International Sportsman’s Expo Jan 22-24 2009

I have been so busy lately I haven’t had much time to fish, and the two times I been out this year I got skunked with the fly rod and with the ice rod. Here’s how the last week went. I get home from Nebraska on Tuesday at about 8pm, 5 mins after I walk in the door the phone rings its one of the TU guys (trout unlimited) “Hey Rick can you work the booth at the ISE for us on Thursday”… I’m like sure no problem. There is also a fishing panel on Friday with the Fish Explorer guys that I want to go watch so I figure I’ll be up there atleast those two days, I tell the wife and she goes lets all go up there and we can go on saturday… So in a matter of mins I’ve scheduled myself to the ISE for 3 days. Working nights I got off work at 7am, came home took the kid to school then it was back home to and off to take the wife to work, after chillin at her work for 20 mins I was off to Denver with a Rock Star in my hand. (those make many of my fishing adventures possible)
Day 1 – I arrive up in Denver at around 9:15 first stop is Yale’s light rail park n ride for 4$ round trip it beats driving through Denver traffic and the 5$ parking fee at the Convention Center. Holy Cow Yale’s park n ride is full, well lets go to Colorado’s yikes that one is full too, on to University’s finally a spot, on the top floor of the 5 story parking garage. I hit the light rail to the Convention Center. The show opens at noon I am there a little before 10 to help set up and that kind of stuff but my ticket is at the registration booth. There are two older gentlemen in line infront of me getting their badges when all of the sudden the box of badge covers flies from the counter and almost hits me. Of course the two guys are pointing fingers at each other, they were Lefty Kreh and Bob Clouser. After BSing with them for a little bit and listening to them give each other a hard time and the ticket girls I was off to the Colorado TU booth.
When I got there no one was around so I walked over to the FishExplorer.com booth and BS’d with Matt Snider and folded some t-shirts for him helping him get ready for opening. Then it was back to the CTU booth, where I spent the day roping people into our booth to support TU with an awesome 6wt Winston Boron BII MX rod matched with a Galvan reel which we were raffling off. The day went by fast talking with the guys working the booth with me and everyone else that stopped by to talk trout fishing and fly fishing with us. It was one of the more enjoyable booths I’ve worked at ISE, however being a newer member to TU I couldnt answer some of the harder questions about projects we were doing. I didnt walk around to much as I knew I would with the family, so I stayed at the booth most the day but did venture to visit the Bing girls who were sellinga pretty sweet tasting energy drink I liked alot, you can get them at King Soopers try it. One of the calendar girls from Girls Gone Fly Fishing wlaked by and I sold her a raffle ticket by throwing in a picture with me…
Truthfully the only reason she bought one was because I asked her to and she use to work for Galvan Reels so I asked her some questions about them. Around 8pm I took off headed back the the train and to the Jeep and home to grab some food and go to work all hopped up on Rock Star and Bing.
Day 2- Got off work at 7am, man that was a loooong night… hit the hay tell around 2pm finished packing cloths for the night and went to get Cody from school and then Shana. Off to Denver again this time staying at a hotel for the night up there… I made it back to the show aroun 5pm the FishExplorer.com panel I wanted to watch was at 5:30pm so I hit up their booth to visit. Matt asks me if I’d help them out by passing out hats to people who ask questions. Since I really enjoy the site and it was no big deal I was more then willing to help. The panel was great with a ton of pros from the site and all their field editors. One of the best panels I seen at the ISE or Fly Fishing Expo, I recommend checking it out next year. After hanging out with the a little after the panel I went over to the fly tying theater and watched Bob Clouser tie some flies and tell some pretty good stories, then it was about time to leave. I did not get any pictures this day but I know Matt will post some up so I’ll link those for those interested later.
Day 3- After a restless night in bed, big fight outside our hotel at 2am and some very inconsiderate people honking their horns to the people inside and yelling hurry up everyone was pretty restless when I got them up at 8am. We at the contental breakfast at the hotel and was off to the show (on the light rail again). I brought the 2-way radio because I figured the kids would want to go do the DOW stuff and ride the Falcon bikes while I BS’d with everyone I knew. We get there pretty early and I place the kids in line while me and Shana look at the TU photo gallery in the lobby, I dream of getting shots like these guys. While waiting in line Terry (FFG) and his Wife Jewel (FFGG), who were also working the FishExplorer booth stopped on their way in and talked with us tell they opened the doors, I’ve fished with these 2 and they are great people and amazing fisherman if you ever get a chance hit the water with them. They rushed off to their booth and we went in… the boys immediately grabbed a walkie and were off. It was now 10am and we decided to start on the right side and work our way to the left. By going this way we basically hit the FishExplorer booth first and said hi again to Terry and Jewel, then all the other FX guys Matt, David, Troy, Dan, and Chad after a few minutes there we were off again. Next stop, Shana spotting the sugar gliders… like a little kid in a candy store every year she gets all gitty about these flying rats.

So finally I pull her away from the sugar gliders and right into the puppies.

We walked around tell we found a booth that Shana had a hard time pulling me away from. The Girls Fly Fishing Calendar booth. I figured with my ColoradoMountainFishing.com shirt on I couldnt pass up the “advertisement shot”.

We then find some members of my site and SPJ and BS’d with them some, we actually ran into those guys alot, like they were stalking us, lol. Stopped by the Tightline Outfitters booth and BS’d with Nate and Stephanie Zelinsky also members of FishExplorer.com, really friendly people highly recommend them as guides both excellent fisherman. Stopped by St. Croix booth and talked with one of the other FX field editors Troy Coburn. Then at one of the booths we were going by they were having a drawing so we put our names in and Cody had came by earlier and put his name in as well… they drew Cody’s name but he wasnt there to claim his prize and Shana goes thats my son and we couldnt get him on the walkie so they let her take the prize then they drew her name out on the next prize, it was pretty funny.

We kept going and talked to a bunch of more people including Pat Dorsey and Barry Renolds about fly fishing and fly tying a few others but the names escape me. (I just started tying this month) Also talked with Brian O’Keefe aout his photography I forget what booth he was working 3M or something and when I said something about his photography he got all excited, said you must be pretty well in the industry if you recognize a photographer… I was like no I just hope some day to take amazing photos like you and some of the other guys out there.
We then ran into the boys at the DOW archery shooting.

We headed over to the Discover Fly Fishing area after that and the kids had a ball, they started out fly casting… Skylar has been once fly fishing with me and I tried to teach him a little bit but Im not the greatest teacher. So having some pros show him was perfect. Cody who I’ve taken alot was tearing it up, I was standing outside the casting area and one of the casting instructors for adults was watching and said I really like that kids cast, I was all proud.

They then sat down at the fly tying table,

Since there was no extra seating there we headed back over to the demo tank to sit and watch a seminar… it just happened to be Chad LaChance, the Fishful Thinker (TV show on Altitude and Guide Service) also a field editor on FishExplorer, great guy watched his seminar and let our feet take a break… it was unfortunately the only seminar I watched this weekend.

It was now time to go, so we swung by the Fish Explorer booth said bye to everyone and headed back the the Discover Fly Fishing area to find the boys still tying flies. (both are addicted)

All in all I thought it was a great show.

Electro Fishing with the DOW on the South Platte River in Cheesman Canyon

I electro fished with the DOW yesterday up in Cheesman Canyon… started right above the wigwam club and then did a stretch up by the dam.  Got 440 from the first location and 265 from the second.  Lots of big browns and big rainbows, the first stretch had alot of suckers in it as well big ones too… dont think we got any at the top hole. I couldnt believe how man 18-22 inch fish were in that water and we only did a short stretch.  I think I will start fishing there a little more often.  It was a hard days work but extremely fun, I didnt get alot of pictures because we were pretty busy but here are some.(all with little camera)

Here we are lining up on the upper section of the canyon.

Some of the ones we collected.

Weighing and measuring.

Some of the fish.

A couple of the fish after we released them, hanging out by the stations.

Since I have never fished this section of water it was very educational to see the quality of fish in the river and where they were holding… I will be out at 63 Ranch SWA on friday helping the DOW there as it is another water I have never fished. For further details on fishing in Colorado be sure to check out my site at Colorado Mountain Fishing.com

South Platte River Kokanee Fishing

Took the boys out to the Dream Stream looking for Kokes, with the reports Ive been hearing about for the past week I thought they’d be all the way up to the old wood bridge by this weekend… so thats where we started, but they hadnt moved up that far yet.  So after a few hours horsing around in that stretch of water all we had were a few small bows the boys caught on spinners.  We then headed back down to the lower parking lot, on the way back to the jeep I started getting a really bad headache.  We hit the lower holes for a little while and started seeing kokes in small groups holding above the bridge holes, in current.  Fished for about an hour maybe two more with my head pounding between the 3 of us we got 20 kokes… Last year I’d call that a slow day for one person, those gill lice made a big difference.  We went back down the the bridge hole looking to try and get a brown for the day when Skylar caught the biggest koke of the day a 20 inch male that hit his tube almost pulled him in off the rocks, lol… the tube had red tips on the tentacles which might caused the strike.  We left shortly after that because of my head, but it was a good day… especially getting Skylar his first ever kokanee and a master angler one as well.

Couple pictures:
Bout the average sized one this year, much smaller then last 2 years.

Cody with his big female:

Skylar’s big one:

If interested in how to catch Kokanee Salmon or want pointers check out my Article on fishing the kokanee run in Colorado here:
How to Fish the Kokanee Spawn on the Dream Streaml It was written mostly for the Kokanee spawning run up the South Platte River in South Park noted as the Dream Stream, but I’ve used the same techniques on all the salmon runs in Colorado.

Fall Northern Pike fishing in Colorado

I got off work early because I had to stay earlier that day after work to get a new badge and attend some classes that arent offered at night. Right before I headed to work a buddy called and asked if I wanted to go chase pike in the morning with him. I said yes if I could make it back in time to get the kid from school. So it was set I got off work drove out to his house and crashed on his couch for the night, kept warm by his dog that also figured the couch was a good place to sleep that night, lol.
We got up around 7am and the temp was well below freezing, its amazing how much of a difference a few 1,000 ft in elevation makes. We got the equipment ready and hooked up the boat and headed to the lake. After boat inspections and everything we were in the water by 8am. The weather had warmed a little but it was still cold and as we raced across the water the wind cut through the poly pro and 2 hoodies I had on, brrrrr. We made it to a large area of weed beds and went to work, I started out with a River2Sea V-jointed trout a lure I picked up a while ago but thought it would make a great pike lure, my buddy wishes his lure to remain a secret… he had just won a pike tournament on the same lake some 2 weeks earlier so I understand. Right away my friend Clint hooked into a nice pike, which would be his biggest of the day:

Shortly after I see a big shadow following my lure, I was think OH ITS ON! but he didnt hit it… As it was getting closer and closer to the boat I tried changing cadence, slower, fast, longer pauses and he wouldnt hit it. He simply sat behind it the whole time. As my buddy reels in another I have a couple more follows but no takers, what gives!? After my friends 3rd pike, I decided it was time to change. So I switched up lures and I jokingly said to him I have a new lure on this one is definately going to get one on the first cast… As I casted out and reeling in a hit, but it was just a fast tap and I missed it. I hurried and placed a cast back towards where I got the hit and with in secs it was fish on. A decent northern:

We fished for a while more and my buddy was reeling in hammer handle after hammer handle nothing big but I wasnt getting any action.

Trying to improve my chances I cut the braided line I was using and tied on a floro leader hoping this would improve my chances. I then managed two more nice ones the biggest being 30 inches nothing trophy class but just shy of 6lbs so nothing to be ashamed about.

Even after changing to floro I still had multiple pike chase the lure in without hitting, if any of you pike hunters can give me some tips on changing these pike’s minds into hitting that lure I’d love to hear them. The water was clear and I could see a good 20ft from the boat and those pike would be so honed in on the lure that they’d fallow it to within 3ft of the boat and still not hit.

As always if you have any questions, please feel free to visit the forums on my site Colorado Mountain Fishing and ask. Its also getting close to Christmas and a fishing t-shirt from my store makes a great gift for those fisherman on your list.

Searching for the Kokanee Salmon Run at Spinney Mountain Ranch

Wanted to go up and check on the Dream Stream to see the status of the kokanee spawn. Well the kokanee havent started running up the river yet… the DOW havent even put up nets this year as they were expecting a weak run and had more then enough eggs from the other runs.

We started at the first hole as always and after a little bit of fishing and the parking lot filling up and only one bite we thought it was time to start walking down stream to look for kokes. After walking and checking the usual deep holes all the way down past the 2nd fence we decided to start working back. Cody had another make up baseball game today so it was going to be a fast day on the water anyways. While working our way back I spotted a decent fish sitting in one of the deeper bends (theres always a fish there) I put the san juan worm past him and it was fish on.
It was a nice enough cutbow, especially for the day.

The kids did great with a bunch of small rainbows, not exactly what we were looking for… didnt find the browns or the kokes. Will try again in a couple weeks.

If interested in fly fishing the South Platte River kokanee salmon run at Spinney Mountain Ranch or any kokanee run in Colorado read this article: How to Fish the Kokanee Spawn on the Dream Stream

Colorado Mountain Man

Welcome to the main page of my Blog. This blog is here to help promote my site Colorado Mountain Fishing and my Fly fishing and fishing t-shirt site. I try to go on a few back country fishing trips here in Colorado every summer. The season is short and the possibilities are endless. So if you like catching trout, mostly cutthroat trout and brook trout keep an eye on this blog as I share my fishing adventures in the high country of the Colorado Mountains.

I am also very new to this blog stuff so as far as I can tell I will start a new page for each of my trips found on the right.