One More Time

Steve sent me a note last month that he was making plans to go fish in Colorado, and asked if I was interested in joining him? I'm sure everyone knew my answer without me saying it. I was thinking this would be my last opportunity to fish up in Colorado this year, considering what Sylvia and I have penciled into the calendar for the fall months. So, I was excited to get in a Colorado trip with Steve before the fall season. However, there are cooler temperatures and some golden signs of fall in the aspens. Fall is already coming.

I met Steve up at the rental cabin on Monday and was hoping to get in some fishing that afternoon. Hmmm, it was raining. Not just raining, but a perverbial dump of water in the area. The temps dropped into a low of 40 degrees with highs in the low fifties... and, it rained all day and through the night. Ah, life of a fly fisher. It is an outdoor sport, so we know weather will always be a part of fly fishing. But, oh my, why now?

Nope, I'm not complaining. When we drove up into high country on Tuesday morning, we discovered the cold, wet weather through the previous day and night had put the trout down. We wandered through that beautiful meandering stream anyway, and drifted a dry fly, but the trout never came out of their hiding places. Because there were no hatches. Haven’t seen a bug flying for two days. The good news? Well, the F150 made it through the mud slides on the single lane road while going up the mountain and down. Yup, that's a great truck!

On Wednesday it was cold and wet until mid morning when patches of blue entered into the sky. We had a good day in a new area for us, and fished a couple of streams there. Yup, we finally got into some trout.

I do believe it’s been years since I have walked this many miles. We explored a huge valley, surrounded by mountains, with a meandering stream running through the middle of it. I always wanted to walk that valley floor and the experience fulfilled all of my expectations! Dang, it was so exhilarating! It felt like that valley was even bigger when standing down there and gawking at the enormous size of the place. And it also turned out to be a good day of fishing with rainbows landing into the net.

We checked out of the cabin on Thursday, and on our way home stopped at a nice freestone, for one more opportunity to land some more trout. And we did just that. We found several rainbows and brown trout landing in the bottom of our nets. That little stream put a rewarding end to our fishing adventure. Yup, it was a fun four days in Colorado. You know what made the trip even better? We departed before the hoards of tourists rolled into the area with their campers and all terrain vehicles for the Labor Day holiday weekend.

Gear: Winston Air 7'6" 3wt fly rod; Ross Colorado fly reel; Winston Energy WF3F fly line; Orvis guide sling pack; Handy PAK landing net. Dry flies only.