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.