Some pictures from my recent foray to Colorado. This was primarily a 'family trip', but I did manage to get in quite a bit of fishing. I don't take many pictures of fish I release anymore, so this is sort of a mixed bag. There are some 'scenery' pictures thrown in too for good measure.
The first location we fished was the S. Platte - Eleven Mile Canyon. This is a spot I grew up fishing because we have a cabin near there. Its absolutely gorgeous and gets less pressure than the more famous S. Platte canyon stretch that Gierach writes about all the time (probably because its NOT catch and release only - which keeps
some of the hoity-toity Latin speakers away). We caught mostly browns, which was fantastic because these are not stocked.
Here's one of the resident browns in his/her natural habitat:
Here's a shot of a nice stretch on the S. Platte that gave up surprising numbers of fish to Trico spinners and small F-Flys (the fish acted like they had never seen these before!)
Here's a photo of Greg working some mouth watering water just downstream from the last photo (and in sunnier conditions! I forgot how
fast those afternoon thunderstorms can move in!):
In the evening, there was an absolutely incredible caddis hatch that started up. We were walking back to the car after a long day's fishing. I had already unstrung my rod. Suddenly, we came upon a pool with fish rising
everywhere. I tied a small cdc caddis and we traded off fish with Greg's new 8ft 4wt Winston WT (sweet rod). Here's a video of fish number 5. Please ignore the cheesy commentary.
Later in the week, we headed up to the Breckenridge area for some more family time and of course fishing.
We rented a 'condo' that backed onto this lovely little gem called 'Tenmile creek:'
There weren't a LOT of fish in here (it was too clear and there wasn't enough insect life to support large populations - I suspect it gets completely scoured every spring), but most of the likely looking pockets and holes held an 8-10 inch resident brown or cutthroat. There were some larger specimens that were
allegedly caught whilst I was upstream with the camera. I didn't take any fish shots here as they were all wild and small and I wanted to release them ASAP. But I did get some more shots of the creek.
Here's a shot taken early in the AM with the mountain reflecting the sunlight back onto the river. I guess this is about as close to 'urban fishing' as you can get in the Colorado rockies:
The river was full of delectable little pockets and plunge pools like this one:
And farther up, there were some cool waterfalls:
We also fished the Snake river (not to be confused with
the Snake that's farther north). We managed to sniff out some public water that didn't
look public, which was a big help against the Labor Day crowds and the idiots camped on good holes in lawn/ lounge chairs (seriously).
Here's an action shot on one of the more mouth watering holes on the snake. You can just see my sz 6 foam bodied stimulator, under which hangs 7 feet of tungsten nymphs to get to the bottom of this hole. Didn't get any fish on this particular series of drifts, but on the way back out, I took two decent bows here.
Later on in the day, I found a run that just screamed 'big fish.' I got rid of the indicator fly and put on a sz 12 hares ear flashback spider as a trailer behind my tungsten copper john and ptn. I started working the pool methodically. Suddenly, I saw a huge trout materialise from the bottom not 10 feet away from me. He flashed about where my trailer fly would be - I set hard - and the fight was
on. This fish bent my 5wt BIIx double. After a tense 5 minute battle (most of which involved me running downstream after it), Greg netted her and snapped a few pics.
Greg wasn't familiar with my camera and I was too flustered to set it up for him, so the fish is a bit overexposed, but you get the idea. An honest 18 inches of fat wild rainbow:
This shot gives a little better idea of the size of the fish - she had some serious 'shoulders.'
And another as she went back - taken with my little waterproof olympus:
After catching that fish using a more 'technical' setup, I thought I would just dink around with a streamer and see what else I could manage to dredge up. I was surprised to get this little guy, but also really happy as it was my first ever brook trout:
Hope you enjoyed the fishing pics. As always, if anyone is going to Colorado and wants advice, PM me.
Whilst spending some quality time with 'the fam' in between fishing, I was able to snap some other shots.
Here's one of a female Rufous hummingbird in flight:
Here's a shot of a Columbine growing wild near our condo:
The aspen trees were starting to change as well:
Hope you enjoyed!
The Grasshopper Hatch! (Colorado)
Oh just wait for your trip on the Deschutes River in NE Oregon...
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