Extra Terrestrials

For those of you who may not be familiar with the semi-seasonless weather we have here in northern Colorado we call this time, not winter. But that is a subject for another post. For now I would like to take a moment and give a shout-out to my newest and best-est fly friend the ant. I have heard that some people have quite a lot of success fishing terrestrials in the mid months of not winter, here in the Land of the Mighty Upper.


An incredibly simple pattern to tie the foam ant has been most productive for me the past few weeks. My fishing partners have begun calling me Ant Boy. One particularly adept angler and fly dresser has pointed out , time and time again I might add, that anyone can tie and almost anyone can fish an ant pattern successfully. My reply to this is a big fat, and?.


This year I have caught several trout over 20” on an ant pattern. I have netted two that were over 24” it has been the most productive pattern in my box. So why should I feel shame for using it? Why is it we Is it we classify some patterns as “junk”? And why should terrestrials fall into that category?

Junk forever and end Antism now!

Thanks,

Tim aka the ant boy....I need to get a cool costume and a logo


BTW the fishing here in the Land of the Mighty Upper is terrible. So please stay in Denver and fish the front range.

Thanking you in advance,

TM

Angler’s hopes rise as river flows fall.

The NCWCD dropped the flow from Shadow Mountain Dam, from WTF-over to welcome to summer in Colorado this past week. As usual the fishing slowed a bit in the pool right underneath the dam , however this is an acceptable price to pay to have the rest of the river fishable.
We did well on mysis shrimp patterns early in the morning. Graduating to caddis nymphs and dry flies as the day progressed. We caught browns, bows, and a few kokanee. Kokanee are a flat out blast to catch, if you have never had the pleasure I highly recommend it. Apparently kokanee read the same books and magazines as I do, because they know how to act. Once hooked they come blasting out of the water heading for current, structure or anything else that can make the encounter more fun.
Fishing has been good using a shop-vac size 16 and of course the daddy pattern, an olive RSII. Had a couple of crazy nights using a woven Klinkhammer green drake pattern. The fish apparently thought it had something to do with the caddis hatch that was going on. I originally tied it on as an indicator fly but after catching the largest fish of the evening on the first cast I thought I might give it a go on its own. The result was a double-digit night that did wonders for my ego. Not to fear the next day I was out fished by two ten-year old kids, that’s why I love this sport. The little blighters had great roll casts, but I can stay up as late as I want. Even on school nights.

High Water.

Greetings from the soggy land of the Mighty Upper,
The massive river flows continued with some considerable help from Mother Nature this week. Fuelled by late spring runoff, and almost daily rain, the rivers are bustling right along at levels not seen since the early part of this decade. We are all looking forward to getting back to our normal alpine desert existence. I swear I spotted some sort of growth on my bathroom tile the other day. I am told it is called mildew.
I have had several requests for information regarding the level of the Colorado specifically the stretch below Shadow Mountain Dam. I lack adequate words to describe it so I will post some video to YouTube.
Most of the fish we are catching are feeding subsurface on the usual assortment of nymphs and wet-flies. I have managed to coax a few to the surface with caddis flies and John Bar’s emerger.
On a serious note:
Last weekend a fisherman lost his life while fishing on the Colorado River. Mr. Eric M. Kophs, 42, fell out of his raft near the Needle’s eye rapid on the stretch between Pump House and Radium last Saturday. As of this post they have not recovered his body. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Kophs's family and friends.