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.