I'm Still Out Here!

I was doing a little web browsing this morning on smallmouth bass fishing in the fall, when I stumbled across a blog called The Republican River Experience. And I thought to myself " Shit I haven't written in a really long time." So hello blog world. How are you doing? And yes I'm still out here. My last post was before the 4th of July, so there is a lot to catch up on. First and foremost I didn't fish the river much this summer. Around mid June the bass fishing on the local lake gets so intense that its all I really focus on until the end of August. My bass fly fishing takes place between 3:30 am and 7:00 am three days a week during the summer months. And this summer was no exception. All total I brought over 90 largemouth bass to hand between June 7th and Aug 30th. The largest weighing in around 7.5 pounds. And lost lord knows how many. I also brought an impressive 17 channel catfish in, 8 crappie, and several hundred bream. All on fly tackle. Not a bad summer. I learned some new things which is always good. Saw some amazing things, and witnessed a few that really hurt my feelings. Fished some new waters this summer that were good if not downright awesome. Took the kids fly fishing several times. Always fun. So yea it was a really good summer. And now its almost November. And even though I have been to the Republican a few times in the last two months my focus has mostly turned to Work and Waterfowl. Around here especially in my line of work fall means harvest. Corn and Soybean harvest to be specific. And since about mid Sept I have been at work nearly everyday doing my part to get these fall crops in. With the small amount of time I have had off I have taken advantage of my other obsession which is waterfowl hunting. But that has nothing to do with fly fishing the republican river so I won't indulge on it, although the feathers I collect from wood ducks, teal, and mallards as well as pheasants, geese, and turkeys do contribute to my fly tying every year. I am hoping to get in on some mid fall brown trout action if I can and there is always winter stream fishing which is one of my favorite times of year. The river survived the summer heat ok. Better than the past few summers anyway. But it seems to get just a little lower and a little slower every year. Its hard to watch but what can you do? Anyways I'm back and I plan on doing a lot more writing soon. I might even ask Santa for a new digital camera so I can ad more pictures to my posts.

Jungle Warfare

With a watchful eye, I make slow deliberate steps through the chest-tall grass, aware of any danger that might be underfoot. The sound of flowing water is just ahead of me now. Not the fast moving rush of a big river, but the slow sliding gurgle of a warm water stream gently passing by. I am nearly in it before I realize that I'm even on its banks. Suddenly, I hear a screech overhead and a shadow whizzes past. Just a chicken hawk on its way out for an evening meal. The stream cuts deeply to my right and the water is slowed by the sudden change in direction. It's here I am briefly made aware of the presence of my target. There under the bank a dark shadow sits among the slow swirling weeds and water. I prepare my weapon for the attack.  It's a short rod, only a 7 footer, smooth rolled fiberglass and cork. The line is light - 5wt with a 7 foot leader. At the end, a small black fly is tied on. The fly is meant to look like a lot of things and look like nothing at the same time. That's why it's effective here. I judge the distance to my target and check the wind and current. 25 feet, maybe 30. If I misjudge, my fly will hit the water too close to the fish. If it's too short, the fish might not see it at all. Making a good cast in this tall grass is difficult, but I manage to hit the water about two feet in front of the cut bank with just enough slack in the line to get a perfect drift. The line goes tight with the current, then it goes even tighter with sudden extra weight. The water explodes. Victory is mine.

FINALLY!!!!!!!

    As anglers, we know all about "firsts." The first fish we ever caught as a child. Our first fly rod. First fly tying kit. And the first fish caught on one of our own flies. Often we never really lose that sense of childhood excitement. We might make note of our first fish of a new year or maybe the first bass caught in the spring, first fish caught in salt water or maybe our first wild salmon. Then, it comes full circle when we get to watch our children and grandchildren when they catch their first fish and on their first fly rod and so forth.
   Today was a special day for me - one of those "firsts" that will live with me forever. I set out more than a year and a half ago on a personal quest to fly fish the North Fork of the Republican River here in eastern Colorado and to try and catch the elusive (if not somewhat mythical) wild brown trout that are rumored to inhabit it. Even though I have caught many fish and walked many miles of riverbank, the trout have always avoided me. I've seen them swiming, seen them sitting on the bottom of the river almost motionless. I've watched them feed on anything else in the world but my fly. I even hooked one last year only to have it throw the the fly back at me and give me the finger. But not today. That's right, my friends. Today I caught a trout!
   Now, please don't misunderstand me. I have caught many trout in my life. I've caught rainbows, and cutbows, cutthroats, browns, and brookies. I've even caught wild steelhead in the pacific northwest. So why you ask is this such a big deal today? Cause I said so Damnit! But seriously this was a big one for me. I grew up here. And up until just a few years ago, I didn't even know these fish were in our little creek. On top of that, add in the feeling of being denied over and over again. It was due time, I guess. When I finally held that little fish in my hand for those few seconds to get a picture, I felt like a little kid again.
    So what now? I'm certainly not going to stop. I guess now I will have to wait for my first one over 20 inches, or maybe my first double. Who knows? What I do know for sure, though, is that the trout in the North Fork of the Republican River are not a myth. They can be caught, and they are beutiful. And I want more.

Just wanted to point out that this is not my fish. I found this image on google images and used it because it was very close to the size of the one I caught and the river looks strikingly similar to my river. 

Early Moring Blues.

Like most anglers I know, I don't have enough hours in the day to do all the things I want. As a father of three, a husband to one very hard working young woman, and an employee in a company that offers less than perfect hours for going fishing (add that to the fact that it is the end of  the school year, and we are leaving very, very soon on the largest family vacation we have ever been on), and I am down to almost no time for chasing fish. But if you look hard enough you can always find an hour here or an hour there. It simply requires that you sacrifice some little things. Like sleep.
So I left the house early this morning with a 5wt in hand and a few flies and my lunch tucked into my backpack, and I headed to work. By way of the river, of course. The object was to stop at the creek, fish for an hour or so, then finish off my walk to work arriving just in time to stash my gear, clock in and start the work day. Simple, right?
The water was higher than normal and very cloudy, so I led things off with a nice dark wooly bugger. Almost instantly I was hooked up and was quite proud of myself for being such a master fisherman. I fought the fish for a few seconds and was gaining line when, to my disappointment, the line went slack. Can't win them all, right? So I head down stream to the next little hole. As I said the water was higher than normal, and when I stepped forward onto what was once a solid creek bank, suddenly it  gave way and I was up to my shins in cold ass water. (My boots are still soaked, by the way.)
After having a few choice words with myself, I again moved down stream. At the next hole I found bluegills sipping bugs off the surface. Excited, I changed flies to a nice little Adams. Nothing. Change flies again to a very small caddis. Nothing. Change flies again to a Griffin Nat. Nothing. I went through 5 flies, 2 feet of tippet, and couldn't catch a cold. Or maybe I will catch a cold 'cause my feet are freezing. On my final cast, I hooked a nice sapling tree on the far bank of the river, broke my line, and called it quits for the day. Can't Win Them All.

MAN DAY 2014, Part 1

My son Kevin lives here in Colorado with me and goes to school here. In the summer he travels to South East Florida every year to visit his mom. This is good and bad. Its good cause I love having him here for school, bad because he misses out on all the summer fishing. So to counter balance the fishing he misses out on every summer we take a day (MAN DAY) each spring (so long as his grades in school are kept up) and we play hooky from school and work to spend a whole day fishing. Last year Kevin caught a tank of a Largemouth bass (9+lbs). But this year is different. 1) We are taking a very large family vacation this year and I will be using up most of my time off from work. 2) Our fishing partner and Co Pilot in all things MANLY and AWESOME Justin Peterson was not going to be able to go when we planned. So we improvised. Instead of not going at all we decided to do Two man days this year. One in the spring on a Saturday, and another in August when Kevin comes home that Justin will be able to go on. WIN, WIN! So we set off last weekend to go on an adventure. We choose the Hale Ponds on the South Fork of the Republican River. 40 miles south of us. The ponds are part of the South Republican State Wildlife Area. Public water that holds bass, crappie, bluegills, carp, and some stocked trout. Our goal was bass and carp mostly but when its man day you don't really care what you catch. We saw some bass, missed a couple shots a some carp, caught a couple trout, and some bluegills. Plus we ate some lunch by the ponds, shared a root beer, and had a pretty damn good father son time. The ponds were very healthy and well maintained thanks to hard work from our state wildlife offices and money from the Habitat Stamp program. So thank you goes to them. There was quite a few anglers around enjoying the ponds as well. The highlight of the day came when we were on our way home. We stopped at a bridge that crossed over the Republican river. I like to stop and look over the sides of bridges (call me weird). Now we had been after carp all day and only seen a couple. So you can imagine my surprise when I peeked over the rails of the bridge and spotted 2 big bronze pigs swimming right under the bridge. I ran to the other side only to see 8 more carp swimming the other direction. There were carp everywhere. The land on both sides of the bridge are public fishing land under a wildlife easement. So we grabbed our rods and tried to get in a few shots. Needless to say we were rejected. It was early afternoon, and hot. The fish were in a cruising mode and not feeding. But they were all around us. So even though we didn't have an epic day at the ponds we did discover a new and plentiful carp fishery in the process. You can bet I will be back on the creek this summer, fly rod in hand. Chasing those brutes. Until then though, get out and go fishing. The water is warming up quickly, the bass will be in pre spawn very soon. And take a kid or two with you. It doesn't have to be man day to enjoy some quality time with young anglers.

NO BS ALLOWED!

    Fly Fishing on the Republican is as tricky as it is simple. I understand that sounds very contradictory but its true. This is not a large stream. As I've said its maybe 30ft accross at its widest. And sometimes only 5 to 7 feet during the hot summer months when local crop irrigation drops the water levels. Some streches are very windy with meandering curves every 50 feet or so and have heavy tree growth. And other parts are long, open and run through open pasture range with no trees for miles. Its because of these diverce conditons that picking ones gear carefully is so important. Don't get me wrong we aren't talking about Steelheading here. For the most part any ol inexpensive 4-6 wt fly rod will work, but one should put some thinking into it before they just grab a rod and start walking.  Here is some of the criteria that I have based my tackle on.
     1) Rods.   I actually have a few different rods for the job (not at the same time). Each one has a bit of a specific purpose. I have a Pflueger Medalist 8ft 7wt matched with a Scientific Angler  Medium Arbor reel. This is the rod I keep handy incase the day comes that I do find some carp. Its a rod I've had forever and its always been so good to me that I just can't bear to not use it for something. My newest rod is a Eagle Claw Featherlight Fiberglass 7ft 5/6wt matched with a small Okuma Sierra 4/5wt reel. I've only had it a few months and I'm totally in love. And last but certainly not least is my Custom made Japaneese bamboo rod. Its a 8ft 6wt matched with a beautieful old Pflueger GEM reel. I've had this reel since I started fly fishing roughly 22 years ago. Like I said before any old rod will work but I have choosen these three rods for a few reasons. First aside from the bamboo the other two rods are fairly inexpensive. So if something were ever to happen and one were to break I'm not going to have a heartattack. More importantly is the size of the river itself. I've tried a 9ft trout rod out here and it was awful. There is often a lot of overgrowth and tight corner to cast around. Shorter rods take advantage of that. On the other hand its the fish that steer me away from tiny ultralight gear. I've taken a 3lb bucketmouth bass out of this creek, I've pulled some mean little channel cats out. And I've seen pictures of 24 inch browns caught here. I don't want to mess around with any of those on a iddy biddy 2wt. This isn't just pocketwater with brookies. There is always the chance of running into a decent size fish.
    2) Line.  All my fly lines for this creek are Weight Forward Floating. I try and use the best quality line I can afford. But lets be truthful. This isn't the place to be wasting your money on expensive line. Good quality yes, High Priced no.
    3) Flies.  As I said in an earlier post the fly selection needed here isn't real big. My fly box contains a few Adams in size 12, and a handful of Elk Hair Caddis in size 12, but dry flies are not the rule here. Soft hackles and very simple nymph patterns are my favorites. When the panfish are on the prowl I really enjoy using a micro popper. Closed cell foam poppers in size 8. Bright yellow, and black are the two colors that really seem to work best. And lets not forget the good ol Mico Bugger. A wooly bugger tied on a size 8-10, in white and black. Carp flies can be as simple as a San Juan worm, to something more along the lines of a bonefish fly.
   4) Everything else.  I try not to carry a whole ton of gear when I fish no matter where I am. But I do like to carry a few essentials. A small container of split shot, some fly floatant, Clippers, Forecepts, pocket knife. A small fly box and a camera. I do have a small landing net and whenever I carry it I hate it cause its always getting snagged on weeds. And everytime I wish I had it I'm not carring it. There no winning with that one.
    I prefer a small back pack personally. I've tried a few hip packs over the years and just never really liked them. Vests have never been my thing. But the small back pack or better yet a small sling pack works great. My pack has some insolation in it for keeping a couple bottles of water (or beer) cold. I prefer flats wading style pants and wading shoes to actual waders. In the cold months there just isn't a good reason to need to cross the water and in the summer its just to stinkin hot. And polarized glasses. Like most fishing situations good polarized sunglasses are almost as important as your rod.
   Thats really about it. I always practice catch and release so I have never had use for a stringer or basket. Its really all about just having a rod and reel, a few essentials and a sence of adventure. This style of fishing is in my opinion the anti pretentious fly fishing that seems to go along with a lot of bigger colorado rivers. There are no fly shops out here on the plains. No Orvis sponsered guides with big fancy trucks and driftboats full of hi tech gear. This is Huck Finn approved fishing. All are welcome but leave your bullshit at the door type fishing. That's why I like it. .

Its still snowing

So its spring now. But as I write this the snow has been falling since the middle of the night and everything outside is cold and wet. But its not sticking and that a good sign. We've had some really warm days lately and as per usual spring we have had a lot of wind to go with it. But I have snuck in a few days of fishing. I got off work yesterday and had about an hour to kill before dinner so I grabbed the two older of my three children and we headed to the lake. Our lake is not actually part of the Republican river. But it is in the Republican River Valley and it feeds into the Republican within half a mile of the spillway. And since this is my blog, I can write about whatever I want.....
So I took the two older kids and we headed to the lake to find some bluegills. Natty my 5 year old is still a bit young to be flinging a fly rod around, so we tie a little bead head nymph to her "princess" fishing pole and put a small bobber about 8 inches above the fly. The gills can't resist it, and she landed 4 nice fish within about 20 min's. Kevin armed with his 5wt also managed to land a couple nice fish with a little rubber legged nymph. His casting has improved dramatically over the past few months and now that he is catching fish he's hooked on fly fishing. I spent most of that hour pulling hooks out of bluegill mouths, but I did get to catch a few (20+) on the EC Featherlight. Still loving that rod. And catching gills on it is a blast. Its going to be my #1 weapon of choice in the 2014 Bluegill Blitz coming up the first of May. The Blitz is a "Warm Water Fly Fishing" page contest on Facebook that I started this year. Page members are allowed to submit one picture to the page of the biggest bluegill/sunfish they can catch. Its "Bragging Rights" contest only, designed to bring out the best in spring fly fisherman. Noble Shit talk and virtual chest pounding and fun for all who are enrolled. I'm really looking forward to it. Last but not least here in Colorado its time to go buy your 2014-2015 Hunting and Fishing License. Then go find a small creek, or stream throw a line in and see what you can catch. And take a kid along. Remember they are the future of our water and fishing heritage. (by the way both pictures of these flies come from google images and are not my actual flies but both are very similar to the ones used in this outing)

Windy Day.

Today my son Kevin and I decieded we needed to hit the river. For the past two weeks we have been in the grip of a major winter beat down. Old Man Winter came a-knocking and overstayed his welcome by more than a little, but midway through this past week the sun started shining again and the snow started melting. Even though most folks don't refer to a 50 degree day as super warm, it beats the crap out of -12. So when the weather man said it was going to a nice day, Kev and I made plans.
We had to battle a bit of wind today, but that's a pretty normal thing out here. We hit up The Sand Sage or just "Sage" as the locals call it, a public wildlife area just a few miles down from the actual spring where the Republican starts. It's a small section of land of maybe 4 square miles where the Republican winds back and forth and back and forth. This is one of the areas most known for browns. The stream is really only about 20 to 30 feet wide in most places and not very deep, but the winding motion of the water creates cutbanks, pools, and eddies.
One of the really nice things about fishing small steams is that it's easy to eliminate fishless water. We just walk along heading upstream and fishing these cutbanks. After a few casts, if nothing bites, we move on to the next one. You could spend all day fishing one hole and changing every fly in your box if you wanted to, but the truth is these fish aren't very picky and if you don't hook up within a few casts chances are there is no fish there anyway.
Our flies of choice are pretty simple. During the winter months, we mostly use Soft Hackles of about any color in sizes 12-16, simple nymphs such as Zebras, and my personal fav the Buzzer. Quite honestly, it's the simplest fly in the world to tie, and the fish love them. Summer months have been good with the same nymphs but under a Micro Popper or a dry dropper setup such as a Elk Hair Caddis and a soft hackle. Any other kind of strike indicator would be pretty much useless here due to the shallow water.
Kevin is fishing an 8ft 5wt Bass Pro youth rod with a simple Shakespear Click and Pawl reel. Its a great little stick, honestly. And today I was using my new Eagle Claw Featherlight Glass rod. It was a first time for me using this rod. It's a 7ft 5/6wt with an Okuma Seirra Reel. This little rod was really what I have been looking for in a small stream fly rod. With a slower action and the shorter rod, hitting those pools from a distance was a breeze. This is not a fly caster friendly strech of water, and the short rod gets the job done with very little struggle.
We managed to catch a few chubs, lose a few flies, and generally have a pretty good father-son time. Kevin is really taking off with this fly fishing thing. He has yet to catch a fish on a fly but his persistance and detemination are strong, and I know when the day comes that he does hook up it's all going to come together. He is already light years ahead of me when I was his age. I had to teach myself everything from scratch. I'm hoping that this last bit of bad weather is a sign that winter is almost over. Soon the bluegills and bass will be on the move, and then it's game on.

Kevin two years ago with his first bass. 

A New Year. A New Quest

Hello. And welcome to the Republican River Experience. My name is John from Wray, Colorado. If you were one of the few who kept up with my blog last year "A Year As A DIY Sportsman", you already know that I am from a very small town in Northeastern Colorado. Last year I started a quest to fly fish the North Fork of the republican river which is the small stream that runs through my little town. I wanted to fish the river from its headwater all the way to the colorado Nebraska State line and to catch one of the elusive wild brown trout rumored to inhabit that river.
As it all turned out, I failed in my mission in more ways than one. I was only successful in fishing about 3/4 of the river before the end of 2013, and I never caught a trout. I did hook into a small one, and managed to lose the fight in a matter of seconds. That was my one and only encounter with a brown all year. But I did catch fish. Quite a few fish, in fact. Bass, bluegills, sunfish, channel cats, and chubs. Most of these fish were small, and scrappy, and truely a treat to catch on a light fly rod.
This year my goal is going to be an extension of that first quest. I will again try to fish the whole river (roughly 25 miles) and again try to catch a wild brown, but I also plan to document the entire experience.
Today is Febuary 2nd, 2014. Super Bowl Sunday. There is over a foot of thick white snow on the ground, and I have a cold, so I won't be fishing today. But so far this year I have fished the river 3 times already. Winter months are a great time to find High Plains Brookies. (That's what I like to call the creek chubs.) These goofly little fish are very common on my stream. They are usually quite small 6-7 inches long, though I have caught several that are in the 10-12 inch range. If these were eastern stream brook trout they would be considered a trophy, but they are only chubs so most anglers don't give them a second glance. We love them, though (we being my 9 year old son and I). They are catchable year round, they eat a fly like a fish should, and they fight like a bull - a very small bull, but a bull just the same. The best part about the creek chubs is that they are often podded together in slow moving deeper pools, which makes them great to sight fish. I don't know where the bass and panfish go in the winter, but it's almost like they disappear until the spring. The catfish must find a deep hole and sleep away the winter as well. But the chubs are everywhere.
My son is very new to fly fishing which makes catching the chubs that more exciting. They might as well be a tarpon for all he cares. Dead drifting beaded nymphs and soft hackels through the pools is the best way to catch them. We have seen a few trout already this year as well. Of course, seeing is not the same as catching. I'm not going to waste a bunch of effort writing about seeing fish.
I will make a note about the carp, however. A report from a trusted angling friend made its way to me that he found some carp in his family's stretch of the river. I have yet to see them for myself, but if it's true I plan to make a serious attempt at hooking into one of these bruts this year.