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.

DIY Fly Fishing Around the World

Presentation to Denver Angling Society, Colorado Trout Unlimited.  10/5/2017

Do It Yourself Fly Fishing Around the World

Tenkara in Japan with the Eiji Yamakawa

Fishing with the natives.

       Two weeks before departure it looked like it wasn't going to happen. I'd googled "Tenkara in Japan" in dozens of forms trying to make contact with a fly shop or guide to take me out for a day from Osaka. The only thing I'd been able to determine was that the fishing season sort-of ended in September but private stream fishing was possible until the end of October. I was surprised it was so difficult.

       But then reading the material sent by Overseas Adventure Travel, I discovered I was facing a cultural problem. The shy Japanese nature does not allow the easy connections Americans might expect with others with similar interest. You needed to be introduced by a mutual friend or acquaintance. Aha. Like the old days in US fly shops where you couldn't even buy flies unless someone vouched for you.

       Luckily, Daniel Galhardo, Tenkara USA, finally pulled my email plea from his junk mail and connected me with Eiji Yamakawa, a tenkara angler living near Osaka who, once introduced, was more than willing to take some time off and take me out on a stream in the mountain. The language of fishing is same the world over even without a common tongue. I've had a lot of fun engaging with native anglers for hours using only the props of our equipment, fingers pointing at the stream, and swapping rods and flies.

   

Tenkara Cuts

Heavy to Light - Bamboo to Tenkara - for Cutthroats in Colorado

In 2011, on a stream we like in Colorado not far from Denver,  Fred Miller and I decided on a themed trout outing. We'd do a throwback on our throwback and use bamboo to catch and then release some cutthroat trout.  

Fred's rod, like all his gear, was museum quality and he could actually hold it with one hand. Mine from a garage sale in Canada on the other  hand, took two hands and soon had my left arm exhausted.

Now, 5 years later it was time to visit again.  We believe in resting a stream. Yes, we are that good.
Fred chose his 9 ft 3 weight and I brought my Sato Tenkara rod, extendable to 12' 9".

I fished all dries starting with a Jay Zimmerman Clown Shoe Yellow  Sally.

 
The cutts cooperated. Nice sized and healthy they were.

Fred fished the banks with his 3 weight.


Cutthroats are gorgeous fish but the stream is quite spectacular also.








I convinced Fred to try his hand with the tenkara and he landed a cutthroat on his 3rd drift. We'll see if he adds to his rod collection.


For traveling between stretches in this very bushy area, the tenkara rod telescopes nicely but managing the line is a challenge since, of course there is no reel on a tenkara rod.  TenkaraUSA sells "rod ties"  that look like this. 


I wanted something a little more permanent so I mounted a hook keeper onto the top of the first telescoping section and squeezed a small rubber O-ring between the screw off end cap and the cork handle.



Then when I collapse the rod I loop the extra line around the hook keeper and figure 8 around the rod plug in bottom. 



Where to put the fly is still a problem so I wind an elastic band around the grip and roll it up and down as the  tippet gets longer and shorter to hook in the barbless fly. 





Ready to bush whack.



Much as I dislike removing a fish from the water, Fred insisted we pose this nice cutthroat for a portrait. At least I didn't touch him and he was only out for two breaths. Unfortunately, Fred encountered a proud father and his pre-teen daughter with a string of DEAD cutthroats. It was enough to make you cry. Fortunately for them, Fred was at a loss for words. Want to bet they are now getting freezer burn prior to being trashed in a few months. Why, oh why,  can't we get over this obsession to flaunt a kill. 

No Chance in Hell

A story of Statistics, Fine Bourbon, and Divine Intervention

    This blog has four characters:

• David Nickum, E.D. 
• Colorado Trout Unlimited. 

• Ken Neubecker,
•  A.D. American Rivers.



• Paula Fothergill, 
• Casting for Recovery
•  Instructor & Volunteer

• The Pope

     David lured me to the table displaying 10 bottles of Boathouse Colorado Bourbon and whispered under his breath, "John, if you buy now, you'll have a one in one chance of winning the Scott 9 weight fly rod."
    I demurred. Too good to be true. $75 for a great tasting bottle of local bourbon and a fly rod. There must be a catch.
    Ten minutes later I wandered by again.
   "John, now you have one chance in five at the bourbon and fly rod," David said. Still, not bad odds. I decided to think about it and sampled another tumbler of the bourbon. It really was good.
    As the bourbon warmed my mid-section and clouded my mind with images of tarpon leaping, it became crystal clear that this was a good deal.I turned over my credit card to David who said, "OK, John, you're now at one chance in seven, but still that's pretty good odds."
    I had a good feeling about this as I checked my silent auction bids for a trip on the Fraser with Kirk Kancke, a pair of Smith Sunglasses, and an original watercolor of Chimney Rock. I passed on my optimism to Ken Neubecker.
    "I bought a bottle also," he said. "But I put Paula's name on it. She wins everything."
Unlikely, I thought. Random chance is random chance.
The tension built as David declared the silent auction closed and he opened bottle #8 for more sampling. I can only guess the liquor cabinet where bottles 9 and 10 were going. A hush grew over the nervous crowd of Colorado Trout Unlimited Chapter leaders as they waited for the drawing of the winner of the $795 Scott Fly Rod.
     A young fly caster from the CTU Youth Camp stuck his hand into the antique rattan creel and pulled out .....

"Paula Fothergill!!"

    Wait a minute, wait a minute. She always wins.
     I rushed over to Ken. "OK Ken. Something must be done. I'm calling the Pope. This is just not right." Paula, who was standing next to Ken, gave me that patented sly smile of hers and said, "Well it probably won't help. One time when I was in Argentina fishing and got really ill, my friend convinced me to come down to dinner and I was seated next to the Archbishop of Argentina. He's in Rome now and we really don't keep in close touch."

    The moral of this story is that if Paula is in the room and you are going to enter the drawing, you better make a deal with her or you chances are no chance in hell.

Fly Fishing in Ecuador - 2/2016 - Trout on the Equator?

     I thought it would be easy and I could be wrong about this but Google never lies. Hours of searching failed to reveal guides, regulations, fishing reports, fly shops, stream flows, or fishing lodges near Quito in Ecuador. Once there it appeared that "Pesca Deportiva" meant a concrete tank filled with rainbow trout, a piece of broom stick, a hook attached to a piece of string, and a ball of bread dough. You hook a fish, cough up $3 and then eat it grilled.
     Like many countries, Morocco for example, Ecuador is focused on ocean fishing at present and fresh water fishing is not yet on the radar. From facebook post, none within 2 years, I guessed that you could take a bus from Quito to Papallacta and fish the streams in the high Andes coming out of the Cayambe-coca Ecological Reserve.
     Brenda and I booked a night at the hot springs resort Termes del Papallacta. It looked to be about 2 hours away on an iffy road well up in the Andes on the way to the jungle. We were just finishing a tour of Machu Picchu and the Galapagos so I asked our tour leader to help me get a reliable taxi. He hooked us up with the transit company for the tour. It seemed a little salty at $75 but at least I had recourse if things fell apart. This is the vehicle that showed up to take us and only us to the resort. The road turned out to be new highway with little traffic and not nearly a scary as the 8 hour trip from Santiago, Chile to Mendosa, Argentina over the same mountain range.

 The road turned out to be new highway with little traffic and not nearly a scary as the 8 hour trip from Santiago, Chile to Mendosa, Argentina over the same mountain range.

Crossing over the highest pass. Note the latitude. 0 degrees, of course,  means almost on the equator.

Termas de Papallacta also turned out to be exactly what I'd hoped for except, when I asked the front desk about guides or maps for fishing she said, "Oh no. There's no fishing here. We are in the middle of an ecological preserve." Well damn. 

Luckily, as is the usually the case with the front desk around the world, no one really knows anything about fly fishing. Only 100 yards from the front desk I encountered this sign at the entrance to the ecological reserve.

The fifth line reads,

 I always "only fish under normal regulations," so I got out my Tenkara and hiked up the trail.  I'm more than happy to buy a license if only there is a way to do it. I've had the same problem in France, Morocco, Turks and Caicos, China, Fiji, and India. I give it three honest tries and then tie on a parachute adams, or in this case a tenkara fly.

There was plenty of fishing looking water similar to the small streams in Colorado and Pennsylvania. Elevation was about 9,000 feet. Stream temperature was about 50F. 

Aha. A rainbow on the equator. Apparently rainbow trout were brought to Ecuador in the 1970's, probably to be farmed for "Pesca Desportiva." This little stream was loaded with their descendants. They were healthy and hungry and not that large as you would expect at this elevation. I hooked and released about 20 in two hours. There were decent hatches of mayflies and midges taking place. 

Overall a very satisfying fly fishing for trout on the equator experience.