Mark and I headed up to teh Fryingpan River on Friday, March 30th to fish before we headed to GJ for the show.  It was good to get Mark back in the mountains trout fishing after his hiatis of chasing carp (golden bones).  We met up with our very own Sister Sue (Sue Kruetzer) at the Taylor Creek Fly Shop in Basalt, picked up our new licenses for 2012 (everyone, don’t forget to do this for the new year, as we were promptly checked on April 1st).

Hopefully Mark has some pictures as well as what Sue had posted already.  Mark and I were tossing articulated streamers to start out with and caught several nice fish doing so, but we switched to micro stuff to solve a mid-afternoon hatch tha was going on.  We (Sue, Mark and I) never did successfully solve the hatch but were able to pick up some more fish with varying flies as we worked to find “the one” that would catch them all!

Sue left us after noonish to head back to town for something, or another, and Mark and I headed further up river.  We stopped just below Baetis Bridge and fished all the way up to the Bend Pool.  We only managed a couple until we got up to the Bend and then were able to catch a few more before heading to GJ to tie flies and hang out with all the tiers and shops at the Double Tree hotel.

We headed back to Glenwood Springs before night fall and got up early enough to be the 3rd and 4th people at the Bend.  We intended to fish the Bend for a bit and move downstream but didn’t move from there.  We did catch fish right off the bat and caught fish, pretty much, all day until almost dark.  The fishing was with the usual stuff, #22-#24 midges but there were fish hitting leeches and other stuff as well.  We were met up by several of the other tyers from the show a little later in the day, and we fished with them as well as the standard Fryingpan fisher folks.

After flinging micro stuff for most of the day, Mark and I went back to streamers and were able to get several fish to come to hand via the “tug”.  Ya know, the tug is the drug.

Here are a couple of pictures that I had, although I had to use my cell phone, which I was reluctant to take out often.

We all waded along the Grey Reef section for Thursday afternoon on May 12, 2011.  The water was reported running at 5300cfs but was still very fishable.  We were able to manage a few fish each but were all tired by the long 4.5 hour drive, so we went to eat at the infamous Riverview Inn/Sunset Grill.

We all woke up early to hit the river by 7:00am for our float on Friday, the 13th!!  Although that is a bad day for superstitious types or omen folks, we all were feeling very positive on our chances.  We even started from the night before, a bet as to who might catch the biggest fish of the day.  Since we are all fisher folks, we decided that the fish had to be measured by the guide only and we would have to have a photo of the winner.  At first I was not going to be allowed to “play” but I did manage to convince everyone that the biggest, not the most, would be a harder thing to win and would be based on more luck than skill, so I was allowed to join in .

I was able to manage a 24incher (photo included here) and thought I would be able to win this thing.  This one I caught early for the day.  We all stopped for lunch just upstream of Lusby, and low and behold, Dan Haggar, fishing with Kray, floated by with a “hog” on the line.  We all watched as they floated by and went far downstream to try to land the fish.  This one was a bone-a-fide 26 incher (photo attached as well), and Dan won the $400 prize for the day!  Good for him!

After treating ourselves to a guided trip on Friday (I suggest everyone do this at least once a year or even more if affordable) we all decided to wade the Miracle Mile and the Fremont Canyon for Saturday.  Perfect idea!!  We all had very good wade fishing on the mile and canyon and it was a very manageble wade even at a flow rate of over 8000cfs for the Mile and 3000cfs for Fremont Canyon!   Lots of fish feeding along the soft water on the edges.  There were very few folks on the Mile or Fremont Canyon.  Great place to fish, I’ll tell you what!

I will be getting back up there pretty soon, I am certain of that!  A great, productive fishery.

Frank

Dan Haggar's 26inch Rainbow!

Frank's "measured" 24 inch rainbow!

The 10 of us on shore having lunch!

The fish were happy in this little river, right before there was elevated water from run-off, which is now full bore.  We were able to catch quite a few fish on egg patterns, San Juan Worms and bead head prince nymphs.

Some of these fish were pretty nice sized for the little river (See below).

Getting ready to hit the middle of Wyoming this week, up at Grey Reef/Miracle Mile.  Should be a lot of good fishing going on up there.  I will post a report once I return.

Frank

Frank and a typical rainbow

My Buddy Dave and a nice bow

Our friend Jay and "the biggest fish of my life"

The lakes opened up a week after South Park lakes but have had little pressure due to the extreme weather that has hit the area.  If I wasn’t going to Wyoming this weekend, I would be going to North Park!

Maybe a COFF@ Conclave??  Anyone interested?  Below is the article from Sue’s friend “Dennis Smith” out of Loveland:
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Home Waters
April 21, 2011
Dennis Smith

Fly fishing “Ice Off” on the sagebrush lakes of northern Colorado is a ritual considered by some to be the angler’s equivalent of a pilgrimage to the Promised Land. In other words, it’s a big deal. At no other time of year are you as likely to see pods of monster trout cruising the shallows of Lake John or the three Delaney Buttes Lakes as you are in the days immediately surrounding the week-long recession of ice from their frozen shores. Weather permitting, that is.

It doesn’t necessarily hold that you’ll catch one of these mythical leviathans though; it just means that you might actually get to see a few of them. Or not. Just ask me.

Sightings of slab-sided trout weighing up to eight or ten pounds abound, and occasionally some are even caught, but catching one is no walk in the park – especially when you consider this is North Park we’re talking about, a region that’s as notorious for its nasty weather as it is famous for its big, fat trout. On any given spring day you could be subjected to balmy blue skies and blinding sun or heavy black overcast, rain, sleet, snow, howling winds, and temperature swings that bounce up and down like a ping pong ball. If you fish North Park at ice off you hope for the best, prepare for the worst and wisely expect both. You carry sun screen in one pocket of your wading jacket and a couple of those nifty little chemical hand warmers in the other. Goes with the territory.

The operative theory here is that as the ice cap pulls back from the shorelines, sunlight warms the exposed shallows, stirring dormant insects, crustaceans and other aquatic organisms to life, and the trout move in to feed on the new spring menu. Conventional wisdom calls for anglers to stalk the banks quietly offering a variety of possible goodies including fly patterns that mimic midge pupae, scuds, crawfish, caddis larvae, leeches or small minnows. The trout are hungry, but they’re no fools; pattern and presentation have to be spot on. Luck helps immensely.

Last Friday, Steve Armstrong and Drew Voos made the pilgrimage again for the third straight year, arriving on East Delaney Buttes Lake at about 9:30 a.m. to find 20 yards of open water around the perimeter of the lake, clear blue skies and relatively warm, 40-deree temperatures. Surprisingly, there were very few other anglers. They stalked the shoreline and seeing no fish, resigned themselves to working the ice shelf, casting small leech patterns, midge pupae and other standard spring fare. Eventually, a fish grabbed Voos’s leech and after a hectic struggle he had one of Delaney’s big, fat mythical rainbows in his net. It looks like an easy six, or maybe even a seven-pounder in the picture, but I’m just guessing. Voos didn’t include any details. When he sent me the photo he just said, “Finally.”
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So anyone interested now?

Frank

Frank and a Grey Reef Cutthroat on a very nice April day!

Well, I haven’t seen a whole lot of folks fishing lately but I hope it’s because they are too busy fishing to jot down a few words about their trips!

The Grey Reef 2011 Conclave is moving forward as planned. We will be arriving from various locations to fish the North Platte at Grey Reef, the Miracle Mile and Fremont Canyon. Most of this fishing trip will be wade fishing the Mile and Fremont Canyon. We will be floating on Friday, May 13, 2011 and wading on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

Here is the list of attendees:
Frank Whispell
Dave Pike
Dan Haggar and his uncle
Neil Pederson and his father
Joey Knudson
Gary Collins
Plus two additional people that are coming along

Anyone else looking for a few days of fishing up north of Colorado?

Hope to see some more folks up there!

Frank

We are trying to put together a late May/early June Pike Clave.  Anyone interested?  Please send an email to the COFF@ list and we’ll put you down for the clave. 

We also are suggesting several lakes to consider:  Spinney, Elevenmile, Tarryall, Williams Fork and Skagway reservoirs. 

Anyone else have a suggestion where there are known northerns prowling the shores?  Send that to the COFF@ list as well and we will put that up there as one of the suggestions.

Here is who we have as tentative clavers:
Frank Whispell
Jerry Donovan
Steve Schweitzer
Chris Dahm

Keep an eye out as this things tries to get rolling.

Thanks,

Frank Whispell

Frank

https://picasaweb.google.com/frankecada/RioGrande02?feat=directlink#

Nice stuff Frank.  We’ll have to hit the reef or mile soon!

The other Frank

The Mile fished extremely well and we stayed there until about 4:30pm.  We left the MNile and headed upstream to Alcova to check into our room.

Sunday, February 20, 2011:
We awoke to snow and artic cold.  The temp was 3 degrees at 9:00am and only got to 5 degrees by 11:00am, so after our late morning and late breakfast, we headed home.

The trip was still worth the effort as all three of us caught double digits of nice fish on Saturday.  The wind (that “W” word) had disipated immediately after we arrived and did not hinder us at all through the day.

Some pictures of a few of the fish we caught are below: