About Bolderado

So if you don’t know me, you might wonder where Bolderado came from. I’ve actually owned the domain for about 20 years. While living in Boulder, Colorado every year a bunch of us ran a race called the Bolder, Boulder. Also, there is a famous old hotel in Boulder called the Boulderado. Anyway , I liked the name of the hotel but they already owned the boulderado.com domain name, then I thought of the Bolder Boulder and thought huh, what about Bolderado! Anyway, I talked with my brother about it and he bought me domain as a present. However, I have only hosted a website with this domain once before, and that was about 5 years ago. I have also used it for email though, to the extent that a number of friends refer to me as Bolderado.

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Bolderado’s Fishing Biography

Enough about the moniker! Let’s say it’s my fly fishing nickname and my brand so to speak. It’s clear that when you read this blog, that fly fishing is my passion in life. It has been almost since I took up the sport about 20 years ago. We had a family cabin in Grand Lake, Colorado which happened to be just downstream from the headwaters of the Colorado RIver, which originates in Rocky Mountain National Park. Plus there was a gold medal fly fishing section of the Colorado River, between Shadow Mountain lake and Lake Granby, which was a very short drive away. In any case, that is where I learned to fly fish and the more I did it, the more I wanted to do it. Fly fishing became an obsession!

The Grand Lake cabin only lasted a few years. The kids were getting older and less interested in going there and I have to admit the drive of 3+ hours was a bit long for a weekend escape. Once the cabin was sold, my focus was the local waters within a hundred miles or so of Boulder, Colorado. Thankfully for me that included a lot of productive rivers. To the north we had the North Platte, the Cache La Poudre, the Big Thompson and the Saint Vrain. To the south were the South Platte, the Arkansas and to the west were Blue River, Frying Pan and the Roaring Fork. Of course there were so many more fishable rivers in the state, but many required an overnight stay. And of course my local favorite, South Boulder Creek!

In roughly 2004, I took my 6wt to Mexico on a family vacation. We were actually on a cruise ship stop in Cozumel and I had arranged my first flats fishing trip with a guide there. I had heard that there was good fly fishing for bonefish and permit and I was eager to try it. This was my first exposure to salt water fly fishing and I absolutely loved it! There was something about getting out of the boat and stalking bonefish that felt a lot wading to a rising trout in a river. There was much to be learned about salt water fly fishing. Being able to make a cast into the wind for instance. Using a strip set and not a “trout set”, among others.

As time passed, I had a career opportunity in Florida and decided to move there. I looked up the local fly fishing club and began to learn about places like Mosquito Lagoon and The Indian River. I bought a kayak and learned about good places to launch it and I cast my 6wt and later my 8wt to various flats species. Spotted Sea trout were the fish i caught the most of, perhaps a hangover from Colorado. Actually they were fairly plentiful and they were just rabid feeders chasing a school of bait and first light was the best time to break up that party. I decided to learn to tie flies and in this case streamers, and the Clouser minnow was the fist streamer I learned to tie. Fishing for sea trout was straightforward, look for a school of bait that had predators chasing them. This commotion usually took place right on the surface, so it was easy to spot.

Other species were a bit more difficult, but I caught Snook on the beach in Stuart. On a beach south of Melbourne, I caught big jacks in the surf. I hook a couple of tarpon but never landed ons. And, I caught ladyfish, black and red drum. The red drum aka Redfish was really tough for me. I spent many days paddling the shoreline of Mosquito Lagoon in my kayak looking for them. They were really hard to see from the vantage point if a kayak seat. I always struggled with locating them without spooking them.

Years later I was back in Boulder and back to my usual fishing haunts. The big Thompson was the biggest draw for me, but in spite of its distance, South Park and South Platte River drew me in many times. The South Platte also flowed through three famous fishing lakes, Antero, Spinney and Eleven Mile. I spent all my time at Spinney, on the same kayak that I brought home from Florida. There were giant trout in Spinner and at times in the summer there were solid hatches of calibaetis, a mayfly popular in mountain lakes. The fish would also eat terrestrials like ants and grasshoppers. Anyway I really enjoyed my trips there and usually did well.

My time back in Colorado did not last long, just under 2 years. The job I had moved back for was eliminated. There was more to it though, I did not see eye-to-eye with the CEO. After a long search, I ended up getting a really great job offer working at Adobe in Utah. This job was important to me. In fact I wanted it to be the last job of my career, so I decided to move to Utah rather than stay in Colorado and work remotely.

So I packed up and moved to the Salt Lake City area. Utah fishing is far more limiting than Colorado. There is one absolutely superior fishery here and that is the Flaming Gorge of the Green River. The unfortunate thing is that it is 3.5 hours drive away. I love fishing the Green River and I’m in awe every time I go there. I’ve had two top twenty days there. Spring is my favorite time. There are goods hatches, cool weather and light crowds.

The other popular fishery that is closer to home is the Provo River. The Weber River is another, but it has not been flowing as well lately and I know those fish are stressed. But I do fish the Provo River both the Middle, downstream from Jordanelle dam, through MIdway and on Deer Creek Reservoir. From there it flows down Provo canyon to Provo Utah and into Utah Lake.

The Middle Provo fishes better than the Lower, but it is also harder to fish most of the time. First off the Middle has the most serious case of combat fishing I have ever seen. The really popular upper section of the MIddle is just nuts. More fishermen show up than there are holes. So they either try to move in on your hole, fished spots where there are no fish, or they just circle like vultures waiting for you to leave. And this phenomenon is literally year round, So the combat fishing on the Middle is one reason that it is harder to fish, but it is also the cause of the other which is the fish are way smarter and extremely selective when it comes to the flies they eat. That fishing pressure means they look at way mire fly imitations than the fish on the lower.

As for the Lower, I swear that that the fish population has seriously shrunk since I started fishing it nine years ago. There are a few big long runs that used to hold 2-300 fish, easy. They were everywhere. It is not like that anymore. The last spot I regularly fish is Strawberry Reservoir.

Enter Idaho

Many years ago my brother gave me the book “50 Places to Fly Fish Before You Die”. Back when you are 50 Something you feel like “50 Places Before You Die” is totally doable. Let’s say you set a goal to do this in 20 years. 50 places over 20 years, that’s 2 and a half places a year. Easy right? So first thing I did was make it to the Colorado places. Then a couple in neighboring states, and a few that I traveled to like Alaska. At some point you realize all the rest are ones you have to travel to and half of those are on another continent. Two and a half per year no longer sounds doable. At some point, I had a shift in mindset and I decided to re-negotiate my fishing priorities with myself. There was this pull to find a water nearby that I could get really excited about. Having been in Utah a few years now, I also decided to buy a drift boat. My favorite river was the Green and I loved fishing the Flaming Gorge A section. I would typically wade it four or five days a year. It was also my first float trip as a captain. I was hardly qualified but I was determined to become a good rower and a good captain.

My employer Adobe give employees a wonderful gift. We got the entire Fourth of July week off. The Summer after I got the boat, 2014 I decided to take my first fishing safari.

My partner was an important part of the decision