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well all of you, what are your plans for fishing this summer. With the price of fuel as it is I don't think my family will be going to far from home to go fishing. We do plan a special trip for the end of the summer but the days away might be cut short. what about you will the fuel price affect your plans?

-Most freshwater fish will die after being out of the water for about ten minutes.

-Larger fish and saltwater fish may need to be killed before you clean them—but that involves something called an "icky stick" and brain puncture—so we'll leave that for another time.

-Small fish can be held in one hand during cleaning, large fish should be held on their back on the table.

Gutting

Insert the knife tip into the fish's belly near the anal opening and move the blade up along the belly, cutting to the head.

Keep the knife blade shallow so you don't puncture the intestines.

Spread the body open and remove all of the entrails, locate the fish's anus and cut this out in a "V" or notch shape.

Well suprisingly enough, there is realy, really good fishing in Doty Pond. I've been hittin' it up every day for the past week, (May 23- May 30), and i haven't really had any luck with powerbait, but the smallmouth bass and rainbow trout are hitting on flys like stink on shit. I catch at least 6 smallies a day on them, the most i caught was 23 in one day. I'm using Midges, Blue Dragonflies, Bumble bees, and this fly i found at this little mom and pop bait shop in Aurora called, "The Green Drake", it resembles a mix between a Dragonfly and a Hornet, they really love that one. The Rainbows are VERY Aggressive with their strikes, so much so that I've had 6 of my flies shredded by their teeth.

Finally some warm weather has come to Colorado! Been seeing some nice pictures, congrats to those of you who've been able to make it out and catch some fish. Keep it up. I'm heading out to California for my little brother's college graduation and will get some fishing in on the upper sacramento, and McCloud rivers. Hopefully I'll come back with some pictures!

So i've been out on a few local streams (Clear Creek, South Platte) early this season and it's been a rough start to the season. I generally pride myself in being a pretty savvy moving-water fisherman, but so far this year i've been skunked on every stream i've visited.

Ashamed as I am, i have to peg some of it on the early season. I've been itching to get on a river so bad I've hit up streams that are 75% iced over still, trying to fish the pockets of open water i can get to. Probably setting myself up for failure. In any case, it's been a slow start. I've caught a few bass and bluegill in local ponds, and fun as that is, i really live to be on the rivers. New waders, new vest, and new flyrod all waiting to get a good breaking-in.