Labor Day Camping Trip 2010

For the second year in a row I went camping into the mountains over the Labor Day weekend. This year I took my trusty companion...



For Saturday, we took the boat out and had some luck with standard tackle, but I was unable to entice any fish with my fly rod. Then my boat motor decided to start acting up, and I couldn't get it started the rest of the weekend. So unfortunately, we were out of the boat by noon that morning as the wind was picking up above and beyond what the trolling motor can safely handle.

Later that evening, we did some shore fishing and managed to catch another 3 fish using standard tackle. The fish in the lake just love the wind!!

On Sunday, with the boat out of the commission, I decided to hike into the back country and fish around the Roaring Fork Creek area.

Here is a picture of the lake...


Additionally, since my wife hasn't been able to make this hike yet, I took a picture of the Cirque towers off in the distance.


From there, the dog and I made progress along the creek to find some fishing. Earlier this year there were reports of excellent grayling fishing at the lake. I didn't try the lake, as it just was so windy out in the open.

Eventually during our hike and fishing a few riffles, we came across this massive log jam.


From the pool in front of this jam, I pulled out a couple of brookies.


Eventually we continued on downstream until we made our way to my honey hole from last year. The creek treated it well... Several fish can be seen in this photo of the hole.


This hole has a unique situation that requires you to be sitting down to effectively cast in it. You can use roll casts or side arm casts, but that's it. Trees are all around. Any time the sun was covered the fish would readily move into the feeding lanes. When it came out, some of them would go into the rocks.

This first guy I caught, was actually caught while I was still pulling line out of the fly rod. I dipped it into a slack area over a deeper area thinking that no fish would approach it. Welll, I was wrong! Next thing I know I pulled out this little guy.


I continued to fish the hole, pulling out one fish after another, just working my way through them. Eventually I hooked this little guy who decided that my fly looked like a caddis moth surfacing and jumped clean out of the water to snag my fly.


Certainly not the biggest guy out there, but certainly one of my most memorable takes.

Overall for the day, roughly 10 fish brought to hand during my hike. Over the entire weekend about 20 fish brought to hand, and a half dozen LDR's.

Best of all, I found that our dog, Clouie handles the boat well, and loves to hike with me into the countryside. I'm sure she spooked a few fish as she snagged a drink in the water or approached the shoreline. (She gets very curious about rise forms from the fish).

The trip was a great weekend.

Cya,
Paul

Fishing the Little Popo Agie River

This morning I headed up into the mountains to do some serious fly fishing on some areas that I am familiar with. While I haven't fished the Little Popo before, I've fished its cousin the Middle, and several other streams in the area.


Today, I decided was the day that I am going to fish only my flies until I catch something with a fly I have tied myself. Well it paid off. Fishing for about 5 minutes, I caught my first fish of the day on an Elk Hair Caddis.





I clipped off the fly to save as a memory, and tied on another fly of my own, a Light Cahil. A short time later, I caught a small brookie no bigger than my hand. As the day went on, all brookies were very small.


After a while some weather moved in, bringing thunder and lightning with it. So I went back to the truck for about 45 minutes.








Finally I came across a fly that I believe bdesavage created in one of the monthly swaps. It has antron for a face forward wing, and a furled off hook tail with some hackle as well. The fish loved it for a while on the surface. I let the slime stay on it, and it soon became a sinking fly. That seemed to work just as well. I would cast it into the lane, and let it slowly sink. If the fish ignored it, I'd give it a quick strip to get the fish to notice it. If they noticed it, I'd give it a couple of small strips to keep them enticed, then all I had to do was hang on when they'd take the fly.










Overall, a total of 6 rainbows, and 2 brook trout were brought to hand. I saw several larger fish resting on the bottom. I plan on going back with some streamers in the near future.

Cya,
Paul