Polish Quills

So you are stripping some peacock quills for your nymphs, dries, mergers, midges or whatever you may be twisting up at the vise. As you know Peacock quills make very awesome looking segmented bodies. But are you stripping your quills with an eraser, your fingers, dipping it in a solution of sorts? Well, if you are and are sick of breaking them or find them too time consuming to strip, check out www.polishquills.com . They are a relatively new company over in Poland that is hand stripping the quills which eliminates the problems of cracking or breaking mid wrap because they are not dipped in some solution that weakens the quill. The quills that they are creating can be used on hook sizes from #12 to #22. They are also producing the quills in 10 different colors to meet all your natural and unnatural needs. Colors available are Natural, Olive, Golden Olive, Orange, Yellow, Red, Pink, Brown, Crimson and Ginger. Each Pack has 25 quills ready to be twisted into something buggy. Check them out and there quills. And the neat thing about them if you do decide to splurge and buy a few packs, is that they have a complete satisfaction program in place, if you don’t like them, send them back within 7 days for a refund. Happy Twisting

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Fly of the Day

From the archives comes the fibet/polywinged rs2

hook: 200R #18

body: biot

Underwing: two fibets

Overwing:Polywing

Thorax: Buggy Nymph Dub

Tying for myself

Got a few minutes at the vise to twist up some bugs for myself.

Where is the time going, Thanks, 2010 in the rearview mirror.

Everytime I sit down to put something on the blog, something comes up so I have not been very active here. I have managed to get out and wet a line this fall and winter a few times, not as many as I would have liked, but each time I did get out, was well worth it. I was also able to get out and carve some turns in the fresh powder that has been dumping snow on the mountain, which will be a good cleansing for the river systems in the mountains this spring.

I have found myself tying flies for myself and customers, had a great year both at the vise, on the water and life in general.

This year I was able to fish Montana, Idaho, New Mexico and my beloved state of Colorado. I want to reflect on this past Year. 2010 was a busy year for me flytying. I did demos all over the front range at several shops, a few Trout Unlimited Chapters tying events, Denver Fly Fishing Show, and was added to the Partridge of Redditch International Pro Staff. I added several new customers around the country and globe for custom tied flies of my designs which is very rewarding.

A few of the patterns that made it into anglers boxes have been my BWO pattern, Stones of the Underworld, Caddis of the Underworld, Bunker Torpedos, midges galore and the newest pattern the ET Adams.

As this year comes to the end, I want to thank the folks who take the time to read Father Natures Life on the Fly Blog and who have contacted me about tying flies for them, the shows, the demos, and Partridge of Redditch for adding me to their Pro Staff. I am looking forward to 2011 in terms of fly tying, and fishing. Thanks to all, hope you all have a Happy Holiday Season.

Cheers,

Chad aka Father Nature!

E.T. Adams

Here is a pattern that I came up with and tested out this past year on the water. It is a basic mayfly nymph and the colors and size can be adjusted to any color scheme to match Blue Wing Olives, Pale Morning Duns, March Browns, Drakes and Tricos.

The pattern is a very basic pattern with very few bells and whistles, but the bells and whistles that this fly does have is what makes this fly count. This is a year round pattern and can be sized differently as well as changing up the color scheme as noted above. The pattern has gone through a very thorough testing phase before I began showing it off recently at a few tying demos. This bug is one buggy bug and made to go in any fly box. The fly was responsible for bring many fish to net this year and will have a place inside my fly box for quite some time. It is one the best mayfly nymph patterns that I have used this year and has a very bright future in my fly box.

The pattern is called Euro Trash Adams or E.T.Adams for short.

I took the name from a Cracker Song called Euro Trash Girl.

Why the Euro Trash associated with it. Only because the most of the materials are of European descent from the Hook, Tail, Dubbing, Wingcase and Lacquer.

The Guts and Glory of the fly

Hook: Partridge CZ hook #16

Tail: Coq De Leon

Rib: Vinyl rib (as an added attractor add a small gold wire for double rib).

Body: Mixed dubbing grey and tan hare

Thorax: Siman Peacock UV Green Dubbing with chopped up deer hair from Fly DK

Wing Case: Siman Magic Shrimp Foil (I give the wing casing a little slab of black marker and hit it with Hends Lacquer Olive.

Wings: Partridge or as the top left corner fly has some medallion sheeting for the wings under the partridge. Works great as an Emerger.

Thread: Black

This bug is tied reversed hook point riding up.

Fly Tying Demos This week

I have a couple of Demos coming up this week. Ill be on hand Thursday night at the Cherry Creek Anglers Fly Tying Clinic twisting up some bugs and Ill be at Anglers All in Littleton on Saturday from 10-12. Come by one or the other and check it out. Ill be twisting up some hook reversed mayflies, a few caddis patterns, maybe a bwo dry or two. Should be a good time. Hope to see you out.

Cheers,

Fish vs Phishing>>

I was able to get out and do some phishing this weekend, no not fishing, but that’s right Phishing. I was able to see the first two nights of Phish’s 3 night stand here in Broomfield, CO. I was also able to attend the Fourmile benefit show prior to the Phish stand. Being able to see Phish in a small venue again, brought back many memories of seeing them before they really exploded on the Hippie Jam band scene after Jerry Garcia’s death. I was a true and hard faithful follower of Phish’s music for many years. I kind of got uninterested in them for awhile in the early 2000’s only going to a handful of shows between now and then. I thought the band was regressing a bit with their popularity and just moved on to different music and bands. Jump forward to the fall of 2010 and deciding after hearing a bunch of summer shows, I thought to myself, can this be true, they are playing fierce, tight and really good, I may have to check them out again. So when the fall tour was announced, I tried to get mail order tickets and was shut out again. I used to always get mail order tickets anytime I tried, but since 3.0 I have been shut out many times and was really losing patience on trying to get tickets. The day tickets went on sale, I had another obligation I need to attend, the Sunnyside Music Festival, so I was not near a phone or computer to even attempt to get tickets. I emailed a few friends to see if they could get tickets for me or at least a ticket to anyone of the nights. I found out a couple days later that my good friend Scott was able to get me a ticket for the opening night. Woohoo. I got a ticket. Then a few days later they announced the benefit show for the fire victims that lost their homes in Four Mile Canyon just west of Boulder, CO. Low and behold, the ticket line up was pretty great. Leftover Salmon, Yonder Mtn String Band, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, String Cheese Incident and not Phish, but Trey, Mike, Page and Jon of Phish were all scheduled to play. Must have been something in their contract to state they could not do the benefit as Phish but rather as individuals.

So I am going to start from the benefit night. Jen and I showed up to event center a little after 6 and missed most of the Leftover Salmon set, Page sat in with Leftover and we caught the last few songs which sounded like it was a great set. Next up was Yonder Mtn String Band the four placements of mics and a drum kit in back of them. Hmmm… is Fishman going to sit in with Yonder? Why, yes after a few songs, Jeff Austin said hey we are getting the band back together! We had this drummer for a couple of tours and then he had to leave our band to go back to some college band he was with prior to us. The event center exploded as Jon came out and played the rest of the set with YMSB. Next up, Big Head Todd and the Monsters. I really didn’t care a whole lot for this set, it was too loud for the venue and Todds new line up with the horns and keys is not the old Monsters of old that we all grew to love. He to has regressed as a musician, oh well. Next up Trey and Mike acoustic!!!! Wow, things are getting exciting. Trey and Mike make their way to the stage and get set up and jump right into Back on the Train from Farmhouse into Water in the Sky (a favorite of mine), A Sample in a Jar followed and really got the place grooving! Then they went into Train Song from Billy Breathes album. Then a splendid Waste, Possum, and a surprise My Friend My Friend, thought they would go into an acoustic Guyute or In A Misty Glade or something along those lines. Then they really got the place grooving with WILSON and closed the set with Bathtub Gin, which is my wife’s favorite tune by these guys. Surprising. Then the Cheese came on, we were pretty beat by this time and said lets stay for a song or two and see what happens, if its going to be a big jam or what. What was nice about Cheese’s first song is they played really the only tune I really like by the Mouna Bowa. Then Trey came out and played two songs with them and as he left, we left too. I found out the next morning they did have a big jam, but with all the Colorado Guys. The boys from Phish were done.

Night 1 of Phish, I picked up my Scott who had my ticket for tonight, got to his house about 4:30 and we quickly headed over to the event center and to have a few beers in the lot and hippie watch. Hippie watching is always a fun thing to do, because you just never know what you might see. LOL.

We made our way into the show as the doors open and quickly headed to the floor since there was a lot of room on the floor and thought we could get pretty close. We ended up about 8/9 rows back centered in front of Mike. Perfect to feel the bass riffs. We sat talking with other folks who were in town to see the boys jam. The lights were dimmed and the boys came to the stage and ripped into Chalkdust Torture, what a way to kick things off and get people up and shaking. Ocolet quickly followed Chalkdust and kept the groove going. Then Page pulled back into one of my old favorites It’s Ice. I have always liked this tune from the old days. It kind of lost its place in the rotation in the 2000’s glad its back. Bouncin and Funky Bitch were next and really got the place grooving and shaking. Oh yeah, its going to be a good night. Then we were treated to a really rocked out AC/DC Bag, oh are we going to enter the world of Gamehendge tonight. Nope, they went into another old favorite of mine NICU. NICU was followed up by a super funky Moma Dance. I have liked the way this tune has progressed over the years. As I thought the set was over they went into another oldie but goodie Horn, which went into a sick Stash also from Rift. Man they are going old school on us tonight, this is great. The Stash was sick and I thought for sure its time to hit the rest room for a quick break, but no, another blast form the past Golgi Apparatus. End of Set. Holy cow, Im spent that was great. We have another set to look forward, there is no way they could top set one, but could they.

Set 2 Night 1, well they came out firing on all cylinders and broke into Mikes>Simple. This pairing is the perfect 1, 2 punch to get the crowd going. They the noodling at the end of Simple, I thought forsure they were going to break into Punch You In the Eye, but no, I said to Scott I think its Ghost and this little guy in front of me turned around and said oh yeah its Ghost and Ghost it was and funky and groovy as could be. And then Mike came through with an Authority bass crunches that only could be Weekapaug Groove and the place just fell apart and everyone in the place was dancing and having a great time. Then Trey stepped back and picked up the megaphone, oh yeah, more old school stuff coming our way, everyone in the place knew Fee was next. Oh what a great tune to hear anytime anywhere. And the boys didn’t disappoint it was perfect. Next up on the sushi platter was a reggae influenced old school Makisupa Policeman. Good stuff right there and towards the end of Makisupa Trey stepped up and asked everyone if they wanted to hear a new tune. Well of course, bring it on Trey. My problem right there was the new tune, that has a ton of potential. The lyrics reminded of the Lawnboy days, it was nice to hear. They quickly went back into Makisupa to finish it off. Then yet another old school tune made its appearance and had the place going crazy, Slave to the Traffic Light. I thought this was going to be the end of the set, but no, Page quickly dropped into Strange Design, which was awesome, it settled the crowd down to catch their breath, before breaking into a tune, I had told Scott earlier in the day I wanted to hear, Julius. What a great way to end the show. Okay for the encore, I thought forsure they were going to do a Beatles tune, but they brought us Lovin Cup, which is always a great closer to an awesome show. This version wasn’t as good as others I have heard, but sent everyone home with a huge smile on their face. Both Scott and I were happy as heck to see such a great show. I had only expected to see this show.

Day 2, I was sitting at work and got an email from my friend Annie who said she had another friend with an extra who was trying to trade it all day long for a New Years Run ticket but had no luck and wanted to know if I wanted, of course I wanted, but need to check with the wife to make sure we didn’t have any other plans that night, so a quick email to her and her quick response was yes go have fun. So another quick email to Annie saying Yes I want, where do we meet, what time, ect… so I quickly wrapped things up at work headed home to change, I am dragging from the night before, oh how am I going to get the energy to pull off night 2. So I said bye to the kids and Jen and made way to the Cuban Café to get a large double shot of espresso coffee and drank it on my way to the lot. Oh the coffee started to kick in, I made a quick call to Annie to see where to meet. West entrance. I grabbed a couple of beers and made my way to the west entrance, as walked up to the entrance I ran into a few friends who were shocked to see me there for night 2, thought you didn’t have a ticket, I scored one around 3:30 so its game on. Annie quickly showed up and we found her buddy Don in line and I got my ticket and we made our way into the show in one fellow swoop. I quickly made my way down to the floor like the previous night, hoping to get a little closer and yes I did this time more centered between Trey and Mike. Perfect. Started talking to this couple from Lake Tahoe who made the voyage out to see the shows. Had a beer and hung out for awhile and the lights were dimmed and the boys walked to the stage.

Set 1 night 2. Can they top last night or will it be a letdown. What are they going to play, they came out and quickly settled into Runaway Jim. This is a great tune to hear anytime and Mike just like last night was all over the place. Foam would follow Jim, another oldie but goodie, I was not disappointed but rather giddy. I like how this is turning out for night two. Then they broke into Back on the Train which is an awesome tune from Farmhouse and has really developed over the years into a great tune. Then Wolfmans Brother, one of the funkiest versions I have ever heard and was soo happy to hear it. Had me shaking and grooving. Then they broke into Reba, which Scott wanted to hear the night before so I sent him a quick text that they were playing it and I got a DAMN, response back. It rocked old school style, expect no whistle ending. Then more old school fun Halley’s Comet which was as good as the old days that went into a very sick and twisted Tweezer. Oh yeah. Tweezer was followed up by a new Mike tune What things seem, off his new album Moss, that Trey quite didn’t have down, but there is plenty of room for improvement and possibly exploration jamming to fit in with it. The Squirming Coil was up next which is always a treat as well, and I thought this was going to end the set, but no, staying with old school fashion, they broke into Run Like an Antelope with Trey having fun with the audience. Trey- Marco, audience Polo, this went a few times before they ended Antelope and set break.

As soon as the set was over I took off for the bathroom and some fresh air. Made my way back to the floor and find my new friends from Tahoe. They were holding the spot we had for the first set so all was good. Lights dimmed and we were ready for set 2 nite 2. What are they going to play.

They broke into a tune called Golden Age which was played once on the fall tour of the previous year. And not to disappoint they rocked and rocked it hard. What an awesome tune for the boys to cover and have fun doing it. Piper which is my favorite tune of Farmhouse was next and played very well. It was awesome to hear and had me excited and having fun. Then out of nowhere came Camel Walk. Man, they are busting into these old school tunes and having sooo much fun playing them, the place was going nuts. Then Alaska off their new album Party Time made appearance and what great tune this has turned out to be. Just plain old fun. Then Gotta Jibboo was next and funky and groovy. I have only heard this tune live a few times and like it more and more every time I hear it, so it was super nice to hear. Wading in the Velvet Sea was next up and mellow and psychedelic it was. What a great tune from the Ghost album. And then another Farmhouse tune made its appearance Twist, this was going to be the set closer the way they were playing and jamming this tune out. But no, wait, is it, no it can’t be oh hell yeah, it is Fluffhead, this is my all time favorite Phish Tune and anytime I hear it, I consider it to be a big treat to me. Wow what a way to end a set, I had the biggest smile on face, sweat dripping down my face, and I was completely spent from shaking and grooving all night long. But it wasn’t over yet, Backwards Down the Number Line from Joy was to close the set out and I absolutely love this tune, its catchy and groovy. I was bustin a move and having so much fun. I couldn’t have asked for a better two night stand of tunes to be played. Okay now for the encore we all knew Tweezer Reprise was coming, but what was it to be paired with. I had no clue what to expect and thank god I didn’t because they broke out Sleeping Monkey. Which is another old school fav of mine and the closer was the Reprise. Man, I was in heaven after that set. What a great way to end my two night run with Phish. There was no way I was going to pull 4 nights in row, 3 were plenty enough for me and I don’t think they could top the two nights. And after listening to the 3^rd night, I think I was right and chose the first two and catch up some much needed sleep on their 3^rd night. But Phish proved once again they follow current events and played to Freed Chilean Miners. Trey gave a shout out to them as they were being freed and changed up their second set to reflect what was going on. Light>Theme from the Bottom>Free> and Joy! Wow, if that is retrospective of whats going I don’t know what is. It reminded of a show many many years ago when OJ Simpson was on the Run. They came out in the second set and no one in the audience had a clue what was going on, but they kept signing, Run OJ, Run. Funny stuff right there. Hopefully they have a very successful fall and New Year’s Run that we get to see them again next spring here in Colorado. Thank you Phish for such a great time!!!!

Golden Stone of the Underworld

I recently finished a custom order of Golden Stones of the Underworld for a customer of mine. Sent them off and he got to fish them. He then sent this picture of the Stone in Action. What a great shot.

Here is a picture of the order that went out to him.

The golden stones were tied on the Partridge of Redditch's Authentic Czech Nymph Hook size 10. Perfect for stones!

A little history behind the hook that the fly was tied on. The hook is Partridge of Redditch's Authentic Czech Nymph Hook. This is the hook that matches the famous Czech nymph hook that was used in the World Championships. The Curved shank and the bold offset point are crucial to this design in the hook. The in-curved and offset point gives it a very secure hook hold even though it is barbless. These hooks are perfect for weighted nymphs used in the Czech style of fishing, hence that is why I recreated the Golden Stone on this hook vs the old hook I was using. The thicker wire and heavily weighted body gets this bad boy down to where the big piggies like to hang out.

Rocky Mtn National Park & Lilly Lake

Got to squeeze in one more group family camping trip. We headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park this weekend with the Bryant St. Crew, Smirnows, Martins, Kellers, Popes and us. We got to the park just after 10:00 am Saturday and went and checked into our campground to see if we could get into our site and low and behold, our site was open for business. So we headed to the site and got camp set up, made lunch and got ready for a little hike. We decided to hike from the campsite down to Moraine Park to see and listen to the Elk. We managed a pretty good hike with 7 kids and one infant in tow. Got down to Moraine park and could see Elk everywhere through out the grass lands. Did our hike and made our way back down. As we were crossing the Big T inside the park, the kids wanted to play in the river for a bit.

As the kids were playing in the river there was a whole herd of Elk right behind us, bugling. So we checked out the Elk and made our way back to the campsite. As soon as we got back it was late afternoon already, cocktail hour.

Got dinner ready and sat around the campfire for a few hours, Jason and Steph played guitar and sang a bunch of tunes until 10:30 or so. At this time we decided to call it a night. Woke up the in the morning of course to find a bunch of deer right outside our site in the grass valley we overlooked.

Got breakfast going and broke down camp. Loaded up and instead of doing a hike, Quinn, Myles, Jason and I got to head up to Lilly Lake to get in some fishing while the girls decided to do one of the hikes based out of Lilly Lake.

We got dressed up in waders and rods strung, I tied on hoppers and beetles on mine and Quinn's rod and made our way down to the lake. We started walking around the lake watching rising fish every way. Got Quinn set up and he started casting, I in the mean time, cut the beetle off and went with a size 16 BWO and first cast, a beautiful greeenback cutt to hand. I quickly gave the rod to Quinn and let him play him and bring him in release him. He had a good time and asked me to do it again. So I made a few more cast and few more greenies for him to play he was having a ball. Caught up to Jason and Myles and let gave him a bwo that was working for us. We made our way around and hooked and lost a few and brought a few more to hand. That lasted a couple of hours and we were ready to head out. Wish I had the camera, Jen took it with Celia hiking, because Quinn was having a ball reeling in the cutties. Good times.

Gunnison and Taylor

Gunnison/Taylor Weekend

Fall Colors!

I managed to get out and fish the Gunnison and Taylor river last weekend with a Jason and Eric. We left Denver about 5:30pm on Thursday night and made our way to Cottonwood Pass. We we arrived to me Eric at the Camp site, we found his truck and camper in pretty rough shape. LOL. Sorry Eric, but this story is too great not to tell. Eric ended up following his GPS device against his own better judgement, hoping to cut his trip in half by going over Aspen to Taylor pass to drop down in Taylor Park. He was driving his Tundra while pulling his camper and raft on top of the camper(see the set up below). The Taylor creek pass is not for the non 4 wheeler, we have heard stories of this pass eating up Jeep 4wheelers, it is more tailored to 4 wheelers then all terrain vehicles. (check out a few videos on 4 wheeling Taylor Pass on Youtube. you will get the idea of what he did, lol. ) He went and made it over the pass after two hours of white knuckled driving and smashing his truck and camper up pretty good. He basically played pinball off boulders with the truck n camper in tow. He managed to crush his water tank below the camper, bend an axial, smash the steel stairs and completely tore apart his wheel wells on the truck. It was a good one.

The pinballed truck.

As for the fishing. We floated the Gunnison from Almont to North Bridge. Got a later start but was good, because we had the river pretty much to ourselves for the day. Only saw a few other fisherman on the water in a few pockets up near Almont. We caught fish through out the day. We hooked a few Salmon, but none were landed. All in all it was a good day, not a large amount of fish caught, but fish were caught.

Before Fridays Launch.

Saturday we power waded the middle and upper Taylor. It was a different story today. Fishing was good, caught a ton of fish today, small, medium sized and few bigger browns. We fished until just before the sun went down, and as the sun was setting, we made our way up to the dam to fish for a few hours. We fished the dam from 7-9:30 or so. As soon as we got the dam, I started hooking fish immediately. Caught a few bigger browns and lost a few bigger fish on the 6x tippet I was using. Eric caught several nice browns as well.

Got off the river and headed back to the campsite to make dinner and do some maintenance work on the trailer so Eric could drive it back to Eagle. The major thing was removing the stairs from the trailer that was crushed up against the tire. As soon as Eric got that off he was hopefully good to go. Sat around the fire drinking some whiskey and just relaxing, before turning in for the night.

Sunday we were up early and got camp broken down and the trailer down, raft on top of the camper and headed up to the dam for a few hours of fishing before heading home. Got up to the dam and all hooked fish. I found the right fly right of the bat. A size 22 chartreuse and grey jujubee. I started hooking fish pretty consistently and got the Jason and Eric set up with some flies. Then it kinda of died down for me. Still hooking big fish, but not landing any. Breaking me off pretty quickly straiten out the hook. Jason how ever landed a pretty nice bow, with a ripped lip most likely from a treble hook of sorts. Just before noon we packed it up went up to the vehicles broke down, had a beer and headed home. Great trip, fun times and good story

provided by Eric.

Jason with ripped Lip

Rod Bush new species of plant?

The smashed up Tundra pulling the rig.

A nice brown I caught on the Taylor

Jason with his bow

Dam Brown by Eric, great expression.

I caught one!

Fall Colors

More fall colors.

3M acquires Ross

Now that 3M has acquired Ross Worldwide, will 3M expand on the Scientific Angler brand with Ross or will Ross help expand the Scientific Angler Brand. A few things to watch. Is this a sign that once staple manufactures are getting gobbled up by bigger corporate brands for the better or for the worse. A few things to ponder. Will Rod makers start lowering their price of their high end rods to meet a financially strapped person or will you save all your pennies to get that higher end rod. With this acquisition of Ross, who will be next.

Cheesman Canyon Gill Trailhead Clousure

Just FYI out there to all you hikers that like to hike into Cheesy Canyon. The lower trail from the parking lot is closing here soon for some repairs, see details below.


The Trail Head Lot will be closed by the USFS (the big lot off of Rt 126 -- scheduled closure is from Tuesday, October 12th, for 6 -7 weeks - which brings it re-opening around November 23rd thru the 30th

The closure is to allow them to store construction equipment to repair the culvert under FSR 211, the road that runs up to the dam - they plan to dam up Wig Wam Creek, pump that water past the culvert & road back into the Creek, dig out all the sediment and drop the culvert down 10 feet, where it originally sat - it is currently just a foot below the road - an emergency repair after last summers nasty floods.

At some time during the project, FSR 211 will be closed for about 7 days - which means no access to the Canyon will be available - good news is that the program will not muddy up Wig Wam Creek - at least that is the theory - since they will pump clear water past the in-creek work.

These dates could be moved back, depending on the diving work schedule currently ongoing at the dam - can't close the road if the divers are not done.

While FSR 211 remains open, access to the Canyon will still be available from the dam trail - the one where I have to bring oxygen tanks and Sherpas to carry me out

We will keep updates on the weekly report as we are advised by the USFS - the old dirt parking lot (the good o'le one) will not be opened during the closure - so basically no one will be able to access the lower Gill Trail (by parking legally) for the duration of the project -- and I can assure you that cars not parked legally will be ticketed - and legal parking will not exist.

But - we are looking at setting up a shuttle service from the shop to the trail head - just depends on how much of the trail is closed off - as we learn more on the project (and what will be open or closed) we will keep you advised

The service, if implemented, will not be free, but as reasonable as we can make it - all depends on response from all of you - so spread the word to all your Canyon buddies - have them send a short e-mail to us if they might be interested in such a service - we will take it from their.

IFTD Show

Well, I got to go down to the International Fly Tackle Dealer Show last Thursday and got to meet some really good folks and talk to a few folks. Didn't have much time to see all the new gear and gadgets for the upcoming season. Got to talk to the Dusty at the Scott Booth for a few minutes and talked to John over at Hardy briefly and sat down with Mark with Partridge of Redditch for most of the time I was the show. The outcome of that meeting is that I am going to to be steep in tradition and aligned with a hook company willing to think outside the box and give some of the other hook makers a run for their money. I am now a proud member of the International Pro Team with Partridge. This is a truly a great honor and looking forward to many years with them. I am in good company too. The likes of Oliver Edwards, Marvin Nolte, Barry Ord Clarke, Ad Swier, Morten Oland, Jukka Taipo, Edward Muzeroll and myself. So at this year's demo's Ill be tying on Partridge hooks. Look for some really neat things from this company in the near future. Mark of Fishing Matters which also represents Varivas, Owner, American Fishing Wire, Marryat and others is getting deep in the Partridge tradition and working to restore the company back to its heydays. .

Partridge of Redditch has been under the wing of Mustad, Norway, for the past thirteen years, but recently has been returned to British hands.

Partridge has 130 years of heritage and can be credited with the invention of modern fly hook manufacture. Wet and dry fly classics are the benchmark hook for fly dressing and Partridge produce the preeminent salmon hook. Look for new hooks from this company in the near future.

Well now, gotta go get ready for some fall fishing on the Gunnison.

Tight Lines,

Platte River Apprentice

The Platte River Apprentice is an combination of my new designed Apprentice fly and Chris Schrantz's Platte River Spider. If you are not familiar with the Platte River Spider it has been a favorite streamer pattern of mine for years. You can check out the Tutorial over at www.charliesflybox.com. I found that the Platte River Spider fishes best in fall. So with fall looming in the air I found myself at the bench getting ready for an upcoming trip. With the Apprentice still fresh in my mind I thought way not take the color scheme of the Platte River Spider and make an Platte River Apprentice.

So I broke out a few various dubbings and got busy blending them to the color and shag I was looking for. As soon as the dubbing was complete it was tying on.

Started off by tying the stinger hook first.

Partridge CZ hook #12
Thread: Black
Tail: Peacock Angel Hair, Yellow Marabou, Brown Marabou and Root Beer Crystal Flash
Body: Sunset Mix
Collar: Wood Duck colored

Main Body
Hook: Grip 13812 Streamer #4
Tungsten Cone Large
.030 Lead 11-13 wraps
Tail: Peacock Angel Hair, Yellow Marabou, Brown Marabou and Root Beer Crystal Flash
Body: Sunset Dubbing
Legs: Pumpkin Sili Legs
Collar 1: Wood Duck Colored
Collar 2: Mottled Marabou
Collar3: Yellow Marabou
Optional Hot Spot: Siman Peacock Eye Dubbing (I have tied a few with and few with out this hotspot, this one is with out the hot spot,)

Stone Flies

Just finished up a few Golden and Black Stones for an order. Using the Partridge CZ hook.

Streamer Season

Is fall really in the air. The kids went back to school the other day, the night time cooler temps only mean one thing. Streamer Season is just around the corner. Those who fish with me know I use streamers all year long. The bigger flies produce bigger fish at times. So the last few weeks I have been thinking up some new streamers for fall. So this past week I tied up a bunch of articulated streamer patterns to give a shot. I tied up my first prototype with out the articulation to get my proportions and all the bells and whistles right, before moving on to the articulated one. After a few tinkerings here and there I was able to make the articulated Apprentice. The Apprentice is an off shoot of my original bunker torpedo and the circus peanut dressings, but tinkered into my own fly of pure trout evil. Why do I call it pure trout evil, because this thing is pure evil. I don't know if it was dumb luck, stupid fish, or whatever, but I managed to get out this past weekend and hiked into Cheesman Canyon. I got to the canyon for an early start. I managed to make it down to the water by 6:20 am. I got to a spot where I like to start fishing and work a section of the river before hiking further back. I had the new rod put together, and tied on my new streamer the Apprentice. At this point I didn't tie any droppers on, just wanted to give this bad boy a few cast and see it flow through the water. Okay, I got my line out and made my first cast and was getting ready for the drift, but the thing didn't have any time to drift, because as soon as it hit the water, I nice very thick, 18" rainbow slammed it. The line went tight and the rod was bent. Since this was the first fish with this rod, I wanted to get the feeling of the rod and loosened up the drag and let the fish take off. I don't know if that was a good thing or not, because it ended taking me a while to get the fish back in. After about 10 minutes I landed, revived and released the fish back into the waters of the South Platte.

Getting ready for the next cast, I moved up a few feet from my first drift to work a nice piece of faster pocket water. The flows were beautifully at 356 cfs which is much better then the 96 cfs we usually see at this time of year, but with the work going on at the dam the water temps where much warmer then normal. Getting myself ready for the cast, made my decision on where I was going to put the fly. The fly hit the water, I made an upstream mend and the line went tight! After a few minutes landed a 21" bow. Two cast, two fish, on the new rod with the new fly. The stars must be aligned for me today I was thinking. Worked a few more pockets and runs that I like in this section and another 6 fish later I was ready to hike up stream a bit. All fish took this new articulated streamer I developed earlier this week.

Back to the fly itself, The Apprentice

Stinger Hook: Partridge CZ #12
Tail: Widow Flash, Marabou Olive, and dash of lite Bright Flash

Body: Bunker Torpedo Dubbing
Collar: Wood Duck Flank

Main Body: Streamer Hook Size 6
Tail: Widow Flash, Marabou Olive and dash of polar flash
Body: Bunker Torpedo Dubbing
Wings: Olive Ostrich Herl
Legs: Speckled Olive rubber legs.
Collar one: Wood duck flank, Colored olive
Collar two: Mottled Marabou
Hot Sport : Siman Peacock Red
Tungsten Cone Head

Underbody Weight: 7-10 wraps of .030 Lead

To articulate the streamer. I take a heavy mono filament and feed through the hook like you would be tying it normally. Then I take the two strands of the mono and tie to each side of the main hook shank and wrap it good and cement it and begin the second portion of the fly. Once the fly is completed, I snipe off the hook of the main fly and now you have a really great articulated fly.

Here is another color variation. I titled the Majestic, with some minor flash subsititutions.

But a great purple/black streamer for those overcast days that lie ahead in the coming months.

Tight Threads!

New Rod

Today, I came home from work and my kidos greeted me at the door to say I received a box. I wasn't expecting anything so I was caught off guard. My son Quinn disappeared into the house and came out with a triangled box, which I knew contained a fly rod. But I wasn't expecting my fly rod back for another month due to repair noticed I received a few days earlier. I sent in a beat up Zero Gravity and got back a brand new ZG Helios. I am excited to hit the river and give it a shot. I am also wondering If Ill receive my T3 back or a new Hydros.

Glacier and beyond road trip

I just returned from a two week vacation with my family and some neighbors of ours. We traveled 3000 miles, 9 campgrounds, 12 campfires, 40+ miles hiked, 1 yurt, several fish species caught and returned to the water, US/Canada boarder crossing a few times, 3 bears, lots of deer, bald eagles, mountain goats and some very beautiful weather.

We started the journey off leaving Denver and traveling north to Billings, Mt, with a quick stay at the Yellowstone River Campground in Billings before making our way to Glacier. We arrived at Two Medicine in Glacier to find a full campground, so we made our way further north to the Cutbank campground in Glacier and got the very last spot. We spent two nights here tooling around two medicine side of glacier.

We then made our way into Waterton Lakes International Peace park for 3 days, we rented a canoe one day and paddled across Cameron Lake to a really neat mountain side made up of waterfalls and glacier. We did a ton of hiking in Waterton, traveled to Goat Haunt on the International Tug Boat, got our passports stamped here and returned to Waterton in Canada. And while in Waterton, we split from our neighbors who searched out some showers and we went up to the Prince of Wales of Hotel. Wow, what a beautiful place. Checked out a few more places inside the park and did a few more Hikes before leaving Canada and heading to the west side of Glacier. Made our way up to Bowman Lake in the upper northwest corner of Glacier, fished Bowman Creek caught a ton of little west slope cutts and cuttbows, fished the Flathead and got a Bull trout. Knocked that fish off my list. Did a few hikes and spent two nights here before leaving the park and headed to Kalispell for laundry day. The girls did laundry and we took the kids to a very crappy restaurant and meet back up with the girls. After we picked the girls up we headed into the Flathead valley to find a campsite, finally found one at Holland Lake, boy what a neat, yet weird campground.

After spending the night here, we woke up had breakfast and did a 3+ mile hike to a really cool waterfall, and returned to the cars to head out to Idaho, we made our way to Salmon Idaho, where we found a campground right on the Salmon river. Jason and I headed into town to get our fishing Licenses. After two stops finally found a place to sell us a license at 7:30 at night. Made our way back to the campground where the girls where putting dinner together. Got camp set up and got the rods strung up and fished the salmon river right at the campground, caught a few salmon, whitefish, a cutbow and a few rainbows. Woke up the next morning early, everyone else was sleeping, so I slipped into my waders and fished for two hours before everyone woke up. Managed to catch a couple salmon and rainbows. We had breakfast and broke down camp and started to make our way to the Galena Lodge, but we made a one stop along the salmon river to fish a few a few hours. Caught a few white fish and a ton of rainbows here, before hoping back into the Toyotas and headed towards Galena Lodge.

Got to Galena Lodge, had some dinner, made our way up to the yurts, which was cool, first time any of us stayed in a yurt. We woke up the next morning, had breakfast, meet our hosts for an afternoon hike, did the hike came back to the lodge for some lunch, ate lunch and the girls and kids hung out at the lodge for awhile while, Jason and I headed down the Big wood River for some fishing. We fished for about 3 hours catching a ton rainbows, nothing to big, but lots of fun. Headed back to the Galena got the kids and girls and headed down to Sun Valley for dinner.

Next day checked out of the yurts, Jason's family went horseback riding, and we headed to a our next campsite, we were supposed to head to the Tetons today, but decided to stay and extra day and camped on the Bigwood river, got camp set up and I went fishing, Jen hung out with the kids. I fished for a while, catching a ton of fish, the day was cloudy, so the fishing was a bit easier today and the fish seemed much bigger today then the day before. After a few hours, I headed back to the campsite, got Quinn and Miles in the waders and took them down to the river we only had about 45 minutes before we had to be back up at the lodge for Horseback Hay rides for the kids and BBQ. After dinner we headed back down to the campsite and Jason and I quickly hit the river for some evening fishing. Got into this hole where every cast would induce a strike or fish, which was awesome. Next morning we broke camp down and started to head home. Traveled through Idaho, and Utah before making our way to Fort Bridger for a quick night on the road, last camp night before making it home. Made it home the next day about 4 o clock. Today back at work.

What a great family vacation, the kids did awesome, the parents managed to drink a few handles of whiskey and couple cases of beer. Back to reality after two weeks and 3000 miles on the road.

New Materials

I was recently sent some new materials from my good buddy Kevin Compton at Performance flies. He is now importing some materials from Sybai out of the Czech Republic.

SYBAI Tackle s.r.o. is professional producer of tying materials and accessories for fly fishing. The way we develop and manufacture our products is putting great emphasis on quality and continuous process of innovation is enabling us to successfully export and distribute our products throughout the world.

Some of the materials I received from Kevin.

Flexi-floss is an excellent stretchable floss with all the qualities of rubber. This material is ideal when forming bodies and legs on any type of fly. I have been using the flexi-floss as a ribbing agent on both nymph and dry fly bodies. It is a very sturdy material and easy to work with. I have also been using it as gills on midge patterns. Comes in a huge assortment of colors.

Pearl Braidback is another material I got which is Very translucent and pearl luster material used in nymph bodies, backs and wingcases. This material makes for a great shellback on czech nymphs and makes a beautiful wingcase for nymphs. I need to experiment more with this material.

3D Epoxy Eyes,

The eyes are made by the most modern technology from the special resin of the excellent quality, which includes especially:

UV radiation resistance ( no getting yellow and color stability supporting)

long time elasticity ( scratching and cracking by stroke resistance)

high transparency ( against usually used resins on the polyester base our ones reach higher „ 3 D“effect)

The most of the 3D Epoxy Eyes are the original models, which SYBAI tackle is the only producer. I have not yet played around with these, but looking forward to twisting up some streamers using these neat, very neat looking eyes.

And one of my favorite products that I received was Fine Flash Dubbing. A fine diameter, Flashabou textured synthetic dubbing. Can be mixed with other dubbing materials. Perfect for speedy formation of shiny saltwater, streamer, nymph and wet flies bodies. This material is a lot like the Siman Peacock dubbing, but with a wider variety of colors. This was the first product I broke into and started playing with. I took some Black Spikey Squirrel dubbing and the Burnt Orange color of Fine Flash dubbing and mixed it up to get a very neat Salmon fly body color. This stuff needs to be chopped up a bit for the fibers are long, but very workable. Looking forward to working with this material more as time goes on.

Well time to get back to the work bench and see what comes off the vise.

Tight Threads!

The Midge

Here is a link to a neat little clip of midges hatching done up Ralph Cutter.

http://www.midcurrent.com/video/clips/cutter_midge.aspx

Taylor Park

For my sons 7th birthday, we had two choices at hand. The first camping with one group of friends at a Disney Park type of campground in Grand Lake with all sorts of rides, foods, events and high dollar cost for the weekend or rafting with another set of friends. Jen and I let Quinn decided on how he wanted to spend his birthday weekend. He chose rafting. Great choice Quinn! So Friday we packed up the camping gear, rafting gear and of course the fishing gear and headed off to Taylor park. We left town right around the four a clock mark on Friday afternoon. The traffic thru the western suburbs on I-70 was slow going and once we got to 285 it was easy sailing thru the mtn towns. We made it to Buena Vista at about 7:30 for a quick stop at Subway for some dinner. Got back on the road and started up Cottonwood pass. We made it up and over Cottonwood pass as the sun was setting. Once we made it down into Taylor Park, we needed to find a camp site. It began to rain a bit, but not bad or heavy, just a light consistent sprinkle. We found a campsite up on the upper Taylor in a field about a 100 yards away from the river. We got the camp set up, fire going and got the kids ready for bed. After a few beers and discussing about the float next day we headed off to bed ourselves.

We all woke up just after 7 to bright blue sunny skies. The girls made breakfast while Jason and I readied the gear for rafting. Got all loaded up and headed off to down river to Almont to raft the Gunnison. We set in where the East and Taylor Rivers merge to form the Gunnison. Our float was an 11 mile float down the Gunnison to what the locals call the Bridge. After dropping the raft and running a quick shuttle, we got back to the launch site and got ourselves all geared up and ready to go. Jason was on the oars, the girls in the back and Quinn, Myles and I up front. I got the boys all set up for fishing, but they were more interested in just floating and having a good time, so I strung up the fly rod.

Started with a streamer dropper, but I soon noticed fish were taking Caddis off the top, so I quickly changed to a stimulator and dropper for the afternoon and began working the shore line. Missed and broked off the first few fish, but finely landed a nice brown. After a few more fish a few mishaps and just plain old relaxation we made our way down river to the take out. The fishing was not hot nor cold, but average and most importantly a good time with the families.

After we got off the river and ran the shuttle back to my truck we got loaded up and quick stop at Almot to get the kids some ice cream we headed back towards the campsite. But Jason and I decided to stop at the Taylor dam and let the girls go back to the site with the kids so we could fish. We only had about 2 hours to fish before we were to be back at the camp for dinner, so we didn't want to waste much time, we quickly got dressed and headed down to the river. I had to tie up a new leader, because towards the end of the float, my back cast caught some trees and broke off, so that took about 30 minutes to get myself ready. I finally got my self ready and tried to find an open spot of river, but it was crowded and we walked down from the bridge, but it seems all others were moving up river as well, I looked back down towards the bridge and few anglers had left so I moved up towards the bridge, got my self positioned and saw a couple of pigs to fish to. Started to fish and caught a nice 16" rainbow, landed and quickly released, and moved a little closer to the bridge and spotted a huge pig in front of boulder and made a few cast and didn't even entice the big boy, so I resorted to looking through the fly box and picked out a smaller midge dropper trailed by a Craven Juju in the colors of purple and chartreuse and made two cast towards the pig, but a brown intercepted my drift and he was a nice one, pushing 20". Quickly landed and released him. Made another cast up stream to get the perfect drift for the pig, I saw the huge red strip move and my rod bent quickly, got him. But as quickly as I hooked him, he went into a deep hole and broke me off just as quick. Moved out of the pocket and sat on shore to rerig and some guy jumped into my hole, so I finished tying up and moved up stream about 20 yards and saw a whole pod of fish. Landed another small rainbow and made a few more cast and hooked into another nice fish and he snapped me off, not the rig, but broke the hook in the bend, damn cheap Dai Riki hooks. (I find that the size 22 and 24 Dai Rikis to be really weak and will no longer buy those hooks in those sizes.) So I headed back up stream to find Jason and get myself ready to fish, but the time flew by and we needed to head back to the campsite.

Headed back up to the site, when we reached the site, we encountered 65 mph winds and couldn't get a fire going or charcoal for the grill going, and the sand, dirt was pelting us so hard, we decided to head down to Almont for dinner. Made the 45 minute down to Almont for dinner, had a nice dinner and some beers and headed back up to the site. Once we reached the site, the wind and subsided, we got a fire going, got the kids some smores and off to bed they went. Jason broke out the guitar and we had a few drinks and Jason played a few tunes before we headed off to bead.

Woke up about the same time shortly after 7, the girls got breakfast going, we started to break camp down, had breakfast, cleaned up, Quinn opened up some presents for his birthday and then we finished packing up to head home. We decided to do a hike up to a lake which was 3.3 miles to the lake. The boys basically ran the first mile and half and I had to leave everybody behind to stay close to the boys. A little time later Jason caught up to us, we finally made it up to the lake, what a nice little lake surrounded by the mtns, and the rain clouds came in, a little thunder, rain, snow mix we quickly headed back down the trail to meet up with the girls, they were waiting at the car for us, time to head back to Denver. We loaded up and head back, making it back to Denver about 5:30. Quinn had an awesome time for his birthday.

TU and Urban South Platte River need our help!

Please join the Denver Trout Unlimited Chapter and the Cutthroat Chapter in their quest to restore the South Platte River and bring trout back to the city!The South Platte River runs throughout Denver-metro area, providing millions of metro-area residents and visitors the opportunity to connect with a resource that makes Colorado great--our rivers! Although trout and other wildlife currently suffer from severe habitat degradation and poor water quality along this 12 mile stretch of the South Platte, a private-public partnership has developed a plan to take back this urban gem to provide recreation and enjoyment for all! Having raised over $20,000 for the project to date, the Denver Trout Unlimited Chapter and Cutthroat Chapter are hoping to raise $250,000 more through the Pepsi Refresh grant, and they need your help to win--projects that receive the most votes online by June 30, 2010 get the cash! Here's what you can do to help:1) Cast a Vote with Your Mouse (and do so often!)Click here to cast a vote for the South Platte project on the Pepsi Refresh site. You can cast 1 vote per day. The project with the most votes will receive a Pepsi Refresh grant worth $250K! Voting ends June 30, 2010.
2) Spread the WordForward this message to your friends and family and encourage them to cast their vote for the South Platte project. Click here to share this announcement on Facebook!
3) Learn MoreWatch DTU's video about the South Platte project by clicking here or visit the DTU website to read more about the project.

Camping & Quinn's first trip out

Over the holiday weekend we had our annual neighborhood camping trip. The last few years it has snowed, rained, and hailed on us. This year was different, it was absolutely beautiful. We camped in the Arapaho National Forest up near Hot Sulphur Springs on the mountain side with Beaver Creek flowing nearby. The site was down from the main forest road down a little embankment on the side the mtn. Great site, we were able to fit 5 families on the site with no problem. After the first night we took the kids over to Williams Fork Reservoir for some fishing. It is here Quinn put on the waders and waded out into the water and made some cast with the fly rod. He was casting a big ole bugger in the wind. He didn't hook up, but it was nice to get him out for his first time. He continued on for an hour, with a few tangles here and there, but had a good time. The jetstream then came blowing down on us and we had to breakdown pretty fast, because these winds were just wrecking havoc on the boy's fly cast. We headed back to the camp site for the rest of the day.

Next morning, we headed back down to the Reservoir for some more fishing before the four winds came a blowing again. We mangaged to work on his cast for about 2 hours before the high winds made an appearance again. Oh well, at least we got out for awhile and got him making some cast. We will have to try again in the coming weeks.


Just a heads up last week I received some new fly tying materials from my good friend Kevin, that came from... yeah thats right the Czech Republic. At first glance some very neat stuff and neat colors as well. Stay tuned for some pics and hopefully some new creations from the new stuff. Till next time, Cheers.