Ramblings

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.

Originally posted @ Orvis

Last week, we made a four-day trip into the Rocky Mountains and did quite a bit of hiking and fishing. Tom, Shawn, Carper, and I hiked and bushwhacked into multiple lakes in a section of the San Isabel National Forest. We hiked over 7300 vertical feet and fished six lakes, small streams and beaver ponds. We caught six species of fish: rainbows, cutthroats, cuttbows, brookies, golden trout, and grayling. Two of the lakes aren’t even named on a map, two of the lakes had no trail to them, and one lake was more of a small pond; we were shocked to even find fish in it. Three of us caught our first grayling along with all the other fish we were lucky enough to net. I must ssay that we picked some good blue areas on the map and had some great days of hiking and fishing.

Whenever I share my stories or photos or videos, it’s inevitable that I am asked about location. Quite often my answer is that it doesn’t matter, which can make some folks angry. What I mean to get across is that it doesn’t matter because there are hundreds, if not thousands, of places in Colorado to go explore. There are over 3,000 high alpine lakes in Colorado, and my friend Shawn has fished roughly 350 of them if you can believe that. All of these lakes have streams and beaver ponds, and most are stocked every other year. So instead of asking where I am every time I go fishing, people should honestly just pull out a map, look for some blue, find a trail in the area, and go try it out.

Originally posted @ Orvis

Another hike into the high country with some buddies yielded some amazing-looking cutthroats! There’s usually some wind to deal with when hiking and fishing at high altitudes, but this time it was a bit much. Gusts were pushing 50 to 60 mph, putting whitecaps on the lake and making it a bit difficult to cast. I was using my 6-weight Recon and it did its job perfectly when casting streamers into the wind and getting these amazing fish to the net!

Originally posted @ Orvis

Here in Colorado, runoff is in full effect, and the rivers are running high. Temperatures in Denver are also running high, in the upper 90s. No better way to get away from both than to hike to 12,400 feet and fish some lakes!