Sunday, February 27, 2011

The Lost Posts pt.1

Well, it's been a long long time, since i've made a post. I know most of my original followers have hopped off the Ty Hughes Bandwagon, but rest assure I'll always be fishing. This fall has been rough to say the least, 6 classes and 6 days a week of football has left me beyond tired. Then, right after midterm, I got a bad concussion, and I've been out for 3 months, missing all of basketball season and falling behind in school. Luckily, I've now caught up with all my work, and I feel almost back to normal. After studying all weekend for my exams, my friend, who runs flybible.blogspot.com (check it out, he posts a lot more than me too), encouraged me to make another post so I don't lose all my followers. So here is the first half of the lost posts.

Colorado

Colorado is like California's younger brother. It has the fruits and the nuts, abundant cannabis shops, double rainbows (yes, i saw a double rainbow) but more interesting to me, the fishing is excellent. Back in Janurary of 2010, my dad made a steal on a condo in Telluride, deciding that it would be a great family trip, which it was. We went out a few times, fishing the San Miguel, the Uncompahgre and some rivers in the Rocky Mountain national park near Denver. The San Miguel, which is still recovering from mining effects, had a healthy population of wild fish. Before, I fished the miguel, I thought that there was no difference between wild and stocked fish, but after that first Miguel bow, my mind immeaditely changed. The fish weren't huge, but they fought against the heavy currents as if they were twice as big.

Here's some pics from the Miguel






The Uncompahgre was my favorite of all, mostly because there were some monster fish, browns and bows. It was a wide, shallow, clear river, so the fish were literally stuck to structure. I remember when I lost focus and drifted under a submerged branch, I thought I got snagged up to the branch. So i tried to break off my fly, and to my surprise, the angry bow shot up stream with my fly. I also won't remember this one monster rainbow. It was at least a 20 inch bow jumping out completely out of the water for the dry. Doing my best impersonation of mike pawalski, I missed the strike like a bum.

Here's some pics of the fish i didn't lose.

And I'm mugging, because i love brown trout, so don't come at me sideways.


The Rocky Mountain national park reminded me of Yellowstone. Like yellowstone, there were some rivers in the dense forests, and difficult spring creeks flowing through open plains. According to Orvis fishing reports, it was supposed to be red hot, but the only red hot thing was my face when i realized that the fishing was not red hot. I was expecting the fish to be going Ichiro Suzuki and hitting everything, but this was not the case. The one image in my mind that goes along with that 20 inch bow that i missed, is this one spring creek monster brown. He was right in the shadow of the undercut, big kype and just completely b.m.f. looking. I was throwing a sz. 16 slate colored parachute adams. I must have put 10 perfect casts over him, and he finally ate. I set the hook, he rolled, and the 7x broke. He would've made a hell of a picture.

No fish worthy pictures, just a beautiful landscape shot


All around, colorado was a good spot, for a family destination, and for some nice fishing. Lost Posts part 2 is coming soon, it'll be my opinions on swinging vs nymphing for steelhead.



shout out to m and m, you're the best