Monday, August 25, 2008

Prime time on the Upper C


Not every day fishing is the same. No doubt about that. Slow days, rainy days, snowy days, windy days, Everyone once in awhile you need a real, real, good day to balance out the days when you good naturedly say"just because the fish aren't biting isn't it nice being outside on the river". We nailed a really, really, good day last week on the Upper Colorado when the conditons kicked butt. No crowds, clear water, innocent cumulus clouds, and barely a breeze. We planned to leave the shop after lunch, and float Pumphouse to Radium. Legend has it there is a lake below the warm springs where the river slows down, and if the evening is calm the fish are up eating caddis this time of year. We stopped in Kremmling for some last minute stuff, and launched about 2:30. Pk and Trevor set the tone from the get go tying on hopper-hopper, and chernoybil-chernoybil. No droppers at all. From the put-in to the beaches before the canyon we had fish after fish come up for our junk up top. It fished like section "B" of the Green. I was incredulous. I love this stretch of river. It is an easy place for me to get my float on. It is only an hour from Steamboat. It also only an hour from Beaver/ Avon/ Vail/ Breck/ Silverthorne/ and Winter Park. It is only two hours from the I-25/I-70 "mouse trap". This stretch gets worked by alot of outfitters, and the general public. When I head down there I have limited expectations about the fishing. It fished better better with dries than I've ever seen it in that stretch. No droppers at all. We made it to the warms springs area ound 6:30, and set up shop there till 8 or so. You can't believe how quick that hour and a half went. The fish were coming up everywhere: in the scum line in the center, against the walls, and out in open. The top picture shows Trevor with a handful of Brown trout that chomped his wolf. I was fishing a small patriot behind a small stimmy about an inch off a sheer red rock wall, and a fish hit it so hard he instantly slammed into the wall in mid-air. I could feel him hit the wall on the end of my line. People at happy hour in Wolcott could hear it. Our float was 4 days after the August full moon, so we caught some moonlight on the way out, and the fish were steady coming up. Taking out at dark-thirty in August after working the evening hatch is so good that if the government knew how much fun it was they would tax it.

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