Previous Next

This morning I grabbed a fly rod an headed for Big Four. Be careful on the drive up, I rolled several big rocks out of the road this morning. Donned the waders and headed down the trail (hip boots will do). Wadding the old ford wasn't bad but be careful. CFS is about 140, so the water was a little swift, the bottom a little slick, and the level got up to my knees. Crystal clear and beautiful. Followed the short trail up to the lake, came over the rise and ...... ICE! Well I wasted an hour working a few open spots with TDC chronomids, olive woolly buggers and prince nymphs. and cast a beadhead to some rock holes I found (cast over, draw the bead to the hole, then flip a small roll cast and the flouro leader and sink tip slide in) and jigged but no luck. Someone had ventured onto the ice but wearing waders and being alone I didn't want you reading about me in a Darwin Award piece. It will be ice free in a couple weeks I think.

Forgot to look at Watson. Spring lake is still about 2/3 frozen.

On the way down I stopped at Blue for an hour. I really wanted to shake the rust off, find the timing and just practice casting. My favorite early season fly is a TDC, but no luck. I missed two bumps on a purple san juan worm. Caught and released one on a green micro egg (smaller than the power bait I used yesterday). Fished dead slow on a sink tip line with a 1-2"twitch every 15-20 seconds. Fought a few tangles trying to apply too much force on the last forward cast. Lost my only green microegg to a low backcast and hitting my rod tip. Did kinda regain some feel and felt OK when I left.

Friday was perfect. Yesterday was a great opener, packed, but friendly and respectful with attentive kids and friendly, quiet dogs. Today was like chuck-e-cheese. Kids running around,throwing rocks, and generally just a different crowd. I would have stayed longer because it was so nice out, but I was really afraid I'd get a kid or animal.