My good friend Scott Thompson, fellow guide, fishing buddy and video guru has just finished some genius work I can't help but share. It has a PG rating (particularly gruesome) as it's an eye opener, If you are a trout fisherman here in Colorado (or any where) Please watch this. Look for more from these guys soon on the water problems we have on the upper Colorado River Basin. Also check out the website savethetrout.org. Get involved before it's to late.
Superstitions
I am superstitious. I read my horoscope everyday and my left sock always goes on first. I go through certain routines to insure cosmic participation in the ultimate game of chance, fishing. It definitely stems from my back ground as a very average Hockey goalie. Getting scored on early usually could be traced back to the amount of times I tapped the post before the whistle, always 3 on each side.I have a few rules I follow in an attempt to keep the planets aligned during a day of fishing. Some i try and discuss before we get too wet, others I leave unexplained for fear of looking like a loon.
Shortly after I bought my first fly rod, my older brother came to me and wanted to join the team. He was hooked instantly and still is to this day. Hes honestly one of the best fisherman I spend time with. For the first year or so the poor boy was out fished badly and I'm positive he didn't enjoy that part so much. Being a cocky younger brother I vividly remember letting him know I was kicking his ass, I would find out that doesn't help. I went on one of the longest loosing streaks of my life, not including my 10 years with Ms. Whitey. I specifically remember getting out fished 8 trips in a row which spanned a few months since we both had real jobs at the time. Not going to lie, it hurt. If I knew a witch doctor I would have made an appointment. All my skill, all my luck had been drained. I was young and dumb, I placed the blame out side of my responsibility. I was sure I was maloiked by my girl friends Italian grandmother for not having 5ths at Sunday dinner. In the end I realized it was Karma and it was my doing. So every so often I'll have a couple of dudes in my boat and one will be mowing the others lawn pretty good and the teasing begins. I've warned a few guys of the danger in this and I have seen more than once, the switch flipped. It doesn't always work that way. Jmac rode poor Zim endlessly last Friday as we floated the Fork. Both these guys are in a different league than 98% of my peeps so I really didn't think planetary alignment counted. Zim got an ass kicking, but he didn't mind. It hurt to watch.
Another quick way to a batting slump is holding someone else's fish for a picture. I've had more than one Dad catch a fish and want his son or daughter to hold it for a picture. Surprisingly most kids refuse. I'm not sure if that's because they are afraid to touch slimy fish or they are wise old souls but I am always impressed. I just can't imagine looking at a picture on the wall of me holding a fish someone else caught. A snagged fish should also never be held in front of a camera lens, Bad Karma.
This week an organization I love and respect fired a man that I really admire(pictured). I hope this organization has stock piled a ton of juju because from the outside looking in, they may be in for a rough patch. Never interupt a perfect drift.
I fished a couple of summers with a hunting buddy named Dale. It's kind of a reach to say that we fished together because most days he got as far out of sight as possible for some reason. He always hammered fish, I just never saw one. I'm still not going to call him a liar but I will say that, terrible bluffs don't help when your playing cards with the gods of fishing.
Check your hat at the door. I know this is amusing to everyone but baseball pitchers, bass fishermen and rabid Nascar fans, but I'm serious. I am usually very uncomfortable fishing in a new hat. Theres no mojo. Certain hats have experience, they have been present for some form of magic, and It's noticeable if you keep track. I seriously suggest hammering your buddies stocked pond with a new hat to pump a little confidence into it before taking it on a float down a real river.
In the end our cosmic energy, our luck, our Karma is the fruit of our actions and intentions. Loving your brothers success while fishing will always help, your soul has to believe that though, ya just can't say it. My dog's name is Karma who dispite her name has not been the greatest dog I've ever owned. Probably my fault.
Definitions of the month:
Timmy: a trout under 10 inches
Ronnie: a trout 10-16 inches
Bubba: a trout 16-20 inches
Kamongaheela: a trout over 20 inches
Laugh a little and slow down
Everything is harder in the winter, I’ve discovered it can be pretty funny too. The comfort and warmth of the indoors confuse the urge to spend time in moving water enough to make it a major decision. Tying flies on, untangling a client’s new leader, scrubbing the mag chloride from your boat or even enjoying a handful of skittles just become more time consuming. Anytime there is a trip booked in the harsh months of December or January and I am pleased, no matter the forecast. This is much different than it used to be when there were enough winter clients to keep pop tarts in the cupboard. Like elsewhere, it’s become more of a struggle and lest we forget I live in the Beverly Hills of the Rockies where its simply harder to get by. Winter peeps have evolved a touch in the time I’ve been doing this. With no tone of prejudice I can explain that during certain holiday events here, my client base is very Latin. In the past, winter was when we got “true” fishermen, guys with experience. Not so much anymore; true blue Patagucci wearing Americans got a little soft with the economy or something. Latin it is, the Euro aint bad either.. Incredibly nice people for what I understand, I hope they say the same for me.
A big key to winter fishing or winter guiding for that matter is to take things slow, think things through. So just before Christmas I pick up a very excited “Pablo” and his not so psyched uncle “Juan” from a snow ridden fancy hotel in Vail. They are from Mexico City and Madrid with so much baggage I thought I was dropping them at the airport when we were done. Air temp 5, expectation meter reading around 100 but no pressure, so I just try and go slow. Slow to answer, slow to drive. The pace of summer is all around guides and sometimes its hard to shut off. We are always in a hurry. Hurry to get there, hurry to rig, hurry to fall in line or better yet beat it, hurry to eat, hurry to bed and sometimes in a hurry to level out the expectations. The excitement surrounding a 400 dollar float trip understandably includes some expectations, almost like, the cash that bought this person dressed in drab colors driving the truck and boat guarantees lots of large Trout.
Pablo is a “very experienced” salt water fisherman all of 19. Juan is the 40 something uncle who pays for these “crazy” adventures. Never fished a day with a “fly pole” though, but “they should be fine”. Before they both took a pre float nap in the 4 Runner (which was weird but relaxing) they spoke endlessly of the great success they were looking forward to. I took it slow and said nothing. My spirits jumped when I arrive at the Fork to 35 degree air, 39 degree water and not another fisherman to be seen. What shook me from my optimistic glare made me want to laugh, no cry with laughter…….bright sky blue neoprene waders, a few sizes to small, with a very confident Pablo packed inside. I took it slow and said nothing. About the time I thought I had seen it all, Pablo produces a bottle of Powerbait spray. He turns, holds the bottle at me and says “this stuff only works in the summer right?” I smile and nod. Maybe I should have said something cuz it just didn’t end, before I knew it Pablo came across some more gear he could not live the day without and wanted to know where my dry bag was. I only smile as he buries his Berkley scale deep inside the bag like it would be ruined if it got wet. I took it slow but had to ask, “how high does that scale go?’ I heard 50 lbs and then smiled. We didn’t catch a thing.
The wind really started to howl around 12:30 so I found a bridge and some bushes to take shelter for lunch. I never understood a word spoken at lunch but I come from a time when you didn’t need a language class to escape high school. After 17 mins or so they were nice enough to ask if I understood Spanish and then promptly went back to speaking it. Sure it would be easy to feel sensitive or left out at this point but I just enjoyed giggling once in awhile to make them wonder. Tone is universal. I didn’t need to understand the language to know uncle Juan was over it. It was 2 or so when the weather went bad enough for the snow to hurt. It was 3 ish when after a spirited discussion I didn’t understand ended with “how far to the truck Bob?” In English, in the winter, that means, Time to hurry.
A helpful winter tip for booking a trip: If you call the shop during an arctic cold blast to schedule some fishing with your 6 year old daughter, don’t explain you are from Minnesota if you’ve lived in Arizona the last 9 years. Lasting 1/4 the time of your trip should convince you that you are no longer a northerner. Your little girl was a trooper though.
Definition of the month: Chewer: A trout that puts a fly in it's mouth long enough for Helen Keller to set the hook; a fish trying to give you a chance
A Ton of Fish
I used to own and operate a small masonry company
in another life. The size of the job was often measured in tons. The
work was very hard and heavy, so to break monotony we would often
participate in some classic debates. A good one that stands out was”
what class in school could you not live without?” Obviously Idid’t say English. PFC Kelly, a newly discharged Marine oddly enough said History, I think EZ E said football practice. That led to a few days of spirited arguments. In the end the answer was obvious and agreed upon…..math, we worked with tape measures and transits after all. Even a dumb bunch of stoneslingers understood, we just can’t live without some basic knowledge of numbers.
Fly fishing uses numbers a lot. In the guiding game though I find nothing good comes from the use of numbers. This fact doesn’t come right away to new guides. Numbers are the easiest way to impress our boss, clients and other guides when we are new at this. I have developed a level of patience with new guides when it comes to numbers, much the like men I respected in my new days of this game did for me. Let me be clear here, without numbers, we as fisherman would have no logical way to define fly size, rod weight, cfs or water temperature, so we obviously need some math to survive.Fish can’t add, they don’t understand how long they are or how much they weigh; Math is as useful to a fish as 12x is to a Tarpon fisherman.
Nothing good can come from using inches, pounds or number of fish
caught when it comes to guiding. Getting a client excited about the
possibility of a 30” trout or a 53 fish day before you’ve even seen him
or her fish is a bad move for a guide. It’s usually just an ego thing
that most clients see through anyways, but the ones that don’t, start
expecting things you can’t deliver. I had to pass a couple of classes
before I was hired as a guide and the teaching didn ’t end after I was
hired. I was lucky enough to spend my early years in this business
around some of the best guides in the business and friends or not, they
taught me a ton. I never heard guides like Kevin, Dano, BP , Hate or
Worries ever use numbers and I noticed. Fly fishing requires you pay
very good attention to learn some of the less obvious things that help
you fail or succeed. Guiding is no different. “We had a great day” or
“it was tough out there” says it all, especially in or around the shop.
Lets just say some ass munch of a big headed, mediocre guide comes
strolling into the shop one day and explains at the top of his pot stained lungs
that his boat landed 53 fish that day. Let’s just say that the shop is
full of guides and clients just finishing days they seemed to think
were very successful 12 fish days. Lets just say ol “Fudge” behind the
counter uses that 53 number as a sales pitch on the phone the next few
days. What’s the score here? Who won? No one, just sayin.
I’ll be honest, I listen to a lot of numbers being used on rivers and in fly
shops, but what I hear is more like this; “we landed 4 fish over 17
inches today” means you landed a couple of 14inchers, “we landed 20 fish today” sounds like 10 to me. I’ve seen a few fish in the net over my time fishing, but honestly I still can’t say what 10 pounds of trout look like. I can only hope that doesn’t count against me as a guide.
Sorry, I could not resist slamming a picure of a hog up for this one. The disclamer is it was stocked, pellet fed and in VERY private water. A classic example of what not to brag about to a client your taking to public water.
Definition of the month: SHAY DOG : a white fish/ mr. whitey/ mountain bonefish/ Smittys favorite game fish/ not to be mistaken for Ms. Whitey
Eggs over hard made easy
There was a time, in the history of me, that I took a few grenades for giving out to much info. I worked in and around a fly shop for gods sake....I thought that was my job. Just because I give some dude a college education doesn't mean he gets the diploma. I just figured a little good info would bring people back. Luckily that's not the way things work around the current shop I work for. I'm not saying this hair brained idea is going to change fishing or that I'm the first to think of it,but I've got my flack jacket on anyways.
Anyho, I was chatting a few weeks ago about Great Lakes Steelheading regs, specifically the one hook rule. Don't miss read me here, I'm not looking for a return of the treble hook, I just feel a little cheated with just one fly. We began to wonder how many people peg eggs above a nymph. Seemed like a good way to double up legally to me. My boy Doc has been pegging eggs every summer here in Colorado since I met him, it's deadly, but then again so is his "jig fly". So since I'm on the shelf with a hammer right now I got to thinking......Why not paint your split shot.
This time of year we live and die by the egg midge combo. While the fish eat the egg pretty consistently all winter long (all year for that matter) they really key on the midge. I've found when you take the egg off, the midge take actually can decrease. Are the fish just seeing the combo better with that bright offering included in the mix? Probably. So i dug around my pile of junk and found all the round shot I could find. I didn't want to use tin dinsmore because they were oblong, you have to match the hatch even with lead after all. I used a few different colors including oregon cheese, peach, pink and orange. It took a few coats and could probably use a clear coat of sally hansens, maybe next round.
So I used my little science experiment a little bit this weekend on an excursion with J Knight and low and behold I hooked a few trout on the outside of the mouth. I ran my everyday normal 2 fly rig, a knot at the end of my leader to hold my shot, 10-12 inches of 5x to my first fly and 18 inches to my last fly. Obviously there is more data to collect but it seemed that my rig was flossing fish just like pegging eggs. I've always thought yarn eggs didnt sink far enough and lets face it, they are a pain in the ass to tie. My normal 2 fly rig just turned into a 3 fly rig with just 2 hooks. The Moffit System with a Colorado twist. I just hope the fish don't mind thier eggs over hard.
Fishing Report
I could use a couple of paid fishing trips about now, just sayin. Instead of prepping sticks, I'm finding time to post a little more, I guess it's that time of year.
How does your favorite fly shop do posting fishing reports? Do you find the reports are not updated very often during the busiest times of year? I get it. Some shops are small, lets call them mom and pop shops where even the owner is on the river for long hours each day. Things can get tough, no excuse though. The big "department store" shops, not to be mistaken for "big box" shops, have no excuse. If a shop has 3 shop dogs, a part timer and a general manager and they don't post up to date fishing reports you should make a note. Same fishing report just a different date? Take a note. RS2's on every report? Well that could work but I would still take a note.
Things get slow here in the Eagle valley this time of year and the web sites come alive with reports. That's just a hatch of bored shop dogs with owners screaming for action. Makes sense, but that should go on all year. I look at all the shops fishing reports, not just the one I work for. A few of them are doing an awesome job. I always think we can do better (sorry, just the way I was brought up). Bottom line is we are well beyond the days of having to drive over to the shop to look at the board to see whats up. It's just way to easy to sit down with a cup of Joe and get 4 opinions on the fishing and if you read the same crap every day it quickly becomes 2.
With that I figured I would post a fishing report, believe me if you want. This one always sounds about the same this time of year. No peeps in town and the fishing is great. Most shops call it an 8 out of 10. Water condition perfect, water temp perfect, hungry fish chowing on eggs and midges.....perfect. Don't even bother looking over your shoulder when you pull your boat from an eddy, no one's behind you. Fish are still eating streamers, and the endless Blue Wing hatch is still on. Believe me if you want, if not check all the other reports, they say the same thing.
The most truthful guide report I could give sounds more like this. I dragged an Elk off some mountain for a buddy this week. I'm participating in the hunt without a weapon this year, that's another story. My dog is pissed and fat, again related to that other story. My 68 year old hard of hearing father has been sleeping on my couch for 45 days now and if I watch him watch one more baseball game I'm going to loose it. I havent seen my remote in months. Sam met "Mr Whitey", "Ms Whitey" is still giving me a hard time, my Midge box has filled up on the cheap and I start a construction job on Monday. JMac taught me how to wash windows and I've learned I'm not that good.
It's that time of year. The fishing is great though.
Nuclear Summer
It's not a hole that I fish all that often, usually just this time of year due to water levels. Like most of the Eagle, this is a tough place to sight fish. Clients are trusting me when I say there are fish there but that all changed about 2 weeks ago.
For 2 peeps it makes the most sense to put someone on the other side of the river. After getting one person set on the close side I walked another to the other side, considerably down stream of the best water. As I approached where I wanted my boy to stand my eye caught something very bright. At first I swore it was a belly up Brown, probably hooked to someones 50 lb mono. When I got closer I saw it move. It was a real sunny day (as they all have been this fall) and this fish almost glowed. Have the Browns begun to swim upside down? Is this some new spawning trick to stand out? I was obviously VERY interested in touching this fish. It never descended more than 2 feet or so from the surface even though the depth of this particular pool is 4 times that. My white whale was clearly feeding, dancing confidently between my 2 fishermen for the next 3 hours. We hooked other fish, good fish, but not my little neon trout. This went on for 3 client trips. I was now offically offering sight fishing trips. We could never hook her, but she was always there.
After yesterdays guide trip to the mythical fishes lair I made a promise to one of my fishermen, I would come back myself and figure it out. I don't fish by myself very often, the camaraderie is a huge part of it for me but this morning I was on a mission. It was not hard to spot her in the massive pool and I'm sorry for everyone who tried with me but it wasnt hard to hook her either. It's all about the drift after all. It ends up she is a Golden Trout, how she got there I couldn't tell you. Bottom line is she shouldn't be taking up space in this water. Odds are she was put there and the way she glows it's only a matter of time before she is Raptor chow. I've heard many a story of Pike being in the Eagle. That makes sense as there is a pond near Dotsero just teeming with them, they get out or thrown over the bank to plenty of fine food in the Eagle. I've caught Brookies where i should not have, Mackinaws and Cuttys too. A golden trout is another story. It's life won't be long where she is, especially when she likes to hover in the film the way she does so i put her back. Maybe a few more peeps can have a bit of fun with her yet this year.
Sure, there is a slim chance this fish made some epic journey from her fluorescent home but I doubt it. Stocking exotic species in a trout stream the caliber of the Eagle pisses me off. I'm sure she is 10 miles from where some ass thought she would stay and become his own back yard legend. Sure it provided me with a few days of fun, but species that don't belong bring disease and problems that can affect a watershed in very negative ways. Should I have killed her like i would have if she was a pike? Probably, but for now she is free. Cutthroat have reputations for being very good eaters, stockers for being dumb. It took 3 casts to catch this little wonder so I guess I could always go back tomorrow and take care of business if my peers are bummed with my actions. It wont be hard to spot her.
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