November, 2006

 11/8:  A  major cold front is heading our way and should arrive in the next 36 hours.  So with the "warm before the storm" pleasant day greeting us this morning, the dog & I decided we'd best get in at least one last day of casting on the local waters.  

I asked Sky about his wading preference and he said definitely the Colorado by State Bridge, since the alternative - the Eagle - would have involved much more water time and swimming.  The dog's a lot brighter than one we may give him credit for being.

We arrived on the Colorado around 11:00, and it was still a bit chilly in the shade, but we nevertheless chose to wet wade one last time in shorts and felt soled sandals.  

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The first bit of casting brought no strikes, but a little further up amongst some boulders a nice twelve inch rainbow nipped the #16 copper john and was quickly released.

This river's in almost perfect shape at the moment.  Low and relatively clear, moving upstream along the bank was far less of a problem than we normally face.

Across from the inlet of the Piney River one lone fly caster was the only other human we encountered all day long.  A very nice treat to not have to deal with the drift boats either.

Just above that river entrance we released a couple of sub twelve inch browns.  Most of the fish today were good, healthy rainbows, none over fourteen inches, but all were feisty and fought well.  The few browns we did receive strikes from apparently weren't suffering ill effects from the fall spawn.  Maybe those specific fish just didn't get laid this year.

Around 1:00 a brutal upstream wind sprang up and made casting quite difficult.  Generally speaking when the wind blows up the river and we're casting with its direction of travel, it's not a problem, but today it was so strong it really made putting the flies on the water very difficult to control.

We walked a good mile & a half up the river and probably played around 20 fish in the process.  This was one of those days when most of the trout "long released".

Despite a complete absence of any type of hatch, several fish came to the white rubber leg WRS that was functioning as a strike indicator.  The rest of the strikes were to one of the variously colored copper johns.  Nothing took the trailing RS-2.

I'd suspect having to unhook only about a half dozen trout, so today couldn't be described as a sterling outing but sure was a lot better than no fishing at all.

If the storm holds off for another day, we may try the Eagle tomorrow.

Last Logbook Entry  � for previous days.

11/20:

Overnight temperatures are now in the teens, but with clear skies and no snow in the forecast this week, it's going to be somewhat unpleasant skiing the mountain over the Thanksgiving holiday.  We got a few chores out of the way early this morning and left town at roughly 10:30 to give the air time to warm and the flow ice get off the Eagle.  Did the turnaround at Gypsum and returned a couple of miles back up I-70 to pull off near the Gypsum ponds section of that river.

I honestly didn't have a clue what the fishing would be like.  Assumed the trout might have already entered their "winter loafing shed" state, so doubted we'd have much action.  For the first half mile of upstream wading that pretty much was the case.  I tried an olive wooly bugger for a bit, then shifted to a pair of nymphs - leading #16 copper john trailed by a #20 red midge larva.  Still no luck.

Finally along the edge of a slow moving run in a couple feet of water, hooked and released this wonderful hen rainbow.  

She wasn't long - probably 18 inches - but she was a very deep bodied fish, perhaps six inches from top of the back to her belly.  A really fine fish reminiscent of the shape of those redsides on the Deschutes.  

In the next hole the action got even better.  In a slow moving, but fairly shallow shoreside eddy, I released another handful of fish - all browns here.  Most took the larger copper john with a couple small fish coming to the larva.  Sizes ranged from ten to sixteen inches.  

Success followed again at the upper part of our wade with another couple of nice rainbows and three more similar sized browns.

Turning around and heading downstream, I changed to a black rabbit bugger and had more success on the way back to the car.  

Released another handful of mixed browns and rainbows and played a couple of larger fish that "long" released.  One was easily into the low 20's lengthwise.  Also experienced several "bumps" apparently caused by fish simply batting at the streamer.  

As is often the case with browns, it seems they don't necessarily want to eat what the fly represents, but they definitely want it out of their territory and feeding zone.

So the trip turned out to be a really pleasant outing.  With no sign of snow through the weekend, I'd guess we'll find somewhere else to fish in the next few days.

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