Fly Fish Addiction: April 2008

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Great Trip on The Colorado!

This is from our Flyfishaddiction Website
We were able to hit the Colorado many of the last few weekends before the Rado turned Chocolate. It's been fishing great for most of late March through mid April hitting a few near the Parshall area...checkout some shots!

Todd with a brut! Eggs, eggs and eggs seem to be the ticket for all of us this weekend,

A nice Colorful Bow I got on the Bluey! Man do they get colorful in these parts, reminds me of a few San Juan Rainbows or even a few from the Yampa up the road.

Sweet Day of fishing! I had this spot all to myself before the fellas made there way up to Grand county on Friday.

Ahhh Winter fishing in the Rockies is pretty hard to beat! Well hiking in was a bit challenging but we made it in know time.

Dave with one of his Nicest Bows of the Trip! He beat his previous years record for his biggest trout caught on another fine trip.

Basecamp Cabins in Kremmling was the spot to be in. 5 minutes to the water, a few blocks to anything we need and fine Mexican restaurants to chow down on. A definite must for our next trip, just call and ask for Kim....she'll set you up.

*Our buddy Steve made the trip for the day and though he was keeping busy with his fishing dog Sushi, we sorta got split up, that and his dog was keen on a few fishing spots just South of us. He did get into some fish we just missed out on some of his pictures....we promise next time to to get him on here!

Top Flies:

Chartruse egg/OJ nuc egg/Pink egg/WD40

#10 Golden Stones/#20 RSII/Red Midges
#8 black buggers/#6 Mudd Minnow/

For Blue River or Colorado River Fishing Reports contact:

Cutthroat Anglers

Fly Fishing Outfitters

Angler Guide

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Great Fly Fishing Articles of the Month!

If you get some time...Check these out!

This is part of the FlyFishAddiction Website

Colorado Trout Forecast
Tom Behrens covers the South Platte, Arkansas, and the Colorado Rivers in this annual review of prospects for Colorado anglers in Rocky Mountain Game & Fish magazine. "Habitat improvement has coaxed cutbows to make spawning runs upriver from Elevenmile Reservoir. 'Twelve- to 18-inch cutbows used to run up the river in a spawning run. Whether or not they were very successful at spawning -- probably not -- they were thinking they were going to do that.'"

Fly Fishing Russia's Ponoi
Nick Karas writes of a recent expedition to float the Ponoi River, on Russia's Kola Peninsula, and of the big, slow river's startling fecundity. "The Volga’s position in the international imagination has been usurped by the Ponoi and its fantastic largess of Atlantic salmon. Measured by sheer numbers of fish, the Ponoi is probably the best salmon river in the world." In Gray's Sporting Journal.

Andy Mill on Tarpon, Big Reels and Gel Spun
"'You want to know what that fish wants before the fly ever leaves your hand,' Mill said. 'Tarpon want to be caught. You just have to understand the language.'" Orlando Sun-Sentinel columnist Steve Waters talks with the expert tarpon angler and uncovers one or two things that some might consider idiosyncrasies, like Mill's use of Tibor's big "Pacific" fly reel and 650 yards of 50-pound Gel Spun backing.

100 Yards of Courtesy
Don't we all wish. New York fly shop owner Wayne Walts offers up guidelines for what are considered good manners on the state's often-crowded trout waters. "Proper etiquette calls for boaters to row or walk their craft behind wading fishermen. Unfortunately, many rookie boaters barely know how to row and thus float out of control." J. Michael Kelly in the Syracuse Post-Standard.

Hatch Worship
Pat Wray writes about the coming of the spring hatch and the concurrent emergence of awareness in the minds of fishermen. "News of hatches and bites requires no technological assistance; it transcends electronics, traveling directly from the mind of one fisherman to the heart of another. Oh, we’ll call friends and acquaintances for confirmation; we’ll check river levels and weather forecasts, but the decision is already made." In the Corvallis, Oregon Gazette-Times.

"Tag-and-Release" Trips
Pointing to fly fishing as the likely origin of most catch-and-release fishing, Ed Zieralski describes a new type of high-end fishing trip: where the participants pay big bucks to tag and release large numbers of pelagic fish. "'It was a pretty enlightening trip,' said Greenberg, a director of operations for an investment company, one of the 15 anglers, each of whom not only paid the usual price of $4,000 for the long-range trip, but another $1,500 (tax-deductible) for a retrievable archival tag." In the San Diego Union-Tribune.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Double-Checking Fly Materials
As Canadian fly tier Warren Duncan, the "The Highness of Hairwing," recently found out, shipping flies across the U.S. border is likely to become more of a challenge. (You may know Duncan as the tier who popularized a fly called "The Undertaker" in the late 1970s.)
Despite the fact that most of his materials come from the U.S., he had to account for the origins of every bit of content. "The flies are made mostly with the hair and feathers of animals, so Duncan had to research and list the country of origin and Latin name of every last bit of turkey, caribou, cow and rooster that ended up as part of his creations." From CBC News.

A $2 Level Line and a Clinch-Knot Leader
A story in the Houston Chronicle today reminds me of when as a boy Phil Gonzalez, later one of the first lodge owners on Montana's Bighorn River, wanted to go fish Yellowstone Park for the first time. He walked into Dan Bailey's shop in downtown Livingston, Montana and told Dan what he wanted to do. Dan gave him a rigged fly rod and box full of flies and said, "Just bring it back when you're done."
In the Chronicle, Joe Dogget describes how learning to fly fish has changed in fifty years. "The concept of a tapered leader was awfully sophisticated. Angling greats Joe Brooks and A.J. McClain recommended a '60-20-20' system graduating from butt to tippet, but such refinements seemed unnecessary on the duck pond."

New Cutthroat Trout Video
The TatteredFly.com Weblog turned up an excellent 27-minute streaming video produced by the Idaho Chapter of the American Fisheries Society. "Rising from the Shadows: The Return of the Cutthroat Trout" includes some wonderful underwater photography and plenty of footage of cutthroat trout in their native habitat. While you're at it, check out Tattered Fly, a well-designed blog with lots of stuff of interest to fly fishers, including a recent photo essay on Idaho's