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Sunday, September 8, 2019

Colorado Fly Fishing Vacation ~ 9/8/2019



Up until this trip it had been 14 years since I took an extended vacation to fish on my own time. 14 years of grinding out guide trips and sharing the wisdom of some 40 years plus of fly fishing knowledge. I guess you could say it was long overdue. My last trip was in 2005, a yearly pilgrimage that my dad and I use to make to Montana since 1995, where we would spend 40 days at our base camp located near West Fork on the banks of the Madison River. This trip was going to be extra special as I would visit friends I have not seen in decades, and revisit my old stomping grounds from canyon water to meandering meadows. I will say that overall the fishing (or catching) is so much easier in both Colorado and Montana than in California, mostly due to in my opinion to more trout per mile, and obviously better fisheries management.


My drive out was pretty straight forward and I banged out 12 hours of scenic driving across Nevada, slept for 4 hours at a rest stop near the Utah/Colorado border, then continued on for 4 more hours until I reached Breckenridge. The town itself has exploded with people, buildings, and a greater infrastructure than I could have possibly imagined. I was blown away. Breck certainly did not look like the town I left in 1996. I immediately went to Mountain Angler Fly Shop and met Luke who filled me in on the current conditions and paid for my fishing license. Then I went over to The Underground Snowboard Shop where I use to be a tech in the evenings after training on the mountain all day. I was stoked to see that Andy and his wife are back to being the sole owners again, and with a much better location right on Main Street offering more services and product for the masses. After that it was lunch with my long time Pisano brother Nic. We talked about the good old days, moto, and the latest on where the original crew from some 25 years ago was up to. Next up was paying a visit to another long time buddy Cory, owner of the Al-Mart General Store in the town of Alma. Good dude with a long history involvement with the early days of snowboarding in Summit County. That evening I made my way down to my good friend Cat’s house in Denver where I would not only make a temporary base camp, but be greeted with a fishing buddy every morning. So, here is where the adventure begins…



Day 1 – The Blue River

Driving north on Highway 9 out of Silverthorne was a real eye opener, more new homes, ranches, and growth. It was unbelievable. I reminisced about the private land I was fortunate to fish on within a section of the Blue, and some private ponds that held some monster trout – Like Don B’s 33 inch brown caught at night using a mouse pattern. I met up with a longtime friend who worked alongside of myself at the Underground Snowboard Shop and also slaved with me in the finishing department at Solid Snowboards MFG. Chris now lives on the flat lands of the Front Range and still fishes as much as he can. We fished a section way downstream that I have never been to using an official state access area (there are so many of them scattered about the state – so cool). 




The four of us including Cat and Jen (Chris’s better half) worked our way upstream, which was not easy. First off the river is slippery not only with algae, but polished basalt rock. Within the first 5 minutes of fishing I fell in and was soaked from the chest down while trying to navigate some swift water to reach a prime lie. Luckily the weather was very hot with zero precipitation and I dried off quickly through the early part of the day. Secondly, the riparian habitat and woods surrounding the river was thick as shit, and if you missed a take on a dry fly presentation it was bound to end up in the bushes or the trees behind you. Being that it was the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend there was SO many anglers out fishing while displaying very poor etiquette to fellow anglers. The fly fishing industry is apparently in good shape right now as there are so many new fly anglers out getting some. Just driving down the highway there were numerous guides spotted heading to work, some pulling boats, and everybody has a Rod Vault on top of their vehicle like it’s some kind of status symbol. From what I’m told by my friends who own them, they work pretty well if you’re in a hurry to get on the water and go fishing. I was not in any hurry on this trip.


I used a North Fork Yuba rig. A Rubber Legged Yellow Stimulator with a brown #16 Hogan’s Military May for a dropper about 24 inches below. During the day I hooked 12, landing 5, 8 to 17 inches, mostly browns. During my session, I quickly learned to fish the fast riffles with a depth of 2-3 feet while dissecting where lanes of slower water flowed downstream of large submerged boulders that were in the middle of the river. Areas that were hard to get to without using some aggressive wading.  Chris hooked into a very fat rainbow at the most upstream point of our session where a side channel came into the main stem of the river. I manned the net and got the scoop for a photo op. Day 1 was in the books and I was really stoked with the results!


Day 2 – Middle Fork South Platte River

This section of the South Platte is very dear to me. it’s where I use to fish while living in Breckenridge and the town of Alma all the time. The Tomahawk Wildlife Area (now called Butterhawk) 24 years ago was really not too well known, but it sure is now. Imagine if you will a smaller stream like the Little Truckee special regs section flowing at about 40 cubes in a vast open meadow with undercuts, riffles, deep short pools, slots, and side channels. Some sections have willows lining the stream and often are over hanging the cut banks. It is one of the most beautiful valleys I’ve ever laid eyes on with fourteen thousand foot peaks in the distance like Mt. Bross, Democrat, Lincoln, and Quandry, rich with wildlife, and raptors circling overhead. If I spent my last day here on earth it would be just fine by me – It’s that moving to the soul. 



It was another gorgeous day as well with Cat, Chris, and Jen accompanying me. Being Memorial Day it was busy and even finding a parking spot was challenging, though once out in the meadow we all had plenty of water to work. A few anglers raced up to us, made the pass (again poor etiquette, with no communication), and kept on going. Too fast in my opinion since I know for at least on this stream, it’s best to hit every square inch of fishable water methodically. These trout are often found in some skinny water and being stealthy can pay off in big dividends.



My first rig was the same as the previous day on the Blue but I trialed a #18 Hogan’s S&M in olive, and it worked quite well. I also had an extra 6 weight rigged with a fast sink tip and a black and purple Pistol Pete (Yep, the streamer born in Trinidad Colorado with a propeller mounted behind the eye of the hook) to hopefully lure out a big brown from the undercut banks. There was a small and short hatch of midge mixed in with some very small PMDs for about an hour and a half with rising targets. Cat pulled off one of her typical magic acts and landed a nice toad of a rainbow on a 99 cent special PMD dry fly from a sporting goods store. That was really awesome to witness!


As the day progressed I switched to a “Jonny B” club sandwich hopper and with about a zillion hoppers bouncing about in the meadow it was clear the trout were super keyed in on them. There was one long stretch with an undercut bank and as I was walking downstream observing, I heard and saw a big splash next to the bank. At first, I thought someone was playing games with me by throwing a rock in the river, but it was indeed a large trout. I ran my hopper down several times and nothing. Then I went upstream and swung the Pistol Pete into the bank and stripped it back upstream aggressively. It took 3 times but I was briefly hooked into a 22” brown that made two big leaps before spitting the fly. Oh well, not the first time, and it won’t be the last - at least I got to see him and knew where he lived. I hooked 10, landed 6, and missed some nice ones too. As we walked back to the car I promised myself I would be back again before this trip was over, and just maybe get another crack at Father Brown.


Day 3 – The Yampa River

New water. Though I snowboarded quite frequently at Steamboat Springs and shredded its famed “Blower Pow”, I never fished the Yampa River. This tailwater located below Stage Coach Reservoir starts in a narrow gorge filled with pocket water, and a few long glides and riffles that eventually broaden out into flatter water downstream. Another fabulous State Wildlife access area, it too was very busy with anglers and poor stream etiquette. So poor that other anglers don’t have a problem fishing the same run you’re on, or even across from you. This river is heavily stocked and these rubber trout are big and very well educated. They don’t spook very easily as well, and it was common to have a large trout a few feet away from you just minding its own business and constantly eating away at food items in the drift. 



Perfect presentations, whether wet or dry with the right pattern would equal success. Lucky for me this is Cat’s favorite fishery and she knows it well, which shortened the learning curve for me. The flows were at about 150 cubes and the smell of the water coming out of the dam was stinky, kind of like urine. Once you got past the smell though, it’s a very beautiful little gorge with a charm all its own. It was another fantastic warm and sunny day mixed with a few clouds, and the thunderous roar of the river in the air. The food base in the Yampa River consists of scuds, midges, and aquatic worms for the most part. There was the occasional mayfly, caddis, and a stray yellow sally flying on by though.


I finally had time to commit to tight line nymphing, but I also had a rod rigged just for dry flies, which I was hoping I would be using more of. Cat’s strategy was a good one. She would fish a dry fly rig to either rising fish, or by sight fishing and dropping the fly into a lane that drifted to your desired quarry at the receiving end. Yep, two dry flies, the 99 cent PMD special and a parachute midge emerger, both a size 18 with a short amount of tippet in-between them. Once you covered a section on the surface, you would then go back through with a nymphing set up. On the tight line rig I had a RS2 in brown and a either a zebra midge, or a black beauty as a dropper. All tied on with 5x. You would often get more takes on 6x, but you would be hard pressed to land them unless your rod had a very soft top section to protect light tippets. I didn’t go that route, and that was just fine. I hooked 10, landed 8, 9 to 18 inches, mostly on the nymph rig, but also enough on the dry rig to keep me satisfied. 


The two 18 inchers I landed were fat and fought very aggressively with big aerial displays. It was some serious work to get them to the net, and I must thank Cat for her superior net handling skills to make the final scoop. After landing the last one, a new to fly fishing angler wanted to know about my rig, the flies, and basically everything. I looked at his rig and it was just plain hack, my guide instincts kicked in and I wanted to help the dude. Here I am 1,200 miles away from home and I’m rigging a rod and guiding someone. Yeah, you could say guiding anglers is in my blood. I outfitted Ian with a new leader, indicator, flies, and then coached him for a bit. Minutes later he landed his biggest trout ever at 19 inches. He was so pumped, yet was blown away at my generosity. I just can’t resist helping and seeing new anglers be successful on the water. Overall I was pretty stoked on the day and the Yampa grew on me to the point where I was anxious to fish it again in the morning.


 Our fearless guide Wendell

Day 4 – Yampa River, Part 2

I rented a 2019 Dodge minivan so I could carry all my gear and also to be able to sleep in it, which was a wise and comfortable choice as we camped out downstream at a primitive site that evening. The vehicle was loaded with all the bells and whistles and got good gas mileage. With fuel prices as low as $2.29 a gallon in the state of Colorado, this road trip was very affordable. Clouds and partly sunny skies greeted us at daybreak, and once we made it on the river a few sprinkles came down. 



More of the same as the day before but nothing big for me, I think my largest trout was 15 inches. I hooked 8, landed 8, 7 to 15 inches. It’s worth noting that the smaller fish are wild, and that also the Yampa has the occasional Brook Trout, Brown, and the elusive Grayling. They jacked the flows up a tad during mid-day, but overall it was not as good as the previous day for whatever reason. That’s fishing, right? We ended our session at around 2pm and headed back to the flat lands of Denver. It was such an awesome trip with new sights, and fights with large rubber trout. I’m coming back here for sure.


Day 5 – Back to Butterhawk

Solo trip back to the upper South Platte River valley and I was greeted by blue bird skies and very minimal angler traffic. Forecast for the day was thunderstorms with a 50% chance of rain in the early afternoon, so I got on the water by 9am. I stared out with a Rubber Leg Yellow Stimi with a #18 Military May dropper in olive. I hooked a few dinks, both rainbows and browns and kept working up the meadow. I then put on the “Jonny B.” hopper and the trout were all over it, so much in fact that I ditched the dropper fly. I hooked 7 decent browns up to 14” and missed many more. Those brown trout take the fly ever so slowly and one has to wait until they close their mouth before setting the hook. I paid a visit to where the big brown lived that I had hooked a few days earlier on the Pistol Pete. He rose slowly for my hopper on the first drift with a “I don’t think so” response. He knew better. 


Most of the fish came from fast shallow riffles, and foams lines that flowed right next to the bank in dark water (shaded water from the high bank). Also areas your average fly angler would not make a presentation to, like small braided sections where a short pocket of water was extremely small, yet had all of the necessary requirements a trout needs to survive. While during my productive session, bumpers where forming in the sky, and around noon time big black clouds and lighting bolts dominated the skies to the North West. It was time to get back to the support vehicle and take cover. After packing the van, I made my way through Hartsel and over to the town of Lake George where my final fishing destination was located. 


What an awesome drive it was, the landscape is so open and vast that one can truly understand the term “Big Sky Country”. Along the way I saw small herds of Elk and Antelope right next to Highway 24 just munching away on native grasslands – So Colorado. The rain was pretty intense at times, especially over Badger Mountain Pass. I reached the gate to 11 mile Canyon, paid my $7 dollar entry fee and drove up scouting the water I fished decades ago, and also to look for a camp site for the night. The heavy rain continued into the evening and I hunkered down in the van and pulled out the laptop and began writing this report, which was pleasing to end the day as darkness fell. 


Day 6 Middle Fork South Platte River - 11 Mile Canyon

I woke up early at 5am and the rain had stopped, I think it was sometime after midnight and the surroundings were pretty drenched providing a soggy camp. One key decision I made for this trip was to bring my Snow Peak Titanium backpacking stove for REAL coffee. Pete’s French Roast and a Malitta pour over cone made all the difference on this trip – So thankful for that. I rigged up the 10.5 foot 4 weight Echo Shadow 2 with a tight line rig under partly cloudy skies. I like to fish the upper half section of the canyon and at 6:30am I came to “my spot” only to see another angler parked there. F—K! So I went a little ways downstream and said to myself “OK, I’ll just clean up this guy’s mess” as I reached the river and began working upstream. 11 Mile canyon reminds me so much of Northern California, and I must give all the credit to Jackson Streit, owner of Mountain Angler Fly Shop in Breckenridge for turning me onto it in 1991. Jackson had fished Nor Cal before, and understood the type of pocket water I was looking for back then to Tight Line nymph on, and he pointed me right to the canyon. He even sold me a golden colored webby saddle neck to tie John Barr’s Golden Stone nymph too. As I remember, the results were legendary



For this session, my final one of my beloved trip, I tied on a custom Hogan Brown’s #14 S&M nymph on a jig style hook with a tungsten bead in a PMD scheme, and trailed a small olive Military May dropper in a size 18. The water felt really warm to me so I pulled out the thermometer and recorded a 63 degree water temp at 7am. The river is fed by 11 Mile Reservoir, and like Lake Tahoe the releases were coming from the top of the lake’s water column. I knew the fish would be in the bubbly aerated sections and faster runs and riffles that provided more oxygen, so that’s where I targeted my presentations. 2nd cast, boom! I hooked into a nice butter belly brown and it provided me with a vicious fight. All of the trout I hooked were well fed, plump, and fought extremely hard like a Lower Yuba River wild trout. So gutty and gritty. 



The wading here is not easy due to being in a canyon, but the rocks below the surface are very grippy with zero algae – Hero wading at its finest. I felt 30 years younger navigating from pocket to pocket. While standing in the river next to the bank I was untangling the end of my line, head down with the readers on and sorting things out when I looked up to see another fly angler. The dude was sporting big black rubber boots and jeans, with some pretty old equipment, then he steps in the river 25 feet upstream of me and starts fishing. “WTF” I muttered under my breath and simply asked him out loud “What are you doing?” I tried to explain proper stream etiquette, but he just didn’t get it and told me I was being rude. He finally got with the program and gave me about 300 feet of a section to work upstream, then he simply disappeared. During my trip to Colorado I witnessed the worst river etiquette I’ve ever seen in my life (and that’s a long ass time). Way worse than a crowded day on the Little Truckee River. Communication with other anglers is the key, plain and simple. 


This section of the South Platte River gets a lot pressure, so much there are now well worn trials that border the water’s edge like cattle paths. Most of those trails were not there 24 years ago, and certainly not beaten down like they are now. As the fishing goes, I could do no wrong and was so deeply immersed into my tight line Zen state of mind nothing could defeat me (except the big one I broke off when it decided to put on the afterburners to Lake George). A ”boom” here, a “boom” there and after being on the water for four hours with about 3 hours of actual fishing time, I hooked 24 and landed 19, 10 to 16”. I ended the session with one more good brown, and reeled up. Mic drop - and walked away with a huge smile while heading back to the van. What a killer day!



It was kind of sad leaving the canyon, I could have spent another 3 days there easy, but Nor Cal was calling with a reality check of trips to do on the upcoming guide calendar. As I made my way over Hoosier Pass out of Alma, another big thunderstorm hit. I dropped into the Breckenridge and the Blue River valley and there was one promise I needed to fulfill, and that was seeing my buddy Jay who lives deep in “The Gulch” above Breckenridge in the shadow of Mt. Guyot. 


Jay came to Breck a year later than I and for the same reason, to take his passion of skateboarding to the snow and ride the summit as a professional snowboarder. He was a good rider back then with a super clean style, something that is mostly missing in today’s modern era. It was pretty awesome reminiscing about old times and the characters involved back in the day. Life in the Gulch is as good as it gets if you appreciate a slower pace, being among nature, and the high peaks of central Colorado. 


What a fantastic fishing trip it was! New water, old friends, fishing buddies, and really productive catch rates that makes it all the more enjoyable, and so special to be on the water. I learned a few things on my trip, or more like reminders. First, don’t wait 14 years for the next trip out, or any multi day trip for that matter. I have already marked off the calendar to be back out from September 1st to the 15th, you can bet on that! I may even be hosting 4 anglers on a five day trip if I can get all the logistics to fall into place for 2020. Keep an eye on my “News” page on my website, or my blog for all the details, and to sign up. Secondly, when I can fish day after day and not be involved with instructing other anglers (guiding), I can slay them like the best of the very best. I’m tooting my horn here and not the least humble in saying I’ve got some game. My long time experience shines on trips like these and provides me with the confidence that spills over in everyday life. Three, Colorado has a special meaning to me. I have deep roots embedded there and it was so cool to revisit the waters of my youth and re fish the same runs while admiring the natural wonders that the land provides. 


I want to give special thanks to Cat Toy for being an awesome host and inviting me into her home, and showing me the Yampa River. By far one of the fishiest gals I know of, sweet too, and the epitome of adventure and living life to the fullest. To Chris, who showed me another part of the Blue River and mentioned some other areas in the state to explore. I’ll be seeing you in a few months for our steelhead trip in November on the Trinity – Can’t wait pal! Also a shout out to all of my old friends who still make Colorado their home, and hey Nic, thanks for lunch buddy! Eric, Sandeep, and Chris at Enterprise Car Rental of Grass Valley, Ca for setting me up with a sweet minivan that exceeded my expectations.

Vacations cost a lot of money, but the memories and good times are worth every penny. I can’t wait until next year, see you all in 2020! 




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