A few days off

In the last week I was able to get a few days on the river during the week, first time since the end of May. I spent two days on the Blue River and a couple of days on the Taylor, so that I could watch a chunk of the colorado bike race.  Tomorrow I am going to head up to Saratoga, Wyoming to float the North Platte, before getting back to the work-grindstone on the 1st of Sept.

The above picture was a 7.25 pound 23 incher on the Blue. It took a green drake nymph, and put on a typical lower blue aerial display. Because many of the bigger fish in the blue migrate from private property, they fight like they have never been hooked before. Overall the fishing was very slow, but a 7+ pounder on public water always makes it worth it.

Here is a picture of another fish on the Blue in the "recovery room." The lower Blue is not a good place to try to sight fish. The glare, and freestone bottom makes seeing fish almost impossible. But if you know where fish stack up, you can be in business. I ran into another fisherman, who had been kicked off the water for fishing on the wrong side of the river (not purposefully I believe), and made two pretty accurate quotes about fishing the Blue. The first, "that's just typical Blue River Bullshit." The second was in response to me telling him how the fishing was good one day and slow the next. He responds by saying, "That's the Blue... every time I fish the Blue I tell myself it will be my last." The Blue can be very hit or miss. I have had my best big fish day ever on the Blue, and have been skunked more there, than any other river.

Columbian rider descends Cottonwood Pass at 60 mph in the Pro cycling Challenge

I left Colorado Springs at 10:30 pm to get over to the Taylor so that I could fish and watch the cyclists climb through Taylor Canyon. The Cottonwood Pass had been closed about midday, and I didn't want to waste my time and drive all the way to Gunnison, so Google Maps told me about a route over Tincup Pass. Well at 230 a.m. I was at the summit of Tincup pass (12500 feet in elevation) standing in front of a sign telling me, "No Motorized vehicles past this point." Well the Pass in basically a brutal boulder filled Jeep Road. That route isn't possible, and won't save time! So I slept at the top of the pass in my car and backtracked to Buena Vista in the morning, watched the race from half way up cottonwood, and at 1 pm headed to the Taylor.

Here is a picture of the jeep road on tin cup pass borrowed from http://marmotpress.org/hancockTincup.html don't take your honda civic up here.

The rainy weather produced the best baetis hatch I have ever seen on the Taylor, with fish rising all day. The fishing was very productive, but I saw very few rainbows, and the biggest one I saw was around 22-25'' and was very spooky. I fished the next day as well, with massive pmd and caddis activity, no drakes. I had found the spooky bow again, and after spooking him a couple times got him to take a mysis pattern. Definitely nice to catch the biggest fish I saw in the system, but a bummer that no other fish had moved down with the lower flows.

25" hen took me two days to get a take.

The dry fly fishing at the Taylor has been awesome, if you get a chance to fish it before it gets cold again, go for it!!