Colorado Fly Fishing

Today I left Dallas with my oldest son and drove straight through to Lake City, Colorado.  Today was just about driving.  The closest we did to fishing was to stop along the way and purchase our 5 day fishing licenses.  It was a great drive, and really great to se my youngest when we got there.  He's been staying in Colorado all summer.  Here are a couple of pictures from our drive.  I'll post more each day for the next three days.

From a Scenic Overlook in the Middle of Ratton Pass

[caption id="attachment_233" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The Rio Grande River, About Twenty Miles From It's Headwaters"][/caption]

Getting Ready for Colorado

My trip to Southern Colorado is just around the corner.  I'll leave Dallas August 10 with my oldest son and we'll drive straight through to Lake City.  Then we'll fish and hang out for a few days.  Here are some flies I've been tying.  One is a Parachute Adams (size 12) and the other is a parachute Royal Wulff (also size 12)

New Ponds and Fishing with my Son

The other day I tried a new pond close to my house. Not much was biting, but it was a really beautiful evening, and I managed to photograph this awesome sunset.

This evening I went fishing (abandoned the fly rod and broke out the conventional tackle) with my son at the youth camp where he works. We were fishing with Shrimp, which I don't remember doing since I did it with my own father more than twenty years ago. I was really surprised at what we caught. Zac caught a couple of catfish (yellow cats). Nothing too big, though. He has been catching 6-8 pounders with his boss out here at the camp. Then he caught a largemouth Bass on a piece of shrimp. I have never sen that before! It was about a 1 - 1.5 lb. fish. Later, I also caught a few small yellow cats, and then I caught a nice Crappie on shrimp as well. Again, this was a first for me. We had a good time, and I think we're going to hit it again in the morning.

Fishing at the Youth Camp

I went out to a friend's ranch-turned-youth camp early yesterday morning to cook breakfast for about 100 campers.  My son son and wife both work at the ranch and it's fun to volunteer when I can.

After cooking the eggs, I made my way down to the pond to see if I could hook up with a few fish.  I was about to catch a couple on a briminator (actually, it was briminator-ish, not the true pattern).  Stopped by Bass Pro Shop on the way home to pick up a leader, then went fishing again in the evening on another pond.  Hadn't been fishing in several days.  It felt good to get back out.

My Son Catches His First Trout On A Fly!

My youngest son has been spending the summer with his grandfather in Southern Colorado. One of my brothers finished up a trip to the San Juan River in Northern NM, and secretly drove to Colorado to surprise my son.  A full day of fly fishing ensued, with my some catching his first trout (about 20 of them) on a fly rod.  HIS fly rod that he just bought at Dan's Fly Shop.  Here's my son showing good form with his new rod, and my brother celebrating a nice hook-up.

A Nice Day

This morning I got up early and went fishing at a couple of local ponds. I was wanting to try out some new flies I tied. My new Briminators and wooly bugger produced about 10 bluegill - all pretty small. By far the best part of the morning was watching the ducks. I had my camera handy, and snapped these photos.

I got pretty hot and my head was hurting so I went home for the afternoon. After supper (some pretty amazing salmon patties) I went back out. To the lake this time. I went to a fishing pier I used to fish. The lake way low, and the area receives a LOT of fishing pressure. I wont be going back there any time soon. I did have a nice conversation with a guy on the pier, and gave him a criminator to use as a crappie jig. It turned out to be a nice sunset.

New Briminator Flies

I recently started tying flies, and this morning I worked on some Briminators.  I was able to get them out this afternoon and wet a line in between rain showers.  Here are a couple of small fish I caught, along with a pic of the fly I was throwing.  Small is still good, especially when caught on home tied flies!