Guppies

The Fraser River is producing some great fishing this Fall.  I caught these footballs only a short walk from my front door.  The highlight of the past few days was a beautiful colored orange brookie. 

Back at it...

Just updated some billing information, giving me access back to uncommon commons.  Spent the day on the river yesterday, catching two dozens strong rainbows.

SAN JUAN BOMB - Fly Fishing the Colorado River

    Spent some time on the water today just outside of Hot Sulpher Springs.  Using a San Juan worm I was able to connect with over a dozen trout in 2 hours.  The water is still quite fast and murky due to the snow melt,
but I have found a spot on the Colorado River where I know I can go and catch fish realitively easily.  My largest was a strong 17 inch brown, that I reluctently admit struck the fly as I was getting ready to cast again.  Taking photos while fishing although tricky, is definately worth it after looking at what I got today.

[Brownie, The Colorado, Getting my lined stretched, Brownie Dos, A rare rainbow]

   

Colorado River

Fly-fished the Colorado River this evening for the first time in a long time.   A #14 caddis was what was hatching and I ended up with 5 browns on the other end of my line by the time I called it a night.  Ryan was fishing without waders like usual and Bobby found himself hooking up with one on a wooly bugger. 

Juls took the pictures here while we fished.  I came back to the car to find her lounging drinking several of Colorado's finest beers...Busch and PBR.  And yes, I did keep one of the 16 inch browns that I caught for dinner.  Julie surprised everyone by eating everything including the skin.  The only part of catching dinner that Juls didn't like was the fish's final moment before a large rock ended his life.  But like they say there are always more fish in the sea.

 

Notice in the one photo I'm waving to Juls as she takes the photo.

 

Livin Easy

       

Juls took most of these pictures. The fishing and trail shots were taken along Wyomissing Creek and the Wiffle Ball Championships were held in Sea Isle, NJ on 28th street.
   

Farewell Farm

Went to Cedar Run Farm today with Trick and D. Gray to fish, take Crazy for a swim, and of
course eat Topps Burgers.  The Gray farm has seen many great days and nights, many of which are left unspoken about.  I will soon be leaving State College for greener pastures out west, but will always hold "the farm" dear to me.  Always giving with it's wonderful fishing holes,sangria, hottub, part-time work in the summer (painting), and much more.

This past week of fly-fishing at the farm hasn't been kind, with crystal clear water the fish have been spooking easily.  A bead head pheasant tail has taken in 2 browns of considerable size (13,17) and one decent rainbow (11"). 

50+1

This Friday afternoon Jeff and I left for Black Moshannon State Park to do a little camping/fly-fishing.  After
making several wrong turns on the way to the park we finally arrived at our destination around 7 pm.  We parked the car and promptly bushwacked down towards Benner Run (or where we thought it may be) to set up camp.  Our luck took a turn for the better and by the time I had set up the tent and got a fire going, Jeff had dinner on the line. 

The next day we woke by 5 am to take a walk before we fished and see the sunrise from the ridge line.  By 6:00 am we were on the stream having already saw turkeys coming down from roost to flock and a white tail deer.  We both made it to midday with fish on our line.  Granted I only caught one, a beautiful brookie (see photo).  The rest of my time was spent napping and taking photographs the rest of the morning.

By lunch time a group of locals carrying spinning rods and massive amounts of bait found our camp.  What we thought was a secluded fly fishing stream, soon turned into a crowded stream full stringers that any commercial fisherman would have been proud of.

So with our new friends patrolling the banks like hawks, we decided to head back to the main lake and catch some bluegill.  For the next few hours we wet wading through the lilly pads catching dinner plate sized bluegill with dry ant flies and wolly buggers.  We were having some much fun I forgot to get my camera out of the car.  By the time we left I had counted around 50 bluegill on the end of my line!

The weekend was ended the only way a trip to black moshannon state park can.  A trip to Otto's Pub and Brewery for some Red Mo and apps.

More photos of the trip can be found HERE.

Climb. Fish. Roll in dead fish.

The past few days I took some pictures of the climbing class I teach and some of Jeff fly fishing on Spring Creek.   Jeff did well catching 5, but Crazy our dog managed to find a dead sucker someone threw on the bank and promptly rolled in it.  He had dead fish (the consistency of soft wax) all over his body.  He smelled so bad it caused involuntary gaging once with in a few feet of him.  We threw him in the stream before he got to ride home in the trunk of the Jeep with all windows down.  The smell was still obnoxious.  Well, here the Click Here to see the photos. 

Lake Granby

This afternoon Bob and I went fishing at Lake Granby to get on the end of some lake trout.  Our dreams of 30 lb lake trout did not happen today, but we did manage to hook onto 2 decent sized lake trout in the 2-3 lb range that gave us plenty of fight to make the drive up worth it.  Before connecting though we were frustrated as a family across the lake kept catching small trout with worms.  The scenery out on the lake was beautiful and fishable shoreline was everywhere.  These pictures were taken by Gwen while we fished out of Arapaho Bay. 

ME BEING FRUSTRATED

Granby Lake - First Spot

Beautiful Sunset - Second Spot

11,600+ ft fishing

Today I went fishing with Bob on James Peak which is located in the Indian Peaks National Forest. There were several lakes located above treeline which we fished with great success.  King Lake was the largest of the ones we fished today, and gave us our fill of wild cutthroat.  After bushwacking approximately 2 miles we found what we thought was going to be a dead lake.  To our amazement I mangaged to land a 16 inch cutthroat, probably the only fish in the small lake (one that I could cast across if I really tried). The hiking was beautiful, but as the end of the day neared the clouds were moving in and a storm was approaching.  On our way back to snow mountain ranch, we picked up some essentials for a bbq to cook the fish and ended the day the only appropriate way we knew, full and satisfied on another great colorado day.