Oct. 1, 2009

Slept poorly last night on the couch. The lack of humidity and perhaps some allergies are making my sinuses hurt, eyes itch, and my throat scratch. Bothered me all day and night so hopefully I'll find a remedy soon. Despite this annoyance, the day was amazing.

We drove an hour and a bit north on I-25 into Loveland, CO and to the Sylvan Dale Ranch. Private water along the Big Thompson river. The morning was chilly, mid-forties, and the fishing was slow. The first fish of the day, however, found their way on to Ben's and my line at the same time. A double to start off the trip. We nymphed small riffles and runs hooking into fish at a slow pace. Ben got into one really good hole and caught a bunch of rainbows, I had a nice sized brown on that came off right at the net. The fish weren't too big, 8-14"s, but they were all wild browns and rainbows and colored very beautifully. Bright red gill plates on the rainbows and bright yellow on the browns. And the fish fought well, better as the day progressed. The morning ended with a cold wind and the three of us all looking forward to warming up inside the ranch. After a quick lunch we headed to the "canyon" section just above where the public water starts.

Caught a beautiful rainbow at the first hole along the canyon wall. At the second hole Chris started setting us up at some friendly competition - how many fish can you catch in 10 minutes. Ben beat me both times, but we were soon both pulling fish after fish out of the creek. Mostly baetis nymphs, micro-mays, bwo emergers, and a rainbow somethingerother. We fished up the canyon to the hole where we started the morning before heading back up to the ranch. As we were turning the car around, Ben saw lots of fish rising on the public water. Luckily, they were also rising on the ranch water. We spent the next hour casting to 100 rising fish and catching a lot of them. The sun was setting and it was beautiful on the water, fish fins breaking the surface. I caught a nice 16" brown who was stationed on the edge of the river in a small side channel. He was poking the side of his head out of the water and sipping flies effortlessly. The water was so shallow his tail was often sticking out of the water. I was on my knees casting upstream, a few drifts and he took my fly. Probably the best catch of the day, although not the biggest fish.

As the dries died down, we tied our nymphs back on and started a catching frenzy. We could hardly keep the flies in the water without fish biting. I caught 6 fish upstream, including a huge, 18" rainbow. Moved down to "teepee rock" and, literally, caught 16 fish out of the hole. Browns and rainbows, all gorgeous, all fighting like fish twice their size, and all welcome. Caddis nymphs of all sorts were killing, baetis nymphs were almost as productive. Crazy, crazy fishing. All told we probably caught 60-70 fish through the day. A helluva way to start and a heck of a bar set for the rest of the week. It was good to be so successful, but better to get the rust knocked off, get instruction from Chris on technique, and get a sense of what flies will be productive out here. I think it will make for a more confident trip, if not more successful...

After getting out of the water we drove 3.5hrs to Casper. We're exhausted in a ramada hotel room - looks like a "motor inn," indoors...odd. Tomorrow we'll explore the miracle mile and figure out what we're doing Saturday. Unless tomorrow is amazing, we'll likely leave here early Saturday and head to Bozeman to fish before Paul arrives.

Pictures to follow.