Taylor River and Taylor Res 7/24 & 7/25

I don't have a lot to report - except a double skunk-itude.

Scott and I (and our families) camped at the Taylor this weekend (he is still there until Wednesday) and we got a chance to fish on the boat and the tailwater. Saturday night we headed over to the tailwater for some night fishing around 10:30pm until 12:30am. I saw a few, we heard a few jump, but neither of us hooked up. There was a lot of people over there - which was kind of surprising.

On Sunday Scott took us out on the boat - I tried my hand with the fly rod for trout - but no luck. His son (Scotty) however hooked this pretty 19 inch pike that Scott showed to my daughter Avelyn.



That was about it. It was nice to get out on the boat and have the kids experience it for the first time. They really enjoyed it and that was all Avi talked about the next day!

Big T - July 10, 2010

We went camping this weekend with Scott and family. Stayed at Elk Meadows RV Park - don't ever waste your time going there - it is a joke. We did however have a great time - even if there were 25 other campers within a 30 foot radius.

We had planned to fish the Roaring River in RMNP, but Z decided to wake up about 5:15am (15 minutes before we were scheduled to leave) and he was not going to let us sneak out without giving Jen a really hard time. So basically everyone got up at 5:30am and started the day a little earlier than expected. Trying not to piss off my wife the day before her birthday I decided to hang close until nap time for Z. Basically the RR was out and we'd have to fish closer to camp.

There are some pics of our campsites with my new GoPro Helmet cam - set at taking pics every 10 secs. These are some pretty cool pics for a video camera - and I actually like the warped edges of the wide angle lens. And yes, I got a lot of shit from Scott and family, but it was worth it - I got some great video too.





At around 9am when Z went down for a nap we headed to the Big T below the dam. The water was flowing perfectly at 143 cfs. We hit Steffan's (not so) secret spot (sorry dude). The spot was perfect - no one in it and we dressed quickly and got on the river. The pics below are from the helmet cam - set up to shoot every 10 seconds. Yes, I had about 140 pics I deleted - with random triplicate shots of the same fishing hole. But these are some of the best ones. You can really see the curvature of the bridge taken by the wide angle lense.











And of course - my favorite picture ever:



The bad news is that none of us caught anything - which is pretty embarrassing to say the least - considering how dumb the fish are in the Big T. I hooked 4 or 5, but couldn't land a damn thing. We could see lots and lots of fish as well - but I could not figure out what they were eating.

We hit another spot, but had no luck either and were back at the camp site at 12:30pm. Not much more than that to report.

I will try and post a video from the camera after I cut it up and get it up on Vimeo.

Updated to add video:

New GoPro Camera - Big T Fishing from Brandon Harnois on Vimeo.

Berkley Lake - July 5, 2010

I'm going to make this short and sweet - and get to the pics as soon as possible. Fry, Werm and myself hit Berkeley Lake on Monday - started early by meeting at 4:30am in Conifer. We were on the water around 6:30am. It was a bit cool with some wind, but we started out near the bluffs. We caught a whole bunch of nothing early on - the wind would kick, then die, then kick, then die - a very weird day of wind. We did see one cloud make an appearance all day. We moved around and then around 8:30am Werm and I get a double - completely random. We basically landed the exact same sized fish over near the bluffs. Scott gets a heavy wack soon after - but can't set the hook. A little while later he hooks and lands a rainbow. Then, nothing. I think we changed spots a couple more times.

As the day warmed up and the wind changed (again) we were hooking fish - nothing fantastic, but we were into one every 5 or 10 mins or so. Then it would get windy and ... nothing. Then it would stop and we'd get lots of hits - some on the strip, some just hanging there. We were looking for bugs and they only came off 2 or 3 times - big callibaetis, some bigger caddis, some chiro's (but not a lot) and am orange colored flying ant. Basically no top water action to speak of.

We had a period of about an hour or so in the late morning/early afternoon where we were doing very well - everyone was into fish. Most fish were mid-size, the smaller the fish the better the fight. Some pigs were caught and landed - and a few got away. The flies of the day seem to be my grey juju in size 16, and Werm's callibaetis in a size 14. Nothing else was really the ticket.

We moved a ton - from Scott Secret Spot #119, to Darren's Secret Spot #39, to Scott's Secret Spot #357...nothing was on fire. It was pretty sporadic with long periods of being between fish. The fish seemed to be deep - close to the bottom.

At around 2pm we decided to fish close to the boat ramp, Werm slammed a pretty brown, then we headed out of there around 3:30. We hit some traffic on the way home - I grabbed my camper at Scott's house - then was home by 6:30.

Werm's last fish of the day - the only brown - he was big and fiesty - great ending to a fun day.

Another pic of the brownie.

Werm fumbling a bow.

This was my third pig of the day - it was a very big fish - hooked him accidentally in 10 feet of water with 15 feet of line out. He had a f*cked up red blood shot eye. Looked like Scott after a hard night of drinking.

It might be short, but it sure is skinny!

Scott was constantly hooked up.

My fattest fish of the day - this one had like two stomachs, wide as hell - not very long.

...help...

Scott with a beauty rainbow.

My biggest pig of the day - didn't fight as nicely as some of the smaller fish - but he was pretty long - maybe 19 or so.

Old Chub, 8:15am - and I was the last to start drinking! Thanks for the Chub McFry! Oh, and the ice....