Tag: Fly Fishing
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Seasons of Change
Gone are the summer evenings of sunlight and splendor. Fallen are the leaves of autumn once more. Bright mornings give way to early darkness as a new season approaches. The rivers are much cooler now and the snow will be flying soon. I even had ice in my guides while fishing this weekend, which acted…
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Don’t Take Fall For Granted
The autumn leaves have already peaked here in the high country and I’m not sure how that’s possible. Gone are the blazing hot days of intense summer sun. We’re in what some people call “Indian summer” and although the origin of the phrase isn’t entirely clear, it was likely a period after the first frost…
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Routine (The good, the bad, and the necessary)
Routine is part of life. Most of us wake up, go to work, come home, make dinner, watch a show and go to bed. We rinse and repeat Monday through Friday until the weekend finally arrives. I’ve had students for the past four weeks and we now have our routine. It’s a good one and…
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Nowhere, Alaska
I’ve been nowhere for a few hours and gone a day or two without a shower, but that’s about it. Alaska was different. My compatriots and I talked for months about how we’d feel when the float plane took off and left us to our own devices in the Alaskan wilderness. It was surreal and…
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Compliments and Kindness Don’t Cost a Thing
Why do some people hold back on giving compliments? Do we just not think about giving them or do we keep them to ourselves? Does it diminish us to build others up? Complimenting others makes me feel good. Building people up is oh so important for kids, middle aged folks (like myself) and retirees alike.…
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Back “Home”
I don’t have any immediate family left in New York State these days, but I have enough people that still feel like family. They’re the type of friends you fall back into rhythm with like a musician picking up an old guitar that’s been in a dusty closet for a year. It takes a few…
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Unapologetically, Us
Kesha said it best when she still had a $ in her name; We R Who We R. I’ve been watching a show on Apple TV called “Your Friends and Neighbors” and there was a recent line that instantly reminded me of that song. “People can’t help the way they are.” Ain’t that the truth.…
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Attention to Detail
What do you notice that others don’t? Can you spot a hawk on a fence post 100 yards away? Can you see a rising fish your buddy just missed? Did you spot a piece of trash ten people just walked past? Do you see the pain someone else is experiencing without uttering a single word?…
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Fishing With a Time Machine
If I had a real time machine I’d probably return to a few scenes of fly fishing failure and try to make amends, but that would be cheating. Instead, I prefer to capitalize on the bipolar weather/elevation change in Colorado and use it to my advantage. The flies that worked so well in March have…
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Signs of Spring
“All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child.” – Marie Curie My father and I visited Cheesman Canyon last week in search of trout and nature. It’s a Front Range fishery near Denver, so the days tend to warm more rapidly throughout the calendar year compared to other…
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A Day on the Water
No alarm set, but I still wake up early. I get to go fishing today. My coffee tastes just a little bit better because it’s Saturday. My truck is ready and willing to take me to the river and starts without a fuss. The wind is supposed to gust over 30mph later on so the…
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Hunting Wild Rainbows
Not all rainbow trout are created equal. There are dumb stockers throughout the United States that will eat almost anything and they don’t care about a mediocre drift. They’ll eat something flashy, thinking it’s their last meal and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not a challenge and that’s not why I fish. Wild…
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Changing of the Seasons
The past few weeks I have worn shorts, sandals, my raincoat, a beanie, warm socks, pants, a t-shirt, my STARSET hoodie, and my favorite fishing hat, which is becoming quite rustic I might add. I’ve written about this before and some people know how much I love the shoulder seasons in Colorado, but to actually…
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Winter Break
When I started this post it was sunny, and now it’s snowing again. That’s winter in Colorado for you. It was surely a memorable break with plenty of fish caught (and lost) on my home river and the Roaring Fork. I’ve talked to friends with even more stressful jobs than my own and they’ve said…
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The Best Laid Plans
I can’t decide if fishing teaches me about life or if life teaches me about fishing. Perhaps it truly doesn’t matter, but at some point, we’ve all carefully crafted an immaculate plan that fell flat on its face. A couple years ago, I was fishing the Fryingpan River on a simply stunning July day and got my…
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January Fishing
How about that cold front that whipped through two weekends ago?!? Vail received 37 inches from that storm, which has us back above normal snowpack for this time of year. Hopefully there’s a great deal more to come. Prior to that rapid weather change, I fished the Fryingpan on January 6th and did pretty well. We started around…
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A Winter Poem
Cold hands The gurgle of water beneath a frozen Three Mile Creek descends into the mighty Fork below Life American Dippers bob and weave in search of an easy meal Winter warm The Sun does its job, if only during the heart of the afternoon Water Frigid temps keep bug activity to a minimum, but…
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Happy New Year!
2024 is here and it’s frigid out there. After I spent a week with family down in the Denver area cooking, relaxing, sipping and sleeping; I drove back out to Eagle County in perfect weather. That’s a blessing and a curse. We need snow, but I didn’t mind a quick trip home either. Although it was sunny, the week…
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A Friday on the Eagle
Due to the relatively mild winter in Eagle County (so far) there was actually less ice than when I last fished a few weeks ago. Gypsum still has more people (and fishing pressure) on the weekends (I always include Friday as part of a weekend) and although I did start there I ended up further upstream. There…
Mayfly Musings 