RMNP Fall Colors

[David Knapp]

The trees are rapidly changing colors and then loosing their leaves just a few days later it seems. Stands of aspen that were at their peak just last Wednesday were missing most of their leaves by yesterday. The colors have been great while they last though!!!







With the rapid transition in season comes the great fall fishing. Blue-winged olives have been hatching in the canyon sections of local streams and the browns are getting fired up and aggressive towards streamers. They have been dressing up in their fall best as well. Yesterday I fished two streams in RMNP for browns. On the first stream, I was able to be the first person to fish a short section of water and the fish were sitting out feeding.

The day was perfect with just a little wind and the elk bugling for background music. The north facing slopes still held some snow from a few days earlier making it difficult to choose between photography and fishing. In the end, fishing won out...mostly. I did stop to take a few fish pictures and stream shots.





The fish were mostly in the 14-16 inch range with a few smaller ones thrown in. By the time another angler jumped in ahead of me I was ready to explore on another stream.

The next stream also contained a meadow section. I was hoping that its deep pools and undercut banks would also harbor some nice brown trout.



My initial efforts nearly led me to quit, but persistence is always the key to a good day, and I stuck with it. One 10 inch brown flashed on my streamer which told me there had to be some larger fish present. Where there are small browns there are normally some larger fish even if they are rare... Two pools upstream my suspicions were confirmed as a big 21-22 inch fish shot out from under a rock to follow my streamer before slamming its mouth shut and vanishing into the depths.

Moving upstream, I continued to find a few nice fish. Finally, it happened. I found one out looking for a meal and presented a small streamer. Carefully bouncing the streamer along, I saw the fish come over and inhale it. Soon I was taking pictures of a beautiful brown and was convinced that this was a stream worth returning to. In fact, if I didn't have to work I probably would be back today.





I hooked several other nice fish between 14-18 inches but couldn't seal the deal. Eventually I'll be back, maybe even later this week. Of course, with so many other places to explore I may opt to wait until next season. Regardless, I'm glad for the discovery!!!

[NDuncan]

Another great report, David!

I'm gonna have to head out west this summer for sure and do some fishing out that way!!

[silvercreek]

Beautiful scenery and nice fish. Is it too late for hoppers? That would be a rush to watch a good brown come out and smash a hopper.

[David Knapp]

Originally Posted by NDuncan

Another great report, David!

I'm gonna have to head out west this summer for sure and do some fishing out that way!!

Give me a holler if you make it to Colorado. Maybe we can get together and fish...

[NDuncan]

Sounds good! I've got some family in boulder I have been wanting to visit with, so I may just do that

[David Knapp]

Originally Posted by silvercreek

Beautiful scenery and nice fish. Is it too late for hoppers? That would be a rush to watch a good brown come out and smash a hopper.

Hoppers are still around some in the grass on the east slope streams. I haven't fished any but would imagine that they would work well. Next summer perhaps...

[ChemEAngler]

Excellent report as usual

[ijsouth]

Nice fish, nice report....on a more somber note, did you catch this in the news?

http://www.denverpost.com/environmen...olorado-stream

Turns out all those Greenbacks we thought we were catching were hybrids - Colorado River/Greenback mixes. There were thoughts that this might be the case for years, but this study proves it, and worse yet, the one remnant population is confined to one 4-mile stretch of one stream. I hope they can keep them going.

[David Knapp]

Originally Posted by ijsouth

Nice fish, nice report....on a more somber note, did you catch this in the news?

http://www.denverpost.com/environmen...olorado-stream

Turns out all those Greenbacks we thought we were catching were hybrids - Colorado River/Greenback mixes. There were thoughts that this might be the case for years, but this study proves it, and worse yet, the one remnant population is confined to one 4-mile stretch of one stream. I hope they can keep them going.

Yeah I saw this recently. It amuses me a little after all the hard work they've been doing but as you mentioned, this has been suspected for awhile. My only question is how did they rule out every other "population"....? Did they literally catch cutts from every possible Greenback population and do the genetics testing? Just wondering although I would also wonder what their baseline for the Greenback genes is as well. Is it possible that the "pure" strain genes they are testing against originated in the same creek? I would be very interested to find a copy of the actual scientific paper and see how well done everything was. Might be pretty interesting...

[MBB]

Great photographs, thanks for sharing!