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- Apr 13, 2009
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Well, there have been lack of these types of posts recently, and a lot of the trips I planned on sharing with you guys ended up being cancelled, but I finally had a day of fishing with some friends that I wanted to share. This post wont have a ton of knife pictures unfortunately, I had my Ladyfinger and my new Surls Patch, but only used the Patch a couple of times. There will be more of these posts from me in the coming months as hunting season starts ramping up, those will have more knife pictures. 
If this seems familiar it's because I wrote an article for Fiddleback Outpost which included a bit from a similar fishing trip to this same area last year. Here's a link to that thread if you're interested! https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/my-first-blog-entry-on-fiddleback-outpost.1433598/#post-16520363
At least once a year a few friends and I go fishing on a section of river called Big South. It's a hiking access only tributary off of one of the main rivers in Northern Colorado. The trail-head is about an hour and a half outside of Fort Collins and can be hiked all the way into Rocky Mountain National Park. We typically only fish the first 2 or 3 miles of river because it gets pretty steep and narrow after that, and there's plenty of fish in the lower reaches anyways! The best thing about this area is that you can catch 4 species of trout, which would be considered a "grand slam" if you were successful. I think only one of us has ever completed that task, but we try every year! We make the task harder (read as 'more fun') for ourselves by limiting our fishing methods to fly rods and terrestrial fly patterns, typically grasshopper imitations. My favorite of these is the Amy's Ant, a versatile fly that floats well and catches fish like crazy! I could, and often do, fish this fly year round; I have a lot of confidence in it. Unfortunately, I had used up my last of these earlier in the year and had to quickly tie up some more the night before we headed out.
The morning of we made up some breakfast and hit the road around 7:30. We parked at the trail-head just after 9:00, and quickly pulled on waders and got our rods rigged up before starting our hike. Typically, we like to hike in about 3 miles and fish our way back, but it had been a while since we had fished here so it was hard to resist the first "fishy" water we came across. We ended up fishing our way up and back down because once we started it was hard to stop!
This area is pretty cool because it offers a lot of different fishing options in quick succession. Steep canyons and fast water like above, or flatter slower water, and everything in between.
The main species in the stretch are brook trout and cutthroat trout, with the occasional brown and rainbow trout thrown in to give you the chance at a grand slam. We quickly started catching a few small brookies.
After a couple hours I lost the rest of the group, and thought they had passed me so I hiked up to one of our favorite spots which is a section of "pocket water" with some nice plunge pools, speedy runs, and a ton of small eddies where the fish hang out. Turns out the group was below me so I just stopped there to fish while I waited for them to catch up, which they never did.
On the way up to that spot I happened on a few edible mushrooms that I stopped to take pictures of and collect. Scaly hedgehogs (Sarcodon imbricatus), and a king bolete (Boletus rubriceps). As well as a few "non-edible mushrooms".
There were also plenty of berries ripe for the picking! We munched on wild raspberries throughout the day, and also found a few currants and wild strawberries.
Back to the fishing...
Once I got up to the 'pocket water' I started fishing my way up from pool to pool. I caught a bunch more brookies, a handful of cutts in the first couple spots before I reached an eddy that I have a history with...
To explain the history I have with this eddy I have to go back a little bit. I have a reputation in this area of losing a big fish every time we go up there. The first year we fished there I spent the better part of an hour focusing on one small section because I knew it had a big fish in it, I hooked and lost that fish after a short battle, and I have yet to break the curse. Last year I turned and missed a nice cutthroat trout in this specific eddy a few time before it got wise to my ways and stopped biting at my fly.
The eddy can be seen on the left side of the pictures below. I stand on the boulder in the middle and cast over the quick water to get my fly into the fishy spots. On my first cast to the spot I saw the flash of a large fish as my fly floated on the current seam. I stopped what I was doing and check my knot, line, and hook because I didn't want lose this fish if I hooked into it, little did I know it had different plans.
After several more casts, and a few more glimpses of the fish I finally got the fly in the perfect spot that lead to a solid take. I set the hook and quickly put on the pressure to keep the fish from using the current against me. I failed. It got into the quick water in the middle of the run and before I knew it my fly line was under the log you can see crossing the river and the fish was two pools below me.
The water was too treacherous for me to wade into to get my line and rod under the log, and the current was threatening to strip my reel of all the fly line I had. After what seemed like way too long I put on the brakes and watched a beautiful cutthroat rise up to a slow spot in the current, it shimmered there momentarily before slowly drifting into the faster water and breaking my leader.
All I could do was stand there dazed with a slight adrenaline rush, while I loudly swore at nothing in particular. I'll be back, and I'll break this curse one of these days...
If this seems familiar it's because I wrote an article for Fiddleback Outpost which included a bit from a similar fishing trip to this same area last year. Here's a link to that thread if you're interested! https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/my-first-blog-entry-on-fiddleback-outpost.1433598/#post-16520363
At least once a year a few friends and I go fishing on a section of river called Big South. It's a hiking access only tributary off of one of the main rivers in Northern Colorado. The trail-head is about an hour and a half outside of Fort Collins and can be hiked all the way into Rocky Mountain National Park. We typically only fish the first 2 or 3 miles of river because it gets pretty steep and narrow after that, and there's plenty of fish in the lower reaches anyways! The best thing about this area is that you can catch 4 species of trout, which would be considered a "grand slam" if you were successful. I think only one of us has ever completed that task, but we try every year! We make the task harder (read as 'more fun') for ourselves by limiting our fishing methods to fly rods and terrestrial fly patterns, typically grasshopper imitations. My favorite of these is the Amy's Ant, a versatile fly that floats well and catches fish like crazy! I could, and often do, fish this fly year round; I have a lot of confidence in it. Unfortunately, I had used up my last of these earlier in the year and had to quickly tie up some more the night before we headed out.
The morning of we made up some breakfast and hit the road around 7:30. We parked at the trail-head just after 9:00, and quickly pulled on waders and got our rods rigged up before starting our hike. Typically, we like to hike in about 3 miles and fish our way back, but it had been a while since we had fished here so it was hard to resist the first "fishy" water we came across. We ended up fishing our way up and back down because once we started it was hard to stop!
This area is pretty cool because it offers a lot of different fishing options in quick succession. Steep canyons and fast water like above, or flatter slower water, and everything in between.
The main species in the stretch are brook trout and cutthroat trout, with the occasional brown and rainbow trout thrown in to give you the chance at a grand slam. We quickly started catching a few small brookies.
After a couple hours I lost the rest of the group, and thought they had passed me so I hiked up to one of our favorite spots which is a section of "pocket water" with some nice plunge pools, speedy runs, and a ton of small eddies where the fish hang out. Turns out the group was below me so I just stopped there to fish while I waited for them to catch up, which they never did.
On the way up to that spot I happened on a few edible mushrooms that I stopped to take pictures of and collect. Scaly hedgehogs (Sarcodon imbricatus), and a king bolete (Boletus rubriceps). As well as a few "non-edible mushrooms".
There were also plenty of berries ripe for the picking! We munched on wild raspberries throughout the day, and also found a few currants and wild strawberries.
Back to the fishing...
Once I got up to the 'pocket water' I started fishing my way up from pool to pool. I caught a bunch more brookies, a handful of cutts in the first couple spots before I reached an eddy that I have a history with...
To explain the history I have with this eddy I have to go back a little bit. I have a reputation in this area of losing a big fish every time we go up there. The first year we fished there I spent the better part of an hour focusing on one small section because I knew it had a big fish in it, I hooked and lost that fish after a short battle, and I have yet to break the curse. Last year I turned and missed a nice cutthroat trout in this specific eddy a few time before it got wise to my ways and stopped biting at my fly.
The eddy can be seen on the left side of the pictures below. I stand on the boulder in the middle and cast over the quick water to get my fly into the fishy spots. On my first cast to the spot I saw the flash of a large fish as my fly floated on the current seam. I stopped what I was doing and check my knot, line, and hook because I didn't want lose this fish if I hooked into it, little did I know it had different plans.
After several more casts, and a few more glimpses of the fish I finally got the fly in the perfect spot that lead to a solid take. I set the hook and quickly put on the pressure to keep the fish from using the current against me. I failed. It got into the quick water in the middle of the run and before I knew it my fly line was under the log you can see crossing the river and the fish was two pools below me.
The water was too treacherous for me to wade into to get my line and rod under the log, and the current was threatening to strip my reel of all the fly line I had. After what seemed like way too long I put on the brakes and watched a beautiful cutthroat rise up to a slow spot in the current, it shimmered there momentarily before slowly drifting into the faster water and breaking my leader.
All I could do was stand there dazed with a slight adrenaline rush, while I loudly swore at nothing in particular. I'll be back, and I'll break this curse one of these days...
