The Hopper Juan

Friday, June 22, 2012

Tying the PMD Ice Emerger

On certain rivers, PMDs rule the summer. I have been in some great PMD emergences and have great success on various PMD emerger patterns. Here is one for you to try out. It's a variation of my Baetis Ice Emerger. Give it a try the next time those big fish are eating emergers right below the surface. Drop it off an adult to track it better and have fun!

Click HERE if you would rather buy them!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Arkansas River, June 2012

I was able to get out a little over the weekend. I fished the late afternoon on the Ark. It was hot and the fish knew it. They were not too interested in eating a lot on the surface during the heat of the day. After the clouds came in, it was good until the sun came back out. Once the afternoon sun got lower, the fish responded a little better. It wasn't until the late evening that they were really cooperative, but that only lasted for a half hour or so. I camped in my car that night at Salida East. I had to share my bed with Buddy and Miles. They are pretty much bed hogs. After falling asleep, I received a phone call and somehow I ended up breaking my glasses in the process of looking for the phone in the dark, proceeded to set my car alarm off around 10:30 PM for about a minute before I found my keys to turn it off, had to go to the Salida Wal-Mart to look for parts to fix my glasses and then sneak back into the campground after setting my car alarm off and loading my crap up and then come back to the campground and unload all my crap again. By then it was 11:30PM. I had an old pair of eye glasses that got me to Wal-Mart and back, but I wonder what the people who saw me thought. My "back up glasses were broken also. Oh well. I stayed that night and slept with the dogs and got up the next morning and headed out. I fish a section with a streamer and had a few misses. I moved on to other stretches, but it was still early and the fish not too active. I finally found a great stretch of water and proceeded to fish it hard. I also proceeded to find out I had a leak in my fairly new waders. What else could go wrong? Oh, I hit my rod hard with my cone head Sculpzilla. It was my Hardy Zenith, so they claim it is up to 60% stronger than regular graphite. After a hit like that, I believe them. The sun was bright and the fish ate--every once in a while. I caught a few, but not like I was expecting. The water was great looking, but the fish just were not eating my bugs like they should have. The wind came up and was blowing steady about 20-30 mph. I finally had enough around 11:30 and left. The fishing was only ok for me. It was the heat and the wind that did me in. The good flies were the Hopper Juan and a Prince Nymph as well as a Sculpzilla. A CDC caddis also moved some fish that shied away from the bigger hopper. I would guess the fishing during the heat of the day is going to be tough for a while until we get some rain and clouds. The fish just don't really want to come up on the surface with the sun beating down on them. But the evenings are great, they just don't last that long!

Perfect looking water.

The boys having a ball!

Just chillin'

MFC Godzilla Sculpin. The same as a Sculpzilla. This was money in the evening.

Caught some on Turk's Tarantula

This one turned down the Turk's and ate a CDC Caddis.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Picture this.......

I’ve been able to get out a few times in the last few weeks, but…..I don’t have any pictures to share with you. My mantra for blogging is “stories are worthless without pictures”. So if you are still with me, I’ll quickly cover what I have been up to. First, I took a few days off of work to go camping at Williams Creek near Pagosa Springs, CO. My wife and kids met their friends down there last year and I promised I would go this year. A few days before we were to leave, our car broke down. The alternator fried. It was a Volvo and if any of you have one, you may know that they are pretty expensive to fix. This was right after I sunk $1,500 in to it to maintain it. That killed that trip, but I still had the time off. One day, I took the kids up to Rosemont Reservoir near Colorado Springs. It was fun as they were all able to strip in leeches and feel the hits and hook the fish. They each landed several and it was good experience for them to feel what it is like to “feel” the fish. I made the casts out for them, but they did everything else, including fighting over who would unhook the fish! The next day found us traveling to New Mexico so the kids could stay with my parents and get some time on the ranch having fun and doing some work. My dad still grows alfalfa and he had just cut the hay. It was about 3 weeks early this year, but what hasn’t been early this year? We needed it to not rain and it did. It got the hay wet and so we needed the wind to blow. It didn’t. If you know the area, you know that a day of no wind comes around about 3 times a year! I left the day after and headed to the Cimarron River near Cimarron, NM. This was my home water and where I learned to fly fish and to guide. The Cimarron is a small little tailwater stream the size of the Middle Fork of the S. Platte and with the population of the Arkansas River. It also has the bug life of both the Arkansas and 11 Mile Canyon combined. I arrived and saw PMDs, Little Yellow Sallies, Golden Stones and Salmonflies all fluttering around. I also saw fish splashing the water, eating whatever happened to be on the surface. It was great! I started nymphing, and then realized that it was summer and the fun is on top, so I went to a stimulator. I then remembered why I loved fishing foam flies. They floated a lot better and longer and after hooking and landing fish, they didn’t need nearly as much care as dubbed patterns. The Hopper Juan was called on and performed perfectly. Although it has the word “hopper” in the name, it doesn’t mean that’s all it covers. It passed great as a golden stonefly, at least that what the fish told me! Around noon, things got slow as I expected with so many bugs in the water and the way fish were eating, they got full! That little river always amazes me. The fish were fat and healthy. The river was not crowed and I had a great time. The next day, my wife and I had a date. We headed into Cheeseman Canyon, her first trip there. It was a good day as she landed her first “bigger” fish around 17” right off the bat. I was able to land a big, fat 21” cuttbow right above the “Narrows”. I actually had to land her in the fast water as that was the only place I could. I was able to get down to the water to land her, but getting back up the smooth rock faces was a challenge and I got stuck with nowhere to go after getting halfway back up the rock face. I finally made it back up and then had to figure out how to get my rod and reel, which was halfway on the rockface as well. I finally got it and walked back to my wife who was happily fishing. I told her I was almost on my way to Deckers. After nymphing for a while, I switched to a Hopper Juan and targeted the faster water. It was a success. The fish were looking up and eating the bigger bugs. I landed 4 more fish before we decided to head out. The walk back out can be hard after spending all day in wading boots. We ended the day with a great dinner in Woodland Park. This weekend, I hope to get out, and have a camera with me.

I have one picture! Jamie and I raking the hay to turn it over after it got rained on.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

The Chubby

Last year, I shot a video on how to tie the Chubby Chernobyl. It has gained a reputation over the last few years as a great attractor pattern. It's easy to tie, to see and floats a dropper with ease. This is one way to tie it and may not be the original way it was tied. I do not know who created this pattern, but have heard that several people take credit for it. I take credit for doing this video. Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions or if you would like to learn how to fish this on the Arkansas River with me.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Caddis Lifecycle Videos

Caddis season is still here! Just because the "big" hatch has come on gone on the Ark, that doesn't mean it's over! Caddis are still out and will be for most of the summer. On the Deckers stretch of the S. Platte, the caddis are just getting started so we can enjoy an extended caddis fishing season. These videos were held at my last tying class at Ghillies Fly Shop on April 6th. Enjoy!

The Wonder Larva from Juan Ramirez on Vimeo.

The Wonder Pupa from Juan Ramirez on Vimeo.

The Shark Caddis from Juan Ramirez on Vimeo.

The Butch Caddis from Juan Ramirez on Vimeo.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

2012 Colorado Snowpack and Comparison

When you look at last year's total, which was almost 3 weeks further down the road, to this years totals, it is mind-blowing to recall that it was still collecting up high this time last year. I was at the base of the South Fork of the South Platte River drainage and there is not a lot of snow up there. Runoff is going to be small this year and hopefully people will start to conserve water. The fishing has already been great, due to these lower flows, but I hope that changes with rainfall this summer, otherwise we and the fish will be in another bad situation. Also included for your viewing pleasure is the snow pack totals from 2005 to 2012. Let me know what your thoughts are and how things are in your neck of the woods.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Ghillies Fly Shop closes it's doors.

This week, one of my favorite fly shops closed. Ghillies Fly Shop was my local shop and I say that because it was just a block away from my office in Downtown Colorado Springs. I spent many hours there in the last year and a half as it had moved from central Colorado Springs to the downtown location. I tied flies and did all of my fly tying classes there since I was basically able to do what ever class I wanted and to introduce anglers to some of my favorite fly patterns for sale. With the shop goes a place to get locally tied patterns and regionally favorite patterns that weren't available in the big box stores. I owe a big thank you to Gary for allowing me to come into the shop and invite some of the best tiers around the Front Range to come down on Saturday's in the winter to tie for the customers. Sitting, watching these tiers was such a great experience and I certainly learned a ton of new tricks and great ideas. I also owe Gary a big thank you for never saying anything when I went rummaging through old boxes looking for hidden treasures and through the new boxes of material when they arrived and taking things before he could ever mark them off the receiving worksheet. It was a fun ride and I will miss tying flies for the customers, many of who never knew who tied them. I am proud to say that I did. I plan to offer some patterns on my blog for sale, but need to plan that out. I love tying and even though I won't be tying for Ghillies, I will still be tying, possibly at Anglers Covey, to offer a few of the local favorites. Thanks Ghillies Fly Shop and thanks Gary for a good time!

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Dirty Ark, 04.28.12

When the water is high and dirty, go dark and have fun!
2010 photo

The weekend was supposed to be colder and darker. Perfect I thought, but where to to go? After a few hours tossing around possibilities I headed to the Arkansas. I needed to drop off some more Royal Gorgeous Caddis at Royal Gorge Anglers and it was a good thing I did because that was the only empty bin in the shop!
The water was higher and pretty murky compared to the previous days and weeks. The caddis were not hatching and it was too bright and windy for the BWOs to come out, but as the day went on, I caught fish. It wasn't easy, but when the water is dirty, throw streamers. It was fun and I moved a ton of fish. The thing with throwing streamers is that you see 2-3 times the amount of fish than nymphing, but the hook-ups can be scarce. I had enough fish on that it was not a bad day. To finish the day off, I was able to throw some #20 dries to some rising fish on BWOs as the day ended dark and cool. I didn't take any pictures today, and I apologize for giving you a story with no pictures, because I think blog posts are worthless without pictures! So even though the day was not perfect and I worked hard for fish, the day ended with rising fish and a G2 in my hand. I guess I can't complain.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Facebook Contest. Need your vote!

Hi guys. I am looking for a little help here. If you are on Facebook, take a second and vote for me if you like my photo, which is entered in a Yeti Cooler contest. Go to this site and like this picture. It's a photo contest and as you can see, it's a winning photo! Don't forget to share it also. THANKS!!!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150806974720944&set=a.10150781605265944.463990.91454100943&type=1&theater

Here is the photo.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Auction Box ready for you!!!

http://cmctu.org/

The following fly patterns will be auctioned off at the Cheyenne Mountain Trout Unlimited auction on April 21st. In this box are some of the best patterns tied by my friends who also happen to be some of the best tiers in Colorado. While these flies were tied to use, this box just might be a collectors item, never to be used. Stop by if you are in the area and see what else they have. All the profits go towards conservation, restoration and education programs.

More information: A box filled with several dozen flies tied by some of Colorado’s best tiers. Included in the box are Papa Apes tied by Larry Kingrey, Rojo Midges tied by Greg Garcia, Stuffed Pickles by Carl Pennington, RS2 by Juan Ramirez, and many other patterns from the vise of Ty Clifton, Mark Boname, Rick Takahashi, Ken Walrath, Michael Gula, Dennis Collier, Herman de Gala and more. This is a box that may never get fished as it may be considered a treasure, too nice to use the flies included. If you do choose to use the flies, it will serve you well as these flies are for Colorado or all Western states. Winning bidder also receives one (1) free tying lesson with “Hopper” Juan Ramirez.