And now its Summer!

So the last month and a half have just been a whirl wind. Its summer now and that means little fishing on the Republican. But not little fishing. May was sweet. After that first day of the month catching three fat bass, the rain started coming down and didn't stop for almost a whole month. So bass fishing was pretty much shot. That being said I spent a few more days on the river than normal and it paid off in spades! On the 17th I took a friend fishing who had been wanting to go with me for a while, but could never quite find the time. We set out at the Sage and for what ever reason, be it the stars aligning or just an act of god something wonderful happened. The previous weekend I saw a huge fish. Nothing like what I have ever seen before out there. At first I thought it was a decent carp. Until I saw the spots. A massive brown trout swam by me like he didn't have a care in the world. I knew if I move he would see me and be gone. So I just stood still and watched him cruise by. The following weekend I quietly snuck over to the run where I had seen him and made one cast, just upstream and right on the edge of the bank. The " Sand Sage Special" drifted right along the bank and suddenly the line paused briefly. By pure force of habit I set the hook and was connected. From under the cut bank came the big trout. He swam straight out into the current and was 20 yards downstream before I knew I had him. The fight was short but intense and before I really knew what was happing I was scooping a 19 and 1/2 inch wild brownie into the net. A truly amazing fish. After a couple pictures were taken I slipped him back into the river of which he is clearly the King. This was by far one of the most  lifting experiences in my fishing career. Very few people even fish out here. I fish it roughly 20 times a year and never dreamed of even seeing a fish like that out there. Let alone actually catching and landing one. The following weekend I took yet another friend to the republican and I managed to catch two more brownies. Neither one compared to the brute from the previous week, but they were both beautiful and wild and just as amazing. The mythical brown trout I set out to find three years ago not only exist, but some of them are true giants. The reality is that by putting my time in and learning the river and the fish in it, I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and knew what to do when the big one struck. Since then its gotten warm, and I have spent many early morning in pursuit of largemouth bass. I've taken on teaching a really neat lady that works with my wife how to fly fish. Caught some really nice fish. One bass was well over the 5lb mark which is pretty good for out here. And there is still plenty of summer left to find some bigger ones. But harvest season is almost upon me and I may not get a chance to write for a while. So until then have a safe and fish filled summer. Take a kid or a new friend with you once in a while so that they can learn what its all about. With out new generations learning and loving our sport, the future of our rivers, streams and wild fish could be rough. They need allies. And we need to fight for them

Happy MAY Day

So I recently posted about dedication. And how if you want to catch fish you need to go fishing at the premium hours if you can, but more importantly as much as you can. Remember "Flies out of water don't catch fish". So today I set the alarm, got up early and headed out. I pre rigged my rod the night before and had my cloths and gear ready. On the water by 4:30 am. I chose a black and red Clouser minnow for this morning in size 2. This fly is one of the single best bass flies ever invented. And in black and red its perfect for the early pre dawn water. For those who don't know most fish see better in the dark than they do in broad daylight. Its almost like they see everything in "night vision". So a Dark fly shows up better in dark or dirty water than a bright fly. And a bright fly shows up better in broad day light and clear water. It seems backwards to us humans, but we aren't the ones eating them. Just remember, dark when its dark, bright when its bright. Then you'll be set. And for all my efforts this morning I was greatly rewarded. Three big girls came out of the shadows and gave me some serious rod bending strikes. The first was in the neighborhood of 4lbs, and the other two were roughly 3lbs. Not a bad morning.

First Bass Session of 2015

     So as of last night the 2015 Bass Season is officially underway for me here in the Republican River Valley. Its hard for me to peruse through the Warm Water, and Bass on the Fly fan pages of Facebook because it seems as if every other angler in the country is already into bass way before me. But now I can lay my claim as one of them. The mornings are still way to cold and dark to be of any good. So I set my sights on an evening session. The day had been in the low 70's, so I hit the lake at 7pm in hope of catching something before dark. Even with the warm day the water temp is still pretty damn cold, but I was able to wet wade through it. Most of the evening was spent as just on the water casting practice, but just before full darkness set in I had a sudden jerk and live weight on the end of the line. I had been using a small black fly in size 6 that I simply call the little black fly. If I had to put a label on it I would say it looks like a small leech or tadpole. But the truth is its just a simple black buggy looking thing that moves really slow and looks like food. I really prefer using this type of fly early in the season when the water is still cold simply because there is still not much moving in the lake this time of year, and I think big, splashy, heavy flies spook the bass a bit.
   He was a little guy, maybe a pound and a half at best. You could have fit a golf ball in his open mouth but not much more. So I am guessing more than a pound less than two. I was so excited I didn't even think to grab the camera and get a picture. But that was my official first bass of 2015 and with any luck and a whole lot of time on the water I plan to add a lot more to the count. Game On!

Dedication

I catch a significant number of fish every year. Going back through my fishing notes from 2014, I landed over 90 largemouth bass between May and the end of August. That's an average of 1.3 bass per day. Of course I don't fish every day, though my wife says otherwise. The point being that when you break it down to roughly 3 days per week for 16 weeks its safe to say that I catch two bass every time I go out. When you add in the fact I do nearly 90% of my fishing between 3:00 am and 7:00 am the numbers become much more compact. And that's the whole point. If you want to catch fish, you have to set yourself up to catch fish. People ask me all the time where I catch my fish and what I catch them on? And most of them look at me like I'm either crazy or lying when I tell them I am fishing locally and with a fly rod. Then I tell them I get up at 3am and go out before work and that's when the name calling and four letter words start flying. But its a simple fact. If you want to catch fish you, have to go fishing at the times of the day when fish are feeding. And here's a NOT so little secret, when its 105 degrees F, on a Saturday afternoon, that is not the time.  If you want to go to the lake and sit in a chair, in the hot afternoon sun, drinking beer and drowning worms. By all means be my guest. And people call me crazy. Catching fish of any type requires Dedication. It means tracking sunrise tables, and moon phases a month in advance. It means watching the weather down to the finial hours before bed the night before going out, incase of sudden pressure drops. It means rigging rods and rebuilding leaders the evening before so that you waste no time once you get to the water. Setting an alarm for 3am and actually getting up when it goes off. Packing you lunch for work the night before and having your work cloths ready so you can stay until the last possible second before going about your daily life. And there's more. I'm a fly angler, so I had to learn to fly cast and tie knots in the dark. There is no turning on a flashlight when your standing in the water, unless you want to scare every damn fish in the area away. I had to learn where the shallow flats in the lake were so that I could wade in the dark and not end up drowning myself. This may all seem like a lot of work just to catch a fish. And the truth is your right. But that's just how it is. And I think that dedication is the key to any successful hobby. I don't care if  its golf, or building hot rods, or bird watching, they all require some form of dedication to be good at them. Its also the reason why I have very few fishing buddies and almost always fish alone. But that just makes the lies easier to tell.

Signs of Life.

Its not a huge secret that winter is not my favorite season. And being a ++ sized guy I'm not real fond of the dead of summer heat either. But spring time is just about right. I had a chance to go visit the river the other day. It was in the mid 50s and the sun felt really good. I was hoping to try out a new version of Micro Bugger. This one is tied with a few strands of Red Fox tail hair as the tail, an olive dubbed body, and grizzly hackle, oh and a small dark bead. All on a standard length size 10 nymph hook. The river is still a bit high but very clean. So I worked my way down stream letting out line down and around the curves and then slowly working it back against the current. After about 20 minutes I got a really hard hit. A solid 9 inch brown came from under the cut bank and drilled the bugger with murderous intentions. Even for its small size, there is just something to be said for the way a brown trout fights. But the fight was short and sweet, and the fish was healthy and beautiful. After I slipped him back in the water I looked around and started noticing thing I had not noticed until now. Birds were chirping a bit louder, the air smelled clean and new. Even the grass along the banks of the republican are starting to get a whole lot of green to them. "All good signs" I thought to my self. With that I headed home. 

A Change of Direction.

    As the weather is warming up and spring has sprung, I have decided to take the RRE in a new direction. While the whole thing started as a project for me to fly fish the North Fork all the way from its spring to the Colorado/Nebraska state line, and to catch the fabled wild brown trout that inhabit it. I spend a much larger portion of my time fishing the ponds, lakes, reservoirs, and creeks the feed the Republican. And for all intents and purposes I completed my goals. So now as we enter the spring/summer fishing season I plan to draw my writing towards all the other area fishing I do. Those who know me well, know that between mid April and mid Sept, I fish our local lake as much as 4 days a week for bass. Most of that is between 3:30 and 7:00 am. I still fish the stream for trout up until the water turns to warm, and there are area Reservoirs that feed into the republican full of bass, catfish, crappie, and wiper. And let not forget carp. The bonefish of the Prairie. I spent way more time through the year fishing for these fish than I ever spend fishing the river for trout. So that is where I'm going this year. I'm hoping its going to be a good year, filled with big fish, bigger lies and a few interesting stories. And if not I will make some up and you will never know the difference.

A New Year.

Happy New Year everyone. Today was a really good day here in NEC (North East Colorado). Its been a long, cold and wet late fall and winter so far. But we have had some really nice days the past week and today was great. Almost 60 degrees, sunny, fishy. So kevin and I headed to river after lunch for our first outing of the year. The river was clear, and maybe a little higher than normal. We started out by swinging some wet flies down and accross covering the bends and runs. After a few smaller chubs hooked up, I switched to a micro bugger that I've dubbed a "Sand Sage Special". Its a standard size 10 wet fly hook, white tail, white body, grizzley hackle. This seems to be "THE" fly pattern for this stream. I like to fish them both upstream and drift them like a nymph, as well as cast them down and accross into a swing then strip them back as a streamer. After the change up we started hooking into some bigger fish. Kevin was working small brown nymph and I was swinging my bugger through the cut banks when I hooked into something with real weight. A nice little brown came flying out of the water and threw the hook just a few feet from me. Kevin caught some decent chubs and i caught a really nice fat one that measured in at 10 inchs. Between that and loosing the trout I would say we had a pretty good first fishing trip for 2015. I'm really looking forward to this new year. My wife got me a new tying vice for christmas and I've been tying like crazy. My bass box is stacked real nicely and my small stream box is really looking good. I know I have talked about simplicity before and this year I am really going to focus on that. I went through notes from the last two years and I have been tying only about two dozen patterns total. My bass box has a really good selection of Clouser Minnows, Gurglers, Schminnows, and a couple patterns of my own. My small stream box has some Miracle Midges, Micro Buggers, Elk Hair Caddis, wingless adams, assorted soft hackle wets, and some really simple dubbed nymphs. My small stream box is also doubling as my carp box. So now I'm down to two fly box's total.   I really like the way they are stream lined now. We're going to get more into this in later posts but for now its good to be back and its going to be a good year.