Colorado Madness Tour Story

**AaronJasper** · 04-24-2007, 12:19 PM

i though i would put this up here for you guys to read about the journey of alex and i in colorado. lost of good times and new memories. enjoy!!!

The Colorado Madness tour began at 9 pm at Denver airport when we arrived. We walked outside the airport and felt the wind and the cold. We got our rental car and we were on our way. Ten minutes from that airport we ran into solid traffic. There was a terrible ice storm hitting Central Colorado. It took us three hours and a few rest stops to reach our room for the night. The ice was so bad that we nearly broke our necks getting out of the car.

We woke up a four thirty the next day to fifteen-degree air temps. We took the hour-long drive to the famed “Dream Stream” section of the South Platte River. We arrived at the parking lot and to our amazement no one was there. We looked off the bridge and saw a monster trout staring right at us. We thought we were going to have a day for kings… soon I realized that I was mistaken. I fished for the next hour with not even a nibble. I looked around and saw thousands of footprints in the mud. I thought to myself,” if I were a trout what would I do?” I would hide. I looked at the next shallow riffle and looked for tiny depressions. I re-rigged up my line with an egg pattern… there is tons of loose spawning gravel there. First cast… wham! I landed a beautiful eighteen and a half inch rainbow! I took two more fish out of the same riffle within the next half hour. Over the next four hours I landed a dozen more fish before breaking for lunch.

After lunch we decided to try the 11 Mile Canyon stretch of the South Platte River. We arrived at the river and immediately saw thousands of trout in the water. We were the in perfect timing for the daily midge and blue winged olive hatches. There was a feeding frenzy going on. It is needless to say that this is a feel good spot for when the fickle waters of the “Dream Stream” kicks your butt. We caught trout after trout for the next three hours. The only thing better than the catching was the spectacular scenery in the Canyon. Alex compares this stretch to the Connetquot of Long Island, only prettier. He goes on to say that this is the most beautiful stretch of river that he has fished in his entire lifetime! I must agree the scenery is unparalleled!

After getting bored of reeling in fish I headed back to the “Dream Stream”. I went back to the riffle where I started and there it was… Jaws! First cast the trout hits. It was at least a two-foot rainbow that was too tough for me. It took off into the depths of the pool below to not be seen again.

There were a few more trout on that same gravel that I did catch. I landed five more fish and the highlight was a nineteen and a half inch Cutthroat. I noticed that there was a ton of spawning activity right before dark.

That same day we drove out to Buena Vista and spent the night in a dive! We woke up the next morning gathered our belongings and headed to Gunnison. From Gunnison we headed up the Taylor River Gorge to the “Hog Trough”. This river is a sight to behold. There are numerous trout over ten pounds with some even bigger ones thrown in for good measure!

When we arrived at the Taylor River we saw all of the giant rainbow trout that we have heard about. They were everywhere and in some truly impossible lies as well. We saw one trout that was all of fifteen pounds sitting in front of a rock in six feet of water. I had idea on how to catch that one. We found many nice sized fish in shallow water and were able to catch these fish by sight fishing to them. The trout were all over our egg patterns, RS2’s and midge larvae. What was surprising to me was the sizes of the flies you needed. Rather than fishing the size 22’s that we heard about, our best luck was on flies that were a size 16. we had two enjoyable days fishing there. One day was exceptional. I landed 6 trout over 6 pounds and about 25 or so other smaller fish ranging from 15 to 20 inches. There were many times that day that I had to sit down and take it all in. It was one of my most memorable days of trout fishing in my entire life.

After fishing the Taylor for a day and a half we drove over to the Gunnison River. At the Gunnison River we met Roger. He is an awesome guy with a passion for fly fishing and catching trout. I fished with Roger for a few hours on the Gunnison. We caught some really nice trout there on rubber legged stone flies. This was very welcomed after performing “brain surgery” on the trout of that Taylor. This is one fishery that I would like to experience out of a boat and the next time I visit Colorado I will be sure to do that!

After fishing that Taylor for a day and a half it was off to the Frying Pan River in Basalt. We had the most amazing drive through what could truly be called “God’s Country”. The drive was treacherous, just ask Alex about the white knuckle drive. It was one of the most amazing drives I have ever done. The scenery there rivals that of Alaska.

When we arrived in Basalt, with some help from Riley. We reached the Taylor Creek Fly Shop. They are an awesome bunch of guys and are eager to help fellow fly fisherman by pointing them in the right direction on the “Pan” and other nearby streams.

When we arrived at the river we found a guide and clients in the spot that we wanted to fish. The guide was nice enough to tell us to wait for a half hour and be ready to “ catch lots of trout”. That was what Alex and I wanted to hear. We drove five hours and all we had was trout on our brains. He told us to put on tons of split shot and two mysis shrimp patters.

The guide left the spot to us and we started fishing. it was trout on every cast. We didn’t catch any of the giant trout that we had heard about. However we caught some trout that were in excess of five pounds which is nothing to be embarrassed about. The trout were beautiful and full of fight. Although the dam can spoil some of the scenery it does not take away from the experience. many times the sound of the running water was soothing and provided us with relaxation from the fast paced fishing.

I ventured down from the dam for a few hours on the second day and found tons of trout down there as well. After catching many trout I ventured back to the dam in order to try my hands at catching a larger fish. When I got to the dam there were several larger trout feeding in the tail out of the toilet bowl. I was able to strike indicator nymph and catch at least a half dozen nice browns that were over the 20-inch mark.

At the end of the second day I met Mitch. What a great man! He took us to some of his private water on the Roaring Fork River near Carbondale. Alex and I rigged up and enjoyed this awesome freestone river for the last hour and a half of the day. We caught over a dozen trout combined. All of the fish were between 12 and 16 inches. What an awesome fishery! I wish we could have spent more time there.

The next to last day of our trip was spent gallivanting all over the state of Colorado. We started off at the Frying Pan but the cut the water flow from the dam in half, so the fishing suffered as well. We got a tip from Mitch about a tributary of the Colorado River that had spawning rainbows in it. Alex and I jumped at the opportunity to go there. When we arrived we immediately started catching rainbows. They all were feisty and were between 15 and 18 inches. The fish were eager to take our glo bugs and san juan worms.

I ventured down to the mouth of the creek where it ends its journey at the Colorado River. Where the clear water met the muddy roaring water of the Colorado I was able to catch several nice trout. These trout of the Colorado were tough. They would run out to the middle of the river and use the current to their advantage making them tough to bring to the net. When I go back to the Colorado I will be sure to be fishing it out of the drift boat. Its trout reminded me of my favorite river of all the West Branch of the Delaware.

On the way to out next stop we took a look off a bridge into Canyon Creek. There we saw almost a thousand rainbow trout that were getting ready to spawn. It was like staring into a fishbowl! I wish I could have thrown a line in there! It would have been game over!
It was a site to see all of those trout protected from the spoils of humans. These were some true hogs in there that were well over two feet in length.

We needed to get to the town of Frisco to meet Roger and his friends. We hoped on I70 and began driving east. I needed one last fix of trout for the day. What do you know, the Blue River was right on our way. We got to the river with about an hour and a half of day light left. We quickly rigged up and hit the water. We both caught fish with the biggest one being a 17-inch mysis fed rainbow trout. The best part was that we were there all alone. I have heard stories about people smelling the asbestos of the brakes pads of the trucks coming down Aspen Pass. You really need to be there to smell it and take it all in.
Also if you lost your luggage there are enough high-end clothing stores to make you lose all of your money as well. There is the largest set of outlet shops that I have ever seen.

The most memorable part of the day was getting the rental car stuck in the mud. We couldn’t get out for five minutes! I was jamming the car from forwards to reverse. The mud was everywhere. The car was covered with a half inch of the thickest mud that I have ever seen. I would not be the person cleaning the car. It was so funny that the both of us could not stop laughing about it for the rest of the trip. This is a reason that you go on trips like this. These are the memories that you take with you.

The last day was spent freezing on Spinney Mountain Reservoir. We were fishing with Roger and “crew”. Even though the weather was freezing and windy, the excellent company that I had made for some great fishing. The day was filled with multiple rainbow trout caught by everyone in the group. At times we were fishing in blizzard like conditions. Eventually after fishing for over six hours in these conditions Alex and I decided to call it a day and head back to Denver to rest and prepare for our trip back home to reality.

This was a great trip and some awesome new memories were made not only on film and video but also in the minds of Alex and I. Colorado has some awesome fisheries and I am sure that those trout on the Taylor might get a beating from me again in the not too distant future! So 1,350 miles later we found ourselves getting back on the plane and headed for New York. With all of the miles that we put on the rental car we could have driven one way to Colorado.

**Troutfishing4life** · 04-25-2007, 11:12 AM

Aaron
great story from CO and I can't wait to go back and fish I'm going in August at the end of the month
When i went last year my biggest trout was 17 inches and it was a brown on the CO river most fish were on a wd40 nymph size 20 and a madam X size 10 it was a great dry fly and in the CO river we fished with grass hopper size 6 and I missed a few 20 inch fish on that fly and also with the big ant and a matching a hatch on the river and i think the hatch were trico's size 18 and i lost a few fish because we had to fish barbless hooks. The hotel i was at was the Riz Carlton in Beaver Creek and the guide company was the Gore Creek Flyfisherman. Most of the fishing was done in the Vail area.

Mike