New Video Series: Early Brown Stonefly

Jay just loaded up three new videos in a new series he's calling "Decoding the Cipher". It's a pretty cool concept where Jay heads out to the river, seines for what insect activity is going on, heads back to the vice to develop a pattern and then back to the river to catch some fish on it.

Tight lines,
-Jeff

How to Make a Seine Net

Materials: Fine window-screen mesh, telescoping legs, heavy duty thread (I actually used 8 lb test firewire for spin fishing), needle or sewing machine

Cost: About $12 (more if you have to buy firewire from the store :-)

Time: About 1 hour for me to assemble. If you have a sewing machine it would probably only take 20 minutes or less.

I spoke in a recent blog how I wanted to get back to my roots of really studying a river. After so many years of fishing it's easy to just know what works, tie it on and start fishing. No doubt, the downfall to this approach is that you may miss some really awesome things going on when it comes to benthic activity. Plus, the reason I wanted to get back to my roots was the feeling that my fishing had become all business. I wasn't stopping to smell the roses, as they say.

In my quest, I decided to make a seine net that would easily fit in the back of my vest, but not be super flimsy like a lot of the commercially made ones you can buy. I began looking for telescoping legs and Wal-mart finally delivered for me (I have a personal vendetta against Wal-mart, every time I go in there to buy something I can never find it! How can such a big store not have what you need!!!!). I found this Targus, 42" tripod and the legs fit perfectly into the back of my Filson Vest. The cost for the tripod was $9.

Instructions: Once I chopped the legs off of the tripod with a hacksaw the rest of the operation was to take the window screen, fold over the sides and sew them (to create the pocket for the tripod legs to go in). Then fold up the bottom edge and sew it for durability and to seal off the tripod leg pockets so they don't go through (you could leave them open so they do go through, I can see some advantage to this).

Voila! You have a sweet seine net that fits easily into your vest. Here's a couple of other notes that may be of help.

1. In the picture, my net is about 24" tall. I don't think you need to go this high since it just creates extra drag in the current and puts strain on the poles. Probably, a 12" height is all that's necessary to capture what you're looking for.
2. The telescoping legs lock out when they are fully extended, then you twist the top of the leg until you hear a "click" and they are now unlocked and can be collapsed.
3. It helps to oil up the legs every once in a while. They tend to start showing signs of oxidization and that makes them a little hard to operate. 
4. Taking it to the next level, Jay's good friend Kirk used a fabric and heavy duty thread to sew the seams. I don't have an image, but it really made the seine net look "professional". I thought it was a cool addition.

Hope this inspires you to try something new!

Tight lines,

-Jeff Allen

South Platte, 11 Mile Canyon, Colorado

Catch-up: This event occurred in the Spring of 2011

Date: Friday April 22 and  Saturday May 7, 2011

Weather: Sunny, beautiful

Insect/Activity: Small amount of midge and baetis activity

Patterns Used: Blacktail Baetis, AB Tungsten Hare's Ear, Grey Midge Pupa

Flows: 52

Fortune smiled upon Ben and I as we took to the river a couple of times in a two week period! I can't remember what stopped Michelle from coming, but I think it had to do with bridal showers, or baby showers!@?! Needless to say, upon hearing my tales after fishing, Michelle rued the day she was born a woman and "showers" became a required event for her gender.

That's a really long way of saying: Ben and I had two amazing days. The weather was amazing—sunny, calm winds, low flows, clear water and cool enough to wear a hooded sweatshirt—and the icing on the cake was the ridiculous amounts of fish we caught!

One of the beauties of late winter/early spring is the low flows and lack of fishermen on the water. It's a great time to get out there and catch fish that, in my opinion, are feeding recklessly because they are hungry from low metabolism in the winter and haven't been pressured for a few months.

With really low flows, it's easy to see fish too, and you can get away with fishing nymphs that aren't too weighted. It's one of the best times that nymph fishing feels like dry-fly fishing.

Here are some great photos that Ben and I got of the course of two days. Make sure to check out the rainbow with the spots on his eyes! I had never seen it before (in person). Really cool looking (though it's possible he took my fly because his eyesight isn't so good :)

Enjoy!

-Jeff Allen

Beautiful, dark colored rainbow. Notice the how his spots are covering his eyes! Amazing!

South Platte, Cheeseman Canyon, Co

Here's another blast from the past!


Date: Saturday April 2, 2011

Weather: Sunny in the mid 50's

Insect/Activity: Very little

Patterns Used: Blacktail Baetis, AB Tungsten Hare's Ear, Grey Midge Pupa

Flows: 75

Michelle strikes again! Really, a flawless brown ... amazing.

I've got a pretty good stock of these back-logged posts I need to catch up on, so you'll definitely see these popping into my blog from time to time :-) To make it easy on the reader, and my memory, they'll probably be photo heavy. Enjoy!

After the learning from my "upstream" mistakes of the past on the Cheeseman Canyon, Michelle and I were faced with the prospect of another late winter/early spring day with great weather. We took it. This time we stayed in the lower water of the Canyon and it paid off.

We had one of those glorious days where somehow the wind wasn't howling in April, and the temps allowed us to strip down to a light long sleeve shirt. The bug activity was lacking, but in Cheeseman Canyon there are always fish feeding on baetis and midge that are idling down the river. So, we fished one of my favorite low water rigs: 7x, micro indicator, micro splitshot and a #24 grey midge or #20 blacktail baetis.

-Tight Lines!

This rainbow also happened to be one of the most pristine, beautifully colored fish I've ever caught. Then again, I think I've said that about a lot of trout!

Another great photo of the same rainbow!

South Platte, 11 Mile Canyon, Colorado

Date: Sunday October 30, 2011

Weather: Mostly Sunny

Insect/Activity: None in the morning. Baetis hatch started around noon and became moderately heavy by 1:30 PM

Patterns Used: Blacktail Baetis, AB Tungsten Hare's Ear, Midge Pupa, Poly-Wing Baetis, Adams

Flows: 63

Fantastic day on the river! My buddy Chris and I rolled up at about 8:30 AM, a little too early. There was not much happening in the morning, the air was still about 28 degrees and the light was low.

Chris with a great looking rainbow.

We spent the first hour or so fishing a standard riffle/run that normally produces very well, but there didn't seem to be too much activity. Later on, when the light was higher, along with visibility into the gin-clear water was better, I would discover that there really weren't that many fish in that spot. 

That discovery is one good reason why I like to fish with my eyes as much as with my rod! No doubt, you can become overly dependent on needing to see fish, but I see a lot of fishermen out there hunkered down in one spot because it fished well for them in the past. Fish move bases on so many different factors. It's good to be aware of that and move with them.

I love the fall, late fall and winter fishing so much because trout push up into the shallows for a number of reasons. Once Chris and I got some sun on the water and had a bit better visibility we were seeing fish moving in VERY skinny water! This hefty rainbow came out of a 6" deep wide gravel riffle. He was holding tight to a seam of faster, deeper water and I wouldn't have known he was there but for a keen eye! It's fish like this that instill a deep sense of love for this sport!

A larger rainbow for the 11 Mile Canyon. More importantly, she took a #20 Blacktail Baetis out of 6" of water!

As the day progressed we moved into another riffle/run, this time the fish had moved back in - in force. The baetis hatch was on and there were 6 steady risers within casting distance. Fighting back the jitters from giddiness, Chris and I spent the next two hours casting dry flies at steadily rising trout. It was one of the best hatches I have hit in a while! Most of the fish were slightly smaller, but we picked up the occasional 14" brown or rainbow. I did great with the Poly-wing Baetis and Chris did equally well with an Adams pattern.

We had to leave early, around 2 PM, and that was the only sad moment of the day. Chris and Ben got out the next weekend and had the same experience - needless to say, I'm hoping to make the journey to 11 Mile again soon!

The sun and the clear water made for some cool underwater shots!

One note: the brown trout have moved up into the shallows. It looked to me like they were in pre-spawn mode, fanning out there redds. But keep in mind that if the gravel looks really clean that is there redd (aka - nest/bed). At all costs avoid wading through them! Walking through one trout redds can kill hundreds of eggs - not a good scenario. We want to keep those guys coming back year after year!

Have fun out there ... if you're willing to brave the cold!

-Jeff Allen