February 10, 2015

Flow: 91

Water Temp: 43-49

78 degrees; that was the high for Saturdays Frostbite Fish-Off. I’m sitting here in my trout bum paradise following my favorite weekend of the year. For those of you uninitiated in the FFO it’s the finest open fly fishing tournament in Colorado. Proceeds go to the Southern Colorado Greenback Chapter of Trout Unlimited of which I am the President. I stole the idea from our friends in the Denver TU chapter that had put up a few successful Carp Slam tournaments. At that time I was the program director for the chapter and volunteered for the day, I asked a lot of questions and listened to the organizers and teams. There were few Trout Unlimited tournaments back then and they all had a gimmick; Carp in Denver, One Fly, ect. I wanted a tourney for trout with the only wildcard being the temperature. Pueblo is in the Colorado banana belt and the winter fishing is known nationwide. Me and Lou pitched the idea to the board and started recruiting teams, sponsors and volunteers. That first year was the most exciting and stressful times I’ve known serving TU. After everything was done and the guest had left happy me, Lou and Norm sat down and tackled a bottle of tequila. Year two had some hiccups as we rested on our laurels from the first tourney and fell short on teams.

 Planning for year three we were able to recruit more people that could take charge and put in the thinking, study and planning time to make the FFO the best event we could. A redesign of the beats and scoring system made year three and four spectacular. For 2015 the teams were full in a matter of weeks. We had to find a new venue after yet-another new owner at the Steel City Garden gutted the place to remodel. Norm and Steve found us the Elks Club and it was a great historic taste of Pueblo. The weather for Saturday set a record high for February and the river was packed; not only by us but by Pueblo natives enjoying the day. The river was stacked with non-competitors. Our thought was to plan for the worst and hope for the best, what we witnessed was a level of sportsmanship that far exceeded our expectations. Teams worked around the crowds without incident and only one team got a goose egg, not a single beat blanked. Fishing conditions were tough but the good news is trout came out of hiding and sight fishing was excellent. The trick was finding the active feeders.

We had for the first time ever a tie, thankfully it was for longest sucker and only one of them wanted the PBR. The longest trout of the day was landed by Chris Ramos at 20 ¾”. Jim and Kevin Browning (Tailing Edge) did a great job in their first year taking third place. All you have to do is watch Pat Thurman and Manual Losoya (Blue Collar Fish Bums) fish to understand why they’ve placed first last year and second this year. The same goes for team Chuck & Duck (Jamie Roth and Ben Lewis), taking first place this year and third in 2014. They also came armed with the experience of a few guide trips with Steel City Anglers under their belts, hee hee.

I’d like to thank Maxine and the Elks Lodge for being such a wonderful host, our board members for all the hard work not only over the weekend but throughout the year. A special thanks to Frank Smethurst, Nate Bronson, Jake McKittrick and Rick Mickesell of Scott-Costa and Comb enterprises for the extraordinary prize package from Scott, Costa, Abel Reels, Brodin nets, Fishpond and Buff. Thank you for another incredible “Frostbite” Fish-Off.

Ben, Steve, Lou, Marge Kelvin, Bruce, Wayne and the Arkansas River