I floated the Colorado River today with my buddy, Scott, and had some phenomenal streamer fishing for monster brown and rainbow trout. The conditions were picture perfect for streamer fishing, overcast and at times drizzly. Fly fishing streamers is a very active technique of fishing. The conditions have to be just right to fish this way, and today they were. The way its done is that someone rows the drift boat down the river and positions the caster, who is on the very front of the boat, into position were the fish are holding, which is usually in the slower moving water along the banks and behind the huge boulders in the river where the current is broken by the obstruction. All the while, the boat is careening downriver. Once the boat is in position (this is where a master oarsman, like Scott, is worth his weight in gold to the fly caster), the caster has a brief moment to place the fly (streamer) into the productive zone. Once the cast is executed, the line needs to be immediately stripped (pulled in with the hand not holding the fly rod). This would be equivalent to turning the handle on the reel of conventional gear. As the line is stripped, the fly erratically darts just below the surface, mimicking a frantically swimming baitfish. You watch the fly the whole time in the clear fast moving water. When all goes right, a monster trout appears out of nowhere and inhales the fly in a heart stopping strike. To see a five plus pound brown trout clobber your fly on the surface three to eight feet from the boat as the races through rapids below sheer walls of a Rocky Mountain canyon is as exciting as fishing gets. I have hand fed 700 to 800 lb. bluefin tuna in the North Atlantic, and this type of fishing is every bit of an adrenaline rush as that. Believe me, words cannot convey how much of a thrill it is to see the take as I tried have described above. The weather has changed drastically here. The first snowfall of the season took place and the higher peaks are all white. Hopefully this wont change the bite in the rivers. We shall see. If the Colorado is still fishable, I think we may try to float it again tomorrow. If not, I may head back up the mountain to Ruedi Reservoir to try my hand at salmon fishing again. I think that we are taking a photographer out on Wednesday to get some professional shots for a fly fishing website, so lets hope the the fishing remains steady. *Note: I am sitting on the porch of my cabin as I type this, and I just noticed something moving at my feet in the darkness. I looked up from my phone, and there was a raccoon less than two feet from me checking me out.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 05:36:43 +0000