troutfellas

These days we see diehard troutbums everywhere, from flyshops to fly fishing magazines to all these new short movies in the fly fishing movie festivals.  The image of the old guy fly fishing is no longer the cover of the LL Bean or Orvis catalogs, now the poster child is the young dude with the beard, messy hair, tying flies in the front seat of his 1992 Ford Bronco with a Keystone Light on the dashboard.  I'm guilty of financially supporting these stereotypes, I subscribe to no less than 6 of those fly fishing magazines, I visit blogs like Moldy Chum, This Is Fly, Catch Magazine and Fishing Jones daily, I watch every fishing movie on YouTube and Vimeo.  As much as I wish I was one of them, I know I can't compete with these guys, their image, their dedication, their love for the sport....or can I?  Do I really have to fish 250 days a year to fit in?  Do I have to give up my "normal" life to be dedicated to catching the biggest fish in the most farthest off locations in the world?

I couldn't get to that level of troutbum dedication.  I'm too cheap to go to Kamchatka (why pay all that money to fly across the world when there are so many places to fish in the beautiful states of CO, WY and MT?), too scared to quit my job and take the summer off to fish (I admit it, I have 5 mouths to feed and enjoy nice things!), hate beards (that is standard on a troutbum right?), I don't like Natty Light/Old Milwaukee/insert name of other skunky beer here (I actually won't drink that stuff even if it was the last beer on earth), and my dog likes to sleep in a warm bed at night (diehard fishing dogs sleep in the dirt, mine is way too spoiled for that!).  All of these things disqualify me from being a true troutbum/diehard.

So, I guess I need to find another level of dedication - maybe create my own classification that would be somewhere in between the old guy proper and the diehard troutbum.  But where would I fit in?  I'm just a normal average guy, middle aged, clean cut, with a house in Highlands Ranch, a dog, 2 kids, a great wife and a 9-5 job (well, more like 7-10).  That would be the niche crowd that LL Bean or Orvis is looking to market towards.  But that only partially explains who I, and most of my friends, really are.

But then again, I'm not even like my friends!  Laid back, chilled, cool, mellow, rough around the edges, bald, good fishermen - those things may explain my friends, but not me.  I am more known for my "issues". I'm anal-retentive, I like stuff clean and neat, I like order and peace in my life, my stress level will always be right around the boiling point, I'm high strung, I'm cheap (not poor - that is different), clean shaven, I love my dog more than my fly rod, I can be a bit blunt (tell it like it is) and a work-a-holic (if you don't believe me, ask my wife or check out the iPhone in my hand/pocket). If I had to create a classification for me, I'd be leaving out most of my own friends!

For all my "issues", I do have some good qualities.  I'm honest, dependable, will give you the shirt off my back, loyal, hard working and passionate.  Not to mention I love to fly fish, I'll be at your house at 1:30 AM ready to drive 7 hours to a fishing hole, I'll sleep in a tent, truck (in my waders) or camper to fish a small lake or river, I'll tie you up some flies if I have the time (they will all suck, but will catch fish), I'll have a bunch of strangers over my house to tie flies and I'll probably even let you drink all my beer if you forget/finish yours. I'll let you borrow my fishing gear, my camper, my float tube or kayak. I'm more than willing to pay for the gas AND drive.  I enjoy hanging with my buddies, the conversations, the camaraderie, the competition, and the ass beating when you out fish me.  But, remember I'm a finance geek/high stress/pain in the ass at heart, and no matter how much I indulge in my fly fishing passion - I still will be me.  My "issues" don't make me better than you, or you better than me. However, it probably makes you smarter than me.

I've had friends grow weary of my "issues", I'd like to apologize to those friends, but I don't hide anything from them from day one.  Apologizing for being high strung would be a dis-service to my good traits.  I don't waver on any of these things from January to December.  Fortunately, I have lots of friends who have learned to deal with me - I tend to be teased about my "issues"...endlessly.

So where do I (we, if you are like me) fit?  I'm getting old, but not old enough to remember gut leaders or bamboo rods. Too old to leave my job, wife and kids and grow out a beard, so troutbumming is out too.  I'm still a diehard fly fisherman though, just on the weekends and a few vacation days spread throughout the year.  I've thought of a few names that have a nice ring to them, let me know if you like any of these:

TroutSometimer
CommonTrouter
Weekender
OrdinaryTrouter
TroutGeneralist
AvgTrouter

And finally my favorite of all....wait for it....troutfellas!

Yes, I think that works.  Troutfellas (tm) will be the new classification that my friends and I (and probably you all if I ever bump into you out on the water) will fall under.  So, next time you see one of them movies, or see one of those guys in the magazines, and think to yourself "I wish I was one of them", just remember you are part of a much larger brotherhood that has only slightly less dedication, facial hair, body odor and mojo that our troutbum fly fishing brethren.

Now I'm just waiting for Orvis, Cabelas, LL Bean or Bass Pro to call and ask me to be on their catalog.

Colorado River - December 18, 2011

Werm, Kratt and I made plans to fish on Sunday - it ended up being a Werm Birthday/Secret Santa trip. Kratt and Werm showed up just before 5am and we were on the road. The ride up was pretty uneventful - made it up there (spot is omitted to protect the innocent fish) around 6:45 with no one in the parking lot.

Although the Secret Santa was a total bust this year, Kratt made the below fish for Werms - complete with Werm's 5 favorite beers and Old Chub. Somehow it was conveyed by me to Kratt the Werm loved Chub, so that is why it got prime real estate on the fish. Pretty fun now. But, that fish is frickin amazing - Kratt did a really good job and no lost finger (or close to it) this year!



Werm and Kratt cracked beers in the car, while I got out and walked around a bit - damn it was cold - like -6* cold. Finally the boys got out of the car and started dressing - the sun was just popping over the mtns and through the trees. We spotted a bald eagle right off - a good start to the morning.

We struggled to get dressed, struggled to tie on flies and struggled to actually get down and into the water - but we made it. I caught a small brown on my first cast, Werm had a fish on soon after and Kratt followed it up - all of us were off the skunk. It seemed like another hour or so before we caught any more fish. We had a couple hook ups and slow sets along the way, but eventually we started landing fish - it went in the same order, small browns, but at least we were catching. The water looked cool, with steam coming off and a strong sun coming over the mountains - the sun felt good, but the water was a long way from warming up.

We seriously were pounding beers (and Maker's for Kratt) - I think all day we drank beer instead of water - must have been about 18 or so. 7am and we were drinking. The morning seemed to go by quick, although expensively - Kratt snapped a tip on his rod no more than 10 casts in while chipping ice off and I lost numerous fly rigs on the bottom. Another funny thing happened - while Kratt was getting a new rod, a hunter crossed below us, with a young black lap in tow. He passed across the river from us and nodded, then no more than 2 minutes later we heard a loud pop gunshot and saw a few ducks flying down river - scared the PISS out of me! But it was pretty funny.

About 9am I hooked into a good sized fish, the rainbow below. The hardest part was I couldn't land these pigs myself because I had about 12 feel of line from my fly line to my bottom fly (bad planning on my part). The rainbow was nice and thick and took the midge - he was by estimate 18.5 to 19 inches and fat as anything - what a great fish. Soon after I hooked and landed a 17 or 18 inch cuttbow - not quite as thick. I think those were the only two bow/cuttbows of the day. The second bow took the an egg.



After about 10am the water started warming and the air seemed almost bearable. The fish started cooperating as well - Werms started going to town landing fish after fish as Kratt and I struggled to keep a fish on the end of the line. We eventually started hooking up and we all landed some nice browns - but then it died out again at 11am and we decided to hit up another spot to try our luck.

After a 25 minute ride - which felt awesome because we were finally warming up and getting feeling back in our feet - we landed.. At the parking lot there was a 10 foot shelf of ice out into the middle of the river to where the fast water was - there were tons of iceberg sized floaters going down river and we decided that this was not a good idea. We headed back to our original spot.

Around 12:45 or so we were back,, another beer, a quick dump for Kratt and we were on the water. However, there were two guys in our hole - so we fished down low and I made my way back to the hole to see if I could squeeze in between the two guys. The older guy left, and the other guy was just standing in our hole, on the bank, rod strung up, just looking at the water. When I got up to him I asked how the fishing was and he replied "caught one up there, just getting started" - I was thinking its gonna be a long wait - so I hit the split at the top of the pool, made 4 casts, looked back downriver and the guy was walking back to the car - my next cast flung into a birdsnest, so I started back to our spot. I was waving Kratt upriver the whole way back to the hole!

As I was re-tying my shit, Kratt proceeded to hammer the hole - catching 3 fish before I had even tied on a fly. He even got the token whitefish of our trip! Werm was soon up river again and we fished across river from each other for the rest of the day.

There was about an hour period there where we hammered them - with several doubles and a couple near triples. We didn't take much time to take pics because we didn't want to miss the window of opportunity. The weather was beautiful now - almost not glove weather, but not quite.

I managed 3 browns on 3 casts in the same spot - all fought so hard and didn't want to be netted. The fish below was my favorite - although not as colorful as most of the browns we caugt - he was the longest - I taped him out at 20 inches next to my rod. What a nice surprise in this hole! The good fishing continue - lots of browns with their golden bellies, blue and red spots and red tipped tail fins - amazingly colorful and a lot of fun. The damn browns also spin themselves to death when you get them in on a rig - they flip around in the net 25 times before you can grab them - throwing your rig into a rats nest and tangles. I released a couple fish only to find they weren't released because in their spinning hurry they hooked their asses on the fly below.



What a great day. At 3pm or so we decided to head out and get in line with the ski traffic, which didn't end up being too bad. It was a quick ride home. The flies that worked were basically eggs and small grey or black midges. Those seemed to pick up fish, but mostly as the water warmed up.



Thanks for the great trip boys - I wouldn't have done this on my own, but you guys talked me into it.

Colorado River - November 17, 2011

Werm and I decided to do some fishing during the week to escape the crowds and before it got too cold. On a tip from a friend, we decided to hit the Colorado River (specific spot is intentially omitted for fear that it will be hotspotted). Werm was at my house at 4:30am and we hit the road. The ride was pretty uneventful, but it was beautiful to see the sun rise against the snow on the mtns backdrop. We were in the parking lot at 6:30 and suited up. The morning was about 15 degrees, but no wind and the flows were good at 573 cfs.

We jumped into the bridge pool, Werm was pre-rigged and ready to go, I set up the camera behind him and recorded his first few minutes. In the 10 minutes of filming him he caught 6 fish, and it didnt stop all day long. He caught those 6 fish before I even wet my line. I was struggling to get going. The hot fly all day was the chartruese egg. Werm kept slamming them throughout morning - getting about 20 before I even managed my first. We fished below and above the bridge and Werm torn it up.

The absolute funniest part of the morning was when Werm got a tangle and was undoing it, I jumped into his hole just in time to see a huge brown head surface between me and my indicator. My first reaction was that a huge carp was surfacing, but them I saw two eyes and a face and I screamed, pooped myself a little bit and started running and falling to get out of the water - I put my arm down to brace my fall and got soaked, but I avoided the huge beaver that just surfaced less than 3 feet from me. Problem is, I still had my rod in my hand and now the indicator was zooming to the middle of the run - I had a small dog sized beaver on my rod. Luckily within seconds he broke off, taking my entire rig and my indicator floated freely down river.







At about 11am I finally started catching fish. The first was a nice 18 inch fat rainbow - that looked like a stillwater pig. I then got a few more, including some large whities. Werm didnt stop all day, continually catching fish after fish. It was fun watching him catch fish - he must have had at least 40 - all on the chartruese egg. I caught 2 on a gray sparkle RS2 - both whities. The afternoon saw my start catching a few more, but after 12:30 or so we only caught dinks - all were under 13 inches.

What a great day to be out - great fishing, some good beer, the fish cooperated, even some big ones. We left about 1:30 and were back at my house at 4. I forgot to mention I did catch a fish in the morning. I snagged a stick that had a brown trout wrapped in monofilament dead on it - so technically I caught a fish. Dead fish are way harder to catch than alive fish - just sayin'.

Werm poked around under some rocks and found some huge stoneflies - they were easily 2 or 3 inches long.




Thanks for driving Werm - can't wait to do it again!!

Bear Creek Res - October 29, 2011

Hef and I have been trying to make plans to hit BCR for a while - things finally panned out. We met up just before 1pm at the lot next to the Shell station on Morrison Road and I jumped in his truck, we were down the road and on BCR by 1:15.

Of course it was like glass when we got there, and about 30 minutes later...it wasn't. We fished the inlet from Bear Creek and tried stripping streamers - with no luck. We each had a hit, but not much else. I talked Hef into trying a pegged egg and within a few minutes he had on a fish - actually the fish had on him - as it hooked himself (Hef wasn't even holding the rod) and jumped about 4 feet in the air. The fish was a little acrobat - a nice little 13 or 14 inch rainbow.





Soon after he were into another fish - another little rainbow that jumped and popped off right next to the boat.

The wind kept blowing and it got colder. We eventually called it quits about 3:15 - I was home by 4. It was great to finally meet Hef.

Silverthorne Pond, October 10, 2011

Due to Columbus Day on Monday, my son's daycare was closed and my daughter was also on fall break from school - so I took the day off and took the kids up into the mountains for some fun. We started out by hitting the stocked pond in Silverthorne near the school - we could see a few fish, but had no luck catching any. I fished for about an hour hoping to catch something and have the kids net it - but I was skunked.



It was almost lunchtime so we hit up McDonald's and then headed towards A-Basin and up over Loveland Pass. There wasn't a ton of snow up there, but enough to make everything white and have the kids play in about 3 or 4 inches of snow.







We had a 1:30pm departure time on the Georgetown Loop Railroad, so we headed down the Pass to Georgetown. The trip was fun, a 20 minute trip to Silver Plum, a 20 minute wait and then a 20 minute return trip to Georgetown.





We headed home around 3:30. It was a good day, and the kids had a blast. The fishing didn't go as planned - I was hoping to just get 1 fish and get the kids excited - I figured if they saw one fish it would make them more interested in fishing - but with no fish it was "boring" and may have turned them off to fishing. I guess we will see.

Sylvan Lake Camping, Fri July 22 - Sun July 24, 2011

So, we did a little camping this weekend up in the mountains at Sylvan Lake (15 miles south of Eagle). The place is great for kids - 15 miles away from any town - keeps the riff raff out. Just a bunch of families enjoying the lake, mountains and sun. Got up there Friday around 6pm, set up the camper, made some hot dogs, started a fire and had smores. The kids were pretty wired from being in the mountains and enjoyed running around the campground and "walking" Cabo. Hit the hay pretty early - probably 10pm or so.

I got up at 5:30 on Saturday morning and took the dog and kayak out on the lake. The wind was steady in your face from the far side of the lake - nothing too bad though, just had to dig in the paddles a little more. I like the inlet to the lake because the water seems to be moving a little and I have seen fish in that section. I set up shop about 60 yards from the inlet and dropped anchor.







I was surprised how cold the breeze was and the sun wasn't even visible on the far off peaks yet. I started getting hits right away - had a orange scud/grey chiro/peach pegged egg rig on. The first fish I had on was the best, I never landed it, but I could tell it was good sized as it started running horizontal at a very fast pace - no head shakes, not real tugs, just a 20 foot run to the side in about 2 seconds and he was off. I was excited to get a hit so quickly. The indicator kept bouncing, but I wasn't hooking into anything. Finally, I got a pretty little rainbow. He was maybe 11 inches, not much of a pull on the rod - but it was fun to be into fish.



Soon after that I had anohter hit, a fun little fight and landed this brookie (again, about 11 inches) on the chiro. My first brookie in a long long time.





I managed another rainbow, and tried drifting back with the wind to the boat ramp. But the wind stopped, the sun came out strong and the fishing turned off. I saw the family waving at me back at the ramp, so I paddled out.

We had a fun day of playing in the water, eating lunch, and hiking - the kids got grumpy and the wife wanted a nap - so they crashed in the camper around 3pm and I hit the water again. I trolled around a few spots - again, a bunch of plops on the indicator, but nothing I could hook up with. I caught one nice 11 inch rainbow, then hooked a tiny rainbow as I had just cast my rig - must have been falling through the water column. I paddled back down to the inlet and hooked this brookie - again, same size - this one on a green scud.





I was done by about 5:30 and paddles back to the boat ramp. Avi and Mom were awake, but Z and Emma were still sleeping. We woke them up and headed into Eagle for Diner food and bowling. We got back to camp around 9:30 and had a small fire and more smores (of course). Hit bed around 10 again. I was going to get up the next morning and fish, but Avi slept next to me and there was no way to sneak out without waking her - so I slept in.

Sunday we played some more in the water - found lots of mayflies, damsel flies, thousands of grey/green scuds and just had fun checking it out. Here are some more fun pics of the weekend:







Great weather all weekend, no rain, in the mid-80's. We tried some off roading on the roads up behind Sylvan - went about 10 miles deep trying to find the old resort beaver ponds, but couldn't find them. Took all the roads back there, but couldn't find them. We did find Lede Reservoir - which was infested with horseflies. Some rough road back there. I would guess we were almost all the way over to Ruedi, but we didn't see any signs for it. Very pretty country.

We hit some traffic coming home, so we stopped in Frisco at the brewery for some food and sitting on the deck - very relaxing. Got home around 4pm. A very nice trip with the family.

South Park lake fishing - July 12, 2011

D and I hit up a lake in SP - first boat on the water at 6am - by over a half an hour. Morning was dead calm, and dead slow. The first thing I noticed in the morning was the noser - hundreds of fishing nosing up in the water really early in the morning. It was a sea of noses.



D picked up 4, missed at least a dozen others. I landed 2 - had another half dozen or so takes.





D's last fish of the morning was a sweet 20+inch fat bow caught on a red brassie chiro.



We could see a huge storm and thunder/lightning hitting just south of the dam - a couple of miles away. Since it was way off we weren't nervous. It was still partly sunny over our heads - we had missed the storm. Then a clap of thunder and lightning hit right over our heads, and we were reeled in and headed for shore in less than 30 secs. It started raining, so we docked the boat and sat in the truck and ate lunch around 1pm. 20 mins later it had stopped and the sun was out - we fished right off the parking lot and started hammering them. Of course the storm decided to come back over the mtns and just pounded us for the nmext hour - on and off. But we kept slamming the fish - catching about 15 or so in the next 1:45 mins.

During the rain storm! I wish I could explain how hard and wet it rained.



Flies: we caught a couple on chiros, but most everything on eggs.

Bugs: one huge damsel in army man green - a size 8 I'd say. Some size 12 yellow caddis - cool looking, but they crawl up your neck (weird). And tons of callibaetis - the dries were a size 10 or so and they were light tan/light grey/albino colored - they were everywhere. No sign of chiros - which was weird.

This is a pic of soaked D and his cool boat. We were headed out - the weather kicked our butt, but it was fun!



Home by 5:30 or so. Thanks for floating us D!

Delaney's Sat & Sun, June 11-12, 2011

I hit up Delaney's on Saturday night - got the hall pass with my MIL in town - stayed through Sunday. Got up there around 6pm, South Lake had about 40 boaters/belly boaters/tubers/canoers in it (not kidding). Chatted with my buddy Mark over at North Lake for about an hour. Hit South Lake from about 7:30 until 9am. Hooked 4 fish, landed a 15 inch sucker and got a 16 or so inch rainbow right up to me before he popped off. Headed back to my buddies camper to hang out - when a nasty storm came in - literally 45 mph winds and driving rain. Lasted about 40 minutes then it was dead calm. I was going to fish, but by now it was 11pm, so I called it a night and slept in the truck. Killed about 1,000,000,000 chironomids that had snuck in the truck and attacked my dome light. Took about 30 minutes to kill them all.

Sunday morning was up at 6am, on the water by 7am on North Lake - fishing for some nice browns - paddled across the lake in the kayak. Fished in 9 feet of water with no luck. Paddled my ass back (into the wind) around 9am, and went to South Lake. Fished the South Lake until about 2pm, had a bunch of hits, landed NOTHING. I'm embarrassed I got skunked at the D's. Saw a few fish, perfect weather, medium breeze, warm, lots of chiros hatching - just couldn't figure it out. Long drive for no fish.

No callis or damsels hatching yet. Don't believe the North Park Anglers reports of the D's like the other 100 or so other campers that were up there. Literally the place was insane, no doubt all due to the rivers being blown out, no mosquitoes yet, and the NPA glamorous reports. Rumor has it that it isn't on fire yet - my buddy has fished it the last 4 weeks with limited success. It has not "turned on" just yet, but it will - I'm sure the callibaetis hatch will bring on a feeding frenzy.

If you go, good luck, I wish you the best.

South Platte River below Chatfield

Today I hit up the South Platter River below Chatfield. This part of the river is so close to my house, but the reputation as a warm water trashy river completely turned me off to it. Not knowing if this reputation was deserved or not, I finally decided to give it a chance. Unfortunately the reputation is well deserved.

Yes, the flows below Chatfield are historically low right now (not sure why - I guess trying to fill up Chatty), but no matter how you view it, the place is just a nightmare. However, the parks department has put a parking area/ranger station/park office right behind Aspen Grove mall on Santa Fe in Littleton. I had no idea it was there and stumbled upon it. I went inside and talked to a nice guy about the area and he explained the river and the surrounding areas. Inside the office there is a greeting area with all kinds of stuff animals that are in this area - from snakes to foxes to hawks to weasels to coyotes to beavers. Pretty cool little exhibit.

I decided to grab my gear and hike in there right at Ken Caryl. As I was walking in I dropped down to the river and scared a cool colored lizard - he was a limey green color, but I only saw him for a second. The river is horrible colored with nasty algea growing on the bottom, and it was terribly off color - which makes no sense since the flows were so low. I kept moving up river towards Chatfield, hoping to find some fish moving. I did not even string up the rod - just hiked along the rivers edge. There are a couple nice runs, but the water is ugly, no way any trout are in there. I took the temp and it said 60 degrees, which is way too warm for that river in mid May.

There are some restored areas with riffles and waterfalls, but I saw nothing. I even threw in some rocks to see if I could see something scatter - nothing. I moved all the way up to first small pond - there on a fallen little tree I saw a black snake all stretched out on the branch - pretty cool position - he was just sunning himself. I saw tons and tons of different birds as well - flitting in and out of the brush and singing to each other. Of course the bike path follows the river - so lots of bikers, runners and walkers going down the path giving me dirty looks.

The little pond that connects to the river was full of shadowy figures sitting up on top of the water sunning themselves - huge carp, some I'd guess hit 30 lbs or so. I tried my best to cast to them with my carp flies, spooked a bunch of them, had a few laugh at my flies and ended up getting skunked. At least I know where they are now!!

I headed back to the truck - my 3 hour excursion was over - I was not disappointed with the adventure - I saw lots of different animals, tons of fox and raccoon footprints, listened to the birds and saw some fish. Not a bad afternoon only 4 miles from my house!

I know TU is thinking about fixing this section of the Platte, but until Denver Water promises consistent flows out of Chatty, this would be a waste of time. That section needs to be blown out for 6 months straight, and then consistent flows in the 1,000cfs range - which will never happen.

I'm just glad I got out.

Stillwater, Saturday, April 9, 2011

Stillwater fishing, first trip of 2011 season. Sorry, I can't disclose my "secret" spots. Enjoy the fishporn.





















The early early morning was calm, but after sunrise it got difficult, by 8am the wind was horrible, literally you could cast about 10 feet in front of you and 10 seconds later you'd have to recast - it was pretty miserable. We were blown off the lake, back to the truck and home and in the house at 2pm. These pics don't do the fish justice.

FryingPan and Crystal River - Dec 28-29, 2010

Tuesday, December 27, 2010
Fish On!

Cabo, very interested in the fishes.

Maylon with a nice Rainbow.

Fatty McFatterson.

A nice Bow, I think that's D.

This was a beautiful Cutthroat, not big but beautiful colors.

Holy crap was it cold! And I'm complaining and Darren was there over an hour before I even showed up!! D got there around 5:15am, and I showed at 6:30am. He was the first car at the Toilet Bowl, I was the third. Sad part was car #2 was right in front of me - so D had the Bowl all to himself for over an hour. The bank in Carbondale said 12 degrees, I'm sure it was much colder in the canyon.

I got out and chatted with D for a few minutes and then went back to the truck for a nap. Seriously, who the hell fishes that early in the AM in the pitch black? Not me. Cabo and I slept until 7:30, by then it was light and we were ready to fish. D was holding his spot on the Bowl and hooking a lot of fish, most were dinks, with the occassional pig.

The pics above are in no particular order - I was too lazy to order them.

I fished for a while and was skunked. Then I saw a huge pig feeding a bit further down and tried for him. After snapping off 6x and more flies I decided I needed to warm up again. The dog was freezing too and my left foot was a block of ice - my boot was too tight. I napped a little in the car - warming up the dog and my foot. Then around 9:30 we hit the Bowl again. This time we got into fish - I hooked about 8 and landed 5 or so - all were small but fiesty. Darren did hook and land a pig - see above - and that was a great fish. After about 11:20, I lost my rig and called it a day. D was going to stay a few more hours. I hope he did well - he'll have to post his update.

It was a fun day, although cold as hell. I hate the cold weather when you try and fish in it. I spent an hour at the Glenwwod Hot Springs to warm up!!

Wednesday, December 28, 2010
I did manage to get out for a couple hours and fish the Crystal River right here on Avalanche Creek Road next to Avalanche Ranch (where we are staying). The Crystal is known to be blown out after any kind of rain or snow melt, but in December it is very very low. If I had to guess I would say it was flowing around 400 or 500 cfs. The river is relatively narrow - about 20 feet across in most sections, but it gets wider in some areas. The river is heavily silted - lots of the soft stuff around the edges that you sink into. It reminds me a bit of the Ark - off colored too.

With no real time to explore I just hit up a spot I scoped out the past couple of days, a nice stepped up water fall area that dumped into a nice deep riffle stretch. The weather was blowing snow, 20 mph winds and probably about 25 degrees. It was cold, but not nearly as cold as the Pan the day before.



On my first cast I had a take, lost it, on my 4th cast I caught this little guy.



It was a 13 inch whitie - kind of a weird golden color. Never seen one so golden. Maybe I misidentified it, but I don't think so. He took a zebra balck midge size 20.

I went about 20 minutes without hooking up - working faster water and then I finally hooked and landed a small (10 inch) rainbow. He was pretty colorless, but still nice to see something besides a whitie.



I moved down again to a little hole that had a swift section along a rock. I saw a good sized fish come up and nudge my indicator. He looked about 16 inches and I thought it was a brown. I hooked him a few casts later, but he got off. I moved on, fishing down river to some beautiful holes, but no fish to be found. It was almost 4pm - time to head back to the cabin. SO I walked back up to the hole with the big fish in it - I tied on an electric yellow hot wire stone and drifted it through the pool. On my 4th cast I had the bastard on.

I landed this beauty - a 15 inch whitie - and again, he was a golden color.





That is probably the last time I will get out on this trip. I need to hang with the family more. I'm glad I got out during nap time - even though it was cold and snowy.

Tomorrow I have to drive up to Glenwood Springs to the tOyota dealer because Jen's truck won't go into 4X4 - we got the tires replaced last weekend and for the first time tried to throw it into 4X4 and it won't work. Hopefully it is an easy fix. I hope to go to SUnlight Mtn snowboarding tomorrow. We'll see if we make it.