Entries from August 2009
My wife, Marian, and I had the good fortune to go recently on a five day horse pack trip to the Cloud Peak Wilderness, Big Horn Mountains, in Wyoming. The trip was offered by Flatiron Troutfitters, owned and operated by Rusty Borgers out of Buffalo, WY. A number of Boulder Flycasters have gone on this trip before and all have said it was an excellent trip. So, we decided to see for ourselves. It turned out to be much better than even the best descriptions!
The 12 mile ride in to his camp on Flatiron Lake was not too bad, good for beginners to horse pack trips. I have been on rides much more strenuous and challenging. The camp was great with big sleeping tents with cots, a big dining tent and cook tent. Food was outstanding and plentiful. We actually gained weight on this trip!
Now to the fishing. The camp was situated at the outlet of Flatiron Lake. The outlet (50 feet from
the camp) was full of extremely hungry brookies, 10”-14” They were easily caught and for a beginner fly fisher was a good way to really get into the sport. My wife had a blast enticing these guys up to the surface with dry flies, even when it was cold and rainy one day! Now that’s good fishing when you tough it out when it’s raining. By the way, I also caught a few rainbows and cutthroats out of this area.
The area around the camp was full of fishing possibilities for beginners and experts alike. Flatiron Lake is full or brookies, some as large as 17” as well as cutthroats, rainbows and cutbows. The entire watershed of lakes and streams has all of the variety of fish and catching all types in one day is the norm. Some of the lakes and streams in the area have 
some large fish. I never saw any, but there are cutthroats to 20” in the streams and lakes and brookies to 20.” I did get a very large brookie (19”) and it was a real hog!
All in all, it was a great trip and we all enjoyed it. Good food, exceptional fishing, and a great group of people complemented by Rusty’s outstanding outfitting operation made for a good time for all!
Dave Clark
Categories: Fishing
Here is the scoop! BFC desperately needs volunteers to help coordinate our chapter communications across all the mediums we now deploy. Chapter communications have come a long way since the days when someone mimeographed a two page chapter announcement, folded it in two and mailed it to the members. It was not long ago that we had volunteers picking up the monthly newsletter from the printer and having to fold, label and stamp over 800 letters each month. Unfortunately, good times had to end when the expense of producing & distributing a monthly chapter newsletter was consuming over 1/3 of our annual chapter budget.
We are electronic now but I have to admit something was lost when we did away with the monthly mailing. We have however opened great new avenues to communicate with our club. The chapter web-site continues to be the central hub where people search to find out the basics about our chapter. We were one of the first chapters in Colorado to put up a web site. Our site and e-newsletter have won numerous CTU awards and continues to be the work horse of our chapter communications. The problem with web-sites however is that they are static in nature and do not allow for much real-time interaction. Since introducing the BFC blog in late January this year we have recorded over 11,000 hits to the blog with over 250 postings and 300 plus comments. Last month, we also introduced the BFC Facebook page for fishing buddies. The Facebook group page has thirty subscribers and is growing. It’s just one more way to link us all together to share our passions for fly-fishing.
HELP WANTED: we need volunteers who can help manage and coordinate our chapter communications between the different mediums. After discussing the issues during our board planning meeting this past weekend, we have decided to reintroduce mailing of news pamphlets to registered BFC members as part of their membership so we are adding yet another dimension to our communications. These publications will be distributed to the local fly shops as well so everyone can have a physical copy of our events schedule and program descriptions.
If you have internet and publishing skills, we’d like to ask you to volunteer to help coordinate and lead our chapter communications. Bob Bush, Tony Fernandez and Paul Prentiss have held things together really well so far but our current way of doing things is not scalable and cannot be sustained without more technical and conceptual leadership.
Please contact me today if you’d like to learn more about our vision for this new chapter communications board position and would consider volunteering.
Thank you,
Send a note to the President
Larry Quilling
Categories: Announcement
- A hat tells you a lot about the man. For those of you who don’t know Larry, trust me on this.
I was fishing the Fall river just outside of RMNP earlier this spring/early summer. Run-off was dangerously high, and my wading consisted of standing in six inches of water and casting to small pools on the edges of the river. I hooked a decent sized rainbow downstream, and it immediately moved into the current and shot further downstream. I had been drifting my fly under a tree, and was forced to scramble under that tree to follow the fish down river. As I did that, a tree limb brushed my hat, and knocked it off of my head and straight down river. Shortly afterwards I lost the fish but it was too late to retrieve my hat. I assumed that it would end up at the bottom of Lake Estes.
What followed was a sluggish fishing summer. Though I hooked my share of fish, I just didn’t seem to hook as many fish as I generally did, and, when hooked, I struggled to land them. Areas where I have previously had success were dry. I lost a fortune in flies. I couldn’t help but think that losing my favorite fishing hat somehow led to this summer of fishing angst.
Fast forward to last Sunday. I was fishing a couple of hundred yards downstream of where I had lost my hat. The morning had been a microcosm of my summer; I saw lots of fish, hooked a few, spooked more, and landed only one. I was drifting pheasant tail in a favorite spot; an undercut bank shaded by a tree when it snagged. Unable to free it, I waded into the shallow water to retrieve the fly. As I reached under, I happened to glance upstream and noticed something snagged in the roots of the tree. I reached under to free the object and, you guessed it, was once again in possession of my beige StorageTek fishing hat.
I cannot tell you how happy I was to see that hat again! Though too dirty to wear immediately, I shoved it in my pocket and hooked (and landed!) two good sized rainbows in the next ten minutes. I wish that I could tell you that I landed every fish that I hooked for the rest of the afternoon; in fact, I hooked and lost the biggest fish that I had seen all day. But I definitely hooked more fish, and landed them. Something tells me this is going to be a good fall.
Larry Lummis
Categories: Fishing
By: Thom Curtis
Programs Chair
When: Sun. August 8/30/09
This is a chance for those of you that don’t get out fishing much but would like to, want to meet others and make some new friends, etc. I will host/guide approx. 6 people and we’ll put the small 3wt or 4 wt creek rod or bamboo to use on small water and toss dry flies to willing trout.
This is a day trip, bring along a day backpack, your lunch, some water and we’ll do some easy/moderate hiking and head to some high altitude, small stream waters in search of willing trout, new friendships and probably some new favorite fishing spots.
Meet Up: at 6am at the Village Inn, located at Hwy 7 and I-25 – car pool to fishing destination. Fish till about 4pm, then maybe stop some place after fishing for a bite to eat/beverage before heading back home.
Please email me your RSVP if you would like to go. First 6 are in! COTroutbum@hotmail.com
Hope you can make it.
Let’s Go Fishing!
Thom
Categories: Announcement
My best carp of the 2009 season was taken this morning at around 10:00 am on the VSCF some 30 feet from shore in about 12-inches of water. The fish weighed on my Boga Grip was a shade over 16 pounds….Paul Prentiss
Categories: Uncategorized
28th street bridge fish kill
From the Millennium hotel fish observatory down to 31st street there is a stretch of river where fish life is belly-up. Aquatic insects seem to be alive and surviving. DOW has conducted a water sampling last night, I am not sure if results are back yet. Most fish are piled up below the 28th street bridge. There is not a significant difference in the type or size of fish that were killed, it seems all fish in that stretch were wiped out. Please keep posted if you have any information.
chadpettrone@yahoo.com
Categories: General Conservation
by Mark Riley
Date: August 18th
Time: 4 pm – 7:30 pm
Weather: Cool in the 60’s, partly cloudy and a bit windy.
Other notes: we were in float tubes hoping to fish the evening hatch.
My experience in the past at Lily Lake: once the sun goes down below the mountains a prolific midge hatch starts up and the lake comes alive for about 60-90 minutes. That didn’t occur on this evening and fishing was very slow. I fought and lost a couple of nice cutthroats on a Sno-Ball Beetle. Near sunset, I caught some smaller fish on a caddis. Then, paddling back to shore, I saw a rise that looked to be a good fish. I caught him on a gray RS2 — a fine, chubby, 16″ cutthroat. He tried to “moss me” but I paddled over in time to land him. I couldn’t have landed this fish from shore considering all the grass/moss in the lake.
A word of caution regarding Lily Lake. I had not fished it in a couple of years. It’s always been kind of mossy/grassy but now it seems 75-80% covered in those weeds/growth. I don’t know what the Park service thinks about this but I fear for the long-term health of this lake. Float tubing it is difficult and unless you want a really good quadriceps workout, kicking your feet through all that growth is not so pleasant.
Categories: Fishing
by Mark Riley
Date: August 17th
Section: Walker Ranch
Weather: a perfect sunny fall day, with temps in the 60’s
Time: 10 am – 2 pm
Flows: 73 cfs (the lowest I’ve ever seen except in winter)
No risers from 10-1 but caught multiple fish on a stimulator. At 1 pm, a significant hatch started — very large, size 10/12 Red Quill or Quill Gordons? I didn’t have anything that big in those patterns but caught about a dozen (including two 14 inch browns) on a Western Coachman. Saw a dragonfly grab one of these large flies mid-air and take off with it in its mouth — cool.
Categories: Fishing
Toilets consume 26.7% of the total water used inside the home. That’s more than any other appliance or fixture. Toilet leaks can boost that percentage astronomically. Many leaks are caused by a flapper valve that does not close or seal correctly. Here are three tips that you can check to prevent flapper-related leaks .
Make sure the handle is down: If the handle on a toilet remains in the open position, it will hold the flapper open; water will continuously run into the toilet. Return the handle to the closed position and give it a shake, that should shut the flapper valve.
Make sure the chain has slack: The chain must be slightly slack in the closed position. If the chain is too tight, loosen it until it is slightly slack in the closed position allowing the flapper to close completely.
Make sure that the flapper is clean: Check the flapper for mineral deposits. This can cause a faulty seal. If the flapper is dirty, clean it with vinegar and a scrubbing pad.
Why it is important to the fish: If a flapper remains open for 24 hours, it can waste about 4,800 gallons of water. This can flood a septic tank overflow into the drain field. This can lead to runoff into neighboring streams and lakes poisoning the water and ultimately our fish.
A leaky toilet wastes water needlessly. Check your flapper valve today and make sure it is functioning correctly. Our fish will benefit from your actions.
Categories: General Conservation
by Mark Riley
Only the English could write such a poetic send off for a carp, including comparisons to Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch. And in the very serious Economist no less!
Click here for Benson’s obituary.
Categories: Uncategorized
