9 days in Colorado

[golferjeff]

My wife, dog, and I just returned from a very needed 9 day vacation throughout western and southern Colorado.  Lots of fish were caught (168 total), lots of pictures taken, and lots of miles put on the car (2,247).  I could sit and write a book about it, but I will try and hit the highlights for the BBMB crew.  This can be Grant's send-off back to the Virginia backwaters.

Friday, September 1st - 12 hour drive to South Fork, CO began with a bit of hesitation due to the gas crisis in DFW.  Several locations were completely out of gas.  After a brief textathon with Turfdawg, we decided to give it a go.  No gas anywhere until we hit Gainesville, TX.  Filled up there and pointed the car northwest to Amarillo and beyond.  We arrived in South Fork by about 4pm.  By 5 I had a line on the water.  I hit the evening hatch on the South Fork Rio Grande below Big Meadows Reservoir.  The water was low, warm, and dirty, but a few fish managed to hook themselves.    This is a nice Brown that took my Orange stimmy.  Most of the upper river was unfishable due to low flows.  But it got the trip started on a good note.  Our cabin in South Fork was quite nice, so an evening under the stars with a Cigar, a Gumption, and treats for Magick was in order.  That would be a recurring theme throughout the vacation.  Fish:3, cigars:1, miles driven:755, water bodies fished: 1

Saturday September 2nd. - Upon a tip from roberthunter, I fished the creeks leading up to Poage Lake.  Poage Lake is a rehab project for sustaining Rio Grande Cutthroats.  They also have some BIG Brookies.  On the way up and back, I also fished and caught fish in Park Creek, Pass Creek, Beaver Creek, and the South Fork Rio.  Poage was a bit difficult to fish from shore, but I gave it a shot.  I could see 20" Brookies and Cutties cruising, but they were hard to fool. I managed a small Rio Grande on a damsel nymph dropper, but the big boys eluded me.  Janet and Magick had fun hiking the shorelines and conversing with other visitors.  Here is a pretty good pic of Poage .  The evening hatch of damsels was good, but occurred about 70-100 feet offshore.  My double haul didn't suffice.  The water at this 11,200' elevation lake was just below 50 degrees and crystal clear.  We headed down the mountain just as darkness fell and fish started feeding closer to shore (Dang it!).  Fish: 17, water bodies fished: 5, species caught: Rio Grande Cutthroat, Rainbow, Browns, cuttbow.  Species missed: Brook Trout, CuttyRainBrown.

Sunday, September 3rd. - Janet was with me most of the day.  Magick was with me all day.  I went back to Poage, caught a rainbow and lost a big cuttie because I forgot to pack in a net.  Wildlife was everywhere in the morning.  Elk, Gray Jays, Eagles, Marmots, squirrels, and deer.  Magick chased all but the elk and the eagles.  Janet and I hit the Rio Grande in the afternoon.  We fished at Coller SWA just downstream of Wagon Wheel Gap.  In between afternoon rain showers, we managed to catch some fish.  Janet even landed a good Rio Grande Brown on her own, without a net.  I caught a few here and there, but I was happy to see her enjoying the big western river.  Here is a pic of Janet's Brown    Rio Grande Browns are toothy critters and several had the bright yellow hues and bright red spots.  Nothing over about 16", but all wild hard-fighting fish.  I did land a nice rainbow too, but Janet had the camera upriver and Rio Grande regs state all rainbows need to be put back right away.  Fish: 9, memorable fish lost due to stupidity: 1, tasty Cajun chicken sandwiches consumed: 2, water bodies fished: 4.

Monday, September 4th. - Travel day.  Driving and fishing from South Fork to Cimarron Valley.  Lots of people going the OTHER direction leaving the mountains after the holiday weekend.  Beautiful scenery in the Rio Grande Valley.  To give Janet some photo ops, we visited North Clear Creek Falls near Creede, CO.  I fished a little too, but came up empty handed on this gorgeous little stream.    Don't fish here .  We moved on, clearing Spring Creek pass and Slumgullion Pass.  As we drove toward Lake City, we stopped off at another sightseeing op.  This picture perfectly encapsulates good portions of the next 6 days.    Magick and squirrels/marmots/critters.  The staredown.  Squirrel won this round as he went over the ledge and beyond sight.  After a good lunch at Packer Saloon in Lake City (dog friendly), we headed for Big Blue Creek to slay some Brookies.  Along the way we stopped to fish a tiny 3 foot wide creek (ditch?) that I had read about.  Soldier Creek was surprisingly loaded with Brookies too.  If you could put a fly on the water, a char hammered it.  Easy catching if hard fishing.  Janet caught 1 and I pulled about 12 in just over an hour.  The first and last fish were the best ones.  The first was colorful and the last was a trophy for this little creek.  11" male brookie.  Not bad for 2 CFS and a step across.  1st fish:    Last fish:  .  Out of this creek:  .  The colors on the high mountain brookies were amazing.  We made it to Big Blue Creek in time for the evening caddis and mayfly hatch.  I caught or missed a fish on every cast.  Peter asked me to toss all the brookies in the brush, but I couldn't find it in my heart.  They made it fun for Janet and I.  In order to make it to the cabin in Cimarron, we had to leave 'em biting.  The roads in this area were pretty rough on a 2WD SUV, but the fishing was worth it.  Fish: about 30, water bodies fished: 5, mountain passes: 3, arguments with my wife about my driving: 2, Bears encountered: 1, Cell signal for the next 4 days: Zero.

Here are a few wildlife pics to end the night: Fun snake    Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk   Yellow bellied Marmot     Rio Grandus Fishermanus        

I'll be back with more later this week.  Thanks, Peter, for making room for the pics.

[breeden3]

Try to upload pics now. I have been deleting tons of old threads with pictures. Hopefully free some space.

[golferjeff]

Tuesday Sept 5th - I dropped Janet off at her friend's house in Ridgway. Ridgway is known for about three things - 1) True Grit movie, 2) Home of Ralph Lauren, and 3) Disneyland fishing at Pa-Co-chu-puk state park. More on the fishing later. I decided to stop and fish at Billy Creek SWA on the Uncompahgre river. Met some cool people, caught a few fish. All rainbows and one brown. Mostly stockers.  Magick managed to cut his paw on something, so I had to take him back to the cabin.  I fished my way up the mountain of course, but didn't do well.  Karma.  I did much better that evening on the East and Middle forks of the Cimarron.  Lots of wild rainbows, a few cuttbows, but it wasn't the wilderness fishing I was looking for.  Too damn many campgrounds.  I called it a night just before dark and headed back for the nightly ritual.  This time I was joined by bats, deer, some sort of large ground bird, and bugling elk.  I had rented a Satellite phone for the trip due to my previous injury prone experiences.  Note: They suck.  No one can hear you, the process is tedious, and they are expensive.  Fish caught: 20, wives sent away: 1, water bodies fished: 5,  bats that attacked my cigar: 2.

Wednesday Sept 6th - I started off on the Cimarron Tailwater section below SilverJack reservoir.  Very eerie green color, very slippery, and very boulder filled.  I think that Evan would have a field day here.  Every pocket was 5-10 feet across and 5-10 feet deep.  Tight lining paradise.  I caught one fish on double nymph rig and hooked 3 more tight lining.  I decided to get away from people for a bit.  I drove up the East Fork Cimarron, parked at the trailhead, and then hiked in a couple of miles.  Colorado Cuttie heaven!  Each pool held a fish and a few managed to get caught.  The action started to slow down and then I figured out why.... more damn people!  Two guys with spin gear were tromping thru the fly runs to get to the drop pools.  I skipped them and hiked further in.  Finally, I found some solace.  More cutties came to hand, none big, all wild.  The landscape and scenery was to die for.  I also fished a bit on the middle fork Cimarron, but it was losing water quickly and seemed to have mostly rainbows.  For a tourist trek, I went and viewed the areas used in the original 'True Grit' movie.  If you are a John Wayne fan, this was the area of the 'dogfall' scene.  Chimney Rock and Courthouse Mountain were used as location spots.    A good day, but still disappointed how many people I saw.  Fish: about 20, movie locations visited: 3, humans encountered: Too many.

Thursday September 7th - I met Janet back in Ridgway at RIGS fly shop.  We had hired a guide for the day for janet to be able to get into some fish and for me to tag along.  Our guide turned out to be a friend of a guy I had met on the river on Tuesday.  Small world.  Magick was staying with Janet's friends, so we decided to spend the day at 'Paco'.  Paco, or Pa-Co-Chu-Puk, is a state park below Ridgway reservoir.  It is unlike anything most western fisherman will encounter.  I called it Disneyland for fly fishing.  Paved trails along the river, picnic tables, RV's parked within a good cast of the river, yet it still had Eagles, deer, birds of every shape and color, and lots of massive fish.  Paco is known for churning out fish measured in pounds rather than inches.  Especially in winter.  We had about 300 CFS, which is a pretty good flow.  Wade-able, but not easily.  The 2 mile stretch contains about 15,000 fish that average about 16 inches.  The most populous fish is rainbow, but good numbers of browns and snake river cutthroats are present as well.  It is common to catch a 18" fish while being watched and cheered by groups of people.  Pretty cool, but not something I could do every day.  The river is kind of similar to old spillway creek with the manufactured pools, glides, and runs.  On steroids anyway.  OUr guide Chris was a cool dude who had lived everywhere from Alaska to Lajitas to Taos.  We set up shop downstream from the main areas.  I got to try a new rig for me - a massive foam fly supporting 2 or even 3 smallish nymphs.  Purple was the go-to color on this stretch.  I got into fish almost right away.  The first one was a stocker rainbow, but the second one was why we chose to fish here.  I got to watch a beautiful 19" Snake River Cuttie rise to gobble my meaty dry fly.  After a few runs and a pirouette midstream, I landed the gorgeous fish.  Very yellow color with the noticeable absence of the telltale red throat slash.  A great fish, at the time the second largest Snake River cuttie I had ever caught.  Janet got into fish a little later after working on her casting, drifting, and hook-setting.  She got a nice brown, then a rainbow, then a cuttbow, and finally a really thick Snake River to match mine.  After a nice streamside lunch and fish tales, we got back at it for the afternoon.  I walked downstream while Janet and Chris stayed up near the park.  I got into a pool of rainbows and towards the end of the day landed a 21" Snake River Cutt.  No one around to get the hero shot, but I did my best to get a good arm's length pic.  Another gorgeous fish for sure.  We called it a day about 4pm when Janet's shoulder cried uncle.  Janet had really enjoyed the experience and had a great time sight fishing to lazy cutties in the eddies.  I was ready for more fishing, but dinner plans awaited.  Fish: 25, pics taken: about 100, memorable experiences: 1, largest fish lost on the trip: 1 (2 foot rainbow or cuttbow).

If you ever find yourself in Montrose or Ridgway, give yourself a half day to fish Paco.  I saw some fish there that need to be viewed first hand to believe.  I want to go back when the flows drop and you can sight fish to 24"+ of all 3 species.  Hmmmm....... I have the week between Christmas and New Years off.

Janet battling a cuttie            Janet's best fish                        My first Cuttie                   21 incher to end the day 

More on the Lake City portion of the trip later this week......  after we delete some more old files so I can post the pics.  Peter, maybe we can leave this post up for a week or two and then delete since the pics seem to take up so much room....

[hankinsfly]

Jeff or Peter, do you need old pics deleted or pics and posts? I don't mind mine being deleted.

[gui]

Very nice! Makes me want to go back!

[greenman]

Jeff, you should do a trip route on road trippers and share the map. Looks like ya'll had a wonderful time. Hope wife and I can make it back up to Colorado soon. Thanks for sharing.

[todd13]

168? 168 fish caught? Ok, that was a group of like, 10 people? I am going with you next time....I didn't see that many fish the last time I went to a hatchery!

Not sure what the deal is with the snakes.  I caught 2 on my trip this summer.  

Wow, loved reading the story and seeing the pics. On North Clear Creek, you were just unlucky on that one. I have no skills and caught my prettiest fish there. I prob got lucky I know. Thanks for sharing a wonderful story.

[golferjeff]

168 included all the 6" Brookies from Big Blue and Soldier Creeks. Janet caught 18 of the 168 I think, maybe more. When you think about it, its only about 20 fish a day for 8.5 days. I just had fun keeping track. I still need to finish this story with the Lake City portion, but my computer at home is on the fritz. Janet and I had fun fishing with Peter in LC.

[todd13]

Sept 26, 2017 7:31:22 GMT -6 golferjeff said:

168 included all the 6" Brookies from Big Blue and Soldier Creeks. When you think about it, its only about 20 fish a day for 8.5 days.

Oh, trust me I am thinking about it!!!      I will not share how many I caught on my 4-5 day trip to CO.  haha, but I also know I am a newb and learning.  And I love FF.   For the record, I did get the slam and learned a ton while I tried different things.  

I envision two summer trips next summer....but that "168" won't be in jeopardy I assure you.      I do hope you get to finish.

[underhillsbill]

Hey Jeff, good to meet you in Lake City. I was the random guy that introduced himself in the Sportsman on Friday (also the guys huddled under umbrellas during the quick storm along Cebolla Creek..). Plus got to meet and pet Magick! Great trip report, always love the pictures and reading your stories.

[golferjeff]

Cool! Cebolla was a struggle on Friday, but lights out Saturday. Nice to meet you at the shop. I will be putting the Lake City portion of the trip up tonight. Hope you had a great time in Lake City. We had a blast.

[golferjeff]

Ok, back to the last few days of the trip. We left the cabin in Cimarron behind and met Peter at the Sportsman Fly shop at 10am on Friday the 8th. Magick and I got to meet underhillsbill at the shop, buy some fudge, get a Lake City souvenir, and head out for a guided day with Peter Breeden. We decided to head up to Cebolla Creek, which I had heard great things about. I had tried to find the upper portion of the river a few times, but managed to miss the turnoff. A few years ago, Larry Anderson and I had fished the lower sections in the canyon. Cebolla is basically a Brown Trout stream. We packed up into Peter's shop rig and headed up the mountain. I really wanted Janet to have fun on her last fishing day, so Peter took her to some of the better holes. She missed quite a few before finally landing a couple. I trailed along for the most part, picking up a few fish here and there. The first fish was the best one again.    About 2 hours into the day, a brief but heavy rain shower drenched us. Magick had fun chasing the critters that got flooded out of their hidey holes. The fishing was pretty consistent, but we ran into further problems. My Hatch reel quit working and we foolishly had not brought a spare rod and reel with us. Peter and I unspooled it, re-spooled it, tinkered with it, but nothing worked. So we were down to one working rod for the two of us, not a fun equation. After a breakoff in some streamside brush, I got pissed and decided to call it a morning. We ate lunch on the way back to Lake City while plotting out the afternoon. A brief stop at the shop yielded two more working rods and a dry jacket for Janet. We fished the Lake Fork Gunnison at several roadside pullouts. Janet got a few fish nymphing with Peter. I got a couple on a dry dropper rig. It wasn't until late afternoon that we got into some good fish. Again, Janet took the lead and picked up a few rainbows and a nice brown in the riffles. Here is her brown.   I switched to a nymph rig and got a nice fish just after Janet.    She decided to call it a day when her shoulder began to hurt, so Peter and I headed upstream to a few cliffside runs. The last hour of the day was amazing. In one 40 yard stretch, I hooked half a dozen fish and landed 3 of them. One really athletic rainbow jumped a few times and then proceeded to wrap me around a boulder. Smart fish. I did get a few of her cousins (Browns) and the last two had some amazing colors.    Since it was now almost dark and the Packer Saloon was closing in an hour, we called it a day and headed back to town. Janet had a margarita, I had a coke and a cigar, and Magick made several new friends. A good day, but the broken reel and the lack of planning stuck with me a bit. Water bodies fished: 3, Fish: about 20, Soaking rainshowers: 1, hours that represent Colorado fishing: 1. Janet got some good fish and had a good time with Peter.

Saturday the 9th - I got up early and got a start by catching a few rainbows right in town. I headed back up the hill to Cebolla Creek to give it another shot. Boy am I glad I did. The Browns were taking midges and some small mayfly off the surface. I was fishing a big dry/small dry/dropper rig this time. Something new for me. Some fish took the stimmy, some took the CDC Bwo, and some took the midge or PT dropper.  Most every pool gave up a fish.  Nothing huge, but a few 14 inchers came to net.  Some of the browns were heavily red-spotted with very few black spots.    In about 2.5 hours I think I landed about 20 fish and missed that many more.  It was a really fun day.  Cebolla creek is the type of place I could spend a week just fishing from end to end.  I definitely want to go back there and fish it more thoroughly.  Maybe when the water is up a bit too.  I headed back to town to pick up Janet and Magick and get some lunch at Southern Vittles.  They had had a good day sightseeing, shopping, and taking pictures.  After lunch, I figured I had to catch a fish out of Henson Creek.  Henson is a very cold, very green mountain stream that drains off the south side of Uncompahgre Mountain.  Brookies are the main trout, with rainbows and browns thrown in.  Cutties can be found above the mine waste sites, but we didn't make it up there.  I did catch three brookies of very different shades and colors.  The first was almost silver, the last was emerald green with fire red fins and bright blue spots.  Henson, check.  As we came off the mountain, we noticed helicopters, fire squad, and rescue trucks heading up.  We found out later that a jeep had gone off the cliff on Engineer Pass - no word on how it turned out, maybe Peter will chime in.  I spent a few hours in the evening plying the Lake Fork, with a little success.  I was plain worn out and needed to get packed for the long trip home.  I exchanged a few texts with Peter and got back to town to pack up.  Water bodies: 3, top5 streams in my book: 1, fish: about 25, sore feet and knees: 2 each.

Sunday was the long 13+ hour drive home.  Magick slept for most of it.  We did get to listen to the Steeler game so that kept me awake for 3 hours.  It was a very good trip and I got to see some amazing fish.  Janet fell a little further into the fly fishing club too, and that can't hurt.  I will definitely be back to Lake City and South Fork.  I think I could make it a two stop trip and hit some new water in each place.  Hope you all enjoyed the story! 

[underhillsbill]

Great Lake City report. I love Cebolla Creek. 2 years in a row it was the best place I fished on Colorado trips. On Friday, even with the rain storm was a 20 fish day. Had to change flies quite a bit but caught fish on Dries (chubbies and stimulators) and nymphs. I'm with you, I could fish there all the time and be happy. Never caught any huge fish but 14-16 inch wild browns hammering a dry fly is a ton of fun. Dinner at a Packer Saloon is definitely a great way to end the day.
Sorry to hear about your Hatch reel, that's really frustrating. Hopefully they'll repair/replace. Even with the reel hassle, still sounds like a great couple days.