April 12th guide trip with Andy and Bill

Trick Or Treat

   I remember growing up that Halloween was pretty much my favorite holiday of the year. With September being the time to go back to school and the first couple weeks of October getting cold, the fifteenth would hit and you would start thinking about Halloween. We didn’t have a lot of extra money growing up so most years I was sporting my football uniform and that was okay with me because I felt faster in it. The excitement of the day was extraordinary; I could barely make it through school. 5:00 P.M. would roll around and I would be out the door and hard at it. Two pillow cases and running from house to house til about 9:00 when the lights would shut off. Getting home I would find a solitary place to dump it out and start sorting; Snickers and Reese’s in one pile, 3 musketeers and the rest of the chocolate in another, the pectin based Skittles, Dot’s and JuJu be’s in another, the sugary sweet tarts, pixie sticks ,gum, kandy korn, and candy cigarettes in another, and finally the nasty little orange and black peanut buttery things in another. After counting out a complete inventory I would start the pigging out process, three days and the best chocolate was gone, then the pectin candies, next the sugary and gums and finally all that would be left were those little nasty orange and black candies. Unwrapping the orange and black wax wrappers, sullenly I would rue the fact that I did not do a better job saving the good stuff, but hey, Christmas was on a month and a half away.

  I hiked down to check out some of my favorite spots on the river today and it kind of reminded me of those Halloweens as a kid. The spawn like September, always seems to linger longer than it should and I had been anxiously waiting for the completion. It is an amazing thing to see everything fall into place at the same time every year. Under the City Park bridge I counted twenty or so quality fish (16 inches and up). The fish are feeding like crazy, the water is in perfect condition and the bugs are hatching like there is no tomorrow (actually that is true for the mayflies). The last few weeks of fishing have been nothing short of full sized Snickers and Reese’s, the feeding lanes are packed full of feeding fish, but I also know that it won’t be long and the bag will be empty or just a couple of those orange and black things. If the pattern holds the same as the last few years, we should have about three more weeks of tremendous fishing. Lake season is just around the corner but don’t rue the fact that you did not enjoy your candy a little better.

  I know I have been harping the last few posts about now being the time to teach the newbies to fish and I will keep it up. We have several Guide trips going out this week but still have a few slots open into early next week. We at The Drift Fly Shop are passionate about fly fishing and will do everything we can to make you time on the water a success. There is nothing quite like watching a client land his or her first 20+ inch fish. Thanks for reading, Connell 719-543-3900

Look What The Cat Drug In!!!!!!

  My life in a nut shell can be summed up by an old Emerson Lake and Palmer song; Oh, What a Lucky Man He Was, and there can be no better example than today. I got to spend the entire day today with the most AMAZING person on the face of the planet!!! My Wife, Cat. Cat and I have been married for seven and a half years and I still feel like I need to pinch myself on a regular basis to remind myself that this not just some fantasy dream. I took part of the day off work and we were able to make the most of it. We got to the river at about 10:30 A.M. and the first hour was a little slow. We hooked and landed a few, but the fish didn’t really seem to be feeding. Just before noon, I didn’t hear it, but the dinner bell must have gone off. For the next three hours they were feeding hot and heavy. Every hole we walked into, we saw several fish feeding, and we gave them something to eat. Hehe. Now I need to confess that I need to figure out how to work my camera a little better. In addition to the troutzilla fish on the video, Cat landed 2 absolutely beautiful Bows that I thought I was videoing. I’m sure some of you are thinking that I did that on purpose but seriously I did not. During the afternoon feed time, the fish were munching on RS2’s, FOD’s, SOL’s Ninjas and several other letters(lol). Early and late, our point fly was a rather large blood midge. Yep, when the day is over, life has been way better to me than I deserve. I am the Lucky Man they were singing about.
  The water has come back down since Monday’s storm and the river is in prime condition. I always say that between now and runoff is my absolute favorite time of the year. The fish have made it through the spawn and are healthy as can be and are feeding like crazy. We at the Drift Fly Shop are passionate about Fly fishing and will do everything we can to make your experience a joyous one on the river. We are still doing the open tying on Friday’s from 6 to 8P.M. and Cat will be teaching an entomology class on the 14^th of April. Thanks again for reading Connell and Cat O’Grady 719-543-3900

April Fool's Day Fly Fishing

Fishing today was incredible!!!! I will try to give a detailed report but I am not sure I could be any more accurate than I was in first line. I got stuck fishing by myself today so the video taken from today was kind of poor. It is a little hard to land fish and video at the same time. The attached video is from today and last night when Cat and I were together.

I got to the water today about 11:00A.M. and the fish were already on the feedbag. The first hour had them feeding on Red midges and small caddis. After the first hour, the May flies starting hatching and the fish were attacking FOD’s, RS2’s and large Ninjas. I went from hole to hole and it seemed as if every fish in the river was starving. If today was not the best day ever on this tailwater, it was darn close.

Throughout the year, we get tons of people in the shop that are considering hiring a guide to teach their spouse, love ones or just friends to fly fish. This is the perfect time of the year to do it. The weather is great, the river is in perfect condition and the fish are strong and hungry. We at The Drift Fly Shop are passionate about fishing and will work hard at teaching the finer aspects of fly fishing during guide trips. We also have a couple of Flyfishing 101 classes coming up on April 21^stand another in May. Thank you for reading and enjoy the video/ fish porn and if you have speakers, crank them up!!! Connell 719-543-3900

***Also please remember that your fishing license expired on the 31^st so get you new one.***

Arkansas Tailwater Fly Fishing Report Thursday, March 29th

  I was able to sneak out to the river today and found the fishing to be really good. I got to the water about 1:00 and with a few high clouds was expecting to see tons of Blue Wings. The water was running 345cfs from the dam and another 40 at the hatchery outlet. Now that the river has been up for a week, it has cleared up nicely but be careful when wading. There were no significant hatches going on when I got there so I started with my normal FOD, RS2 and Ninja midge combo. First cast I hooked up but he popped off almost immediately. I caught a few small fish in that hole and then decided to make my way upstream to another spot. A few casts in and I hooked and landed my biggest fish of the day, only 18 inches but quite a ride. Between 1:30 and 2:30 I was hooking fish constantly. I hooked one that got me as excited as a Tim Tebow press conference, he took it, all shoulders and then he was off. Heading back down to my car, I was able to stop at several of the rock clusters. Each cluster seemed to be holding two nice fish and half a dozen 13 inchers. The hard part today was trying to get your flies only in front of the big fish because if not, the smaller ones would grab the flies, thrash around and spook the larger ones. I wish I could have stayed but work was calling.

  A couple notes from today; I only saw one adult blue wing above Valco, I think the water is still just a little too cold but getting close. I still saw a lot of fish on redds today, the spawn should end shortly. They are neat to watch but there are tons of other very hungry fish in the river. And lastly, stick with Fluorocarbon because the water is clear. With the quicker water, you really need to go to 4 and 5x tippet. 6x and you will be donating your flies to our river. I had one fish take me across and down river before I was able to slow him down, I couldn’t believe it when he came out of the water and he was only about 15 inches.

  With the other waters starting to open up around the state the river seems to be getting less use from fly fishers but seeing more bait people. The nice thing about fly fishing is that most bait people can’t get to where the fish are.hehe.  We at the Drift Fly Shop are passionate about fly fishing and everything that goes with it and we would love to make your time on the water more enjoyable. This is a perfect time to book a trip for someone that you want to learn how to fly fish. The weather is nice and the fish are feeding. Thank you for reading, Connell 719-543-3900

Waterproof Camera Review, Panasonic TS-10 and TS-3

  Hello and thank you for reading. When buying different products over the years I always find myself spending hours and hours researching product reviews and prices all over the internet. The problem so often is that I generally get a ton of tech stats, but not really sure what they all mean.  When Cat and I write reviews, please understand that it is only our opinion, based on our use of it. Different people will sometimes see the same thing but differently. Like I always say, they have the right to be wrong..hehe

  A few years back, I was looking for a good water proof camera and checked all my usual reviews. I decided on the Olympus 8000 Stylus Tough waterproof and shock proof camera. From the very beginning, I was not really happy with the camera. The camera had two main settings, one for all general pics and one with the intelligent setting. I would find that if I could get the general setting to focus, the pictures would turn out great. As time went on, it became harder and harder to focus in that mode. I would switch to the IA mode and it would focus but the color was real poor. The final straw came when I was fishing last spring and landed a beautiful 22 inch Bow. I had my friend take a couple pics in both modes and I was totally disgusted when I got home and checked them out. I didn’t feel like I could take the chance of ruining a client picture when they caught a big fish.

   I started researching again and also checked with my friends. One friend had just purchased a Cannon DC-10 and he was real happy with it. I checked out some of his pictures and found the clarity to be excellent. He had taken skiing with us and the action was great. He also took some fishing pics and I thought they were really good. The clarity was nearly perfect but I did notice just a tad bit of color loss. The pics seemed just a tad bit flat but I was thinking I would still buy it.

  I did some more research and started looking into the Panasonic TS-10 and TS-3. The cameras ranged from 250 to 400 dollars. They both had great reviews, with only a few negatives with both. The TS-10 was a 14.1 mega pixel and the biggest complaint was the high resolution would sometimes give a grainy look. The TS-3’s main complaints were the complexity of the GPS feature and the high cost. I went ahead and tried the cheaper TS-10, I found it on ebay for around 175$. The first time out, I was completely sold. The camera was incredibly easy to use and the pics were clear and colorful. I have been using the camera for a year and don’t think I have taken a bad pic yet. The only issues at all are that there is no lens protector, so when carrying it I need to keep it in my pocket to keep the lens from getting scratched. When taking video, I have not found out how to zoom in and out while filming.   Also, with the clear pictures, it is hard to exaggerate the size of my fish. I would rate this camera at a 8 out of 10, with the minus 2 for the issues I wrote about.

  Cat and I began doing videos for the shop and so we went out and tried using the old Olympus, it was getting lonely in the cabinet. After one trip out, it was clear (or not clear) that this camera was not going to work. I was looking into getting Cat the same one as mine but still wanted to do some more research. I saw that the TS-3 had 1080 video and the GPS issues seemed to be gone. Most stores had the TS-3 at around 400$ and seemed just a little pricey. I found one on ebay for 250$ and decided to give it a try. Not that I really care what cameras look like, but we got the blue one and it is as hot as Cat. The camera is full of features including an altimeter, GPS unit, compass, and barometer and to top it off takes awesome pictures and great video. The best feature about the video is that you can zoom in and out, like a video only player, and it automatically focuses itself on point image. The image stabilization is good but not quite the quality of a true video recorder. The underwater features on both models are fantastic. It gives a unique perspective when seeing the fish and bugs underwater. The camera came with movie making software that Cat found very easy to use. The first night, she turned bits and clips into a short movie. We have not spent a lot of time playing with the GPS section but have found that when looking at pictures on our computer and clicking on properties or display, we can read the GPS coordinates. Hopefully we can block it when other people are viewing our pics on line.hehe. We have only had the camera for a month or so but at this time, I would rate it at a 9 out of 10. The minus 1 is because it has the same issue with no lens protection. I can’t see knocking it because of the price because you totally get what you pay for.

  I hope anyone looking for a new waterproof camera finds this review as helpful. We do not sell cameras in the shop so I can assure you there are no ulterior motives. I know after seeing my pics, Alex also purchased the TS-10 and is very happy with it. Both these cameras are totally worth the price, if wanting to spend more time taking video, I would suggest the TS-3 and if taking more pics, I would suggest the TS-10. They are both wonderful cameras. Panasonic got it right when making these cameras and I think all would be very happy with them.
Thanks for reading, Connell

Fly Fishing Report for March 24th and 25th

   I was able to sneak to the river on Saturday afternoon for a couple of hours. The river bumped up into the 310 to 320 range on Friday and I wanted to check out the conditions myself. With the near record breaking temps, the river was packed with lawn chairs and rafts. Don’t think the swimmers were having as much fun as they thought they would. hehe. The nearer you get to the dam, the clearer the water will be. Fish can still be had, but it is the time of the year that you really need to think about your approach. While fishing deeper, churned up water, I went big and ugly (depth charge). I wanted to make sure they can see what I was serving up. A lot of the water in behind rocks was clear so I went back to my all May fly setup. I hooked several fish but only landed three. While I was on the water I watched a fly fisherman land a 21 incher. Be very careful while wading, if you do not know the section, go to a place you are familiar with. I don’t at all think that the fishery is done for the year. Last year the water came up and then went back down to the mid 200’s. Fishing was awesome into mid May last year.

  Today Cat and I felt the need to get out the pontoon boats, so we headed to La Veta. We are carrying a new Callibaetis pattern in the shop and I wanted to try it out. Cat and I landed close to 150 fish today with the biggest being landed by Cat at 18 and a half inches. The majority of the fish were measuring out between 11 and 14 inches and most had a gut resembling mine(tub-o-lard). Fish were hammering the Callibaetis and red Chrinomidges all day long. My best four were all between 17 and 18 inches. Tactics for the day were to set up in 6 feet of water and throw toward the shore, let it drift out deeper and they seemed to be munching all day long.

 We here at the Drift Fly Shop are passionate about fly fishing. There is still a lot of really good fishing left this spring before the major runoff. If we have not had the opportunity to meet you I hope you stop by the shop some time and say hello. Connell 719-543-3900.