Spawn – Page 2

Close Encounters

October 20, 2010 by n.taylor Leave a Comment

First Catch

Today was a good day on the water, a lot of great things happened, but more importantly some really exciting events might have taken place. I will start with the boring stuff. The fishing was good, we caught some very nice fish, Tyler even let me hold some of them…

Most importantly however, I believe that today on the river I saw a man of great stature in the fly fishing world. If my eyes did not deceive me I think I saw Marty Bartholomew, wading staff in hand, fishing the same waters as your humble interweb blogger. Now, if you don’t know who Marty Bartholomew is, let me refresh your memory. You probably know him for being the author of 1998 classic, The Fly Fisher’s Guide to Colorado which in my opinion is one of, if not the best overview of Colorado fly fishing available. You probably don’t know him from the worst video ever produced on planet earth since 1953 entitled, Fly Fishing Colorado’s Major 6 which was released in 2004. Honestly, I have no idea how someone who made such a good book could honestly put his name on such garbage. I guess money can make you do weird things, or maybe he needs some new friends that know how to do video editing.

Who Is It?

I was only able to get a quick shot of him before he disappeared around the bend. I didn’t possess the confidence to properly introduce myself and confirm the identity of the mysterious character. I do however, have supreme confidence that it was in fact him for reasons including;
1. He had gray hair
2. He had a wading staff (He’s that type of guy)
3. He had two rods and seemed to know what he was doing

Based upon these observations I will leave you to your own opinions but most importantly I think this situation goes to show that you never know who you might see out there. Oh, and here is some fish porn from today, almost forgot.

Lil' Kype

The Dirtbags Have Arrived

October 8, 2010 by n.taylor 2 Comments

Knot Session

Not long ago I was blessed the opportunity of picking up King D-Bag David Taylor and his son (my cousin) Whit from DIA. David decided to do some planning and thought he was all prepared to come out to Colorado. He went to Gander Mountain and bought some nice duck hunting waders and a few pairs of long underwear in Wichita. While I was slightly concerned about his choice in gear, I was more concerned about if he could manage to take care of himself. We had a small knot tying session where Whit was able to pick up on the basic skills in a little under 7 minutes. David had a tough time, we had to get out some “string” (old fly-line) and practice a bit. He just kept forgetting how many times to twist and which part goes through where.

We managed to stop by the shop and grab some acceptable fishing attire before making out way to the Dream. The guys were a little tired so at 7-11 David got a little energy boost before we made our way down to the stream. Being as we arrived around noon we were placing our bet on “magic hour” providing us with some memorable fishing for our first day.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

We trekked down to the river with about 4,000 other people and sat in limbo for a bit waiting for a spot to open up. While we were waiting, we were greeted by Tyler and his girlfriend who had also decided to come up for the day. They had parked in the upper lot and since I don’t have a park pass I didn’t want to pay the $5 to drive through Spinney I made everyone walk a couple hundred yards instead. With the wind rearing its head in the usual 20 mph fashion we worked on getting knots out of leaders and emptying water out of waders, that sort of thing. Whit grabbed a few flies and was able to manage himself the entire afternoon. He has fifteen years less experience than his dad but somehow showed an aptitude of someone who had been doing it for years. Magic hour came and went and unfortunately we didn’t do very well. This was due to a variety of reasons including but not limited to:
1. We were rusty
2. There were lots of people
3. We suck

Tyler at least made our entire group look respectable by pulling in a halfway decent fish before the end of the day. Even though we didn’t get the fish, the good news is that we have the rest of the weekend to try and find them. After dinner David picked up a goat and Whit and I sacrificed it on the back deck of the hotel room to please the Fishing Gods. I will let you know if they looked upon our offering with favor.

Finally

Getting Ready

September 8, 2010 by n.taylor Leave a Comment

Early Morning

At 6:30 AM I pulled into the parking lot with Surniak already waiting outside of his car. The temperature was 32 degrees, fall comes quickly in this part of the world. We were alone in the upper lot, something that is not only unusual, but unheard of on a holiday weekend. We took the opportunity to scurry down to the water. Surniak doesn’t have wading boots because his have shrunk and fallen apart and I just don’t have waders right now so we looked very professional on this fine morning.

Fish have moved into the system but only sparingly and those that have arrived are interspersed amongst the usual places. The moss and algae growth has not had a chance to die off and thus makes it nearly impossible to see anything. This also means that the gravel bottom that is imperative for these fish to have sex is not present. Several strands of underwater foliage are starting to turn brown and within a few weeks rest assured they will all be dead and washed into Elevenmile reservoir.

Wading Boots

The flows say 150 but it looks more like 200 in most places to me. The water temperature is hovering just under 60 degrees and the nights are now obviously getting below freezing. Cooling temperatures will help kill off the foliage and allow the start of one of nature’s greatest races. Pick your days off. I’ve alredy got mine penciled in, maybe I’ll see you up there.