Dusky Day Tomorrow

 I spent the day at my campsite switching over my gear from fishing to bird hunting.   License, ammo, orange clothes, all ready to go.

It's supposed to start raining in the afternoon and continue off and on through Thursday.  Friday-Sunday forecast is good.  The original plan was for Brian to join me here at Spring Creek Wednesday night but with Thursday being a likely washout including lightning I think he'd be better off coming Thursday night. 

More signs of Fall: yellow jackets are in frenzy mode and some flecks of yellow are in the aspens.   Yes, the bees are busy, busy, busy.  As soon as one YJ thinks it's got something edible, 3 or 4 others join it.  Very annoying. 

It was remarkably warm today for the time of year and elevation.   More bow hunters arrived and all of the campsites here are now occupied.  Earlier in the summer only one other site was taken when I got here.  Hopefully,  that means this area is good for birds too.

The wildfire I saw last night is at Black Mountain near Hot Sulphur Springs.  Smoke obscured the entire northern end of the valley all day and there are no reports of it getting dramatically worse.   I wager the rain will help slow it down.

No Way!

Entrance to my previous campsite.   Much steeper than the picture suggests and the rut much deeper.   Only feasible for 4x4 vehicles. 

 Yes way!  For my final trout outing of this trip I selected the confluence Gore Creek and Eagle River.  Hazy hot and humid in West Vail; around 86 at noon.  Between old railroad bed and highway the river had more the character of a canal with steep man-made stone walls that forced it into a relatively narrow channel.  The up side of that it also creates deeper pools and faster riffles than normal.  

I walked the tracks looking for good pools but the walls were pretty loose and slippery I made my way down to a couple of nice pools but came up empty.  Walked back up the tracks and tried the pool there.

Fish on! He wailed on the grasshopper part of my hopper-dropper, something I hadn't experienced all summer.  I could see it was about 7 inches but punching far above its weight.  What a fighter.  But there was something peculiar too.  Occasionally,  I got a glimpse of something shiny just behind the fish on my line.  Maybe a beer can?  No.

I've seen bass follow a fish I'm reeling in but neither bass nor pike would be in this river.  Then I saw it.  It was a nice big rainbow who had taken the dropper (nymph) at the same moment the smaller fish took the hopper!  I was fighting 2 trout simultaneously and the big guy did not want to be landed.

The little guy was sometimes suspended in midair as I tried to bring the rainbow in.  I finally decided the little cutthroat was going to die in this battle so I eased up enough to get him back into the water.  The rainbow took full advantage and violently thrashed around, successfully freeing himself from the barbless nymph.

What a great finish!  2 trout at the same time.  😀

In other news. I'm camped at Spring Creek again, awaiting the grouse season on Wednesday.   There are already a bunch of bow hunters here waiting for deer season on Thursday. 

I'm a bit nervous right now because I can see a wildfire burning about 10 miles from here but it's not on any of the Internet maps yet.

360

 Several times, I've passed by a parking lot on my way to campsites at Shrine Pass which has been jammed with vacationers.  It's in the middle of a large Meadow and is the trailhead  for a modest hike that overlooks the meadow.

Out of curiosity I gave it a try as my day hike today.  I encountered a dozen other so people on my way up and a hundred who were on their way up while I was descending. 

So, what is it that makes this hike so popular?  A 360 degree view of of mountain ranges.  While the view was muted by smoke and ozone it was nonetheless,  stunning.  

Crazy contrast in temps today: 86 in the valley, 56 at my campsite.   Bats have stopped showing up at twilight,  humming birds no longer scower the fields, only a ew grasshoppers fly up when you walk a trail that has lots of sun.  Riparian bushes are turning yellow, making ready for winter.  Aspen are still green.    Dusky season starts Wednesday. 

All Day Fishing

 Spent the entire day on the Eagle River.  Despite the strong sun on this cloudless day, it was utterly comfortable.   The water level was dramatically lower than when I my visit in July.  Nonetheless,  water temps were adequate and although very few fish were rising it turned out they were present in considerable quantities. 

When I arrived at the water's edge early this morning there was a major hatch underway.  Unfortunately,  the hatch was people.  7 people were already in the spot I'd selected and word was downstream was even worse.  Several people has their dogs with them who were eager to retrieve whatever it was their masters were constantly throwing in the water.  Why the circus?  Last Saturday in August.

I bit my tongue and set up a bit downstream of a guy who was nymphing a riffle.  He had a huge bobber such as a 5 year old might use and yet, he was nailing one fish after another.  I decided it wouldn't help to tell him nymphs don't work.

In the meantime,  I rigged up a dry-dropper and started experimenting with different nymphs,  none of which worked of course.   Mr. Bigbobber continued to catch small trout until he started getting serious strikes.  He had several hefty fish on but kept losing them.  Then, he hit The Big One and had a long dramatic fight with his hunting dog, standing next to him in the water excitedly coaching him on how to bring it to net.  Must have been close to 3lbs, a whopper brown.

Me? Nuttin.  I switched to dry flies because fish were rising now and because, well you know about nymphs.  BAM!  Fish on!  It seemed like a decent size but he was putting up quite a fight.  The hunting dog sat quietly.   Oh sure, no coaching tips for me eh?  It turned out to be a nice fat rainbow around 18 inches.  Worth waiting for!

Caught 2 unremarkable browns in the early  afternoon on dry-dropper.  Late in the afternoon,  I found a nymph the fish seemed to like.   Several strikes followed by a truly corpulent rainbow.  Gorgeous.   Took a while to revive him but he sat just a few feet away and sulked over having been caught.

Planning a hike in the AM and not sure about PM.  Campsite at Shrine Pass again but it being Saturday,  I was fortunate to get the last one.

Fall is coming

 We've had a couple of hard frosts and the ground cover plants are turning red and yellow.  No change in aspens yet.  Sunset has moved from around 9:00 to 8:30.

The extravagant wildflowers of mid-July, gave way to August yellow and white daisies which have now largely faded.  Summer is short at these elevations and autum is even shorter.  Mid-September snows are not unusual in the mountains. 

I've seen more deer in the last week than all summer long.  The Canada geese don't appear to be ready to depart just yet.  As I fished the Eagle River yesterday a gaggle of geese swam up within about 20 ft from me and went about their usual routine.   Turns out, they sent my picture back East and got a text from other geese "oh, that's just Dan.  You are safe".

Did a 5 mile scouting trip today but saw no duskies.

End of my Colorado adventure is a week from Sunday when Brian and I will have  wrapped up a grouse hunting trip.   I'm ready to be back home with the attendant creature comforts: roof, heat, TV etc.

Shrine Pass

 Staying at Shrine Pass for the next few days to fish the Eagle River. Tried the headwaters today where Eagle is just a large brook .  Got three small bookies.

Will hike local trails tomorrow to prep for dusky season next week.

Last night's campsite 

The Beatles

 Asian pine beetle has not been all that noticeable in the East but out here in Colorado is has been devastating.   Whether down near the Rio Grande or up near Steamboat Springs,  you can see 20 - 60% tree deaths. 

Views from Ute Pass.  Turns out, there ARE so mountains out there.

Zoom in on these pictures of Big Meadow Reservoir.  It wasn't a wildfire that caused all those trees to die.  It was pine beetle. 

The earlier pics of the "haystacks" I posted show how much blowdown of "snags" are out there. 

Hiked part of Ute Peak trail today as that is where Brian got his duskies last year.

Play Day

 Still at Spring Creek.  The strong breezes and chilly temps eased up a bit today making a wonderfully comfortable day.  I did a bunch of maintaince chores(laundry, waterproofed hiking boots, paid bills etc.) and then decided to make a bench to sit on.

Recall my camp chair was stolen?  I bought a new one at a hardware store but it turned out to be a children's size.  Fine, I'll make my own!

Had to saw part of a downed tree, and then split it.  To do that I made some wedges from an Aspen tree and a big ass hammer/maul to pound them.  The log was riddled with insect tunnels and didn't spit as neatly as I would have liked.  Next, I drilled holes for the legs with a Scottish Eye (Google that one).  I cut some branches to length and whittled them to fit tightly in the holes.  Yep, looks like hell but it works.

Finished product and the tools I used  and made 

Notice the exquisite craftsmanship!

View of and from my campsite at 9.5K ft

Selfish on the clear waters of the Blue River 

Windy

 Strong and steady breezes started early this AM.  As I was out scouting for duskies the combination of conifers, fresh breeze from the north, and brisk temps reminded me very much of Maine.  Haven't been there in about 10 years despite generous offers from my sibs.  I regret very, very much not taking them up on it.

Hiked about 5 miles today on service roads in Spri g Creek.  A number of promising areas but no actual dusky sightings.  As I'd hoped I got the campsite with the grea view.  Will post pics tomorrow. 

Moonrise across the valley over Williams Peak. 

Smoke has cleared a lot taking the ghostly veil off the mountains but it's still not as clear as it could be.

Recon Day

 Not too much excitement today.  Scouted a few locations looking for grouse.

Grouse Mountain (yes, that is its real name).  Top half is closed due to last year's Troublesome fire (800K acres). But I drove through about 80% of the roads that were still open.

Pumphouse Recreational Area:  completely packed with rafters, kayakers,  drift boats, a Dusky Wading fishermen by the truckload.   No thanks.

Radium Spring:  3 miles from Pumphouse and meant for fishing not grouse hunting.

Williams Fork Reservoir outlet: okay, so most of what I looked at was for fishing.  Class 5 rapids...not wadeable.

Spring Creek: I'm camped there now. More tomorrow. 

The vast open spaces continue to impress.  Look at this pic in which you can see the western side of the valley getting clobbered by a thunderstorm while east and north have sunshine.

BTW, I'm going to put out a bounty for the jerks who stole my camp chair, bucket, and dish towel while I was away for the day.

Fraser Canyon Payday

 Fished Fraser River on Tuesday but was cut short by rain and lightning.   Fish were rising but not taking my flies.  Today, I caught 8 browns, 7-9 inches, all on nymphs  which as we all know, do not work.

Rainy day yesterday so I scouted the Eastern side of Williams Peak (Western side was my first campsite of the trip).  There's little or no access.   No Forest Service roads for example.

Staying near Horseshoe campground tonight near Williams Fork.    Having terrible back pain,  muscle spasm.  Hope it clears up in time for Dusky season. 

BTW, I found a perfect winter gig.  Those "haystacks " of wood are meant to be burned during the winter as part of the anti pine beetle campaign.   I'm definitely the person for that job!

Prowling Fraser Canyon

 I did a series of three relatively short hikes today, looking for "covers" that might hold Dusky grouse.  Got my daypack together and set out on the Forest Service road my campsite is on here in the BLM Strawberry Recreational Area.  I walked down into a ravine that had appeared to have suffered a small wildfire or maybe a controlled burn.  The forest floor looked as though someone had picked up all the deadwood and assembled it into relatively neat piles.(see pic).  Either that or the forest creatures are planning a huge bonfire. 

Monet-nspired "haystacks"?

As I turned to go back up the road, I heard a pickup truck approaching and moved to the side.  As he rounded the corner, a Dusky grouse flushed up into a tree (see pic).  He just sat there on a pine bow as I approached for a picture.  Snapped it and he flew off down the very steep hill.  No other flushes after that but I did find several mistakes on Google Maps and Gaia GPS.  The latter was missing a FS altogether and GM mislabeled one of the roads.

Dusky hiding on a branch on the left.

Tomorrow,  I want to try fishing the Fraser River in the canyon.  There are three separate parking lots that can take 5-7 cars each so it's evidently super popular.  The trail is about a mile long but it gives you access to about 10 miles of river that only guides on float trips can get to.

I'll do some more Dusky scouring in the AM as that's the best time to spot them.

Fraser river Part II

My campsite tonight.   Conifer and Aspen.  Sweet!

 Stayed over at Brian and Lindsay's house last night.  Good to see them, do some laundry and have a hot shower.  They climbed Long's Peak on Saturday.  14,529 ft with a 5K ft elevation change from the parking lot. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/toizA9MtdNtEQefa9

People who attempt it show up at 2 or 3:00 AM so they can get down below treeline before afternoon thunderstorms roll in.   Very dangerous climbing that is nearly vertical  much the time and a mistake could well be fatal.  Not something I could do!

I'm making a second attempt to explore the Fraser River canyon which is blocked from both ends by private property.  Being that I'm from a town that has one of the few streets in the country with a Do Not Enter sign at both ends, I decided to use it as a model and access it from the middle.   Found a Forest Service road that gets you  a footpath which leads to the river and also has some nice dispersed camping .

Radioactive Reservoir

 I went to Taylor Resevoir.  Huge, with glorious views of the Sawatch mountain range.  Just below the dam, there were about 40 fishernen packed into about a 50 yard stretch of Taylor River.  Curiosity got the better of me so I pulled over to watch.  I noticed that 100 yards downstream there was a fellow geezer but all by himself.  He had a huge brown trout in his net.  As I watched a bit more the river was swarming with similar sized beasts.  This was why all those guys were there.

I hurried back to the truck for my rod etc.  It was "popcorn" rises everywhere but the fish were huge.  It took lots of experimenting but I finally got a big brown on.  Personal best for certain, around 23 inches, equalling brother Alan's best.  Had a monster rainbow on later, much bigger than the brown but he wiggled free as I tried to land him.  Got 2 more browns, slightly smaller than the first.

What an outing!  Reservoir must have radioactive water.

Personal best!

Scouting Kebler Pass

 Camped in a National Forest a little NW of Crested Butte which is a ski town.  The wealth is on par with many such towns but not as fully developed as Vail or Aspen.  Condos, kitschy village stores, and lots of scattered dream homes in the Colorado style.

Why grandmother,  what big claws you have!

Camp site.

Persied metor shower was pretty cool last night despite the smokey skies.  Because there's very little light pollution you can tons of stars but what really strikes me is how vividly the luminosity of planets stands out compared to CT skies.  Alas,  cloudy tonight.

Explored Kebler Pass FS road today.  About a 5 mile hike including some serious Bushwhacking through dense forest I probably shouldn't have done.   Some very

nice open meadows but evidence of mountain lions too.

Cuttie Quest Complete!

Cruiser.  Zoom in a bit left of center. 

 I happened to run into a fellow fly fisherman last night who showed me a video of a very large cutthroat trout she'd caught at Poage Lake where I'd been just a few days ago.

I determined to go back and give it another try.  Technically,  I caught a cuttie at Shaw Reservoir  on Monday but 4 inches was not what I had in mind.

As I got to Poage this morning I immediately saw a pretty big trout slowly cruising the shallows so I frantically set up and cast a red Humpy.  No interest from the cruiser.  Big fuzzy stimulator?  Yawn.  Elk Hair caddis with a nymph dropper?  Cruiser, swam right up to it, opened his mouth, my heart pounding, and simply turned away!  Several more times I presented the same duo but cruiser just made more teasing approaches.  Lady fisherman got her cuttie with a nymph but cruiser ignored mine entirely. 

He then started sipping midges (tiny bugs) right in front of me.   I took the nymph off and replaced it with a midge.  I cast this duo just a few feet from shore.  Once again,  cruiser sauntered up to the elk hair, turned it down and casually opened his mouth for my midge.  Soooo hard to wait for the critical milliseconds for him to actually have it in his mouth without pulling it away too soon.  Wait too long and he'd spit it out.

BAM!!! Fish on.  Cruiser was just three feet in front of me when I set the hook.  There was an explosion of water, flashing silvery and bown as the fight took place.  I landed him in less than a minute and was ecstatic to see an 18 inch cuttie!  Took pic. Got him back into the water and watched him swim away.  That's a genuine bucket list item now, checked.

Dusky Mode

 Spent the day fishing south fork of Rio Grande.  They engineered a section near Park Creek so it has rows of boulders that stretch across 3/4 of the river about every hundred feet.   This creates a series of cascading pools for trout.  I worked each of the pools and got 3 browns, one a nice golden color. 

Time to shift gears and prepare for Dusky season which starts September 1st.   I will spend more time scouting for covers and less fishing.  Tomorrow,  I will head for Kebler Pass which may have some duskies plus magic elves in a hollow tree.

Smoke was way better today, dunno  why.  Hasn't rained for a while so, we are overdue. 

Meadow Joy

 

Beaver Creek Meadow near South Fork 
  Beautiful.   Caught 5 small bookies but no cutthroat rumored to thrive there.

Started the day at Crystal Lakes around 11,000 ft  elevation.   No signage or marked trails,  had to bushwhack.   Cutthroat rumored to be there.    Very pretty.  6 or ducks,  3 impressive rises but that was it.  Fished it for about an hour with no strikes

Bushwhacking out was extremely steep.  Tough going.

Crystal Lake.   Not a reservoir,  a real alpine lake. 

Tomorrow,  more time on Rio Grande South Fork.

Momma dusky and her 2 babies

Smokeageddon

 

Smoke from the wildfires further West is worst since I arrived.  The mountains in puc are just 3 miles away and yet no details can be seen. 

Rain has calmed down.  Staying near Big Meadow Reservoir which would be very pretty sans smoke.  Caught 6 rainbows in 45 minutes  at days end giving me a chance to school spin casters who weren't catching anything.

Earlier in the day I hiked to Shaw Reservoir  which had thick layer of pea soup slime on it.  I thought at first it had been filled up with silt due to wildfire last year.  Saw no rises and was about to leave when I asked an elderly couple who were fishing from their camp chairs by the shore if they'd had any luck. Got 2 so far they claimed.   So I paused for a bit and began to see rises. 

I set up shop and began getting strikes but fish got off in seconds.  Eventually,  I got a 4 inch cutthroat- my very first!  Caught 5 cutbows after that, all 10-12 inches.  Stocked but still fun.  

I'm off to try south branch of Rio Grande.

  Update:

South fork Rio Grande.  Nearly ideal for me. About 25ft wide, moderate flow.  Had 5 fish on but only landed one (8 inch brown).

Tomorrow Beaver Creek and Crystal Lake.

Wading boot completely fell apart in CO mud!
I got way more mileage out of those Cabelas boots than I could've imagined.  I knew it was dying but elected not to bring a back up pair.  FAIL!

South Fork Rio Grande.   Ideal size for me. 5 fish on, only landed one.   Pretty brown, 8 inches.  Crystal Lake and Beaver Creek tomorrow. 

Rio Trio

 Been to a number campsites lately with no cell cvg.  

Yampa: 2nd attempt to try further downstream from headwaters was a complete bust.  Water was way too warm in Craig.  Steamboat Springs will let you fish the Yampa which flows right through the town, except that they closed it to fishing due to high water temps.   They suggested Chuck Lewis recreation area south of town.  I get there and it too is closed for same reason.   I follow the river for miles trying to find public access but it's all fenced off.  Finally. I found a short stretch in a National Forest and it looks beautiful...except the water is really high and murky due to all of the rain.  Huge wads of alge were breaking loose from when the water was low.   Ewww

Rio Grande: time to escape all the rain so I headed for headwaters of Rio Grande.   There 4 or 5 reservoirs on the way but they looked like the pits of strip mines.  Horrible.   The plan was to camp near Mt Canby where the RG begins as a mere brook.  Forest Service road got increasingly narrow and sketchy so I backed off.  Fished the RG in an open Meadow the next day.  Gorgeous,  no rain and three beefy rainbow trout plus one that got away.  

Next day I tried the Palisade section of RG.  Pretty but no fish.  Finding a campsite for the night was a series of failures:  roads that don't ex

Poage Reservoir not on my map, near Beaver Creek area of Rio Grande NF

ist anymore, others that are blocked,  hailstorm,  etc.  I wound up driving 10 miles on a NFS road but found an excellent site.

One of the Rio Trio of rainbow trout

As I prepared to leave this AM I saw multiple cars going past my site.

White knuckle access road to Mt Canby

so I decided to follow    Turns out,  there's a reservoir not marked on my map they were headed to.  Short walk and boy, was it worth it!  CLEAR blue water and loaded with trout.  I caught at least 10 cutbows that were 12 - 18 inches plus 2 little ones.  Still haven't actually caught a cutthroat yet but that sure was fun.

Headed toward Delores tonight. 

Sunshine Please

 6 straight days w 6 or more hours of rain.  All rivers and creeks are roaring and mud colored.   Heading SW to find some sunshine and fishing.   Fairplay or maybe further.

Potential Darwin Award.  Would also make a good poster.  Smokey The Bear pointing to fireplace saying "WTF?"