Gunnison River Float (with a touch of Taylor)

This is a long one! After writing this I couldn't believe how long it turned out. Just too many good things to ignore. I won't be offended if you skip straight to the vid/pics but this was an awesome trip and I hope you'll stick it out.


GUNNISON RIVER FLOAT TRIP 6-13-14 from Jamie Roth on Vimeo.

I love it when a plan comes together. When a plan comes together that you didn't even really have to do anything for, it's great! I admit that I'm not the best at taking the time to plan a fishing trip much in advance (which I'm sure the Old Man loves). Usually it's just a "Hey Dad/Dude, wanna hit the X on Saturday"? Luckily for me Ben Lewis was on POINT planning this bad boy out.

Darren second from left and Ben right end in AK

This trip started out with news that Ben's buddy Darren Peterson, who lives in San Diego, wanted to come out to our great state of Colorado for a little water whipping this summer. We (Ben) had some really good fishing to plan! Ben met Darren through a mutual friend up in Alaska when Ben was stationed there with the Chair.... eh hem Air Force. They have gone on some pretty epic fishing trips together. Several day floats down big Alaskan rivers, bears, huge flesh fly on 2x eating rainbow slabs..... Ben's first trout actually was up in Alaska. It was 26". Ben asked if that was good. All downhill from there but hey Ben, you have good fishing buddies at least.... And Darren is one of them.

I guess I did contribute a little to this trip. Ben and I spoke about places to fish and I have been wanting to do a float on the Gunnison for years. Ben was totally down but I was a little worried about runoff. We didn't know if the river would be fishable mid June. We decided to book it (Ben) and if it came to it we could always hit the Taylor twice. We already had reservations (Ben) to stay in Gunnison after our float trip in order to introduce an Alaskan Veteran to the hog trough. Worst case scenario we could take the Guide trip on the Taylor and learn some juicy tid-bits.

Ben did some digging and came across Gunnison River Guides. He compared a few web sites and decided on these guys and I'm glad he did. These guys were great to deal (Ben) with from day 1. They expressed the same concern about the river flow but offered up a few alternatives including the Taylor and even a day for Pike fishing on Taylor Reservoir. We almost just chucked the float trip idea for the Pike idea but decided to save that for plan B.

Darren, Ben, and I met up the morning before the trip at the Angler's Covey to stock up on flies, tippet, split shot, etc, etc. It never seizes to amaze me how much of this stuff we go through. I've actually gone away from tapered leaders on my nymph rig but I don't skimp on tippet. Especially with the trout we fish to. By the way, always check out the bargain bin flies at the Covey. I picked up a few patterns out of that bin and they paid off big time on a very recent trip.

We loaded back up in the truck and I had a great feeling come over me. Freedom.... We didn't have any hard plans for the rest of the day other than to get some fishing in on our way over to Gunnison. Maybe thats why I suck at fishing plans...... what a great thing to experience during summer in Colorado. I felt like I was in high school again on a Friday afternoon with a full tank and nowhere to be....The next best thing, a Thursday morning in the Fish Pimp Tacoma, on vacation with three days of fishing planned (Ben).

I pulled out my eerilysmart phone and took a quick look at flows. Elevenmile Canyon seemed to be just right so we decided to hit that for a few hours. We mainly wanted to show Darren that area since it is such a pretty section of the South Platte. We caught a few and missed a few but we were eager to get back on the road. We were headed to the Gunny and had big flies on the brain. Small emergers just weren't cutting it! I wanted to hear my bugs hit the water!

Cottonwood - Older pic but could have been taken last week

We decided to head over Cottonwood Pass. It's my second favorite Colorado Pass (second to Independence) and we thought Darren would appreciate it. Somewhere along the line I remembered that I had fished Willow Creek (which flows off of Cottonwood and into the Taylor Reservoir) before when I was in high school with my buddy Nate Pamperin (how the hell are you anyway Man?). We decided to get a little small stream fishing in. Plus we could scout out the Taylor. My folks were going to meet us in Gunnison the next night and were thinking of hitting the Taylor before fishing it with us on Saturday. Could be some biggins to steer my Dad away from.

Willow Creek brown

We fished for an hour or so and landed some nice little browns. Willow Creek was running high and wading was actually pretty hard. I took my first and only swim of the trip after stepping into an overgrown hole instantly stopping the lower half of my body while my upper body continued into the COLD Cottonwood water (I feel ya Marty). It didn't matter though. We were on a beautiful creek with 3 weights fishing for aggressive little trout. Last time I fished this creek it was all top water but they weren't too interested in dries with the higher flow. So call me crazy but I was using a sparkle worm and a bead head PT. They were crushing both when I took the time to sneak up on them and present a descent cast.

Taylor Res output

The wind picked up and the clouds started
moving in so we decided we better start heading towards Gunnison. Besides we (Ben) still had plans to make with our Guides for the next day. We found out that our Guides were going to be on the water the day prior so we decided to see how they did before deciding on where to fish. We stopped to show Darren the output of Taylor Reservoir which is worth a quick look if you've never seen it. It's no wonder Craven's Mysis work so well here. They certainly take a beating on the way down.I'm thinking a white crystal flash dubbing ball on a hook....

On the way in to town we (Ben) were able to get in touch with one of our Guides for the next day and the word was that the river was still high but fishing well! Saweet!!!! I love the Taylor but I really didn't want two days in a row of light tippet and small flies...... (I was forgetting the kind of fish that live in the Taylor).....

THE FLOAT TRIP PART!

We met up with our guides at 10 AM in Almont. Yes 10 AM! Turns out that the river flow peaks overnight from the previous day's runoff and it's best to start late and fish late in order to get the clearest water. You would think after 20 years of fishing I'd know this but it just goes to show that you never stop learning in this sport. Especially when you change things up and take a break from tailwaters to cover some ground on a big freestone.

When we got there our guides already had the boats in the water and were rigging up. Jason was going to be guiding Darren and Ben in the first boat and I was going to jump in the second with Hunter. They both had about half a dozen rigs setup for us. Why? With the water moving as fast as it was, taking time to rig up on the drift would burn lots of river. Score a quick one for the Guides. So far so good. 

I'll save you a few, I promise!

Now I have to say that I had full intentions of rotating out of the second boat before we started. I figured Darren and Ben should get some fishing in together but if they wanted some time on a boat to themselves I'd be more than happy to jump on with Jason. I was even planning to offer it up the first chance we go. It quickly became apparent though just how good I had it. I'm an ass... Hunter got off to a quick start and we were the first boat to start downstream (I think to Ben's dismay - see pic - Sorry Ben! :-))

Great Guide and cool Dude Hunter

I could tell I liked Hunter right away. Another one of those guys that are just on the same wavelength as me. The first piece of advice I got from Hunter, before I even got in the boat, was to ditch the waders. This little gem of advice alone was worth a good tip it turned out. (The river was too high to wade and even though we stopped at good runs we never jumped out of the boat. Would have been WAY too  hot in waders).

Hunter has been guiding in Colorado for almost two decades. He has guided on many rivers but he finally decided that the Gunny was the river for him. He would wind up doing a fantastic job of convincing me why during the rest of the day.

One of the nicer browns

The "upper section" of the trip was really bonus water for us. With the river running so fast our Guides decided that we'd need more water than what they usually cover in order to fill a full day trip. Great! This trip was getting better and better. The upper section was between Almont and Gunnison and it turned out to be a great warm up for the day. Plenty of aggressive browns ranging in size between 8 and 14 inches. This was the type of fishing I was looking for. We had HUGE tippet on and double rubber legs (Girdle Bugs). Strikes were not very subtle! I absolutely live for this kind of fishing. When Hunter told me that it was feisty browns up top around Almont and bigger bows closer towards Gunnison I knew I was in for a really good day of fly fishing.

Darren having fun

We continued downstream hitting pockets on the drift along fast water and stopping at slower runs where the trout could get out of the heavy current. This provided an excellent mix of technical and laid back fishing. Half a dozen quick casts followed by half a dozen drifts through a nice run. Hunter had us on every possible holding area and there were a bunch of them. We found some pockets with no one home and some with players but every cast held the full expectation of a take. This lasted the entire trip which is really the kind of day you are after....They go fast.

Walking on water

Darren, Ben, and Jason in the sweet spot

Turned out that Darren and Ben were having just as much fun with Jason. We would leap frog each other on the way down stream and several times I'd see them go by with a fish on or in the net. It was a great feeling just being on the water. There were a handful of sections that were just a little too fast to hold much of anything. It gave me a chance to just stand up at the front of the boat and relax as we drifted down river. Float trips are a recent thing for me and for anyone who has never experienced one I full heartedly recommend it. There are a few things to get used to but with a good Guide it's easy. If you find yourself getting a bit tired of fishing the same crowded areas with very small flies and very light tippet, the remedy is a float on a large freestone river. Go with the Guides we went with and you will not be disappointed.

We continued downstream switching between a big nasty nymph rig and a hopper dropper combo. The hopper dropper was great to cast and added the element of a big bushy top water bug to the mix. I saw a few flashes just below the fly in the off color water but didn't wind up getting any takes on it. It did disappear frequently though. One second it's there and the next it's not. When it's not you set the hook and hold on.

Just as Hunter predicted we started getting into nicer and nicer bows the further toward Gunnnison we got. Both boats netted a 20" bow with several others in the 18" range. These were just icing on the cake. I have no idea how many fish we netted but I'd say somewhere around 40 total. Darren and Ben never asked to switch boats and I never brought it up! I would have switched but I just couldn't bring myself to walk away from the kind of fun I was having and neither one of them looked ready at all to jump ship.

I actually had a chance to catch up with Jason on the way back to Almont and he's a very cool Dude (see note below). Probably knows more about this river than anyone on the planet. He's put a ton of days on the water over the years and knows the river like the back of his hand. I'm so glad that Ben picked these guys for our trip. Ben hit a home run picking these guys and I recommend them 100%.

I'll finish up this friggin dissertation with some pictures of the bows we landed. Enjoy and do yourself a favor and take this trip! (BTW GRG - I'm willing to take any "referral" days we could perhaps earn from referring you to millions of readers).

Jason Booth with a Taylor Hawg!

Jason Booth: I did get a nagging feeling that I had seen Jason somewhere before when we met up that morning. I didn't think anything of it till I was talking to him on the way back. Turns out Jason is a good friend of Landon Mayer's and is in Landon's book, "Colorado's Best Fly Fishing" in the Taylor chapter. He gives some killer advise in the caption under this unforgettable photo - some advice that I use on the Taylor and some advice that led me to the biggest fish I ever caught on the Taylor (upcoming blog post). Buy the book! Well worth it.