Saturday, July 25, 2009

Gold Medal Trout Fishing


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Originally uploaded by ...olson family...
Today marked my first day of fishing in the mountains since I ran into a couple of true fly fishing experts from North Georgia. I was heading back from a conference earlier this week when met a guide and an outdoor photographer at the airport in Atlanta. We exchanged pictures and thoughts on fly fishing. When I got home I tried to recall how much I learned from these gentlemen, but I was mainly amazed by the fact that they consistently net trophy trout…in Georgia! As I journeyed this morning to Eleven Mile, and Spinney Mountain Reservoirs armed with a fly rod and a float tube, I reminded myself that I live in Colorado now and I should catch at least an occasional trout over 20”.

Today was my day. After one good hook up at Eleven Mile, I switched to Spinney Mountain Reservoir and made a commitment to my bead head leach streamer pattern. Spinney is designated as a “Gold Medal” trout fishery, which basically means the fish are huge. I fished it like fish for bass. I was just looking for one big bite on my streamer. This strategy paid off: I got what I estimate to be a 20” Rainbow, declared victory, and decided to head back to my home in Colorado Springs. As I pulled my float tube from the water I paused for a moment and soaked up the snow packed peaks on the horizon and thought: this is Colorado!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great Great Great....told you that there would be a day like that...
happy for you,
Dad

Anonymous said...

Technical Notes:

- 8 1/2' 5wt Fly Rod with Floating Line
- 3X Leader (mono)
- Fly: Olive Mini Leach #12
- Caught from a float tube moving over weeds in about 8' of water
- Caught at approximately 11:00 am (typically secondary bite time when I bass fish)
- Clear skies with cold front moving into area

Unknown said...

What's going on man. Just wanted to let you know It was great meeting you int eh airport. Thanks for the props on your blog man. If your ever my way, you need to look me up.

Keep up the good blog man.

Keep it Reel,

Capt. Kent Klewein
Reel Job Fishing