and they guy there was quite surprised by what had happened. They did replace the pair of studded soles, but I have yet to put them to the test. I am hoping that the one sole was just a defect, but time will have to tell.

I am going to have to wait and see if I will be a satisfied customer. These Korkers are really comfortable and provide great traction, I just hope they can last as long as the old ones did!

Posted on April 3, 2012April 3, 2012 by The Fly Trout — Leave a comment

Find the Fishy

I went out to Clear Creek Saturday and the weather was just about perfect. 70 degrees, partly cloudy and just a slight breeze. I had a bunch of hook-ups but I wasn’t able to bring any to my hands. The fish seemed extra wiggly this day and were all able to unhook. I did snap one picture of one I was trying to reel in. Can you find the fishy?

Posted on March 26, 2012March 26, 2012 by The Fly Trout — Leave a comment

Magical Mustache or Lucky T-Shirt

I have been out on the water just a handful of times thus far in 2012, and up until yesterday I hadn’t caught a fish. Each time I would say the cliche lines like “A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work.” or “It’s nice to just be in the outdoors.” We all know that those are mostly true statements, but the point of fishing is to catch freaking fish! And yesterday was the day to break my skunky streak. I took the family to the Chatfield Gravel Pond, which is a medium-sized pond right next to Chatfield Reservoir.

I wasn’t quite sure what fly I was going to use so I started of with a wooly bugger. After a few casts, I started to see a few occasional risers. I immediately switched to a comparadun because nothing beats watching a fish take your dry fly sitting on top! The fish were definitely not going crazy on the top of the lake, but I knew if I was patient I would get one. And sure enough, BAM! He took my fly and I set the hook. He wasn’t much of a fighter but it was still nice to get my first trout of the year. The wife and kids weren’t having any luck with their bait and lure fishing and were ready to leave even though everyone knows “you never walk away from the table when you’re on a heater.”

I’m not sure if it was fishing with the family or the too cool for school shirt I was wearing or my sweet stache, but something helped me break my no fish streak. I’ll give credit to the shirt. I only caught one and he was definitely too cool for school.

Comparadun

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Posted on March 18, 2012 by The Fly Trout — Leave a comment

Bear Creek Skunk

I went out to Bear Creek late Friday afternoon hoping to catch a few hungry browns before the sun went down. I was excited to fish the creek for the first time this year. And I was also excited to use my new Costa Del Mar shades and my new Cabela’s 6’6″ 4wt CGR fly rod. I hadn’t caught a fish yet this year so I was really excited and optimistic that this would be the time to get the skunkiness off, but sadly it wasn’t. I didn’t even get any hook ups. I am not sure if the area I was fishing was just fished or if the not-so-clear-water (melting ice making it kinda cloudy) was the cause of my goose egg. Either I was a little bummed that I didn’t catch a few, but it’s always nice to be out on the water.

Posted on March 4, 2012March 8, 2012 by The Fly Trout — Leave a comment

Hike into Cheesman Canyon

Check out the hike to the SouthPlatte River in Cheesman Canyon. We didn’t have any luck this day, but it was still a nice day to be on the water.

Posted on February 26, 2012March 4, 2012 by The Fly Trout — Leave a comment

Today was a good day

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Yesterday a buddy and I headed to the famed South Platte river in Cheesman Canyon. This section of the South Platte is a very popular fishery because of the beautiful scenery, large trout and the proximity to Denver (just an hour drive). The downside to being so popular is the pickiness of the trout. I have read on many fishing websites and blogs that say “if you can catch a trout in Cheesman, you can catch one anywhere.” By using this logic, I cannot state with confidence that I can catch a trout anywhere.

Yesterday I was skunked. No hits, no fish on, no trout breaking off. This was my first trip to the canyon and I learned firsthand how particular these fish are. Before I went I read all the blogs, all the shop tips, everything I could on how to catch one of these finicky fishies. For the first hour or so I didn’t see any fish, but once the sun peaked over the canyon walls we finally saw a nice looking trout just chillin in a somewhat shallow run. I casted my stonefly with a top secret midge trailing to him several times and he was not interested. I then tried to get a little closer to get some video but that scared him off.

We continued up stream searching for some more fish. We found this deep pool that had two pretty good size trout just hanging out. I was excited to get another crack. Maybe that previous fish already had breakfast. So I cast my rig right over the top a bunch of times. Nothing. Not even a flinch. I began switching flies to find something they might want. I tried the stonefly, top secret midge, zebra midge, red brassie, rs2, griffith’s gnat. And my buddy, who is not a fly fisherman and just came to hang out, had is spinning rod with him and tried a couple lures just to see if they would even look at it. Nothing. We offered everything but a steak dinner to these trout and they were completely disinterested. It was a little frustrating to watch fish completely ignore the flies that are put right in front of their faces!

At this point we were getting hungry and decided to call it a day. We hiked back to the car packed up our gear and headed back to town. On the way home we talked about how crazy and frustrating it was to be ignored by those picky little fish! While driving I saw a sign that read “Today is a good day.” And I thought to myself “even though we didn’t catch those fish, today WAS a good day!”

Posted on February 14, 2012 by The Fly Trout — Leave a comment

I Love Trout

Besides my lovely wife, I love trout. I love how slimy they are. I love how spooky they can be or how tolerant they can be. I love how they sometimes eat on the top of the water and sometimes they eat on the bottom. I love to watch them jump out of the water. I love to watch them swim up to my fly and then swim away. I love big 20 inch rainbows. I love little 6 inch brookies. But most of all like the feeling of them tugging on my line. To celebrate my love of trout on this day of love I am sharing a coupon code, ILOVETROUT, for 14% off shirts.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Posted on January 29, 2012 by The Fly Trout — Leave a comment

Barren Winter Day

I haven’t done any fishing in a couple months and have never done any winter fly fishing. So I thought what better day to go than one when the temperature is in the 50s? There are only a few places you can fly fish in the winter here in Colorado because much of the water is frozen. The South Platte has a few sections of nice tailwater that isn’t frozen, Cheeseman Canyon and The Dream Stream below Spinney. I probably should have chosen one of those places to go to but instead I opted to stay in town and fish the South Platte below Chatfield. The spot that I started was pretty low and I didn’t even see a fish. As I went towards the dam it was all ice. I am not going to complain too much because I got to wear one of my Fly Shirts for the first time while fishing, but I would have been satisfied with just seeing one of my aquatic friends.