Gila & Apache

A fishing trip down in Gila country and then across the border into Arizona is a pretty nice road trip. I met Steve on Monday in a tiny mountain village, checked into our motel, and then we jumped into Steve's new Grand Cherokee to go fishing...for Gila trout. While the landscapes and canyon stream were an absolute joy to roam through, the trout just were not interested in anything we threw at them. We didn't actually see but a few trout. And nothing slid into our nets.

Second day was a different story. For some reason the trout came out of their hidy holes and were more active than yesterday. The result? We landed that rare, special Gila trout into our nets. It was a good day. However, they were still gun shy of a dry fly floating towards them.

I found a nice long pool under a tree with about a dozen trout swimming about, and I must have sat in the same spot for two hours trying to find a dry fly they would eat. I went through match-the-hatch flies, stimulators, and then I finally found a fly for a take. I tied on a #12 Yellow Humpy and a thirteen inch Gila trout hit it hard. I almost lost the beauty in the roots of a tree, but coaxed her out, and  she eventually found the bottom of my net. Suddenly, I'm in the game for accomplishing the New Mexico Grand Slam this year.

Steve netted a few Gila too, and we were all grins on the drive back to the motel. When we checked into the motel on Monday, the front desk shared with us a pond that was recently stocked with trout. We had some time to kill before calling it a night and took our fly rods to the pond after we finished dinner. Wow! We landed several Rainbow Trout, and we both surprisingly found a black crappie in our nets. It was a fun day!

On the third day we crossed the border into Arizona and fished a beautiful area in the mountains for Apache Trout. I've never caught an Apache Trout, and had been wanting to check it off my list of trout species for years. Thanks to Steve, I caught my first one and it was a thrill, indeed. The stream only holds wild Apache Trout in this area, making my first catch even more appreciative. It was a good hike into the backcountry where these wild Apache Trout call home, and after a few hours of fishing we decided to hike back to our vehicles. The storm clouds rolling in helped with the decision. This part of Arizona is breathtakingly beautiful, and Steve shared some amazing landscapes and trout streams with me this week!

Gear: Winston WT 270, and WT 476; Bauer SST fly reels; Patagonia sling pack; Wayward landing net; Dry Flies all three days.