ttas67
08-18-2007, 11:41 AM
just got back from out west yesterday and I am exhausted! plateau angler and I spent 3 weeks or so touring colorado, yellowstone, and the black hills. we had a great time to say the least.
the first stream we came to in colorado, david told me not to pee my pants when I saw the fish. well, I didn't pee my pants, but I did have to immediately go relieve myself. in short order, we were catching 20 inch plus browns on green drakes and PMDs. these fish pulled like freight trains and took on average 10-15 minutes to land each. on 6x tippet also. this pretty much set the tone for the trip.
in colorado we fished meadow streams, freestone streams, trophy water, tailwaters, alpine lakes, and anything else you could imagine. the fishing was excellent, but VERY technical. you had to do everything perfectly to catch alot of these fish. on the frying pan in particular, I was brought to the brink of using 7x flouro tippet, on which I landed a 22 inch brown. I still don't know how I landed that fish on 7x.
on the frying pan, there was one fish in particular that we had spotted for a few days that was honestly over 30 inches. on our last day on the pan, this monster reared it's ugly head. david, who had become somewhat like a mad scientist at this point, was determined to catch this fish. after multiple tries, I acting as spotter, in disbelief saw the take, and david, in disbelief yell something like, "got him". I dropped my rod straight on the ground and fell multiple times trying to get to the net and get to the water.... into the backing.... gone. I ragged him the rest of the trip about losing that fish, but in all honesty, I'm not sure he could have landed it without at least a 6wt rod w/ fighting butt.
yellowstone was great, although there were mandatory 2pm stream closures and buffalo in rut to deal with. we caught many nice fish, and david took the cake with one particular rainbow which I'm sure he'll share with us.
as hugh reported in another thread, we had the pleasure, and unusually good timing to run into him at blue ribbon flies in west yellowstone. he tipped us off on a few areas they had done well at out there, and from his report, it looks like they did really well indeed.
so the whole trip was great. the fishing was good, and we had many great wildlife encounters. I even saw a grizzly feasting on an adult bison carcass! we did have a particularly bad encounter with a coyote in texas, which i'll let david share.
here's a few of my pictures.
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/ttas67/IMGP1699.jpg
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/ttas67/IMGP1642.jpg
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/ttas67/IMGP1714.jpg
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/ttas67/IMGP1633.jpg
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/ttas67/IMGP1848.jpg
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/ttas67/IMGP1766.jpg
the first stream we came to in colorado, david told me not to pee my pants when I saw the fish. well, I didn't pee my pants, but I did have to immediately go relieve myself. in short order, we were catching 20 inch plus browns on green drakes and PMDs. these fish pulled like freight trains and took on average 10-15 minutes to land each. on 6x tippet also. this pretty much set the tone for the trip.
in colorado we fished meadow streams, freestone streams, trophy water, tailwaters, alpine lakes, and anything else you could imagine. the fishing was excellent, but VERY technical. you had to do everything perfectly to catch alot of these fish. on the frying pan in particular, I was brought to the brink of using 7x flouro tippet, on which I landed a 22 inch brown. I still don't know how I landed that fish on 7x.
on the frying pan, there was one fish in particular that we had spotted for a few days that was honestly over 30 inches. on our last day on the pan, this monster reared it's ugly head. david, who had become somewhat like a mad scientist at this point, was determined to catch this fish. after multiple tries, I acting as spotter, in disbelief saw the take, and david, in disbelief yell something like, "got him". I dropped my rod straight on the ground and fell multiple times trying to get to the net and get to the water.... into the backing.... gone. I ragged him the rest of the trip about losing that fish, but in all honesty, I'm not sure he could have landed it without at least a 6wt rod w/ fighting butt.
yellowstone was great, although there were mandatory 2pm stream closures and buffalo in rut to deal with. we caught many nice fish, and david took the cake with one particular rainbow which I'm sure he'll share with us.
as hugh reported in another thread, we had the pleasure, and unusually good timing to run into him at blue ribbon flies in west yellowstone. he tipped us off on a few areas they had done well at out there, and from his report, it looks like they did really well indeed.
so the whole trip was great. the fishing was good, and we had many great wildlife encounters. I even saw a grizzly feasting on an adult bison carcass! we did have a particularly bad encounter with a coyote in texas, which i'll let david share.
here's a few of my pictures.
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/ttas67/IMGP1699.jpg
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/ttas67/IMGP1642.jpg
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/ttas67/IMGP1714.jpg
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/ttas67/IMGP1633.jpg
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/ttas67/IMGP1848.jpg
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/ttas67/IMGP1766.jpg