Going Pink On Blue

Pink it's my new obsession
Pink it's not even a question
Pink on the lips of your lover, 'cause
Pink is the love you discover

                                 -Aerosmith

Yes, I have fallen in love with a pink fly.  The Pink Frenchie to be more exact, but more on that later.

Yesterday on the Blue, Van Stacey, Scott Dittner, and yours truly had a most excellent day.  Our destination was the south wilderness and we couldn't have asked for a much better day.  It was a whit cold early in the morning with ice in the guides forming, but once the sun rose above the eastern horizon a nice warm-up begin.

The first hour, and half that more was not productive at all.  Scott and I begin at Desperado Springs and we didn't get a bite.  I was fishing a Copper John under a bugger and Scott had a bugger on, but I can't remember what he was trailing.

Van arrived and we moved on up to Coyote Pass.  Here Scott would find a trout and Van would also, but I was still at zilch.  Due to low light and the river being a little dingy I swapped the Copper John out for a black bugger.  On the first cast a trout latched onto the black bugger and took it with him.  Moving on upstream I started thinking pink, and after the Pink Frenchie went on the tippet the trout started coming my way. 

All three of us started finding trout.  At the end of the day we were close to a sixty trout day as a threesome.  About mid-day it was a great pleasure to see Jason Williams, Dan Brockett, and two of their buddies fishing the ancient boulders.  They came off the water, even though they were catching trout, and we had a nice chat.  The foursome were also having an excellent day on the river with good numbers to their credit.  Now, they were headed to Scotty's for a burger and then to the north wilderness. 

Scott Dittner with bow on line.

Van fishing a twenty bow pool.

The Pink Frenchie also found a turtle.  The creature was released unharmed.

The fly of the day for me was the Pink Frenchie.  Of the nineteen trout I met, seventeen would come via the Pink Frenchie with the remaining two by way of the brown bugger. 

Scott used a variety of flies including the bugger, Copper John, zebra midge, red midge larva, and yes the Pink Frenchie. 

Van stayed true to his brown bugger and it's easy to understand why.  At one run, the brown bugger took twenty trout in a row. Now, I know that I gave Van some Pink Frenchie patterns a week or so ago.  However, he seemed reluctant to give this pink fly a go.  I took note that rather late in the day, he tied the Pink Frenchie on, which probably pained him to no ends to do so.  Well golly gee, he caught a trout using a pink fly.  I also took note that he left the river a short time later and I'm wondering if its because he feared someone would see him using a pink fly. 

Now, if Van truly doesn't like the color pink I think I know why.  He is married to my daughter and in their home is a room that is solid pink.  Go into this room and there is pink on your left, pink on your right, pink below you and pink above you.  In this room you can't escape pink unless you just bolt out the door.  Probably during the calendar year, Van will go in this room maybe once or twice and it's only if he has to. 

I like pink.  I can like pink because I am confident in my manhood and fully accept any sissy ways I might own... such as liking the color pink.

I mean... there is pink in our lives everyday.  If we feel good then "we're in the pink".  If something makes us happy, "we're tickled pink".  If we see a young lady on her way to the prom and she's wearing a pink chiffon dress then we think she is "pretty in pink".  So... I like pink.

As a young man one of my favorite cartoon characters was the Pink Panther.  When I was in the insulation business I installed Owens-Corning Pink Panther endorsed fiberglass.  Pink is not a color that is foreign to me.

I don't like everything pink - Pepto Bismol and pink eye come to mind, but most things pink I do like including Pink.

You might think I like Pink because I'm an older man, and she is a pretty, young and talented performer, but that's not the case.  I simply would love to sit down and drink a beer with Pink and just have her talk to me.  Such an encounter would tickle me pink.

Until I can find it in myself to let go of the Pink Frenchie, it will remain my go-to fly on the Blue River.  All I can say my friends is to... think pink.