Blown Out and Bored

It's Friday, which brings to a close another uneventful week here at Flywriter HQ. My daily review of my favorite fly fishing blogs, many of which are referenced along the right column of this website, suggests that I may not be the only one who is (im)patiently suffering through blown out river blues. There are a lot more posts lately about tying and a lot fewer fishing stories to marvel at. I'm fortunate to live in an area where hugely skilled fly tiers and fishermen keep me stocked with new ideas, knowledge, and fly patterns.

(See this gentleman's page, for example. Holy cow. Amazing flies and years of knowledge memorialized forever in cyberspace for addicts like me).

So on the eve of an American upset of the Brits in the opening round of World Cup play (yes, you heard me correctly - we'll see if I have to eat crow tomorrow), I managed to forget about the 3,000 + cfs of water blowing out the Poudre by tying the Granddaddy of all dry flies, the Adams. I cranked out about a dozen while watching the Rockies. I think they turned out pretty well.

Earlier this spring, when the Poudre was really low and trout were congregating in a few calm slicks in our neck of the woods, this fly was really productive.  I managed a bunch of hookups on this pattern after running out of small BWOs early in the season.  They're a little harder for me to see on the surface of the water, but they float great and were a good match for a lot of the small bugs on the surface at that time of year.  The fly in the picture here is a size 16.  It would have been too big earlier, but I'm thinking it might come in handy later on in the summer here.

The nymph box is finished - for now - and I'm eagerly awaiting a drop in the river so I can start dragging them along the bottom.  There's a lot of madness on Colorado rivers right now - several drownings and numerous other close calls.  Crazy as I am, I'm just not ready to brave the current, and I'm less than optimistic about the prospects for catching much anyway.

In the meantime, I think I'm going to take the float tube up to Honholz Lakes as soon as possible.  Trip report to follow.

Lots of H2O!

So, here's how it went.

I left work at about 2:30 on Friday and drove directly to the Poudre to do some scouting for the weekend.  We've had our first few days of real heat here in northern Colorado, and I arrived at the river to find a blown out, muddy flood of mocha-colored torrent.  The river reports suggested flows of nearly 1900 cfs, and I'd believe every bit of it at this point.

I know I previously spouted some nonsense about "hell or high water," but it's just too high for my tastes, not to mention the low visibility and lack of clarity.

I did some more tying instead, and focused on some gardening.  Pheasant tails, Stoneflies, and a new garden berm.

 

Temperatures are dropping into the low 70s for a high today, so I'm hoping it will slow some of the snow melt up the canyon and give the water a chance to drop a bit and clear up a little.  If everything cooperates, I'll swing back down tomorrow and give the high water a shot.  If not, I'll keep playing the waiting game with Arnie.