July, 2014
6/30-7/2: Our three day Utah trip to the Green
River tailwater and the reservoir was moderately successful and certainly a lot
better than trying to do any casting on our still raging Colorado rivers.
We got to Dutch John in the early afternoon & hiked down
the upper part of B to test the riffle water below Little Hole. Terribly
strong downstream winds made the casting nearly impossible - and our results of
only a few strikes showed for it. But after dinner we had a lot better
luck in the same section mostly on a black bodied WRS that I'm guessing mimicked
to some extent a bunch of the local beetles.
Next day was good too on the 3 1/2 mile section of the
river upstream of Little Hole. Amazingly we were the only bank walking
folks above the first mile marker. What we still cannot figure out is why
the people we did run into on the lower part of the trail were all wearing heavy
chest waders. Insanity to do that in the warm summer weather - especially
since most of those people rarely even dip their toes into the stream. So
much for that. But we did catch fish. Not tons of them but probably
a good 25-30 with more than that number of other missed strikes.
The mix was pretty much split between browns and rainbows
- sizes were in the 14-18+ inch range, and all the fish looked healthy.
We spent the 2nd day late afternoon on the reservoir but
had no success at all there. Am guessing the water's still a bit too cold
for the bass to be in shallower water where our full sink trolling lines
generally work fairly well.
That was about it. We did spend a few minutes
casting on Rio Blanco Lake on the way home. Here's a probably overly
lengthy video of the trip:
7/7-8: Another overnighter trip to the Gunnison
River below the Black Canyon was also successful though not quite as much as the
one above to the Green. Sue was otherwise tied up so only Bluey & I did
the honors here. First afternoon we caught a few fish in the main river
below the forks, but later in the day was almost a complete bust due to the
fierce downstream winds coming out of a thunderstorm.
Next morning however was terrific. We hiked roughly
three miles upstream and cast along the bank with a double dry rig of leading
rubber leg followed by a smaller WRS caddis imitation. Rubber leg score
better. By the time we'd headed back for the car around 10:30 or so, I
suspect we'd struck, played, or released a good twenty decent browns. Not
much size - mostly fourteen to sixteen - and interestingly no rainbows.
Here's the video of the outing:
7/14-15: It's still tough fishing here in CO - at
least where we live in Eagle County. Streams are running higher than
normal - and that's really OK with us. Healthy for the water & also for
the trout.
Anyway. Did a short trip to the raging Eagle two
days ago and had very poor results but obviously loved being out on the water.
Next day peddled the bike up Gore Creek and fared much better - albeit with many
more brook trout than we prefer to see on the stream here.
Things can't help but get better over the next month & a
half. Here's the video essay:
7/17 - 18: A short afternoon outing on an elevated
level of Gore Creek brought only brookies to hand. Weird. Have never
seen that many of any one species like that in a day. Hope it's a
temporary aberration.
Next day on the Roaring Fork was probably even worse.
Despite releasing a couple of 15-16 inch browns and a similar sized rainbow, it
was pretty tough work. River is still too high for good access along the
bank. Here's the down & dirty video of the (very limited) activity:
7/22-23: Another week - another trip. This
time to the upper Poudre where we used to spend a day & night before heading on
through Ft. Collins to the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. The latter is no
more for us, but we did enjoy the fishing on the Poudre from time to time so
headed that way again yesterday.
The Poudre turned out to be a mixed bag. Upper
river was sort of OK near the junction of the Poudre and the Big South. A
bit lower it was a complete bust, but then near the town of Rustic, it turned on
wonderfully.
Joe Wright reservoir was another loser, as was Willow
Creek on the way back home, but we did pick up a few browns just below the town
of Hot Sulfur Springs.
The day before leaving I fished Gore Creek again with
similarly decent results to previous trips. Don't know what next week
holds, but after that we (the dog & I are headed to Wyoming) for another shot at
lots of different cutthroat species.
Here's the video of this latest trip:
Last logbook Entry
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for previous day
7/27: A rare Sunday outing was successful on the
Eagle River and Gore Creek - even though sizes of the brown trout were pretty
small. Here's the quick video:
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