A Bear Ate My Lunch - Literally 30Aug16

I'm camping in Taylor River Canyon below Taylor Park, in a nice, developed campground ~ and overnight a bear ripped the rear side window off the Crusher, climbed in and ate all my food! He destroyed my food box and cooler. He forgot to clean his paws and claws on entering my vehicle so some of my stuff got bear-scuzzed... like my fishing hats and backpacks. As if the Crusher could get more ghetto - it now features a duct-taped rear window. So, I had no food and "had to" head to High Alpine Brewery for their excellent pizza and Green Gate IPA.

It must've been good luck despite my hour-delayed start for cleanup and repairs as I had a good day on the Gunnison River fishing. Too, here's a trout lesson featuring browns from the Gunnison River: we have two primary strains of brown trout in NAmerica. The German browns (Von Behr) have orange/red spots and the Scottish strain (Loch Levens) has black spots - both were brought over in the mid-late 1800s and now run prevalent around the west. While it's a cool bear story - there's some trepidation regarding my return to the site tonight with new food - he "knows" the Crusher.

Weird but good day wading the Gunny. I started at Neversink and my "first" fish was a big 19" Scottish brown, close to my put in, on a squirmy worm at ~10am. It was a nice spot and I reeled 6 more browns this morning. My best fly was the quasimodo, a BHFB curved version of the pheasant tail that I'd begun to use instead of a BHFBPT. Seemingly a trico hatch or midge hatch had preceded my arrival and the mating balls were epic - I thought I'd missed it and would need to change to spinners - grrrr. Then a BWO hatch started and I caught more on the quasimodo and rainbow warrior underneath. I even got hits on the red chernobyl ant I used as an indicator. I dined on Subway (since the bear ate my chipotle turkey) and enjoyed another Treasure Chest (saving boobies while enjoying grapefruit/hibiscus/prickly pear-infused IPA). I moved downstream to Cooper Ranch and strangely caught 6 rainbows! Here I was using nymphs led by the stonefly - like the Ark, the upper Gunny runs like a big freestone. I fished so little of this great watershed today (and saw no Kokanee) but will move to it's major tributaries the Taylor and the East for the next days.

On The Ark @ Pinnacle Rock 22Aug16

With flows falling to ~500cfs I chose to hit the Arkansas River in BIg Horn Sheep Canyon today. The morning was nice but above 80° and the PM included sprinkling at 1:30pm and rain at 3:30pm. I took but did not unleash the wading stick - dunno whether that was flow rate or stupidity; I was able to select crossing spots and did so a couple times. I started about 10am with a red chernobyl, red CJ copper and a variety of droppers. The best flies on the day were the red chernobyl (fun hits 10-noon) and the rainbow warrior. The water was off color from recent rains I assume, so I did go to silver beaded stuff and more flash, including the rainbow warrior. I think my choices during stained water is proven, at least to me. I probably caught ~20 fish on the day and lost another half doz, all browns and all 8-14", but decently strong. Shown are representative fish - one each on the "hopper," copper and dropper, plus one other for measure. Fall is looming and the Ark is shaping up - it wasn't a 50 fish day - but soon it may be possible.

I also looked into the why some browns I catch have orange/red spots and others do not... this is the basic finding... many red spotted browns in the US descended from the German strain, Von Behr. The black spotted strain are Loch Levens, from Scotland. Color variations due to environmental conditions and the mixing of various strains can be found.

Salmon-Willows Pack Trip 12Aug16

Some of CoWW's most intrepid and timely master fisherman (Jim Yohanan, author Tom Wilke - ok not so much a fisherman - but a fearless alpine leader bound for Capitol on Monday, Greg Lehmann and me) stole a weekend in the alpine. CO late-summer at 11.5K feet elevation deep in the Gore is sublime. We hiked 2.2 extra miles out of Willowbrook TH then 5.5 miles up to our campsite and hiked and fished five alpine lakes at treeline. We caught fish everywhere - including a CO cutty in a connecting stream! Spectacular views, terrain, weather, sites, debates, meteor showers and friends made the jaunt into Eagles Nest Wilderness and our weekend memorable. Biffs in streams & lakes, big fish, numerous fish, electric yellow, cool nights, vertical pitch cirques, awesome Pearsids "shooting stars" in perfect dark, fine food, 3 lost dog leashes, a butt busting 2.5Kft climb, and 100s of beautiful brookies beckoned a recall. Almost any flies worked but we favored tossing dries. My best was the lime trude; Jim scored with elk hair and parachute Adams and Greg used "the one" (PT peacock partridge soft hackle) almost all weekend. Salmon Lk and Willow 1 have fewer but bigger fish (I caught a 15" and a ~16" and GL caught a 17") - they are a bit tougher to catch. Salmon requires a 45' cast to reach the edge of the ledge. The other three lakes are teaming with brookies. I also did well in the connector stream from Willow 2 (large dubl lobe) to Willow 3. Together we caught hundreds of fish this fine weekend.

Bluegrass, Brews and Browns 06Aug16

As the clouds and rain finally subsided after a couple days I headed over to Keystone for the 20th Bluegrass and Brews fest. It was a blast but without Kala or other mates I likely bugged some folks who'd engage me. Three stages of bluegrass and 40 CO breweries to sample... nice. The freaky pic is selfie of me in front of Jeff Scroggins Band on aux stage - excellent. Sunday allowed an outing to the Gore in Vail. I hit the section on the west end of the frontage road first at ~10am. Meh. I nymphed and didn't get a hit all the way to the bridge - water was too cold and no bugs were coming off. I packed up to dine at Dawg Park a couple miles further upstream. It got warmer after lunch and nymphing began to work but I lost four fish in a row to start; including a big 'bow who broke my line in the fight. Grrr. Finally I began to land some browns and a decent rainbow. Best flies were the RS2 and the FBPT as mayflies started hatching. It was a smidge crowded in the dog park as it was Sunday and there was a dog wash stand open. Decent, but far from epic, outing.