December, 2002
12/6: Barring a possible short trip next week to the Spinney tailwater our fishing appears to be over for the year. Colder than normal temperatures have driven the shore ice almost halfway across the Eagle already and flow ice made casting an impossibility when we went to the town of that name last week. Am booked solid at ski school beginning the 15th so this is probably farewell to 2002's fishing stories.
Last Logbook Entry � for previous days.
12/11: Snow is in the forecast so the dog & I eschewed a trip to the South Platte and Spinney opting instead for a day & a half in the Glenwood Springs area. Nighttime temperatures are typically brutal this time of year - in the low single digits, so the Roaring Fork & other rivers all release flow ice in the mornings making early day casting impossible.
We waited until almost noon to get started & drove up to the airport water which we hadn't visited at all this year. Probably should have left it that way. Walked downstream to start & probably cast over a half mile of river with a nymph rig without a hint of a strike. The most interesting visual on the hike was watching a pair of mated bald eagles squabbling over some kind of flesh one of them had caught.
Heading back downstream I changed to an olive wooly bugger and began casting down & across as we walked back to the car. Happily a couple of hungry browns decided the bugger looked edible & I was able to release a 12 & 15 incher. Still - not much success for two hours of bitterly cold casting.
Then we parked at Sue's condo & walked back up the opposite side of the Sunlight Bridge & again threw the bugger downstream and across as we worked our way back to the bridge. It wasn't terrific fishing, but I did release another three browns in the same size range plus an 8 and 14 inch rainbow. We may get to try the Colorado below the confluence of the Fork tomorrow if flow ice permits. If not, then this certainly will be the end of our fishing for 2002. Not a bad finish.
12/12: It was snowing hard this morning. Fishing probably would have been OK under the conditions, but trying to move along the rocks on the shore of either the Fork or the Colorado would have been an invitation to a broken something, so we waited for the roads to melt and then headed back to Vail without further attempts at casting.
I guess it's the end of another great year.
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