Sunday Morning Movie

Tip of the Week

Your fishing partner already knows how "amazingly pretty" these little wild rainbows are...trust me. Now back your ass out of the pool she is trying to fish!

The Last October Carp?

Last carp for the season...maybe? Last ones for the month of October, for sure. For me. And last aggressive fish in the shallows willing to turn on a fly and strike it like a bass. Being aware of what loomed on the weather forecast (snow, ice and cold) it was tops on the docket for the last day off before the cold front. Squeezing a few more in before the snow comes down.  

The water was low and clear and not as warm as what the sun on my neck suggested it could be. And the carp were spooky and not as stoked about a presumably easy to catch meal as I hoped. Not at first, anyway. But as the morning progressed and turned into the afternoon the sun warmed the water and the cold-blooded carp enough to boost their appetites and lube them up socially a bit. Like a generous swig from the Stranahan's bottle. Which...as I write this now (glancing out the window at a pile of snow) sounds really, really good.

The Park is Still Burnin'

The Rocky Mountain National Park (Fern Lake Fire) hit 1000 acres last night. Getting very close to my favorite part of upper Forrest Canyon...come on rain and snow and all you hard core fire fighters!

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Sunday Morning Movie

Tip of the Week

When showing a friend that nasty line burn you got from your new Sharkskin fly line...be careful how you present it.

Sunday Morning Movie

Tip of the Week

As tempting as the warm, black asphalt can be after a cold morning on the water...do your best to abstain. You can cause some serious damage to someones front wheel alignment.

This Might Be The Dude...(Jessica Ridgeway Abduction Suspect?)

Arvada Police are investigating two reports of child enticement where a child was approached by a stranger offering candy and asking them to get into the stranger’s car . These incidents took place on Sunday, September 9 and Wednesday, September 12. 

The suspect is described as a white male, approximately 5’9”, thin build, sandy or brown hair and late teens to late 30s in age. The second victim described the suspect as not having facial hair, but the first victim described him as having a thin beard and mustache.


The vehicle used in these incidents is described as a royal blue – similar to the blue worn by the University of Kentucky – 4-door sedan, possibly from the mid 90s. It may have dents on the passenger side rear door and may have half of the rear wheels covered with a "skirt" similar to those seen on a 1996 Cadillac Deville.

Northern Pike on a Cold October Morning

 Erin and I chose a path to the water through the thick cattails before light. We had rigged our rods and even tied one big pike fly apiece the night before...and rose early. We donned waders for the drive and blasted the heat in the truck. There would be ice on our rods and guides this morning. It was 24 degrees. I led the way through the cattails, but not without turning to Erin and having a silent, moon-lit "go team!" high five. Once I reached the edge of open water I stripped off several feet of the seven-weight fly line, unhooked my five-inch pike fly and heaved a cast down the right bank. Tight to the weed line. Strip. Strip.That was it. Two strips and BOOM. A three-footer blew up on my fly like a car bomb buried in the cattails. The fish came completely out of the water with my fly in its mouth. I pulled back on the rod like a school girl backing away from a fresh booger. Meekly...and startled. And the pike came unbuttoned. I was in no way ready for that. So I stood there in the waist-deep water...the black silhouette image of the fish, upside down, tail in the air, burned onto my retinas.

Two more times that morning I would have similar experiences. All in tight to the cattails. All completely unexpected. All explosive and viscous. And, for whatever reasons, I could not hook or hang onto the fish. I would stop only to break ice from my guides that were impairing my ability to retrieve line, and to try to warm my hands. My back was aching from being hunched over, shivering...and I had burned two nasty, bleeding grooves into my right middle finger from gripping the line too tight as I stripped in line, cast after cast. My hand being too numb to feel the damage I was causing myself. Eventually I haul an errant cast deep into the cattails and break off my entire leader in the temper tantrum that ensues. But not before I hit Erin's fly rod with a sloppy back cast and break    two inches off the end of her 7-weight. Oh, shit...my bad! 

I tuck back into a sunny spot in the cattails and do my best to re-rig a new leader and fly. Relinquishing the lead to Erin, who has been following me down the weed line. Can you manage to still cast that without the tip?  She nods and bombs a cast past me and dunks her fly right where I was hoping she would...and a pike attacks immediately! We are both too cold to properly celebrate  so we take a quick photo of the pikes head peering out of the inky, smooth water and shiver and smile at each other.  But I learn my place and let Erin take point. And I follow her...hand on the camera and pride hanging back on some random cattail stalk. And once the sun comes up we warm our hands and get some better photos. So, yeah...go team!

Sunday Morning Movie

Tip of the Week

Never disrupt another fishermen...even if he's just noodlin'.