Carping

A nice long weekend means getting out and fishing for carp. I found a nice load of them all rooting in the grass, but they all seemed to busy to notice my offerings. However, after two days I finally fooled one by running a green crayfish out of the grass out in front of it as it was moving pass. After several long runs I finally got the carp to the net for a quick photo and then back into the water.

I also tied up some files for gar fishing for a friend and hope to see what happens when he takes them out for a spin.

A box full of flies

It is already almost a month into the new fishing season. Yesterday was the first day I have fished and I have to say the season looks very promising. It got pretty windy in the morning, but we ended up catching quite a few rainbows and one that was big enough to smoke for lunch. Once the wind died down the bite went off and we decided to head home.

Aside from wanting to fish, I have tied up several classic patterns (green highlander, black doctor, silver doctor, blue doctor, blue ranger, durham ranger, and  jock scott) for salmon on mainly size 2 hooks. I did also tie up a size 4/0 silver doctor. These will be used on land locked salmon that I live close to. I was going to make a fly wallet for these, but ended up buying a wheatley fly box.

Fully dressed salmon flies

#1 - This is the first time that I have tied the Durham Ranger, but I have been wanting to do along time. This is most probably the first fully dressed salmon fly I had seen and then Davie McPhail posted a video of him tying it so I had a good idea on how to go about tying this fly. I would have liked a nicer jungle cock cape for this fly but it still looks pretty good to me.

 #2 - I have tied several lady Amherst, but this is the first one on a small hook (2/0). One thing that really effects the look of this fly is the topping, I might have to go back and redo the topping to give it a more of an open look.

 #3 - First time I have tied the black doctor and most probably not the last time. I would have really liked to have a smaller head, but I still like the look of it.

 #4 - A MOM to end of the set, this will be a fishing fly so I was not overall concerned with the look of it.

Flies for a swap

Here is some Mrs Simpsons that I have tied up for a swap.

Lagerman Res.

Due to all the natural disasters in Colorado I had to put an end to my fishing season early. However, I did get out yesterday to Lagerman Res. which is greatly unchanged. Hoping to find a pike (I am pretty such none are in there) to catch I set off around the lake. I did see some rabbits in the rocks and some blue gills close to shore, but not much else. There was a carp hitting the seeds on the surface and a carefully placed Miss Simpson ended my drought with a crap in the net. After seeing this carp I turned all eyes to finding more. I end up spotting about 10 more carp happily eating from the mud, but no more luck came my way. However, it looks like my fishing season might start up again for a little bit longer.

I have been really hitting the classic salmon and bass flies hard and I really need to post some images of those.

wild basin - ouzel lake

Finally I took a trip up into RMNP. This time instead of going to Sandbeach lake I headed to Ouzel lake, which is about 4.7 miles in from the trail head. The hike up was broken up in to nice sections due to the number of falls on the way and forks in the trail. It was not that hard and the lake is an amazing site. Both Griffith gnat's and small mayfly emerges worked well. The trout were very spooky, but there is nothing like walking around a rocky bottom lake and being able to sight fish. Both green backs and brookies were in the lake and meant to be in the several rivers on the way up, but we ran out of time to stop and fish the rivers as the clouds started to roll in.

Bass and Classics

Just to show that something does happen on this blog. Here is a range of bass that I have been getting on some blue gill flies that I have been tying. Also, I have been trying to increase my ability to tie classic flies so I have added in a couple of patterns that I have been working on.