Covid 19 - Response

Sheltering in Place - COVID 19 

I never really considered death. Then, as the governor was describing sheltering in place, he gave as the reason, “flattening the curve.” OK, as an engineering student at Lehigh University in the 60’s, I understood how important it is to flatten the curve. Every course was graded on “THE CURVE” by the sadistic professors and grad students that took delight in creating hourly exams with a median score of 39%. By flattening the curve, my 15% could possibly be a “C”. 

In this pandemic however, the governor did not stop there. He went on to describe why this was important. If the curve was not flattened, Intensive Care Unit resources could be overwhelmed. As a healthy and active person, an ICU resource was not something I planned on overwhelming. Pandemic or not.  But as the governor explained, young healthy folks enjoying the Colorado lifestyle would probably not be stressing the ICUs. Experience from other countries was indicating that active healthy people from infants to 60 years olds were only experiencing mild or no symptoms at all from the Coronavirus. BUT, he hastened to add, for those over 60, it’s like “RUSSIAN ROULETTE.”

Full stop. What??? Russian Roulette. I’m familiar enough with probability calculations to stay away from life or death gambling, especially if it involves putting a single bullet in a six shooter and spinning the cylinder. I have never understood the fascination with this party game. If there are six players it is guaranteed that there will be brains on the wall. Spin the cylinder, pull the trigger, pass the pistol. This is really a very stupid game. Do you win if you blow your brains out or do you lose and everyone else wins? I’ve often thought it is really just a test of bravery for the mathematically challenged. Is the player smart or stupid to spin, pull, … and maybe pass on the pistol?

Was this just an ill considered simile or is my demographic in a spin, pull, ...OBLIVION … pandemic game of chance? I never gave two thoughts to oblivion? Death has always been far away and assigned to other people who are not as careful, smart, or fortunate. According to the Governor though, it is now right at the doorstep for me and he’s got lots of retirement and assisted living doorsteps to prove it. 

Russian Roulette though is a game of chance. Facebook is telling me that everyone is going to get it. That’s not chance. That’s certainty. The Governor is shutting things down, closing schools, closing barbershops, closing restaurants. But fortunately not gun shops so we can still buy a revolver. Shelter at home he says, or otherwise, for me it’s RUSSIAN ROULETTE.  

OK, so I Stay At Home to flatten the curve. ICU admissions are indeed pushed out over a longer period. Wait.... Am I not playing Russian Roulette or am I just not playing it now. Flattening the curve, if everyone is going to get it, just means spin, wait, wait, wait, pull….. OBLIVION.

As the Stay at Home drags on, we all get masks, and the conventional Facebook wisdom morphs to “Open up. They’ll die sooner or later anyway.” 

But it seems possible to me I can avoid oblivion by not picking up the revolver. A vaccine takes the Russian Roulette revolver away. I’ll wait with minor modifications to Stay at Home. Like stay out of restaurants, stay in the car, stay out of bars, stay in a mask, stay out of stores, stay in Zoom, and stay outdoors.  

Now I can go back to ignoring death again.

At Home Fly Tying Hacks: Fly Tying with stuff you can find around the house.

At Home Fly Tying Hacks:

I've put together some videos showing how to tie at home with no equipment and no materials other than what you can find at home. Getting back to square one can open your eyes to what is essential and what is getting in the way as clutter.

Youtube Video Playlist

Parachute Abigail Adams  https://youtu.be/6A2K-6CqNW4

Foam Backed Emerger   https://youtu.be/C9lpKFXX3B0

Red Midge  https://youtu.be/Lyku-KwiU0s

In one of these videos I actually made my own hooks. 

The pandemic of 2020 gave an opportunity to look at new ways of doing things. Kids (with supervision and without the hook making challenge) are very good at fly tying with their small fingers and fine motor skills. Young anglers will learn patience, middle age anglers will learn why they need reading glasses, and senior obsessed anglers will finally be able to break free of the compulsive addiction to buy new materials for every new fly pattern. 

Fly shops should not be intimidated that flies can actually be tied without equipment or the precise materials called for in a classic pattern. Fly tiers who master these flies will be in your shop as soon as you open to buy doodads and materials to improve their flies.

Leave me a review or suggestion.  

My books on "Fish Before You Fly" from Denver, BWI, or the Mountain West Cities are available in eBook format, often at discounted (cheap) rate on Amazon.  amazon.com/author/john-h-davenport

What's for Dinner - Two Creeks in Colorado April 5, 2018

What Trout were Eating in Vail and Denver April 5th and What I Offered Them.

4/5/2018  Gore Creek runs through the center of Vail, Colorado and has been nicely preserved as a wild stream in the center of a village. It has been screened from the highway and developments by large pines and open meadows. The freestone stream has been left quite untouched except for short stretch near the center of town. I've caught rainbows, cutthroats, browns, and brook trout in the village. 

Gore Creek Brook Trout took the Trico Dry.

This west slope stream flows to the Eagle River which joins the Colorado River to flow to the Gulf of California and the Pacific or to irrigate the produce patches of California. At an elevation of 8,100 feet a rainbow trout was eating mature mayflies, midges (adult and nymph stage) and mayfly nymphs. You may be able to identify other species.  I found a pool below a riffle that had many trout taking emergers. My three fly rig had an Elk Hair Caddis indicator fly, a Trico dry than was sometimes floating, a tiny blob of sink putty, and a foam back chocolate emerger. I caught a brook trout, brown, and a rainbow from the pool shown below drifting down the center and along both seams. Air temperature was about 40 degrees, water temperature was 39, water was crystal clear. This Gore Creek water is very near its Rocky Mountain source from the snows on Vail Pass.

A pumped rainbow was feasting on this during the "Taste of Vail"

Later in the day on Clear Creek just upstream of Golden Colorado at an elevation of 5725, and air temperature of 65 and a water temperature of about 44, and the water was clear. There was no surface activity but the same three flies caught 10 fish, including this nice brown.  Clear Creek drains to the South Platte which eventually joins the Missouri and enters to Gulf of Mexico or winds up on a crop circle of wheat or soybeans in Colorado. This water is 40 miles from its source and has traveled through one former superfund site, two small towns, and 40 miles of Interstate 70.

A Clear Creek Brown also took the trico.

My first sample of a small brown yielded just this midge and an annelida.

A small Clear Creek brown had just eaten an adult midge and a red annelida.

 My second sample of a 10 inch brown showed almost the same composition as the stomach sample 2,400 feet higher in the West Slope drainage.  The fact that the bug sample is very similar is quite amazing. The fact that the same rig of flies was attractive to fish is also amazing. The fact that there was no surface feeding on Clear Creek is puzzling to me.

A 10 inch brown had eaten these in Clear Creek.

My offerings in both stream. Three fish took the foam back chocolate emerger. Seven took the trico dry which was fished below the surface.

Gore Creek rocks provided the cover, but brookies, rainbows and browns were all hitting emergers in the center of this photo.

Fine Clear Creek habitat. Each seam held fish.