Taylor, East, and Gunnison rivers 8/16 - 8/18 2008
8/16, Taylor River:
Weather certainly was interesting Saturday morning. It was cold and rainy in Littleton, highly unusual for middle August. It was very socked in all the way up 285 to Buena Vista, and the clouds and rain didn't start to clear until I started up the Cottonwood Pass drainage on the BV side. Tops of all the Collegiate peaks (14,000+ ft.) had snow, along with some of the lower peaks; real hard to believe in the middle of August (they're saying this hasn't happened in 118 years). Much cooler weather than usual.
I ended up not getting to the Taylor river till about 11am; 2 hours later than I had planned. I got up on time, then went to leave the house (still on time) only to discover a geyser in the corner of my neighbor's yard flooding my lawn. His sprinkler had come apart somehow, and being 6am (and raining - not sure why he was watering), I decided to fix it and not wake him. Finally got on the road about 45 minutes late, and realized about 15 minutes into the drive that I had left my raincoat in the house when I went back in to clean up from the sprinkler mess. Had to turn around and go get it, especially with the current weather situation.
Anyway, I fished the upper catch-and-release section of the Taylor river all day, but was having serious trouble keeping those big fish hooked! There are multitudes of 18"+ fish in this stretch of river, and most are significantly larger. Combination of Browns and Rainbows, with the 'bows usually being the larger fish. It seemed that every time I would hook one up, they would easily throw the hook, or more often, just bite it right off! I took it as a personal challenge to land some of those fish, but wasn't too terribly successful. I started with 6x fluoro, and gradually migrated to 4x, but I was still getting bitten off. I hooked plenty, but most were gone within a couple of seconds (literally). I never really got the chance to fight with any of the larger fish. These fish receive a lot of pressure, and they really know how to get loose. I left lots of flies stuck in the fish, mostly nymphs I tied myself (would have been pretty expensive otherwise) on double rigs, but a couple of dries too. The biggest one I landed was only about 18"; small for that river. I did better on nymphs than on dries, but did hook a few nice ones that broke me off on dries too. A bit frustrating.
I haven't fished up there in about 15 years, and I don't recall the fish in the "trough" being that MASSIVELY big. There were a couple Rainbows I saw cruising around that were pushing 28" - 30"!!!Flows were up at about 600 cfs (they were having the Gunnison river festival in town, so they raised the flow from 400 to 600 during the week for the festival).
8/17, East River and Gunnison River:
The Gunnison was a fun float on Sunday (I floated with my Dad and a guide). We started the day by wade fishing the East river just above Almont while waiting for the temperature to warm up a bit. I fooled one Brown on a dry fly, and another one on a streamer, but landed neither. They weren't really large fish (not small either), so I wasn't too disappointed. Sometimes long releases at the end of the fight are better for both parties anyway. We started down the Gunny at about 10. Flows at almont were roughly 1,000 cfs. We caught Brown, Cutts, and Bows throughout the day. I landed a nice 19" Rainbow about 2/3 of the way down betwen Almont and Gunnison - the biggest fish we saw all day. We picked up fish on both nymphs and dries, usually fishing a dry/dropper rig. No one pattern seemed to work better over another - we changed stuff fairly often, but the best combo (if I have to name one) was a yellow Stimulator with a purple beadhead copper john dropper about 30" behind. There are some Kokanee Salmon in the river now as far up as about 4 miles above Gunnison (they come out of Blue Mesa Res). I would love to fish the Kokanee run in the East river near the Roaring Judy fish hatchery when it is in full swing some day. It was a nice, relaxing day on the river, and I enjoyed it immensly!!!
8/18, Taylor River:
Yesterday, my Dad and I fished the upper part of the Taylor again. There weren't a lot of people on the river all day, and the weather was nice (about 70 degrees and partly sunny). Something happened to me yesterday though that hasn't happened in a long time - I got skunked!!!I did hook about 8 fish, but they were all pretty decent sized, and just like Saturday, I couldn't keep them on. My Dad claims he never even hooked one. Tough day. The flows were dropping back down from 600 to 400, so that might have had to do with the slow day. I guess sometimes the fish have to put us in our place and remind us who's the boss...
Who's signature is it - "The fish are always right"?
PS - Colorado Real-Time Streamflows
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