This weekend's highlight was a float trip on the Roaring Fork River. Ben won the trip in an auction at a Cheyenne Mountain Chapter of TU event. I was out of town on business but Ben would shoot me texts on what was up for bid. A full day Naturalist float on the Fork? Hell yes!
Ken Neubecker and Paula Fothergill had offered up their boat and a full day on the river to support TU. Awesome! We have had this trip planned for a while and it was a long time coming.
We were counting the minutes on Thursday. We hit the road around 4:30
and it took everything in us to keep working till then! I believe I shot Ben a text at 9AM letting him know I was ready to fish. We headed over Independence Pass on Thursday afternoon. Independence pass is my favorite pass in Colorado and it never gets old driving over it. I don't know how many times I've been over it but every time feels like the first. I was reading Neal Young's book and he actually tells a story of trying to take his tour bus over Independence!
"It was the wildest ride I have ever been on. When we got to the peak, there was a curve on the side of the mountain with a sheer drop down several thousand feet on the left side and a rock wall straight up on the right. The road was about fifteen feet wide at that point, less than two lanes, and slightly narrower than on a straightaway. I couldn't see around the curve because the rock wall was cutting down my angle. I swung the front end out over the line a bit to make it around the curve, when suddenly a car appeared coming the other way! Quickly I turned away from it and simultaneously heard a sickening scraping sound on the right-hand side of the bus where it had kissed the mountainside. We couldn't stop up there or anywhere, so we just kept going around the curve and down that road. We had peaked the summit and were on our way down into Aspen, and after about twenty minutes of driving we got to a place where we could pull the bus over and take a look. Holy shit! There was a gaping slash in the bus. The generator and the air-conditioning unit were both heavily damaged. We continued into Aspen and went for a series of beers". Anyone who has driven over Independence Pass knows exactly what section he's talking about! 
We met up with Ken and his wife Paula at Alpine Angling in Carbondale. Really nice folks! Paula and Ken did a quick check of our fly boxes and then we went in to grab a few more flies. We were on the water a half hour later. Paula was nice enough to drop us off and pick us up! Paula and Ken were a wealth of knowledge and meeting them really added to an already good weekend. I really wished we had stopped for a group picture. Next time guys!
We headed out of Carbondale floating towards Glenwood Springs. It took a minute to get dialed in but we started getting into some nice trout. The browns were really pretty. Nice spots and really yellow. A sparkle worm up top and a size 16 Hares Ear (shown) variant or a 20 incher was the ticket for nymphs. I tie my Hares Ear with a few slight modifications. I rib the body with Medium Hot Yellow Ultra Wire, use Peacock Ice Dubbing for the thorax and brush out the sides for legs, and use Mottled Bustard Thin Skin under medium or large opal Mirage Tinsel under Clear Cure under clear nail polish. Let's call it the PK Hares Ear for Paula and Ken. Any streamer seemed good for a take. I had a test pattern I call Lady Gaga which was basically a little of any white material in my fly tying materials. This thing sounded awful hitting the water and just looked nasty underwater. Kinda like it's namesake. Trout smaller than Lady Gaga were helpless against her power. Unfortunately Lady Gaga hit rock bottom and was the victim of a retail snap (I believe Pat Dorsey calls it that and I'm stealing it). A size 8 natural slump with a silver cone, body, and ribbing was the best producer though on streamers.
We floated 16 miles or so on this awesome river and had fun every bit of it. Paula and Ken are great folks and I think they should offer up this trip for bid again next year :-) On the way back to Basalt we snuck in a quick 2 hours or so on river just outside of town. Couple of nice browns for our efforts. Basalt has got a great location. I think I'll go back.
No comments:
Post a Comment