Ramblings

Originally posted @ Orvis

I “met” Nick Meloy a couple of years ago on the fly-fishing forum on reddit, and this past week he was out in Denver on vacation. He had a free day and wanted to meet up and hit some Colorado water. We could have gone to the Dream Stream or the Blue or the Colorado, which are all fantastic fisheries. But being the altitude junky I am, decided to take him up to 12,000 feet above sea level. A three-mile each-way hike, with 2,000 feet in elevation gain, had the Pennsylvanian out of breath a few times, but we made it to the lake for an amazing day of catching cutthroat trout!

Originally posted @ Orvis

Shawn, Tom, and I hiked into the Holy Cross Wilderness Area in Colorado for a few days of chasing cutthroat trout. To be honest, this wasn’t the best trip we’ve ever taken. With 23 miles of hiking, crazy thunderstorms, and hail storms that rolled through everyday, and not-so-stellar fishing, it was a bit of a struggle the whole trip. But that’s the way it goes when you are above 11,500 feet: you never know what to expect, so you just have to make the best of it and enjoy being out in the wild.

Every year my friends and I try to take bets on when a certain couple of lakes will be open for fishing. These lakes are roughly 12,500 feet above sea level and take a lot longer to ice off than you would think. When you hit the lakes at just the right time it’s some of the best fishing we’ll have all year. But if you go too early, all you’ll get is some good exercise and some amazing views! Either way it’s win/win.

I use the term “My creek” extremely loosely. Although when I go I don’t ever see anyone else so it might as well be mine. The fishing this spring has been great at the creek but I’m anxiously awaiting the snow to melt to start hiking the high country!

Originally posted @ Orvis

Before the snow melts from the Colorado Rockies and the rivers start running too high, Tom, Shawn, and I hiked down into a canyon to do some tailwater fishing. It was also a perfect day to put my new Battenkill Disc Reel to some good use. With clear blue skies and the water running cold, the fishing was a little slow, but we managed to get a handful of amazing trout into the net.

January and February ended up being a great start to 2017!

Originally posted @ Orvis

We had an amazing year on all kinds of water. From high altitude lakes to small mountain streams to large gold medal rivers, fish were caught and released and fun was had!

Originally posted @ Orvis

My friend Tom and I decided to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather here in Colorado this a couple weekends ago and headed into the Rocky Mountains for a morning on the water. My Recon and Tom’s H2 brought some nice fish to the net!

Originally posted @ Orvis

My friend Kyle and I went up to Breckenridge, Colorado, over the weekend. While most folks were out enjoying the changing colors of the foliage, we were on the river catching some amazing trout. These big rainbows love jumping out of the water and running your line out. Luckily my Recon and Hydros SL were the perfect combo to get them to the net.

Originally posted @ Mountainsmith

Base Camp: noun –  The place whereby expeditions start and end. A place to call home away from home, and a place where noble troupes gather. (Urban Dictionary)

When I hear the words “Base Camp” my mind automatically thinks of Mt. Everest, and the adventurers waiting at base camp for inclement weather to clear, seizing that window of opportunity, in hopes of reaching the summit. Although it’s not likely that you’ll ever find me at an Everest base camp, I do find the more local base camp experience a nice change of pace. My friends and I usually strap on our 50 lb. backpacks and head off into the wilderness for a week at a time, hiking to the off-the-beaten-path areas to fly fish. However, to change things up a little we decided to do a four-day base camping trip and take daily excursions to lakes in the area.

This trip would take Shawn, Tom, Carper and me into the San Isabel National Forest. Covering 1,120,233 acres in central Colorado, with seven designated wilderness areas within these acres, it wasn’t difficult to find a spot where we could set up camp.

Each morning, we woke up at 6:30, fixed breakfast burritos, brewed coffee, and packed up our daypacks. My rain gear, fly fishing gear, water, lunch, camera, trekking poles, net, and more, were all stuffed into the Scream 25 pack, and I was ready for our daily expedition. Half of our day hikes would be off trail/bushwhacking, and since we were away from base camp, it was imperative we bring enough clothing and food and other essentials, yet be able to carry it easily and comfortably all day.

In the four days that we took our hikes, we managed over 7,300 vertical feet of climbing, fishing six lakes and catching six different species of fish: brook trout, rainbow trout, cuttbow trout, cutthroat trout, golden trout and grayling. With all of these miles and all of the hours of fly fishing, every day it was extremely comforting to know we were going to eventually be back at our base camp.

Steaks, bratwursts and burgers cooked over the fire with sautéed peppers, mushrooms and onions for dinners – not to mention the ice cold beer to go with it all. We kept the canopy over the picnic table for when the afternoon thunderstorms rolled through. And of course we had camping chairs, so we could comfortably enjoy the fire every night with our s’mores. I could really get used to this whole base camp idea, but I owe a lot of that to my Scream 25, which gave me the assurance that I could leave the camp behind, yet still comfortably carry everything I need.