Doing my part

I managed to net this super nice rainbow tonight. This was definitely the nicest fish of the evening. Note the trippy forceps laying on shore.

This was actually the last of 3 Northern's I scooped up tonight. These things are taking over. The first one I caught didn't even have enough meat on his bones for a Ritz cracker and much to the dismay of the Department of Wildlife....I let him go b/c killing anything is SOOOOO hard for me. I did not get a pic of the second one but he was bigger but still not worth the effort of carving up. Then this guy was fooled by my flawless presentation and I said to myself, "Self...there's too many damn Pike in this water and if they get big enough they will eat the beloved trout". So....I cut this guy's head clean off with the precision of a damn butcher.......while closing my eyes and yelling loud enough to get the attention of some other dudes that were pretty far away. When I realized they were looking at me I tried to redeem myself by asking if they wanted some. They shook their heads no and they were NOT doing so in dismay. I realize that there is a spinning rod in this picture and.........it is mine. I brought it along on this trip and was glad I did when I got to the water because the wind was silly.

This is the first little Pike I caught. He was ballsy as evidenced by the spoon to head size ratio.

Out here we sometimes like to try to score a trifecta when we head to the water. The Pike and this fish DO NOT constitute any part of that. Normally it's the Brown, Rainbow and then the Cutt. Tonight I shoehorned in a Sucker. I think.....no.......I know.......that I catch more of these little bastards than anyone else. Too bad they're such a trash fish. I did actually let this one go. In this water....the Pike is far more troublesome.

Watching the sun dip down below the Divide NEVER gets old. I will miss it dearly. What a great night. Wish I could have shared it with someone. I've been solo all weekend because my normal companion is kickin' it on the Jersey Shore right now. I don't think he's even doing the Striper thing. I wonder if he's doing the stripper thing though.

Today I fished Spinney Ranch. There weren't many dudes there but I think it's been fishing pretty tough lately so it's no surprise to me. This weekend I started at the barns and there weren't many skeeters to speak of. Flows still suck at 151cfs and what few fish are in the area are hunkered down in the deeper pools and pretty spooky. This is the first hole I decided to start at. While I looked into the middle I saw a dinner plate sized flash almost immediately. I pulled 2 browns out but not the one I was looking for and moved on.

Much of the river looks like this right now with long stretches that are ridiculously thick with grass. It's very frustrating when you need to get down to the bottom quick but not too quick that your junk gets hung up in the weeds or else you have to clean your rig after each drift. I caught 6 or 8 browns but nothing big. I had 2 or 3 break off and the last one felt like it had a bit of size to it but still not what I was looking for. I think I'm back to being a snob.

I walked the river all the way up to the spillway but just didn't see anything that was making me stop in my tracks. On the way back downstream I decided to stop here and eat some lunch and drink a beer. The far side of the bank and just to the right of the fence is where I asked Heather to marry me. There were salmon by the trailer load in the river that year. Haven't seen it like that since. Damn gill lice wiped em out.

Shortly after this portrait was taken, I fell asleep. I already no where I'm going tomorrow night.

In my next life....

I would love to be a brown trout. They are so beautiful. It's like a stick of butter with spots on it. I probably had a dozen of these little guys tonight and almost all of them took a #18 flashback pheasant tail. These guys are pretty hearty and are ready to go immediately after you get em in your hand but my favorite moment is still when you slip them back in the water and they glide away.

Therapy

After another shitty day at work, I decided to go fishing since nothing really calms my nerves like being on the water. The trophy sections of the Platte have really been tough here lately so I decided to go into Eleven Mile Canyon and leave the snobbery at home. I bet I haven't been back there in 3 years. When we first moved out here I fished almost every evening cuz it's so close to home. Typically the fish aren't all that big in there (which is why I don't hit it much) but it's a section of the river that has a lot of pocket water presented by the boulders. It also has a large number of smaller fish and a lot of browns which are probably my favorite trout.

The first three pics are actually several miles outside of the canyon as the river starts to wind it's way through some more meadows.

This is where I spent most of my time actually in the canyon.

Oh SNAP!!

Snow already??

This was actually taken about a week ago I guess when a nasty little storm rolled through and dumped some snow not too much higher up than where we're at.

Still around

No need to start the school year off slowly. Let' just get right after it. I can't believe how busy it's been. Unfortunately...I can't go into detail as it is classified. What I can go into detail about is last weekends adventure.

My buddy Scott came over Saturday night and we did a nice 4 hour night ride on a section of Ring the Peak. Then we got up on Sunday and headed to the South Platte for a little fishing. No sooner than we arrived at the waters edge did we start getting eaten alive by skeeters. I've never seen them this bad. Neither of us had any bug spray b/c we've never needed it up there. It was so bad that even when we saw a nice fish (which was rare by the way) we couldn't even work it b/c we were too busy swatting those little vampires. When I would smack my arm I'd kill 4-5 of those little buggers. All this week I'm scratching. The bites on the knuckles and between the fingers are brutal. As are the ones on my bald head. We finally had to bale and head to Hartsel to get some spray.

This is a stretch of the Platte as it meanders through the fields above Spinney Reservoir. This is skinny water but in some areas there are DEEP undercuts along the banks and I've actually pulled out some browns in the 12-14" range. Super fun.

Super green up there with all the rain this summer.

No shortage of Mayflies either. Too bad there were no trout feeding on the surface.

This is along the Dream Stream section of the Platte as it flows between Spinney and Eleven Mile Reservoirs. Gorgeous flowers that were over waist high.

There were about a dozen horses hanging in the parking lot but no jackasses this time. This is a standard horse and then there's a Shetland behind it. I think the micro one was a Shetland Pony.....pony. Cute little guy though.