From a local drainage ditch:

Next cast, my fly was ripped off almost instantly. Have to get that fish ASAP.

I've determined that you have to take an extended vacation periodically to maintain sanity at the workplace and home. Last week I staged my mental health getaway. After work on Friday I came home and went straight to bed as I was going to embark on a 17 hour drive starting at 1:30a Saturday morning. Destination.... Breckenridge Colorado. It had been a long week preparing for my departure and it was going to be an extremely long day. My iPad alarm quietly started playing Kaki King's "Gay Sons of Lesbian Mothers" at an obnoxious hour. The house came alive with exhausted people packing up the Saab for the long trip. My daughter didn't even go to sleep as she just got home from working her waitress job. I decided to take the shortest route to Breckenridge, even though it was surely the most boring and least scenic. I was on my way to Dalhart Texas which has to be the most awful place in Texas and possibly the US. If you haven't been there, picture those old westerns with tumbleweeds blowing across the street, throw in a Sonic and you have a good idea of what makes up Dalhart. After what seemed like an eternity, we arrived in Dalhart and stopped at the local Sonic to eat some awful burgers. Yes, the Dalhart Sonic messed up the burgers. We got #1 burgers with cold meat. We ate them anyway and got the hell out of there. The scenery in Colorado started to get more interesting though I think it was the anticipation. We were going to a house that my father-in-law's client let us use for the week, free of charge. We heard it was pretty nice but I was apprehensive. I think it's my nature to be skeptical. That's the damn product manager in me. We started passing rivers that I had only read about... the South Platte.. the Arkansas and finally the Blue River. I knew the Blue River as I fished it way back on my way moving from Utah to Texas. I had planned to fish all over the Blue River while I was in CO but my timing was wrong. June turns out to be snow runoff time which blows out almost all the rivers. I had been conversing with Ned Parker of Breckenridge Outfitters for a week or two. He gave me the bad news a few days earlier that fishing the rivers was going to be less than ideal. He suggested a day of lake floating. As you may know, I'm not a big stillwater fishing fan but he was passionate that it was going to be the best fishing in the area for a while. We arrived at Breckenridge around 5 amid a minor ice storm. That can't be good for the fishing prospects either. I won't go into it in detail, but the house was incredible. It was a 5 bedroom house at the top of a mountain with a dry sauna, wine cellar, 2 large screen tv's, large deck on the back, and a walk to Swan Creek below us. My brother-in-law wanted to learn to fly fish so I let him use my beloved Ross Cimarron Reel and a Fly Logic rod I got off of eBay a few years back. It should be a good learning rig (which I gave to him as a present at the end of the trip). Even the little creek was pretty blown out. The private side of the water which we were on was very hard to fish from as it was at an extreme angle. We tried a couple of fly combos and called it a day. Neither of us saw a fish. He was starting to get the hang of casting and didn't even lose a fly which is more than I can say. We then ran over to the "stair steps" part of the Blue which was across the street from the small local college. Here, I caught a little Rainbow maybe 8 or 9 inches. It was the first trout Wade had seen in person and he thought it was quite a pretty fish. On Tuesday, I took my father-in-law and Wade out to Montgomery Reservoir as Ned suggested it as a good water to let some newbies try out fly fishing. Here's a picture of the lake. No hits until Wade went over to a water intake which was flowing down the mountain and let a pink San Juan worm drift in the current with Thingamabobber as an indicator. He caught 2 small rainbows there and I think may have picked up the fly fishing bug. I got a few hits but didn't land any. Next up was a whitewater rafting trip down the Blue from Performance Tours. Even though it wasn't fly fishing, it was a blast. Here are a couple of pics from the trip.

Thursday was the day I had been waiting for... the guided trip day. The previous day, Ned called to say that even the lake wasn't going to be good on Thursday as the forecast called for 30 to 50 mph wind gusts. I decided to switch to a half day trip and just fish the local streams. I started at 8:00am at his shop in downtown Breckenridge. We hopped in his truck and headed to Silverthorne by the outlet mall. Not exactly the most scenic fishing, but still a nice river location. The water was getting clear and we bounced between a few different calm water areas. We saw some small trout and a bunch of fry's. I caught a little wild brown that was pretty satisfying. After finishing that section we headed over to the star step section of the Blue. I was expecting a bunch of small fish in the 8 to 10 inch range so my expectations weren't very high. Turns out that some of the largest fish on the Blue come from this area. Ok, getting interesting. I worked a few sections and then crossed a bridge where Ned started noticing a few trout holding in very shallow water. Soon, we saw a nice fish actively feeding. I tried about 5 or 6 different flies to no avail. This fish wasn't interested in my presentations. We were getting ready to leave and I tried another cast. She turned around and took it! Next thing you know, Ned has the fish in the net and it's time for pictures. That was so satisfying. I'm not used to targeting a single fish and then coming out victorious. Too put it oh so elegantly.. that rocked. To summarize, Ned was the best guide I've ever had. So knowledgeable and he genuinely seemed to be enjoying helping me catch fish. I've had good guides in the past but none that I would recommend as highly as Ned. I can't wait to get back to Colorado during better conditions. What a trip and sanity restored.

Sometimes it's hard to find a gift for someone who you think has everything. I ran across The Painted Trout a few months back and was very impressed with their selection and quality of work. It's not just a bunch of cutesy gifty crap. With Fathers Day coming up very soon, I thought I would point out some stuff that I would like to get in case one, my wife is reading, two, you could use some ideas. The Dream Flies Pajamas Now you can go to sleep covered in a mayfly hatch. Adams Zinger A Zinger with style
Maple Burl and Black Walnut Presentation Fly Box If your loved one owns some collectors flies or ties their own flies, it would be hard to find a more beautiful place to keep them than these boxes. So, there ya go - three recommendations from the Anglerwannabe. Mrs. Anglerwannabe, I know - that rod I accidently purchased on eBay the other day is my Fathers Day gift. But, for all you other sons, daughters, or wives, I think these items would make any fly fisher happy. btw, I am an affiliate for The Painted Trout though I don't do it for the money. I like their stuff and want to introduce it to others. If I happen to get some change in the process, it'll help pay for hosting.

Ted over at Sportsmans Finest recommended I try out the virtually Internet hidden Longs Fish Camp outside of Kingsville. There is almost no information on the interwebs about it. Amazing... not even a phone number. Ted was able to find some basic directions which he photocopied for me. It sounded intriguing so Parker and I headed out there on Sunday, not quite knowing what to expect. The directions were accurate and it could have been a really nice access point for the Llano River, but there were just too many people out there to enjoy it. In addition, the water was very muddy which isn't very Llano-like. We practiced some casting and I practice my knot untangling. The temp was around 95 so due to all the people, the murky water and the desire to get out of the sun for a bit, we packed it up and headed home. We have a week long trip to Breckenridge coming up so I'm really looking forward to cold water fishing again. Bring on the trout! On another note, tip for you... the Make an Offer button on eBay which I hadn't seen before basically means Make an Offer and Buy. I lowballed a March Brown 7 pc 3 wt rod last night and it was accepted. It should be a great rod for my CO trip though I'm not sure it was worth the discussion I had to have with my wife this morning when I informed her that I accidentally bought a rod the night before. Here are some pics from Longs Fish Camp:

Had a really nice trip out to Hamilton Pool yesterday. Fishing isn't allowed but I did take some pictures. It's worth the short drive out there for the hike. Hamilton Pool flows out to Hamilton Creek which connects to the Pedernales River. The first pic below is close to where the creek connects to the River. Some pics from my Flickr account:

Not much to say about the trip today other than I caught a couple of fish in the hour and a half I was at the river. I caught one larger white bass that I decided not to manipulate into a fishporn shot. The water was much murkier than on my last few trips. I couldn't see the bottom which is a bit disconcerting considering I decided to see if I could fish, wade and use my new Canon DSLR camera at the same time. I only had one close call when a boat motored by me and drove a series of waves up to the bottom of the camera. White flies tended to work better for me (white Cypert Minnow about a size 10 and some ghastly combination of giant dumbbell eyes, white chenille, and white marabou on a size 8 hook that I threw together one day when I bought into the logic that bass like big ugly stuff). Also, fishing in the weedy shallow areas was most productive. Some pics below:

Although I had a ton of stuff to do today at work, against my better judgement, I took off early and went out to Reimers Ranch to pick up an annual pass and see if there were any white bass that were hungry for a fly. The $10 a visit admission fee has been adding up lately. I've enjoyed every visit out there so what the hell, I brought my $100 check and now can go to the Pedernales any time I want. I only had about 2 hours before the park closed so I spastically put on my wader pants (the ones I bought from Orvis a while back when I went back to Utah) in the front seat of the Saab. That brings up a point, I really need a 4 wheel drive trout bum-type of vehicle. The Saab just doesn't fit the bill. I wonder if people in Sweden even go fly fishing in a Saab. I'll have to check that out some day. I ran down the hill and saw a frickin Jetski fly by on the river. What? Why would somebody take a Jetski to the Pedernales? Regardless, they only made one pass by so hopefully the fishing wasn't too ruined. The water was very still compared to last week but it was still pretty clear. I found a nice spot to enter the river and started fishing. I started with a green Cypert Minnow I tied a few weeks back. Nada. I switched to a white clouser, nothing. A mayfly hatch was starting to come off so I tried a dry fly. That didn't work though some top water activity was starting to occur. I also tied a white Cypert Minnow in my last tying session so I tied that on. First cast, fish on - my first white bass on the fly. He was a pretty good fighter for a little fish. I had a hard time managing the net, the rod, the fish and the 3GS so the picture below sucks. I need a better solo photo strategy.... After letting the fish go and overhearing a bait caster exclaim "look, the fly fishing guy caught one", I cast again. Fish on. Another 9" ish white bass. This is getting fun. Another cast and I snagged the fly. I ended up breaking off the white Cypert fly and losing it. I took that as a sign to leave. Mission accomplished. Poor quality pictures follow:

On Saturday, I had a little extra time to fill while my son was at a birthday party. So I did some chores around the house. Well, that's what my wife would have preferred. As you probably guessed, I went fishing. I decided to run over to Reimers Ranch to check out the Pedernales River. We've received a fair amount of rain in Central Texas over the last few months so I was really hoping that conditions would improve from my last visit. Take a look at the pictures in previous posts... the river was almost dry. Although I didn't get a fish to even wink at my flies, I enjoyed getting out on the water and casting some flies I tied a few months back. Here are some pictures which illustrate the change in the river. Dramatic...

Never thought I would say this, but it's just too cold and windy for fishing today.

Yes, I will be getting this very soon.