Only got one, but damn was it worth it....
After having a strange three days of wintery weather, it broke today - but was cold on the way up there - the trees all had a nice coat of ice on them - made for a pretty drive!
Only got one, but damn was it worth it....
After having a strange three days of wintery weather, it broke today - but was cold on the way up there - the trees all had a nice coat of ice on them - made for a pretty drive!
My first trip to Wyoming stillwater fishing. With my daughter attending the U of WY, it gives me the perfect excuse to go "visit". This was the tale of two days - the first day was 55-60 degrees with mild winds, the second day was 29 degrees and 40-50 mph winds straight in my face. To say I didn't last long was an understatement - as soon as I caught that last fish, I was back in the truck trying to get feeling in my wet hands - then the pins and needles in my finger tips happened.
I was on the road by 10am headed to back to Denver, just in time as I heard they shut down 80 and I25 right after I went through.
I'll be back Wyoming!
Had to run up to the lake a replace a window in the shed. Brought my buddy Tom up with me and we did a little fishing. The ice was fully gone and the day started out nice with sunshine and 40 degree weather - the clouds came in and the wind kicked up a little bit and it got chilly.
Tom caught three fish - the first being a fat 19"+ brown trout.
Living in Colorado for over 20 years and having explored much of Summit County, Grand County and the Front Range with the wife and previous chocolate lab, I am familiar with most fishing areas in the state. I am always looking for new areas to fish - and enjoy the solitude of some of the smaller streams and rivers.
I watch a lot of videos by LookNFishy on YouTube and he's my inspiration for getting out and exploring more of Colorado/Wyoming/Utah/Montana - and now that my daughter will be headed to Laramie to attend the University of Wyoming, I have no excuse but to visit the area more. I recently reconnected with some old friends from the RockyMtnFly webpage and they do trips up there all the time (and some live in the area). So no excuses for 2024 - I need to do more exploring - I ain't getting any younger!!
Last year I started looking for a rooftop tent to do overnights in Winter Park with my son who downhill mountain bikes at Trestle Bike Park.
I looked for about a month and found an almost new (used twice) SmittyBuilt on FB Marketplace for $900 - it sleeps three (well, two comfortably) and fits on my factory roof rack. The only issue I found was that mounting it to my factory rack on my 4 Runner is difficult - the hardware it comes with sucked, so I had to improvise - especially since the room under the rack is very tight and near impossible to get your hands under and turn the bolts that hold the mounting hardware around the factory rack bars to the rails of the RTT.
I purchased a 1.5" mattress topper to add to the 3" mattress pad, and my sleeping bag. I slept pretty good - and the RTT comes with a USB LED lights that are so bright I had to put duct tape over half the lights so they weren't blinding.
We were now ready for our maiden voyage. Unfortunately our first trip was cut short when Z wiped out pretty badly on the last run of the day, and he was pretty dazed and I made the decision to just drive the hour and 20 minutes home to be safe. I don't think he was concussed, but he had scrapes all over his shoulders that weren't covered by his chest protector and helmet. His helmet was a mess - and the visor was cracked off. That put an end to the inaugural boys night in WP.
We did manage a second trip that we actually did stay overnight. He biked for most of the day, and then in the early evening I convinced him to try fly fishing, but unfortunately the fish were down and the mosquiotes were up. We cut the evening fishing short and went to dinner and then hit Lot G at Winter Park to camp for the night.
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I really enjoyed the freedom of having the RTT and being able to get more out of my trips by having the ability to stay overnight. I know there are tons of free places to camp in NF or BLM land and most of the places I fish are off the beaten path. I would love to extend my stays with the ability to "work" on the road and be able to extend my fishing time past Saturday's and Sunday's.
In preparation for the spring/summer/fall 2024's camping/fishing season, I have watched a million boondocking and truck camping videos and looked at all those "best gear" videos and started a wishlist of my own gear. For Christmas this year, I started buying a bunch of things that would make my trips more comfortable.
Before I started buying gear, I wanted to add a shelf to my truck - adding more ability to carry gear. I built this shelf that allows me to put three 10" tall tupperware type containers in here and still store my boots and rods and a power station under the shelf. I can throw my fishing gear on top of the shelf along with sleeping bag and other gear. I want to leave the back seat open for a float tube and my clothes and a cooler - and anything else I am forgetting.
In total I paid $17 for a piece of 3/8" OSB and $19 for a grey indoor/outdoor carpet. I shaped the edges so it countours to the truck and set them on the wheel wells for support. The split is 36 inches on the left and 24 inches on the right (ish). This is pretty sturdy and holds a ton of weight. I might put the legs on hinges so they flip out of the way. I can fit a 39" deep solar panel on top of the tupperware container on the left hand side - I put the carpet on the back side of the shelf to protect the solar panel from scratching. This also leaves my hitch open for a cargo basket, a bike rack or a hitch for the raft & trailer my buddy has.
Now that I had the rig all set up, I wanted to get a power station - after watching a few videos, I notice a few people had Bluetti's and they really liked them. I wanted something strong enough to charge my laptop battery for a full weekend and charge all my other gear at night. I chose a 700W system - as it would be easy to charge with a 100W solar panel. This one isn't exactly the one I got - but is very close - it was $319:
Bluetti EB70 700W Power Station
I then got this solar panel - as it was the cheapest - $65 vs $90 for the same exact one at Harbor Freight. y buddy told me I wouldn't need much more than this, especially if I left it out all day to charge the power station. He was right - as I have left this out in my yard during winter sun and was pulling about 97 watts with it into the battery - and after about 3 hours it filled my battery from 60% to 100%.
LED Magnetic Lantern's for $14
Trying it out with my buddy Werm's rod and reel.
I managed one fish - luckily and on accident:
I will try again - maybe in the spring when the weather turns back to decent.
Last minute trip to 11 Mile Canyon with Werms - glad he pushed me to go. Lots and lots of fish - watched him TEAR IT UP with the euro nymph rig - wow! We both caught tons of fish - one was a decent rainbow about 16-17 inches.
The only pic I took:
Fished South Park on Saturday - had to get up into the mountains.
Caught some stocker bows and cuttbows in a lake, and then headed to a small creek to catch some browns and brookies - grand slam kinds day.
Funny story - the creek I fished had a ton of beaver ponds (for the record I hate beaver ponds as you can't wade in them very easily and you can never tell if the bottom is three inches deep of mud, or 3 feet of mud). I was fishing the creek in front of a log jam - and decided to fish just above it - I flipped my hopper fropper rig above the jam and I hooked a fish - and you know you have about .2 seconds to get him out of the hole before he runs under the log jam or bank and snap your rig, so I put pressure on him and tried flipping him into the creek below the log jam. However, this was a really good sized fish - and he didn't come out of the water on my first try, so I tried again and he must have been coming to the surface already and when I did I launched him directly at me in the lower level. I did a bit of a body bump to keep him from going by me and he knocked into the water at my feet - unfortunately he came unbuckled and sat at my feet - probably in shock from what just happened (or my ugly face). He was a 14 inch brown that was pretty fat - obviously I was in his primary eating domain!! Great fish.
Jefferson Lake, such a pretty lake - unfortunately way too much litter and powerbait containers around the lake. Had about 30 stockers sitting at the inlet to the lake - they were fun to catch on hoppers.
Saw this gal enjoying the beaver ponds.
All the pretty ladies.
For vacation in chronoligical order - startat the bottom!