June, 2022

                                                                                                             6/9-10:  No success yesterday or this morning on our quickie overnighter to Camp Hale.  Saw some small dimples on a beaver created mid stream pond but had no luck throwing a #18 black stone behind a small surface WRS.  But the trip was a success anyway. 

We had a fun happy hour and dinner and the dogs both loved the hiking and some short swims.  Come Monday I'm doing a two day solo trip to our favorite stretch of the Gunnison to scope it out for a whole family expedition the following week. 

6/13-14:  It's still a bit early for the part of the lower Gunnison that we enjoy most for fishing, but I made the trip anyway to check it out before coming down next week with Sue & the doggies.  Weird weather.  A cold front blasted through and brought with it winds estimated to be roughly gale force through the canyon.

But as it turned out, the brown trout fishing on both the Black Canyon Fork and the main stem was really decent.  Not large fish but lots of them along with a handful of similar sized rainbows.  Here's the quickie video of the trip:

6/20-22:  OK.  We're somewhat obsessed about getting in at least three days a week of camping and fishing all summer long.  This week's project was something of a crap shoot since we were going to start at a long time favorite spot and ad hoc it after that up and over the Grand Mesa to places we'd never visited in the past.

The lower Gunnison was about a clone of last week with the exception of the wind which was much milder this time around.  Results were about the same.  Nothing really big but some nice fun browns and one oddity.  Camping was fine too.  Our ride over Grand Mesa was pretty but neither of the early lakes at which we stopped gave up anything.  On the way over the back edge of the mesa we stopped at the inlet stream to Big Creek Reservoir and we were rewarded by the strange spectacle of hundreds of smallish suckers trying to swim up to spawn.  Ugly sight and ugly odors of the numbers dying on the banks.  But we did manage to catch a few - again smallish cutthroat - at the entry to the lake itself.

Could not find any decent camping so drove up I-70 to Rifle and made our way up the White River to one of our favorite spots on the flats above Lake Avery.  Another nice dinner and good sleeping there.  After breakfast we did a short walk around the lake shore below and actually had fair success throwing floating flies in the lake.  So not a great trip but certainly a decent one.  Here are the trip clips:

Last Logbook Entry  � for previous day

6/27-29:  Bad weather forecasts for the state changed our plans for this three day expedition.  With the monsoon rains supposedly moving up from the south, we opted to try our hand at more waters around the Meeker area.  So off we went, ready to do some bass and pike casting on Rio Blanco Lake which borders the White River just west of Meeker.  Oops.

When we got there, the lake was empty of water.  Stunning.  Took a lunch a bit upstream and then headed to the South Fork of the White to give it a try.  Good it was not.  Runoff still in progress.  With the exception of a beautiful 18 inch cutt, the rest of our casting there was something of a bust.  Next we tried a short stretch of the North Fork and another of the main stem with very limited results.  Things were getting ugly.

Camped that night on the bluff above Lake Avery and again, in the morning did a short walk along the west shore and found some very nice surface fishing.  Despite the lack of visible dimples made by surface feeders, we had really nice success throwing a smallish grey WRS.  Probably released a good 10-12 rainbows that were between a foot and a foot and a half long.  It was fun.

Drove up the road towards Trapper's Lake, got side tracked by a huge herd - not a flock - of sheep, but finally arrived at the edge of that iconic lake and did some casting in a small cove that always holds Colorado Cutthroat.  Tough fishing.  They were hatch specific feeders and ignored everything until I went down to a #20 spent wing PMD.

Continuing the travel we drove over Ripple Creek Pass and made a short stop at Vaughan Lake.  Saw no sign of a fish while trying it for an hour or so.  Gave up on the thought of camping there and continued on towards the town of Yampa.  Sue spotted a sign for Sheriff's Reservoir so we made the turn and did the drive to it.  Was too crowded to camp by the lake so we chose a "bandit" spot further down the road and had a good night's sleep before heading back to Vail the following morning.  Here's the short vid. of the trip:

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