Fly Fishing in Rockies - Fishing Journal

 

October 6, 2002: D lake in Colorado (9,900 ft)

This is one of the most crowded lake in the Rockies. This relatively small D lake is located in the Rocky Mountain National Park within a 30 minutes hiking distance and provides a wonderful scenery. No wonder why this is a crowded place. So, it is always crowded with lots of visitors. But, you will be amazed when you fish this beautiful lake because it always produces a decent and consistent fishing. Today I fished D lake from 11 Am to 4:30 PM. Considering the weather is changing and a snow two days ago, there were still lots of people on the trail. I saw many parts of the trail were covered with snow and ice that made hiking a little bit cautious. You don't want to fall down into a deep valley, do you?

Fishing was excellent today. In the morning, there was no surface action and could not see any cruising fish near the shore. Maybe too cold during the night. Thus, I moved to a deeper place near the inlet of the lake, especially where the lake began deep. And could see some cruising fish there. But still they didn't respond to my dry flies. So, I used a nymph 3 feet below the surface. It worked so well and I got a constant hook up for almost two hours. It was very interesting to see that one of several cruising fish always takes my fly. So, all I had to was just waiting until fish were coming towards me and casting.

After 1 PM, the place where I were fishing went into a shadow and it made me quite cold. Moreover, fish began not to respond to my offerings. Thus, I moved to the other side of the lake, a sunny and warm side. It is around 3-4 feet deep with lots of underwater rocks. So, I targeted hiding resident fish in the rocks and casted a dry fly with a small dropper beadhead wet fly. To my surprise, I was catching fish from almost all potential hiding places. Fish responded to the dry and wet flies in the same ratio. What a fun! Everything was working as I thought! Hikers were watching me with popped eyes and began to ask questions. They never know that fishermen don't want to be questioned while fishing. Well, that was the part that I liked least on this wonderful fishing day. I am really happy to have this graet place near my home.

 

September 21, 2002: M lake in Colorado (9,700 ft)

This is one of the most photogenic place in the Rockies. You can easily see this two peaks and lake in Colorado postcards. Especially, when aspens change colors in the Fall, the wave of yellow wonder attracts so many people.

Today, I went hiking, not fishing. After a three hour hiking to enjoy Fall color, I had a chance to cast a fly into the M lake. My complaining wife didn't say much this time because of the surrounding beautiful scenery. She was simply sitting down and chatting with her friend. For just one hour fishing by a busy trail, I caught so many cutthroat trout. From the very first cast and catch, literally, every cast got a bite. Sometimes, we find a fantastic fishing at a totally unexpected place. This lake is one of them. So many visitors are coming to this place for the scenery, not for fishing. But, I am sure that this is a wonderful fishery.

 

May 26, 2002: P lake in Colorado (12,100 ft)

We left Denver at 4 am. I was very excited because this was the first high lake fishing this year. I have waited for almost 8 months. Especially, I got a good feeling that I might face ice-breakup. I was too excited and forgot bringing my hiking shoes so I had to returened to get it. Anyway, we arrived at the trailhead at 6:40 am. 3.3 miles to the P lake from the trail head. The trail was frozen showing that the temperature during the night is still freezing cold. It was obvious that not many people hiked the trail yet this year. I faced many fallen trees that block the trail. Almost 7 trees up to the lake. And, finally, we arrived at the lake around 9 am. As I expected, the lake was just partly open near the outlet and a small portion in the sunny side. According to the Lafontaine's book, this must be a good fishing. And he proved that.

I tried the outlet first. I couldn't see any cruising fish in the open water. Water was still very cold and I suspect that fish can be active in this cold water. No surface activity at all during the whole morning. So, I used sinking line with size 10 black woolly bugger and aimed the boundary of ice. After counting 5, I began to slowly retrieve the line. In several seconds, I got a dull feeling and hooked up. What a feeling! This fish bent my 6wt rod like a bow. It was a 16" cutthroat with amazingly brilliant color. I have never seen such a vivid color. It just looked like bleeding. For a while, I got continuous success with the same method. This was the first time I used sinking line and it was a big success. I fished this lake until 12:30 pm and moved to a small nearby lake at a lower elevation because the wind was getting strong and temperature was dropping. It was sunny in the early morning but became cloudy late morning and afternoon with occasional strong wind. This small lake was a fun place because we could catch many small cutthroat near the inlet using dry flies. It is always fun to see small aggressive fish attacking a dry fly. We had fun until 3:40 pm and returned to the trail head.

 

April 5, 2002: Eleven Mile Canyon in Colorado

I fished here for the first time. Since I haven't fished for a long time during winter, everything looks great. Especially, this small canyon looks beautiful with various interesting places, pools. pockets, riffles. Winter is already gone here but the water is still very low and clear. It made fish extremely wary and they were spooked even with the slightest movement. Lots of fish around 10"-14" were every where but they were not really active. They were feeding under the water but I coudn't figure out what exactly they were eating. Weather was fine, mostly clear and a little bit overcasting at times. Temperature went up to around 60-70F.
I started fishing at 9:00 AM and tried subsurface fishing with small nymphs such as size 20 midge pupa, brassie, etc. I tried many different patterns with no luck. Fish kept on ignoring my flies with almost no glance. But, when I tried size 10 black beadhead Wooley Bugger in a deep, narrow pocket, I thought I got the bottom. It felt stuck for a while then I reallized I hooked a big one. And, it jumped out of the water! It's always fun and exciting to see a rainbow jumping around. To my surprize, it was a solid 17" rainbow. However, it was very skinny and not that strong. This fish definitely needs some more time to be fat again. Well, not a bad way to start a year.

 

Nov. 3, 2001: Arkansas River in Colorado

Fishing in Arkansas river is not attractive to me because most part of this river flows by roads and houses. But, this time of year, I don't have any choice. High mountains are already covered with snow and alpine lakes are frozen. So, I fished Arkansas between Salida and Swissvale. Weather was fine today around 60F. But water temperature was low around 48F, which made trout inactive.
I fished subsurface with size 20 midge pupa. I have never tried this before because I am mainly a dry fisherman. However, dry flies season is gone and I have to use nymph if I want to catch fish. Yes, I want catch some. Surprisingly, catch 13" brown with a tiny size 20 black beauty or blood midge was a cute fishing. I hooked five decent browns while midges were hatching between 8:30 -11:00 am. They were all healthy and strong. It always makes me smile to feel brown's strong pulling.
In the late afternoon, wind got quite strong and made fishing difficult.

 

Oct. 13, 2001: Arkansas River in Colorado

Wind, wind, wind. It was very windy all day. Moreover, it was snowing early in the morning while I was driving from Denver through the Fremont pass. Wow, it was quite thrilling when my car slid on top of the pass just after turning downward. Well, anyhow, I am not ready for winter yet.
Arrived at the upper Arkansas river near Granite around 9:00 am. Still cold, but not very cold. Tried for three hours. No sign of fish at all. And could not cast against strong wind.
Moved to Buena Vista around 12:30 pm. Weather was completely different here. Sunny blue sky with only a little white clouds and much warmer. 10 miles driving made a total difference. Well, still wind problem. Tried fishing for one and a half hour. Got several hits but failed to hook up.
Moved to the river section below Salida. The Arkansas river is bigger here and the valley is deeper. And finally, caught a nice brown on a black woolly bugger. It was a tough day.

 

Sep. 29, 2001: P lake (12,100') in Colorado

It was cloudy when we arived at the trailhead. Yes, this time I got a company, which is very unusual. Everyone said that cloudy sky means a good fishing day. Well, not today. When we hiked up to this lake, it was almost 10 am. Nobody was there and temperature was still quite low. However, we could see many trout cruise and sporadically rise. We immediately began fishing. But only for nothing for two hours. Around 12:30, I realized that I didn't try the proven pattern in high lakes, the olive scud. I got an instant hookup on this with a heavy pulling. What an amazing feeling ! For the next several minutes, I was doing my best to protect my 6x tippet from this big guy. At the beginning, it didn't look very big. But, when it came close to us, it looked bigger. It was a 18" cutthroat. My biggest cutthroat ever ! Meanwhile, the weather was changing badly. Some sign of electric charge scared me a lot when I felt electostatic charge on my rod. The nemesis of mountain fly fishing, thunderstorm ! We were already hearing roaring sound. We immediately retreated from the lake and went down to a smaller no-name lake for some more fishing. When I caught a small cutthroat there, it was snowing, not lightly but rather heavily. And trout called it a day and so did we.

 

Aug. 7, 2001: H lake (12,000') in Colorado

I finally decided to have an adventure, cross country hiking to get to a remote lake where no trail heads. I searched web to get information and choose a relatively easy target. Only two miles of bush whacking from a trail ! I parked my car at 8:00 am and began to hike through no mark forest. It didn't take more than 10 minutes to realize taht reading maps on my desk could be quite different from climbing up real hills. The hill looked really intimidating with 60-70 degree slope. After almost crawling up 300 feet, I was in definite doubt in my adventure. Can I do this ? Luckily, I was on top of the hill shortly and kept on walking for another hour to find a beautiful small lake at 10 am. Its size is merely several acres at most. If this is located near any trail, it wouldn't survive from heavy fishing pressure. However, because of the remote location, lovely trout were still innocently cruising by the shore and making wonderful rising rings. Watching them was so rewarding.
As easily expected, fishing was excellent even though cutthroat trout are not big, 10-12 inches on the average. Real wonderful sight fishing on the shallow with dry flies. I love the moment that a target trout carefully approaches to the well presented dry and shyly take it. It is not bad if trout rushes to and vigorously attack a dry. I am in love with dry fishing. Good fishing continues until noon. In the afternoon, fishing was slow but the weather was simply gorgeous.

 

July 20, 2001: Po lake (12,100') in Colorado

I've never thought that walking on a 4x4 road would be harder than on a trail. Yes, I would take well maintained trail later. Really urgly scene is those Jeeps that carry lazy people on this much high remote place. Well, at least, I owned the entire lake all by myself in the morning. Fishing was slow at the beginning. I saw many cruising fish by the shore but they showed no interest on what I provided. When I moved to the other side of the lake where a stream comes in, I found lots of trout. Some were quite big. And finally, some took my flies. It was a bit unusual because these trout were not afraid of me. When I caught one, they just disappeared for a while and showed up on the same spot shortly. A minor problem was that they were not taking the same fly twice. Thus, I was continuoisly changing and trying new flies. It was only the olive scud that caught two big cutthroat. Other patterns got a success only when it was presented for the first time. I spent quality several hours at the same place. I was able to clearly see how trout were approaching to my flies and how they rejected them. It was an excellent learning experience.

 

Rocky Mountain National Park

I enjoy fishing in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). It is very conveniently located, 2 hour driving from my home, and attracts me as well as millions of turists from all of the world with its beautiful scenery. Even though it is crowded, especially during summer, I still can find relatively quite places because most of them come here for sightseeing or hiking, not for fishing. Moreover, because of strict regulations in the park, RMNP provides some good fishing waters including high mountain lakes and streams. Especially, this is a good place to catch a rare trout species called "greenback cutthroat, which is a Colorado native fish and was almost extinct in the past. The restoration of this fish in RMNP is one of the most successful animal conservation stories. Of course, anglers must follow a strict catch and release rule for this fish.
Fish are not big here because of harsh environment such as long winter. Twelve inch trout should be considered as a big one. But they are wild and self reproducing as a part of real nature. You can catch rainbow, brown, brook, breenback cutthroat, and west slope cutthroat in RMNP. If you don't mind the size, RMNP is a good place to achieve the Rocky Mountain Grand Slam that means catching rainbow, brown, brook, and cutthroat all in a day.
Big Thompson River flows in the meadow called Moraine Park which is surrounded by giant peaks. I see tons of photos,post cards, and paintings of this place. This might be the most recognized place in RMNP. Actually, it provides an ideal water for both trout and anglers. The river has all important characteristics for trout to grow big. Deep pocket, deep underbank, ripple, pool, you name it. Anglers can enjoy its open space with total freedom of fly casting. But, in reality, it is not. Unfortunately, this place is very easy to access so attracts too many people resulting in extremely heavy fishing pressure. In general, fishing is very challenging in this picturesque stream.
You need a short but strenuous hiking to get to Roaring River, a wonderful greenback cutthroat fishery. And, without a doubt, it is worth to sweat. One summer day last year, I caught 29 trout in three hours with all dry flies. A dream small stream with just non-stop action ! But, to my disappointment, words spreads out so quickly that I see too many anglers there this year. Even though fish are still there because of C&R regulation, I don't want to compete a nice pool with people.
You can find another great greenback cutthroat fishery in Spruce lake if you are willing to hike up three hours. Fish are so abundant in this relatively small mountain lake that you can easily spot a dozen cruising fish at any part of the lake. I saw that even some non-angling hikers sat on a rock watching rising and jumping trout so happily. When they are all rising, I am in Nirvana.

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