Hopefully that made at least one of you chuckle. Seriously though, who would have ever guessed Deckers would be in the 1000+ range in July? But let's not get too ahead of ourselves just yet. So here’s the deal, I normally write these the last day or two of the month, with the goal of having them up on the Blog the 1st day of the following month. Makes sense right? Well, I wasn’t able to follow this routine for the month of July because as you sit here reading this, I’m out fishing- and not in Colorado. But let’s back up. It’s June 25th as of this writing and I’m sitting here staring at (I know, I know, all of these monthly rambles seems to start with the fact that I’m sitting down. As soon as I start typing standing up we’ll switch it up to “So I’m standing here” but I digress….) So I’m staring at this cream filled muffin with a raspberry swirl on top that was just placed on my desk- apparently a box of pastries was just dropped off by the Fed-Ex guy. Now, normally I wouldn’t partake in such an unnecessary display of what has to be 400+ calories, but heck…..I’m on vacation. Well at least mentally that is at this point. In less than 24 hours I really will be on vacation though. My final destination being a spot I’ve dreamed about for many years- Beaver Island, Michigan. A.k.a the best carp and smallmouth fishing you’re likely to find anywhere in the lower 48. To top it all off- I’m on the trip with a pretty solid group of anglers including two that have been featured on this Blog- Cameron Mortenson from The Fiberglass Manifesto and Shawn Combs of Orvis. This trip has been on the books since last January and yes, I’m ready to be wheels up out of Denver tomorrow at 7:05am. Plan on plenty of pictures and a full write-up upon my return. We’ll be fishing with Kevin Morlock of Indigo Guide Service and knock on wood, the weather is looking to be in our favor. We've been told to bring 9 and 10wts for the carp. Game on.

But enough of that for now. Welcome to July everyone and man am I happy to see the rivers showing signs of regress. We’ve still got a long ways to go, but progress is still progress. It’s quite funny to me to look back at Fly Fishing In June where I mentioned the South Platte looking high at 1100cfs. Little did I know (who could have) that several weeks later we’d be seeing double that. Heck, when we get back down to 1100cfs I bet the river is going to look pretty manageable after seeing it at over 2000cfs. As of this writing, the Platte at Trumbull is sitting at 1670 and I’m keeping my fingers crossed by the time I return to Denver on the 3rd that we’ll be noticeably lower than that. The good news is though, that once the rivers truly quit requiring 4 digits to describe the amount of water they’re carrying, the fishing should be absolutely on fire. We’re going to have great flows (which translates into great water temps and plenty of fish food) all summer and into fall and I can’t wait to get my wet wading, hopper-dropper, summertime fishing game going. From a guiding perspective, the phone is seemingly ringing off the hook some days with trip requests and I’m excited to think about all the new customers we’re soon to meet and all the trout that are soon to meet our guide’s nets. It's going to be a great next few months to say the least. Thanks again for keeping an eye on the Blog and I look forward to seeing you all in the shop or on the water this summer…..but for now, I’ve got some 30lb Lake Michigan carp calling my name. Stay tuned.