Merry Christmas Charlie Brown

I've been reading that Brown trout feed on fingerlings (little baby trout) at night. The sage advice is to fish under a full moon or just at the sun is setting. Since the moon is weeks aways from being full, I choose to fish as sunset.

Using my trusty Sage FLi #6 rod with a 9' leader cut short and a streamer, I waded into the lake and starting casting to the sounds of splashing. A hatch was in progress and I didn't feel like like untying my streamer, tying on some tippet, etc., so I left the streamer on, hoping that the hatch would die off and the trout (Browns, remember I'm here for the Browns) would turn their attention to my wet fly.

After about half-an-hour of nothing I began to question my tactics. Since going home skunked (again) was not my first choice, I continued to cast, changing the locations varying the retrieve speed. Just when I was ready to call it quits, I got a strike!

By now it was pitch dark. I got the slack line onto the reel and played the fish for a bit while I pulled my little LED light out of my vest, turned it on, and stuck it between my teeth. As it passed by, I could tell from the polka-dot pattern on its back that I had my Brown! A minute later I netted it, removed the hook, and sent it back to the depths. THAT was fun! Guess I'll try again tomorrow night... maybe with the "Space Ghost" while wolly bugger I tied over the weekend. (I'll post a picture soon)

Stocking the Lake

On Monday the lake was stocked for the year. We get our fish from Cline Trout Farms. This year's delivery brought 85 pounds of 12-14" Browns, 150 pounds of 11-14" Rainbows, and 57 lbs of 2-3 pound "Hogs" (Rainbows). I took my son down to watch the fish being unloaded. He loved it.

It really isn't anything amazing, the dumping of the fish. The truck backs up to the water's edge, the driver puts a big metal tube over the outlet of the fish box, the door is opened and the fish dump into the lake. Unfortunately the temperature of the water is considerably lower than the fish farm, so the fish get a bit of a nasty suprise. Kind of like that first year at camp when you had to take your swimming test in the cold morning air. Brrrrr. The cold water stunned a few fish, but they recovered and started to feed. We dump the fish into a deep hole that holds the piping for the community dry hydrant. The fish tend to stay in the hole for an hour or more while they get their bearings.

The best part was the hatch that was going on just before the fish dropped in. A Mayfly hatch. Big, fat, juicy Mayflys. I had a feeling that I was going to see an amazing exhibition of fish feeding on flies. Once the fish got past the shock of the cold water, they realized that lunch was being served. The action was amazing. I videotaped a few minutes of the action. I'll post a link just as soon as I finish editing it.

Brown Sugar ~ Brown Trout

The moon is rising this week. I think I try my hand at fishing for some browns on "the lake" one night this week. Should be fun. I picked up some Hornberg wet flies at Your Fishing Partner fly shop in Idaho Springs over the past weekend. I really like this shop.

The owner was fun and interesting to talk to. I told him about my quest to catch a Tiger Muskie on a fly rod at Gross Reservoir. He gave me some great advice, sold me a couple of leaders with steel tippets, and gave me a free mouse pattern fly to try out. Hopefully, when I do catch that Muskie, I'll get back to the shop and tell him all about it.

My First Time...Fishing on the Arkansas River in Colorado

A fellow fly fishing enthusiast was kind enough to take my fishing on the Arkansas River just outside of Canon City two weekends ago. We'd talked about fishing mayflys around Salida, but the weather was so crazy we opted to fish the caddis hatch further south.

Long story short, it wasn't the best "first time" I've had. It WAS fun to get out for the day on a new river with a new fishing buddy. I only wish we'd caught the hatch and the wind wasn't such a pain in the ass. Oh well.

I did learn something, actually a few things: I learned that leaving the split shot and indicators back in the car is poor form. I learned that using a loop connector to attach the leader to the fly line (I use a short piece of Amnesia line tied to the fly line with a perfection loop as a connector) makes life a lot easier when you make a bird's nest out of your fly line. I learned that roll casting is something I need to practice A LOT more.

I didn't catch many fish. I did learn a lot. Oh well.