Swimming in the Taylor

Thank God it stayed up at 500. I had been watching the flow on the Taylor for a week or two and
things had been looking good. I think it went from 80 or so to 400 and then crept its way up to 500. I've been saying for the last few years that if the Taylor hit 500 again I would quit my job if I had to and get my happy ass up there. Well... here I was a week into 500 flows looking at other people's slab pics.

Well we made it up this past Saturday and it didn't disappoint (for the most part).  The kick in the ass that I needed to get up there was that Marty had been cleared by his doctor to fish. This is a big deal since Marty hasn't gone fishing since our day on the Dream with -18 degree temps. We were toying with the idea of leaving Friday evening and camping but there was a good 10% chance that it would rain and that made me hate my tent. So we decided to go old school and do it in a day. Well soft old school.. we left at 4am instead of 1am.

And were the first to show at the bridge.... Winning! We decided to head up to the top of the public water and work our way down. We saw a bunch of reds on the way up that were particularly concentrated at and around the wire. We stopped to watch for a few minutes and then kept heading upstream. I didn't see any monsters in the top riffle. I was hoping a large trout that had led a quiet life eating shrimp cocktails above the public access had hastily wondered his way downstream in the heavy flow but that was just twisted wishful thinking.

It was tempting to take some casts at the wire but
we made the right choice and kept walking. It wasn't hard to find the feeding browns on the sides of the main channel. It also didn't take long for one of them to eat a Kleis's Mysis.This fly, San Juan Worms, eggs, and a chocolate DM midge all fished well in the morning. A #20 olive RS2 was hot in the afternoon. We hooked fished fairly consistently the whole day.

Marty wound up hooking more than just fish though... I saw him walking downstream towards me and he was saying something but I couldn't quite make it out. When he got closer I heard him say that he could use a hand. I couldn't really tell what he was talking about till he walked up to me and I saw the fly stuck in his face! Luckily it was a small fly and came out easily. Unfortunately this was not the end of Marty's bad luck.

We met some cool guys on this trip like Nick Pep who I happened to walk up on while he was netting this sweet bow! This was the biggest fish I saw or heard of being taken that day. Glad I was able to shoot him a pic! We also spoke to some cool guys at lunch and it turns out one of them, Stephen Hofer, follows my blog which is very cool!

The PM fishing was good but not as hot as the AM fishing. We did wind up hooking up quite a bit though and I had to ask Marty for help on a fish that I had foul hooked. He was downstream from me and I figured I could use some net help. Marty grabbed his net and was getting into position when the fish ran right at his legs. Marty did good to avoid the line but had to take a step backwards in the river and that spelled DUNK. Luckily we were it light current so it was just a quick dunk but if you have ever taken a 42 degree dunk you know exactly what kind of wake up call it is! Nothing like freezing water going down your waders to remind you that you are alive! The best part..... all of it is on the GoPro :-) For those of you reading this in an email I grabbed this quick screen shot of Marty getting his heart settled back down into his chest (video below). I think most of us know exactly how Marty is feeling in this pic!

One noticeable absence on this trip was the BIG (8lb +) fish. Not because we didn't hook any but because I didn't really see many. I think they know how to use the big flow. I dredged in the Avalanche hole for a while but I couldn't hit bottom in the deepest section. I did see some big fish in the fast section between the Avalanche Hole and the Speed Limit Hole. They were holding in pockets that were just about impossible to get to. Even if you did hook one it would be damn near impossible to land it in that heavy water. Trout continue to amaze me.

Great to have The Mart back on the water. Never a dull moment Bud! Really cool to meet Nick and Stephen as well! Hope to see you Dudes on the water again.


MARTY SWIM from Jamie Roth on Vimeo.

Memorial Day at Spinney

I wasn't planning on fishing this weekend. I could only get through two of the three days this weekend. I decided last night that I'd set the alarm and if I wasn't too comatose when it went off I'd get up and hit the road.

This turned out to be a fail safe plan for not getting a good nights sleep. I was awake before my alarm went off. Not comatose at all so I hit the road.

I figured it would be packed when I got up there but there was only one other car at the dam. I walked out and spoke with the guy a bit. He left at 2AM to get there early. I'd say he's crazy but the Old Man and I used to leave for the Taylor/Pan at 1AM.

Fishing was descent early. A 6mm fire orange egg trailed by a #14 red Copper John was the best thing I could come up with. I landed 3 or 4 trout and at least that many suckers. Sucker burn was in full effect today. I didn't catch many trout but 2 of the ones I caught were 19". Fat too.

The wind never materialized and it got just as packed as I thought it would so I decided to beat the flash food to 24 and get home early.

Still a great few hours on the water. I did have something interesting happen. I was fishing with Lady Gaga (a hideous huge white streamer I toss from time to time) and got a full stop. I thought I was on the bottom but I always wait for a few seconds. I felt some movement and then my line came flying back in my face.... Pike??? Not sure. It felt strange, like a log, and the movement was very subtle. I figure a big pike would move a little more. Probably a stick but I got some good daydreaming out of it.

A Bird, a Bass, and Two Dinks

They aren't lying!

Ben Lewis and I decided to do something a little different after having to postpone a guide trip due to a crazy Colorado spring snow storm. We were going to hit the Dream Stream with Landon Mayer but with a forecast of over a foot of snow we decided to reschedule. This left Ben and I with a free Monday. We decided to head down to Pueblo in two trucks and cover as much water as we could with only streamers.

I've tried to do this a few different times but had always switched to nymphs as soon as I thought I knew what the trout were feeding on. It really takes patience to fish streamers and that is something I've always been short on. This time I only brought my streamer boxes so I'd be forced to stick with the plan. All of the bigger fish that I've seen come out of Pueblo have been taken on streamers. Ben has stuck some serious pigs on streamers and I broke a rod on one at the end of the 2013 Frostbite Fish-off. With the flow around 300 (down from 900ish) I figured the fish would have been used to seeing some bigger prey items. What the hell, it was worth a try.

We parked Ben's truck up at the dam, loaded up in my truck, and drove all the way down to reservoir road. I figured that would be a good day's worth of fishing if we kept moving. We got out and took one look at the water and it looked great. Perfect flow and a lot clearer than I thought it would be. The long channel along the near bank from the reservoir road parking up to the first bridge looked fantastic. So fantastic that I think we spend nearly an hour covering that water which, in retrospect, was WAY too long since we had to get to Ben's truck up a the dam. I had a 12-14" brown bump me and follow me in in this section but that was it.

I didn't want to think it, but from the amount of birds that were hovering over the water I knew there was a killer hatch going on. I've never seen this many birds on the water and I thought that it only made sense that this was the day we chose to leave everything home but the streamer boxes.... On top of that we hadn't seen another soul on the water the entire morning.

We kept at it though and several weirs above the water treatment plant I got a tug and was hooked up. Unfortunately my fly was nearly as big as the rainbow on the end of my line. But I held him up and thanked him for being a little skunk saver before letting him run off to get big. 

I only managed to hook one other dink until we got to the flag hole and I hit a bird on my forward cast. Luckily this little dude wasn't hurt and once I unwound the line from around his wings and neck he was good to go. Neither one of us liked the whole experience and he let me know! Didn't know a little bird could get so loud.

That was it till we got to the hatchery outlet and finally had a good tug. I could see a shadow following my streamer and at the last minute it darted up and grabbed it. I really didn't know what to think of the shape that grabbed my fly.
At first I thought it was a short, fat little brown but it was way too dark. After an initial run it came right in and realized it was a bass. My first in Pueblo. I've heard that they are in the river but had never caught one. I have caught a walleye before so the bass makes for my 5th species on this river (rainbow, brown, bass, walleye, sucker). Would be sweet to do that in one day!

Tough day and a lot of walking but it was still nice to cover all of that water in one day. We didn't see another person on the river which was another first. If we had fished the midge/baetis hatch we would have probably landed a few more but we stuck to the plan (mostly because we had no other choice). We were exhausted by the time we got to the truck. We probably should have started at Pueblo Blvd and worked our way up. I'm thinking this day counts for some time in the trenches and hoping that pays of with a pig at the Taylor next weekend :-)

Stillwater Zap

Ben hooking up early

Been in a bit of a writing slump as of late. Have two half written blog posts that I just can't seem to whip finish. I like to write when I can just sit down and have it pour out and that just hasn't happened lately for one reason or another. But today I have a sudden urge to write pages. I got two shocks to the system yesterday, one good and one bad but both have me dying to type away. Let's start with the good.

I met Jon Kleis a few years back at the Angler's Covey. I think it was at a fly tying night but can't remember for sure when I first met Jon. Sometimes you run into people and you instantly know you are on the same wavelength. Jon and I got along right off the bat. There are a few areas that we line up perfectly on. Fishing is an obvious first. Not just fishing in general but our thoughts on the sport like why we enjoy it, why we fish flies that catch fish, why we like to keep the BS to a minimum, etc, etc, etc. List just seems to go on and on.

Jon Kleiss

We have been wanting to fish for a LONG time but life happens and it's just taken a while to sync up. Things have a way of working themselves out though and through the power of the interwebs I received two tantalizing bread crumbs that lead to an awesome day of fishing at Spinney Mountain Reservoir. The first was an email from Angler's Covey that, in summary, said that I spend way too much money in their shop. They didn't come right out and say it but that's the message I got when they told me how many Perkville points I've accumulated through purchases in the shop. I started to do the math to figure out exactly how much I've spent to get those points but I don't like math and I didn't really want to know anyway. What I was interested in learning was that I had enough points for a full day guide trip for two. The next thing that hit me was that Spinney had just opened and Jon had been up there dialing things in twice since opening day. Pretty much a no brainer at that point. We toyed with the idea of Cheesman but we both knew where we should really go. It took a ton of arm twisting to get my fishing buddy Ben Lewis on board. Lots of phone calls and emails back and forth..... but you know that is a lie.

Other than Rainbow Falls, I haven't fished a lot of stillwater. I've fished Spinney once in the recent past and caught a few nice fish but I've never got the same feeling fishing stillwater that I do on a river. I hate to say it but the stillwater fishing I've done in the past felt a lot like bobber fishing. I don't have a belly boat so other than tossing streamers I'd just cast out and stare at my bobb.... errrr strike indicator until I went cross-eyed.

Had to get a shot of the doubles!

The fishing this trip started out as expected. I figured we'd be casting nymphs and working them slowly, with a twitch every now and then. That's pretty much what we did at first. We were catching fish though. John had us rigged up at a perfect depth so that our trailing fly was just barely catching some underwater vegetation every now and then. That really kept us on our toes because ticking the bottom and some of the takes we got were identical. Fly selection was not as I expected which was good. We fished a two fly nymph rig and fish were biting on both flies. We were using...... ah, gotcha on that one..... Sorry but for that juicy tidbit you'll have to hit Jon up! Ben and I both caught fish and we even had doubles. I can't ever remember getting a picture of two fish in the net. What a blast (guess which one is mine :-))! We were just getting settled in when the wind showed up.

Wind coming in on Spinney

Have you ever gone fishing and been happy when the wind showed up? I didn't know it at the time but I was about to change my mind about wind when it showed up in force mid morning. It was like someone flipped a switch and I went from calm relaxing casts with gentle takes to battling chest high white caps that made it hard to just keep upright. I was fighting like a mad man to cast and then to keep my line mended in the waves. That is where our Guide made all the difference. Jon stepped in and showed me how to work with the wind and waves and not against them. Totally counter intuitive for a guy who has spent years keeping his line mended on rivers. I was basically getting a drift on a lake! Totally opened my eyes to stillwater possibilities.

FUN FUN FUN

The wind really picked things up. We had the right rig, flies, and technique and we really started to hit them. The takes in the morning were pretty subtle but when you have two foot white caps and a trout grabs your fly, your indicator goes under! This was unbelievably fun. It felt like hooking up on the swing at the end of a river drift. Every cast was ripe with anticipation and for good reason. We spent the rest of the morning into the early afternoon landing one fatty after another. It was a mixed bag of hens and bucks. All of the boys had kypes. It was really fun fighting and landing fish in waves. I can imagine that surf fishing feels a lot like what we were doing in the middle of Colorado! I can't even describe what it's like to see a trout fight waves on it's way back out to "sea" after the release. Unreal... 

Chad Ries. Miss you already Man

It's times like these that you can take for granted. We get in our day to day routines and hopefully pepper them with experiences like this but all too quickly we are back to the grind stone waiting for the next weekend. It's rare to get a zap that level sets you again and makes you really think about how good you have it. For me that zap came from my Buddy Chad who tragically passed away on Friday doing what he always did which is to help people. You hear about "shirt off their backs" kinda guys all the time but Chad truly did set the standard for living right. Chad, you passed this life with flying colors. You are missed by many. On to the next Brother.

All of these pictures were taken by Jon Kleis in between helping us out with technique and netting fish. We didn't even know he was taking some of these. What a treat it was to get these the day after the trip. Chad, this is our church and these are for you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 RIP Brother

Dream Stream Ice Bowl (Record Low)

Damn Cold!

If I didn't know any better I'd think that someone was trying to tell me to go to church (of course anyone that has the bug knows that I was at church). I think Marty and I found the coldest air in the state during one of the nicest days of the winter in Colorado Springs....

Marty has been riding the pine for a while due to a persistent shoulder injury. Life has handed Marty and his lovely wife Laurie some real challenges in the past few years. On top of Marty's injuries Laurie was diagnosed with cancer and has been handling her fight with strength, determination, grace, patience, and love. I can only imagine how hard that has to be. Please, please, please, if you can, help Marty and Laurie out with their growing medical bills by donating here. If you are interested in a guided trip to Rainbow Falls where 100% of the proceeds go to help Laurie and Marty please hit me up.

Marty HAD to get on some water injury or not. Even if just to get some fresh air and get some good pictures. It had been months since he has been on the water and I know that time on the water is good medicine. Good for the soul and Marty needed some recharging. We decided to hit the Dream Stream since the fishing had been so good and the weather in town on Saturday was absolutely gorgeous. Sunday's forecast looked even better.

Everyone knows what happens when you assume. And we should have checked the weather before assuming that just because it was going to be 70 in town it would be nice at the river. I was keeping my eye on the outside temp on the overhead display in Marty's Durango on the way up and when we started off I think it was twenty something. We watched it drop fifteen degrees in five minutes as we drove down the back side of Wilkerson Pass. WTF!

By the time we reached the parking lot it was ridiculous. I think our previous record for fishing in the cold was -16 which happened a few years back in Pueblo. It was miserable and you just can't really fish at that temp. Bad things happen. Ice ropes, frozen up rod eyes, snapped tippet, frostbitten fingers. Even if you do hook a fish, you probably wont land it and if you do its going to suck releasing it. It really becomes pointless to be out there until it warms up (see video on blog site if you are reading this in an email)

Long story short we basically stood around freezing our asses off for two hours before we could really fish. It's the only time I can remember looking up and down stream and seeing guys on every bend just standing around looking at each other. Crazy! 

Lil Fatty!

Once we did start fishing it was pretty slow. We wound up hooking a few but it was the slowest day out of four trips to the Dream Stream this spring. The good side was that Marty was able to fish. His shoulder was bothering him but not enough to prevent him from casting. Really good to see Marty fishing again. I just wish the weather had cooperated a little more.

When we finally made it back to the parking lot we were frozen solid. Those who fish with me will tell you that I don't get cold very easily but I was COLD when we jumped back in the Durango. I didn't even think about changing out of my waders for the trip home. We jumped in and cranked up the heater. Somewhere just outside of Woodland Park I noticed that we were no longer cold. In fact it felt like a friggin Sauna. We turned down the heater and rolled down the windows and it was like Summer outside! We took the scenic route through Manitou on the way home and people were walking around in shorts buying ice cream!

Basically we spent the nicest day of the winter in the one spot around us that was cold! But it was worth it to get Marty out on the water and catch a few nice cuts. Looking forward to a little warmer weather for our next trip Bud!

The Road to a 10lb Brown (Part 3)

Here it is folks. The final installment in the journey of slabbage. I am so thankful to have had a day like this on the river and can’t express how cool it is for it to come after my Dad had such a good day the day before. Fishing is great when you have good days you can share with Family and Friends. And this day is one that I will never forget.

The Night Before..

A little nagging voice was telling me to go back for more. Something was just right about the fishing on Saturday. My Old Man had pulled in slab after slab and I knew most of the puzzle pieces. The trick would be getting the same puzzle two days in a row. The more I thought about it the more I wanted to go back. I pinged Ben and showed him the fish porn from earlier in the day. Needless to say it didn’t take much convincing. The plan was in place. We were going to try and be on the water around 7:30 the next day. 

Flies… Well eggs…. Needed more. My Dad had figured out the color. I didn’t have the correct size but I had the color down close enough. Time to crank out a few dozen. I like to fish Otter Eggs. Some peeps will complain that these aren’t flies but in my mind a synthetic is a synthetic is a synthetic. If you are against Otter Eggs but tie up Rubber Legs I’d have to ask you what the difference is. In any case I cranked out a few dozen Tango in 8mm and 10mm. If you haven’t tried these yet you are missing out. VERY strong takes on this color. 

When we pulled up to the gauging station parking lot we had company. It wasn’t terrible but it was going to be a crowded day. The day before had been crowded too though and that didn’t stop us from catching some nice fish. It was just a matter of getting a little exercise while finding open water. I do remember thinking that the puzzle had changed though before even taking my first cast. The weather the day before was nasty. Not cold but very cloudy with lots of wind sprinkled with snow off and on. The sun was out Sunday morning. The wind was minimal. The air was colder. So much for my puzzle pieces. But hey that’s fishing. 

We started out on a stretch of water that Jon Kleis and Clients had done very well on the day before. I couldn’t believe that run was open when we walked by it so we decided to stop and give it a go. My confidence was way up and I was thinking of a hookup on the first cast. That came and went and I figured I’d settle for second cast. That came and went and I knew I’d have to get the gears turning. I knew it was early and cold so my expectations were probably a little unrealistic. I started going smaller and after twenty minutes of tweaking I picked up a bow on a midge. Ten minutes later I picked up a cut. Ten minutes after that and things were at a standstill. Kleis did not leave many players in this run!

Downstream we went. Runs had filled up pretty quickly but we lucked out and one of my favorite bends was open just downstream from the fence. Nice bend with a head end riffle that turns into a medium paced four foot run that tails out into a back eddy / deep pool at the end of the bend. Really easy to spot fish on this bend. They hold on the sides of the medium paced four foot water and if a cut turns you get a big flash of yellow, orange, and red. The big bows just look like dark shadows. The fish also move up into the head end riffle and you can pick out cutty fins pretty easily. 

There were at least three fish and one monster of the deep that I could see. There was a HUGE dark shadow on my side of the medium paced water. Big ol bow! I grabbed my egg rig and let er rip. He took one look at my monster tango egg and decided he had enough of that nonsense. Feeling totally dejected I decided to concentrate on the nice cuts in the riffle. Nothing…. At this time there was a good midge hatch going on so I decided to stop dicking around with plastic eggs. 

Picked up the midge rig and started making tweaks. It took about ten minutes but I eventually hooked one. They were lined up just on the far side of the medium paced water between the four foot run section and the beginning of the back eddy. VERY hard to get right. I needed my arm to be three feet longer. Took some serious high sticking with plenty of weight to get down fast. Takes were barely noticeable. There was a very defined sweet spot in the seam and you almost had to zen set to hook up.  I picked up a few but things started to die down. Then……

I hear Ben, “Jamie”! I look upstream and Ben’s rod is doubled over and he’s heading downstream fast. This means only one thing. Big fish hooked. I dropped my way-too-expensive rod like a college elective and grabbed my way-too-big net and headed upstream. I saw cutty tail first. It was a good fish! These fish are so colorful in the water when they are moving. When they are holding still in the water though it is another story completely. They can disappear before your eyes. 

We were in a perfect area to land this fish. I was in a knee deep riffle and Ben walked the fish down right into the net. Sweet fish. Took a large chamois leech. This fly has been killing it everywhere I’ve been lately. Hadn’t worked the day before but it looked like the leech game was back on. Midges and leeches were the ticket this day. 

After a quick pic we fished for a while longer before deciding to head back toward the truck. Most of the runs on the way back were taken so we made it back to the gauging station pretty quickly. Two dudes were fishing the head end of the run but the tail end was open. I had missed a slab there the day before on the way back to the parking lot so I figured what the hell. Worth a few casts. I asked the guys at the head of the pool if they minded me fishing the tail end and they said go for it. I took a few casts and hooked and landed about an 8” bow on an egg. Then……..

I get goose bumps just thinking about this. I had no idea what madness was about to hit me. I took a cast directly upstream up above where my dink had hit and started slowly stripping slack line in. Indicator paused a little and I lifted the rod……. HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!! There was a MONSTER brown trout tailwalking on the water! This thing was on my line!!!! All the dude upstream from me could manage was a loud, “Woahhhh”! 

“BEN!!! BEN!!! NET!!!” Ben was just above the gauging station and I was hoping to God that he was still there. After a few tense moments of my monster trout hanging deep I felt a HUGE head shake and run. Ben turned the corner just in time to see this think take off vertically into the air and come down like a boulder hitting the water. There was no way I was going to land this fish. Ben got out something. I don’t remember what he said but I could tell that he knew exactly what he needed to do in order to help me land this fish. 

Remember my way-too-big net? It isn’t way-too-big. I’ve only come close to filling this net up once before and that was an 11.5lb bow. This thing was going to give that fish a run for its money. You can do two things when you have a big fish on. You can let it go where it wants and hope that it stays buttoned up long enough to net or you can take advantage of any split second advantage you get and go all in for a net. 

This big boy made a mistake and decided to come up again but this time without a shamoo impression. He came up and started head shaking on the surface. I got right on top of him and got my rod as high as I could directly above him to try and keep my line away from his body and his head up. I told Ben, “Net him now! Net it! Do it now!” I knew this was putting Ben on the spot but I didn’t think I would be able to keep him on if he got his head down for another run with the way this thing was freaking out. Then….

Ben took a stab with the net and came up with nothing but PIG! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! I absolutely lost my mind! This was a true beast. A totally clean specimen. An absolute masterpiece of nature. It was HEAVY and LONG. BIG head and HUGE shoulders. Big spots and that nice blue green iridescence on the gill plates. The only blemish was a big ol’ chamois leach sticking out of its mouth. Time stood still. This beautiful fish, Ben and I were the only things on planet earth at that point. Fishing nirvana. It was surreal holding this river gem up for a quick photo. It was bliss holding this trout in the water in the recovery room. It was one of the best feelings in the world when it almost knocked me back when it took off after only a few seconds of recovery. I just sat back in the river getting soaked after it swam off. I couldn’t get up. I just sat there for a second with an ear to ear goofy grin on my face. The tug is a drug folks and it doesn’t get any better than that. 

I was stunned. A high five from Ben brought me back to reality and I had to let out a scream. “AAAAhhhh”!   I was on top of the world….

 I don’t know how many October trips I’ve had up to the Dream Stream looking for a monster brown like this but it would happen for me on an early spring afternoon. An afternoon that is burned in my brain forever. An afternoon where I was truly living life and feeling what it has to offer to the fullest. Even if only for a brief moment. Fly Fishing will give you this without having to jump out of planes, or race around tracks, or climb the highest peaks. Fly Fishing will give you a true connection to nature. At that moment nothing else matters, no problems exist. This is why I love Fly Fishing and why I will be walking through rivers for the rest of my life.

The Road to a 10lb Brown (Part 2)

Mike Greene with a fatty

The saga continues! Don't worry it's only three parts. Part 2 of this exciting series is really going to focus on my Dad who just killed it on this day. I mean I'm always happy when my fishing buddies and especially my Dad catch fish but this got a little one sided folks. My Old Man is living right because he would wind up with four board fish before the day was out.

We started things off right below the gauging station.  There was only one other car in the lot when we started so we figured what the hell. It's always worth a cast or two in this deep dark layer of who knows what..... At that point in time it meant a nice fat cutty. Always good to get one in the net. Everything else is icing on the cake. We hooked a few more fish but we decided to get downstream ahead of the dude hatch.

The Lesson Begins...

We leapfrogged each other on the way down hooking fish along the way and I wound up fishing with my Dad who was at the head end of a nice looking run. I got there just in time to. He hooked up and we knew it was a nice fish. I saw the tail first and new it was big. After a few minutes we finally put a net under this beautiful 22" rainbow. Sweet! We were on the board.

I started working my way downstream and caught up with Mike. There was an open bend and we were getting into position to start the whipping when I heard my Dad, "got another nice one on"! Back up stream I go with the net. Got there in time to net another 20"+ fish. At this point I had to know.

Me: What are you using?
Dad: This egg pattern.
Me: Nice, got any more?
Dad: No.
Me: Where did you get that?
Dad: I don't know.....

Back downstream again! Mike and I leapfrogged again down river towards the inlet. I didn't have any eggs like the one my Dad was using. It was about a 6mm fire orange plastic bead that was either glued or melted to a scud hook. I did have some HUGE 12mm eggs that were close in color though. I figured what the hell and tied one on. BAM!! The river had gotten pretty crowded and it was hard to find open water. So I was sharing a run with a guy named Shane that I was lucky enough to stop and talk to.

I have had very good experiences on the rivers lately with folks and I think people are more considerate, in general, these days on the water. It's amazing what a, "you break the state record yet?" question to your fellow angler will lead to. Shane was a cool Dude and offered up the head of the run he was fishing. He was none too pleased when I hooked one right off the bat since he had whipped that water hard before I got there. I told him what my Dad had done upstream and showed him the color I was using. He didn't have any so I shared one of my big arse fireball "flies" (more like something out of Bass Master. Don't judge). 

I caught a few more nice spawning cutthroat and decided to work my way back up river to see what Mike and Dad were up to. Turns out I had just missed this 23" rainbow! Mike just happened to walk back up to where Dad was fishing was able to get this pic. What a fish! Mike and I were getting schooled!

Schooled but not skunked. Mike and I each caught some nice cutthroat. Every fish we caught was over 16" I think. You can't complain about that. I always have to remind myself how spoiled we are in Colorado.

We decided to call it a day and we worked our way back upstream to the parking lot. When we got to the gauging station it was empty. We thought why not finish it off the way we started it off so I worked my way to the tail end of the run and took a cast. BAM!! Big hit followed by a flying slab.... And then it was gone. I didn't get a good hook. Both Mike and my Dad got a good look and it was a big fish but nothing like what we would soon learn inhabits that dark deep abyss. 

The pieces were coming together. We discovered some good runs and had an idea of what they were keying in on. At this point I hadn't really thought of making a double header out of it..... But later that evening I had a nagging little voice telling me to go back the next day. Ben took one look at the fish my Dad had landed and was down. This day belonged to my Dad and it was awesome! The only thing missing was that elusive 10lb + toad..... but the stage was set.