Sometimes you have to break all the rules...

As you have probably guessed by the few posts that we have been able to get out lately things have been crazy at our house - we have just been way too busy!  

For the first time in a very long time I headed up into the mountains for a day on the river.  When I'm going out by myself I usual go in search of the bigger fish as opposed to quantity or scenery.  So I headed out to Spinney Mountain Ranch hoping to get into some of the lake run fish that move up into the river in the fall.

Instead of fishing my usual holes I decided to try some new ones closer to the lake.  Even for a Friday the usual parking lots were very full.

Fish 1 and 2:

Once I made it down to the river I was surprised to find a number of rising fish, and big ones at that.  With our house on the market all of my fly tying supplies are put away so I was nervous that I wasn't going to have the right dry flies to throw at the risers.  Looking through my fly boxes I was able to find something that was close to the bugs the fish were feeding on.  Usually "close" means "not good enough" and a lot of frustration as you fish that are feeding on the surface but won't take your fly.  But today, for some reason, the fishing gods were smiling on me.   My first good cast put the fly right in the feeding lane and sure enough, the fish nailed it.

I quickly landed it and was so eager to get my fly back in the water I didn't want to waste the time to get the camera out and take a picture.

I dried the fly off and got it back out on the water quickly, to my disbelief the very next cast I hooked up into another good fish.  Again, I didn't want to take the time to do the photo thing - had to get back fishing!

 Fish number 3:  The risers had subsided from the bend where I got the first two - time to let it rest for a little bit.  Looking up stream there were more fish rising - a couple of decent casts and I finally convinced one to take my fly - Fish on!  This time I had to get a picture - a nice rainbow!  Once I got him on the reel it was a full on battle with the drag singing with each run.

Fish number 4: This one took the dropper - a little red annelid.  It actually moved quite a bit out of its way to take it, I waited for the take and set the hook.  This one sure gave me a good fight but at least I had a little bigger hook on the dropper and was now more concerned about the delicate 6x tippet that the fly was tied to and all of the weeds on the bottom of the river that a wily fish might use to get free.  Fortunately the tippet held and got a chance to take his photo!   This fish was somewhere in the vicinity of 20"

All this time the fish were rising on PMDs and Tricos - both super tiny.  The trick was to drop a fly right in the fish's feeding lane and hope it decides to take your fly instead of the real bug drifting down the river next to it. Once in a while you convince a fish yours is the real deal and it takes the fly.  If you are lucky you hook the fish but often with these tiny flies you either jerk it out of their mouth, or in the fish shakes it out during the fight because the hook is just sooo tiny.  ( I had several of such instances on this trip but fortunately I had a pretty good success ratio)  So as I am standing there letting the pool rest waiting for the fish to come back to the surface and start feeding again I see a large grass hopper fall into the river just upstream from where the fish have been feeding.  I stand there in eager anticipation to see what happens next.  Wham!  The hopper is GONE!  I quickly scramble to re-rig my line cutting off the microscopic flies and substituting in the huge hopper.

One of the lessons you learn early on in fly fishing is that if you want to catch fish you need to have a solid presentation of the fly where the fly moves down the river as though its not connected to any thing, it simply flows down the river at exactly the same speed everything around it.  Sounds easy enough but fly anglers spend their entire lives perfecting this technique.  If you do this right you catch fish, if you can't figure it out, you don't.

So here I am trying to perfectly float my big grasshopper down the river expecting at any second I'll get something to nail it.  After several good casts and good drifts right through the feeding lane... nothing.

Then I watch one of those bugs that walks on water go scooting along the surface across the current and right over where the fish have been feeding and it is instantly gobbled up.  AH HA!  Thinking back, that hopper I saw was kicking periodically as it was floating down the river....

With new excitement I deliver my hopper just upstream of the feeding fish and as its drifting down the stream I break the cardinal rule of fly fishing and give him a little twitch, then another, then a third one... wham!  Fish on, and its a PIG!  A beautiful Cutthroat!

After a couple of pictures I send him on his way

Fish numbers 5 and 6: I just had to try this trick again!  Same fly, same spot, three twitches, and I hook into another fish, this one the biggest fish of the day.  This time - the weirdest thing happened - while I was fighting the fish I watched it spit the hook only to have its buddy that was swimming along with it grab the dropper fly - I ended up landing the smaller fish on the dropper -  a little smaller but another nice rainbow.  I was too excited again and spared the photo...

 Fish number 7: By now I had caught a good share of the fish out of this hole and the rest of the fish were too spooked to feed.  There was no more surface activity, and no more takers on the hopper.  I decided to switch over to the spaghetti and meat balls rig (an egg fly with a worm fly dropper) and I picked up one last fish in the next pool up the stream!  Another bow approaching 20"!

This was some day!  The smallest fish was around 16-17" and the biggest one may hve topped out around 20".  The best part was that I was basically in non-stop dry fly / sight fishing heaven from 10am until about 2pm.  I did have my share of requisite lost fish which keeps things in perspective.  I would have kept going but the weeds on the river bottom were dieing off for the season and big clumps were drifting down the river - it got worse and worse until at 2pm the river became more or less unfishable - time to head home.

Lessons learned
-Sometimes cardinal rules are really more like guidelines
-Explore new stretches of familiar waters

Goose Creek Hike

With the weather finally feeling like summer and grandparents in town eager to spend some quality time with the kids Kate and I decided to head up to the mountains and do an overnight backpacking trip on the Goose Creek Trail in the Lost Creek Wilderness.

This is a place we have visited as a family for the last two summers but with the kids, we had only ever ventured in about a mile or so from the trail head.  Doing some research we found that about 4 miles in there is a valley of unparalleled beauty heavily guarded by a massive boulder field.  Those willing to venture in are rewarded with some breath taking scenery... or so they say - we set out to find out.

The drive up was a little intimidating - it was pooring rain and had been all afternoon.  We could only hope that the weather would clear as we pushed up into the mountains to the west.  Fortunately it did.  We arrived at the trail head around 6:00PM finished packing our packs - as lightly as possible for a one night backpacking trip.  Then we had to decided - go about a mile and set up camp while the trail is relatively flat or keep going hiking up the hill (approx 800ft gain over the next 4 miles) and see if we can make it the 4 miles to the camp site near the Lost Creek Valley.  We decided to go for it.   After an hour of a trail that only seems to go up, the camp site no where in sight and daylight burning Kate needs a break from her pack...  In fairness I had "borrowed" her ever so critical belt buckle  on her pack to put on our other smaller pack that goes with us just about everywhere we go. You know - the one that cinches the pack around your hips to take the load off your shoulders... that one...)  So imagine Kates surprise when she put her pack on ready to set out on a weekend backpacking trip only to find that I had of course forgotten to replace her critically important belt buckle...  I Macgyver rigged something but as most real-life MacGyver solutions go they work well enough that if you were filming all of this you could find enough good footage to think it was a decent fix but then there are all the other parts that get edited out usually due to necessity with all of the profanity and cursing at the infernal "fix" that has been made... So with Kate needing a break and daylight burning I grabbed her pack and wore it on the front with mine still on back and kept on going... no fun but my own fault...

Fortunately it wasn't much further until we arrived at the camp site.  To our surprise there were a number of other campers as well at the camp site.  We found a nice flat spot, set up the tent and called it good.  We managed to get all situated before the sun set and Kate fell asleep within 5 minutes and slept all night.  I rarely sleep much on the first night backpacking and this trip was no exception.  I slept all of maybe 5 minutes all night... I just couldn't get comfortable... That flat spot we decided to put the tent on wasn't all that flat, my sleeping pad was too firm, I didn't bring an adequate pillow so my neck hurt, then there was the utter silence in the woods - so quiet in fact that as I was laying there I even heard the "neighbors" maybe 200 ft away getting frisky in the night, then there was the rain, oh yeah, and since Kate hadn't brought enough warm clothes I had to give her my warmer sleeping bag, and winter hat, then there was the rain in the night... Of course Kate wakes up refreshed, warm and ready to go not having heard the rain or the neighbors or had issue with the sloping tent, etc.  I woke up an achy zombie.

Its hard to let a bad night of sleep keep you down for too long surrounded by this spectacular scenery.  We put together a day pack leaving everything else at the camp site and set out to attempt to find the fabled Lost Creek Valley.  Lost Creek gets its name by vanishing under the pile of immense boulders, many of which are bigger than very large houses at the bottom of the valley, and then reappearing further down the valley.  We arrived at the remains of the shafthouse which was used to try to dam the river as it passed under the boulder field by pooring concrete down into the spaces... fortunately it never worked.

Moving up past the Shafthouse we found numerous trails attempting to negotiate the boulder field. After a couple of dead ends or routes we deemed to be too risky we decided the path dropping about 9ft down using an old log as a makeshift ladder was the best option.  Kate was first and scouted ahead.  Those brave enough to investigate further are rewarded by the most incredible vista.

The fabled Lost Creek Valley does in fact exist and it is simply spectacular!!! Definitely one of the highlights of the trip!

Heading back out retracing our steps we went back to our camp site, we grabbed the little fly rods and did some fishing for the resident brook trout.

Kate then refilled the water bottles while I packed up the tent.  We wanted to hike back to the beaver pond we had passed on our way in to try to fish it as well as to fish some of the water closer to the trail head which we know from previous trips is loaded with brookies.

The Beaver pond was very productive as was our secret run downstream a little further.  Wow that water is cold!!!

Kate had a blast picking off the brookies one at a time on the surface with her new 7"6" hot pink 4wt.  These little rods have got to be just about the most fun that can possibly be had with a fly rod!

Simply beautiful fish from the frigid mountain stream!  After catching our fill we hiked back to the car and headed home exhausted.  We stopped for dinner at a new place (new to us) in Pine called Zokas.  It was incredible food and very reasonably priced.  Aftrer catching and releasing all of those brookies earlier in the day Kate couldn't resist the trout topped with a rhubarb chutney and I went for the Zoka Burger.  It was delicious.  Great food all the way around - we can't wait to go back!

Sailing St. Vincent and the Grenadines - Part 1

Its been 2 years now since we have done a sailing trip accompanied by two years of day dreaming about going back and doing it again.  In the middle of our long cold winter we unilaterally decided a Caribbean sailing trip was a must this year.  And so it was... book the boat, use miles for tickets, double check Grandma and Grandpa's schedule for the kids and we are off.  Of course its never that easy...  26 hours, 2 US states, 1 US territory, 4 countries, 3 trips through security in Antigua alone, and 4 planes later we arrived - miraculously with all of our baggage - I'm still in disbelief.

The thing about St Vincent and the Grenadines though is that what you pay for in inconvenience you are rewarded for in unspoiled beauty and culture.  This is the real Caribbean - not the Florida Keys, not the Virgin Islands, not Cancun or Cozumel - this is the real deal where Bananas are the largest source of revenue - not tourism, there are no all inclusive resorts, or even fast food, and you pay more not less for processed food at the grocery because it has to be imported.

After a quick taxi ride we finally made it to the charter company which has some very nice rooms and a fantastic restaurant overlooking the charter fleet on moorings and the island of Bequia to the south.  A great dinner in the ocean air and some of Randy's fantastic Rum punch (best in the Grenadines - we tried them all) quickly melted away all of the travel stresses.

Our experience has been that trying to get up and get the charter started quickly doesn't ever work out and we have been stressed out and frustrated by it all in the past.  This go around we embraced "island time" and took it easy, slept in, had a nice breakfast, did the chart brief, checked out the boat, did the grocery shopping (Phyllis the taxi driver took good care of us taking us to all the best stores and local fruit stands) got the boat packed and ready to go - only to find that the depth finder doesn't work.  Fortunately they were able to repair it and we were on our way to the enchanted island of Mustique.

This year we tried something new while sailing - fishing.  I scoured the internet and was able to find a couple reasonably priced, 2-piece deep sea rods that could handle 50lb test line, bought some lures and a cheap fillet knife, and brought along some home made rod holders.  To our amazement about an hour into our sail and the reel starts buzzing away with a hookup.

Fishing from the sailboat took a bit of forethought however - once you hook up - what next?  Its a 40' sailboat in 10' swells and 15knots of wind with two very large sails up - maneuvering is out of the question.  With only 40lb line on the reels we had to be sure to slow the boat down so we didn't break our catch off, but if you stop the boat the fish could get tangled up in the keel, rudder, or prop, so the boat has to keep going forward - only slowly.  Fortunately we had discussed what would happen if we actually caught something and put our plan into action... Kate took the fish and kept the drag loose and line tight while i slowed the boat.  Set the autopilot, release the Jib sheet and furl it in, and let off some main sheet as well.  We were still moving forward enough to keep pressure on the fish but no too much that we couldn't fight the fish.  Kate worked the fish hard and made some headway but handed it over to me for the last bit to ensure we did't loose it under the boat or around the dingy.  We were elated to find we had hooked into a nice black fin tuna - Fresh grilled tuna for dinner!  A couple of whacks on the head with that winch handle and I was off to work making some nice tuna fillets!

Now back on course with Mustique just off our port bow, fillets in the ice box and deck finally clean we hook up two more fish - both barracudas!  What a first day!

Mustique is one of our favorite islands in the Caribbean, it is simply spectacular!  It is a private island with bunch of villas on it, a couple restaurants and a little village with a grocery store, French bakery, and a fruit stand It is home to one of the most incredible beaches in the world, Macaroni Beach.  Two years ago when we visited Mistique, we made it a quick overnight.  The anchorage isn't the most protected and a bit rolly for your first night aboard and we were anxious to check out all of the other Grenadine islands.  This year we took a more "island time" approach, as noted previously and decided to stay an extra day and explore the island.

As it turns out that Tuna provided more fresh fish than we could eat.  Of course we didn't want any of it to go to waste so we took half of it ashore hoping to give it away.  The taxi driver sitting at the end of the dingy dock couldn't believe we were offering it to him and was so happy to get it he offered us a free ride to the beach we were headed to!  Who knew you could barter for taxi rides with fresh fish!?

We decided to spend the day on the famous Macaroni beach playing in the waves, reading a book, and a little exploring. 

After a long day on the beach our faithful taxi driver picked us up and we headed back to the boat, cleaned up and headed to Basil's Bar on the waterfront for a delicious lobster dinner - by far the best lobster that I have ever had!

The next morning it was time to head south.  Of course sailing means fishing and sure enough right out of Mustique we quickly land this little barracuda which we decided was just about the right size for the two of us for dinner!

Our next destination was Salt Whistle Bay and the little island of Mayreau.  Salt Whistle Bay has to be one of the best anchorages in the Caribbean with a setting straight out of a post card, a great breeze at night and a perfectly calm and quiet anchorage - couldn't ask for a better place to take a long afternoon nap!

After our last trip here we knew we had to make a little hike up into the village for sundowners at the one and only Dennis' Hideaway.  Dennis is quite a character, i'd classify him as the local "personality" who operates a little guest house, bar and restaurant.  The last time we were there we also met the bartender / waitress and Kenta who was extremely enjoyable to talk to and made some fantastic rum punches!  It was fun to see her again and as expected we had a memorable night with Dennis, Kenta, the young woman from Poland who is apparently Dennis's girlfriend, and a couple from Germany who were starting their second circumnavigation... 

   We had some delicious conch and had drinks until the money we brought ran out - Dennis was nice enough to buy us a round once our funds dried up!  What a guy!  In the morning we hiked up to the little church on top of the hill before weighing anchor and heading of to the near by Tobago Keys.

It wouldn't be hard to spend all 10 days of the trip here in the Tobago Keys.  Here a large horse shoe shaped reef protects four small uninhabited islands and provides yet another spectacular anchorage.  The Tobago Keys are a marine park with tons of marine life.  Sea turtles are everywhere, the snorkeling is great with lots to see.  This time around we saw both a reef shark and a nurse shark, lots of eels, lobsters, and of course thousands of colorful fish.  One night I even saw an eagle ray while looking over the side with a headlamp on! What a surprise!

Swimming with sharks... now we have done a lot of diving with sharks in the past, mostly nurse sharks that are harmless to humans but also with reef sharks which are the real deal.  When I'm diving with sharks I'm always a little on edge but when we came up on a reef shark while snorkeling in 6' deep water Kate and I were very uncomfortable.. not sure why really but we both had the same feeling of being out of our element and a little exposed...  Of course once it saw us it left rather quickly leading me to think it was just as afraid of us as we were of it.  Either way it was a very interesting and memorable experience.


More to come!!!

First fishing trip of the year!

The first fishing trip of the year is usually a total crap shoot. You just never know what to expect in terms of weather, fishing, road conditions, gear reliability, etc. Fortunately here in Colorado we can fish all year round so one doesn't typically get too rusty between hanging up the waders in November and heading out for that first day on the water which for me is usually around late February. Fortunately, today most everything went about as well as one could ever hope for the first day out, particularly in February at 8600 ft of elevation!

This time of year I usually head up to one of my favorite places, Spinney Mountain Ranch on the South Platte. This section of river, a three mile stretch between Spinney Mountain Reservoir and Eleven Mile Reservoir, is called the "Dream Stream" due to the huge trout that come in from the lake to spawn in the spring and fall.

Now in regards to getting the bugs out on the first day of the season... well the weather was superb - no wind, bright and sunny, and about 45 degrees. The roads were clear, no snow and the dirt river access road was dry (when its muddy, it gets really nasty!). The fishing really couldn't have been better for this time of year - I landed 4 and lost 2 in the period of about 3 hours. Unfortunately today was my day to pay tribute to fly fishing gods by jumping into an icy stream on an excellent fishing day with a pair of very leaky waders. This of course poses an obvious dilemma and after chasing this fish down the river with one leg full of water and a small chilly trickle starting on the other leg I started to wonder just how long one could really go without any feeling in their feet before any permanent damage set in... As it turns out, longer than I would have thought!

Grey Reef, North Platte River, Wyoming - Part 2

After Casey and I had such a great time up on Grey Reef in Wyoming over Casey's spring break, I called up my buddy Nelsen and planned a trip to head back up to try to get into the fish again - and sure enough we did!Grey Reef is unlike any other place that I have fished. The river is big and wide, the best way to fish it is to float it, and the fish are simply Huge! Every single one of them is huge - in fact, it seems to be difficult to catch a small fish - i don't get that part of it, but all I can say is, I've spend 4 days on that river this year and the smallest fish I caught or even saw was 16". The average fish up there runs about 18-20" and some do indeed get bigger. The best part is that they seem to be just about everywhere in that river.
We drove up the night before and stayed in Casper Wyoming. A guide runs about $400 a day + tip (its worth it on a rare occasion but obviously expensive). This time however, instead of a guide we just rented a boat from the Platte River Fly Shop on the south side of Casper. After the requisite browsing of the fly shop we grabbed a few supplies, hitched up the boat, and off we went. We put the boat in up at the Dam in Alcova, and spent the majority of our day fishing the top sections of the river where the water clarity was a bit better. It took us a little while to figure out which patterns were working, after asking three guides we got three different answers. We heard everything from these guys, leeches, annelids, midges, baetis, streamers... big stuff, small, stuff... The good news was that the fish were biting but trying to figure out what they were biting on was a bit of a challenge until the midge hatch really kicked off. Then it was pretty obvious. Ironically, the fly of the day turned out the be the Skinny "Nelsen"!


One BIG reason to get a guide: Rowing a boat is easy - Rowing a boat on a river such that the person fishing in the front of the boat actually has a chance to catch a fish - is a masterful art. If you plan on renting a boat, be prepared to get chewed out a few times by the guy fishing when taking your turn on the oars. It would appear that when you're on the fish but the boat is out of control such that you don't stand a chance at a decent presentation, the filter in our brains that normally keeps what we are thinking from being verbalized has the strong potential to become compromised. I regret to admit that as much as I tried to restrain myself, a bit of Captain Bligh came out when it was my turn to fish. Please accept my apologies Nelsen!

Aside from the incredible fishing, the scenery is spectacular as well! We saw several deer, antelope, rabbits, pelicans, wood ducks, and even an eagle from the boat on the way down the river. The big open skies, rolling hills and towering cliff banks make for some very intersting scenery.

These fish are just Awesome! Nice catch Nelsen, I can't wait until our next trip!