July 4, 2007 - Roaring River, RMNP

July 4, 2007 - Roaring River, RMNP
Mostly sunny, normal grey clouds towards early afternoon, blew over then sunny again. About 72 degrees.

My buddy Steffan and I fished RMNP today and had a great time. We got their early - before 7am and the ranger let us in without paying (which we tried to do but he wasn't in his "booth"). Hit the Lawn Lake parking lot and were on the river and suited up after a 3/4 mile hike around 7:30 or so.

The river was crystal clear, flowing nice - not too high - and was actually warmer than I remember. The hike in seemed shorter too. But the fish were exactly the same!!

I wanted to teach Steffan to fish a little, so I showed him what we were using - red and charteuse PTs/copper john mixes - big gold bead, wire body, pheasant tail, peacock behind the bead in size 16. We caught all our fish on the red one - after having success, we stuck to a double rig of just that fly.

I had 3 on in a few cast trying to show him how to flick cast and keep his casts short and sweet. The second fish ran almost 12 inches and was gorgeous. Steffan quickly got the hang of the tight casting and was hooking into fish all day - pulling bunches out of the typical holes. I caught my share, but one fish in particular caught my eye. If anyone knows the Roaring River, they know this hole. The hole sits on top of a huge set of boulders - the river actually is roaring through this section and drops down off an 8 foot bolder falls. This pool sits on top of the boulder field on the left side. This area is the only area that does not have a path on either side close to the river - the path actually pulls away from the river because there is no way to stay next to the river - it goes straight up.

The pool had a bunch of fish in it - but this fish in particular was bullying its way around the pool pushing the youngin's around. Well, I caught a smaller fish sitting in a crease between two rocks where the water dumps out into the waterfall section. The pool had no discernible drift pattern - unless you can fish in a toilet. Most fish sat backwards in this hole or sat up close to the bank to get away from the swirl. This fish was dancing in the hole - pushing fish out of his holes or just throwing his weight around - and there was plenty of it. I managed to hook him and landed him in the tight water - he was 13 inches and very brightly colored orange (pic coming soon). I put him next to the rod, so I got a good size on him. That is the largest fish I have seen in this river.





















We fished a good 1.5 miles in and then headed out around 3:30pm. I pulled into my house at 6:30pm.

I will have the pictures of the trip after I get the disposable camera developed and scanned. My wife took the digital back to Boston for her trip home - so I was stuck with the disposable!