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I went to Vallecito lake to do some pike fishing, however the pike had finished their spawn, and went in deep. So during the camping trip, I heard of a beautiful hike up to a mountain stream that proved to be something I needed to conquer. I tried hiking it the first day, and got about 5-6 miles up the mountain before it started thundering and raining. So I tried it the next day, and made it a full 11 miles up to where the river was a bit slower. Even though I didn't catch any fish, the hike itself was worth it, and the scenery was stunning. Probably one of the most beautiful and dramatic places I have ever been. The river cut into the mountainside and created a breathtaking hike. Even though I didn't catch fish, camping is so relaxing and sorta a reset for life. I love getting out there as often as possible. There was a study that proved camping without any electronics for a 24 hour period can help reset your body clock, and help you sleep sound. This is what it does for me. Vallecito lake is absolutely beautiful, set in a valley surrounded by amazing mountains.
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This was a blast of a time hanging with Carter and camping overnight at the small alpine lake by my house. Its so beautiful up there, and its nice being away and out in nature. Building a fire is soothing and relaxing, and its just so enjoyable to go up there. Not only did we get to camp out overnight, but we got to do some fishing for small rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, and brook trout. Honestly I was pleasantly surprised at our mountain house breakfast meal. Unfortunately our backpackers pantry meal we had at night was not too great. But that mountain house was awesome! Tasted just like an omelet!
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Carp are a fish that pull hard, and usually need to be fished for with an 8wt or greater. My little 5wt barely stood a chance! Not enough backbone to get the fish in, so I had to beach him with my hands. Still an absolute great day, and a giant beast of a fish to boot. I cannot believe I brought him in! For a while it seemed like the fight would carry on for hours! Instead it was 21 minutes, but it was 21 minutes of pure excitement!
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So, I decided I would go fishing for carp again since that last fight was so awesome! If you haven't checked out that video yet, see it here... https://youtu.be/V5sqth9VBIo This was a 21 minute fight with a 5wt fly rod. I wasn't expecting a 30" fish when I went, and definitely wasn't expecting one of the best fights of my life. Unfortunately the fishing wasn't as good as I had expected it to be, and I didnt hook a single carp. However I was able to go get a few smaller sized trout. Overall It wasn't the best day fishing, but at least I was able to get one or two.
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Smallmouth Bass are scrappy fighters that are willing to eat a large variety of baits. They are fun to catch with conventional gear, and an absolute blast on a fly rod. Especially when fishing is this good. While we didn't catch a whole lot, I believe we boated 20+ fish this day. Generally they like bright colored baits, but we caught a few on some more generic baitfish colors like brown/white, olive/yellow, etc... We were fishing at Navajo Lake, a large lake in northern New Mexico, that is the start of the San Juan River. It is a cold water lake with many species including trout, salmon, pike, bluegill, perch, and of course smallmouth bass. Unfortunately there are no shad in this lake, so you must fish perch or bluegill patterns. However they seem to still go after chartreuse/white lures pretty well. The water seemed clear as can be, however Kyle told me that this was a bit off color since the lake was so high. It was a really fun day, getting to fish with a great friend on a great fishery. This really was one of the more enjoyable fishing days I have had in a long time.
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I have never caught a Carp on a fly rod before, so I wanted to give it a try. Last time I went on the San Juan River I saw quite a few carp feeding on the bottom in a shallow section of the river. I wasn't setup for carp at that time and only had a 3wt fly rod with me. So I decided come back with my 5wt and come back for them another day. Turns out a 5wt is not really enough as well and this carp fought me for 21 minutes! Which felt like forever. By the end of the fight, I was so exhausted, I felt like my arms were gonna fall off. He was so large, and I was so tired, that I had trouble picking him up. They say carp fishing is like fishing for bonefish. They are finicky fish, that spook easy. You can site fish for them, but you need long, thin leader. They fight hard, and feel like your hooked onto the back of a freight train when they run. SO they make for a very formidable sport fish, one that many say is even tougher than bonefish. This is the first time I am fishing with my new vest, neck gaiter, and gloves. I love them! The vest helped by allowing me to bring water with me, and put extra things in the backpack. And even though the sun was in full blast, the neck gaiter and gloves kept me from getting burnt.
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Here is a quick video of my best brown. 27". I think some of you have watched the full length version 14.5 minutes.. However this one is just of that fish, not the entire day, so you don't have to listen to me ramble on... Its under two minutes, so a quick and sweet video.
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Breaking your rod has to be one of the worst feelings to have while fishing. Especially when its such a high end rod. This Sage Method retails for $850 and is an absolute amazing fly rod, especially for fishing streamers. Luckily Sage, along with some other high end rod makers offer a no questions asked lifetime warranty for the original owner. It still costs about $70 because you have to pay the shipping back and fourth, however they will fix your rod no matter what for that cost, which is a lot better than $850. The turn around time though is a little slow, and it can take 3 weeks to a month. Really, the fact that this rod broke doesn't speak to bad quality of this rod. Its really a fantastic fly rod, but it is made of high modulus graphite. While that allows for a light, and fast action blank, the rod can be a bit fragile when it comes to impacts. And that is what happened here. If you never hit a rock with your rod, then this rod will not break, not on any fish. Its almost impossible to break it when its used the way it properly should. This was an interesting day. The weather could not figure out what it wanted to do. It rained, then got sunny, then snowed, then got sunny again. It kept doing this multiple times. I was able to get one brown at least, however I could not get any more after breaking the only rod I brought on this trip. These little lakes are great for fishing big browns. Last time I came here I ended up with a 27" brown trout, and 2 other browns right around 20". Also, you don't really need waders and you are not getting in the water. With a really good cast, you can almost reach the center of each of these little lakes, and there are lots of fish everywhere. Not just browns, but rainbows as well.
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This was an interesting day to say the least. It was sunny, warm, and beautiful, however it was very windy, and the water was off colored. Nymphing proved to be very unproductive, and I tried all day. However I switched to a streamer and nailed 2 within a half hour of each other. However it was late in the day and I had to leave. I did it again, I left something and didnt bring it with me. My SD card was missing and I had to conserve filming with my hand held camera. So most of the day was caught on Go Pro.
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Best fishing trip I've had in a long time. I caught 3 large browns, one of which was about 27". This was a really fun day. I was supposed to fish the Dolores River today, but the river was blown out and super chocolaty. So as I was driving home, I saw some small lakes along the river. They were old beaver dams that were converted into small lakes for the public to fish. They are stocked with rainbows, but have some large browns in them. I decided to streamer fish with my sage method and an intermediate sink tip line. I had to let the streamers sink for a long time though as the lakes are super deep and the larger trout were sitting on the bottom. I was fishing two of my flies this time. A black monster bugger, and my jointed green dragon. Both preformed really well, and caught a bunch of fish. I caught 2 fish on the jointed green dragon, and 3 on the monster bugger. If you tie flies, you can find these videos here... Monster Bugger - https://youtu.be/cpRKubvkowY Jointed Green Dragon - https://youtu.be/j0aKieaEWhE Overall a very fun day. Dolores is a small town in southern Colorado, and its really beautiful there. Beautiful mountains, small creeks, and a few lakes and ponds. An outdoor enthusiast's playground.
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So I just got this new rod which is a 10' 3wt rod custom built by Midwest Custom Fly Rods. Its amazing! In many of my episodes I had trouble landing larger fish on these small 24-28 sized midges. I would always pull these small hooks right out of the fishes mouth. But now having a 10' light action rod, really helps me keep from putting too much pressure on the fish. I hooked 2 fish all day, and both were rather large. Unfortunately I did loose one of those fish, but that is still 50% for the day, so not too bad! Especially with these tiny midges. The fish I landed was about 18" and the one I lost I think was at least that, if not up to 20". Pretty fun day. The wind got really bad throughout the day, and I had to move to the braids in order to get out of the wind. There were times where I couldn't even get my fly line to stay on the water. Also there was tons of junk in the water. Mostly moss and algae, but some leaves and small twigs as well. I spent half the time cleaning my flies from this junk. So while I was able to land a great rainbow trout on a small midge which made it a great day, it was also a frustrating day as well. This was a Saturday, so it was really busy. Literally every spot was taken. I finally was able to find a few secluded spots away from people, but this took a lot of walking around.
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The Dolores River and one decent rainbow!
McFlyLures posted a topic in Fly Fishing Gear & Techniques
This is probably one of the more beautiful rivers I have ever fished. It is early in the year, so the trout aren't really feeding to vigorously. The bugs aren't hatching yet, and the real beauty of this river hasn't yet bloomed. I hear dry fly fishing in the spring, summer and fall is amazing! There are some really large browns in this river from what I hear. Also I am quite convinced that there are pike in that small lake after getting bit off twice. I will have to research a bit more to find out if they actually do have pike there. I will be heading back to the Dolores River soon for sure! Honestly I am not sure why they call it a "river" because its really small. Looks more like a creek to me. However maybe it gets wider further down the river. But either way, its very beautiful and peaceful there. -
So, the weather was miserable, and cold. We fished all morning in the snow without seeing the sun. Finally the sun came out, and we actually got a fish. Then the storm came again and we got caught in sleet, snow and some small hail on our way back to the car. Was the weather bad? Yes... Did we still have a great time? YES!!!. Don't ever give up on fishing just cause the weather doesn't look great. Bad weather fishing days can be some of the most memorable.
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Ok so, literally on the first cast, I hooked a fish and landed him. He wasn't huge, but still a great start to a day. I thought after that fish, that I would end up having a 20+ fish day, but that didnt happen. It took a lot of work and moving around to find more fish, not what I expected after the first few minutes of fishing.
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This was a very fun day on the San Juan river fishing with some friends. A subscriber of mine had seen me at the pub a few weeks prior to this, and we talked about fishing for a while. We decided we needed to go out fishing and today was the day. We had a blast, and got to explore many parts of the river. While the day wasn't too productive, it was still a fun day. I hooked 11 fish, and brought in 7. Most of which were small, and all the ones I brought in were under 15". However I did hook a 17-18" fish but lost that due to bumbling around with my go pro since I wasn't filming at the time.
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Well this video was a few months in the making. On my 2nd episode I met Joe out on the river. We were both fishing the San Juan River and struck up a conversation. He told me he made fly reels, so I was obviously instantly interested in taking a look at these reels. When I first saw the reel, I was blown away by the beauty of the design. It really is a pretty reel. However I hadn't gotten to fish with it until today. After fishing with it, I feel that the reel is really well made. Unfortunately I didnt get to hook any fish that stripped drag, however I could tell that it was smooth by just stripping line off. Also, while fishing with it, I liked the click sounds (very quiet which is good) and I liked how light the reel was. However it was solid feeling, unlike some super light reels that are hollow. This is really solid and really high quality. So the day on the San Juan was kinda slow to say the least. We didn't even see a single fish hooked by anyone until probably 11:30 or so. But even at that, it was few and far between. Finally after hitting Texas Hole around 1:00 the action picked up a bit and Joe was able to hook 3 fish and bring in 2 of them. One was a really good sized brown! 24" or so. So the day was fun even though it wasn't super productive. Its always great having someone else on the river with you as well. We enjoyed ourselves even though we weren't bringing fish in left and right. The San Juan River is a great river located in the north west corner of New Mexico. The river usually fishes amazing, and all through the year. However the last few weeks have been kinda slow as the river flows have been up and down and the weather isn't always permitting for nice fishing days. But there have been days on this river where I have netted 20+ trout. Its fun to fish and you will see trout everywhere when the water is clear. They will come up and nip at your waders.
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Hi Everyone, In this weeks video I'm tying on of my favorite rusty spinner patterns. If you like the video please hit the like button and hit subsicribe I'm going to have a new video coming out every week. Also, if you have anything you want to see from flies to materials/tools and set up let me know. https://youtu.be/x0QtUqNz7Eo Thanks, Mike Designed 2 Deceive
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One of the last free-flowing rivers in the state of Colorado, the Animas River is a unique and rare treasure. With the newest and one of the best Gold Medal Water fly-fishing sections in Colorado, the Animas is a river that should be on your list of places to fish. When Juan Rivera passed through this corner of Colorado in 1765, he named the river El Rio de las Animas Perdidas en Purgatorio, “The River of the Lost Souls in Hell.” To Rivera and his Spanish compatriots, the valley was remote, bleak, and had little to offer them in the way of riches. The Animas River is the major stream draining the high alpine terrain of the Needle Mountains. It heads in small meadows on the flanks of Cinnamon Mountain north of Silverton, then plunges through wild canyons as it carves a route between the Needle and West Needle Mountains. By the time it reaches Durango, the Animas has grown to a large river. Out of the mountains the Animas meanders through a shallow depression across broad plains. South of the New Mexico border at Farmington the Animas joins the San Juan River. Fortunately, public access to the Animas River within the city of Durango is plentiful with almost 7 miles of river from 32nd Street Bridge to the Rivera Bridge south of town. Two parcels of private land are found in this stretch, but they are well marked. Foot and bike trails parallel the river through much of town, providing abundant easy access. The Animas is big water. In Durango the river is almost 100 feet wide, filled with huge rocks and deep holes. The river offers extensive riffles, freestone conditions, and stretches of pocket water. The bottom consists of gravel and cobbles. The rocks are as slick as those in any river in the West, and anglers must always be very cautious when wading. Wet wading is popular in summer, but waders are called for in the early season and in the fall. A year or so back, the EPA spilled about 3 million gallons of toxic chemicals into the river. These chemicals included heavy metals like lead, arsenic, zink and iron. For a week the river turned bright orange and many thought the river was done for. However after cleanup, and time, the river has seemed to turn back to what it originally was. Fish show no signs of poisoning, and supposedly the river water is safe to drink. This trip started (and almost ended) very frustrating. I didnt see a single fish all day, and didn't even get one bite on the line. At the end of the day when I was further down stream, I fell in the water which pretty much made me quit fishing. As I walked back to the car, I decided to try one last spot. The spot where I hooked a big trout my last trip. I ended up hooking a very good sized brown trout, one of the largest Ive ever caught. It had to have been 24-25" at least. It was a beautiful fish, with hooked jaws. The rod I hooked that fish on was a 9' 6wt Sage Method, with a 3250 sage reel. I had a 7wt outbound short line with an intermediate sink tip, and I was fishing a size 10 cone head slump buster streamer in olive. Some of the above info about the animas was gotten from the Duranglers website with their permission.
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One of the last free-flowing rivers in the state of Colorado, the Animas River is a unique and rare treasure. With the newest and one of the best Gold Medal Water fly-fishing sections in Colorado, the Animas is a river that should be on your list of places to fish. When Juan Rivera passed through this corner of Colorado in 1765, he named the river El Rio de las Animas Perdidas en Purgatorio, “The River of the Lost Souls in Hell.” To Rivera and his Spanish compatriots, the valley was remote, bleak, and had little to offer them in the way of riches. The Animas River is the major stream draining the high alpine terrain of the Needle Mountains. It heads in small meadows on the flanks of Cinnamon Mountain north of Silverton, then plunges through wild canyons as it carves a route between the Needle and West Needle Mountains. By the time it reaches Durango, the Animas has grown to a large river. Out of the mountains the Animas meanders through a shallow depression across broad plains. South of the New Mexico border at Farmington the Animas joins the San Juan River. Fortunately, public access to the Animas River within the city of Durango is plentiful with almost 7 miles of river from 32nd Street Bridge to the Rivera Bridge south of town. Two parcels of private land are found in this stretch, but they are well marked. Foot and bike trails parallel the river through much of town, providing abundant easy access. The Animas is big water. In Durango the river is almost 100 feet wide, filled with huge rocks and deep holes. The river offers extensive riffles, freestone conditions, and stretches of pocket water. The bottom consists of gravel and cobbles. The rocks are as slick as those in any river in the West, and anglers must always be very cautious when wading. Wet wading is popular in summer, but waders are called for in the early season and in the fall. On this trip to the Animas I only got to fish a few hours. I had a late start on this impromptu fishing trip. I also forgot my SD drive for my go pro so I could not film everything. However It still was a fun trip even though I didnt land any fish. I did hook a very large fish though, but could not bring in this big brown. He threw the hook within a few seconds of hooking him. I was fishing nymphs all day, and the fly rig I hooked the big one on was a small (18 size) red copper john, and a 20 size two bit hooker. Im guessing the one he hit was the two bit... The rod was my custom rod (a bit stiff of a rod) and the reel was my sage 2250. I was using the basic Rio line, "mainstream WF5F". Some of the above info about the animas was gotten from the Duranglers website. You can see more info about the Animas on their website http://www.duranglers.com View the youtube video below, or click this link to view on my website. http://www.mcflyangler.com/episode-5-fly-fishing-animas-river
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One of the last free-flowing rivers in the state of Colorado, the Animas River is a unique and rare treasure. With the newest and one of the best Gold Medal Water fly-fishing sections in Colorado, the Animas is a river that should be on your list of places to fish. When Juan Rivera passed through this corner of Colorado in 1765, he named the river El Rio de las Animas Perdidas en Purgatorio, “The River of the Lost Souls in Hell.” To Rivera and his Spanish compatriots, the valley was remote, bleak, and had little to offer them in the way of riches. The Animas River is the major stream draining the high alpine terrain of the Needle Mountains. It heads in small meadows on the flanks of Cinnamon Mountain north of Silverton, then plunges through wild canyons as it carves a route between the Needle and West Needle Mountains. By the time it reaches Durango, the Animas has grown to a large river. Out of the mountains the Animas meanders through a shallow depression across broad plains. South of the New Mexico border at Farmington the Animas joins the San Juan River. Fortunately, public access to the Animas River within the city of Durango is plentiful with almost 7 miles of river from 32nd Street Bridge to the Rivera Bridge south of town. Two parcels of private land are found in this stretch, but they are well marked. Foot and bike trails parallel the river through much of town, providing abundant easy access. The Animas is big water. In Durango the river is almost 100 feet wide, filled with huge rocks and deep holes. The river offers extensive riffles, freestone conditions, and stretches of pocket water. The bottom consists of gravel and cobbles. The rocks are as slick as those in any river in the West, and anglers must always be very cautious when wading. Wet wading is popular in summer, but waders are called for in the early season and in the fall. This trip was a bit frustrating as well as many trips I seem to be having while filming. The river is a great river to fish, but by the time I got the hang of the river, it became blown out, and was basically chocolaty everywhere I could fish. The conditions were not ample this trip, but that won't stop me from trying. I fished all day until about 1 hour from sunset. When at that point I decided to go into town and grab some food and a beer. The rod I was using was my custom built 9' 5wt. Its rather stiff, but I am fishing with a larger 4x and 5x tippet, also the flies are size 18-22, which is much larger then my San Juan River trip, so I feel It can handle it. Plus the stiffer rod will help with longer casts and easier mends. Some of the above info about the animas was gotten from the Duranglers website. You can see more info about the Animas River and other local rivers on their website www.duranglers.com.
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Hi Everyone, I am going to start putting videos out on a consistent basis and I thought I would share with you all my first one on bobbins. Their seemed to be a bobbin explosion starting last year and since I collect vises and bobbins I thought I would go over some of the popular brands and a little description on each. I promise the videos will get better and more professional over time. If you like the video hit the "like" button and "subscribe" button and this way my videos will be in your YouTube feed. Thanks so much! Mike Designed 2 Deceive https://youtu.be/dnVVXXaZOPY
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If you haven't ever fly fished the quality waters on the San Juan River in New Mexico, you are missing out. Trout are everywhere, and its difficult not to hook a few. The problem there though is that your best bet for hooking trout is with small midges in the 28-32 size verity. Also you need to use really light tippet like 6x. Flourocarbon is best. Because the river is fished quite heavily, the trout come accustom to knowing what is a fly, and what is not, so you need to fish really light. These are not small trout, and therefor its difficult to bring them in. The small hooks rip out of their mouths, and the light tippet snaps when you put any pressure on the fish. Fighting a large trout can take you 10-20 minutes before getting it in, and by that time you have lots of chances to loose them. This trip was one of the more frustrating I have had on this river. I hooked 3 large trout, and lost all 3. One of those monsters was over 20". Frustrating indeed. However I did manage to land countless other smaller fish. It was a great day though even working through the frustrations. I was using a rod I tied myself. The blank, and components were purchased from the "hook and the hackle". I find this rod to be excellent for the money, and a great streamer and larger nimphing rod. However it is a bit stiff for what I needed today, and the loss of 3 fish proved it. The rod always preforms well though, especially for casting. The reel I was using is a Sage 2250, and the line was Rio Mainstream WF5F, a simple $40 fly line. You don't need much more then the mainstream line on this river due to not having to cast very far often. I think I would have faired better with a 4wt fly rod that had a bit more bend to it. Less pressure on the fish, and less chance of ripping that hook right out of their mouths. I even bent a hook on one of the fish.
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If you haven't ever fly fished the quality waters on the San Juan River in New Mexico, you are missing out. Trout are everywhere, and its difficult not to hook a few. The problem there though is that your best bet for hooking trout is with small midges in the 28-32 size verity. Also you need to use really light tippet like 6x. Flourocarbon is best. Because the river is fished quite heavily, the trout come accustom to knowing what is a fly, and what is not, so you need to fish really light. These are not small trout, and therefor its difficult to bring them in. The small hooks rip out of their mouths, and the light tippet snaps when you put any pressure on the fish. Fighting a large trout can take you 10-20 minutes before getting it in, and by that time you have lots of chances to loose them. I hooked 3 good sized trout on this trip, and brought in 2 of them. The 3rd one I lost never got on camera due to my batteries dying. This trip was a tough trip though even though I landed a few fish because I was struggling to get bites. I only had 3 hit all day, and I was lucky enough to bring in 2. Finally the hunt for the San Juan River trout is over, and I can move onto another river in my next series of fishing rivers. Some would consider the San Juan to be more of a creek as its not very wide, but there are spots that are very wide and those places are slow and shallow, but there are big trout all throughout this river. I landed 2 fish, and hooked a 3rd on this trip. That third fish was just too big, and too strong to bring in. I lost him about 2 feet from landing him in the net. All around a great day fishing. The first time I fished the San Juan must have been a once in a blue moon trip because I landed 20+ trout in about one hour. This river is considered one of the best in the United States, however its not quite like some of these rivers you see in New Zealand. There are lots of people, and its not so remote and secluded feeling. However its a great river still none the less. The rod I was using is a TFO Lefty Kreh Professional Series II which is a bit more moderate action then the rod I was using in the first video of this series.. The reel I was using is a Sage 2250, and the line was Rio Mainstream WF5F, a simple $40 fly line. You don't need much more then the mainstream line on this river due to not having to cast very far to often.
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If you haven't ever fly fished the quality waters on the San Juan River in New Mexico, you are missing out. Trout are everywhere, and its difficult not to hook a few. The problem there though is that your best bet for hooking trout is with small midges in the 28-32 size verity. Also you need to use really light tippet like 6x. Flourocarbon is best. Because the river is fished quite heavily, the trout come accustom to knowing what is a fly, and what is not, so you need to fish really light. These are not small trout, and therefor its difficult to bring them in. The small hooks rip out of their mouths, and the light tippet snaps when you put any pressure on the fish. Fighting a large trout can take you 10-20 minutes before getting it in, and by that time you have lots of chances to loose them. The rod I was using is a TFO Lefty Kreh Professional Series II which is a bit more moderate action then the last rod I was using. However it didnt seem to help much with bringing the larger sized trout in on these tiny nymphs. I tried very hard not to put much pressure on the fish when fighting, however I still lost them. The reel I was using is a Sage 2250, and the line was Rio Mainstream WF5F, a simple $40 fly line. You don't need much more then the mainstream line on this river due to not having to cast very far to often. I hooked 4 good sized trout, and one was well over 20". In fact, the one I lost due to it wrapping around "big rock" was easily 22-24". I just could not put enough pressure on him to steer him clear of the rock.
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Brown shrimp are a very common food source for many fish. I used to fish quite regularly in the gulf of mexico, and it was probably the most common bait people used out there. Many fish like redfish and seatrout love these little snack meals. This fly mimics the looks of a brown shrimp, but also with the right fishing techniques can also mimic the movement almost perfectly. You will catch lots of fish with this fly. Hook: Gamakatsu SS15 - Size 2 Body: Starburst Dubbing - Tan Antenna: Crystal Flash - Gold Eyes: Mono Eyes - Pink Thread: Ultra Thread 70 - Black
