Saturday, September 30, 2006

Saturday, Sept 30, 2006 Colorado River, Gore Canyon

Saturday, Sept 30, 2006 Colorado River, Gore Canyon
Full day of fishing - morning was nice around 55 degrees, afternoon was awesome, no clouds and around 75 degrees. Water was slightly off color - about 680 cfs.

Where should I start, first of all, for a late September day it was probably the best possible day you could ask for. The sun was out the entire day without a cloud in the sky and the temp was around 75 degrees. Of course sun does bad things for fishing.

My buddy Nate and I headed down to Gore Canyon early - got to the canyon slightly after 8 am. We didn't make it very far down the dirt road before I decided I wasn't "in to" 4x4ing and pulled off. We walked the rest of the way - which was ok on the way down, but brutal on the way back. We actually saw quite a few fishermen today - which was different from last year.

First off - the water in Gore Canyon looks amazing - plenty of holes and rocks were you just know the fish are in. Problem is, we just could scare any up. I hooked into a few fish, but most were tiny and when they were being pulled in they twisted and turned until they fell off the hook. I managed to land a small 7 incher and on the next cast landed a fat 17 inch white fish. I was so excited, until I realized it wasn't a trout.





We fished until about 2:30 and hiked our asses out of the canyon. Even Cabo was pooped by the time we made it back to the truck. We decided to head down to the Blue River - where it dumps into Dillon. No one was there this late in the day, so we had the delta access to ourselves. The river wasn't producing so we decided to strip streams on the "flats" where the river delta meets the reservior. Nate hooked into 2 rainbows that were about 14 inches and he called me over. He found a nice little pod of fish and we hook a half dozen or so. That was my first stillwater experience and it was a good one. I learned that stripping streamers blind can be frustrating, but if you find a pod of fish it can be great fun.

We were back in Denver around 6:30. It was a nice day to get out, but the fishing was disappointing.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Saturday, September 23, 2006 Clear Creek, Idaho Springs

Saturday, September 23, 2006 Clear Creek, Idaho Springs
Cold afternoon, very overcast - about 50 degrees. Water was slightly off color and flows were over 100 cfs or so.

I watch the daughter today while the wife worked - she got out early so I made a break for some fishing while I had the chance. I took cabo and headed for Clear Creek. Having been here the week before for the clean up, I knew where the fish were stacked up - well, at least I thought.

I tried nymphing, then streamer/SJW rig, then dry/dropper, then streamer, then back to a double nymph rig. I managed to catch 4 browns all about 10 to 12 inches.

Basically I gave up after 2 hours and went home. Nothing to see here, just keep moving!

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Clear Creek River CleanUp with Trout Unlimited - September 16, 2006

Clear Creek River CleanUp with Trout Unlimited - September 16, 2006
Not much to report here. Kind of sad about the turn out we got - not a whole lot of people and most were up in age. I'm also disappointed by how much trash we picked up - not the fact that we picked it up, but the fact that there was still a lot there.

We cleaned up the same stretch 2 years prior - yes there was a lot of trash then, but that stretch had never had trout fishermen cleaning it up.

The majority of what we cleaned up was McDonald's trash, beer cans, styrafoam coffee cups and cigarette packs. The beer of choice for the littering folk is Budweiser. The two extremes were either Bud or Milwaukee's best. The cigarette of choice was Marlboro (shocker). Needless to say the people doing the littering are inbred Bud drinking, Marlboro smoking losers - yeah that's right I said it - and you know who you are and you should be ashamed of yourselves. The McDonald's trash is due to there being a McD's in Idaho Springs and this must have been the main exit point. But there is still no excuse!

Volunteers also bother me. Not because they are usually an older crowd, but mostly because a bunch of them were there more for the free food, for the socialization or the raffle - rather than being there to pick up trash. For example - I was working Stanley Road as I was instructed and came across three orange bags that were blown into the brush by the wind - here I am carrying a bag full of garbage that weighed close to 40 or 50 lbs - I'm thinking, how can these bags get blown off the road? Well, I pull them open and someone had stuffed them with weeds, tumble weeds to be exact. The bags weighed about 1 lb each and there were three of them! What a damn waste! So, I unpacked them and stashed them in the truck for later.

Another time a couple drove by me in their Lexus, they had said that they had picked up the area below, but when it got to steep and rocky next to the river that they decided to stop. They drove up further (to where I was) and said that it looked like the whole road had been picked and they were all done - they said they were headed back to the park - they were done. I think they were looking for some kind of agreement from me, or some sign that I thought that was ok for them to do. I looked at my watch (10:30 - basically an hour and a half after we started - and an hour and a half before we were supposed to meet back at the park), so I told them "WHATEVER!". Of course, further up the road there was trash all over - so basically their trip was short.

The third thing that happened was also kind of deflating. Greg (the guy I was teamed with) had been told by a guy that he had worked the opposite side of the road from the river all the way up - so Greg and I grabbed the river side and walked about a quarter mile (we met another group that was working still further up) before turning around due to a 50 mpg wind and driving huge rain drops. We tied off our bags and left them next to the road (as instructed) - then we headed back on the far side of the road. We had left this stretch alone because the guy said it was done. Well, Greg and I started walking past some trash, at first we thought he just missed some - nope, finally I said "hey Greg, I have one more bag, I can't keep walking by this stuff" - Greg said "yeah I know, it's killing me too" - so we started picking - and started picking hard - getting behind the trees and picking up at least 120 beer cans and other stuff. We filled a bag between the two of us in the 1/3 mile stretch we had been told was done. Amazing.

Ok, so I'm a sore volunteer. Two years ago there was young teenagers helping us and they pulled a ton of trash on their own. The kids of today (well two years ago) basically were the work horses - but there weren't any volunteering today. So what does that say for the rest of us oldies (or midlifers)? I guess most are just interested in making an attempt, but their main interest is in the ass kissing and free stuff at the end. Sad.

For the record, I ate 1 brat, drank one water, didn't take a free t-shirt, and didn't stick around for the raffle (you had to be there to win). I wasn't there for the people, I was there for the fish/river/trash. I came, I saw, I picked up, I left.

Ok, I'm off my soap box. I hope others had a better experience than I did.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Monday, September 4, 2006 South Platte River, Dream Stream/11 Mile Canyon

Monday, September 4, 2006 South Platte River, Dream Stream/11 Mile Canyon
Beautiful day, hot and sunny around 75 degrees and NO wind! Water was slightly off color and flows were 143 cfs or so.

Fished with Chad and Nate (fishboy) - we were dying for some big fish - but none were had. Started at the Dream at 8am. Fished the bridge section just above the bend run and worked my way back to the bridge. I caught one cuttbow (about 14 inches) at the bend run on a microbugger in black. I had a couple of earlier hits by smaller fish. I walked the rest of the way back to towards 11 Mile Res looking for Chad and Nate - I didn't see a single fish the entire way. Nate hadn't much luck either - we both were blindly casting to great looking stretches with no luck.

We decided to head to the 11 Mile Canyon stretch. The canyon was packed on a holiday weekend with cut off jean short and wife beater wearing, cigarette hanging out of their mouth, budweiser bottle in one hand, spinner rod in the other fishermen. Scary the congregation of rednecks.

The canyon is what it is, beautiful water, and tons of small fish. The big ones wouldn't move for anything and wouldn't eat a fly if it was on a platter. I caught a few dinks - but as the afternoon got later, the fishing shut off. It was a long ride home on a holiday weekend.