South Platte, 11 Mile Canyon, Co

Redefining "Keepin' it Real"

Date: Saturday June 11, 2011

Weather: Sunny with a few storms that moved in and out

Insect/Activity: Few caddis in the air, few baetis emerging, Suckers moving into the shallows but not spawning yet.

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

Flows: 107

My 35 week, bursting with baby, pregnant wife redefined "keepin' it real" this last weekend. As we near the birth of our first born we knew she didn't have many fishing opportunities left this summer, so we headed out to the river with Ben, Matt and Chris to spend a day enjoying the river. Needless to say - Michelle is awesome!!!! She spent 8 hours on the river with a smile on her face (except when she was mad, and throwing her hat at me for losing a fish :)

It was a fantastic day on the water. Michelle and I had a bit of a slow morning, but still managed to put some nice fish on the line and even a few on dries. The afternoon really heated up for us though as I think the barometer dropped from a few "quickie" storms and the baetis were on the move.

Whenever the baetis are on the move you don't want to be caught dead without our Blacktail Baetis pattern (since it was designed to imitate emerging baetis). We never really switched up flies once the fished turned on. Not much need to when you are hooking up or getting strikes every time you put the fly in front of a fish.

Needless to say, that is one happy pregnant woman and I had a pretty fantastic day too!

If you are wondering, this is the time to fish 11 MC before they start bringing the flows up! Get out there and have a good time!

-Jeff

Secret Creeks, CO

Date: Various dates throughout the Fall, Winter and Spring

Weather: Mostly Colorado blue skies

Insect activity: Varied

Patterns used: Classics (Hare's Ear, Cut-wing Caddis, Adams)

I'm not much for secrets. In Gunnison, there just wasn't the need. Why keep a secret when there's hundreds of miles of rivers. Some of my best kept secrets in the area were high mountain lakes that held 3 lb cutthroat, but I was always free-flowing with the information since they required a long enough hike into the mountains to weed out the casual fisherman.

Flash-forward to front range life and it's a little different. So many anglers competing for so little water, I have found the need to keep a few secrets now. However, I couldn't help but share a couple of images from these undisclosed locations. The fish aren't big, but their beauty is unsurpassed!

Sometimes secrets are still worth keeping ;)

This fish was so golden, I actually looked up golden trout when I got home just to be sure someone hadn't slipped one into the ecosystem years ago. Turns out it's just a really gorgeous rainbow. But ... you never know, the old settlers used to pack in goldens all over the western states back in the day. Maybe sometime I'll run across a secret stash.

Holy darkness batman! Same creek as the "golden" colored rainbow. What a cool difference in nature.

It doesn't get much better than a well colored brookie!

A fantastic brown with some great color!

Reformatting

I've decided to switch things up a bit ...

Though I have had the intention of posting in a more expedient manner. It just isn't happening ... Really, one of the key things I wanted this blog to be is a resource to myself, as an online fishing journal, and to others, as a river report.

I have come up with the best solution to start posting a little more bare-bones, only breaking out the anecdotal material when I have the time. I like what Jim is doing on his blog where it's kind of the "details" right up front and then text that follows, time permitting.

I hope you all like it, I'm sure it will be much more useful from a perspective of "getting the quick details you need to know about a river"

Get ready for the barrage of past posts my friends. I've had some good times as of late out there and hope you all get a smile or inspiration out of some of them!