First time on the river blind? Check. New boat first time in the water? Check. Flows twice as high and dangerous for this time of year? Check. Smaller than every other boat on the river? Probably so. Guides And pack mules to carry over 200 pounds of boat and gear down to the river? Not a chance lol. Making it thru alive....Pricless. Well learned a lot about this river very fast. Where to scout rapids and a game plan for the next venture here. This was not a big numbers trip unless you count the masses of small fish who were very accommodating. Casey(2flyfish4) and I did manage some amazing fish but numbers of big fish was low. That is unless you omit the big rios. This trip had so many fingers of story that could be elaborated on I'll let him follow up. He has some of the bigger fish on his camera as well. But here are a few until the follow up and full report.

Outstanding photographs Robert

Thanks for sharing

Solid Post! Good job Sir!

There is way more to this story as well as a lot more pics Casey should be along shortly with some more.

I've got the pre-trip report up on the blog.

Follow Here

Will have more up in the coming days.

Looks like an epic trip to me. I believe photo number three is my favorite.

Plus #1 and may I add "Awesome"!

Amazing photos Robert, looks like a fun trip!

Casey - did you work with Taylor at Royal Gorge Anglers?

WAY TO GO! Self Guided, epic stuff! Those rapids are no joke.
Our guide mentioned participating in many rescues of over the years.
Glad you made it out in one piece. This has all the makings of a great
FFFT feature. Congrats again.

Not in the sense of employment. He helped me with putting a box of flies together for the gorge. Taylor at Royal Gorge Anglers is good people. Ben Olson at Black Canyon Anglers and Tim with Toads Flyshop were very helpful as well.

I called this one flyshop/outfitter out of ridgeway that has a lot of youtube videos up about the gorge for information. I guess since i wasn't interested in paying the $3500 for the guided trip they had no need for me. But in all fairness if they would have been helpful i would have been more than happy to spend $100 with them for flies and other gear. Just ask Taylor and Tim

Day 1 in the gorge is posted


Follow here for day 1

Only thing missing there is the New Mexico cop in a white truck. When you are already passing a truck and realized it is a cop I guess you just keep going. He was on the phone as we passed and we were in front of him for some time but there was definitely nowhere to go LOL. He finally kicked the lights on and pulled us over as he got up to the passenger window he said you guys must be cops ha ha. He ask what we did Casey said insurance and I said I sell chicken. He laughed as he looked at me and said you don't sell chickens. I told him I sell them cooked lol. He kind of chuckled as he said you guys are making me look bad passing me and said can you slow down a little bit for me and walked back to his truck. We had ask him why we had not seen any pronghorn yet as we were into that country and he said don't tell anybody I told you but load a few of those suckers in the truck lmao. That was probably the most pleasant stopping I have ever been through and hey we slowed down for a while.

I called ahead Robert and told them you were headed that way and gave a vehicle description. Glad he was easy on you.

Great trip! Great photos!

Lol thanks:) hey you need to get with me before we reopen at work!!!! Let's get a day on the water chatterbait. We can head to the private lake or hit something local. It has been really weird having kind of a summer vacation of a few months off paid.