Tyler Befus Blog

Fly Fishing the Rush River Wisconsin

Sun, 06 May 2012 20:08:00 -0600

It's May and soon all of the pike, bass, musky, walleye, and carp seasons will be open but I have had to find other things to fish for throughout the winter and spring. Up to this point I have been keeping busy on the trout streams over in Wisconsin. The Rush River is one of the streams that I have been playing on recently and I continue to be surprised by the quality of the fishery. The first trip that I made to the Rush way back in April and there were many fish caught that day. The temperature was still a little cold so small nymphs like a Ray Charles, Hare's Ear, Pheasant Tail, and Price Nymph were amazing. I found that it was super important to hit the primo water like deep slots, behind boulders, and the good rifles to be able to find the best fish. There was a little bit of dry fly action on small (size 18-20) Adams and my dad's Befus Parachute Emerger. I even caught some fish on soft hackles while swinging them across the stream. None of the fish that I caught were huge but lots of great colors on the little browns and brook trout. I think that my dad and I each got over ten in about an hour and a half. My second trip was earlier this month. I had just purchased my new and first DSLR camera so I was super excited to put it to use. The weather was pretty overcast and we had lots of BWO coming off. Small dries were once again the ticket and using small natural colored nymphs worked well for me also. I found a nice long and slower run that was just filled with fish. I was having a great time catching the little brook trout and browns when I saw a very nice fish rise behind a boulder. The first cast he came out and ate my dry. The brown was a very colorful fifteen incher with amazing spots. I was able to catch five more fish over the fourteen in mark. What I thought was amazing was the vast array of shades of brown on these fish. I think that my dad and I caught a total of twenty or more fish in just a couple of hours. The spot that we fished at was full of structure and was a very beautiful place to photograph and play with my camera which just added to the fun. It is awesome to have found yet another great fishery that is very close to my house. The weather is finally getting warm and soon I can start fishing big hoppers, crickets, and ants for these guys. I will be sure to keep you all updated on my upcoming adventures and I am sure that there will be many photographs to share. Fishing one of the amazing runs on the Rush. My little sister Olivia with a fat, healthy Rush River brown. A nice brook trout that fell for my Adams. Crazy colors! You can see my Evolution Ross reel in the background. Nothing catches fish like that one. A beautiful scene to end the day.

EARLY SEASON FLY FISHING FOR WISCONSIN TROUT

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 17:43:00 -0600

Yesterday I went and fished Kinnickinnic Creek over in Wisconsin. This was my second time fishing the creek so I was familiar to the water and right away my dad and I started catching some fish. The fishing was incredible and we both probably got over twenty fish in about a four hour time frame. My dad usually gets the cool fish of the day and once again he followed through by getting the biggest brown and also the biggest brook trout of the day. Both were wonderful fish and it was nice to find such a cool stream that holds these little guys. The Kinni is smaller water than what I mainly fished back in Colorado so it was fun to be able to fish dry/dropper rigs and even some small streamers. Finding successful patterns is very easy on this kind of water since the fish are a little bit smaller and are willing to eat just about anything as they are coming out of the Winter months. The rig that it used was a small dark brown Elk Hair Caddis, about two feet of fluorocarbon, then my dropper which was a size 16 Pheasant Tail with a silver bead. Although the fish were hitting this rig very often I threw a couple streamers and my dad was able to roll two fish when he took a try. With all of our warm weather that is coming in the next week the fishing is heating up and I can't wait to get back out. Here are some pictures from the adventure. Enjoy! Here is one of six doubles that we had yesterday! Another double! One more double...a brown and a brookie! Putting one in the net. Look at the colors in the tail and the adipose fin. Very cool! Releasing a brookie. More amazing colors.

THOUHGTS ON FLY TYING & FLY DESIGN

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:24:00 -0600

As we all know, proper gear and a good presentation help us to land more fish but the fly is often times the deciding factor as to who walks (or swims) away with a zero on the scoreboard. All too often that is the fisherman, but with a good fly selection you can capitalize on every situation and come away with more wins than losses. When I am at the tying bench and working on new patterns I try to focus on what I think are the key factors to an effective fly. Now depending on the style of fly, what type of water it will be used in, and what kind of fish it will be fished for, will vary that view point. One other thing that is vital to the success of all flies that you may tie and fish is that you have confidence in them. For example, if you go to a pond or river and think that you will catch fish with a certain fly that you have confidence in then you will probably catch fish. Now there are two categories that I prefer to group all my flies into, attractors and realistic flies. The attractor patterns often times don't look just like a natural or even have the proper shape. What sets them apart is that they have what I like to call a trigger point which acts as a trigger to the fish and invokes them to strike. The realistic patterns are meant to look like the naturals in shape, color, size, and movement. With these flies you try to match whatever type of organism that the fish are feeding on. Nymphs: When I am working on a realistic nymph pattern the main thing that I focus on is a really buggy look. I often look towards materials like dubbing (anything from Ice Dub to SF squirrel dub), peacock herl, partridge feathers, rubber legs, and many other things that may give the impression of life in the water. Another important thing is the color and size of your fly. You can't just go out into a trout river in the middle of a midge hatch and fish a big Atlantic salmon fly and expect to catch fish. So, it is always super important to know what type of bug you want to imitate that way you can match the colors accordingly. Another super important thing is the weight of the fly. I try to make my flies so that they drift in the same manner as a natural would. You never really see a bug go drifting through the current without bouncing and rolling around and so when I weight a nymph I make sure that it will bounce and roll just like the natural. If you can make your fly look and behave like a bug in the water, then you have an even better chance of catching a fish. For my attractor flies I really don't do a whole lot different except maybe add a little "flare" or "trigger" to the fly to help entice the fish but other than that the flies and procedures in tying them are the same. Often this means a bright colored bead in orange, pink, green or some other crazy color and spots of color throughout the fly. These "hot spots" of color are usually placed at the back of the fly or right behind the head. The colors can vary but my favorites in all water colors and depths are fluorescent green, yellow, and pink. One thing that you do have to take into consideration is that the different colors will start to disappear at different levels in the water column. What this means is that if you are fishing in really deep water some colors may not show up as well in the water so it is good to know the limits to the hotspots on your fly. The materials that I use can be anything from dubbing to Uni-stretch to just plain old thread to make these areas. When putting a hot spot onto a fly it is important that you don't over do it. This can at times turn the fish away and make the day less productive. To recap, when you tie a nymph always make good observation of your local bugs and try to use materials that will help your fly to imitate them better. With a well thought out fly you are sure to have success. Streamers: Streamers are probably my favorite type of fly to tie and fish. These flies can be such a blast because of their size and colors that are used to catch different types of fish. It is also a thrill to watch a large and aggressive fish come and totally nail your fly when fishing! With that said let's move onto the one of the most exciting fly categories. Obviously, since it is a baitfish or swimming nymph that we try to imitate with a realistic streamer the fly has to swim properly. It isn't very often that you see a fish or insect just swimming straight through the water with little movement but instead they dart to and fro and make a great deal of erratic motions. As for both nymphs and baitfish these movements can be accomplished by using a variety of natural and synthetic materials. As I already mentioned, color and size are also important factors so I do plenty of research to make sure that my flies imitate the natural resources properly. The last thing that I look for is materials that will help the fly to hold their shape especially for my baitfish imitations. All game fish look for a good meal and if they see a skinny, twig shaped fly go swimming past them chances are they won't take the time to follow or eat it since they will loose more energy than they gain with that meal. Materials that are great for this include deer hair, buck tail, and adhesives such as Liquid Fusion and Softtex which will allow the fish to squish it down and chew on it all it wants without ruining the shape of the fly for later use. When tying nymphs, all of the same things apply as with drifting nymphs in the way of building the right shape for the fly. A lot of the flies that I use for nymph fishing and swimming nymph fishing are the same patterns just tied in different sizes and weights. The attractor streamer is pretty much the same as a realistic streamer so I like to use all of the same materials and techniques as I do when tying a realistic streamer. The main thing to keep in mind is that these flies are meant to irritate the fish and provoke a strike so bright colors, big sizes, and lots of movement are usually in order. Something that I always try to remember is to be creative with attractor flies since they really don't have to look like any one thing in particular. With these things in mind you are well on your way to building an effective and superb looking streamer pattern that will bring many fish to the net. Dry Flies: One thing that I like about tying dries is that it is a more delicate style of tying especially if you start to tie some of the classic dries and floating emergers. When I start to tie a realistic dry fly pattern I try to think of what it is going to imitate since this can vary from a mouse down to a small midge. The size of your fly is often times the key factor to a successful day of dry fly fishing and so I always try to make my flies as accurate as possible to the natural. It is obvious that you can't go into a midge hatch and fish a mouse and think that you will do well. The color of your flies can play an important roll when fishing for wary fish like highly pressured trout where they will observe every detail of your fly. After I have taken those elements into consideration I look for good materials for the fly. Whether that means selecting the proper size hackle, choosing the best popper heads, or even picking the best hook I take plenty of care in my selection. Since a dry fly has to float, it is important that you choose something that will aid your fly in its job. The last thing that I do when tying a dry is to make sure that all of my proportions are correct. This can be achieved by looking in books, watching instructional videos, or even online at photos. I found that the later of these three can be extremely helpful when trying to find the correct color of the bugs that you are trying to imitate if you can't remember from past experiences on a specific body of water. With these few things you should be able to create a great imitation that will catch plenty of fish. Now with my attractor dries I use the same rules for materials. As for size you don't have to worry as much because these flies are not meant to imitate the natural but to draw the fish to the surface and then to strike. Larger flies are often times the norm in this case. It's not likely that you will ever see a size twenty fly being used for an attractor. When picking out the color for my flies they tend to pull away from the natural colors and into the more fluorescent colors. On many flies like poppers the normal colors will be yellow, chartreuse, red, and I have even seen pink. The same also goes for many trout attractor dries like Royal Humpy, Royal Wulff and many others that have bright bodies in the same colors mentioned above. Even the wing post on some flies like the Royal Wolf can prove as an attractor with the bright white calf tail that is often used on them. The important thing to remember on these attractors is that you don't have to follow a specific style but instead you can improvise and try new color combinations just like you can with streamers and nymphs. When using flies with these few principles and good presentation, you can be certain that you stand a good chance to catch fish. Now let's go fly fishing!

First Trout in 2012-Minnesota Spring Creek

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 23:29:00 -0600

Today I went fishing on a small spring creek located in Southwest Minnesota. It was my first time to go and fish for trout in Minnesota and I was able to land two in despite of the foul weather we had. For the past few weeks we have been fortunate enough to get some thirty to mid forty degree days but this week things turned south and we have started to get into the teens and even single digits. Today we probably got up to twenty degrees but it quickly went back down and started to snow on us at a steady pace. Because of the colder water temperatures the majority of the fish were all gathered up into the deeper pools. My dad and our friend John Goplin some had luck using small streamer type patterns. The two fish I caught were in a little shallower water and I caught them using a small size 18 hare%u2019s ear nymph. There have been some major stream improvements where we fished so there were a lot of undercut banks that the fish could use as cover when we spooked them. That made it a little harder to reach them at times but we managed to get the job done. My dad was able to land a small brown and John had caught a few trout before we arrived along with a sucker that he caught while fishing a pool with my dad. Here are a few pictures from the day. Sorry that there are none with fish but with the cold weather none of us were really willing to unzip the jacket and grab the camera. Anyway, I hope you enjoy them! The creek was very scenic through the woods area... ...but due to some stream improvements other ares were, well, I'll let you pick a word to describe it!

Fly Fishing in Minnesota...New Adventures!!!

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:07:00 -0600

Since we arrived in Minnesota I have been able to go on multiple fishing trips. The best fishing that I have done so far is within five minutes from my house. I have been able to catch a couple different species of sunfish and I have hooked a couple of nice pike. I was able to land one of the pike at a lake called Blackhawk Lake. When I caught the little guy I was fishing 1/0 bunny fly. The pike followed the fly right up to the fishing pier and when I saw him I decided to speed up my stripping speed. That small change triggered a strike and I nailed him. It has been awesome to have fishing (and quality fishing) close to my house like back in Colorado. Last weekend my dad and I went over to Wisconsin to try for musky. Sadly, a drive that was only should have been an hour turned into a two and a half hour drive since we were unable find the river. We did see a lot of the country side through our drive. Once we got to the river we were able to get down to a nice deep and slow moving pool and started to fish. The fishing was slower but my dad was able to catch a small pike. We both had multiple follows from walleye and I had a fish that followed and nipped at my fly for three consecutive casts. Since they tend to follow a fly over, and over, and over again I have a feeling that it was a musky. We have been very fortunate here as we continue to dodge the bullet with the snow. Yesterday for the first time we got a snow storm and it started to stick after only an hour or so. I have a feeling that fly fishing season is coming to a close and soon it will be time to break out the ice fishing gear. Here are a few pictures of my recent fishing adventures. Tight lines.

Fly Fishing the Mississippi River

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:30:00 -0600

Yesterday I went to the Mississippi River to fish for pike and smallmouth bass. Since it was my first trip for smallies the pressure was on to catch one. The first run that we fished was pretty slow. My dad was able to get a few test grabs but no%u201Cserious%u201D takes. We decided to make a move up stream to a little bit slower water. The new water was a lot deeper and a much better holding spot for the smallies. My dad and I waded out to our waist and started fishing. The fist smallmouth that I picked up was at the very end of my retrieve in the shallowest of the water that I was fishing. After some time I broke off on the trees behind me and had to re-rigging. As I observed the river I saw that a small hatch was coming off and a few fish were eating the small mayflies in the shallows. I started walking the shore in and casting in about four feet of water. On my fourth or fifth cast I had a vicious grab and landed my second smallmouth. I continued doing this for the remainder of the day and managed to catch one more smallmouth, a pike, and had many more grabs from fish. It was a blast and I can%u2019t wait to go back for more. Here are a few pictures of our day on the Mississippi. The Mississippi River. Very cool!!! My first ever smallmouth bass. A small pike...but a pike is a pike! Different from the trout rivers I am use to in Colorado but this is awesome. A couple smallmouth.

First Fly Fishing Adventure in Minnesota

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 01:34:00 -0600

Now that we are settled into our temporary housing in Minnesota I was able to go and get a little fishing. There is a small pond only a few houses down that I fished earlier this week, For the amount of time I fished, I was only able to hook one fish but because of the thick foliage around me my rod was immediately tangled in branches and the fish got away. Today was the first day I was able to get out onto a lake that I was positive held fish. The lake has a strong population of bluegill, black crappie, largemouth bass, and bullhead. I was able to sight fish to the bluegill with a size 14 prince nymph and caught my first three fish in Minnesota. When I started to see all of the bluegill swimming around in the shallows and then once I actually started to catch them I was shocked. Today the weather was cloudy, 45 degrees, and windy. Back in Colorado if the weather got below fifty degrees the fishing for panfish turned south so today was filled with firsts for me. Here are a few pictures of the beautiful fish that I caught today. The biggest of the day. Using the Ross FlyStik, F1 reel and Scientific Anglers Magnum Taper Sharkskin line. Loving Minnesota!

Labor Day Weekend Fish-A-Thon...

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 02:29:00 -0600

This past weekend my family and I did a big fish-a-thon. Since we are in the process of moving to Minnesota, we have been trying to visit all of our favorite spots in Colorado one more time and this weekend helped us to check two more off the list. On Monday we went up to the East River and fished for kokanee salmon. For the past, well, many years we have all gone to fish this salmon run and the timing worked out so we could go one more time. For my sisters it is a lot of fun to catch these fish since they are big, strong and of course they have monster teeth. The flies that we fish are very simple which makes the tying job a little easier for my dad and I and you can tie up lots of them at a time. This year some of our hot flies were a size 12 orange San Juan worm, a size 12 pink San Juan Worm (my sisters' favorite) and a size 12 red tag. My sister Vivian is really starting to get into this whole fly fishing thing and so this year she tried for a Junior IGFA World Record fish. After a couple of fish weighed, she finally caught the one that made the mark. Vivian with her pending Junior IGFA kokanee. My sister Ava and I with our first kokanee double. Ava with a nice and heavy kokanee. Here is a cool picture of a kokanee's scales. I started fishing a small side channel and here is the result. The next day my dad was able to take a day off from work and we all hiked into the La Garita Wilderness with one of our good friends from our church. As we were driving in, clouds had already started to build over head which made the question of whether we would be able to hike in or not clear. We decided to try and so started our twenty five minute hike into the canyon. The weather held off on us for a few hours then we started to get a little bit of rain. It continued to give us light sprinkles through the day until about three in the afternoon when the real storm came. This ended up driving us out since all my sisters were cold and tired. It was about a forty five minute hike out which was a real workout for us all. I am sure that what I have told you so far makes the day seem like a real downer but in truth we all caught fish and had a great adventure which is all that matters. Since we were fishing a small stream all of our rigs were dry-dropper set ups. For the dry fly we used either a size 14 Stimulator or a size 14 Humpy. In the way of nymphs, every thing from Pheasant Tails to Prince Nymphs worked well as long as it was in the size 14-16 range. Here are some of the pictures from our spectacular adventure. My mom's first fish of the day. One of the many beautiful browns that I caught that day. The Gear. A hiking we shall go.... A healthy brown that fell for my dry. My sister Ava with a wild brown. The remainder of the rainstorm that pounded us when we hiked out of the canyon.

The Hewitt's Neversink Skater

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 17:39:00 -0600

For the past few weeks I have been experimenting with some different patterns and one that has continued to produce is the Hewitt's Neversink Skater. The Neversink Skater is an older pattern that was originated by Edward Ringwood Hewitt (1866 -1956) who lived in the on the Neversink River. Hewitt was an avid angle who ran a small camp on the shores of the Neversink River in a beautiful area that is now sadly covered by the waters of the Neversink Reservoir. One question that developed inside of me while I was fishing this pattern is, what exactly could a fly that is two inches in diameter possibly imitate and why would a fish be so intrigued by it? As I did some research on the fly I found out that it was tied to imitate a butterfly which Hewitt often times saw flying over the water. When I fish the Neversink Skater I like to use a very long leader, often times up to fifteen feet in length that way I can keep as much line off of the water as possible. The reason for this is that in a larger river you have to often times cast over many different current seams to reach the best water and it is very difficult to get a good drift if you have all of your fly line on the water. The Hewitt's Neversink Skater is a very effective fly pattern so I will generally make only a few casts to each spot then move onto new water. I make very few casts when fishing this fly because fish will be able to decide very quickly whether they want it or not and it is inevitable that they will see this fly floating overhead within those casts. Often times the fish will chase the fly down if they want to eat it so you don't have to worry about making the most accurate cast every time. I am sure that once you try out this fly you will be hooked on it and have them in your vest on every trip. Here are a few pictures of fish that I have been catching on this fly and a picture of the fly itself. A few Neversink Skaters in my fly box. One of the fish that could not resist the skater. This fly catches all kinds of trout... From brookies (my favorite) to brown trout!

Fly Fishing South Park, Colorado & The Uncompahgre River

Mon, 23 May 2011 21:15:00 -0600

Hey everyone. Here is a quick update of my fishing adventures of the past two weekends. Two weekends ago I attended a USA Youth Fly Fishing Team clinic in Hartsel, CO. This clinic qualified me for Nationals which will be held in PA in a couple of weeks. Some of my friends who I compete with were there so we all swapped flies and fished a bunch together which, of course, was great fun. Our instructor, Dave Pehle, was a pleasure to be around and had lots of great information to give to us students. We covered everything from Spanish Nymphing to the Czech Nymphing style and had many mini competitions so we could get a better taste for completion fishing. I have been fishing with these European methods now for quite some time and they have really helped to improve my catch rate so it is defiantly something fun and worth while to learn. Now this past weekend I was able to get out and fish the Pa-Co-Chu-Puk section of the Uncompahgre River for some rainbow and cut throat trout. I was able to get ten fish in a three hour time frame which was a great deal of fun. Seven of those fish came on small midge adults (size 24)! When I was nymphing I caught three cutthroats and all of them were very brightly colored. It was a lot of fun to be able to sight fish to all of the little guys that I caught. I am definitely looking forward to my next trip back. Here are some pictures of all my recent adventures. Enjoy! The group from the USYFF clinic held at Hartsel Springs Ranch in South Park, Colorado Listening to the coach! Time to practice what we learned. Success!!! Connor, Cam and Charlie having a tying-fest. Nymph fishing the Uncompahgre River below Ridgeway Reservoir. An awesome cutthroat.

Fly Tying Demo at Laughing Grizzly Fly Shop & More Fishing...

Fri, 06 May 2011 09:26:00 -0600

Last weekend I had a fly tying demo and book signing at Laughing Grizzly Fly Shop in Longmont, CO. My dad and I perform some crazy one day trips over to the Denver area and although you get a little tired with driving all day it is usually a good time. This trip was certainly worth it. The turnout at the shop was huge, more than thirty people, and it was great to see so many kids there. I cranked out some different streamer patterns and some of my favorite competition patterns. I canÃ¢??t wait to get to go back and do another tying demo for them next year. ItÃ¢??s going to be great! Monday night I went down to the Uncompahgre River through Montrose to fish with some of those competition style flies. I managed to land two and hook a total of four which, for all the bad weather we had been having, and not much practice, was pretty good. I am certainly looking forward to things warming up so that we can have some monster big days on the water. Last night I fished the Gunnison River at the East Portal. Hooked seven and landed four. The best fish was a rainbow about 16-17 inches. A size 16 beadhead Pheasant Tail nymph did the trick pretty well. Here are some pictures from the past two fly fishing excursions. Enjoy. Tying at Laughing Grizzly Fly Shop. The shop has a cool video set up for everyone to watch the tiers. Fishing on the Uncompahgre River near my house. Success!!! Gunnison River Rainbows are incredible looking fish. One more big Gunnison River Rainbow. Going back...

2011 GAUDALUPE TU TROUTFEST

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 00:36:00 -0600

Hey everyone. I am very sorry for taking such a long break from blogging but school and travel combined gave me very little extra time. So, I thought that I would give you all, through a couple posts, an idea what I have been up to for the past couple months. My first big trip of 2011 was down to Texas to speak at the Guadalupe Trout Unlimited Troutfest. This is an annual fly fishing show that they put on to help raise money f so that they can continue to sustain a good trout fishery, the Guadalupe River. I was very fortunate to be able to talk to youth about the adventure of fly fishing and a little bit about some basic tying and casting skills. While I was there I was able to meet one of the greats of fly fishing, Dave Whitlock. He signed a couple books for me and I purchased two pieces of his art work. It was great for me to be able to see what he does with colored pencils and learn some techniques since all my drawing is done with colored pencils. As usual, I was there to do presentations for the youth, but I still found opportunities to go fish. The hotel that my dad and I stayed at was right on the Guadalupe, so every morning before we went to the show I got to throw some streamers for the trout. On my first day fishing I was able to land a nice rainbow on a small crayfish pattern. Here are a few pictures to show you what our trip was like. One of the casting demos I did at the Troutfest. This was such a fun event. Me with Dave and Emily Whitlock at the GRTU Troutfest. My friend Ed Engle and I spent time talking about fishing and fly tying. Ed signed a copy of his latest book "Fishing Small Flies". Of course I had to fish the Gaudalupe River each morning before the show. I did not bring waders or much gear but caught a couple of nice chunky rainbows on streamers!

Winter Fly Fishing to Close Out 2010 and to Begin 2011...

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 23:11:00 -0600

Today was an amazing fishing day on the Gunnison River; a perfect day to kick off the fishing season of 2011. In the past couple weeks my dad and I have made two trips to do some fishing for the superb trout that swim in its waters. My dad and I went there about 10 days ago to close out the season for 2010 and we succeeded in catching over forty fish that day on Zebra Midges and surprisingly some egg patterns. All of our fish were very healthy and gave us a great fight throughout the day. It was an overcast day with some snow which made for a very cold day. It was very refreshing to have a hot lunch on the river. My dad brought his single burner stove and we cooked soup. After lunch we fished until three thirty in the afternoon and called it quits since we had had such a memorable day of fishing. Once the calendar turned over and we were in 2011 it was time to go again and start a new year. The weather was much better this time but still a little nippy especially when I had just caught and released a fish and my hands were still damp. We only fished for six and a half hours but that was enough time to catch over thirty fish. The most memorable of them all is a 22 inch slab rainbow that my dad caught on a small Zebra Midge. It was a beautiful rainbow that got all the credit it deserved for that amazing fight and challenge. My dad was of course very happy and spent another half hour or so in the same run and caught over fifteen fish. I had a little bit of a challenging day but in the end landed about seven total and hooked another five. It was a great joy to be out fishing with my dad in such an amazing setting like the Gunnison. Some of my favorite fishing trips are on local waters and it is a blast to have days like these that I will remember forever. Here are a few pictures to help recap our last two fishing trips up on the Gunnison River. Geared up and ready to hit the water. One of the last browns that I caught in 2010. Czech nymphing a deep seam. Success! Thanks to Simms Fishing Products for such great cold weather gear to make winter fishing fun. My dad with a brown. Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow! One of my first fish of 2011. My dad with a fat rainbow. Hooked up! A double my dad and I caught. Getting ready to let them go home. The release.

FLY FISHING, FLY TYING, BROWN TROUT AND RAINBOW TROUT...

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 22:14:00 -0600

This has been an awesome fall and there is no way better to end it than with some radical fishing trips and superb fish. My dad and I have done a huge amount of fishing this fall around my home town of Montrose, CO. For the past five weekends or so we have been going to the Uncompahgre River and giving most of those fish sore lips. On average we catch 5-6 fish apiece and on one sunny afternoon we each caught more than 15 fish. Since we are starting to get into some competition style fishing we limit ourselves to three hour long sessions which make you fish a little harder especially in a friendly competition. It is very rewarding to be able to go out and know that you will catch fish, and then actually catch those beautiful trout. I have also been tying lots of flies. One thing that I have been doing a lot of experimenting with is tube flies. So far I have discovered three patterns that have been really working well. One is the Flash-a-Bow tube fly that is on my tutorial section of my website. If you have not seen this guy yet, I recommend that you check it out then go and fish a few of them. Like I mentioned, my dad and I have been trying out some of these cool Czech, Polish, and French methods for fishing and we have been tying lots of flies to fish with them. I have heard three sides of the fly selection story, one being that you use natural looking imitations, the second that you should use attractor patterns like, and finally that you use some of both. I have found that if you use some of both on your rig you will be able key into what the fish are eating even faster than if you used one over the other. My suggestion is that you go out on your own local waters and try all different types of flies so that you will be able to further grasp different fishing situations and feeding patterns throughout the year on those waters. This has been an amazing fall and so far a great winter for fishing especially for the learning aspect. Here are a few pictures from all of our adventures throughout the last part of fall and winter seasons. Lets go fly fishing! One sweet Uncompahgre River Brown. More Browns! The Release... Putting one in the net. A Chunk Rainbow that ate a Frenchie Nymph My dad and little sister having a great time. Watch Out, or I will bite you! Flash-a-Bow Tube Fly What streamer should I tie on? My buddy Geoff with a brown he caught on a pegged egg. Cool colors and markings. Catching and releasing while I was shooting video with the Go Pro HD head cam. It does not get any better than this.

Halloween Trout!!!

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 23:38:00 -0600

On the past two weekends I have gone down to the Black Canyon and fished for the big rainbow and brown trout. The first weekend that we fished down there we caught over twenty fish, one of which was a twenty three inch rainbow that I caught on an egg pattern. We even had some dry fly fishing. Since it was a pretty overcast day with on and off showers we were expecting a large baetis hatch but instead of baetis we ended up getting some midges. It was really fun to fish all of the calm water and back eddies with dry flies even though the larger fish were not eating off the surface. This past weekend, our second trip, we took the whole family down and my sisters ended up catching a bunch of really brightly colored and large brown trout. We did not catch as many fish but the quality of the fish was immaculate. We caught most of our fish on egg patterns and Copper Johns. Since we went on Sunday night, which was Halloween, we called all of our fish pumpkin fish which my youngest sister got a real kick out of. That evening we baked pumpkin seeds and carved pumpkins. Then we went to a church party and got some candy and cool prizes. The only let down was that none of the prizes were fishing related. Here are a few pictures from fishing the last couple of weekends. My fishing buddy Geoff Samples with a Gunnison River brown trout. Fall colors! Check out the color of these spots? A 23 inch rainbow. My biggest fish yet in the Black Canyon. A Halloween Double! Wait...a Halloween Triple! My sister with a Trick-or-Treat Brown Trout. Another one of my sisters with a big brown. I could not let my sisters have all the fun. We also caught some nice rainbows too.