Moments in Time: Photos Of The Week

Moments in Time: Photos Of The Week: "You can click on the pictures for a larger view. Click it again for a really big view . First Snow, San Juan Mts., Colorado ©2010-2011 Ro..."

Fished a very special secret spot yesterday

Got a chance to fish a secret off limits to the public piece of water yesterday. These fish see very little pressure and will take almost anything that resembles a bug. I was tossing a hopper dropper rig all day, Amy's Ant #10 on top and a #12 ptail dropped. What a treat throwing something bigger than a #20 fly. Also threw big streamers and got into a bunch of fish on those.
Got more fish than I could count all in the 14-18" range.
I was eye balling this one fish that was about a 16"er who was eye balling my drift, when it suddenly took off like a shot away from my flies. Just then this giant head comes up and snatches my hopper. Holy shiite Batman that's a big fish. It was a  beast of a brown that took off like a rocket when hooked and took me into my backing in about 2 seconds. I took off down river in hot pursuit and proceeded to trip and fall in the river. Kept the rod up and had pressure on the fish the whole time until he launched into a 4 foot horizontal leap and snapped my tippet. He was easily 24". Arrrrrrgghhh!!!!!

Moments in Time: Photos Of The Week

Moments in Time: Photos Of The Week: "Ice Off At Blue Lake, San Juan Mts., Colorado


American Avocets Mating Dance"

If it's June, this must be caddis.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and make a prediction.

The Deckers area has had some massive caddis hatches the last few years but this year the caddis population seems to be down comparatively. With the drop in caddis production in the Deckers area I feared the rest of the South Platte would suffer the same decline. This deeply disappointed me, as the caddis hatch is my favorite hatch to fish.

A few days ago I fished the Charlie Meyers Wildlife Area with some friends and got into a few decent resident browns right off the bat. The first fish we stomach pumped was loaded with caddis larva. Nice big fat juicy green and cream colored caddis that were a good size 16 bug. We rigged up with some chartreuse larva flies and started getting into more fish, but the flow was soon bumped over 50cfs, the river went off color and the bite stopped dead.

While the rest of the day was pretty much a bust I was still pleased to see a fish that was loaded with caddis on this stretch of the Platte.

Last year there was a huge caddis hatch on this stretch and I had a great time fishing to fat and sassy browns and bows. It’s still a little early for a full blown hatch this high up but the outlook is good. Look for the hatch to commence en mass within the next week to ten days. So my prediction is “EPIC CADDIS HATCH TO COME”

Moments in Time: Photos Of The Week

Photos of the Week Update for the week of Jun 8th

Moments in Time: Photos Of The Week: "Above Blue Lake, San Juan Mts, Colorado ©2010-2011 Robert C. Volpe Whispering Spirit Images


Elk In Velvet Above Timberline ©..."

Fishing Deckers June 7th

I've been busy digitizing my library of 35mm slides for the last week. Actually, I've just started. It's gonna be a long tedious process. Today I had to get out of the house as I was getting cross eyed staring at a computer screen and adjusting slide exposures and color balances.
Had  a good day chasing trouts despite the low flows.

As I approached the hole I wanted to fish today I was greeted by a male Merganser who was not very happy to see me.

My first fish came after just a few casts. He took a golden stone fly.

Next fish came shortly after on a chartreuse caddis larva.
When a hatch of large midges started I switched to a white and black JuJubeatis and it was game on for about an hour. Lost a bunch of fish on bad hook sets and one pig who straightened out the hook.

I was surprised by this nice brown who also took a black and white JuJu.

It was a slippery fish day.

Gotta love a good fish day.

Arrowhead Lake August 2010

It's June and my mind is wandering to thoughts of high country lakes and wild greenback cutthroat trout. With the word coming in that Cottonwood Pass has finally opened I can't help thinking of the great trips to come this summer, camping and dry fly fishing to the most beautiful, colorful trout the high country has to offer.
I stitched this slideshow together from pictures taken by the six guys I had the honor of sharing this adventure with to a remote lake in Rocky Mountain National Park last August. I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed being there.