Jump to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.

Surly Horns

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.
Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business & Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Advertise... Tailgate Donations

Featured Replies

  • Replies 3.4k
  • Views 249.5k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Most Popular Posts

  • Ok I have left the building for the most part but I made an exception to come back and say I am THE queen of the fly rod.  It happened! thank the good lord above and all my living right, it happe

  • BearSchlong
    BearSchlong

    By myself, at the Sabine jetty. First time since my dad died in March. Hungry reds and trout. Thank you for the last 45 years of fishing, old man. And for leaving me a nice boat. I've seen you catch

  • MalibuSheriff
    MalibuSheriff

    Fishing trip with my son after picking him up in camp.  Rio Grande cutthroats caught last Sunday evening at an extremely isolated lake in southern Colorado.    

Posted Images

Dinks this morning, but it was fun. Crushing wacky-rigged Senkos. 

 

20230709_072144.jpg

20230709_070038.jpg

20230709_062737.jpg

26 landed so far I think 5 nights out. Remember when I was asking what the fuck is wrong with me? Uh, fishing the wrong state, that’s what’s wrong with me, haha. Tonight was a 3 wt for the hell of it. Nice action, all under 12 inches. I did hook and work to release two larger ones didn’t want to break my rod. Easy dusk fishing and a lot of fun. 

Tiny brookies were willing Saturday outside of Estes for camp pickup.  Unfortunately, no long Colorado high country cutthroat trip in the cards this year. 
 

IMG_8289.thumb.jpeg.da8c8dc4a18f4feb2185f1c7889738df.jpeg

When I see brookies, I always think of Morbo the news anchor from Futurama discussing his children:

894mk27sj7q31.gif

I'm gonna get me a cut throat in the high country even if I have to schedule that hike on our drive back to Texas on August 1.

1 hour ago, troph said:

I'm gonna get me a cut throat in the high country even if I have to schedule that hike on our drive back to Texas on August 1.

The most beautiful fish that swims in freshwater.  Rio Grande cutthroat from last year’s trip caught in a southern Colorado alpine lake:

IMG_2197.thumb.jpeg.93c2d93a2fc9d5bb2503eb775cbd25ff.jpeg

Edited by MalibuSheriff

I'm gonna get me a cut throat in the high country even if I have to schedule that hike on our drive back to Texas on August 1.
If you want to cheat, there is a lake in RMNP that is shocked solely with greenback cutts.
Evening drake session on the Fork. Still so much water it’s tough to find spots from the bank.
87B9DFDA-1094-4B2F-AF5C-370FD58DC30D.thumb.jpeg.96ca2059d5ee7b8252af3c50d2e79aad.jpeg
Yeah, this runoff doesn't want to end.
17 hours ago, troph said:

I'm gonna get me a cut throat in the high country even if I have to schedule that hike on our drive back to Texas on August 1.

Go to New Zealand

 

13 hours ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

Evening drake session on the Fork. Still so much water it’s tough to find spots from the bank.

87B9DFDA-1094-4B2F-AF5C-370FD58DC30D.jpeg

Always welcome to head over here whether I’m fishing or not …

 

IMG_2669.jpeg

IMG_2612.jpeg
 

33 fish caught and counting …. No run off issues here. 🙂 

 

Edited by troph

  • Popular Post

Heading in from an offshore trip out of Newport Beach - we got into barracuda, it was plenty fun. But highlight was this detour on the way in: a pair of freaking blue whales:

474b845b917da888693a21396210d4d5.jpg
e9fa746d09926a1c70ec8a4be532eb27.png
4d59a3aeb9d4afce9454a2f2a4d11d33.png
14181d778481be518697f50beeeddee3.png

On 7/10/2023 at 10:54 PM, troph said:

26 landed so far I think 5 nights out. Remember when I was asking what the fuck is wrong with me? Uh, fishing the wrong state, that’s what’s wrong with me, haha. Tonight was a 3 wt for the hell of it. Nice action, all under 12 inches. I did hook and work to release two larger ones didn’t want to break my rod. Easy dusk fishing and a lot of fun. 

If I remember correctly you’re around the Hanging Lake area. Ate lunch here one time, and it was absolutely delicious:  https://www.whitehousepizza.com/

3 hours ago, Kennythetiger said:

If I remember correctly you’re around the Hanging Lake area. Ate lunch here one time, and it was absolutely delicious:  https://www.whitehousepizza.com/

funny you should say, we've been in this area twice now - covid and now this month. my wife has only eaten at white house pizza. granted we don't go out often, we are cooking a lot - there's a whole foods here and the basic grocery store is pretty solid.  in any event, we are going out tonight and I said like hell we are going for pizza.  all of that said, their pizza is really, really good.  like it would make it in austin easily good.

For those that haven’t see trout rise in a hatch watch this video, it’s not even indicative of the full experience and there are fish rising just outside this video on the left and right (you can hear them if you turn up the volume).  Easily 30 a minute. 
 

 

8 hours ago, troph said:

For those that haven’t see trout rise in a hatch watch this video, it’s not even indicative of the full experience and there are fish rising just outside this video on the left and right (you can hear them if you turn up the volume).  Easily 30 a minute. 
 

 

To wit, your friendly neighbor from Phoenix said there weren’t fish in that stretch! 😉

This brookie pic just popped up on my phone. I love brookies.

image.thumb.jpeg.8bffc581e23b4844649f39b4ad06ee23.jpeg

 

2 hours ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

To wit, your friendly neighbor from Phoenix said there weren’t fish in that stretch! 😉

This brookie pic just popped up on my phone. I love brookies.

image.thumb.jpeg.8bffc581e23b4844649f39b4ad06ee23.jpeg

 

Wait who said fish were not in there ?  
 

for those following along - that’s the stretch that @DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt came over to fish and said just wait, and we waited and waited and then BAM we caught 14 in like 20 mins. I was completely unprepared for that. Shaking and anxious and a complete mess. I’ve since learned how to roll through this scene with more grace. 

the fish are starting to rise earlier but that night it was just right before dusk. we had maybe 30 mins before it was pitch black. head lamps and all, a fish in the net at all times, two on the line at once three times. it was unreal for me,

just another day in the valley for hollywood. man thinks like a trout I tell ya. probably eats a bowl of frosted drakes for breakfast like tony the tiger eats frosted flakes.
 

Edited by troph

Had cricket tacos once in Mexico - I’ll let my kids deal with the protein shortage when it comes. Me?  no thanks. 

Tied some Llanolopes this afternoon. It's been a minute since I've done any hair spinning. Ugly flies catch fish, though.

43f46e0d42aa71d5baacb490197e0362.jpg

2 hours ago, Pescado_Rojo said:


IMG_5072.thumb.jpeg.84b222e294d14a659389d6dc7f88575c.jpegCaught a few chunky rainbows on the San Juan on Saturday. 

I mean that's a big girl that swallows if there ever was one.

Advice needed.  

I'm heading to fish the Green outside of Flaming Gorge from a drift boat in a few weeks.  Any recommendations for a fly rod/reel/line set up? I've never fished from a drift boat before, and am a relative newcomer to fly fishing in general.

Thanks in advance.

8 hours ago, tequila said:

Advice needed.  

I'm heading to fish the Green outside of Flaming Gorge from a drift boat in a few weeks.  Any recommendations for a fly rod/reel/line set up? I've never fished from a drift boat before, and am a relative newcomer to fly fishing in general.

Thanks in advance.

You should be good with any decent 5 wt setup IMO. I haven't had to make too many long casts while fishing from a drift boat, just a lot of roll casting and flipping from one bank over to the other when fishing water like the Green.

TFO is hard to beat for someone still pretty new to fly fishing.

Edited by The Royal We

20 hours ago, Pescado_Rojo said:


IMG_5072.thumb.jpeg.84b222e294d14a659389d6dc7f88575c.jpegCaught a few chunky rainbows on the San Juan on Saturday. 

Nice fish, but in the future please don't wrap things around trout to get a better grip (and don't pick them up with dry hands).  They have a protective slime coat on them that helps protect them from disease.  When this slime gets removed it leaves them more likely to contract disease and die.

10 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

Nice fish, but in the future please don't wrap things around trout to get a better grip (and don't pick them up with dry hands).  They have a protective slime coat on them that helps protect them from disease.  When this slime gets removed it leaves them more likely to contract disease and die.

Yea, so I did wet both my hands. The guide kind of insisted I use his glove to hold  the tail and I wanted to get the fish back in the water as fast as possible so I didn't want to stand there and argue with him while he was holding the fish out of water in the net. Point taken, though. 

You should be good with any decent 5 wt setup IMO. I haven't had to make too many long casts while fishing from a drift boat, just a lot of roll casting and flipping from one bank over to the other when fishing water like the Green.
TFO is hard to beat for someone still pretty new to fly fishing.

Thanks for the input. Question on gear… I have mostly saltwater based fly gear - my 5 wt setup is a hatch 5 and TFO axiom II (sw rod). Any reason that wouldn’t work?

We need to catch up sometime soon, it’s been a few years since you were in my office in Midland.
2 minutes ago, tequila said:


Thanks for the input. Question on gear… I have mostly saltwater based fly gear - my 5 wt setup is a hatch 5 and TFO axiom II (sw rod). Any reason that wouldn’t work?

We need to catch up sometime soon, it’s been a few years since you were in my office in Midland.

No reason at all. That's a great setup for fresh or salt. 

ETA: I'd maybe think about putting on a trout/cold water specific fly line. My saltwater 6wt lines are too tip heavy to float all the way to the leader. I'd put fresh trout leaders on them (probably something like a 5x, but ask your guide if you have a way to get in touch with him/her). Your guide should provide tippet and flies. They will have pretty specific tippet/fly rigs to cover the water column, and they've probably have several pre-rigged.

Edited by Pescado_Rojo

No reason at all. That's a great setup for fresh or salt. 
ETA: I'd maybe think about putting on a trout/cold water specific fly line. My saltwater 6wt lines are too tip heavy to float all the way to the leader. I'd put fresh trout leaders on them (probably something like a 5x, but ask your guide if you have a way to get in touch with him/her). Your guide should provide tippet and flies. They will have pretty specific tippet/fly rigs to cover the water column, and they've probably have several pre-rigged.

Good thoughts here. Thanks!

After fishing with not Hollywood I think I may upgrade my 5 wt TFO. I’ve been a proponent and still am, I really likE my 3 wt TFO but before next season I’ll move on. 4-5 years, not bad.

So I have a call today @ 10am then I am going to fly fishing a creek/stream.  Anyone ever fished bull creek around the St. Edwards Greenbelt?  i love the skinny water and it looks like it holds fish but just curious if anyone has any experience.

I’ve used some higher end rods and some cheaper rods and the lesser rods feel super clunky and rigid when I borrow someone’s, like I’m casting with a log. 

PSA to all rod shoppers -- the fly line pairing with your rod can make a huge difference to how the rod feels and performs. A lot of fly lines now are made 1/2 size or a full size heavy, to help load all the modern rods that have skewed toward fast action. Because a lot of rods and lines have together crept upward toward the next line weight, a lot of times when someone chooses a rod and randomly puts a line on it, the pairing will work. But, some rods are still built specifically for an AFTMA standard weight line, and they hate the newer heavy lines. Works the other way too (fast/stiffer rods not working well with AFTMA standard weight lines. 

For faster action saltwater, I love the Scientific Anglers "Infinity" line.  For my saltwater rods built to AFTMA standard (e.g. Scott rods and a lot of Winston) I go with the Sci Anglers "Bonefish" which is AFTMA standard.

On 7/18/2023 at 8:31 AM, tequila said:

Advice needed.  

I'm heading to fish the Green outside of Flaming Gorge from a drift boat in a few weeks.  Any recommendations for a fly rod/reel/line set up? I've never fished from a drift boat before, and am a relative newcomer to fly fishing in general.

Thanks in advance.

Are you fishing with a guide? Why not just fish his gear? No need to buy a bunch of shit IMO.

1 hour ago, Johnny Chimpo said:

I’ve used some higher end rods and some cheaper rods and the lesser rods feel super clunky and rigid when I borrow someone’s, like I’m casting with a log. 

On that recent Green trip I did, we were all eddied out eating lunch and I saw some fish and grabbed someone’s rod. It wouldn’t roll cast. Like literally couldn’t pick up the line and get it out there. It was some Chinese knockoff POS.*

*that dude caught more fish with that rod than anyone else on the trip.

**fishing sucked and the bobbers were on so I ended up eating fungus most of the trip.

***I caught two fish the whole trip, 1 on boomers. In the boat, buddy hands me the net and I promptly drop it in the water.

****There is a video of the entire pathetic scene and none of you will ever see it.

14 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

Are you fishing with a guide? Why not just fish his gear? No need to buy a bunch of shit IMO.

@tequila

Yea, this too. I have annoyed a couple of guides by asking to use my own gear. By the time you meet them at the put-in spot, the good guides tend to have them all rigged up with hopper/dropper setups or whatever they think is going to work that day.

I need to pay more attention to the line I'm throwing. My best gear I bought from a friend who had a tackle fetish and needed to downsize his collection. I have no clue what line is on 2 or 3 of my reels.

Now I'm running down the rabbit hole on fly lines.

I've got a Loomis NRX 9' 5wt LP - which is probably 5 or 6 years old. I bought it from a friend and he gave me a Ross reel with unknown line on it as well. The line does have a sinking tip on it so I assume he had it set up for streamers and it really loads the rod up easily - maybe too much. I've got an extra spool for the reel and am thinking about setting this one up for dry flies. After a little googling for a good line match for this rod I found quite a few recommendations for SA Amplitude Smooth line:

https://www.finandfire.com/collections/freshwater-fly-lines/products/scientific-anglers-amplitude-smooth-trout-fly-line?variant=31661615841335

The Rio Premier Gold has some fans too.

https://www.finandfire.com/collections/freshwater-fly-lines/products/premier-rio-gold-fly-line?variant=32199034241079

I'm probably not really proficient enough to be able to tell the difference, but I need all the help I can get to make good casts. Any opinions?

1 hour ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

Are you fishing with a guide? Why not just fish his gear? No need to buy a bunch of shit IMO.

Self confessed gear whore.  

14 minutes ago, The Royal We said:

Now I'm running down the rabbit hole on fly lines.

I've got a Loomis NRX 9' 5wt LP - which is probably 5 or 6 years old. I bought it from a friend and he gave me a Ross reel with unknown line on it as well. The line does have a sinking tip on it so I assume he had it set up for streamers and it really loads the rod up easily - maybe too much. I've got an extra spool for the reel and am thinking about setting this one up for dry flies. After a little googling for a good line match for this rod I found quite a few recommendations for SA Amplitude Smooth line:

https://www.finandfire.com/collections/freshwater-fly-lines/products/scientific-anglers-amplitude-smooth-trout-fly-line?variant=31661615841335

The Rio Premier Gold has some fans too.

https://www.finandfire.com/collections/freshwater-fly-lines/products/premier-rio-gold-fly-line?variant=32199034241079

I'm probably not really proficient enough to be able to tell the difference, but I need all the help I can get to make good casts. Any opinions?

Every Rio line I've ever owned sucked. I'm a big Scientific Anglers fan, so I'd go with the Amplitude. 

1 hour ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

Fuck Rio. Garbage. Absolute fucking garbage.

I need new fly line for my 9' 5wt primarily used fishing in CO.  Which one would you go with?

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...
Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business & Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Advertise... Tailgate Donations

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.