On the River: Black Canyon of the Gunnison, CO

August 29, 2009

Oh, the Black Canyon ... If I've said it once people, I'll say it again, "this is a must fish destination sometime in your life."

Yes, that is a seriously fat, 20" rainbow.

I have never been to the Black Canyon and walked away empty handed, even if there are some days that you may not do as well, you always are seeing large fish, actively feeding in some way. It really is like fishing a natural version of the Taylor River C and R. I say natural, because let's face it - the C and R is a freak of nature.

With the Black Canyon, you've got a lot of amazing fish, that grow large, tucked into an amazing canyon that has very little easy access. Even at East Portal, if you don't cross the river in some sort of floatable device, you can only fish a couple of hundred yards that gets pretty pounded by the RV fisherman.

But ... if thou shalt pass through the waters to the other side, thine shall be a reward of big rainbows and browns, feeding eagerly ... thus saith Jeff.

Michelle and I had a great day! The gammarus scud reigned supreme. Early in the day there was a large fish that wasn't having it (or more likely, I stung him with it and he just wouldn't take again) so I switched up to a midge and then a blacktail baetis for a bit. I got some looks and even a small fish or two, but before long I switched back to the gammarus scud and never looked back. All day long fish were going out of their way to hammer it.

Our mission was to really hook Michelle up. It had been a while since she had a real quality day on any river - the kind of day where the weather, water and fish all cooperated - so the deal was she would pass the rod off to me after every 3 fish she caught ... Neither of us lacked for the day.

We estimate that Michelle landed close to 20 fish, leaving me with a meager 7 fish, but when I had the chance I didn't waste it on small fries. The whole day was fishing the scud 16" below a micro-indicator sighting big rainbows and browns.

The best part of the day definitely came last. Michelle was sworn to end her day on a good fish, so she persevered and at around 6:30 PM she hooked into what was her biggest fish of the day, about an 18" Brown.

Take my advice, go to the Black Canyon, and call me when you're on your way ... I'll try and meet you there if I can!

-Jeff

Michelle's final fish of the day! and the victory shot afterward.

DROPPING A BOMB ON THE WEBSITE!

We just got a package in from our tiers in Kenya! I loaded it all up onto the website. We now have Tungsten Hare's ears and Pheasant tails in size #18, Micro Beetles (great for late season) that are tied PERFECTLY in size #22, a bunch more sizes of bead-headed coppers, a brand new cut-wing caddis dryfly in multiple sizes and colors, midge pupa, tungsten midge pupa, and midge emergers!

I wasn't joking, a lot of great new SOLID patterns!!!

You all are the first to know! In the next couple of days I'll be putting out a 10% discount on all the new flies so keep your eyes peeled for that and this months newsletter as well.

Check out these quick picks!

On the River: Taylor River C and R, Gunnison, Colorado

August 23, 2009

After a long day of fishing the Arkansas and a late night watching the Leadville 100, we headed home and Ben came to stay for the night so he could fish the Taylor C and R on Sunday. I had a meeting around 1 PM, so my wife left me for my friend (yeah, I know it sounds bad) and they went fishing without me : (

By the time I rolled up around 3 PM, Ben had already thoroughly broken in his new rod with this 26" Brown! on an Allen Brothers Olive Midge Pupa that he tied using the instructions off the website.

Ben had to leave before too long, and I helped Michelle hook a few fish and land a 15" Brown, but soon an afternoon storm rolled in and put us out of commission. We weathered the storm and went back out to fish, but by that time it was getting late and the visibility was gone.

I will say, seeing Ben's fish really got me salivating to make a day of really trying to land a tank up there. I always seem to half-ass it and get up there for just a few hours here and there. Not really the way to do it if you want to land one of those monsters.

I'll be back there soon, and you'll hear about it. I guarantee it.

Tight Lines,

-Jeff

On the River: Upper Arkansas River, Leadville, CO

August 22nd, 2009

You'll notice there are no pictures this round. Yes, folks, I won't be heading back to the Arkansas River anytime soon.

These stories always seem to start with, "I heard a rumor that there were monster fish up there".

Anyway, I heard a rumor that there were monster fish in the upper Arkansas, and every time I have driven by it always looked so "meadowy" and spring creek-like so I decided we had to try it out sometime.

Two of my good friends, Duncan Callahan and Timmy Parr, were running the Leadville 100 so we figured it would be a good chance to fish most of the day, and then watch the finish of the race. Turned out Timmy won, and Duncan (last years winner) got third place this year. It was a pretty good day for Gunnison Ultra Runners. But, back to my story ...

Ben Robb also met us for the day. He had just been given a CRAZY gracious gift from a friend (a brand new 4 wt. Winston rod with a Galvin large arbor reel and sharkskin line), so he was itching to test it out.

The day started out alright, we were hooking fish immediately, and Michelle even hooked into a 19" brown that gave her a fight and left her very, very sad when the fly pulled out. Really, we thought we were in for a great day, but the wind picked up and to be quite honest we just didn't run into any other big fish. I even did a fair amount of looking into deep holes and never saw anything of real size. I think all day long I spooked two other fish that could have pushed the 16"+ range.

In the end, we all caught fish-a-plenty, they just weren't very big. Which has been my experience just about every time I've gone to the Arkansas.

In defense of the river, it is a great fishery with a lot of fish in it, but I don't have much of a reason to be driving 1 1/2 hours to a river that doesn't fish any better than the Gunnison. If I'm making that kind of drive, I can head west to the Black Canyon and be in fishing HEAVEN with the chance at sight nymphing for 22" fish!

So ... if you know of any spots with consistent monsters on the Ark, let me know. Otherwise, I'll just be one less guy crowding the river.

-Jeff

On the River: Taylor River C and R, Gunnison, Colorado

August 8, 2009

After many failed attempts to meet up with Ron from coloradoangler.blogspot.com we finally succeeded! Sure, Ron may have jumped the gun a bit and showed up at the river at 4 AM, but who wouldn't be excited about a trip to the Taylor C and R?

I, however, casually rolled onto the river at about 10:30 (mostly because my brother-in-law called around 9 AM and you can't neglect family). That's the beauty of living only 40 minutes from world class water, you get spoiled and don't quite feel the pressure of being on the water at first light.

Anyway, we had a great day on the water! Ron is nothing short of a "focused laser beam of trout catching energy". Apparently, getting snubbed by a fish only strengthens his resolve to fish even harder for it. Ironically, the Taylor is REALLY GOOD at strengthening Ron's resolve.

The day was almost as good as it gets. We had feeding fish parked along the banks, and perfect sun for watching their every move. If I had two complaints it would be:

1. The water was pushing hard (about 350 cfs) and in that stretch of the river it means your fly is almost always downstream of your indicator (unless your fishing a TON of weight) which is tough for strike detection.

2. The wind was in Springtime Force, which is just weird for August.

Nevertheless, the conditions were great and we had our fair shot at a lot of monster fish. We also got snubbed by a lot of monster fish.

I got to a point where I would tie on a fly, make 5 drifts, each targeting a different fish. On each drift the fish would look at the fly, reject it, then never look at it again. It was pretty amazing to see the fish in full "professor" mode. But, there were enough fish moving that you could turn a fish off and just fish to his buddy next to him. Eventually, you got a good take, then it was a matter of perfect hook set timing, after that the fish had to actually stay hooked, and finally, you had to not break him off or get wrapped around a rock.

The flies were the usual fare ... #24 midge pupa (coming to the website soon!), Blacktail PMD took a few hook ups, but the surprising winner of the day was the Gammarus Scud. It was by far the fly that fish would move 2 feet to look at and/or take.

Yep, it was another day on the Taylor. I'd say the final score was:

50 looks

15 takes

8 hook ups

3 landed fish

I have always been curious to do some tests on the river to see if tippet size made much of a difference, so I went all out and fished 8x for half of the day. All in all, I'd say it didn't do much better than 6x, and not worth stressing over each fish you caught. I landed one fish that was 19" or so. So, I can officially say 8x has the power to move a big fish.

I also had one on that Ron claims was in the 30" class. It was definitely big! I feel as if I could have landed him on 8x, but after about 5 minutes of fighting he managed to wrap a rock and 8x just can't stand up to that. A lot of times with 6x I can buy enough time to throw a huge roll cast, unleash from the rock and not lose the fish, but I didn't even have a chance to throw the roll cast with this monster fish.

One thing I will say about the Taylor ... lately I feel like I've been seeing LOTS of MONSTER fish up in the shallows, more so than I've ever seen before. Ron was fishing to some rainbows that I'm sure were 15 lbs. + and apparently someone on the river had landed a 20 lb rainbow earlier that day! That's just crazy!

Tight lines,

-Jeff