Fall CoWW Outing To The Gunny Basin 06Sep19-11Sep19

Our entire trip was excellent. From the chalk-ladden Arkansas to Kokanee salmon from the Guardrail Hole to trouncing around the East & seeing the Roaring Judy operations to high waters on the Gunnison to the gr8 day on the Lake Fork to fishing the Taylor, all with a bunch of good friends, good meals and good beers, it was a blast. Here's the blow by blow in reverse chronology.

Testing The Taylor C&R 11Sep19
After coffee and breakfast we packed up camp for ride over Cottonwood Pass and onto Colo Spgs. Along the way we stopped below the Taylor dam to fish the (in)famous Taylor Catch & Release section. It got a bit windy with a new cold front but we saw plenty of fish in this special tailwater. Jim had one on and I hooked four but only landed the 10", 12", and 5" rainbows... the pig I had on ran like a deamon downstream and ultimately shook broke my rig off somehow. Grrr. I tried a mole fly and a CDC PMD during the hatches but I got no takers - all my fish were subsurface on the RS2 or purple manhattan midge. No worthy fish pics - just these handsome fishermen.

GR8 Day On The Lake Fork 10Sep19
Yoho and I took the longer trek out the Seay easement section of the Lake Fork of the Gunnison. It was another gorgeous day with little chance of rain or even clouds. While this section is only .5 mile long, it has some fine water, nice fish and it fishes well as a result of the lower pressure due the remoteness, the climb down, and it's size. We saw no one else on the river and had a very successful day catching a number of browns and rainbows on fall baetis as well as top water chubbies. I caught a very nice 18" rainbow and Jim nabbed some stellar browns. We celebrated at High Alpine and grabbed the selfie overlooking the excellent Tributary coffee shop where we often started our days of fishing.

The East Was Vacant 09Sep19
Monday morning we headed to the East River to catch some more running Salmon... part of the river is closed due to the run but some salmon typically have run past the netting and get "holed up" a little beyond the hatchery. Not this time - we trudged miles through the river and willows and ultimately concluded that the hatchery ops this year got almost all the salmon for milking as we saw nothing. We did wander through the hatchery and saw the holding ponds full of salmon. We moved on back to the Guardrail Hole for more browns and salmon before the team separated to head home or to the C&R - or back to camp for Yoho and me. Jim & I fished the lower Taylor briefly on our way back - I caught a few but wading conditions were tough. At Rosy Lane we enjoyed a fine meal and a number of good IPA bombers Jim brought along.

Gunnison River @ Curecanti 08Sep19
We opted for the Neversink and Copper Ranch sections of the Gunnison River on Sunday. Rain was forecast for the afternoon so we packed heavy for the treks around these areas. Water is still running high, mainly from the Taylor, on the Gunnison and wading was a bit tough. We did not have an epic day but caught fish on the surface with chubbies and underneath on golden stones and smaller fall baetis. I caught my first splake in the Gunnison's inner channel! Another great outing in this excellent river basin. We enjoyed beers and brats in the rain before moving down to Copper Ranch. Fishing was a little better there and everyone made it out to the main river channel. Ultimately we dined at the Ole Miner sports bar where some NFL games were on TV and we had very good cheesesteaks.

Salmon Galore 07Sep19
After dropping the camper @ Rosy Lane CG I headed back to the Guardrail Hole of the Gunnison just south of Almont to join the CoWW team. We had a 6-man group and basically took over the hole for the day and had a blast catching a bunch of Kokanee salmon running upstream to the East River from Blue Mesa Rez. We were doing serious shoulder to shoulder combat fishing requiring synchronized roll casting. The man in position "A" typically did best, and that was Matt "The Guide" DeBalski most often - 'cause who'd tell him to move on, till the sun shifted late and Yoho started landing nice fish from the top of the hole. Red/orange anything worked but salmon eggs off heavily weighted line worked best most of the day. What a blast these ill-fated strong fighters are - we caught a bunch like these yet only one lady among them for me. Nick and I managed some browns too. I swam, twice. Greg & Daryle cooked under my canopy at lunch and enjoyed respite from the sun. We ultimately went for more pizza at High Alpine Brewery.

Chalky Arky 06Sep19
Jim and I set out for Greg's Poncha Palace Friday morning but fished Rincon and Chaffe Co line of the Arkansas on the way out SR 50. The river was mostly muddy from rain the night prior and this challenge was exacerbated by a remote storm up Chalk Ck which turned the river chalky white. I managed a brown before we left to dine at Amica's. We all gathered at Greg's for corn bag tourney and brews that night. He also presented me with a keen Colorado cutthroat sticker which now adorns the camper.