Back from Colorado

[David Knapp]

I just got back home from working in Colorado in the Gunnison vicinity. The fishing in that area is exceptional to say the least. I was able to fish a lot of water over the course of the summer and caught 'bows, browns, brooks and native Cutthroat. One of the highlights of the summer was a 20 inch brown on the Taylor River in the special regs water just below the dam.
I had the bottom half of a large pool to myself and the fish were rising. Small caddis and BWO's were hatching. Months ago, I had read about BWO cdc emergers and tied one up for fun. As I was digging through my boxes I noticed that fly. I carefully extended my leader with 6x tippet and tied on the fly. I saw a nice fish working and after a couple of drifts, he ate. I soon had a brown of about 14 inches at my feet and quickly removed the hook. I spent a couple of minutes drying the cdc and watching the water when it happened. I saw a large head slip out of the water, followed by what looked like a huge tail as the fish completed its rise. My hands were shaking as I stripped out a little more line. The first cast was a little short and I pulled the fly back out and tried again. The fly landed softly just above where I had spotted the good fish. Suddenly a dark shadow materialized under the fly floating sidewise downstream. The fish swung around behind the fly and slowly rose and gullibly sucked in the fly. I gently lifted the rod tip and the fight was on. The fish surged up into the deeper water and a tug of war began. Several minutes later I had finally eased the fish up into the shallow water near me when right at my feet, a last shake of the head parted the connection between the line and fly. I threw my rod aside and quickly made a grab at the large tail. Miraculously I made the grab perfectly and gently lifted the fish up just enough to look in its mouth to find my fly. I eased the hook out and watched as the fish slipped back into its watery haven to be caught another day.
Other highlights of the summer were hiking into a Wilderness area to a stream that contained native Cutts, hiking into the Black Canyon NP to fish the Gunnison and catching heavy browns and rainbows and teaching my boss good ol' East TN highstickin' 8-). The Gunnison area is incredible and contains a ton of good water.

[14yearoldflyfisher]

Great story PT. ive heard alot about the colorado and the gunnison gorge. as soon as i turn sixteen im going to drive out there and fish the rockies that summer. sounds like you had a blast.


Tight lines,
The kid