Better late than never. Totally spaced writing up a blog entry for last week's trip. Busy week trying to get everything done at work in order to enjoy some time off! We had a nice 5X5 buck great us in the parking lot downstream from the nature center! Not a bad start to a day of fishing.
Mike, Marty, and I wanted to get away from the crowd and find some new water so we headed downstream from the Nature Center. There are a few nice runs shortly downstream from the Nature Center but then the river slows down and flattens out for a while. I kept walking downstream and we came across a nice spillway. Reminded me of the one on the East Portal of the Gunnison. Marty and I fished directly below the spillway for a while and we both managed to land a handful of dinks. Good warmup for the day.
Mike caught up to us and took a few casts and managed to land a few as well. We kept walking downstream past a section of weirs that went on for a few hundred yards. I turned a bend and found an awesome run where two currents combined directly in front of a drop off. This was a prime run. I hooked up almost immediately. I stayed in this run for a while and managed to hook and land several descent rainbows. I decided to keep heading downstream and Marty took a few casts in front of the drop off. I didn't get very far downstream and Marty yelled out that he had a nice one on. I walked back upstream to provide a net and to get a pic. It was a nice red 16" rainbow. Really nice fish but he didn't want his picture taken and jumped out of Marty's hands before we could get a pic.
Mike and I moved downstream and found some really nice runs below a train bridge. Mike hooked into a really nice bow that fought hard for about 10 minutes. It finally looked like it was coming into the net and made one last unexpected run and the hook pulled out! Would have been the fish of the day. Mike learned about getting net happy the hard way. Just after that I hooked into a really nice bow that took me directly under a log and got me hung up. It was a pretty action packed 15 minutes without a fish to show for it.
We decided to start heading back upstream and I had to through a few more casts in the run above the drop off. After a few minutes I hooked into a really nice brick red bow that took off like a bullet across the river to the far side. I got a good look at him as he broke the surface. This fish was a 20 incher. He started running downstream directly for a group of submerged branches and I knew I had to turn him. I turned my rod sideways and tried to keep him from getting in the brush and the hook pulled out. I knew it was too much pressure but if I let him run I'd lose him and my flies. That one hurt!
It was a good half day on the Ark and we learned some new water. I think we saw one other guy fishing along this stretch. Nice to hook good fish away from the crowds.
Was another great trip with nice size fish and great company. Look forward to the next one.
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