Conejos Trip, August 2010

[Brooktrout]

This past Friday a buddy and I left Albuquerque for south-central Colorado’s Conejos drainage. We were set for three days of fishing and a stay in a rustic cabin up in Platoro, which sits at a genuine 10,000’. For some reason August had been cool and so it was late-summer and early-fall at the same time, if that makes any sense.
Due to really high water at this time last year we had not been very successful so we thought we would hire a guide this time around. This was my first time to fish with a guide and I am glad I finally did.
Friday afternoon was fishing at an 11, 500’ lake called Kerr lake which sits just below timberline. I have rocked that lakes’ native Rio Grande Cutts before and struck out too. We fished it Friday afternoon and it was basically a bust. We saw a few small guys rise here and there and we even had a few hits but the little guys were really bumping the flies rather than taking them.
But that was fine because it was cool, beautiful, and we were looking forward to the guide on Saturday morning. That night was tenderloins and good French wine. David had taken some time off from his profession as an attorney a few years back and gone to Paris to the Le Cordon Bleu School to learn to cook. The tenderloins were amazing and the wine was great but we turned in early to be ready to meet the guide at 8:30 a.m.
We met our guide, Troy at the even more rustic, but cool, Skyline lodge, about ½ mile downstream from our cabin. It turned out he was the head guide for Conejos River Anglers downstream in Mogote (shameless plug http://www.conejosriveranglers.com/) and he was calm, mellow, and knew his stuff. Troy taught us a new and unique way to rig up for these trout and to fish the really heavy, fast water, as it seems the bigger fish on this river often hold there, where it is rough but safe, and lots of food drifts by.
Troy was patient, insightful, and knowledgeable. I learned more in the eight hours I spent with him than I have in the past 3 years of fishing and researching on my own. If you want to fish a wild and beautiful trout stream in Colorado and want to learn a thing or two, hook up with Troy on the Conejos.
This is a tough river (or stream, depending on where you fish it). There are only about 500 fish per mile due to short-sighted management (they manage the river like it is a big irrigation ditch) but there are some big boys in the heavy water. I have had good days on this river but my fish have never exceeded 16”. When the day was finally over David and I had both landed a large 18” fish and a number of other Browns in the 14”-16” range. I even managed one wild, brightly colored Rainbow, of which there are not many of.
It seems that people have discovered the Conejos and too many fishermen are headhunters, killing their fish and leaving the stream poorer because of it, and they do not stock this stream. I hope that some day parts of this stream/river will be declared “catch-and-release only” and the fishing will improve for everyone because of it.

Kerr Lake, 11,500'
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Fishing Kerr Lake
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Upper Conejos, Late Afternoon
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Sunset Day One
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Pirate HQ
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Gear
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French Wine and Tenderloins
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Troy's Interesting Habit
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Troy Instructing Us on The Enigma That is the Conejos
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Troy Showing How It's Done
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A Nice 14 Inch Brown
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Stonefly Case
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My 18 Inch Brown on a Copper John
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My 18 Inch Brown, Another View (The pic does not do it justice)
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The Upper Conejos in the Meadows
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Reviving David's Last Brown
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A Healthy Female Brown
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Shallow Flats on the Upper Conejos
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David's Last Fish Being Released
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[greendrake]

Great shots!!!!!!!!! :bigthumb:
Makes me want to be there.
Will

[Satoshi]

Great report!
Thank you for posting.
I am impressed with the quality of your pics. Do you use a single-lens reflex camera?

Satoshi

[Apache Trout]

Great trip!

[greyfox]

Those are some pretty Browns, are they wild

[Brooktrout]

thanks very much. glad everyone likes them.
yes, i use a canon 50D slr. great camera too. the lens is a the canon 18-55 4.5/5.6. it is a bit heavy and cumbersome but in the long run worth it.
yes, all wild browns at this point. they have not stocked it for some time, maybe 10-15 years, maybe even more. am not exactly sure.

[jeepster]

Very nice brooks. The fish, river, and forest looks really healthy in that part of the low co. I need to get there soon before it looks like the weminuche did this year. The bark beetle is moving fast.

[Brooktrout]

thx jeepster.
i had heard that the reason the bark beetles have not gotten into this area is that it is not experiencing the drought that other parts of CO are dealing with. due to the frequent and heavy rain during the monsoon season the trees in this area are still robust and healthy and are able to resist the beetles. have you heard otherwise?

[soupmix]

Nice job! Great report and pics. :clap:

[jeepster]

thx jeepster.
i had heard that the reason the bark beetles have not gotten into this area is that it is not experiencing the drought that other parts of CO are dealing with. Due to the frequent and heavy rain during the monsoon season the trees in this area are still robust and healthy and are able to resist the beetles. have you heard otherwise?

I don't know much. A good snow pack helps the pines against the bugs. The trees get a big drink of water that way. I don't know about monsoons but any water must help out. You were higher up than me by 1000' so that is a big difference. The tree line looked healthy in the san juans but down around 9000el along the rio the trees are dead by the hundreds. Last year no dead trees. The san juans had an 87% snow pack.