Ditch carping

I have been fishing small creeks and ditched around town for quite some time now. I have found that they are great for chub fishing, but I always had a suspicion that there were other fish in there. Last fall, I got 2 new species, a little largemouth and a pure bluegill. , I didn't think much of it, and went on with my chub fishing throughout the winter. I fished it up until runoff started, and then left it be. But when runoff should have started to die down, it kept going. it went on for almost 3 months, and I had given up on fishing it this summer. I decided to hit it in early September, and immediately saw changes. I was rigged up with a hopper dropper for chub, but something immediately caught my eye... a tail up on the far side of the pool. I bushwhacked my way back through the brush to get to that fish, and that was the start of my downhill slide into ditch carping madness. 

I unfortunately spooked that fish, and through that that was my only chance. I made a half-hearted throw into a secondary current seam, and let my fly drift along. I gave it a short strip, and felt weight back. I set back, expecting a snag, but the rid went right back down. The fish was only like 16in, but it was a start. 

Cut to a week or so later, and I was out there again with carp on the mind. I was drifting a hybrid under an indicator in the main current, making cast after cast. after about a half hour, the indicator went under, and I set back, only to get smashed! The fish definitely had more weight to it, and considering that I had a light 5wt to fight him with, I was a little concerned. Well after a heck of a fight, he finally got close enough to be netted. It was a solid 24+in fish, and I was ecstatic! 

I tried again a few days later, but unfortunately, the creek was blown out, so we went elsewhere. I went out Monday, and hooked up right off the bat. Unfortunately, He flopped out of my net right at the shore. I went out again yesterday, and hooked up 3rd cast. I saw the fish roll on its side, and swung. Well it turns out that half of his mouth was gone! 

I sent hm back, and after a while, switched over to a glo bug uner an indicator. Well first cast, I whacked one around 24in! 

Ditch carping is truly a blast, and I encourage you to give any ditches in your area a shot for carp!

Tight lines,

Rob

Brown Town

Fished in town for a bit tonight. Smaller BWO hatch going off, and most of the smaller browns were going after them. Missed about a 12in one on a #20 para BWO, and got a small chub on it. I ended up going to a meaty streamer, and ended up with about a 17in brown. He ate a #2 olive el sculpito. The water has dropped a ton since the last time I fished it, and the fish are stacked in deeper holes. 
Tight Lines,
Rob

The Poudre is awesome!!!

My dad and I headed up the canyon this morning hoping to hit some nice browns. We stopped off mid canyon on the way up, and ended up with a few stocker bows up to about 13in, most on a #6 hothead olive bugger. We then headed up the rest of the way to our final destination. I whacked about a 13in brown right of the bat on a big articulated streamer in some deeper water. 

I broke off a nice fish about a half hour later, and thought that was it for the day. Well I was thoroughly mistaken. I threw past a bigger fish sitting in the current, and to my surprise, he turned and smacked it! The fish was about 22-23in, and ate a big articulated streamer. 

About 10 mins later, something that looked like a sucker pulled up on the gravel bar. I drifted a midge over him a few times and he finally ate it. This led to surprise number 2 of the day, a 17in whitefish! Not only what it my first whitey, but it came out of the Poudre too! 

I got one more small fish it eat a midge, but that was about it for the day. I'm not going to say where on the river I was, but I will say that it is one of the more popular holes on the river, and it was super rewarding to finally get into some huge Poudre fish! All were released, and I even saw the big one holding behind a rock as I walked out at the end of the day.
Tight lines,
Rob

New Video: Tommy Lynch's D&D

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last year, chances are you have heard of Tommy Lynch's D&D. Its just a mess of flash, deer hair, and other fishy materials, and the fish cant help themselves from eating it!

Tommy Lynch's D&D

^^^^^^^

Video Here

Recap...Again

Well crap… 3 months. I guess its time for another recap post.

I’ll start in mid December. My dad and I headed up into the hills to hit one of our favorite brown lakes. Unfortunately, we had to leave a great bit or else we would have been snowed in. we hit one lake on the way out though, and it was amazing. We both got one over 4lbs, and nothing smaller than 15in! Video here: Ice Beatdown 12/22/14

We went back up a few days later to get my buddy Hayden out on his first ever ice trip. Long story short, 66 fish between the three of us, none smaller than 15in! Video here: Big Trout On Ice 12/27/14

On new years day, Hayden and I headed out to Lon Hagler lake in Loveland. We fished hard, but came up empty handed. We decided to hit Boyd lake on the way home, and I ended up catching my first fish of the year, and my first walleye ever!

A few days after that, I headed up into North Park for an overnight trip. We started of at Seymour, and the fishing was great! I ended up with 20 something fish! we then went to Lake John, and although it was slow both days, we managed a few. 

A few days later, I got the chance to fish the Tightline Outdoors Ice Addiction tournament at Boyd, and although I didn’t stick anything, it was still a lot of fun!

A few weeks later, I got the chance to go fish down at Chatfield res. With a bunch of guys from fishexplorer.com. Although we didn’t catch a ton of fish, we still had a lot of fun, made a bunch of jokes, and had some great brauts afterwards! Video here: Chatfield 1/17/15 with FishExplorer Members

At the end of January, I got the chance to do some of my first open water fishing of the year up at Lake Estes. Hayden came along, and the plan was to throw meaty streamers all day. We planned to meet up with another guy from fishexplorer who knew the lake, and it was going to be a blast! What we didn’t anticipate was the brutal wind. It was a sustained 35mph all day. Despite that, by the end of the day, I managed my first open water trout of the year!

I went up the next day to Estes again, but this time for some ice. We started up in RMNP, and got some nice brookies, and ended on a little pond in Estes with some perch.

The first part of February was un-seasonally war, so that left us with open water everywhere. There wasn’t any ice down here, so we were going to head for the hills. Our game plan was to go back up to that lake with all the big trout. All was going according to plan, until we got on the dirt road. Out of the blue, a deer jumped in front of the car, nearly coming through the windshield! We ended up having to drive from 40 miles outside of Laramie, back into Fort Collins with a broken windshield that dropped glass every time we hit a bump!

 My buddy and I tried to fix the day by going carp fishing, but that didn’t work out too well. I had one hit, and that was it. We finally headed to a little lake to see if we could pick up some bass, and finally, something worked out! We both got our first bass of the year, and it was a blast.

A few days later, over a foot of snow dumped, and all of the lakes capped again. That bring you up to speed on where everything is now, and how my winter went down

Tight lines,

Rob

New videos, and the start of hard water

I haven’t posted on here in a while, so here is another recap post. To start, Ive uploaded 2 new tying videos for Mike Schmidt's Red Rocket: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXA6lDjDdqU&list=UUDshY4DlzPO3syYZ2OnvR7g and Rich Strolis's Headbanger Sculpin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ9MNnZgzVM&index=3&list=UUDshY4DlzPO3syYZ2OnvR7g

Both are killer patterns, and are both big and meaty! Also, Ice season has set in on most waters above 7000 ft around here, but with lots of wind and warm water, the ice has gone from some places. The only safe ice in the red feather lakes area was on Bellaire Lake, so thats whew my season began. It was easy to get fish, and I ended up with numbers in the high 40's for myself. The best fish of the day was around 13in, so nothing huge, but it was a killer way to kick off the season! Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQhyiRuIW7M&list=UUDshY4DlzPO3syYZ2OnvR7g&index=1

Tight Lines,

Rob

Re-cap time!

So it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything on here, so I figured a recap was in order. Just a few days after my cuttie adventure, I was able to slay some nice grayling up in the hills! Got 20 something fish and many of them were over 14in!

A bit after that, I was a part of a weeklong TU camp, and I not only learned a ton, but stuck a few fish too! Link to a short article I wrote here: The TU Fly Fishing and Conservation Camp

I also got a new TFO rod, along with a new FishPond pack, both of which I love!

I went up to steamboat a few days later, and the local fish showed me a little love, including some nice streamer and nymph trout, along with my first pike on the fly, followed by many more!

School started a week later, so as a bit of a relief, I got to go do some brookie fishing and relive some of the stress of the first week

But overall, the past few months have been dictated by 4 letters: C-A-R-P! my addiction with these suckers has only grown, and it culminated with my first grassie on the fly just a few days back! I have a video of one of the days here: Carp on the fly 8/30/14I also came up with 2 of the most effective carp patterns I've used, The foam back craw and carp candy. both scored big numbers for me, and I'm pretty proud of how well they work! Video here: Rob Stouts's Carp Craw

Overall, it has been a blast of a few months, and I promise to keep the site better updated.

Tight lines,

Rob