August 2024

8/4-6:  We  moved our annual cutthroat trip to Wyoming early this year as we'd run into too many hunter camps on the 2023 fall trip to that area.  It was supposed to be four days but ended up as three due to some inclement weather than was unanticipated.  To be honest the drive up and back has gotten to be something of a drag.  When we were trying to solve the problem of catching all the Wyoming cutthroat species, the length and time spent on the trip didn't really matter, but now it's less fun than it is work to get to up there.

For what it's worth it took us four years of trips up there to initially catch all four cutthroat species in their respective watersheds.  The next time we did it, it took four weeks, and the last try a few years ago, we got it done in four days.

We've kept going up there because of the exotic nature of some of these sub species, and that allure has also worn off.  Since it's about a 1,000 miles to make this loop trip, it's time consuming driving and not enough time for casting.

Anyway that's the story.

Fly selection was something of a problem too.  When I caught my first Bonneville on the third cast on the Smith Fork water, it took a #10 Stimi.  I probably stuck with that fly too long and found too many short strikes on that river, but did hook enough fish to make it feel almost worth while to continue using it.  Never did figure out the best nymphing combination which I'm sure would have been much more successful on the Smith Fork as well as the Grey's River that followed the next day.

The Grey's was a bit of a disappointment partially caused by our trying to fish a couple of pieces of our favorite holes right after they'd just been hit pretty hard by some other people.

When the storm showed up late the second night, we abandoned thoughts of trying North and South Cottonwood Creeks for Colorado cuts. and chose to make the long drive home instead.  So it's likely to be the end of our fishing travels to Wyoming.

Here's the regular quickie video of a few rough clips:

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Last Logbook Entry  � for previous day

8/26-28:  One of our favorite summer outings turned out to be another bust this year.  We've had relentless monsoon splats all summer long.  I remember remarking at how I'd only seen one blue bell day out of the last 40, and this trip turned out to be just an extension of all the earlier ones.                           

We've been doing the "Almont Triangle" trip as far back as I can recall.  It involves a big loop from Vail to Buena Vista to Almont and Crested Butte, followed by some fishing on the Anthracite Creek and Crystal River.  This year we were washed out of the Lower Taylor River, the East River, the Gunnison, Anthracite Creek, and the Crystal River.  That means it was a pretty complete bust. 

Camping was OK as we were able to escape the storms both nights, but it doesn't make up for missing all that fishing.  The end of summer is near so we'll hope to get at least one decent trip in before our favorite time of year is done.

Here's the regular clunky video:

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