Friday, November 7, 2008

Fall Floats




The picture at the left is of an American original. We call him "Deep River Jim". He is the youngest 75 year old you will ever meet. Jim served with the special forces the first year they were created. He regularly plays guitar, yodels, collects rocks, dances with the young ladies at the monthly Dance in Oak Creek , fishes, hunts, takes care of numerable people much younger than him, skis, took up kayaking this year, shoots wooden dollars out of the air with his red rider bb gun, and has a hound named Tusker. Here Jim is old school lipping a Brown he caught on a soft hackle dropper below his hand tied hopper pattern whose body he made with a goose biot. Jim has the natural touch of a life long fisherman meaning he picked this fish up right off the bat with little fanfare. The water was very clear, and we could see the take. Jim calmly lifted his rod, and there was a nice Brown on the end. This is on the Colorado River below Pumphouse in Early October.


The picture at the right shows Jack Bomabardier up above so named Jack Flats on the Colorado river below Burns. Jack helped us with the pin at Pinball. I went back down to do a float with him on his stretch of the river. It's too nice of a stretch of river not to, and Jack is to be sure a great American. It is real nice piece of the World between Burns and his house. He lives on the river, and knows her well. This is a remote stretch due to its location, and the absence of access. It's twenty miles of dirt road both directions to the black top. There is lots of great fishing water. There looked to be a special serving of great dry fly water when the bugs were up. As we were floating down the river throwing double streamers I said, "Man, that tree looks like something out of a Dr. Suess story". Jack says "Yeah I said the same thing last Friday". What a funny Cottonwood. Little poof clusters of bright leaves. Just upstream of there Jack showed me a slab that had dino footprints. I'd like to say around the next corner we saw some Star Bellied Sneetches, but then I would be telling a story.
Here's Steve McQueen, aka Bob Sanford, driving his custom Hog down the Colorado on the last sunny and warm Saturday of the Fall with his fishing buddy "Rocket Bob" up front. Bob has turned our humble boat into something that should be on the cover of a magazine. He did the custom work on his own, because he wanted to. I love him for that. He's unafraid. This is one time I can say that up close his boat looks even better than it does in pictures. He has marble finishes in the transom, the fish on the front are 3-d cool, and the inside of his boat is trick. He also steady catches fish in a low key manner. He's a man on a fishing mission. Bob epitomizes the saying "you are only limited by your imagination". We are very lucky to know him, and are indebted to the late Bud Phillips for making the connection.

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