Taylor River

A nice 20" Cutthroat that Dad caught

What's harder; tying on a size 28 miracle nymph on 8x tippet, or removing a size 28 miracle nymph tied to 8x from a trout jaw? I did both today and I'm not sure... Both cause you to lose flies, make your eyes bleed, and can cause you to speak in tongues. Some people skip the removal part and release the fish only to hear the invisible tippet snap releasing your invisible fly to swim off (sorry Dad but this was too funny). What's the best part of using 8x tippet? Switching to 6x.

Skinny brown with a Meat Whistle 

We spent Friday and Saturday fishing to ultra pressured hogs on the Taylor just below Taylor Res. We showed up Friday evening after fighting construction traffic in the high country of Colorado. We decided to do some chuck and duck Friday evening with streamers and Rapalas. Dad and Marty did well on hardware and I  managed to land a few on streamers. I was fishing to a large brown just under the bridge with an olive Meat Whistle. After a few casts he followed it up and bumped it but didn't eat it. It was enough to get my heart to stop though.

We finished up Friday evening around 8 and headed into Gunnison for the night. We headed into Safeway sporting our breathable waders and picked up some doughnuts for the morning. The lady at the register gave us the "they only come out at night" look and rang us up. We pulled into the Super 8 for a quick nap before heading out at 4:30! (it was 8 before we saw the first car)

Marty with a nice brown early Sat morning

Round two of chuck and duck started at daylight. We each caught a few nice fish but nothing huge. Marty and I stayed planted in the Avalanche hole almost the entire day. Dad fished the hog trough in the morning and the speed limit hole in the afternoon. He did great in the speed limit hole catching a dozen or so to include a 20" cutty (shown above) while Marty and I continued to whip the same abused fish we whipped all morning long.

Our first attempt at underwater video. You can see 

the brown trout I was fighting towards the end of this

video. CAUTIION - Marty decided to bump this family

movie up to an R rating at the end. Thanks Marty

We all tried fishing 8x tippet and were able to land a few but all in all 6x seemed to be just as effective. I switched to 6x after setting the hook on a take just a little too hard and snapped my whole rig off. I muttered a few choice words and ditched the 8x. I was however impressed by the strength of the size 28 Tiemco hooks.

The weather moving in

The weather on Saturday was typical springtime Colorado weather. The morning started out nice without any wind. After an hour or two of fishing I looked over at Marty and said, "It's getting colder Dude". Within an hour it was snowing. The temperature plummeted and Marty and I were shaking. It actually gives your fly nice action in the water. I had my heavy coat in the car and it would have taken under 4 minutes to stop fishing and go get it but I figured 4 hours of shivering uncontrollably was a better option. My brain ceases to function in the presence of large trout.  

The biggest fish of the day weren't landed. Dad had a 22" brown up the the bank but couldn't get a net on him. I missed a very large brown in the Avalanche hole. Marty had come over to where I was fishing and I was pointing out a huge rainbow to him that I had been watching. I took a few casts to the rainbow and at the end of one drift I saw my indicator twitch and I set the hook. A huge brown came up to the surface and threw several massive head shakes and spit my fly. Marty said "oh my god did you see that fish!" I said "yeah it was on the end of my line"! I hadn't even seen the brown there. Just goes to show how hard it is to see trout sometimes. 

It was another fun but tough trip to the Taylor. These fish can really humble you. Some guys just really get this river. I still struggle with it. It's always fun though and catching 16 - 18" browns is fun on any day.