River Cleanup Report

The South Platte River was a raving success. The river is as clean as I have ever seen it and I owe a great deal of thanks to all of you that came down and made a difference. 

 

We had really low flows this year, but The City of Denver was gracious enough to bump flows up to about 100cfs in order to get some of the smaller rafts and duckies going. Good times were had.

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Double Royal w/ Cheese

Howdy folks, sorry for the short delay in posts. Been pretty busy. I will have a nice write up on a VERY successful Platte River Cleanup after the weekend, but in the meantime, I wanted to introduce you to one of my newest favorite blogs that written by an artist that I have admired for a long time and one that I personally consider a friend. If you like good tunes, awesome artwork and fish... then go visit my friend Paul Puckett over at rightbrainretrieve.com. You wont regret it.

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Be at The Cleanup... or Mad Dog Will Kill You...

The first year I did the South Platte River Cleanup we cleaned up an underpass that was covered in empty cat food cans (food for Mad Dog, I presume), empty cans of 4Loko, naughty magazines and human feces in it. It had a spray painted sign over the top of it that read "This is Mad Dog's House. Don't Touch Mad Dog's Stuff or Mad Dog Will Kill You!" Well, Mad Dog was probably not happy when he came home to find nothing left but his feces (every river cleanup person has their limits). The South Platte deserves better than to allow Mad Dog ruin it. So if you ever plan on carp fishing on the Platte, or just want to help our coldwater fisheries, then join us this Saturday for the cleanup. Here's the info:

Help Clean Up the South Platte River and Bike Paths April 21, 2012 at Union Avenue Put In.
This is an Earth Day event in conjunction with the Greenway Foundation where volunteers picked up trash along the South Platte River and Bike Paths. We usually have between 150 and 250 volunteer rafters, kayakers, cyclists and pedestrians. In past clean ups we successfully removed an average of 1.5 TONS of garbage from the river and bike path each year. The event garners local and regional media coverage on Fox News and 9 NewsTV channels, as well as appearing in the Denver Post newspaper. We start at the Union Ave Put In, raft, kayak, bike and walk 6 miles of the S. Platte River and Bike Path finishing at Habitat Park.

Please contact the event coordinator: John Kahn, Confluence Kayaks,jkahn@confluencekayaks.com, 303-433-3676 for information about sponsorship, contribution information and details on how to get involved.

2012 Event
When: 4/21/12
Registration starts at 9 am
Clean Up: 11 am - 3 pm
After Party: 3 pm - 5 pm
Where: We will be starting at the Union Ave Put In, rafting, kayaking, biking and walking 6 miles of the S. Platte River and Bike Path finishing at Habitat Park. Put-In/Start: Union Chutes, On W. Union Ave. just west of S. Sante Fe Dr.
Take-Out/Finish: Habitat Park, S. Jason St. & Exposition Ave, Denver, CO 

What: If you’ve got a raft, bring it we will find people to float with you, bikes and your own feet are other ways to be involved. Please see our personal gear checklist for suggestions on how to be prepared for a float trip in April. 

At this time we do not have a sponsor who is providing shuttle service, so please plan accordingly.

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Old Man and The Sea

the old man and the sea from Marcel Schindler on Vimeo.

Turn off the music on the right for a bit and check out this video of Marcel Schindler sketching out The Old Man in The Sea in 4 minutes. I dig the AWOLNation jam as well as just being a cool time lapse video. 

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Rocky Mountain High

Greenbacks are on the horizon!

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12 Months of Awesomeness: April

Twelve Months of Awesomeness continues with another item that I have been meaning to do for years, but simply put off until tomorrow. Well, today is that tomorrow. I have always wanted to learn how to grow my own food. This month, I will be building a large elevated planter and growing my own fruits and vegetables. I have always considered myself a friend to the plant world (hehe), so now I will actually learn how to grow them. Now don't get me wrong, I have planted flowers and trees before, but just never actually produced food for my table through a garden. This may not seem like as big of a goal, but this is something that is important to me as I try to live a more sustainable life. Maybe I will even try eating only things not purchased at a grocery store or restaurant for at least a week.

In fact, I am going to do just that... this will be a dual goal. Once my garden is up, I will also try eating only food from my own creation for a week a month... We'll see how that goes.

I will start building the bed first, because we are getting 6 inches of snow today and my morning looked like this:

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I Dig it... I really dig it....

Egg Sucking Intruder - Black & Blue from Dimitri Gammer on Vimeo.

I probably wont be posting too many steelhead flies for a while, as I am gonna focus on trout and musky for a while, but I just had to show y'all what I will be wrapping up at my desk tonight. I am really diggin' on this pattern and look forward to seeing it in action next fall. 

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Fight The Power

If you are going to fish Bristol Bay this summer, do your part to make sure it isn't your last trip. Help save Bristol Bay by booking a trip where you know your dollars are going to make a difference. 

AlaskaFlyOut.com has teamed up with Trout Unlimited's Save Bristol Bay Campaign to help raise money to stop the proposed Pebble mine and protect Bristol Bay's epic fishing waters. You can help by booking a fishing trip before March 10th. 

HOW IT WORKS

1. Go to our promo page: www.alaskaflyout.com/save-bristol-bay

2. Choose from one of our 25+ recommended lodges and adventures.

3. Fill out the booking inquiry form and submit. Please be sure to include the dates and duration of stay that you are interested in. 

4. The lodge or outfitter will contact you directly by phone or email as soon as possible to discuss availability, trip questions, and additional booking logistics.

Once you book your trip, sit back and relax. Dream about the fish you will catch, and feel good about helping to protect Bristol Bay's fish, wildlife and rivers. As a thank you, we'll send you an AK fishing gift before your trip.

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Fly Shop Friday

What better day to remind people of the great fly shops around the country than Friday? 

Baldwin Bait & Tackle (BBT) in Baldwin, MI is one of my personal favorites. They sit across from the Pere Marquette River, which is one of the most diverse fisheries in Michigan. It has it everything a fly fisherman could want in a trout stream. First of all, it gets a wild run of steelhead and salmon (both Coho and Chinook) that can be targeted easily with spey rods or nymphing alike. That of course is what is most popular with fisherman of the area, but myself, I go to the Pere Marquette for the trout. Whether it's stripping streamers from the log riddled banks or walking around in the dark throwing bushy hex and mouse patterns for massive browns that go "plomp!" in the night (seriously, their rises sound like bowling balls being thrown into the water), it's a river you soon will not forget. 

With hatches like this, no wonder the trout are massive.

BBT is THE shop for fishing the Pere Marquette. They have the flies, gear and knowledge to help you find fish regardless of what time of the year it is. So give Steve a call and let him know Hip To The Sip sent you. 

Photography By Steve Fraley 

Baldwin Bait and Tackle

9331 S. M-37

Baldwin, MI 49304 

Phone (Toll Free): 877-4-BALDWIN 

fishbaldwin.com

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Hope Springs Eternal

I think it's safe to say that spring is here in Colorado. The snow is gone on the front range and bugs are popping even in the high country. Instead of hoping for more size 24 midges, I can reasonably expect to find at the very least some baetis. It's nice to know that bigger hatches, big streamers and warm weather are on the horizon. Now, i'm not foolish enough to think that we wont get another random snow shower, but the snow is fighting a losing battle. We won the battle of winter once again. 

I am going to go tie some dry flies...

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My Mantra

At my age, there aren't too many life lessons that I got a handle on yet. There are a few things that I do know though. I know that nothing in life is easy. If you want a better life, you have participate in the process of getting it. If you want to fish the for something you haven't fished for before, you have to buy a plane ticket. If you want to become a better person, then you have to make a daily conscious effort to become a better man/woman. Write down the things you want to accomplish. Look at them every morning and make plans for your day that get you one step closer to that goal. 

Don't type them into a word document and save them in your documents folder. In fact, they should rename that folder. "Where Dreams Go To Die" is a more fitting title than anything you could possibly name it. There is a change that happens when you physically write something down with pen and paper. So write down your dreams. Look at them daily. Then plan your day as if your only goal is to get one step closer to each of those goals. 

If you want to live life to it's fullest... the first thing you have to do is live.

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Blast From The Past

  Broke out the scanner and took an attempt at editing some old prints of fish from yesteryear. 

34" Lake Run Brown caught on a green caddis pupa - Circa 1996

Don't act like those camo waders don't impress you. I see you checking them out....

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Match The Hatch

I ran across some funky stuff at www.gajaflies.it. I think I need some of those beagle patterns for musky fishing this weekend.

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Word on The Street

Musky Country: Zero 2 Hero Trailer from RT on Vimeo.


Word on the street is that the ice on my local Musky haunt is clearing. But that's just the word on the street.

If yours isn't then pick up Musky Country: Zero 2 Hero from Rob Thompson at thirdyearflyfisher.com.

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12 Months of Awesomeness: March

So.... as many of you know, I turned 30 recently. Once I finally quit dry heaving and hyperventilating I took a real hard look at how I have spent my life. Now don't get me wrong, I have had a very spirited and eventful life, but I haven't completed half of the things that I thought I would have by now. This is an epiphany that will not go unnoticed or without immediate action. I have decided that I don't want to wake up 40 and feel the same way.

This leads us to [/que Michael Buffer voice] 12 MONTHS OF AWESOMENESS......

So here's my plan. I have spent too much time saying that, "one day I will". Every month starting with March, I will do something that I have always wanted to do, but put off. In March, I will take guitar lessons. I have sat around far too many campfires wishing I knew how to play the guitar better. 8 weeks of lessons will hopefully set me on the right path and get me jamming CCR songs by July. Either way, I will have done something that I always said I was going to do.

This is going to be a great year. 

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