Here is a video of a couple of nice rainbows I caught a couple weeks ago at Spinney Mountain Reservoir.
Rainbows from Spinney Mountain Reservoir
Category: Fly Fishing
Monarch Park Camping
Two weekends ago we packed up and met my up with my dad again for another camping trip. This time we went up near Salida to Monarch Park Campground. This beautiful campground was near the top of Monarch Pass and had an elevation of over 10,000 feet!
That weekend was my son Vinny’s birthday and so what better gift than a fly rod and a vest. He was thrilled and couldn’t wait to try it out on the nearby creek and beaver ponds.
After we set up camp we headed down to the beaver ponds to see if we could catch a few. It was pretty slow going and I managed a couple, but Vinny didn’t get anything.
The next day we took a pretty rough road up to Boss Lake. It was about a 2 mile trip up some pretty rough terrain, but after moving a tree out of the road and battling the rocks on the road we made it. And the view of the lake was amazing. I managed to catch one little greenback cutt, but sadly Vinny wasn’t able to set the hook on is one opportunity.
Vinny very badly wanted to catch something on his new fly rod, so after getting back from Boss Lake and chilling at the camp site for a while we made our way back over to the beaver ponds. I am glad to say that this story had a happy ending. Vinny got his first trout on the fly rod!
Lost Lake Backpacking Trip
The weekend before last my buddy Esteban and I decided to go on another backpacking/fly fishing trip. Originally we had planned to head to a lake that was south of Vail called Whitney Lake, but because it was only a 2.5 mile hike (we wanted to go a little further) and there were still fire restrictions in that county, we decided to head up to Lost Lake near Green Mountain Reservoir. As far as the scenery goes we made the right choice, but as far as the fly fishing goes we did not. We were both skunked and did not see one fish in that lake!
The most exciting part of our trip happened on the hike down the mountain. I was walking behind Esteban with my head down so that I could avoid tripping over one of the many rocks in the path. And just as we approached this little creek I heard Esteban say, “Oh Shit!” I look up and see two small black bear cubs just staring at us about 20 feet away. Not a second after I looked up to see the cubs, the mama bear jumps out of the creek and takes off up the mountain! It was a very intense and unexpected moment. I grabbed my bear mace he grabbed his pistol and I told him “we need to back up slowly” and he told me “get out your camera.” I was pretty nervous right at that moment because I have always heard that the most dangerous bears are ones with cubs. It was a little confused though, because this mother bear didn’t appear to be too worried about her young as she took off up the mountain and never looked back. By the time I did get my camera out the cubs had run off too far to snap a good picture, but were close enough to keep watching what we were doing. Esteban was able to get some video of one of the cubs climbing up a tree. Running into those bears, although quite nerve racking at first, was one the coolest moments I have ever had up in the mountains!
Now it’s time for some pics and videos:
Here is a look down to the Blue River Valley on the way up.
Me posing in front of the Brush Creek Trailhead.
A few pictures of the lake.
Trail intersection.
We haven’t been able to have a fire in over a month.
A little video about the flammability of whiskey.
And finally, the bear cub climbing up at tree.
Long Time No Post Part 2
Part two of last month’s trips takes us to southern Colorado. My dad lives in northern New Mexico so we thought it would be fun to meet him down in the southern part of the state for some tent camping. We camped west of the little town of Antonito in the Rio Grande National Forest, and let me tell you this part of the state is beautiful! Our campsite was right near the Conejos River. Conejos is spanish for rabbits, but luckily we didn’t see any, because the dogs had enough of a hard time as their mouths watered for all the squirrels and chipmunks.
Fishing the Conejos was pretty slow, but much of that is because of the large quantity of rain. It rained basically all day on Saturday, not giving me much time on the water. This section of the river was flies only which I thought was pretty cool. I have seen flies and lures many times, but never flies only.
I was only able to catch two little browns and here is the only photo I was able to snap.
Despite the rain, we had a great time with my dad and his girlfriend and really enjoyed this part of our great state!
Long Time No Post Part 1
It’s been a while since I have made a blog post. I have been fly fishing and camping four times since my last post. Four times!! What is my deal? Well anyway, I need to catch up. So here it goes, part 1 of the last month’s adventures.
Around the 4th of July every year my family heads up to the South Park area for some Colorado mountain fun. My favorite part of this trip, besides hanging with my extended family, is the fly fishing. There are numerous places to fly fish in this area, including Elevenmile and Spinney Reserviors and the South Platte river that flows between them, a.k.a. the “Dream Stream.” But the fisheries that I usually frequent are Tarryall Reservoir and Tarryall Creek, mainly because of their proximity to our cabin.
Tarryall Reservoir is a nice little reservoir that is mostly full of Rainbow Trout and Northern Pike. There is camping and boating at this lake, though I normally fish from the shore. My only gripe with Tarryall is that it is always windy. Day, night, summer, spring and fall. No matter the the time there always seems to be wind.
Tarryall Creek feeds right into the reservoir before it makes it’s way to the South Platte. This small creek winds back and forth for miles in a small valley. It’s a very nice setting with smaller mountains all around and no trees or brush to impede casting. There are mostly smaller brown trout with an occasional 12-14 incher hanging in deep undercut banks.
Here’s some pictures from that weekend:
Rainbows from the reservoir.
Nice looking sunset.
Little brown from Tarryall Creek.
Native Lake Trip
My buddy Esteban and I decided we wanted to do a backpack trip and since I love fly fishing, I found us a place that we could hike to and also get some fly fishing in. I chose Native Lake which is near Leadville, Colorado. It has an elevation of 11,293 feet and is home to brook trout and greenback cutthroat trout. This lake was very beautiful, but too shallow along the edges to be able to catch any fish. We saw a couple jumping in the middle, but without a canoe or belly boat there was no way to cast to them. I only caught two fish, one in the creek entering the lake and one in the creek leaving the lake. Here are some pictures from the trip.
Trailhead.
Little stream flowing down the mountain.
Esteban with Mount Massive in the background.
Me with Mount Massive in the background.
Native Lake from above. The most difficult part of the hike was from the trailhead to this point. From here to the lake was all downhill and much easier.
Here’s the part where I show you a bunch of different pictures of the lake. Make sure to check out the lake at sunset. Very pretty.
Our beer cooler.
Wait, where are the fish?
Here is the brook trout I caught in the creek that leads into the lake. The little guy squirted out of my hands as Esteban took the shot.
There is another lake, Rainbow Lake, we decided to hike up to and see if we could catch something.
Looking back away from Rainbow Lake.
Esteban found some snow. Thankfully we didn’t run into any polar bears.
I’m not sure why I am smiling because it was quite windy up there and I wasn’t able to cast out far enough to reach any fish.
I had a great time roughing it high up in the mountains. I would have loved to hook up with more fish but it was still a nice little adventure.
Catch ya later, Native Lake.
Oh, you might be wondering about the other fish I caught. He was a nice little greenback cutthroat trout. I didn’t get any pictures of him, but Esteban got it on video and I haven’t had a chance to upload yet. I’ll post the video once I get it ready. Stay fly.
Three Skunks and You’re Out
This past weekend I went to the famed Cheesman Canyon to fly fish the South Platte River. For the third time this year I saw many large trout and also for the third time this year I was skunked in the Canyon! It’s quite frustrating to see so many beautiful fish ignore what you are offering. Even though I didn’t catch anything, it was still nice to be out on the water.
It’s hard to see, but in that clear water there is a fish that was unwilling to cooperate.
The weather was just about perfect on Sunday.
My buddy Esteban before he knew he would have to hold up a giant boulder on the hike back.
That rock is larger than a house.
Check out the close up. He was not really holding up the boulder.
Let’s get caught up
I haven’t been able to write a post in a couple weeks now and thought it was about time. If you follow me on instagram, the these pictures may look familiar to you.
Spring is here and the flowers are blooming!
The weekend before last was cold and rainy so we had to come up with some indoor activities like fly tying class.
Some of the finished flies with a sweet looking sticker.
Drowning my sorrows because I can’t go fly fishing.
Printed a special edition too cool for school shirt for a graduation present.
And finally we hit the local pond to catch us some bluegills. No fish, but it was nice to get out and start teaching the little guy how to use a fly rod!
Not So Clear Creek
I was really excited to do some river fishing today as I hadn’t been in a couple weeks. Right after work I headed straight up to the foothills, past Golden and into Clear Creek Canyon to fish Clear Creek. I slapped on my gear and hiked down to the river.
Any luck? Nope, not luck at all. No bites, nothin’. I didn’t see any fish, but that was because this river was fast and definitely not clear. Looks like I will have to go again this weekend! Check out this “exciting” video of the river.
Sunday Fly Fishing (bait and lures were used too)
I had a very nice day fishing with the family and a friend at Antero Reservoir. It was a nice 63 degrees, mostly calm with a few small periods of light wind.
I only landed one small rainbow, but still had a great time nonetheless. I was happy that he went after the wooly bugger I had just tied up on Friday night. Doesn’t it kind of look like this little guy has a mustache? He must have gone through puberty early.
My buddy was using lures and had a few hookups and landed one. My wife was using lures and bait; also only landing one. It, however, was definitely the catch of the day. She used dreaded powerbait, which I do not condone nor condemn, to land her a nice 17-incher. Below is the video of its release.
An action packed day
Yesterday was action packed. First my free stickers went a little viral. I had been offering them for about a month and I have been sending out a couple a day. But yesterday a couple web sites posted that I had free stickers and my site was slammed. I had to turn off the order form because I didn’t have enough stickers to send out.
Then I went fly fishing after work for a little bit and had a few hookups, but was only able to land one little brown. Seeing my shadow on the creek means that winter is over right?
When I got home from my short fishing trip there were two packages waiting for me. The new family tent and my sweet new Allen Fly Fishing reel.
Next, I had some shirts I needed to print and get packaged to ship out.
I had some delicious deep dish pizza from Jimano’s Pizzeria. This was especially good because it was half off!
And to finish the day I decided to tie up a couple flies for Sunday (because Saturday is yard work day).
Find the Fishy
I went out to Clear Creek Saturday and the weather was just about perfect. 70 degrees, partly cloudy and just a slight breeze. I had a bunch of hook-ups but I wasn’t able to bring any to my hands. The fish seemed extra wiggly this day and were all able to unhook. I did snap one picture of one I was trying to reel in. Can you find the fishy?
