When life hands you Colorado, might as well go fly fishing for trout (5/20)

CO received something like 20% of average precipitation this year. Good thing last year was at 200% so reservoirs aren't in dire straights.  But fishing opportunities on the Front Range kind of suck, at least if you're in Castle Rock.

Maggie and I did get out with a guide on Sunday, and did quite well. So good that I stopped using the highly productive method of indicator nymphing, and went to dry flies for a while. Probably 40 fish to hand for the two of us, triple that for hookups. Got to the point where if a 8"-10" fish took the nymph while I was waiting for the line to get a water load for the next cast (to a GOOD fish), I'd say "dang fish" and play them hard enough that they'd pop off.

Best fish of the day was a 19" rainbow for myself, and a 14" brown for Maggie.

Caught a major sunburn as well, even though I applied sunscreen. Apparently not enough though.

Back home to NorCal come July. I'm of mixed feelings. Love California, can't stand what the inmates running the asylum have done and are doing to the state. Wife says we have to go home though...

i miss colorado, which river did you fish? what guide service, i guided for years out of steamboat, been really missing it lately, thanks for the report and pick, cameron

Cameron,

There is more fishing pressure here on the Front Range than home in CA, go figure. If you're really interested in the location, send me a PM. I will say it's an urban fishery, within a couple hours of Denver. Heck, folks out here are so tight lipped, the norm is to edit photos (which I've done too) to remove some of the identifying features. I hate to be so discreet, but when in Rome....

The guide was Brent, out of Hook Flyfishing in Highlands Ranch. An all around nice guy, listened to what we wanted to accomplish for the day, and delivered in spades. He has a rep at the store as being a very dedicated angler, and it showed.

Scott

P.S. I stuck this in public as it's not yak related. That will show me...

Heck, folks out here are so tight lipped, the norm is to edit photos (which I've done too) to remove some of the identifying features.

i understand that completely, i have ten+ years of photos of fish with no idendtifying land marks, actually no horizon at all, cameron

nice report and pictures!  did you wade fish or use a boat of some kind?  I don't trust sunscreen anymore since the last time I used some I got sunburned so badly on my legs the hair has not grown back.  Now I use long sleeved shirts, long pants, sun gloves and a Tilly hat all which are very high UPV rated

Cameron,

Now that's a football!  I keep hearing stories of 20+" fish out of the South Platte, but haven't seen any one landing anything that big. Maybe just at Wigwam...

Oh, and Brent only said "remember, that's 6X" 2-3 times while playing that fish. I was using a Grey's Streamflex 10' 3wt. Don't let the line weight fool you though, it has plenty of backbone, but with a nice soft tip for the light line. Highly recommended as a good bang for the buck rod. The fish was still plenty fiesty when we got it in the net.

atavuss,

We were purely wading. No kayaks made the trip, and my drift boat has so far only served as a trailer for gear on the trip out here. That should change this weekend though.

You see both my wife and I in long pants and sleeves - with weather in the upper 70's. I too am adopting clothing over sunscreen - it's more reliable.  I didn't bring my wide brim hat out to CO, and was wishing I had it on Sunday. I will say that it's turning out to be a fairly minor burn - my face is feeling fine today. The sunscreen did a lot of good.  My hands were perfectly fine. Either they got more screen, or they can take more sun. Probably both...

Now if only I'd put sunscreen down the back of my neck a good 3 inches below the collar...

Scott