Fishing in Colorado

For the past couple of days I have been fishing in Colorado. Some rivers are classed "gold medal" for their fishing and within a few miles of where I was, in Carbondale,there are four of those in close proximity. The place we stayed had the Crystal as a back yard. I will have some more pictures of the area in the next couple of days. I will also do a second post on thoughts gained from the guide we hired in Carbondale. But here is a rundown of the last couple of days.

The first day I was able to fish the Crystal and the Roaring Fork. I will post some in a later post but the waters were pretty, if unproductive. It often takes me a day or so to get into the strange rhythms of fishing. So on that day I am a little impatient - casting too much or to short.

Yesterday we went to one of the most technically challenging rivers in the country - the Frying Pan and then finished the day on a drift on the Colorado. The Frying Pan, even if you are not successful, is one of the prettiest rivers I have ever been on. There are fourteen miles of open water with lots of different kinds of challenges. We started at about mile 4 and spent a couple of hours working some seams. All of the local people said the fish were finicky here - and based on those two hours they were right.

In the afternoon we hired a guide for a drift trip down the Colorado. We ended up spending about 5 hours on the river. Drifting is different. We had two in the boat, plus the guide and the goal is to not step on your companion's territory. You are also trying to match the flow of the river and at first I had a great tendency to not be able to do that.

Our guide owns the Crystal Fly Shop in Carbondale. I am a great believer in guides, especially in areas you don't know well. They require a special mix of skills - they have to be dialed into the areas they are guiding but also into the people they work with. Dave Johnson has both elements.

For the start of the trip we had a pretty long dry spell but then for the remainder we seemed to hit a series of hot spots. All the time Dave gave us good tips about how to find the fish while all the time maneuvering the boat. I would rate him among the best guides I have ever hired. We got a lot of fish, looked at a lot of water, got some great instruction and all the while had a good time in the bargain.

Oddly enough, although we got some pretty good fish (mostly Browns and a couple of Rainbows) they seemed to hit on the smallest fly on the rig.