Gore Creek Colorado 6/03 (non yak) late report and more cool stuf

I had a business trip to Vail, Colorado leaving early Sunday so I could not hook up with the usual suspects.     I decided to make the best of it and while I have not caught a wild trout that I can remember in over three decades, I grabbed a collapsible backpacking rod I had lying around but had never caught a fish with a couple of cast masters and a few other lours.  I do not even know the line strength on this thing.

After waking up at 2:45 to drive to San Jose for a 6:00 boarding, I arrive in Vail in time for setting up for the landslide conference and after we are finished, it was 2:30 PM and I did not have to be back till 6:30.  The local fly fishing shop was a free bus ride away and I was on my way to buy a license when the very friendly bus driver remarked if I was there for the Teva Mountain Games.  I commented I was not but rather for the American Landslide Conference and she proceeded to tell me about the games which were winding down and included various mountain summer sports.

Gore Creek runs right thought Vail which is an upscale Ski Resort.  The fishing shop is in a shopping mall that fronts the river so from the bus stop I walked over a bridge and found lots of river kayakers preparing for a race.  I found out I was there just in time for the final of the Crazy 8 Kayak race.  This race involves 8 racers on the creek simultaneously.  Along the course there were six to eight kaykers positioned at various locations in pars and threes pointed up stream and the finish was beyond a bridge that had big obstacles and bouys hanging from it.  While I first thought it strange that there where people in kayaks positioned for rescue I soon leaned that their roll was quite different than that.  The people in the upstream pointing kayaks were there to obstruct the progress of the racers.  This was down stream bumper kayak racing.  Very cool and very wild.  There are photos below.

The guy at the fly fishing shop said that the yak race was disturbing the fish so fishing was not so good today could be better away from all of the activity.  I asked about a license and he said that their machine was down and I would have to go to some place further than a free bus ride away to get one.  I persisted and he said something about free fishing this weekend.  I had him check with his boss and once confirmed I headed down stream with a warning from the guy at the very upscale fly fishing shop that the fish where very smart.  I left the excitement of the Vail Ski Resort Mall and the Kayak race for some fishing.  On the way out it was raining so I grabbed a free poncho swag from the VW booth and followed the bike path to a trail down to the creek by the library.  I reintroduced myself to casting and tangled in many trees, bushes and rocks before I gained much control at all.  I kept wandering down stream looking for holes and shady spots with slower water.  I snapped a few wildflower photos and kept wandering down the path.  The sign said limit 2, 16 inch minimum.  I was now able to put the lour mostly where I wanted it about half the time and had only lost one of them and the smells of the Colorado mountains were reminding me of my childhood.  This was good for a business trip.  Dam another snag, wait, head shake?....no...yes..no..shake...yess fish On.  I caught a beautiful about 11 inch brown trout just across the stream from the one tree in the on the opposite side of the stream in the Gore Creek photo.  The trout was photographed and released unharmed.

This was now for sure the best business trip ever.  I never got back on the creek but I did go back to the shop and show them my picture and buy a t-shirt.  It says "Fish Now, Work Later."  It turns out that the first full week of June is free fishing week in Colorado every year.  If you are going that way it would be a good time to do it.  I think if I was a fly fisherman I would have been in heaven.

Sounds like you had a great time. The pictures look so refreshing i could almost smell the fresh mountain air.

Nice German Brown! what did you use to catch it with?

Right on, Etienne!  Good reporting.   

I caught it on a small gold castmaster.  On the next cast, I caught a leader with a small swivel and a fly attached.  That was it though. 

Hey sackyak,

Just curious where you work and what your background is to take you to the oh-so-popular landslide conference in Vail (Kayak fishermen, you don't know what you're missing!)... when annouced last year, I was hoping to attend the same conference  as I was working for a geotech firm in Palo Alto and I'm always looking for a boondoggle business trip (I'm a geologist & engineer)... but then I started my own geophysical/geotechnical exploration company in September last year thus I need to focus on that so no conference (let me know if you have any interest in cone penetration testing).

Cheers, Backcountry (aka "John")

Very cool report and pics!
Thanks Etienne!

PK

My mistake the kayak race was the 8-ball race.  Here is a link to an article. http://vaildaily.com/article/20070603/SPORTS01/70604002/-1/sports01

......and I thought "our" sport was Madness?   that looks CRAZYFUN!     and a fish too?!?!  thats a tough job you got there sackyak.   Thanks for the pics and fresh-air!

Etienne -

Nice brown and report. I like to fish on my business trips also. The river yakking looks crazy. See you Sunday.

Scott