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Royal
Gorge Anglers' Newsletter
October 11, 2005 |
| Hello
Everyone,
 I would like to apologize for my
negligence last week. I have been fishing too much, if there
is such a thing. Fall is my favorite time of the year, and I
try to get out as much as possible. This magic time doesn't
last long and standing in knee deep water surrounding by a blanket
of gold seems to be a good idea to me. Jan Carson and I took a
little road trip on Sunday to the Conejos River area. She is
from there and wanted to do a little "leaf trip". We chose a
perfect day. A snowstorm was moving across with light mist
below 9,000 feet. Sweater weather with Mother Natures' best
show to entertain us. You can see from the photos in this post
that this was a special day. I took advantage of the
opportunity to go over LaManga Pass to Chama to buy red chili.
I have been making a chili run to New Mexico each fall for as long
as I can remember. Being from Texas, I'm not a green
chili kind of guy. I like red Chili Molido hotter than the
binges of you know where. I use it in Pasole, Texas red
chili(absolutely no beans), pasta sauce, and have even been known to
sprinkle a little on a dirty martini or two. There is nothing
like Chimayo chili to get you through the winter. Some prefer
Hatch and others around here like the Pueblo chilies, but I am a
Chimayo guy. They have a flavor that is unmatched. You
have to understand that chili is like cars and fly rods.
Everyone has their favorite.
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| Spawning
Browns are on the move......
 With the snow storm this week, the
Arkansas and most of the state's rivers discolored a bit and took on
some water. That has subsided today, and clearing will be
pretty much complete by tomorrow. With 70 degree weather
predicted for the weekend (isn't this a great place to live),
fishing should be gang busters. Look for Browns on the
Arkansas to be seriously thinking about making babies with this
little water temperature drop. Males will be very aggressive
and should be the target population. During the daytime, you
won't see many fish on redds (spawning beds) so fishing away from
the redds is easy to do. These Browns are busy at night and
generally drift below redds during the day. If you have not
fished during this time of year, then there are a few things to
remember. For those of you who have heard this speech before,
please forgive me. There are few things in our environment as
precious as a wild trout. Rivers that are stocked are better
than no rivers at all, but wild fish are what drive the sport of fly
fishing. We, as sportsmen and ladies, have a responsibility to
not mess with fish while they are doing their thing. How would
you like a 200 pound gorilla in a pair of waders wading through
your bedroom???? That conjures up quite a picture doesn't
it? Anyway, fish are not shy and they don't mind if you watch,
but throwing a nymph across a spawning area is not very
ethical. There are plenty of fish off the redds to make your
day interesting. By the way, the term redd is simply an old
Gaelic term that refers to the graveled areas where fish lay their
eggs. Generally, redds are along gravel bars
that carry about a foot and a half of light riffle
water. Hens remove the silt from the gravel with their fins
and tails in preparation for laying millions of roe. The male
will then hover over the eggs and spray them with a fog of
sperm. Females will leave the nest eventually, but males
may hang around for days keeping an eye on things. You will
see fish this time of year that are pretty beat up and even a few
dead ones. In a river like the Arkansas, you may see more than
just a few dead ones in an eddy or slow pool. Some fish
simply do not make it through the process, especially some of the
older ones. Don't be concerned, it's natural and not a bad way
to go I suspect.
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| Headline comes here headline comes here.
 There are dozens of fly patterns that
work well this time of year. Lots of folks like using
attractor dry flies such as Wulffs, Humpies, Renegades, Variants and
Trudes. Count me in that group. Streamers are starting
to come on strong right now and late October till Thanksgiving is an
excellent time to throw Woolly Buggers, Gray Ghosts, Mickey Finns
and the like. If you need more information as fall goes along,
please refer to our fishing reports on the web site for pattern
suggestions. Others like to fish BWO patterns this time of
year. I live to fish adult and emerger BWOs, but I know that
nymphing is really the way to go unless a good cloud cover
exists. The fly on the left is Larry's newest creation, the
Cold Turkey Baetis. It is tied with a turkey biot and Ice
dub. We have it in 18s, 20s and 22s. If you want to buy
a few, they are in the on line store on the web site and if you want
to tie it, the recipe is in the fly pattern section of the
site. Either way, it is a killer right now either fished deep
behind something like a bead head Prince or hanging off a Copper
John below a Stimulator in a Hopper/Copper/Dropper rig.
Next week I plan on starting our annual
equipment review series of newsletters. This will take several
weeks to complete. We'll cover rods, reels, waders, boots,
leaders, tippets, vests, packs and clothing. Each week will be
something different. This is the fifth year we've done this
and many of you wait for it each year. I've even got
manufacturers asking for space now. I try to give an honest
opinion of a smattering of the gear available out there for
purchase. I certainly can't cover it all, so I cover different
price point examples. I do not sell all of what I write about
and this is not intended as an advertisement. As many of you
know, I often spend space on Cabelas and other companies that I
believe have good buys for you. So, if you have a
particular piece of gear that interests you and you want to know how
it stacks up, let me know and I'll try to include
it.
Capire et
Relinquere,
Bill
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