December, 2003

12/6:  After releasing a chubby 18 inch rainbow on about the third cast, I thought the day was going to be another spectacular outing on the Roaring Fork.  It's just amazing how wrong we can sometimes be.  That fat trout took an olive black magic bugger, but the next mile of casting produced only two more tentative strikes on the same fly.

After lunch we hiked a mile downstream from the Sunlight Bridge and kept casting with the same streamer.  Results were similar and we released one more 14 inch rainbow and a slightly smaller brown.  Retracing our steps back upstream with a double nymph rig of leading stone and trailing POGS was quite a bit more productive.  Probably played a good 6-8 more fish - all rainbows in the same size ranges.  Most took the tiny green thing with only one to the stone.

Today (Sunday) we'd looked forward to trying some casting on a few parts of the Colorado we'd not previously fished, but with the combination of a winter storm watch in the background and wet, heavy snowflakes in the foreground, discretion suggested more fun in front of the TV than on the river - and that's where we headed.

Last Logbook Entry  é for previous days.

12/18:  We drove the old highway along the river from Eagle to Wolcott today hoping upon hope to find a tiny stretch of modestly open water.  It just wasn't in the cards.  Much of the river is completely frozen over on the surface and the rest of the section was clogged with masses of flow ice.  Being booked through the first of 2004 with ski lessons starting this weekend, I'd guess we're done for the year.  It was a great one and hopefully the next will be just as successful.  Merry Christmas to one and all.

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