Live Report From Mexico

All fun and games out here in Cabo. Great people, great weather, great food, and great fishing. Sort of. The marlin were hanging out too deep due to the calm weather, and the ocean was pretty dead. We decided to head in and look for some roosters, which unlike the marlin were around. Caught the worlds smallest rooster, some other mixed species, and ended it with a nice surprise from a Cubera Snapper. Heading out to do some beach fishing for roosters and jacks.

Bows And Bros

Well, Winter fishing isn't always about one fish. I mean, if you could even consider yesterday winter. I woke up at 8 am yesterday morning with plans of hanging out with friends at the mall. When I checked my phone, I noticed I had a text from Brandon. Just one simple phrase:

"Blue Today?"

I texted my friends who I already had plans with that there was a "family emergency," then called Brandon and we were set. We arrived at one of my favorite spots about 2 hours later, and after carrying Jenny (Brandon's dog) over a rock wall, we started fishing. Within 30 casts, I had a big fish on. He cruised around the bottom trying to bust me off, but the water was cold enough that he wasn't powering. It was dark in the canyon, so I couldn't see the fish, but as he got closer I saw a white jaw about the size of my hand opening and closing. "Got a big rainbow!" I called to Brandon. He helped me out with the net, and soon the fish was back in the water.

We kept fishing, and both Brandon and I caught two more browns of about 18 inches. What a great day.

We ventured on to our next fishing expedition, ready for whatever was to come. Or so we thought...

As I grabbed my rod and made my way down to the water, I failed to notice a large patch of ice at the bottom of a hill. I tripped and fell, wrenching my hand back and spraining my wrist. As it began to swell, we realized that it was the end of our day. Sorry, bro. It was super fun.

The doctor says I'll be able to strip well by the time we go to Mexico, but to rest up until then. My basketball coach is gonna be pissed, but oh well. It was worth it.

Christmas Cheer

With Christmas right around the corner, a lot of people are planning vacations. Since our "actual" vacation was planned months ago, I had plenty of time to schedule the real trip, or the fishing. After talking to a few people at the shop who had all been to Mexico, I decided that the best fly fishing guide in the area is Grant Hartman of Baja Anglers. Upon checking out his website, I was even more interested. Over 90 world records! That's crazy! So I called, and we got it all set up. Two days of fishing, starting out with a sort of warm-up day. Working along the beach for rooster fish, sierra mackerel, and possibly snapper. The next day, we head out to the depths of Ernest Hemmingway's brain the ocean to attempt a marlin on the fly. Epic! So now, what to tie? Lots of big stuff. How big? Like this. I'll report back later. From me and the rest of the class I'm in right now, have a good one!

Justin's Sardina, Size 4/0

Incognito Angler

Well, I just got a message from Howard to, "Stop disappearing, or I'll cut off your inheritance". I know, I know. If I leave any more, we might have to change the name of this blog to the Incognito Angler. Well Howard, it's that time of year in school again. The good old try-to-pack-5-weeks-into-3- stretch before winter break. One week from today, that's over. In the mean time, a preview of what's to come:

Wa.... Someplace New

I went out fishing for awhile today with my buddies Randy and Jesse. We arrived at our spot around 10:15, a place I haven't ever been to before. As soon as we hopped in, fish started slamming our flies. I'll throw up a more detailed report later. For now, here's some of today's pics. Suffice it to say the only fly getting more attention than mine was the one on President Clinton's Trousers. Anyone know what book that is?

Winter Carp And Bullets (Two Things Jay Knows About)

It had been a long time since I had gotten a call from Brandon, a good fishing buddy of mine, so I was excited to see his name on the Caller ID pad while watching some football yesterday. I already knew what was coming.

"Hey"
"Hey, you wanna go fish?"
"Where?"
"Carp"
"Carp?"
"Carp"

I never would have gone out on a cold day in late november to go fish for CARP, but according to Brandon, they had been eating lately, and I wanted to get some fishing in. About thirty minutes later, I met Brandon at our local carp pond. When I got there, he was just finishing rigging up. I saw him start casting, so I walked on over, as soon as I got there, he yelled, "Carp!"

As it turned out, that would be the only fish of the day. The rest of that lake was pretty dead, so we moved onto another close pond. Plenty of fish there, and eating, but for some reason both myself and Brandon couldn't keep the fish on. But hey, that's probably the last carp anyone will catch in that pond this season. Cool!

P.S. Keep an eye out next time your walking the Boulder Creek path. Someone was probably working on his target practice...

Or running from the cops

LOL Fest

First day of snowboarding tomorrow, which means the end of fishing for the year... NOT!!!! Be safe out there kids.

Fishing Epiphanies

As some of you know, I went to the a famous section of a river near Fairplay about a month ago. It was my first time there, and it was pretty much how I imagined. Lots of people, not tons of fish, but some real big boys. We arrived around 8:00 at the upper parking lot, and I hopped out and started looking for fish. After walking for a little while, I spotted a few nice browns. I flipped in a few casts, and one of the fish ate my fly. I set the hook, watched the fish swim upstream with my fly, and rub his head against a rock until my flies popped out. Time to try something new. I walked up a few steps further, and was casting to a nice fish until I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. That boulder I sitting in the river was swimming around. Holy shit, that's a huge fish! I started casting to him, and after about ten minutes, I got a reward. The fish calmly inhaled my fly, and the battle was on. Sadly, the battle ended when he porpoised down a waterfall, pounded my tippet along rocks, and snapped me off. I'm not even kidding you. I decided to take a break from these fish, and headed down lower to a nice deep hole. I flipped in the next six casts, and proceeded to pull out five nice fish and a pee-wee football shaped rainbow. So now I wasn't worried about the skunk. We kept fishing down the river, caught a few more fish, and headed to lunch. Afterwards, we went back to the first section. Low and behold, the big boy was back. I worked him for a good few minutes, and he finally got angry enough to eat the fly. I set the hook once again, and tried to turn his head towards me. He had other plans though, and dove into the tall grass in the water. Well, there goes my fly. So we moved on, kept fishing for the rest of the day, caught a few more fish, and headed home. Yes we did look for the big fish again, but he was no where to be found. Guess he was finally smart enough to leave. As we were driving home, I was a little upset with myself. But then I realized something: 1) It's not fishing if you catch every fish, and it wouldn't be fun if you did, and 2) I caught a bunch of fish, and a beautiful brown around 21 inches. However you put this, it can't be anything but a great day.

So, a great day. I'll get those pictures of my friend's camera sometime this week, and post them.

Randy Hicks Of RMA With A Nice Fall Brown

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! I always start to think at this time of year that there is work to be done. Of course you still have to fish, so you don't go completely insane. Wait, yea. So you don't go completely insane. But over the year, you probably lost a lot of gear too. I know I did. So you have to start getting your crap together for the next season. That can mean going down to the local fly shop to re stock on leaders and tippet, finding that new rod you really wanted (and told your wife you really needed), or in my case, tying a bunch of flies that I put in trees, under rocks, molded into ice, and bent out in the leather of the car. So what patterns do I tie? Nothing special. I don't really tie many flies to exact replicas like a lot of people do. I was one of those kids who didn't follow the instructions in the lego sets. So I like to look at a bunch of different patters, take parts of each one, and make variations. What are you gonna be tying up this Winter?

Too Many Worms?

Adventures Of A Cold Fish And The Quest For The World's Largest Dessert

Hey hey! I'm back from the Blue! Our trip was tons of fun. My grandma picked me up just before 5, way before the sun's alarm clock had rung. As it turned out, it never would come out that day. It was snowing very lightly when we left, and it just kept getting heavier as we made our way toward Silverthorne. By the time we got to our first fishing spot, it was really snowing hard. I followed some almost invisible tracks in the snow along a path that actually kind of scared me. After getting past that though, I met up with Randy and a couple other guys from Rocky Mountain Anglers. The fishing was kind of what you'd expect, hitting the far banks with nymph rigs, not catching a ton of fish, but enough to make it a lot of fun. After a few hours, Randy and the guys headed back to Boulder and we headed to our next spot. I fished the Outlet Stores for a while my grandma got some lunch, but to no avail. You could see some nice fish from the Bridge, but they weren't too interested in my flies. I got one halfhearted strike, but nothing else. We moved up above Lake Dillon after a little while, to check out another place Randy had told me about. When I got to the river it was much smaller than I expected, and I was a little worried. Could there really be some fish in this tiny little thing? I walked down the stream for a few yards, and saw something little and red swim up the river. What was that? And suddenly I was in a river of red. Kokanee Salmon! So for the next few hours, I threw the brightest flies I had at these silly looking fish. And I caught some! We left after another two hours, checked into a hotel, and went to dinner at the Mint. It's a very cool restraunt where you cook your own steaks on an open fire grill, and finish it off with the Ice Cream potato that I posted last night.

We fished for a little while this morning, then headed home. Super fun!

Wow

My dessert weighs two pounds!!!

The moment of truth

That moment when there's three wraps of backing left on your reel... Heading out to the Blue tomorrow, hope to bring back a story

Super Size Me

This is a streamer I've been throwing around a lot this fall. Does it look like a fish? No. Does it catch fish? Yes!

Sylvandale, Pt 1

Sylvan Dale Was A Great Time, Hopefully I'll have some more pictures soon.

Stones and Groans

I've been trying to teach myself how to tie Stoneflies for the Dream Stream (Round Two!) Next week. Yes, I will post pictures from both of them, hopefully at the same time. Anyway, these Stones are what I've come up with so far. Anybody got any other personal favorites for Big Stones?

New Video

Well, it's in the works. I've been thinking about doing a movie for awhile now. Sure, I could take some video and throw it up on the screen. So that's what I'll do. Instead, I'm going to try and put my time into it, take lots of good video, edit it well, and make a really nice final. I'm hoping to take video up until August '12, then start editing. And Howard, Halloween has its costs as well....

Stitches Are Out

Hey There!

Bruised and Battered, But Still Kicking

The Snow Day Calculator is giving me a 98% chance of a snow day tomorrow. Let's hope! First, I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween. My friend asked me what I was doing this weekend, and I told him I was going fishing. "It's gonna snow on Saturday" he said. Really? Well, that changes everything. I'll go fishing on Saturday. We laughed, but then I got to thinking. Is there really that much of a difference between Summer and Winter? Yes, Captain Obvious, it's cold in the Winter. Yes, the bugs aren't around. But if you put the time and effort into getting out there and fishing, is there really such thing as a season for fishing?

Fall Fishing

Wow, Summer sure ended fast. The leaves are turning, the weather is getting colder, and the bass at all my local ponds are getting pickier. Seems the only fly their willing to eat now is a Zimmerman's Texas Ringworm. For many people, late fall brings the end of the fishing season. Luckily, I am not most people (at least they don't travel to Breckenridge to take the skunk). But, I continue my fishing throughout the Winter. The fishing gets a little harder, sure, but it definitely doesn't turn off. To end my super fantastic Summers, I like to make some big fall trips to chase around some big browns. So, here's the plan. This sunday, I'll be heading up to Sylvandale ranch to fish with the RMA group. For anyone who missed out, I'm pretty sure we're doing another one the next weekend and I'm pretty sure there is still availability. And don't worry, I'll be on that one too! Right around the same time, I'll be heading to the Dream Stream to fish the browns and possibly a Kokanee run. This is a place I've been wanting to go for a few years, but a shop video finally pushed me over the edge. So that's the plan. What's everyone else been up to? And P.S.   This October brings the 6 month anniversary of Fish Tales and Fish Tails. Thanks to all the wonderful supporters!

Buggies and Dreams

Can you say Girdle Bugs? Yeah, how about Dream Stream, cause that's where I'm headin!

Feeshing Time!

I've got to go meet with my english teacher right now to correct a paper. In fishing news, it's another beautiful day out there so go catch some fish if you're not stuck at work. Good luck out there! Hopefully this weather will hold up and I'll be able to find some fish this weekend. Ya, that would be great.

Spanish Class Super Blues

This is my crazy substitute teacher, Ms. Chin. She was subbing for my spanish class today, which we happened to have a test in. It also happens that Ms. Chin doesn't speak a word of spanish. Which means when we had questions about what we were supposed to do on the test, she couldn't help us. As you can see, the class morale is very low. Well, at least it's the last class of the day, so maybe I'll go hit the local pond after school.

Science Class Blues

Well, here we are. It's mid October, the weather is beautiful, and the fish are eating. It was supposed to be cold today, but it's sunny and warm. I can hope that the same thing will happen this weekend, but that's just wishful thinking. In the mean time, I just have to wait it out, hope for the best, here in Science class.

CABO WABO

Well, after catching a marlin this past summer (WTF, where was that story?!), I've decided to take another shot at them this Winter. Me and my family will be heading to Baja to chase around striped marlin on big flies. As excited as I am, one day of fishing isn't enough for a whole week. So, I'm planning to also look for some roosterfish from the sandy beaches of Cabo. I've already started tying flies, but still one question leans eerily over my head... where will I find a rod? After doing some searching and finding absolutely nothing as far as renting them in Baja, I've decided to turn to my fellow bloggers. Any idea where I could find a place to rent an 8 or 10 weight rod? Pretty much ran out of ideas on this end.

The Tug Is The Drug

I managed to convince my dad to take me out for a quick fishing trip after school today. Just one fish, I told him. My dad has really been getting into fishing lately (he caught an 11 incher on BC yesterday!), he was willing to come sit for awhile. After all, the tug is the drug. So I convinced him. Armed with 3x and only one fly, a fall colored rust buster, we head out. Lucky for me, it seemed like the fish were active. Lots of carp were right on the surface, eating anything that floated on the water. So I casted my fly into the middle of this carp circle. After a few casts, it became evident that the carp were more interested in things they didn't have to chase (i.e. the leaves). So I cast in again, dangling my fly 6 inches under the surface of the water. After a few more casts like that, I saw a nice sized carp swim up to my fly and inhale. I set the hook, and got him clean in the top of the mouth. This is the time of year to chase the big uglies! Howard, it's time to get you on one of these things!

Hart Lake (Following Footsteps)

I have hung around a fly shop for almost three years now. Every person who walks through the doors has a story to tell. Some stories are good, and some are not. Me, I have a lot of stories of my own. I've been all over, had my share of good and bad days, and even occasionally caught a fish or two. Someone had told me last year about big Cutthroats in a high mountain lake last year. "How big?" I had asked them? O, up to about 16 inches. I was really planning on going there, and 16 inch Cutts excited me. Until I saw Erin's post on Hart Lake. And I knew right then I had to go. I called up a buddy of mine, and asked when his next available day was. Not knowing anything about the place we were going other than we had a long hike ahead of us, we head out to the Lake. I had never hiked so long in my life, and I really thought I was going to die. And I thought of the blog, and how all the people saying they thought I died... well they would have thought right. But somehow, some way, I made it up to the lake. During the hike, I actually thought I saw a large octopus in the middle of the trail. As my friend told me later, my exact words were, "Big fucking octopus." Nothing else. But once we got up there, it was totally worth it. I mean, look at these pictures! Totally, right?

Back from vacation, talk tomorrow. 

The Lost Writer

Yes, writers have to write. But fishermen also have to fish. And I am definitely a fisherman before a writer. So I've been out fishing, almost everyday. Many things have happened, and I have more shit to shoot than a hunter who ate a whole can of Baked Beans. But all in good time, so for now I'll just talk about one adventure. I was fishing The North Big T the other day, and the fishing was hot. It was about noon, and I had already pulled 30 fish. My dry fly was drifting peacefully down a nice run, when for some reason a fish attacked it... oh wait, that's my cue to set the hook. Set the hook I did, and I had another fish on. As I brought in my fish, I noticed that there was another fish following the first one. Not the first time this happened, but this was a little different. This fish followed the other very closely. I mean like perfect turning. After trying to watch the other fish for a minute, I lifted up my fish. And What-Do-Ya-Know?! Thank God for two-fly rigs!

August? No, It's Mid-July!

I've been crying myself to sleep the last month and a half by looking at the Boulder Creek Stream Flow Chart. The little dots seemed to be mocking me. Haha, this is where I should be. Look where I am! But when I looked the other day, I saw the flows starting to drop. This will be the one, I said hopefully. And when I checked the flows the next day and it read under 300, I was EXCITED! I had to work with the camp during the day,  but I talked my mom into letting me fish in the evening. The flows are still high, but there really are still fish in the creek! They didn't get swept away! Working a heavy point fly (Like A Golden Stone) and a smaller dropper into the banks and soft water is what produces fish. I managed to pull 21 in just over an hour and a half. Get out there, make sure you don't fall, and rip some lips! And Howard, when are we gonna go fishing?

Hot Shots Week 3

Here is this weeks hot shots. They're all from the same lake, but it was a real solid day and we got lots of pictures. I'll do the post soon, but for now I'm teaching a camp.

Why yes, I do catch some fish every now and then!