The Magic Button

One of Davie Mcphail's emergers and a new favorite guide tie. Quick, easy and deadly. 

Remember that kid back in the day that could pick up any stick, club or ball and make it look like he'd dated it forever? Smooth, effortless motion, speed and strength screwed firmly on a clear head under pressure. When I was in grade school it was the Burke brothers of the 19th ward. Junior high was Steve Anderson and in high school it was Tittle and Kermie. While everything came naturally to these .001%ers the rest of us practiced and worked hard to be at least good enough to be on the team when something great happened. Some guys would skip the work expecting the magic button to turn it's self on and end up with a sour taste for the experience.

 The challenges of fly fishing require practice, dedication and attention. When you put the work in you are rewarded be it with fish, incredible natural beauty or a set of perfect presentations. Two dudes putting the work in right now are my friends Theo Anest and Brandon Soucy. They both make fishing and guiding seem effortless, I have been witness to both. These youngsters are that .001% of our sport but they have worked hard to stand there by spending hundreds of days a year with a rod in hand  Lately they have decided to take the show to the limited competitive fly fishing circuit and have been racking up wins for a few years. Their latest win came last weekend at the Frostbite on the Ark. To go along with the "huge" prize money ($1000, plus $250 for the big fish by Soucy) they were rewarded with a few grenades. I'm not going to be that guy to add to the drama with specifics, some other ass munch on a losing team beat me to it. The tournament is in existence to raise money for TU, not to make fly fishing legends of a bunch of Wanna Be's who simply don't have enough game. Do you need a reminder of what's really important (water & fish) and who helps protect that (TU)? The reality of it is our sport is filled with more punters and high school golfers than dudes willing to go in the corner and take a hit. If you are going to enter and compete bring your version of Tigers old game, practice hard and  shut it.

  Everything worth doing  requires work; tying flies, parenting, running a business, guiding, rowing or enjoying a great relationship takes time, patience and practice. I thought the other day as I continue to teach my boy to skate that "this is going to take a while", then I took him to the High School game and thought about how soon it will be. Unfortunately in my world  most people show up without practicing and that's fine, but like learning to skate, expect to fall. I guide in a tourist trap, not north of here, and its my reality that some people think they can shoot a few pars on their first trip. My boat has no room for the magic button, I bring the jelly beans instead and  normally only share with those who try. Thankfully the experience is worth it and most people have no expectation of catching  fish like Theo and B, hell I dont.

January??

If you can make it.....Go

We need snow real bad here in the Mountains of Colorado and not just for the ski industry that we rely on so heavily to put clothes on our ankle biters backs. Or for Denver (see above). As the early winter that wasn't continues we have made the best of it. The team has managed a failed float, 2 trips to local tailwaters and a 5 boat float on an ice free Big Mud, all in January.

The failed float turned into an incredible afternoon on the Frying Pan. The Pan is a delicacy I don't treat myself to enough and I always leave wishing I could guide there. As usual we arrive at the Dam with a boat in tow from some put in down stream that was jammed with ice. It at least draws attention away from my truck covered with stickers from that "other valley". It was crowded so we didn't get the best beats but it didn't seem to matter, we all had nice eats.

The rest of the report is  standard, typical winter fare. The Blue through Silverthorn is still my favorite place to go shopping. This fishery is very healthy and equally as popular on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Don't believe all the reports, I found plenty of fish in real fast water wedged between people fishing classic runs and pools. Take what you can get at the tailwaters. The float was your everyday January float.....except it rained cats and dogs. Nice to guide with my old buds Pete Mott, The Big Zim, Will Sands and Kyle Holt, true professionals.

Yet another shitty fly for the winter. By all means do not attempt to put traces of blue ice dub and Ostrich in your winter midge patterns

Red Quills

So why is it a guy can't find a Red Quill nymph pattern to tie or buy? Have I discovered some over sight in one of the most OCD of all hobbies? Sure, there are a good number of dry fly patterns available but most guides will tell you they will not get assaulted. They are almost always there in good numbers and you will often see the emerger take a month to dry its tall grey wing. I never see fish really key in on the Dun; this bug really must taste like shit the closer to oxygen it gets. The only fly I can actually say I have faith in during this hatch is an emerger pattern that I can only find through Orvis. Its a beautiful quill body with a long gray soft hackle collar, fish it deep or shallow, it smells right. It's suppost to imitate a Hendrickson, an Eastern fly and I am sure it was named  after that stripped quill body. Some shmuck like me got to wondering the same thing years ago and ordered what he thought was a Red Quill and the valley got lucky. There was a nymph a few years ago with a real skinny body similar to the Burton PT , that dog hunted  too. The similarities in the imitations seem to be their thin abdomen, but thats about it. So I decided to dig into old books and the magic that is the web and look for a blockbuster of a Red Quill nymph for the 2012 season.

Red Quill Emerger from Orvis

I discovered that there is essentially, no real patterns out there for this black sheep of the Mayfly world. I dug deep into some circa 1950 stuff, I went East coast, West coast and read some Latin. I waded through some incredibly bad web content and worshipped all the groovy new fly catalogs.and basically got skunked. Weird for a bug I see so often. Latin wise it seems to be in the Rithrogena gang with March Browns, but the nymph patterns are all very fat. Most of the Hendrickson patterns look a whole lot closer size and color wise but I'm afraid they are bloods and not crips. I'm not looking to get wacked here for crossing a line with the Ephemera gang. Truth is, I still have no idea what it is we are trying to imitate, I just know there is not a nymph pattern of what I'm not sure I'm seeing. Superflys (tung, soft hackle PT's) work all summer long in the right water type so maybe there isn't a better mouse trap after all.

A friend of mine was fishing size 12 PT's with an over sized bead one summer when the Quills were around and he was killing it deep. Something or other he read he said. "These bugs worked real hard at getting back under things on the bottom in fast water" he says. Real similar to the March Browns back East, but no closer. Time to call my buddy the Bug Man. Either way, all this research and thought spawned that  Bead Head Red Quill for use this summer.....probably wont work, but I've got 3 dozen of them.

JMacs Girdle

Quick and easy guide fly this week. I got fancy for the picture and put wing cases on, only because I needed to play with the new UV clear coat Kit got me for Xmas. The quick and easy going to loose them any ways version does not require as much fluff. 3 materials and some lead and you have a different spin on your Pats Rubberlegs, Bitch creeks and Girdle bugs, which we all use alot.

December 30th and its going to be a bluebird 48 degrees on the Roaring Fork, fourth in a row according to the only other guide on the river. Hatching Midges, 38 degree water, perfect clarity and no pressure on the next to last day of the year.  Convinced beyond a doubt that magic began at the end of the boat ramp, Jmac and I KNEW it was on.  I'd love to tell you that's how it went, but it didn't. Id like to tell you that guide fly worked wonders,but believe me, nothing in the box smelled right. We did tail hook one on a streamer and I might have farmed another but that was the whole story. Seven beers in the cooler and we took 4 home........ Fishing

tough to tell but that rock is still 25 ft above the water.

Last day Canyon fishing for 2011

Minturn Manglers

yes, that is milk, water and vodka

 My proper name is Robert. A grandmother, an angry mother and my middle school principle were about the only one's who ever used it though. I never really liked it.  The middle school principle took a pudding snack to the temple on my second day at catholic school, so for 2 years I understood why that beautiful woman called me Robert instead of Bob. For the first 13 years of my life the people I loved and trusted all referred to me as Bump. Apparently the blame went to my aunt Carolyn for addressing the baby shower gift to the "baby bump" cuz nobody knew what I was yet......a pain in the ass. The boys from Canisteo NY on a late 80's spring break whirlwind came up with Bubby. Not sure if it was Jimmy Davis, brother of Wiener, Snake, Fieldsy, AJ, Carnsy or Pete the Polish giant who came up with it, but that one stuck for a long time.

I come from a place where no one seemed to be called by their given name. Along about junior high someone would just give you a new one. I grew up with Tweety, Newbomb, Coach, Smitty, Smittie, Slider, Kermie, Gumby, Stiener and his brother Maze. There is Dunc, House, Tittle, Pie Man, Grover, the Big Cat, Smokey, Lurch, Sallie, the Mayor and EZ E. My parents never knew what to call anyone. Most of it came from sports fields and locker rooms growing up. Men's league hockey, softball and of course a life of hunting have also helped introduce me to quite a cast of characters, none worthy enough to be refered to by his true name I guess. All of this happened, for the most part 1800 miles away from my little mountain town here in Colorado.....basically another planet.

not worth trying anything like this right now.



My locker room of late has been Fly Shops and guide services. It's a freaking gold mine of quirky personalities and egos in a mildly competitive environment. It just seems easier to have a sir name in a business where everybody is in your business. We've got Jmac of course. Just a classic shortening of the last name. About the same as Zim, or as Sam calls him, "the Big Zim". Thats just because he's huge. I work for Arac and the Rattlesnake, with Fred Rodgers, Doc, Whit, LT Johnson, Magnum, Spock and Chef. I live with Kitty, Batman, Spiderman, Ironman, Kmart, Zip,Samson, Dooda and Monkey. Then theres the always entertaining Hate, Worries, Ms Whitey, Fudge, Panic, Ghost in the Darkness, Killer and the Author. But the single most incredible nickname and my favorite of the year is Snookie. To know him and call him this, even if it was just for a week was true fun. I wish he liked it better. No harm meant, just clean one victim fun, love you. Cudos to the Rattlesnake for coming up with it. Funny cuz Sprech hates his nickname and he went and gave someone one they dont like either....weird.


At the end of the day it seems best to look at a nickname as a form of acceptance. A way for a dude to tell ya he loves you or that your doing a great job without actually saying it. Going to battle or say on a long fishing trip and getting a nick name is a badge to be worn proudly. Sam might say its your superhero name, either way, we usually earn the nick name for kickin some form of ass, good or bad, right or wrong. So from Bobber and all the boys at "Minturn Manglers", heres hoping you get it done next year.

this bug sucks too.

Ab work

My post thanksgiving AB tip. Just tie abdomens for a few nights, finish the bug later. I find that most of my nymph bodies are superhair or a small vinyl rib, which means white thread under body and consequently a bobbin change. At that point it can be easier to tighten everything up with some head cement and set it aside for another evenings assembly line. My first 3 flies every time I sit and tie are horrible, so I have found tying a larger quantity ends up helping quality.

You didnt expect this to be about your gut did you?

Zim provided some awesome little D Rib in3 different colors at Thanksgiving. It stretches like no other rib I've used......nice. Thanks Zim.

Out for a stroll with Kit, the animals and J Knight x2. We decided it was actually harder to be the last angler on a section of water for the year than the first. We scrambled down the tracks into a canyon up stream from town but we were a few days late. Time to give the tracks and canyons to the snowmobiles for the season.  J Knight magically made one jump on his junk though....not really surprising.

Minturn Rocks. Just sayin

Hope everybody had a great begining to feast season, I know we did......deep fried frosted german chocolate brownies is all I can say. 

Winter Vise time

We finally have river front property, at least for the next 11 months. It's been fun to have the tying bag spilled out over an entire dining room again, creating crap for use in my back yard.

#20 PMD Nymph

#22 Purple Soft Hackle

Of course theres a bunch of eggs being tied and fished around here, but winter is about nymphing with midges and small Mayflys.

#24 Cream/Yellow Soft Hackle

Just some winter junk from my vise to yours. Big to do's around here for turkey day and I'm sure the "downtown" beat of the mighty Eagle will be harassed, so we will at least be able to tell you whats working in the backyard. Winter fishing is not such an unusual thing any more. Every ones favorite winter fishing spots have their own mood and temperament but the one thing they have in common is the food is small. Tying small is fun and it doesn't take long to whip up a nice pile of bugs for about 18 cents a piece.