High Country Paradise

Unfettered access to the high country has finally arrived! A trip in with Floyd and his friend Joe to kick off the back country lake season will be a memorable one for a while to come. There are still a few drifts to hike over, but that is to be expected this time of year. The first fish of the day was a beautiful cutthroat that came up and took a beetle pattern. After that almost all the fish were on midges as droppers or under an indicator. There were adult midges everywhere in the air. I managed to find my first golden trout of the season on a lake I had all to myself. This was odd as it seemed to be the busiest day of the year at the trail head. Multiple large groups of hikers were on the trails, with some of them carrying rods. Thankfully, they were headed to other destinations and only a few other fisherman were briefly around the lakes we targeted. The afternoon and evening were filled with feisty brook trout and another nice cutthroat came to hand. Joe caught his first cutthroat ever which was a great moment and nice surprise for him. Today was everything you could want from a high country trip with beautiful weather, cool temperatures, wildflowers starting to bloom, cooperative trout and on occasion, some actual solitude.

The Backcountry Cobbler

After the beerfest on Saturday evening none of us was moving particularly fast on Sunday morning. A casual breakfast was cooked and camp packing was completed. It was time to get on the trail and find a few more fish before heading out to check on Eric's leaky gas tank. On a section of trail about 200 feet above the river, Adam's sleeping bag liberated itself from his pack and tumbled all the way to the river in an impressive display of the constancy of gravity. We never saw it hit the river as the brush and trees appeared to stop it at the bottom of the hill. Adam thought about trying to hike down to get it but we talked him out of it. There was no way to really access the location where he lost sight of the bag. Pressing on to fish, the river greeted us with a few morning trout and I managed a decent rainbow on a north fork special in a deep run. Working our way up stream, Adam spots a familiar sight. His sleeping bag! It had somehow made the river and drifted downstream to a nice bend where it sat waiting for him to happen upon it. Fortuitous coincidence indeed. After recovering the cliff diving bag, Eric somehow managed to have the current suck the wading sandal off his left foot. The sandal was long gone downstream and not recovered. In typical McGyver fashion, he devised a tee shirt shoe that at least allowed him to get to the trailhead and retrieve his hiking boots. After hiking out another group of fishers confirmed that search and rescue had finally located an unfortunate kayaker that had been lost in the river in June. It was sad but I am glad the family will finally have some closure. Rest in peace Tigger. Luckily, Eric's patch job on his gas tank seemed to be holding and we headed into Riverside for a nice lunch at the Bear Trap before saying our goodbyes and departing for home.

Into The Gulch

Adam and I got everything in the SUV and headed out to meet up with Eric who made the trip over from Utah for a weekend in the wilderness area. Flows were at a decent level for fishing and the water clarity was beautiful. We found Eric at the top of the access road with his truck up on a jack. He had managed to put a small hole in his gas tank with a loose leaf spring. Resourceful as ever, he McGyver'ed up a patch from chewing gum in the truck and we all went down the access in Adam's rig. We hiked into the wilderness area and got camp set up to get started with the fishing. Wet wading all weekend in the crisp river was a treat. Some nice browns and rainbows wer found in all the typical lies with fish coming up to smash stimulators on the surface being the preferred method of take. There were bugs coming off everywhere. Stoneflies, caddis, brown and green drakes, and PMDs. It was an amazing insect show and had the fish looking up. Everything in the canyon was flowering and it made for the perfect backdrop for a backcountry fishing trip. That evening, a backcountry brewfest was conducted since we were missing the brewfest in town. A decent selection of beer managed to be packed into the wilderness consisting of Old Chub, Spaten Munich Optimator, and Sierra's Summerfest Lager.

Drift Boat River Trip - Day 2

A 5:00am start assured that we were the first boat on the river at the launch. After a quick camp pack up, the drifty was in the water and we were off as the sun wasn't even fully lighting the river canyon walls. In the early morning shade we were into fish immediately and had a better numbers day than Monday but never found the same sized fish as we had been blessed with a day earlier. With the river up the float seemed to go by much faster than normal. We saw a nice golden eagle and lots of early morning mule deer, including a sizable buck, using the river corridor. Songbirds are everywhere in the riparian area and we were inundated with different sightings and songs. More great time on the water with beautiful surroundings, trout, and wildlife. It all ended too early and we drove the shuttle and said goodbyes. Thanks to Adam and Christine for graciously inviting me along on a wonderful two days on the water.

Drift Boat River Trip - Day 1

Adam, Christine, and I got over the hill and managed to float the river with great success in the high off color water. The area rains had gotten flows up above what we would typically think of as "good". The trout were hungry however and we fed them a steady diet of stripped streamers and buggers. Adam's drift boat made things nice and easy with good handling and plenty of space to work out of the boat. With the fish tucked in tight to the banks, we bombed the banks and got some vicious strikes and hook ups from big trout. I actually landed my best rainbow from this stretch ever on the first fish of the day. Adam had a brute brown trout as well and I followed later on with another sizable brown. Christine found her first fish of the year today as well which was a ton of fun to watch. After floating, we had dinner in town and moved upstream to a remote camp spot to set up for the night and be ready to hit the river early the next morning. We watched the International Space Station pass over from camp with the trailing Russian Progress spacecraft following up behind the ISS. Adam did some fire tricks on film for me as we drank a few Trippels and then retired for the early launch on Tuesday.