HnF,

I've caught a few; however, I quickly learned I'm not the man I used to be when one of the regulars here took me up above the lake to what looked like the place where Butch and Sundance jumped off of the cliff. Once I got down to the river and picked myself out of the river (slick rocks), I seriously wondered what it would cost to have a chopper come and get me.

The turistas will start to thin out mid-August

fishin magician - felt soled boots will help but are no guarantee that you won't go down in the moss covered streambeds .

You guys are awesome. I knew all I needed was to ask for help. I know about the altitude as I lived in Ft.ollins for a brief stint. I am considering a trip up to Red Feather lakes. You guys ever been? Hunt n Fish feel free to take over. You're like a well filled with great info.

Fishin Magician, lots of great advice in this thread. I'll just add a few tips.

Good qualitly 4 lb line is great stuff. On the Panther Martin, agree on the yellow with red spots. I've used them as small as 1/24 oz.(you can reel those super slow and still keep the blade moving) Also had decent luck on black/black w/red spots blade and red/black blade but yellow is the go-to color. If your fishing any streams, try to reel them so they go just by the downstream side of big rocks.

The clear water bubbles are also fun to use for casting flies on your spinning rod. If your desperate to catch something to eat power bait is pretty hard to beat but not as mutch fun as lures and flies. A trick for the power bait is to use slip corks with the little rubber stoppers you can set them to hold the bait wherever the fish are - deep as 20', or 3-4' below surface - whatever you need. A popular method for the power bait is bottom fishin like you would for catfish. That works, but if there's a lot of moss on the bottom, the slip corks work better.

A real fun thing to do is drive up some logging road till you find a stream with reasonable acess. Get a jar of salmon eggs, some size 10 or 12 aberdeen style hooks and little tiny split shots. Tie on the hook, 12-18" up from hook, crimp a shot - maybe two depending on speed of current, hook a single egg and cast straight upstream. You want the shot bouncing off the bottom with the egg floating and waving around just above. Reel just fast enough to keep most of the slack up. This can be murder on the little small brook trout. You used to be able to keep 10 under 6" and as far as I'm concerned there's no finer eating to be had than some of those guys caught fresh and broiled over wood coals with a lttle lemmon and butter.

Ok my last one is a secret - you can't tell anyone. Get some of the little teeny Rebel crawfish - green ones and brown ones. Both in the deep diver and shallow ones. These can be pure murder in the lakes. An old man up there once told me "Son, those things aren't going to work here - these fish feed on salmon eggs" My buddy said "Oh, you have a lot of salmon up here do you"? Trust me on the teeny craws, those fish may have never seen a crawfish but they'll jump on one in a heartbeat.

I can't wait to here your trip report when you get back. Wish I was going. Have a blast and try to post us some pics if you can.

Jon

The trout tend to swallow the Powerbait and that means mortally injured fish. I hate when that happens.

Oldgringo, I think you are exactly correct about the powerbait being bad for catch & release. Thanks for mentioning that. Seems like 9 times out of ten they will swallow it too deep for survival. I use it when I want to keep some trout to eat and am having trouble with the other methods. One other thing to mention about that. I think some streams are designated Gold Medal waters, catch and release only, or maybe one over 16"? or some such. Anyway, those have special regs, no bait allowed, etc. and usually marked with boundary signs stating the rules. Wouldn't want to be using power bait in any of those places at all.

Jon

Don't worry. Any fish I injure I will eat. Didn't really plan on using powerbait unless I absolutely had to . Sounds like the method is similar to catching white bass in the spring up at Reimer's . I'm so excited I can hardly sleep.

I'd recommend that you don't plan on eating more than four per license per day. Colorado loves Texas' money but don't particularly cozy up to Texans - especially the D.O.W.

Life is good.

Oldgringo: I plan on following any and all regulations and rules. I was born in Ft. Collins and have lived in Colorado before. I'm very aware of how welcoming the state can be to Texans. Are the limits the same regardless of where I fish? Different limits for different trout? Any specific info on bag rules would be greatly appreciated. Besides a fishing license, anything else I may need?

You should pick up the DOW fishing handbook where and when you get your license.

BTW, they want cash for the license not a card or a check. A non-resident annual license is 61 smackers

yes- all kinds of different rules for different places but the good news is most water is posted andthe boundaries are well marked

WORTH EVERY PENNY IF YOU ASK ME! HOW ABOUT SOME FAVORITE MOUNTAIN SIDE/CAMPING TROUT RECIPES.

Clean 'em, wrap 'em in foil with some lemon and butter - salt & pepper (a jalapeno doesn't hurt) and throw them in the fire. Drink some more brown whiskey, remove the wrapped fish from the fire, drink some more brown whiskey. Have someone drive you to to McDonalds.

I don't know about McDonalds but the rest sounded great. Thanks for the tips OldGringo.