Family Vacation and Colorado Fun

Had family visit recently.

My sister Amy and her husband Joe.

Lauren

Dominic

Ella

Our daughter MooMoo

Fishing

The Captain

Fun Fun Fun

Here Fishy Fishy

I often think that when you talk to the fish they answer. Sometimes I talk with my mouth and other times with my fly rod. When using ones mouth I'm not quite sure if the fish hear you, but it keeps you occupied and concentrating on your fishing.  I like saying things like "I just want to look at you" or "I'm gonna let you go". My clients always mess it up though. They say things like "Give me the biggest rainbow trout ever!!!" then they catch a whitefish by snagging it in the rear end... Just know if you ever here me praying to the fish it's becoming a rough day. When I talk to the fish with my fly rod it's magic. Fishing dry flies I can preform the swinging stonefly struggle, the skitter drop caddis hop, and the mega mend turn your mayfly around. I can wiggle a nymph like it's nobodies business. I'm a jerk jerk jerk pause with the buggers and you can take that to the bank.

This is one of my best clients taking his son fishing.

All dads should do that.

This couple fished through a rain/hailstorm. Grey mud was floating in from the left, red mud from the right. There was floating islands of pine needles, and they still caught fish.

Two brothers stoking it.

My New Boat

Here is some pictures of my new Clackacraft drift boat. Awesome boat, but not an awesome time to buy it. The rivers in Colorado are still raging. I did launch it in a couple lakes however. Once at Stagecoach where we got blanked for pike, and then at Clear Creek Reservoir with my wife putting the first fish in the boat! It was a stocked rainbow on a spoon, but it was a fish and it was in the boat. I quickly restored dignity to the vessel by landing one on the fly rod. Then we tried for bigger toothier critters only to get blanked again, thank heaven for stocked rainbows... On a serious fishing note, the Eagle River is on fire right now. Water levels are dropping and floatable, by raft!!! We are catching them with dry fly's, swinging nymphs, and stripping buggers. These two were caught on elk hair caddis' with yours truly on the oars.

Fourth of July Moose and More

I had this moose walk past my patio the other morning, it's cool to see nature that close to your home. He did walk under a ladder however, I hope he's not superstitious. I was pretty busy the last couple of weeks guiding. The water is still raging but we are getting fish in the net. I had a twelve year old, Weston, who caught twelve fish on the Eagle. The trout in Homestake are starting to hit dry flies as well... Awesome!

Taking a Dump at Teva 2011

There were a lot of highs and lows for me at this years Teva Mountain Games. I qualified second in the Quarter finals out of seventy five people. Then for the second year in a row I missed the cut in the semi's by one spot.... It made me want to vomit. That's like leading a bass tournament and then having your boat sink, or dropping your birthday cake on the floor. It's like winning the lottery then getting hit by a bus!!! Well maybe I'm getting a little dramatic, but I felt pretty bad. Then heaven sent me an angel. On the way home I was explaining to my daughter how you can't win them all, and she replied "Dad, we can pretend you won."  Things didn't seem so bad after that, because I have already won. A thousand dollars and a new Sage set up would be nice though.





The first round is distance and accuracy, I qualified second.



Then on to the bridge in front of thousands of people, this is where I flailed.

We're number one.

Back At It

It's great to be back in Colorado and working again. The water is high and rising so I've been going to Homestake Creek. It is a tailwater that's not affected as much by the spring runoff.

  



Small steam small fish

It's pretty though



Check out this group




She was stoked to catch a stick



One of my friends had his parents in town, congrats Scott and Kristen, so I took his dad fishing. We decided to try the Eagle River, high water and all, and it was good. We easily landed 20 fish in a couple of hours. We had to move around to find fishable water, but when we did the trout were easily nymphed up with San Juan Worms and bead headed nymphs.



When the Going Gets Tough the Tough Go Carp Fishing

Just got back from vacation. The family went to Myrtle Beach for a week, then back to the home land, Wisconsin, for a few days. I didn't get to much time to fish, and what I did wasn't all that productive. It was a cold spring and the toothy's seemed to be on a spawning hangover. I did manage a few pike that I'm almost embarrassed to post the pics of, but when the going gets tough the tough go carp fishing. Lac LaBelle in Oconomocowoc proved a great fly fishing play ground for the fresh water bones. Carp are challenging and rewarding. Sometimes I could drop a black bugger an inch from their fat lips and they'd suck it right up, other times I'd spook a whole pack just by looking at them. On one such occasion I stripped my bugger through the tail end of a spooked pack of carp. I'm sure the fish' in the back of the herd had no idea why they were on the move again. Infact they where probably discussing what a nice day it was when my fly came scooting by and a goofy fellow gobbled it up.When I did hook up the beasts would drag my boat around slamming my boat into boat docks trying to flee underneath, but my six weight Sage with 25 pound flouro held up. I still love the toothy mouths, but some rubber lips ain't so bad once in a while.

What the #$&!?

I roll with Rayovac as always

My Pops likes the Toothy's too