Fish, Feathers, Foam, Fur, Plastic and Steel. Dreams, Goals, Desires, Obsession and Hope.
Entertainment from the water and tying bench with a little bit of Red Sox thrown in.
We have reached the tipping point between night and day. A winter solstice for 2012 is finally here. There were plans for wetting a line today, but high winds and downpours gives solitude and reflection a seat at the table.
2012 has been an interesting year. High school to college transition for our son, Matt, a spirited election and a world facing many economic, social and environmental challenges. Where to go from here?
As long as the rivers flow, I know where my direction will be.
As we look forward to more day than night, we wish all hope for a prosperous new year and tug with every cast.
Thanks so much for your continued support and following. I will close with some holiday cheer from Matt's Troutdoors Productions.
When I was a kid going on vacation, my dad would take hundreds of pictures with his Nikon cameras on Kodak Ektachrome film and create engaging, music synchronized slide shows with multiple projectors. He would spend weeks putting these shows together and finally, on that special night, we would file down to the finished basement, take a seat at the bar, grab a Coke and some popcorn, dim the lights and the show would begin. For the next twenty minutes, we would relive every waking moment of our vacation through the eyes of my father and his Nikon cameras.
While the slideshow would sometimes drag on, I fondly look back at these special family moments of gathering as a simple way to be together, to enjoy each other and laugh about the memories captured on film from our recent vacation.
Four months have passed since our wonderful Colorado vacation in and around Rocky Mountain National Park. In true spirit of the classic vacation slide show, my son and his friend have put together a great video recapping all the highlights of our trip.
Grab a Coke and some popcorn, pull up a seat at the bar, dim the lights and enjoy....
Special thanks to Flies & Fins for the soundtrack.
I was fortunate to extend a business trip to Denver in August of 2010 and got hooked up, through a friend, with a seasoned fly fisher who lived in Boulder, CO. He was gracious, like all fly fishers, to put me on his local secret stream on Friday evening and then take me to Rocky Mountain National Park on Saturday to fish the Big Thompson. He left after lunch and sent me to Dream Lake to chase greenback cuts.
Fish were landed at all spots on that trip and the decision was made to bring the family to Colorado for our first family vacation outside of New England in 2011.
-- One of the millions of Elk in RMNP --
We started early in the day since the trip required a traverse of the park over Trail Ridge Road. What a beautiful road with a plethora of wildlife. Elk, moose, deer, marmots, pika , coyote and even big horn sheep where spotted during the trip across North America's highest continuous motorway, with more than eight miles lying above 11,000' and a maximum elevation of 12,183'. During this first week of July, there was still a good amount of snow as well.
-- Lots of snow on the trail --
We arrived at the Bear Lake trailhead around 9 AM and started the easy trek up to Dream Lake. We had plans to fish Dream Lake until lunch and then continue up to Lake Haiyaha after lunch, but the snow pack and weather changed these plans.
There were many others throwing their lines in the lake and the spot where I had luck last year was being fished by three others. A hike through the snow and steep banks to the back side of the lake brought some solitude to cast to cruising greenbacks with dries and nymphs. They occasionally looked at the flies, but none were taking.
-- My better half casting to cruising greenbacks --
I watched my wife across the lake land her second trout on the fly and first greenback with a Goddard caddis (her first trout on the fly was reported in the previous post and also caught with Goddard caddis - flies tied in prep for our trip).
-- Michael's first greenback --
I decided to hike back around the lake, have some lunch and try my luck on the other side. My son and his friend both got into their first greenbacks and I was the only one yet to land one that day.
-- Matt, my son, lands his first greenback --
-- Cruising greenback --
A spot was picked, the cruising fish saw the size 18 parachute adams and I had my first take but no hookup. As I waited patiently for the cruisers to return it started to rain. As the rain got harder, I climbed back up the steep rocky bank to seek shelter and tie on a different fly. Another fisherman, decided to take this spot as soon as it was vacated, so another location was found as the rain lightened.
-- Greenback cutthroat from Dream Lake --
After a couple of casts with the new fly, I finally brought a greenback to hand. I stayed in that area as a big thunderstorm started to roll in and landed a second. The lighting and thunder was fierce and we found some cover to wait out the storm.
-- Thunderstorm I --
-- Thunderstorm II which inspired us to pack-up and leave --
-- Happy Campers heading down the trail --
After dealing with two intense storms, we decided to pack it in and head back to the car. We all had success at Dream Lake, with the boys and my wife catching their first greenbacks. The trip back included a stop for pizza in Estes Park and then the trek back across the Continental Divide to Grand Lake.
Before I close this post, our prayers go out to a Fly Fishing in NH board member and dedicated conservationist and fly fisher -- Otter. He is struggling with cancer and put up a farewell post this week. I've never met Otter but have been frequently moved by his posts over the years and know he is a wise and very kind soul.
We also would like to wish fellow blogger, Brk Trt, of Small Stream Reflections a speedy recovery from his minor stroke. Get well soon, Alan.
And finally, please pray for the safety and quick recovery of those hit hard by Irene. Our friends to the north in Vermont, were particularly hard hit with flooding and washed out bridges.
Thanks for listening and hopefully I can pick up the pace with some more summer fishing stories.
... we will catch fish! At least half of this is true. We planned this trip back in March before the Rockies received record spring snowfall. We landed at Denver International with spring runoff on the rivers at record highs, but we are making lemonade out of lemons.
Our first full day hike and fish was up to Onahu Creek in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). With all the rivers and streams totally blown out at lower elevations, we took the advice of Steve Schweitzer (author of "A Fly Fishing Guide to RMNP") to hike as high as possible and fish the streams and lakes.
In addition to exploring RMNP, we planned to fish the Colorado, the Williams Fork, the Cache La Poudre, the Fraser and area tribs near Grand Lake so the high water kept our options limited actually allowed us to focus on a couple of fishing destinations from an overwhelming number of quality opportunities in the area.
-- Onahu Creek Trailhead --
The hike to the first meadows of Onahu Creek was about 3 miles from 8,700 to 9,500 feet above sea level. While the creek was following fast, the water was gin clear and there were pockets & pools which held some brookies.
-- High, but fishable flows at 9,500 ft --
We have some beautiful mountain streams in New Hampshire and Maine, but nothing like vast open meadows close to two miles above sea level like what we discovered in RMNP.
We all started throwing Parachute Adams, BWOs and PMDs. We had some takes, but the fishing was slow.
-- Moose mom with calf --
As I was switching to an olive slumpbuster, picked up at Charlie's Fly Box on our drive from the airport to the mountains, a moose mom with calf startled me, but they keep feeding while mostly ignoring me.
It was really easy to swing the streamer in the fast flows, but finding just the right current and area which would hold fish was a challenge.
-- A patient, stealth approach to a small pool --
-- Fat, little brookie fooled by Parachute Adams --
My son's friend landed the first brookie of the day by patiently flipping a dry into a large still pool off the main flow of the stream. He worked the pool for about 30 minutes waiting between casts for the small brookies to start rising after each cast.
-- Tiny brookie landed with swung Olive Slumpbuster --
I was working the top of the meadow swinging the slumpbuster through varying flows and depths. I landed a smaller brookie in a shallow slow flow and had a another take in a another riffle a few minutes later.
While not a stellar fishing day, we were blessed with the beauty of the Rockies and perfect weather.
This is the first post from our Colorado experience during the first week of July. We had good days on the water with lots of adventure and stories to tell.
I'll do my best to capture these experiences, in no particular order, over the next couple of weeks.
