Got back in last Thursday night from almost a week up in Colorado fishing. To say it was a great trip would be putting it lightly. Covered a bunch of water between Pagosa Springs and Lake City. Most of the water I wanted to fish, but I did get cut short on a couple pieces due to the rain/snow. Fishing overall was very good. As cold as it was, I didn't do that great before about 11:00am, but from noon till dark, it was usually on pretty good.

Day one found me on the Piedra and Williams Fork. I was not impressed with the Piedra, on fish at least, as it was very slow. I went from there over to the Williams Fork and things picked up significantly. I will be back there in the future.



Spent the night in Pagosa and then headed over Wolf Creek Pass first thing the next morning. I started fishing the South Fork of the Rio Grande where it comes out of Big Meadow Res all the way almost down to South Fork. It was loaded with eager brookies that did not disappoint.







Stayed in South Fork that night and then after hitting up Rainbow for a few flies, I headed up the Rio Grande. My original plan was to actually fish the Rio proper on the way back down, but weather decided against that... I tried below Rio Res a good bit with little success even though the water looked great. I went above the lake and it was on like donkey kong. I felt under-gunned with my 4wt up there and paid for it by getting broke off several times on 4.4lb dropper to the nymph. Still caught a lot of nice rainbows and saw some gorgeous country to say the least.




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Spent that night in Lake City. Hit the Sportsman when they opened for a few more flies before heading to water I can not speak of as I will not reveal where it is. I will say that it was the scene for one of the absolute best days I've ever had fly fishing in Colorado. I got on the water about 9:30 and three casts in it was on. Got off the water about 3:30 due to a rain storm coming down my way that I did not want to get caught in. In that time, I am putting my catch conservatively at 50. And that is being extremely conservative. The fish were eager to eat and many holes produced 5-6 fish each.
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After the rain forced me back to the truck, it lightened up a good bit and I decided before leaving to slice up some axis summer sausage and have some with cheese and crackers for a late lunch. As I'm sitting there, I notice something dark out of the corner of my eye and look over to see what's up. Get the binos out and see two moose cruising along towards me! Bull and a cow that entered the creek right where I had just been a few minutes earlier. They worked along the creek bottom a little ways and then went on up into the timber behind me. Never more than about 125 yards away. Awesome doesn't even begin to say...
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I have a bunch of cell phone video of them, but don't know how to post that here....

After that, the weather decided to not play nice anymore and it began snowing pretty hard. I headed on down to Wagon Wheel gap for that night and stayed at the Blue Creek Lodge (highly recommend). After the next morning, the weather was not going to improve so I packed it in and came home. Wish I was still there.....

Not sure why eth other pics aren't showing up right....

There's a cap on uploaded pictures per post, I think. Cut/Paste the second half of your report into a new post.


^^^
That's a brown, btw. The last fish in the links that didn't load is a beautiful shot of a brookie. "Wormy" markings on the back are the easiest way to tell.




Great report, great trip!

I love the colors on those high country brook trout. Each one is a work of art.

Great report!

Great trip report! Thanks for posting. You should have that last picture of the brookie sent off and printed on some high end fine art photography paper and framed. The color and composition with the rocks and your hand are great.

Great pics!

Awesome post!

Thanks for the pics - felt like I was right there with you.

Hawk Puppy - how did you like Cebolla? haha

Didn't get to fish it. Was planning on hitting it and the main Rio on way back down but the rain and snow decided otherwise...

Great pics. I cannot wait to get back up there