The Blue And Gore Creek

When my friend gave me a call after my second day of Drivers Ed and asked if I had some time for a spare fishing trip, I actually wasn't sure. After moving a couple things around, checking with my mom, and other assorted boringness, I gave him the OK. So with the bags packed, we got a late (7:00 am) start up to the Blue. As usual, the fishing in the upper section was tough. Once we hit my favorite area, the fishing took a turn for the better. All in all I landed some fish, lost a couple more, and broke off once.

After awhile, we head out to our final destination. Wait, not the Blue? No, we were here to fish Gore Creek and its surrounding beaver ponds. We biked for a little while and found ourselves at a nice pond with some rising brookies. I started off with a Slump Buster, but quickly changed up to a yellow Adams. Sight casting to these fish was a great time, and it reminded me of Small Stream Reflections. Speaking of which, SSR is one of my favorite blogs. I wish I could tie flies half as good as what I see on there. If you don't already read it, hit the link and check it out.

The next day, we fished Gore Creek all the way through the Golf Course property. After catching a bunch of brookies, two browns, and a rainbow, I joked to my friend that we should try for a Grand Slam. Not even 30 minutes later, a nice Colorado Cutt found his way into my net. I admired his beauty, held him up for my friend, and let him go. Then I tried to drown myself for a good ten minutes because  I forgot to take a picture. Sorry guys.

Keep checking back in, there's going to be something really cool up within the next few days.

We Drove HOW MANY Hours?!?!

With nothing to do for a couple days, it seemed like a good time for a little overnighter. So after a few hours of getting ready, we hopped in the car and started the grueling 5 hour drive that takes us to the Taylor River. And I apologize in advance for all the blurry pictures, but it's tough to hold a camera steady when you're ass deep in fast water!

Have you ever had something so well planned out, so prepared, that it just doesn't work out? Well day one went kind of like that. Don't get me wrong, we caught a couple fish. The only issue was that we were at the Taylor searching for that elusive 10 pound rainbow. And they just didn't seem to be around. I spent the day catching nice browns in the 16-20 inch range, but didn't even see a fish you could call a Taylor River Hawg. Was day one a bust? No, it just wasn't quite what I was looking for. Not that it wasn't fun, just not what I expected.

Day two brought us fishing on the lower Taylor and Gunnison Rivers. It was a big change of pace from the previous day, with much more active fish. More active meaning they would eat a size 2 Golden Stone on the skate. Now, if you've never had the chance to fish a good stonefly hatch, put it on the list. You cast  up onto the bank, twitch it and skate it into the water, and let it get hammered by that 17 inch rainbow who's been waiting all day for the next big meal.

Day three took us on another long drive (4 hours) across the Kebler Pass and into the town of Basalt. For this last full day, we were going to hit the Frying Pan from top to bottom. Starting at the infamous Toilet Bowl, we worked our way through the Flats, Bend Pool, and weaved around private water all the way to Basalt.

Day four brought a 4:30am wake up and a quick morning of fishing at the upper Pan, and finished off with brekfast burritos and yet another 4 and a half hour drive home. Awesome trip!

Three Ugly Mugs

A couple days ago, I got the pleasure of fishing Boulder Creek with Howard from Wind Knots and Tangled Lines, and Sanders from Up the Poudre. We met up at around 10 at Rocky Mountain Anglers, and headed to one of my favorite sections in town. Things were a little slow early on, but they quickly heated up and fish started coming to hand. Howard kept up the tempo by catching various shrubbery and leaves, since he doesn't fish to many nymphs. In a few months, we'll be able to fish dries and that won't be a problem. Anyway. here's the photo roll:

Lonely Bass And Crowded Trout

A Great Day On The Water!

I spent the last couple of days doing an early Summer tour of the waters, to see where I should spend more time and where I will be wasting it. Well, the report has come in! The bass are lonely, all by themselves and hard to find. We caught one bass in total, right around 7:00 at night. We had fished quite a bit before that, so it wasn't great. That one single bass was at Wonderland Lake, which has also risen about three feet. Pella Crossing only produced one fish, and it didn't even get all the way in. Since it was a big fish, I already had the headlines running through my mind. "Jay Zimmerman's Backstabber Proves Successful On Large Bass." Well it did, but I didn't. The fish popped of after a couple minutes of fighting. So with that day done, the outlook was bleak. Oh, and did I mention all the carp were two hundred feet off the shore? Ya, crazy. So after having a late dinner, watching TV, and doing a book burning of all our schoolwork, we went to bed. I woke up the next morning, hoping this day would be better. My friend had a tennis tourney in the morning, so I stayed home and tied flies. He got home, and we went up the Boulder Canyon. I mean, bass just wasn't an option anymore. I might as well cast in my yard at that rate. So up Boulder Canyon we were. I'd say we got up around noon, and it was looking good. The water looked something like this:

Lookin' Nice Above Boulder Falls!

My first cast was in, to no success. My fifth cast, however, proved it had the right drift. The fish at the top of the post was produced on a Blue Poison Tung. I caught a couple more fish, including a really miniscule brown that's pictured at the bottom. After that tiny thing, though, I caught the biggest fish of the trip. A beautiful, colored, fat rainbow was in the net:

Big Boy Rainbow

I released the fish, who allowed us to take another picture as he swam off. A couple more nice browns, but then a disaster struck. Or should I say, a could-have-been disaster. I ran out of Blue Poison Tungs! So I had to decide a new pattern to tie on. And then something little and red fell out of my box. What was that? A sign? Yes, indeed it was! The "Alien Shit" was sitting neatly on top of a rock. So I tied it on, and put my first cast into a small pocket. Bam! This brown was sitting by the bank ten seconds later, with the Alien in it's mouth:

"I liked the Red Fly, So I Ate It. Ya, I knew It Was a Fly, But It Was So Pretty!"

So here is one of those other Browns I talked about earlier, and the last picture of that big Rainbow swimming away. All in all, a great day out there!

Bye-Bye, Buddy!

A Solid Boulder Creek Brown