Late Summer In The Eagle's Nest Wilderness 16Sep21

After we had our DSL & Internet service restored ~ requiring a new pair be provisioned to the Nest (future pairs were left in the yard),

Kala & I headed out for leaf peeping and we recalled a massive aspen grove north of Silverthorne behind Green Mtn Rez in the Gore.It was a bit of a late start for the ~7 miler RT with 1600ft of vert, but we took it. We had views and elevation and very few folks as we wended up into the Eagles Nest Wild toward Eaglesmere Lk. What we didn't have is spectacular color in the "fall" aspens in this warmish valley from 8,800 to 10,400. We got some - but not a lot - of color. Undeterred we rocked this excellent trail to our objective and made it back to the Nest before nightfall ~ didn't even don the headlamps or puffies as we beat dusk.

 

Dog Days On The Blue & Underwear Test 17Sep21

We first let out for the Dillon Farmer's Mkt to assure purchase of plenty of the last round of peaches from Forte Farms in Palisade. Amazing - they are the best tasting freestones and now they are the size of grapefruit!

After dropping off 10# of these beauties, I headed to the Blue River below Green Mtn Rez. It was a gorgeous day with flows up a smidge - I thought. I checked in and flows were up to 400cfs - high but OK - I arrived and they were 500cfs after a big bump today - high and sketchy. I caught some small browns on the Silver Surfer (chosen due to flows and green hue) like that shown but else the fish were hiding from me and the flows. I didn't biff! I descended with the RFCO and it shot well, especially into some wind which came up this afternoon. I was fortunate to avail myself on canyon entry of a real mountaineering rope someone had thoughtfully replaced over the prior parachute cord bound to fail - thank you Jurassic mystery person.

Escaping Jurassic with few fish but myself and rig in tact I came upon Mr. Gomez, a high roofer working at Brown's Lodge. Serendipity perhaps but I engaged him and his partner to hoist the ladder high and walk the ridgeline to repair a few shingles on the west peak line of the roof. He did more than that and I escaped cheap and fixed. Golly - I used to do the steep pitched roofs but no more. Glad some boys scored big after hours on a quick job.

Fincognito vs Stance - Regular boxers tend to ride up in bed or in waders or hiking shorts. I've trialed some alternatives known generally as boxer briefs. Kala bought some for me originally and Matt wears these, and I began to appreciate the differences. I've compared multiple brands and materials now - hey, undies are important. The two best are Fincognito: fish art, 80% poly and nice performance. A keen alternative is Stance, with shorter inseam but 95% cotton composition and a nice pocket for my junk. These styles ride less, fit close and work admirably under outdoors gear. Plus, they are more stylish (as Superfly can attest), especially on my svelte frame :). I went with the Stance for comfort and material, though the inseams could be longer.

Fall CoWW Outing To Gunnison River Valley 07Sep21-12Sep21

Rob arrived on time Tue eve in COS after driving home from his annual dove hunt with Chris Labac & fam. He was a smidge wobbly but sharp witted from no work for a week already - and ready for another such experience with the CoWW. We hit Cerberus right off and then slept soundly before heading from Colo Spgs to Gunnison Co via Cottonwood pass. The car & gear were prepped & packed so we made good time to our first order of biz - assembling the team, having some nosh and establishing the Kokanee attack plan for our first afternoon. We got the separate-driving and newly anointed CoWW master member Andy Holley, who was toting Yoho, and new CoWW big bro Brown together at the 3 Rivers Smokehouse to discuss things.

Steve had arrived earlier and observed the confluence (of Taylor & East) area yielding Kokanee to a team of 4 fisherman. The Blue Mesa to Roaring Judy hatchery, on the East River, salmon run was on! We birthed the attack to hit the Confluence Hole ASAP. We tried to check in but were before allowed time so then donned the gear and headed to the Gunnison's start. There we met "The Hole Commander," a Marlboro-smoking, know-a-lot, salmon-snaggin', self-appointed, controller of the fishing spot. He was very willing to aggressively share his tactics but quickly disappointed if you strayed from them or didn't genuflect in his presence: I backed away immediately, never to return to position A. Unfortunately my mates bore some brunt from my lack of adherence to the Commander. Yet, the CoWW all did well at the Confluence Hole despite the instruction, or perhaps as a result of the instruction, led by master fisherman Andy Holley with many salmon and the El Chunker slab to his credit. Rob was soooo gentle with the soon-dead. What a blast for one keen aspect of our adventures yielding immediately ~ we even caught some trout.

We checked in to the nasty Old Kentucky Home #10 - it was right @ the confluence (ok Jim, on the Taylor), but with no lighting or little else. The only worse digs were Andy's. The hole was still packed with the "Commander's Kids" as we poured our 1st nasty ales of the evening. It was Holley's & Yohanan's night to cook and Andy's Hungarian paprikash was outstanding. He toted two Instapots to show off his mad skills and affluence. So good. Jim su-cheffed and made great side dishes, including his Pinot Noir choice. No pics are available from the apres-dinner  battle-royale on Jim's AR bluetooth speaker and the "name that song" game which ensued during the NFL kickoff game with Brady's amazing comeback, and more importantly Andy's stash of Buffalo Trace. Whew.

We awoke in Almont to just freezing temps but the forecast included a 50° swing - which was realized. We chose to hit the Taylor C&R tailwater on Day 1 (Day 0 being the salmon) AM for a little frustration with tiny flies cast to giant fish in this epic spot. There are no pics from the French Toast with Bourbon Palisades and sausage I made that morning, but no one complained. Thanks you su-chefs. We did "ok" on the C&R with a number of hookups on nymphs - I landed some like those shown below. We moved to the lower Taylor but did jack-shit; I don't fully understand as flows were fine but variables from prior outings include 1) a year seeing more CO tourism than ever, 2) a very hot streak of days, and 3) our mutual suckedness at fishing.

Back at the Almont Resort it was Dave's & Rob's night to make dinner. It's Coffin, so it's Asian - grilled Sichuan chix thighs and roasted mountain of veggies & noodles in garlic, lime, ginger, & cilantro on the skottle. Finding tongs from these cabins was an issue. We did serve an nice Anejo Hereadura Tequilla several times. No one wanted and again we partied all night.

Early worms evade the birds, so I slept in. It was time to hit the Gunnison proper - always fun in the fall - though the flows had recently fallen to pretty thin. Andy filled us up with stellar "eggs anyway you want 'em" and ham sliced & pan-fried nice. We hit Neversink & Cooper's Ranch this day - the #22 BWO hatch was very early, like 9am and we arrived at the tail end... grrr. We did OK but the fish were a smidge smaller than hoped... not a deterrent in these spectacular environs. I have to say it was hot, thin and not epic ~ except to be racing upstream and through the brush with/from my mates ~ "nice to not spend time with you Dave," I might've heard. The Gunny is very cool - cross the inner channel, or fish it if you wish, but the big guys are out in the wider water typically. The CoWW caught many fish; the bulk of the catch was @ hole drops after riffles but it was tricky. I switched to midges in purple or black zebras after the hatch was over. I frustratingly tried the keen BWO spinner fall dries sipped by plenty of trout - always a problem on my casts. I also strangely did nothing on stoneflies. Here are representative 15"-18" trout from the Gunny - others were smaller this day. We moved downstream to Cooper's Ranch but the heat of the day slowed the catch.

 

We wrapped at High Alpine Brewing - always awesome, as it was tonight again. And we were joined by ultimate CoWW DD and recruit CoWW MDB as well at Yoho's kid Mitch. The latter rode Hartman Rock before joining the enclave. Yeah, the kid MDB is a master fisherman without compare really and keen tyer for sure, with mad knowledge of CO rivers, in part due to his wicked social nature and guide-boy hang. I warned all of his competitive attitude with me ~ his arrival didn't disappoint ~ "total throw-down" would be my observation but we've known each other since "Mr Dave." I loved seeing him and especially his dad. After killing a passel of pints and tasty pizza we retired to contemplate the next move - yep, another Gunny outing... It's better water this season than Lake Fk or East or even lower Taylor. We convened at Territory Coffee for the fix and burros; Jim grabbed his stash. We relaunched at Neversink - "a brand new day" but without Andy who headed back for stuff in COS; of course he caught good fish along the way. We crossed the inner channel NP - what I now respect is the tradition of "walking beer" ~  which is awesome.

Rob enjoyed the company of master fisherman Matt even suggesting "you should always net my fish" - yeah, they were close and netted many. Bro Brown caught a number of Browns and DD netted a number of fish. Everyone was catching fish this day on the Gunny, mostly on #22 mayfly nymphs but I did land the alpha in the hole and likely the big fish of the day, a slab of 19+" rainbow, on an ObiJuan worm. Good day again on the Gunny, despite the heat and lower flows.

We convened for dinner at the steakhouse in Gunny, which was good; we enjoyed a number of local Irwin brews there too.

Before heading back to COS some of us went again to fish Neversink and while we hooked up and caught some it was not as good as the prior two days. Jim & Mitch rode again at Hartman Rock. Another good CoWW outing closed. Thanks all for coming.

UPDATE 15Sep21 - Really a post-script... I toted the Rodfather Colorado all week in the Gunny basin and it performed admirably but is noticeably heavier than other 5wts from Sage I've used and those from CoWWs at the event. It's a strong canon and not too heavy, and fun as heck, but it is not a light one.

Plus notable for this update is that SuperFly Haine is 51 this day.