Trout Fishing - 2017

Doug is a friend of mine who makes the trip to Colorado every September to fish for trout in the various creeks and rivers. He invited me to fish with him one fine autumn day to show me techniques for fishing a small stream called the Cochetopa Creek.

This was great fun! Access is via miles of Jeep trails through the mountain highlands and then a several mile walk along portions of the Colorado trail. We met several through hikers on the trail. Eventually you find the small Cochetopa creek winding its way down the valley.

We waded upstream through the shallow waters while Doug gave pointers as to which locations were likely to have fishing waiting to find food floating downstream. He is a good teacher - I caught a lot of fish! We practiced 'catch and release' so they are there to be caught another day.

In the high Rockies

Walking to the trout stream along the Colorado Trail

Fish are at most bends and pools along the winding creek

Doug preparing to try his luck

Success! They sure can put up a fight...

Doug working his way upstream

One of many caught thru the day

There are pools of fish that can be spooked if they see you approach. In those cases you kneel and cast your fly into the pool from a hidden position. Doug caught several fish using this technique.

Fishing the Alpine Lakes

I received an invitation to hike to an alpine lake above Lake City Colorado to try my hand at fly fishing. This is a 5.2 mile hike from 8800 feet of altitude to about 11,200 ft. Quite a hike!

It involves a memorable Jeep Trail to an upper trail head and a wonderful (if strenuous) hike to a beautiful series of lakes know as Larson Lakes.

First stop was at the fly shop to get a fishing license and a few more flies

This is a good place to get a report on the fishing conditions in the area

Trail access made good use of the Jeeps low range capabilities and skid plates

The trail marker is rather optomistic as to the distance to the lakes - our GPS tracker showed it to be a 5.2 mile hike.

My hiking/fishing companions - L to R Bob, Doug, John and Brett

It was a steep hike in places

There were occasional mountain meadows

Almost there!

A little slice of heaven

The lakes were stocked by aircraft dropping fish while flying over. That must be something to see!

Everybody spread out and fished different parts of the lakes

The fish were biting. The best action was to be found where the upper lake flowed into the lower.

Steep sections on the way down were best navigated with the aid of walking sticks

 A particularly good book detailing fishing the Colorado High Country is "Fly Fishing the High Country" by John Gierach. Lots of good advice about fishing the alpine lakes...