Tough day at Spinney

Had the day off so I was able to sneak out to Spinney Reservoir this morning! Hit the parking lot about 5:45am and started the hike to the islands. I was told the area was fishing well a week and a half ago. It should be prime Callibaetis and Damsel hatch time with some Chiro's and Giant Caddis around, too. The various forks of the South Platte were still extremely flooded as I passed them on the way in. I figured Spinney would be about capacity!

Well, that was not the case. The lake is something like 3 feet below capacity. I had never seen the islands so bare of water. These pics are usually all water...To make matters worse, the weeds have grown to the surface and that makes it very difficult to fish without snagging. I tried various nymph patterns both with and without the indicator without any luck. I finally put on a sz 10 Lime Stimulator with a Chiro underneath. I didn't see any Caddis yet but needed something bouyant to keep out of the weeds. Well first cast I was able to land this guy:

A 20" aerialist Bow with a huge chin. Fat fish and off the schnide!

Fishing was slow so I hopped in the float tube trying to get away from the weeds to deeper water like my man Brandon recommended. On the way I trolled various nymphs and enjoyed a Casa Magna Colorado :)

The weather started to get ugly with winds coming in at all directions which made float tubing very difficult. I could hear the guys in boats with anchors doing better than I was but I couldn't fish they way they were. I landed a couple more like this one who jumped so much he got the camera wet...

In between the gusts of wind I would see Callibeatis, Caddis, and Damsels come through the channels though there wasn't a prolifi hatch of any of them. There was a midge hatch that was insane right when I got there but the fish were not keyed in on them at all. Millions of grey and olive midges. I had never seen that at Spinney before.

I made a few friends with the Damsels. I named this one Fred.

About 11 the gale force winds picked up and never disappated. It was extremely difficult to paddle back to the islands in the face of the wind. I was exhausted. I wondered for a while if I could even do it but I made it after bypassing the open water for more cover of the islands and up one of the more protected channels.

It's tough to say fishing was poor when the smallest fish landed was 20" but they were few and far between. Lost a couple on LDR's and had my leader snap after what I beleive was a decent sized Pike - almost ripped the rod out of my hand and shredded the 7.5' 3X leader about half way through. I did see a number of Pike as the water was so shallow. I didn't try to fish for them at least on purpose because I wasn't properly equipped.

All in all a nice day, but tough fishing. After the hike back to the car in the face of the winds I was exhausted and very deserving of a cellared Jubilation Ale :)

The water level must have dropped because the guys that recommended the islands didn't say anything about how low the water was. If the resevoir was full it might have been an eipc day. Perhaps next time ;)

Black Mesa, Uncompahgre River, Crystal Lake

The family spent a week up in Black Mesa (North Rim of the Black Canyon) a couple weeks ago, and I am just now getting to updating the blog. Whoops. Anyhow, it's beautiful up there. Lindsay rode her horse every day and the kids and I enjoyed the Colorado scenery and campsite. It was very relaxing, no cell phone reception, completely off the grid. :) I was able to sneak away for a day. I stopped in Gunnison to check on the levels of the Gunnison River in the canyon. The flows were still really high and the Fly Shop recommended avoiding it, bummer. I decided to head out to the Uncompahgre River, tailwater of Ridgeway Reservoir. Loren joined me as we went to Pa-Co-Chu-Pak after recommendations from my buddy Dave.

You can see the river is swollen here too, that time of year :( It was also very silty in color. I ran into a ranger who said they were anticipating further flooding upstream and had no choice but to flood the tailwater. Here's Loren working a seam.

Ultimately we didn't land any fish. I had a number of hits on various flies but they seemed to be nipping at them and not really taking them. I put on a stinger and that didn't help. It is clear that they have spent some time and effort making this a great fishery when it's not so high. I'd love to come back some time and try again.

We headed South to and through Ouray, which is my new favorite place. Surrounded on all sides by mountains. So pretty. Wermers suggested hitting Crystal Lake which is just south of Ouray up the pass (very vertical).

Crystal Lake is gorgeous! Crystal clear with fantastic scenery. Right off the road, too.

The fish were killing these (gray drake?). If you could cast away from the brush and rocks further into the lake you could hammer them. I quickly landed two little guys and foolishly didn't take photos. The strikes were so quick I was sure I could catch the larger fish feeding. However, after the initial two I got nothing. I'd like to lug a float tube in there and try again sometime. On the way back to the Mesa, about 3 hours, we stopped at Ouray Brewery in town. Cool little Brewery right in town. Opened in 2010. The people there were great and the beer was solid (we bought 2 growlers). They talked fishing with us before we had to take off. I'd happily go back and would recommend it if you're in the area!

Little Red Book of Fly Fishing

Doug was kind enough to give me a copy of the Little Red Book of Fly Fishing (written by Charlie Meyers and Kirk Deeter). I quickly read it cover to cover and put it on the shelf. On a whim I picked it up again recently and brought it to work for some break time reading. As I came across one of the 250 tips I liked or thought would be helpful I dog-eared the corner of the page. I just finished the 2nd time through and was quite amazed at how much of the book has been dog-eared! Apparently I read it too quickly the first time through as I didn't remember a lot of the tips. I would highly recommend this book. It's an easy read and provides a lot of insight. I grew a little tired of Deeter's name-dropping and place-dropping, but he had a ton of great idea and tips - stuff I hadn't even considered and more than a few Ah-ha! moments.

Anyhow, check it out. I know I will reference my copy for years to come.

Spinney/Elevenmile Canyon

Had the day off today so Dave and I got up early to hit Spinney this morning. We rolled in about 5:45am to the lowest water level I've ever seen at the Reservoir. It was a little shocking. More shocking was we were just the 2nd car in. Our intention was to hike/float tube over to Buffalo Bay. However, as we drove over the dam, the water was boiling with risers...everywhere. We made the decision to at least try it out by the dam before moving over to the Bay. We geared up and on Dave's first cast he landed the hen above. She was spewing orange eggs everywhere and was super fat.
The morning was full of fish like this. Typical Spinney. :)
The morning quickly materialized into the best I've had on the reservoir. The fish were keyed in on Chironomids and were hammering them all over the place. 6 casts = 6 fish. 7th cast no fish? WTF? 6 more casts = 6 more fish! That's more like it. This was the pattern all morning, it was actually rather ridiculous. The sizes of the fish ranged from several younger age class 14" bows to several over 20". These new Hofer strains are aerial artists, too! Very entertaining watching pigs fly through the air and smack the surface like a dinner platter.
Not only is the paint chipping off the bead, the wire is toast, and the TMC 2488H (heavy hook) is bent to hell. The fish were hitting the flies so hard the flies lasted only a few fish before having to be replaced - time to tie some more Chiros!
We figured out that Dave wasn't fishing the depth as I was and as such wasn't into as many fish. We fished the same flies and weight but the difference of a foot made all the difference. As soon as we figured it out Dave was into more fish. We must have had like 4 doubles in the matter of 30 minutes.

Got Chironomids?

At 9am I hooked another fish and then then like a light switch the unusually calm morning we enjoyed for 3 hours immediately disappeared and transformed to Gale Force winds without warning. It didn't build up, it just changed in an instant. It was ridiculous and Dave and I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation. The swells with the wind transformed the peaceful shore to the pacific shore. We decided to try and abandon the lake and hit the river. 3 hours, 30 fish. I am pretty sure Spinney is heaven.

The canyon isn't bad either :)

Dave dominated the river, I don't have any idea how many fish he hooked. This was one of the nicer fish, pretty Cutt!

Cutthroats like protein.

I was into some fish as well like this monster! Turned out to be the only brown all day, for me at least. The little dude was actually quite a fighter and had quite a belly.
Dave's Brown was a little bigger ;)At about 2 the wind was unbearable even in the protected canyon. We decided to head to the barn. All in all it was a fantastic day. Lots of fish with a great fishing buddy in an extremely serene, yet windy, setting. I wish I could do this more often.

Don't mind if I do.

Colorado Grayling

Pretty cool video I found over on Trouts Fly Fishing.

Arctic Grayling from Colorado Division of Wildlife on Vimeo.

Arctic Grayling from Colorado Division of Wildlife on Vimeo.

While not the most riveting of all fishing videos, I found it a great reminder of the diverse fishing opportunities to be had in Colorado.

The Grayling I've caught in Colorado, right near this video, aren't big but are pretty entertaining to catch. Beautiful fish.

Crafts

So I finally was able to finish the craft project that almost severed my thumb last week! Anyhow, I am in the market for some cut resistant gloves now. I totally ripped off rainbrewtrout.com after I saw the article in American Angler, my wife says it was karma. Sorry.

Bighorn River - Wyoming

So Doug, Greg, Bill and myself joined up with John and Don of Four Seasons Anglers (http://www.fourseasonsanglers.com/) Friday and fished the Bighorn River around Thermopolis, Wyoming Saturday and Sunday. It was great to get back out on the water with a rod in hand - just doesn't happen all that often any more!! The weather was great, for the most part, and the fishing was excellent. It was a great trip that I am sure to repeat, just a matter of time.

We floated a couple stretches of water above and below town. Didn't do much wading as the flows were high and a lot of water moving through. The only fish I landed out of the boat was a nice 18" bow that took a hot headed leach on the swing. Sorry no photo :(I had a tough time controlling the rod at first due to slicing an inch and a half of my thumb off 2 days prior on some metal. Here you can see John holding what was an average Bow with my goofy face and ridiculously large thumb in the background. After a while it became easier to cast and mend but it was still tough, especially in the wind gusts. Luckily the wind wasn't too bad at all. The fish sure had some shoulders! Pound for pound some of the strongest, feistiest fish I've been into.
Doug and Bill both landed browns in excess of 24"! This fish had beautiful red markings on the back. He hammered a thin mint. Apparently Doug couldn't hear me telling him to hold the fish on the other side so we could see it! It was a really nice fish hook jaw Brown, this photo really doesn't do it justice.
The crew after Day 2 about to head home: me, Bill, Greg, and Doug.
There was an unreal BWO hatch both days, they were all over the place! We only saw maybe 2 trout rise in 2 days though. There would be beautiful drifts with what appeared to be fantastic dry fly holes with bugs everywhere and perfect spots for the trout to hold but no luck with dries at all. Bummer. We did well with emergers and nymphs though.
Bill with a nice Bow.

Bill with another nice Bow. And a rod.
Doug again holding the fish poorly but this time it's a Bow.
Greg was clearly enjoying himself with a beer and cigar over lunch. Looks rough doesn't it?Evidently this is how you transport young children in Thermopolis. Duly noted. Next time I will bring my ATV and ensure the kids can join in the fun by bolting a car seat to the back!

Overall it was a great trip with great guides and good people. I had never ventured that far into the interior of Wyoming before. A whole lot of nothing for the majority of the trip but some great fishing to be had on the Wyoming side of the Bighorn. The river really didn't remind me much of the Montana side at all but we were a considerable distance out. There was a lot of moss and big fish though so that was the same. Great trip.

Family Fishing

Well the weather has been great lately so we thought it would be a great morning to take the kids fishing. It was actually Van's idea and he was really excited. We gathered everyone into the Outback and headed out. After a quick stop at Walmart to pick up some earthworms we were off. It turned out to be a bit windy but aside from that it was great out.Van learning how we fish!Lily had a good time learning how to fish too!
What a good looking couple of fisherwomen!Van really enjoyed playing with his tackle box.
But he really enjoyed the worms! He got to touch a few and really enjoyed it!

Ultimately Daddy couldn't get us into any fish before we had to take off for the kid's naps but it was a very good morning. We had a great time.