October 2008. Dreams Do Come True!!!! So, this past weekend (Sept 25 - 29), I travelled to Colorado for the annual fishing trip with Al and Jerry. The weather was splendid and the Aspens were at peak! On Friday, we fished the Colorado River between Shadow Mountain Lake and Lake Granby. It didn't take long until I hit pay dirt. Along a short stretch, I managed to land 17 fish, mostly rainbows, with the biggest being around 17" and the average around 12". Jerry met the same success.

We designated Saturday as our Exploring Day and decided to head north of Kremmling on I-40 towards Steamboat Springs with the intent of fishing the Yampa River. Along the way, we stopped a few times for pictures. At one stop, Al and I noticed that there were fish rising from the small lake where we had stopped to take pictures. We decided to grab our rods and make a few casts, not expecting much. Well, two hours later we had all caught more than 25 rainbows each. It was unbelievable! They were even going after our indicators! Once we stopped, we continued on to Steamboat Springs and checked Steamboat Flyfisher--a nice fly shop right in the middle of town. We had lunch at the pub across the street and decided to fish the Yampa. Not much going. I managed to get a small rainbow, but Al and Jerry met no success, there. On the way home, we stopped at the lake again where the fishing was much slower. Al and Jerry managed to land a few on dry flies, but I had no such luck.

Sunday, our final day, we headed to the Colorado at Hot Sulphur Springs. The Colorado seemed to be off and a bit high. We discovered that there was a release from the reservoir up in Granby and the river was now 2-1/2 feet higher than the previous day. Despite this, I was able to catch 5 fish--all browns--with one about 15" in length. Jerry and Al didn't have much luck and we called it a day.

Once again, a wonderful fishing event with two good friends! The fishing was the best it had ever been! Dreams do come true!

August 3, 2008. That's a wrap! All good things must come to an end, and our family vacation to Colorado officially ends tomorrow with our trip back to Denver. However, I was able to spend most of yesterday fishing. I started on the Williams Fork, but the mosquitoes were so bad that I gave up early and headed over to familiar waters on the Colorado. I fished several different locations and caught about 6 fish--all Browns. Most were in the 10 inch range, but one was about 16 inches and was beautiful! After that catch, the waters were disturbed by rafters, so I called it a day. Just in time as the afternoon rains began. Closes the books on another good trip to Colorado and quite productive.

July 31, 2008. Yesterday, July 30, we traveled to Breckenridge and Leadville, Colorado. Leadville is home to the National Fish Hatchery. We enjoyed an interesting visit and learned that they now only raise Greenback Cutthroats from egg stage. It was an informative trip and we got to see thousands of Rainbow and Cutthroats in the 'Raceways.' Unfortunately, the hatchery is extremely limited in what it can do because of a lack of resources. If you're in the Leadville area, I strongly recommend a trip to the hatchery.

July 29, 2008. SWEEEEET! That's all I can say about today's fishing on the Fraser. Started out early and landed a 14" Rainbow on a San Juan worm. During the next couple hours landed a few more, including a couple Brookies--all on the worm. Changed to a Red Copper John and landed this hog. He measures around 16" and weighed around 5 pounds!

July 28, 2008. Here's one of the small trout we caught yesterday on the St. Louis Creek!

July 27, 2008. Back in Colorado! Today, I had the chance to fish with my youngest daughter. We fished the small pond outside of our house with no success other than a few strikes. We traveled to one of my favorite spots on the St. Louis Creek where we managed to catch and land a few Brookies--oh, how I love those Brookies!

The picture to the left is of the Rainbow I caught on the Fraser River. I was not feeling much of the love since I had tried several patterns with no luck. I changed to a San Juan Worm and everybody then went nuts! I landed this guy, but lost a few of his relatives--they were all huge! This guy measured about 14" and weighed about 4 - 5 pounds. The picture is a bit distorted because I took it with my iPhone. Hopefully, this will be the first of many on this trip!

June 2008. It has been a long time since my last post, so I thought I'd fill the readers in.

During March and early April I was able to get out to fish my local waters on the Patuxent River. I prefer the delayed harvest area as it is close to home and is not heavily fished. The water levels were perfect and quite cold. Each outing I was able to hook and land at least one fish--two rainbows and a brown. This year I even fished further down and discovered a hole full of good sized fish. I hooked a big one on a Woolly Bugger, but lost it.

My spring was occupied by many things this year, including business, kids sports and the acquisition of a new Harley Davidson Motorcycle. A beautiful machine, I envision myself riding to my favorite hole.

On Memorial Day weekend, my brother and I traveled to the family vacation home in Fraser, Colorado. Due to the long winter and cool spring, runoff had been quite delayed. As a result, we tried some new waters and different parts of familiar waters. We fished the South Platte near Deckers where I managed a rainbow on a chartreuse copper john. On Saturday, we fished the Fraser River where I landed a beautiful rainbow and then several browns later in the day. We tried the Arapaho with no luck, however, it's solitude and beauty paid dividends. On Sunday, we fished the Fraser some more where I caught a few more browns and Chuck caught a healthy brown (see photo). From there, we traveled to Hot Sulphur Springs to try the Colorado--too high! So off we went to the Colorado way up in Rocky Mountain National Park. Although I managed a brown and none other, the scenery more than made up for the lack of fishing prospects. All-in-all, a great weekend of fishing, smoking cigars, and some great camaraderie with my brother. Of course, looking back, it went by way too fast.

That's about it for now. I'll start fishing the local tailwaters soon now that most of the spring activities have come to an end. Next big trip is back to Colorado later this summer for a week and a half.

Tight lines!