Tuesday, September 06, 2011

South Park - 9/4-9/5/2011

Had a weekend to fish this past week - decided to do some stillwater and some river fishing with my neighbor - give him a taste of both and I finally get to fish a river this year.

Left early Sunday morning - got to Spinney around 6:30am and it was chilly. Suited up, got the yak out, fished off the second lot. First cast we had a hit - then nothing. We fished until noon out by that second lot, then moved to the South boat ramp and fished that area. Bugs every where - midges, chiros, huge callis. The callis were a greyish white color with a hint of olive. Cool looking bugs. The fish were motorboating the surface with their mouths open - we could see them within 20 feet of us. Some would come right by the boat. We tried everything but dries, deep, shallow, weight, no weight, grey, black, hare's ears. Nothing. Water temp was 58 degrees to start and 60 when we left.



Right before we left Tom hooked and landed a 15 inch bow - we tried to get a pic, but he's not used to hooking, landing, fighting or taking pics of trout. Water temp was 61 degrees.

Left and went to Antero (on the way to the Ark). Fished for 2.5 hours - I managed a couple of pigs, but the fishing was still slow. One 18 inch bow and another 17 inch bow - good fighters.



We left around 5:30 and got into Hecla Junction, at the base of Brown's Canyon around 6:30 - found a camping spot and set up. This was the view from our spot.





We tried fishing the area just below the canyon, but the water was up and that damn river is slippery as hell. The light was also low and Tom had problems seeing the flies he was tying on. I didn't want to get him killed, so we retired early. We cooked dinner, made a fire, drank a bunch of beer and went to bed. Got up at 7am and made bacon and eggs for breakfast. Decided to hit hit just below Big Bend - the water looked great, but we couldn't find any fish. I managed one hook up, but he took my fly and was gone.

We decided to call it a trip and make the 3+ hour trip home in holiday traffic. We did great until Fairplay - minor slow down due to the light - then we hit Boxwood Gulch before Bailey and it was dead stop for about an hour. We finally got to CR64 and took that around to Bailey - as we were head up Bailey hill - on the other side we saw a truck with a flatbed trailer - but it wasn't a flat bed, it was a popup camper, but the popup parts were spread down the side of the highway for 150 yards. Imagine a popup camper full, yard saled down the highway. Not sure if it was hit, flipped or what happened - but it was a mess. The ride home after that was smooth.

Shitty fishing, glad to get out. Not a total waste of a trip.

1 comment:

HighPlainsFlyFisher said...

Good friends , lots of beer coupled with some good eats and a campfire to spend the evening around....sounds like a pretty stellar trip to me , fish or not.