Gunnison Basin Day 3 - Lake Fork 07Sep17

I recalled Greg's often asking if I'd been and then read GL's book on the Gunny Country fishing last night and decided to make the pilgrimage to the Lake Fork. It's about an hour from my Rosy Lane campsite but it was very worthwhile. I hit two sections of the Lake Fork of the Gunnison - the 1/4 mile Seay easement and the man-made weirs above Red Bridge. I CY Seay is named that (really it's just a family name) but I had a blast catching lots of 15"-17" browns and rainbows on my triple mayfly rig. The book said this was "tremendous" water and that seems about right. I mistook where the private water was, fishing upstream from where the trail hit the water and initially fished it instead, without result, till I was shooed off by a guide. Once I found the right section I went to the downstream end of it and fished upstream over 3 hours on just 300yrds. I found nice spots and the fish were willing to eat my bugs. I expected more browns but caught more than half rainbows - they are fully protected here. I drove to the Red Bridge section for lunch and afterward fished a number of weirs upstream from the CG. The book suggested lunker browns lay in some of these structure so I hit it with both my fly rig and streamer rig. I again strangely caught many rainbows and I never raised a lunker brown. All the Lake Fk fish seemed trimmer than what I'm used to on the South Platte but numbers were strong. Trips to Gunny will now always include a run out to the Lake Fk - very fun. Here are some of the fish and other images.

Gunnison Basin Day 2 - Gunnison River With Greg 06Sep17

On Wednesday we had a hearty GL-prepped breakfast after the debauchery suffered the night prior while celebrating the Kokanee catch. We hit the Neversink and Cooper Ranch sections of the Gunny, both below Gunnison. Not an epic day on the Gunnison - I was looking for bigger browns but mainly scored small to modest fish and even more rainbow than expected. It wasn't too crowded but it was gusty at times. My best flies were gold quasimodo and grey RS2 - we surely saw the AM hatch of tiny mayflies. Here are some of the fish from the Gunny. Greg wanted to get underway to COS a bit early so we left the river for the High Alpine brewery for good pizzas and beers.

Gunnison Basin Day 1 - East River Salmon With Greg 05Sep17

My fall trip to the Gunny was strengthened with a visit from Greg - he actually preceded me to the spot and fished a number of rivers there. While the fishing might be better in Haine's basement, when I arrived to set up camp at Rosy Lane I did so quickly and Greg met me so we could hit the Kokanee salmon run up the Gunnison and East Rivers. We hit the East and hiked down from the Roaring Judy Hatchery (I never had to park as far upstream but no matter). We caught small browns and rainbows and then I found a big pod of salmon stalled on their upstream run, resting for their next push. We tied on double and triple rigs of red bugs like copper johns, etc. and began hooking and landing salmon en mass. The hard fighting fish are a blast and they got off 1/3 of the time but no matter 'cause the next one was just a cast away - it was a blast. All afternoon GL and I were 20 feet apart on either side of the river taking salmon for four hours. We had a number of doubles and poor Greg's finger became blistered from stripping in and my arm tired of fighting and landing one handed - I get the reason for a fighting butt on heavier fly rods for sure. Here are some of the nicer ones; biggest was 20" and 3# but most were ~18" - more pinkish than last year's catch. One even tried to eat Greg.

Kanoa Down - Cyrus Up 04Sep17

As I preped for a trip to the Gunnison Valley I stole time among fighting wasps from the camper, getting provisions and packing for goodness knows what. I found the game changer wireless earbuds (1st story here... https://gr8fish.blogspot.com/2017/02/game-changer-preorder-12feb17.html) won't be because they are dead... http://abc7news.com/shopping/san-francisco-headphones-startup-kanoa-shuts-down/2354772/

Moving on... those who know know I'm an unexpected Miley Cyrus fan. She's a spectacular contralto with mad skills. Sure there's times when one need wonder WTF - isn't there always for each of us. To me she's back with a great set of sounds preceding her next album drop. Always great live 'cause she can really sing - no autotuning here my brothers, unlike many pop divas. I'll score tix next opportunity.

Younger Now (@ MTA)

Malibu (@ Billboard)

Inspired (on Fallon)

Fishing Blue River North Of Town @ Canyon Section 03Sep17

No wind on Sunday AM meant find nearby uncrowded water for fishing in prep for PM sailing, or something. I hit the Blue River north of town at the Beaver Ck and Canyon section (just upstream from the BR CG). I've never done well on the downstream sections of the Blue and today was no exception. While a caught a number of smallish browns I only caught one good 'bow. I might've hand one other big one on but I landed this one on the gold quasimodo - it works! RS2 and other mayflies worked on browns - nothing came up to my hopper/indicator.

Ultralight On 10 Mile & Other Stuff 02Sep17

Awoke in Summit to the freakin' neighbor dog barkin' his ass off - hate that; I think they ignore him. After a house breakfast I headed to 10 Mile Ck for proximity and desire to lace up the 1 weight - so I hit Officers Gulch and downstream. Used a funky foam red ant up top and dropped quasimodo BHFBPT weight and then a variety of light mayfly emergers. I caught a passel of 9"-12" rainbows and browns on this section - any fly did it but the more fish and more rises the further downsteam from OG I hiked. Examples...

I needed to be back at B21 for a sail with Scott Kizer and our mate Christina. Super light winds today really. They enjoyed the ride and Scott served a suite of tasty mules.

Stalking A Brown On The Gore... And After 01Sep17

I dragged the E1 to Summit in prep for a trip to Gunnison Valley and Taylor Canyon. It's a bit shorter from up here but I wanted to leave from here anyway as I need sailing days and the weather looks perfect. Once I arrived I let out for Vail and another visit to the Gore... started at West Vail end of the road and after some small browns & bows there I went up to Dawg Park. There's a keen trough there deep in even low flows and I lost a big (17") brown who flashed and went upstream. I chased him to the riffles above the hole and hooked him again on a Skinny Nelson mayflay imitation. I love it when a plan works - nice. 

The aspens are starting to turn for real now - a shot above Gore Ck.

Afterward I hit Outer Range & Whole Amazon and happened upon Scott Kizer and a friend Christina and we shared stories for a bit... cool.