Christina and I hit the road Friday night, arriving at Colorado Bend SP well after dark. When we woke up we realized that we had set up camp literally ten yards from the river. I knew it was there at night, but I didn't realize it was right there.



We cooked up a nice camp breakfast of eggs, sausage, and hashbrowns then headed out to explore the park. It's actually a very nice park, with a combination of arid desert stuff interspersed with several very nice springs, streams, and waterfalls (including a much bigger one not shown.)









On this particular day there was also a little bluegrass festival going on, so we stopped and listened during lunch.



Eventually, though it was time to get down to business. We headed down to the river, and I started to fish. We headed upstream, passing people with full stringers of fish heading back to camp until we found some riffled water.



I was fishing my 8 weight with a #6 white/chartreuse clouser. The deepest water I encountered was just past my waist, so the dumbbell eyes fly I was using initially kept fouling, but when I switched to a bead chain one and got some clean retrieves it was game on.



I caught four fish in about thirty minutes, and the guys around me were doing equally well. We had to head back to camp sooner than I would have liked, as it was getting dark quickly, and we needed to get dinner going, but I could have easily gotten many more as it got darker.

We released two and kept two for the pan. All the fish I caught on this trip were between 12" and 14". One kept fish was male, one was female.





I'll be back down there next year for the run for sure. It's a great fly destination this time of year. Seems like it would get very hot in summer, though.

Thanks for the report, and nice photos! How crowded were the camping areas?

Totally full. There were some open sites Friday night, but by Saturday it was packed. They've actually been closing the park because it's at capacity recently.