Michelle and I got out Saturday afternoon for a little memorable Fall fishing. If you are one of those people who start winding down your fishing season after high summer I cannot express to you how much good fishing can be had in the fall and late fall (not to mention winter).
It is such a great time to be on the river. Typically, the crowds are almost completely gone and the weather is superb. It's the only season where you can be cool, wearing a sweater, but still feel like a sunny, warm, summer day (if that makes any sense).
It was a typical fall day for us too. The sky was a crisp blue, the water was low and clear, and the fish were in slow, shallow water. In Colorado, where baetis can pop off any day of the year, I personally think the fish respond better to the surface in the fall because of the low, clear, slower moving water.
And so, we found ourselves fishing blacktail baetis with a micro split-shot and micro indicator; and fishing poly-wing baetis to slow sippers (a lot of times we like to rig two rods, but we still just share one, then if you're fishing the nymph rod and see a riser ... switch out rods and you're ready to roll).
The day was quite pleasant but it wasn't until the later half that we came up on a long pool with about 10 fish steadily rising as baetis passed over them. The photo of the nice brown was the first fish we took on dries and Michelle hooked him in water that was about 6" in depth. It was a beautiful thing! We ended up landing a solid 8 fish on the poly-wing baetis anywhere from 6" to 14".
Ah, the craziness of life. Posting has been slow as of late, not due to a lack of fishing, but mostly due to a lack of time. Currently, I am behind posting multiple days of the Wyoming trip, a Gunnison River day, a Taylor River day, and a South Platte "Dream Stream" day. I apologize.
But ... I take this opportunity to justify myself and let you all know that part of the craziness is a huge Allen Brothers push in marketing. If you are out there, across the country, and you go to fly fishing shows, you should try and meet up with us at one.
We've been working like crazy to get into shows this year, and a few magazines. We're planning on running ads in Fly Fisherman and Fly Rod and Reel in their January through April issues and if you can make it to one of the shows you should stop in and check us out (hopefully Jay and I will both be at all the shows)!
***Warning: This day ends with me scooching away with my tail tucked between my legs, so please, read on if you like stories of humility.***
We had arrived late Saturday night, headed up to camp and slept like babies in the tent Kevin had set up for us earlier that day. Already, the weather forecast for the week was not looking spectacular, but we were as prepared as you could be and the 30 degree weather was no match for our down sleeping bags.
So far the trip consisted of Jay, me, Jay's buddy from Ohio Josh Streib, and our Jackson local Kevin Mock. It wasn't until Sunday night that our cameraman Greg Cooper would arrive. So, we woke up on a brisk Sunday morning at about 6 AM got our gear together and headed down to the town of Jackson to meet up with another one of Jay's friends, and guide in the valley, Jason Budd and his friend Mark.
After a stellar breakfast (quite possibly my favorite part of any given day) at Pearl Street Bagels, and a sad update that the pass was closed due to snow, meaning we would have to drive the long way around, we were off to the South Fork River in Idaho.
We stopped in Idaho for gas and license, and it was at this time we got out of the vehicles to be blasted by a wall of 35 mph winds that were a constant force. Add that to the low 40's temps and you sir, have got a down right wretched day for fishing. Luckily as we descended into the South Fork valley things did slow down a bit and as we were launching the boats, there was actually a 5 minute window of beautiful sun, zero wind, and what felt like 55 degrees. Though, in truth, that window left and we never really saw it again.
Most of the float was pretty average. We picked up fish on blacktail baetis, scuds, and tungsten pheasant tails, keying in on all the usual slow water seems. We had actually started out parking on a slow moving, thigh deep run that had a fair amount of fish parked over gravel that we could sight nymph to. Jay picked up a 15" cutt, and I was casting to a 17" cutt as well, but we decided it was early on and we should get floating.
Retrospectively, I wish we would have stayed for a while longer, since it was the last sight nymphing we would find all day. So, we floated on and the weather grew worse. The temperature stayed in the 40's which was a blessing, but the overcast skies grew darker and eventually settled on spitting rain throughout the day.
Now, as you know, that weather was not enjoyable, but it makes for some CRAZY baetis hatching, and before long those little sailboats dotted the water like spots on a cutthroat. We rigged up a rod with 6x and a poly-wing baetis and before long Jay was into his first 18" brown. After hooking a few other small fish we decided it was time to find a good side braid of the river with some slow water and depth, park the boat, and start looking for big heads.
We pulled over and found ourselves looking at steady rising fish 20 feet downstream and 50 feet upstream. They would stay in clumps of risers so that it looked like a pod of tailing bonefish, no joke, and I'm not sure that I've ever seen risers like that in my life. Most of them were in the 15"+ range. At the beginning, I'm sure they weren't too spooked and it was only 15 minutes before Jay and I had both landed a nice cutt, and then ... the rest of my day was like a million dollar bill, dangling above my head, just out of reach and no way to get it.
Don't get me wrong, once the lot of the fish figured out we were there, they kept rising but my skill with the rod was not enough. Jay continued to land fish, though none of us was hooking up with much frequency. There was a combination of factors really. For starters, the low light conditions, wind, length of your cast and size of the baetis (I was fishing #20's) meant actually seeing your fly was near to impossible, so that left you guessing where it landed and then guessing at which fish took your fly, if any of them did. On top of that, there was 300 natural baetis surrounding your imitation, which is just bad odds.
Jay, who has the best vision of any human I know, seemed to be pulling it off. He attributes a lot of it to the fact that he had a few #22 baetis in his box and felt that the smaller size was really helping quite a lot. Though, I feel like I was getting some risers to take my #20 and just not seeing them. I'm not a fan of using a larger dry fly as a point fly to see where your fly is at (it usually creates too much drag), but if I had to do it again, I would have probably given that a try.
When the tally was all said and done, that first fish I landed right off the bat was the only one I landed on a dry. I had a few others on, briefly, but it was a sad day for Jeff Allen. However, I stand firm by my conviction that I will take a schooling like that anytime! What a beautiful display of nature we saw that day.
We had been planning this trip to the Jackson area for some time. The idea was to get some pretty serious fishing done in one of the best seasons in the Jackson area. In the fall you have the usual low water sight nymphing, great baetis hatches, and a brown trout pre-spawn run out of Lewis and Jackson Lakes that brings some seriously large feeding browns to the rivers. To top it off, the main goal was to do some filming and get some Allen Brothers videos up and running on the internet. Our good friend, Greg Cooper, was going to bring along his Canon 5D Mark II still camera that apparently has some buzz in the video world because of it's amazingly high quality (that I will show you in the next couple of months!).
A typical western fall is pretty awesome. The skies are usually clear, the temperatures are cool, but not so cold that fishing is difficult, and a lot of the time the cooler nights bring pretty active fish because the heat of the day and low water flows of late summer are gone. And, my favorite reason, tourist season has ended and most of the time the rivers are pretty empty (of people that is).
But alas, the sea was angry that week my friends, like an old man trying to send soup back at a deli (Seinfeld). The plan was to camp out that whole week at a site our friend Kevin had set up just before our arrival. Day 2, we woke up with 8" of snow and the tent collapsed on top of us ... That is a pretty good analogy for what the whole week was like for us. Raging wind, cold temps, snow, freezing rain, fluctuating water levels and brown trout that apparently didn't get the memo about the pre-spawn in the fall.
But, part of being a man is to make do with what you've got. So, that's what we did and in the end, we had some pretty lousy fishing, even worse filming, but a great time; and when I look back at the video and photo review of the week, I have to say, some awesome fish!
Stay tuned in to the website and the blog. My plan is to bring this Wyoming trip to you in a 7 part series. Also, we hope to get the video footage into the cutting room (my living room) and come up with some pretty sweet film "shorts". Hopefully, it will keep us all sane through the winter.
Yes, in fact, I did head down to the Black Canyon the day after I got back from Wyoming! My apologies that I am just now getting to blogging, schedules get crazy sometimes ... and technically, fishing is more important than blogging.
Ben had never been to the Black since he's become a true fly-fisherman, so after a few of my blogs and much salivating, he decided it was time to carve out some time for the 5 hour drive it would take to get from C. Springs to the Black.
We headed down on Labor Day and much to our surprise it was a ghost town! We were the only people on the north side of the river that day (East Portal, of course, any other location requires a very early start and some serious pain), and there really weren't many people on the south side either. So, we began the day like so many other days and tied on scuds and baetis.
Actually, the fishing was considerably slowed down from 2 weekends ago. Sure, there were still plenty of fish to be spotted and they were feeding just fine, but the flows and their feeding patterns had officially transitioned to "Fall season spookiness". Personally, I am a fan because it makes it more rewarding when you do finally get that finicky salmonoid to take your fly, but I think Ben was hoping for a little more of that "Summer season, fish slamming your fly" action.
All in all, we did great. The morning was filled with more small fish, and Ben even got into a nice pool of risers, by the afternoon we had started spotting some of the old regulars feeding high in the water column behind Volkswagen sized boulders.
It was a beautiful day spent enjoying the weather, then I decided to facebook about it, elicited a response from some old friends from back east, Greg and Scott. Turns out they commented on my day and said "hey, we're going to be in Durango next week!" Naturally, I replied back that if they were up for the drive, I'd be psyched to meet them at the Black and paddle them across the river in my sketchy raft.
So, the date was set for another day on the Black.
We met that Saturday morning and before long I found myself in the familiar surroundings of shear black walls, rocky walking, poison ivy and some large, gorgeous fish! Surprisingly, I'd say the fish were even a little more spooky than just 5 days ago, but when you are in that environment and seeing those fish, sometimes it doesn't matter too much if you aren't catching them.
Greg hooked a monster early in the morning that we got a few looks at, but that fish was determined to keep his head down and keep running rapids, so we never got to behold him. Scott found a great pocket of fish by wading out a little deep and making some crazy reaches over a raging riffle to the slow water on the backside and Michelle and I just kept making our way up the river picking off good spots when we saw them.
We had to play slot jockey with another group of 4 that joined us on the north shore, so that made the day a little tough, but just after noon, we all got set up in a slow pool that had a lot of fish just sitting over gravel, taking flies quite readily. It really turned out to be a fun time! It had been a while since I had really done some "true" sight nymphing where you forget the indicator and just watch for the fish to take the fly. Most of the big fish were skittish enough to bolt when your cast was within 6 feet of them, but there were plenty of 10" to 14" browns to be had.
If I've said it once, I'll say it a thousand times more ... If you've never been to the Black Canyon you need to go.
And feel free to drop me a line. I'm always game to skip out of work if I can make it. jeff@theallenbrothers.com
