Rainbow Falls (Father's Day)

Great Father's Day weekend! Hit the East Portal on Saturday and headed up to RF Sunday evening. I told the girls that all I wanted for Father's Day was for them to come up to RF with me and fish and pretend they like it! Kensy lucked out and had to work. Madi wasn't so lucky.

We hit a few runs on Trout Creek but things were off. The Pike's Peak Fly Fisher's annual picnic was the day before at RF and I think the trout were pretty worn out. We decided to move down to Cougar Lake. I stripped streamers for about an hour or so with one bite. I decided to switch to a nymph rig and try a slow retrieve. Tied on a 14 Zug Bug and a 16 Graphic Caddis. Third cast and the indicator took a dive and I set the hook. A MONSTER rainbow came up and rolled on the surface. Alicia was standing next to me and let out a gasp. This thing was a true beast. Not just because it got away either. This was a 30" class fish. I was in shock. I only had him on for a few seconds. Just long enough for him to come up and show himself. I have no idea how he came unbuttoned. I got a solid hook set and had that feeling like as long as I let him run he would be netted. This was a really tough one to lose. Especially after having a huge brown follow me up last trip in this same spot only to refuse at the last minute. Carma bank is filling up. I feel a toad coming up soon.

After that kick in the jewels we decided to head back to Trout Creek. We hadn't landed a fish! I was really starting to get worried. I would have stayed all night before getting skunked at RF. We drove up to the first few runs and saw Ben's truck from Steel City. I didn't noticed that it was Ben's truck on the way down to Cougar lake or I would have crowded in on him sooner :-)  I asked Ben if we could fish below him. Ben said no problem and Lou said F3ck no. Get the f3ck out of here. LOL. Love these guys.

Within a few minutes we were hooking and landing fish. Phew.... I was getting worried there for a minute. Ben shared a sweet Caddis pattern and they were killing it. Ben and Lou had been there for a good part of the day and had landed a ton of nice fish.

The action had really picked up so I decided to see if Madi wanted in on it. She did a great job netting a nice bow for me and fought a rainbow for a good few minutes. She said it was fun, shrugged, and walked off LOL... The fishing gene must skip a generation. I believe I could sense Kensy silently thanking her lucky stars that she had to work. I wonder if she was actually on the schedule?