Rocky Mountain High

or "The One - Revisited"

I have finally returned from Colorado (and DAMN - it's HOT) - an amazing 8 days of backpacking, fly-fishing and climbing. The Williams Creek drainage in the Weminuche Wilderness north of Pagosa Springs was our target this year and it did not disappoint! I caught more wild, native cutthroat on this trip than I have in years. Usually, a high mountain drainage in Colorado will start with rainbows and browns at lower elevations and segue into brookies and cuts higher up (and you always catch more brookies than cuts). Not this stream. By the time we started fishing on the second "trail" day, we were over 3 miles above Williams Creek Reservoir and it was ALL cutthroat. Every fish we caught was clear and bright; a beautiful little gem with flaming slashes under the jaw and wild colors across the belly.

The new one weight (see below) worked wonderfully. It could hit pockets between alder bushes and shoot casts under willow "tunnels" like no other rod in attendance. A 10" cut felt like a 20" Platte River rainbow on the thing and I could feel the blank flex UNDER the handle while fishing fish - NEAT! Most of the fish were 9-12" but a few "toads" (for this stream/elevation) were landed. My largest was the 15-1/2" beauty pictured above. He was holding in a deep pool along a cliff-face in about 3 feet of water. I could see his tail periodically in a shaft of sunlight and knew he was THE FISH in the pool. My #14 Humpy was quickly replaced with a #12 tungsten beaded Prince and I flipped it upstream (sans strike indicator). On the second cast the drift abruptly stopped and the rod tip plunged to the surface. A few minutes later the fish came to hand, having maxed out the fish-fighting capabilities of the 1.4 oz. rod (at one point, I think I heard the rod whimper).

We found a few cut-bow hybrids in Williams Lake just below the continental divide at 12,100 feet, but other than that, all the fish were pure cutthroats (and the cut-bows were delicious - steamed with raisins and brandy). And to top off the trip, five days ago I was in a tent at 10,900 feet getting SLEETED on! It makes 106 degrees just a little more relative!

If you want to learn more about this amazing fishery and backpacking the wilderness area, I'll be giving a slideshow presentation at the Arlington Orvis store October 5th. More information to come.

The Bass Come to Play

Fishing Report - 7/24

The bass have invaded the shallows at Ray Roberts and are smacking flies in the morning! As with previous years, 1-2 pound bass have started patrolling the outer edges of the flats just after sunrise. It seems to be related to wind direction so I believe these fish are schooling on shad blown up against the shallow areas (flats ajacent to deep water have more action than those in "back bay" areas).

I took Trey and Scott out on the 23rd and Scott was hammering the bass - some he was even able to sight-cast to as they crossed the flat, popping the surface after bait-fish. He also caught a huge carp that just would not fight/run. This was a 6-7 pound fish that should have been into the backing in seconds. I finally just walked over and picked up the fish and the mystery was solved - NO TAIL! The fish had no caudal fin, just a little knub . . . strange.

The One

The "One" is a new, custom-made, TFO Finesse 6'9" one weight. It was made for me by Norm Goheen of Dallas and is an absolute gem!

Prospecting small, alpine streams for native trout is one of my favorite forms of fly fishing; usually in central or southern Colorado. I love backpacking up a new drainage and finding pockets of seemingly unmolested brookies and cutthroats. Traveling for 4-5 hours in the morning, setting up camp, and then fishing until dinner/dark is not a bad way to spend a day in the mountains. Make that 5-6 days in a row and you can pretty much cover two drainages - fish up one, cross a high saddle or pass, and fish down the next for a nice loop.

My rod of choice for these trips in the past has been an old Orvis One Ounce (7 foot, two piece, 4wt.). This is a wonderfully accurate little rod with the action of bamboo. The only problem is that the two piece tube doesn't fit well on a backpack . . . anywhere it is packed, it snags limbs, "clanks", or gives me the uneasy feeling of carrying an aluminum lightning rod. Also, there are many times when even a light, slow action 4wt. is TOO much rod.

I wanted a very light, medium action, 4 pc. one or two weight to play with the small cutthroat and brookies in the streams. I'm not concerned with distance; the rod needs to throw a #14 Humpy or Stimulator in a teacup at 20 feet. I noticed that Temple Fork added a one weight to their Finesse line this year. The Finesse series is a great line of rods and the BEST trout rods for the money on the market. I cast one at the TFO office in Dallas and knew it was the rod for the job - the four pieces measured just over 20 inches each. The only thing I did not like was the handle and guides. There are reasons TFO is able to bring great rods to the market at an unbelieveable price. All the Finesse rods have the same handle - from a 8'9" 6 wt. down to the little 1 wt. This made the little rod off-balance when loaded with a reel and line (and I'm a fanatic about rod balance). Also, the double-foot guides on the rod added unnecessary weight, bringing the rod to 2.4 oz. I knew this rod could weigh less than 1.75 ounces and told Jim Shulin, "I'll take a blank - and who's the best rod builder around?"

His answer - "Norm Goheen."

I called Norm and told him what I wanted . . . cork reel seat, single foot guides, minimal wraps, shave off every extra gram of weight. Two weeks later he called and said, "I have a rod for you and it's the tiniest thing I've ever built!"

And it IS TINY. It weighs 1.472 oz. on an analytical balance in my lab and balances perfectly with the little reel pictured. I ordered a custom cut 22", 1-5/8" diameter tube from REC (a "standard" 9 foot 4 pc. tube is 29" long and 2" in diameter - SEE THE PHOTO ABOVE). In backpacking terms, the difference in weight and length is amazing!

This rod will get its first trial next week, on a trip into the Weminuche Wilderness of Colorado (the exact target is the Williams Creek drainage). I have resisted all temptations to go to the local pond and try the rod out on some bluegills - this rod was made for trout and will be christened justly!

Expect a full report in about two weeks . . .

Mystery Fish Revisited!

Amazing! That's all I could say.

If you look a few posts down you will find a "mystery" fish I caught in a tidal lagoon in South Carolina. Turned out to be a Mozambique tiliapia. Yesterday, my 6 year old son and I went fishing at our local pond for the usual suspects - bass, bluegills, crappie, and the odd catfish. Well, he pulled in the pictured fish. A MOZAMBIQUE TILIAPIA!

You will also notice he caught it on a fly. My son is quite the purist and will not use worms - he fishes flies tied behind a casting bubble on a little, ultralight spinning rig. Neat.

Introducing . . . The BLITZ

I've had several clients tell me that their schedule only allows for one day of fishing in X weeks, months, or years. Many of these guys have said "Can we just cram as much fishing into one day as possible?" These trips have come to be know as Blitzes so I just thought I would put it out there for all.
Here's how it works . . . we meet at one of the Ray Roberts boat ramps at sunrise and head out to chase the morning sand bass bite. These fish are a BALL on 5 wts. as they crash schools of shad on the surface. It can be a challenge to get a fly back to the boat WITHOUT getting a strike and I like to fish them with a tandem fly rig. Imagine two 1lb. sand bass on a trout weight rod, each pulling in a different direction.
After the sand bass bite slows around 9-10am, we hit the flats for carp. A break for lunch and some shots at Black Buffalo and hit the flats again until 6pm or so. The sand bass action kicks up once more (with larger fish surfacing in the evening) and we'll chase them until sundown (8:00-8:30pm).
So there it is . . . 12-13+ hours of hard-core, non-stop fly fishing!. I provide drinks, lunch, snacks, flies and will even clean some sand bass for you if you want to take them home.
You WILL catch more fish than you ever have before in a day!
The BLITZ pricing . . .
1 angler - $375
2 anglers - $500
call (940)391-9480

Fishing Report - 7/11

I had a half day guide trip yesterday and we caught fish like CRAZY! I get to say "we" because I took the liberty to cast a line for a short spell after lunch. My client yesterday is a birder and photographer as well as an excellent angler so, while he set up some shots he wanted to get of a heron nest, I entertained myself with my old Fisher Saltwater Travler 9wt. The Fisher is a grand old rod and was the first "high end" rod I purchased out of college (at the old Hunter Bradlee store in Dallas). These rods were ahead of their time in the late 80's with 4 pc. design and internal ferrules. It's usually is mated with a Billy Pate Salmon reel but that reel is in Mexico with a friend so it had to tolerate an old Cortland. I took the "big stick" with us in case we got a shot at the monster carp cruising the edge of the flat (we did - they refused).

This eight pounder took a Carp Teaser in about 6 inches of water and went nuts when I set the hook - going into the backing and putting a serious bend in the old rod.

The lake is about 7 inches low now and VERY CLEAR. Grass has started to grow on the east flats and the carp are doing their "lawnmower" routine. You can watch pairs and small pods of smaller fish cluster together and root up patches of grass.. The topwater sand bass bite has started and I'm having good luck finding them EARLY on the SW side of the lake and west of Wolf Island. A fun trip is to hit the lake at sunrise, play with the sandies for a few hours, and then chase carp after the topwater action fizzles (about 9:00am).

Give me a call to book a trip (940)391-9480.

Fish Mystery Solved

I pride myself in being an amatuer naturalist - especially when it comes to aquatic species. So, I was dumbfouded last week when I pulled this fish from a tidal creek on Kiawah Island (see post below). I had no idea what it was but it fought like a bluegill on steroids and put a serious bend in an 8wt. rod . . . not bad for a pound and a half fish (for size comparison, that's a #2 Cave's Wobbler in its mouth). All I could guess is that it was some kind of cichlid.

I looked online and in all my field guides and found no satisfactory answers. Thursday I stopped by Tailwaters fly shop in Dallas and mentioned the fish to the guys. They jumped on the quandary like men possessed and I had an answer via email by that afternoon . . . a Mozambique tilapia !