Had a great trip to New Zealand, traveling around the South Island for nearly a month. We fished for a week out of Eleven Experience’s Cedar Lodge and caught some nice fish, including this 6-pound brown trout here. Can’t wait to get back there!

Winter has arrived early again this year with two major storms hitting in just a few days during late October. Hopefully this is a good sign for our rivers next season. I will be signing out for the winter months now and will see you next spring!

I’ve been diving into Euro Nymphing lately and enjoying the process, and the different gear and related techniques. It’s an extremely effective way to catch fish and a lot more fun than watching a bobber.

We’ve had another beautiful fall in the Gunnison Valley, and the fishing season is winding down. I may get out a couple of more times, but I’ll soon put up the fly rod until next spring. Let’s hope for a good snowpack and full rivers next season. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

September is here and we’re seeing typical early fall dry fly fishing now, with midges and small BWOs hatching. We should see some larger mayflies over the next couple of weeks, but the fall hatches are much more sparse than during summer. This nice rainbow today took a size 22 midge (dry fly). (Click on the image to enlarge.)

“I can’t believe I forgot my net and my wine glass!” I’ve always said that there is more to fishing than catching fish! Katherine had a great time on the river and she also caught a lot of nice fish. Well done!

Peri and I had a great camping and fishing trip over on the Arkansas River for the past few days for my birthday weekend. We fished the Lake Fork of the Arkansas, which is a small stream/tailwater that runs out of the lake up near Leadville (all around 10,000 feet above sea level). We have fished here several times and love it. It’s mostly about 15 to 20 feet wide but holds some beautiful wild browns that can get up to around 18 inches. They typically average around 12 to 15 inches, and anything beyond that is a trophy for that water. There wasn’t much going on so I was running a small streamer off the banks looking for the larger fish. I caught some nice 15 and 16 inch browns, but they were few and far between. Then the water exploded and I landed this beast of a rainbow. It was big and fat and measured 24 inches. I had my 4-weight rod and was fishing 5x tippet, so it was tricky to land. Very cool  experience though. It may have run down from the lake and found a nice deep pocket. It was a very nice birthday present from the fish gods! (Click on the image to enlarge.)

Peri with a very nice brown trout. We didn’t catch a lot of fish but they were all quality trout and a bit above the average size for the Lake Fork. Just a beautiful place and a fun river to fish.

I had my best day ever at the C&R this afternoon. Clouds, pouring rain, and fish eating with reckless abandon. I caught a lot of nice browns like the one below and my best fish was this 23-inch rainbow. I fished small mayfly emergers and ant patterns the whole time. (Click on images to enlarge.)

Getting some nice browns on the Taylor with small dries and ant patterns. (Click on images to enlarge.)

When the bugs aren’t popping and the fish are not really looking up, stalking the banks with an ant pattern can be productive. Love those slow sips!