January, 1998

1/3: No fishing for me yet. The Eagle and Gore are still quite frozen over. Although air temperatures have moderated in the past few days, that fact has not resulted in enough thawing to allow dropping nymphs into either of these streams. Hopefully when I go to Aspen on the 8th, either the Roaring Fork or the Colorado will be kind enough to let me wet a line for a few minutes. If you need to know what happens during the colder winter months, please go back and visit the 1997 Diary.

1/7: ANOTHER WASTED DAY: Well actually it was productive data-wise, but the fishing was a complete washout. Headed back from Aspen around noon and kept watching the Roaring Fork for some kind of break, but the river was almost totally clogged with pack ice. Same thing happened when I pulled off at No Name on the Colorado. It's dangerous walking out to the edges of the shore ice and then virtually impossible to even get a line to sink through the drifting ice floes. I tried again upstream on the Eagle just above Gypsum, but it was the same old story. Guess we'll just have to wait for warmer weather.

1/18: A SHORT, BUT SWEET SESSION on Gore Creek. Instead of waiting for the weather to warm, I went where the water was warmer (that will be your puzzle to figure out) and in little over 30 minutes landed five nice, scrappy rainbows between 8-13 inches. The first took a trailing serendipity-like red midge pupa, but all the rest went after a bead head prince. Tomorrow we hope to get in a session on the Eagle - weather permitting.

1/19: MORE SUCCESS ON GORE CREEK, but the Eagle was a dud. Sue & I drove to the Edwards "warm water" area and fished it hard for half an hour - then did the same at a couple of nice holes a mile or so downstream with nary a nibble on our nymphs. The water looked great and air temperatures were tolerable, but we didn't see fin nor scale of any fish. So we headed back to the Gore and sure enough, had some nice success in the 45 minutes we cast there. Sue landed three good rainbows and I releasd four, although mine were all smaller. The fish again took princes primarily and red midges secondarily.

Back to Vail OnLine , the Main Fishing Page, the 1998 Master Diary, or check on stream flows.