D Sheats Special

Went fishing yesterday with Sheats and teamed up with Judson Rogers and a bunch of his buddies. THe spot required a pretty decent hike in which is great because it keeps out most people. Sheats and I fished on the far side of the river which required a lot of billy goating which at times got kind of annoying but ultimately aids the fishing for the same reasons as above. Just to give you an idea we spent a lot of time with our rods in our mouth because we were on all fours trying not to slide off the mountain. THis place continues to blow my mind because I have never seen a place except for newzealand that seems to only have huge fish. The water is crystal clear and while you are billy goating around the cliffs on the side of the river you consistenly look down into these sexy holes that are just loaded with big fish that you probably will not be able to catch. For the most part the day was pretty slow. We were all fishing hard and throwing everything we had at them. Sheats was even fishing 7x which in my opinion is retarded because even if you hook one of these things it would be just short of a miracle if you land it on 7x beacuse not only are the fish huge but the water is cranking. Anyway most of us were still skunked at noon. I hooked a smaller fish in the ass and was pumped to have the skunk out until sheats informed me that does not count. Anyway at about 3:00 right before I was ready to go lay down in the woods and take a nap I took off my strike indicator lengthened my leader by about 3 feet and tied on a huge stone fly nymph with two big weights tied into it. Then I put on a size 16 dsheats special(caddis fly that Sheats ties) about 2.5 feet behind the stone fly, and despite my better judgement I was using 6x fluoro carbon. Anyway for whatever reason this seemed to be the ticket. I think it was all about getting the caddis fly at the right depth and far enough away from the stone fly that it could get a good drift. Also it is worth noting that there was an incredible caddis hatch coming off but absolutely no fish rising. Anyway I proceeded to farm 4 big fish two of which were right in front of Sheats which makes it sting even more and then break off two nice fish. I was just about ready to snap my rod in half when I hooked the monster below. I will be the first to admit that this fish was almost a total fluke. I might as well have won the lottery. I could see the fish stacked in the current about 20 feet down stream and I just felt like the cast was where it needed to be and I saw the fish open its mouth without even moving so I set the hook. Took me close to ten minutes to land the fish not because if fought that hard but just becuse the thing was so heavy. I am pretty sure even though the pics don't do it justice this was the heaviest fish I have ever landed in America. It made one good run and tried to jump but it only got its fat ass about halfway out of the water. Ended up catching a couple more fish to round out the afternoon nicely only to find out that in addition to the PBRs Sheats stached in the river Jud and posse had two bottles of whiskey on ice waiting for us at the car. Wonderful ending to a fantastic day. Also worth noting that Sheats and I left at 6:30 am and did not get home til after 11pm.

John Prine with Emmylou Harris Live at Red Rocks 2008

McKee/Gurasich Clan comes to town

We just had the McKee Posse for a great but way too short visit. Hopefully we can get them to come back somtime soon when the skiing or the fishing is good. While they were here we ate a bunch of good food and saw some great music. The highlights were A'telier, which was really delicious food that was not neccesarily complimented by a bizarre atmosphere. We also had lunch at The Kitchen which continues not to dissapoint. On th music front we went an saw John Prine and Emmy Lou play at Red Rocks. Red Rocks is an incredible venue no matter who is playing but this was the first time I have been there to see an artist I was really excited about. The fact that Molly and Bob had never been there before and Sarah has an unhealthy obssession with Emmy Lou made it even more exciting.

Sarah will be mad at me for blogging about this but I actually thought emmy lou stunk the place up! If you are playing in front of 50,000 people that paid 40 bucks to see you the least you can do is learn the lyrics to the songs you are singing. Not only that but it is disrespectful to the person on the stage with if they are the one that wrote the songs. When she had to read the lyrics to angel from montgomery it totally blew my mind. Everybody in the world know the words to that song. Not only was she reading the lyrics but she totally botched the performance. If you are curious you can watch that video on you tube at the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mWvv3lFHbg&feature=related

Thank god John Prine is a huge bad ass and put on an incredible performance. I was really there to see emmy lou and did not know much about John Prine, but he totally blem me away. He played for 2.5 hours without a set break. I think a really powerful sign of a talented artist is when they have the ability to completely silence a crowd because everybody at the conert is hanging on every word. Check out this link to see what I am talking about http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nd6fgL-jv0&feature=related durin "Hello in There" and most of his songs you could hear a mouse fart. Anyway I had a great time at the show and can't wait to get all the JP albums Bob is sending us. Thank you sarah for getting us tickets and sorry I ripped on Emmy Lou, but pewwweee!

JP and Emmy Lou playing in spite of ourselves. Tell emmy lou to put down the paper.

Turkeys a lot Gordo Nothin!

I am pretty sure I worked harder last weekend then any other turkey hunter in America, and I have nothing to show for it. NOT EVEN ONE GOBBLE. I did see two hens which has been par for the course for this season. One of the things that I love about turkey hunting is that it is so difficult to call in a spring tom. I think my average is about 1 bird every 3 years and I hunt every chance that I get which is usually every weekend of the season at least. Usually though I at least get to talk to the birds and end up getting outsmarted. This year however I had a couple homosexual interactions with some hens but did not have one gobbler talk to me. Conclusion: hunting on public land sucks!! There were so many gapers in the woods this last weekend I was more worried about getting shot than I was about shooting something. As a result I ended up hiking from lewis creek trail head all the way over adobe peak which ended up being about a 6 hour round trip(4-5 miles, 3000 feet vertical??) on no breakfast and not enough water. I was seeing spots when I finally got back to the truck. NOte to self never ever hunt public land on memorial day weekend again. Did get some good advice from some locals I trust on places to go next year. Also I am more motivated than ever to work my butt off and get rich so I can hunt on my own property in the future.

Mom's Visit

Mom just left and we had a great time while she was here. Everyday was action packed. While she was here we managed to hike the royal arch trail, watch the Rockies spank the twins, see the Lipizzaner stallions in Broomfield, and eat lots of good food. Here are some pics from the visit.

Texas Trip

Sarah and I just got back from Austin. We went down there to visit Molly,John, and Emily(Sarah's sister,brother in-law, and niece) and do some fishing and turkey hunting. We had an awesome time eventhough the turkey hunting did not prove to be succesful. This season I have managed to call in two hens which has led me to believe I sound like a lesbian turkey. John took me to his ranch which is pretty unbelievable. When we set up on friday morning we heard 4 different birds gobble but we couldn't get any to work with us. My excuse besides my gay calling was the oppresive heat. Way to hot to even think about doin it. Later on we walked up on another spot John thought might be holding birds and we got busted by two big toms and a jake. Decided to call it quits and do some fishing. The bass pond on this place is pretty incredible. THe water is gin clear and you can see lunkers cruising the banks. John and I both caught some nice fish but no monsters. Sarah caught and released all be herself several nice brim. All on the fly I might add.

Saturday Sarah and I had a full day in austin. THe highlights being a butt naked fat chick at barton springs and seeing James Hand play at the continental club. Finished up the day with some great sushi at mizou(cougar territory) after starting the day with the world's biggest breakfast taco at Jim Bob's trading post.

Here is a video of emily checking out her first turkey call and a picture of one of the bass.

Dex goes down at Berthoud

Grassman and I went and skied Berthoud the other day, and on our first run I got a little too close to dex and the edge of my ski caught his right leg. I barely nicked him and he did not even make a noise but when we stopped I noticed he was bleeding profusely and had a big junk of sking/furr dangling from his leg. I took off my shirt and Grassman and I bandaged up his leg for the rest of the trip out. WHen we got to the bottom we were pretty fortunate to get picked up right away by a construction worker on his way over the pass. The guy was very generous and compassionate. Fortunately he had a first aid kit on him and he helped us bandage dex up for the trip to the vet. He also insisted that we take extra gauze, first aid ointment, and tape for the trip to the vet. People like this guy really restore my faith in the inherent goodness of people, and because of him a potentially really awful situation turned out just fine. We got dex to the vet quickly and within a matter of a couple hours, a lot of cheez, and about 20 stitches later we were on our way.