St. Vrain Angler News & Muse March 8, 2005

Greetings!

I hope you are well today, enjoying what you are doing as much as I enjoy writing to you. Thanks to all the new folks who signed up either in the shop or over the web. Read on for news and musings on life, fly fishing, tying and much more.

This is 2005. Anyone still writing 1972 on their checks? Just curious. (Last night PBS had an experience the '60's program on. You know, old rock and roll songs with really old, gray-haired rockers trying to recall the days to raise money for PBS. Funny seeing them looking like me. Still, I knew all the groups and songs, and probably played about half of them in our old rock band. Oh well. That could be the first of several parenthetical clauses, by the way.)

Anyway, 2005 is my self proclaimed year to go fishing. Too many of us have spent too much time fretting and so on - or whatever we've been doing - and it has kept us off the water for too long. I'm encouraging you to go fishing again this year. Not once or twice, but on a consistent basis. You'll see how I'm going to try to help you, too. Just stay tuned.

Anyone out there ready to go fishing? It is time.

Warmwater? Coldwater?

Colorado is so interesting. For the past week or so the temps have been high, skies clear and wind relatively calm. In other words, real nice. So, a few of us headed out to see about bass, and lo and behold we caught a few smallmouth bass on flies. It was cool. Then, yesterday, Joe and I decided that a trip to the Big T was in order - just to see. It was warm and all here when we left, as it had been, but it was still pretty much winter up on the river. (Notice the difference in his dress from the smallmouth to the icy bank?)

There was ice along much of the lower river, unless it was completely in sunshine during the day, and some areas that were fully frozen over. Still, we stopped at one spot to see what was up and never even put our waders on. There were lots of fish in the pool, and they were feeding on midges. How about that? We hooked six or seven fish in a few minutes and decided to head upstream to see if any blue winged olives were emerging in a spot I really enjoy - by the Cottonwoods, for those of you who know such things.

We were just curious to see what was happening further upstream. As counterintuitive as it seems, a tailwater stream such as the Big Thompson will thaw higher on the river earlier. Odd thing, dams, and what they do to streams is still being determined.

The thought was that the river would have been open longer and perhaps a bit warmer, so the little mayflies I so much enjoy this time of year might just be emerging. If they were, fish would be eating them and that's a good thing for everyone except the bugs.

Carefully watching my rearview mirror, I pulled off the side of the road for a moment and idled along looking at a couple of pools for rise forms. There weren't any. Joe was looking, too. As I looked upstream a bit my mind was temporarily befuddled - alright, it's always befuddled and continued in that mode. I was looking for fish. Instead, there was a dull red light. As it turned out, the dull red light was attached to a motorcycle, which was lying tires up along the bank of the stream.

"Joe! Look at that! There's a motorcycle in the river!" I said.

"Where? Oh, yeah! Man!"

We jumped out of the car, and noting the light on made me think we'd find a dead motorcycle rider under the bike. I thought about that for a minute, then shed my fishing vest and prepared my old first aid mind, just in case. As it turned out we didn't find a person anywhere. And we looked around for awhile, just to be sure. The bike's motor was still warm, but not hot, so the wreck had been recent, but not in the past few minutes.

We drove back downstream to a CDOT truck we'd seen, and asked the guys to contact the State Patrol, which they did. Then we went back to the bike. the CDOT guys came a few minutes later and the four of us got the Harley out of the stream. It leaked oil into the water, but not too much.

I guess the warm weather brought the bikers out, too. As it turned out there was another angler upstream a bit. He said he'd heard the ruckus, and there were three bikes. One guy climbed out of the river and rode off with the others, so that person was at least ambulatory, which is a good thing after going off a road and into a river on a motorcycle, all things considered.

Does anyone know how to present a fly to a Harley that's holding next to rocks along a stream bank? I thought of writing another Solutions Book for this, but it seems less than likely that we'd find it often enough to need the techniques.

Fly fishing for fish is better, anyway. Right?

Much of the remainder of the stream looked real good, although flows were lower than I'd like to see. There were lots of fish and they looked very healthy. The few we hooked were beautiful and happily eating midges. Below the dam there were a few other fish feeding, but on midge larva or something under the surface. We didn't see another rise form.

Sometimes I wonder why the flows are so low. Lake Estes was brim full. I suppose the water powers that be were letting what was going in go out, and that was it. Oh well. I heard that the San Juan is flowing at 225 CFC, which is very, very low, but that the water folks there say not to worry, it will go up to 5,000 CFS in May. I still wonder why they can't let it run at say 500 now and a bit less in May. It would be better for the habitat.

Oh well.

It's a question that is asked, and at times might even keep folks from trying fly fishing.

"I don't want to be considered a purist," the might say. "I just like fishing."

It's a fine sentiment, for sure. Fishing is fun.

Is a purist one of them folks who only fishes with bamboo fly rods, dry flies and so on? In other words, someone like me?

Is a purist a fly fisher?

I've got the answer, and I don't know if you're going to like it or not.

In my opinion - I'm open to hearing yours, by the way - is that a five year old kid with a cane pole, worm, sinker and bobber fishing for bluegills is a purist: everyone else is a snob.

There. I've said it.

They've even made a bronze of the purist, and Joe found one in a home he was tiling. It's lovely, and brings back more memories of childhood - before the rock band, if you have to know - when fishing was best done as soon and often as possible.

I still wonder what happened.

In addition to the Call For Action! above, you need to know that the club continues to hold monthly meetings that are fine, fun social gatherings of fly fishing folks. The new Board is doing great getting meetings together and planning wonderful events. Monthly fishing trips have become the norm, and folks are enjoying time on the water together.

The next meeting is on Thursday, March 17. 2005. We meet at the VFW Hall on South Main Street in Longmont, just south of the St. Vrain River on the east side of the road.

This month's meeting will see Mark and I tying Spring flies, and me doing the meeting on Spring Fly Fishing. I'll cover where to go, what to expect, how to approach the water and much more. A raffle with goodies will be held and announcements of upcoming events and the Stream Survey will be made.

I hope you'll join us. All you have to do is come and have some fun.

For more info, call the shop at 303-651-6061, or drop me a line at angler@peakpeak.com.

Shop Hours

Here are shop hours for the rest of the Winter, Spring and Fall. Please stop by, have a cup of coffee and get some goodies to tie your next fly or to prepare for a fishing outing.

Monday: 9:30-6:00 (Specialty Classes start at 6:30PM)

Tuesday 9:30-6:00 (Tying Classes start at either 6:30 or 7:00PM)

Wednesday: 9:30-6:00

Thursday: 9:30-6:00 (TU Board meetings are 1st Thursday of month at 6:30; TU Meeting at VFW on 3rd Thursday at 6:30; specialty Classes on the other Thursday evenings!)

Friday: 9:30-6:00

Saturday: 9:00-4:00 (Free Clinics from 10-Noon)

ESTES ANGLER will open in March. I'll keep you posted on our progress in getting it up and running!

Well, it's getting close to noon, and you'll be expecting your weekly fly fishing information from the tall, bearded fly shop low life, so it's time to publish this and get it to you.

A big wind just blew through with a little rain. Now the sky is crystal clear blue and there is a slight breeze. Rachel is making us some tuna salad - my first food of the day - and then we're going to talk about getting Estes Angler open and so on. I've got a tying class tonight, which is loads of fun, and then have to meet with a fellow who'd like to take a group of folks to the private lake and lodge we're doing the Mini-Camp at in two weeks. There's plenty to do.

I hope you are well. Thanks for reading, for writing, for stopping by the shop, for attending classes and clinics and for getting gear from us. Mark, Jay and I love you and always wish you the best.

We'll see you soon.

Thanks again for reading.

Dale Darling