Floating the Misty

I have a couple friends who call the float below Green Mountain Reservoir to Kremmling, the Misty, instead of the famed "Jurassic Park." Its called the Misty because many times the temperature inversions in the canyon section will make it Misty.

I got the chance to float the Misty on Saturday, and it was quite an experience. The highlights of the day included everyone in the boat landing a fish over 20 inches on a hopper.

We started nymphing more as we got into the Ranch section. The water was a bit murky but I noticed a very large fish sitting on the bottom about ten yards after one of the manmade rock weirs. The fish took one of my nymphs and bolted up stream, and since we couldn't anchor or pull over we did our best to fight the 880 cfs. I saw the fish turn and surface and estimated it based on fish I have seen and caught on the Taylor to be about 15+ lbs and somewhere between 28''-30'' The fish took me to the backing of Matt's Scott fighting butt 6 weight in under 30 seconds, I was forced to horse him a bit with fear of losing Matt's flyline. I was able to gain back half the flyline until the fish got out of the fast current, and headed up right under the undercut bank and took me back to the end of the backing. Matt told me to hold on to the backing so we didn't lose the line, and I had to pop the fish off!

The most amazing thing was that I never felt I had any control over the fish, and the fish kicked my butt on a 6 weight. Jurassic Park.

It was an amazing float, and with the leaves changing, that river is breathtaking.

Below are a couple random photos from fishing yesterday.

Red Quill

I'm hoping this 26'' Brown died of Natural Causes, and not the laziness of lack of resuscitation, or the ignorance of playing the fish too long.