Cruised down to the Eagle a couple days ago and it was silly. Small Black Stones and Giant Black Midges started soming off around 1:30 and the trusty old “Roy Boy” came out to do some damage. I was not on my game and my ratio to fish hooked to fish landed was poor. Did manage a few to the net but was very dissapointed with my performance. Gotta head back and work on my average.

Had the opportunity to fish with a Hatch Reel a couple weeks ago and was very impressed with these bullet proof machines. Everything about the reel was smooth, it was a nice change from my reel which drag had completely burned out. Don’t over look these guys next time you are in the market for a new setup.

Headed North yesterday morning with my buddy Joel for a little Rainbow action below Stagecoach Resevoir. We railed the hell out of them on Olive Pheasant Tails and Sparkle Wing RS2′s. After lunch we headed up river towards the dam to hit some pocket water. Joel broke his very expensive ____?____ Rod on his third cast at one of his favorite runs. I had to laugh, because what else can you do? I handed him my rod and posted up on a rock with a high life and spotted fish for him for a few casts. That is how it went for the rest of the afternoon. We spotted fish for eachother and took turns trying to hook them. We saw some monsters hanging in the funkiest of runs but couldn’t get it in front of them. Here are some shots of a couple we fed.

Bob Streb, the owner of Fly Fishing Outfitters in Avon, and I donated some time to help the Colorado Division Of Wild Life shock the Eagle River this morning. Very intersting how this works, the DOW people line across the river with Trodes, which is a long pole that emits electricity, and scan them out front under water. When a fish is found it will swim to the surface and we net them. From there they go into a holding tank to be counted. We covered about a 100yd stretch twice and netted Brown Trout, Rainbows, Sculpins, 1 Cutt, and some Suckers. Pretty cool thing to witness.