On June 8th I was planning a wonderful 2 week stay at out place in Leadville where my wife and I would spend one of our wonderful week long vacations. I would get to do some fly fishing on the Arkansas and some of the feeder streams, and she and I could take the dogs for a walk. We got to Leadville around noonish and after doing the usual unpacking, settling in...it was 4:30 and I thought I would take the opportunity to try to see if a wet line would be fun.
I fished the tail waters of the outlet of Turquoise Lake and was hitting about every 3rd cast. I was having FUN(!) with 8"-10" browns on that small stream using a BH Prince #14 and a Caddis floater #14. I then caught a beautiful Brookie about 4" long on the caddis...(hungry little fish) and I, in my usual manner admired the little bugger and prepared to release him. As I bent down to do that, I sort of slipped on the moving rocks in the streambed and then realized I was going to get wet.
As luck would have it...I tipped over and said to myself..."Self, you are going to get wet." I put out my right hand in preparation to fall and the did. I managed to hit the palm of my hand on a mossy rock and then slipped and jammed my middle finger into another rock and it felt kind of strange. I pulled my hand back..obviously sitting in the stream and looked at my fingernail popped out and said ..."drat!" (expletive deleted). I wound it up and went to the car looking for something to wrap the whole thing up in and using my sock bag did the same.
I went to the car, went back to our place and honked to my wife and said "We are going to the emergency room." Leadville has a wonderful emergency facility and I walked into the place in my waders, boots, wet and other stuff and looked at the admitting nurse and she said.."fish hook., right?" I said "Nope...I caught a Brook trout and the little bastard bit me."
She laughed and said..."Well, we have bass out there, but no little bastards in out streams." Jokingly...of course. She then took a look at my finger and said "Oh my god! We need to get you in the back ASAP!"
They did a wonderful job of taking care of me...stitches and such...to long to discuss here, but it is now a broken finger and surgery later, in Littleton,. But I am now feeling that I can go fishing again (it was a BAD injury).
Leadville ER called all about trying to find a hand surgeon to help, Vail being the closest, but they were apparently too busy playing golf, and the guy in Denver said come in Monday morning. So...my wife and I spent a wonderful weekend and came home Monday. I got into the hand surgeon on Tuesday, and he said.."gee, it's too swollen to operate, wait a week."
I know have two pins in my finger, am leaving on vacation to visit my dad in Minneapolis, and will fish the Brois Brule or the Namekegon in Wisconsin in two weeks...all is not lost.
But, I know how a skier feels when he breaks his leg on the first day of the two week ski vacation.
Keep your lines wet!
Rick Pangell, Littleton Colorado
Now for the topper! I was up last weekend (10/5-7) fishig the Arkansas and managed to get a couple good sized rainbows in the Hayden Ranch access. I then went over to the Halfmoon Creek stream after lunch, tied a 6x tippet on with#20 emegers and only got a couple of small brookies. There is a lake near there called Emerald lake which I then proceeded to go to. I didn't change my tipped, being it was a cool day and tied on a flymph. I got a strike which seemed to hit hard, but I didn't hook. A guy about 50 yards down the shore was fishing with eggs and hit into a 16" rainbow! A few minutes later his wife cam down to me and said "Mister, is this your fly?" It was so I asked her where she found it and she said it was in the jaw of the rainbow her husband caught.
I reeled in and put it up for the rest of the day.
