Rainbow Falls

I think my Dad had planned our trip to Rainbow Falls for today before we actually left Rainbow Falls last Sunday. I believe we can add him to the certified Rainbow Falls junkies list. We had Ben, Marty, Dad, and I today and we split up first thing. Marty and I decided to hit Cougar Lake. My Dad went upstream and hit the section of the creek we did well in last week. I'm not sure where Ben wound up to start.

Things started off slow. I had some new patterns I wanted to try out. I figured I'd tie on a pattern, take a lap around cougar lake, tie on a new pattern, and repeat. I cycled through retrieves at each stop along the way. First fly up was a nasty white / red barred meat whistle. Not much attention was paid to this fly. I had one grab just after the fly hit the water while it was diving but I didn't get a good hook set. I made it back to where I started and tied on a black meat whistle of the same size. I had made it just about around the second time when I cast out and was pulling three quick strips and a quick pause. Right at the last minute a big male brown swam up and seemingly effortlessly grabbed the fly. Second big male brown I've hooked at Rainbow Falls and the second one that has followed the fly all the way to the bank before taking it. Reminds me of a pike. Two natural born killers.

Marty was on the other side of the lake and ran around to help with the net. Not a crazy fight but plenty of strong pulls and head shakes. I couldn't quite get him to come to me so I had to work him to Marty in order to get him in the net. Seeing these big jaws in person and how they close perfectly together to trap whatever unlucky prey item that has just been inhaled is really something. These fish are truly a masterpiece of nature. Perfectly adapted to hunt and kill. Amazing.

Shortly after this 4 or 5 cars pulled up and a small mob surrounded us. I hadn't finished my plan and had two more patterns to go but I'd have to stay put for a while. I missed a really nice rainbow on the last pattern I wanted to try and then we decided to work our way up trout creek and meet up with Dad and Ben.

We hit several nice fish along the way to include this nice 20" bow that Mary landed. We met up with Dad and Ben at the tubes and fished for a while there. I landed a few but got too rough with one and he broke me off taking the last test fly I had tried that turned out to be the best one! The only one I had! Bummer too because I know it's going to be killer in Elk Lake. No worries there is always next weekend :-) I just need to find some vice time this week.

We made our way to Elk Lake but things were slowing down a bit. I need to hit Elk Lake first thing in the morning. Things started to cool down around noon. I started cycling through patterns and retrieves. 

I swear I didn't photoshop different fish in these pictures.

My Dad decided to hit Ute Lake, a lake I hadn't really fished much before, and started hooking up pretty regularly on black meat whistles. He landed two really nice bows within a half hour. The first was 20" and the second was a really fat 23". I landed a 20" in between but we had a camera malfunction and we didn't get a picture. Dad's 23" was full of spots. Really pretty fish and a REALLY strong fighter. Took a good 5 minutes to get him to the net.

Ben landed a nice 24" bow on the far side of Elk Lake after that. Marty landed a few on dries and then the switch flipped and everything stopped. We fished for another hour and a half without a tug.

Another great day in the hills. I must say though that I'm jonsing for a good river trip. East Portal of the Gunny is on tap. Will probably be hitting that in the next 2 - 3 weeks. Big bows on big stones in crystal clear water. Yes.... am jonsing bad. Looking forward to trying some of the same streamer techniques that have been working at Rainbow Falls on my normal fishing spots. Well my old normal fishing spots anyway.