Hello Again! Warmwater/Stillwater 2011

It has been awhile since I last posted, mostly because I have been trying to cram in all of the fishing that I can while summer lasts!  I have had an eventful couple of weeks, and decided that it was time to share some of the pictures, and stories that were shared throughout the adventures.

Last sunday, I was fortunate enough to score a trip up to the red-feather with my good friend Al Ritt. I brought along a friend of mine, and we met up early that morning with Al's friend Dave.  Both Dave and Al are both really awesome guys, so it was fun to spend the day fishing with them.  After brief conversations, handshakes, and rigging up, we hopped in the belly boats, and set off.  Right off the bat, the fish were rising, but all of the fish caught for the day took a wooly bugger!  we boated around the lake trolling our streamers, and several 15-16" rainbows came to net. It was a great day so far, to say the least!

After moving to a new lake, I had just started trolling when I received a monstrous take. I was not ready for  what was attached to my line.  After a long battle, a 24" (22" would be more exact seeing as the measure net is a bit generous) female rainbow came to hand.  My day had been made; or had it?

Now, until today, I had never caught a  carp. Ever. Not even on bait.  I made it my mission to get one today, and after several failed attempts, and many of the strongest words you can think of, I decided to give it one more go.  I put my line out in front of a cruising grassie, and before I knew it, he was under the fly.  He nibbled at it, and finally decided to eat it, making for an exhilarating fight.  This was my first carp, and I can now understand why they are known as the rocky mountain bonefish!

I was pretty excited

We fished lake shagwa in the evening, and let me say, that is some of the best dry fly fishing that I have ever experienced in my life.  We pulled in some good fish, and had a hell of a time doing it! Overall, this was a great day on the water, and the next three days to come would be filled with fishing as well!

My buddy Al with a nice rainbow on a dry fly

 For the next three days, I taught a camp with my friend Connor that was focused on getting younger kids into fishing.  Of course, we taught them how to fly fish, and seeing the joy on some of their faces when they hooked a fish on the fly was absolutely incredible.  I had a group of 6-8th graders, and all of them got into fish (on the fly rod, of course).  This really was a cool experience, and here are some pics to follow.

He was pretty scared of the fish, but he was excited! 

31" carp on the fly..I casted, he fought. Nice Fish!

This little girl had never caught a fish. This was her first one! On the fly too!

In between groups, Connor and I got to mess around, so we spent that time chasing carp.  After awhile, I got the hang of it, and ended up catching some decent sized commons!  It was great to see the fish casually swim over to inhale your fly.  Nothing tests your nerves more than that!

My first common carp. He took the fly with confidence!

Overall, I had a great few days fishing.  Great memories were created, and I look forward to making more down the road.  I leave tomorrow morning for the Colorado Trout Unlimited youth camp in
De Beque, and am excited beyond belief.  After that, I am going straight to the Frying Pan with my dad, and some friends from the Trout Pursuit blog ( http://troutpursuit.blogspot.com/ ) to see if we can fool any big boys.  It should be a fun week!

For now, have a great week, and let me know how fishing was if you do get out!

-Jake