October - Colorado

October 16, 2009
Big Thompson River, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
I arrived to the Park today about 11:30 on a bluebird sky morning.
Temps reached into the low 70s. On the drive through the Park, I
passed by the moraine meadow, a vast valley, butterscotch yellow-brown
in color, cradled between giant ridges of dark green pines. Behind
those pines was another ridge of taller, snow capped mountains. In
the valley below were hundreds of elk grazing in the yellow morning light.

I parked at Cub Lake Trailhead and geared up my 4wt, walked
down the trial a hundred yards or so, crossed a footbridge, and cut upstream
into a rough trail that followed the river edge. About 40
yards up was a nice pool with some trout feeding on the surface near
an undercut bank of smooth water.

I eased into the gin clear water and cast a #18 parachute Adams dry
fly upstream. Within the hour I had landed about five browns and
brookies, including a nice 10-11 inch brookie and a few 12 inch browns
in bright spawning colors. Saw a handful of other fishers. Caught a
few more fish upstream and quit around 3:00.

On the way out, I pulled off the road at the meadow with all of the
tourists and watched the elk a few hundred yards away. One massive
6x7 bull loner was within 40 yards of the cars.

Stopped in at a friend's house on the way out and helped them set up for catching & banding some saw-whet owls. This entails putting lines of mist nets out, a recording of an owl, and then checking the nets every 15 minutes. Between warding off foxes we caught one owl after 8
o’clock. Brought him inside, took measurements and released him back into the night.


October 17, 2009
Boulder Creek, Colorado
Drove up Canyon road looking for a spot someone told me about. Missed
the spot and ended up driving more than 10 winding miles up the
mountain to Nederland which is elevated over 8000 feet. Turned around and
drove back down, found the spot and was in the water at 11:30.

It was a typical canyon stream - fast, rapid drops, choppy water, and
boulders. I tied on a #16 red Humpy dry fly and immediately caught a
small brown. As I worked my way up, a big mule deer ran across the
river and up the side of the mountain. She looked like a billy goat
scrambling up a nearly vertical mountain of stone. I caught about five
fish total, all but one on dries (the other was on the #18 bead head
pheasant tail dropper) and was out of the water at 12:45.

One of the amazing things about the day was that after fishing I was able to drive to my (temporary) home, eat lunch, pack, shower and be at the airport gate by 3:15pm. Two and a half
hours water to gate! Try that in Chicago.