Just What We Were Looking For

One of the things a person learns after a time is to be careful about creating too many expectations based on daydreams, imagination or exaggerated stories. If you do, you are likely to be disappointed or worse you may actually attain your dream but not be satisfied because it didn't quite match up to unreasonable expectations on your part. I think this is particularly true, when it comes to traveling and fishing. It is all too easy to imagine a perfect destination, perfect weather, and everything going your way--say like catching a lot of very cooperative fish. No doubt, planning a fishing trip is an act that is particularly susceptible to this kind of disappointment. This is one of the reasons that I plan a general trip with different prime candidate locations but I try not to depend on just one or two to use as a measure of the success of a trip. Doing so eventually messes with why I'm fishing anyway. Of course, there are those long winter evenings when you long for a summer mountain stream to explore and the imagination just sort of wanders....
I'm mostly a small stream fisherman. And because I'm not very good at this game I have to find the dumbest trout I can which means trout that haven't seen a fly in a while and are very hungry. This is one of the reasons I fish backcountry streams. Of course the ambiance might have something to do with it as well. When I'm searching for that new special fishing stream, I have a checklist in my mind that I go over. Backcountry? Wilderness? Nearby Roads? Well-known or unknown? Trails or no Trail? Accessibility? Size of the stream? Size of the fish? Type of trout? For a lot of the information I look in published Colorado DNR reports. For most of the rest I search through maps, Google Earth, as well as the boon and the bane of today's world: the online trip report. Photos from trip reports can provide a ton of clues even if the stream is not identified. I said boon and bane because I truly believe these hidden gems need to be appreciated to be protected. On the other hand, these special places and the experiences they provide are very sensitive to too much use. I choose to write up experience to share but I also choose not to name streams or make things too easy. I happen to think that prospecting for these places is at least half the fun---particularly when one pans out.
Years ago I read a chapter in a book that featured an area near where I fish in So. Colorado. Even after the author named the stream, I still wanted to fish it since it was deep in the national forest on poor roads and by his description the fishing was still excellent. I had fished this stream a couple of times before but not in the location described by the author--that is until this year. These mountains were sculpted by volcanoes and ice. The glaciers left cirque lakes and hanging valleys, with high mountain meadows terminating in steep canyons. Sometimes the water falls in a continuous series of pocket water as it rushes to another valley below and other times due to the underlying geology the canyon is marked by a series of waterfalls and plunge pools. This stream is the later and was one of two primary goals that Randy and I had identified as fishing destinations on this trip. After a night of rain we didn't know how this stream would hold up---it was up high in the watershed though so we assumed it would clear early.
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We needn't have worried the stream was crystal clear. This time on the stream we meant to target this canyon. There is a fishing trail but no official trail here. We headed on down canyon.

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And it just got better and better.


And deeper and steeper.

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We were having a ball and we hadn't even started fishing. The canyon was one waterfall after another. Both of both of agreed that any fish at this point would just be icing on an already successful exploration. We finally made our way down a scree slope to the edge of the stream and started fishing here. We got our icing.

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Randy took a little longer to make his way down so I was the first to wet a line. Before Randy could rig up I had caught 4 of these.

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Randy and I alternated pools and runs as we worked our way back up canyon, catching cutthroats in every bit of holding water where you would expect them to be.

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Sharing water like this with folks that appreciate it as much as you do is a blessing. Likewise, as I said to Randy, I was sure that both of our wives would have frowned on our fishing this kind of water alone. Even when the canyon opened up the creek itself was still a challenge to explore.


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There were some places that were simply breath taking. I didn't even care if I caught fish--but we did.


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A closer view:
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Yet another waterfall and pool.


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Before we finished out the day we both agreed we had to come back later in the week and further explore this creek. We did just that on the way back from a two night camping and fishing trip. Not often is the return trip as fine as the first--especially with such a short turn around but ours was this time. We each caught many more trout on the second trip and we didn't even fish the same water. Most of the cutthroats were 10-12 inches but occasionally there was one that was a cause for celebrations--at least for a stream this size.


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We were very satisfied. Our year long obsession had panned out. We both agreed that this stream would be added to our annual list of streams to fish.


Later, we found out that this stream was only a ghost of its former self. Apparently, it has become too well known, locally. I hope it recovers to its former self but that is not likely if it is fished multiple times a week. I don't know how often it is fished but I'm guessing that is exactly what is happening. Still, this stream also provided something else--further inspiration to explore other out-of-the way, hard to get to streams in the area. I am already obsessing over three more streams that I think are very similar to this one but even harder to get to.....until next year.

I'm going to keep this one off of the front page... for the sake of the stream. :)

I think that is a good idea. It's not all that hard to figure out from the waterfall photos.

Such a beautiful large trout in such a small stream!
For me, it is surprising that such a great fishery (yes, it's great by our standards) is maintained only by natural reproduction of wild trout without stocking (right?).

No recent stocking that I am aware of. Parts of the stream get fished pretty heavily which makes the fishing difficult. Once you get past the easy access points though, the fishing gets much better. It is a classic case of how fishing pressure can adversely affect the quality of the fishing. The stream should have only one variety of cutthroat trout but instead has a mix. Sometime in its history someone has placed Snake River Cutthroats (not native to the area) in the stream as well as some rainbow trout. Both have either mostly disappeared or have hybridized with the original natives. Brook trout are beginning to show up in parts of the stream as well. Still it is a fun place to fish.

Green piney woods as far as the can see, a lovely little stream winding it's way through some steep sided scenery.
Pretty, colourful locals too...:thumbup:

I can't load all the pics, but let me assure you...the are no fish in Colorado...or California either. I hear AZ has a 'virtual' cornicopia of trout!

Good writing, good hiding. Well done. Glad you didn't fish in my back yard! I'd be fished out!

Luv,
Shay

PS thing...
Are you the same 'old' man who used to post on the old Jefferson Board? Er, not that I meant you were old or anything...just that you've been around the block a couple of times and can't even begin to imagine why you might leave Jefferson to fish such an exotic location such as Southern Colorado?

When I travel in the northwest, I am particularly drawn to Eastern Oregon---I'm not completely sure but the landscape and people remind me of home. That is a long way of saying I'm not the guy on the old Jefferson Board. I've lived in KS my entire life and while I still fish some for local warm water fish, my preference is for cold, clear streams. And that means I travel to fish and it also means I likely obsess too much waiting for that next opportunity to fish one of those mountain streams. And then there is the driftless......

BW

ps I think your advice on the presence of fish in Calif. is simply golden.

pss In some circles I am old.

ksbioteacher - I learned to fly fish from my Uncle at Mann Lake, at the base of the Steens mountains. Sometime in the late '70's. It doesn't get much more Eastern Oregon than that. At the time it was a Fly Only lake full of BIG Lahontan Cutts.

Shay - you thinking he's JD or Fred? (those curmudgeons show up here occasionally, but they're way more active on the two hander boards...)

I regret driving by Steens on one of our prior trips and not stopping to explore the back country.