Day 3 of vacation!

So, I went to bed again pretty late on Day 1, and when I woke up a little hungover and around 6am on Day 2, it was raining outside and I convinced myself not to go fishing.  The night of day 2 was also a tough drinking night, but I made it a point to get my ass out of bed on the morning of Day 3.

I decided to hit the spillway between Shadow Mountain and Granby - it is super close and I knew I'd pick up a few fish.

Along the way I did see a moose feeding on the trees in one of the clear cut sections by the expensive houses along the way to the Spillway.  I made it to the parking lot around 6am and on the water right around 6:15am.  I hiked into the top section and found the water to be that nasty looking green slippery weeds that looks like rock snot - it isn't rock snot, but covers everything and is slippery as hell and causes walking on it to be impossible.  I spotted a osprey's nest high up in a tree and the momma was feeding her babies.  I also saw a couple of deer cross the river.

This section borders RMNP and is beautiful country.

It is impossible to fish when the weeds are so thick and you constantly have to remove them from your flies.  I kept moving down river, fishing the riffle stretches.  The water was pretty low, so there was slim pickins.  I managed to pick up 2 fish in each of the first 3 or 4 spots I stopped - they were hoffer strands of rainbows all around 11 inches and all fought fiercely! I managed a small brown as well.

I kept hiking down river towards the lake.  Not having a whole lot of time, I lost track of time and soon it was 8am - so I started hiking down and skipping holes - then I came to the grassy meadow sections of the river - the long sections where the trees are pushed back and the grass lines the river.  I spotted these bedded down sections of grass - it was obvious I was a few minutes from seeing these guys.

As I was walking back, I noticed the skeleton of a dead elk.  It was pretty crazy to see the huge skeleton and clumps of hair thrown every where.  As I was walking back on the path I noticed a 1/2 leg and hoof, and then several yards more was another twisted leg.

No pics of fish, I wanted to get them back in the water as soon as I could.  The bigger fish seemed to be higher up by the dam and I caught some 4 inch dinks further down before the meadow section.  Crazy, as I thought the size would get larger as you approached the lake - not the case.

Still, Day 3 of vacation and 2 were out on the river!  Not too shabby.  I did manage to fish a few more time with the kids on the lake, but we got skunked!  Oh well, we'll get more shots in July!