Last summer, about this time, I posted my first summer trip report that started out with a bunch of bitching and whining about how busy I’d been, couldn’t find time for fishing, etc.–the kind of thing we all face. Well, it’s not any better this year–or at least I still had to wait until July before I could experience what I consider to be a fishing excursion worth writing about.
It’s not like I haven’t been fishing but 2013 has not shaped up to be a banner year, thus far, if defined by whatever it is we seek on the streams. I did fish a couple of times on some Missouri’s wild trout streams.
But did not do as well as I might normally do.
More importantly, my time on the stream was taken up with the reminders that kind of take precedent when you have kept your skills polished. I guess that is one way of saying I spent a lot of time in the branches, untangling line, retying leaders and retying flies eaten by trees. To top things off, I couldn’t get a fish to look up. Still, I did enjoy myself even if the catching was not quite what was expected.
At the end of May I managed a couple of days in Rocky Mountain Park.
I was able to connect with some trout by dragging San Juan worms down deep. (I can’t believe I just admitted that 
.) Still, one day was spent ironing out the kinks in my skill set (which, by the way, is a very limited skill set) and one day was actually spent fishing.
Again, any time on a stream is to be cherished but still something just wasn’t quite there.
So there I was again, in July, working another workshop and chomping at the bit to get to the high country. Naturally, I only had the weekend so I could very likely put too much pressure on myself to “enjoy” the experience. Fortunately for me, in my old age, I am aware of this limiting aspect of my personality and have developed strategies to counter it. One strategy is to not mess with success. A trip to the high country last year cured the funk so I figured I’d target the same area again this year. Unfortunately, my wife, Carol was not along this year but by good fortune my buddy Randy and a friend were out in Colorado to sample the fishing and were willing to meet me. This is Greg and the image is from Randy’s FB page. Fortunately, they were able to score a campsite near the stream.
The next morning we cooked some breakfast and messed around in camp until about 9:30. We then split up and went to three different stretches of the stream. I went about a mile downstream from camp. Found some of the same orchids from last year.
Elephant Head. The stream was in fine shape.
I started out with an elk hair caddis which is kind of my searching fly in these waters but things weren’t quite yet started for the morning. Just as I started fishing the riffle upstream from this run I noticed a few…..big….green….drakes. I had thought I was too late this year but I immediately switched to about a #12 quill body green drake and didn’t look back.
It turned out to be one of those mornings where everything clicks. Fish were everywhere you expected them to be and they rose readily to the fly. As the morning progressed my stress levels regressed. I was in the FLOW. Things were clicking so well that when I did get a massive line tangle as I missed a strike, I took that as an opportunity to sit down and “rest” the hole. Great times. Randy and Greg were catching fish too but unfortunately, they had not had the opportunity of observing the small green drake hatch that I had seen.
There was much more beaver activity in the area than in past years with new beaver dams all up and down the stream. I’m not sure how I feel about these. I’d rather have the running water. It will be interesting to watch how this plays out.
Randy and Greg had to leave the next day but I could fish until early afternoon. We woke to rain. I helped them pack and then decided to sit out the rain to see what might happen. I didn’t get to the stream until almost 11:00.
Still it looked like it would be a good day. It is pretty lazy fishing. Only an expert like me can really get all tangled up as open as the stream is.
And it was a good day–a replay of the previous day except I didn’t have as long to fish.
It’s beginning to look like this creek has earned the right to be the first creek I fish each summer in the high country. It sure got me started right this year and it was much needed.
BW