Fishing The Arkansas River Headwaters 29Jul20

I hit the headwaters of the Arkansas River just south of Leadville and after the Twin Lks effluent joins the Ark. It's Hayden Meadows and it was pretty crowded with a dozen cars by just 9 am. The lot also serves the ponds/lakes in the area too though. I hiked downstream ~1/2mi and fished back to the car with flows @ 175cfs. The day seemed perfect but it was very windy, turning many people back. Plus, I forgot my rod vault key so had to assemble something from inside the car - I chose the GLoomis 7'9" 3wt but it was way too light to fire well into the wind (which was in my face the entire outing) as the wind was ripping down valley. Nonetheless, I made it work: I caught a half doz fish or so like this 15"er, but lost the biggest one after about 3 seconds "on." These browns were hitting the top fly, a peacock chubby #14, or the dropper squirmy ObiWan worm, but not the GRHE. I figured with recent rains the aquatic worms would be dislodged and my sense of it seemed to bear out. Very nice outing with Mt Elbert and Mt Massive overlooking my efforts. I left at noon given the wind and mounting storm threat.