A Wild Canyon

I do not know, but I think it is something buried within us, something that makes
us long for the far places

Louis L'Amour "Jubal Sackett"

Recently I went in search of a settlement that was built around 1900 and abandoned some 65 years later due to a flood, it supplied electricity to several towns on the west side of Pikes Peak and when it was abandoned nearly everything was left in place as it was deemed cheaper to leave it than try to haul it out.

The trail starts at a very popular lake and heads down over the spillway, making this stream a tailwater of sorts. The lake doesn't hold much interest for me as it's always busy although I do take my family there from time to time and hike away from the crowds, they love it and once away from the masses it is actually pretty peaceful.

The first water crossing, above this spot the walking is easy, a nice wide valley and a road make it easily accessible, below this crossing and it gets tight, scree slopes and thick forest make it a challenge to find the "trail" at times, the odd ribbon or cairn marking the way

The stream was high due to runoff and not safe to wade in most places, this high water would come back to bite me later on in the day. As I journeyed farther downstream the wilder the scenery became, cliffs soared above and the canyon floor dropped precipitously

 

There were several scree slopes to traverse, the trail nonexistent

The first 2 miles took 25 minutes to hike, the second 2 miles took three times that long due to the terrain and extremely vague trail, plus there was a short break thrown in also. I'd talked briefly with a guy and his two sons on my way down and they hadn't been able to reach the village due to the high water and the second bridge being washed away, unfortunately I did not make it either.

I came to this "bridge" and with 6" of fast water pouring over the top, the logs slickened to the point of grease and a chasm of whitewater 15 feet below the logs I chose to turn around and fish my way back upstream, I'll wait for the water to drop and try it again.

 

It may not look like much in the picture but the water was pouring over the logs and they were slick as snot, not something I wanted to attempt solo

 

 

No big deal really, I had a couple Tenkara rods with me and the fish were in the slack water and eddies formed by the runoff

The pool above had some nice fish in it and I pulled several browns out of it plus this sad looking rainbow

I had to head way back upstream to find fishable waters as the canyon was rushing way to fast to even think about fishing it

When I finally got to calmer waters the fishing was awesome, every pool and every soft edge that a fish could hide from the raging river had a fish or 5 in it. This flat rock below the waterfall was a great place to reach across the fast current to reach the slower pool on the other side and numerous fish came from it, including one acrobatic rainbow that smashed a pink Kebari the second it hit the water and then proceeded to spit the hook with his jumping

 

This pool/run had so many fish in it that it wasn't even funny, it seemed like every cast for 10 solid minutes brought a fish in, all browns, all hungry

 

 

This was a 4 species day with many Browns, several Rainbows, a Cutbow and surprisingly a Snake River Cutt being caught, the Snake was a first for me on Tenkara which was even more cool

                                                               

 

                                                                 

All in all it was a great time even though I didn't reach my intended goal, that just mans that I'll have to go back again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Local action

"In moments such as these, heart, mind, body, and spirit become complete
Within the arms of nature my grounded soul can release my wings.''

Unknown

Finding time to get away for full/multiday trips has proven to be rather challenging this year so shorter trips of a few hours have had to suffice and it's been a fun challenge to find decent water close to home. This trip is to the same little Local as last week but I went several miles higher than before, not headwaters high but about halfway up to an area I'd fished several years ago.

 A buddy and I went to fish a lake in the area but we got chased off by thunderstorms that weren't supposed to happen, the lightning cracking over our heads convinced us that standing next to a lake with 13' Tenkara rods wouldn't be all that smart so we descended into a canyon where we were sheltered from the storm, deciding that scouting the stream out was better than sitting under a tree.

We'd gone about as far up the canyon as we could, rain slickened cliffs blocked any forward progress and this beautiful little pool was literally under our feet, the stream actually running under the boulders we were standing on and I could see a brook trout swimming inside the cave the stream ran through, he was holding in a little sunlit opening and stood out against the lighter streambed floor. This was one of the most tricky spots I've ever fished, several different channels created crosscurrents that made drifting the fly over his head impossible and the only way to get the fly in there was a bow & arrow cast, the only problem was the window to get the fly in was 6" wide, a shot to low dropped it into the water to soon and any higher the fly hit the boulder. Finally after 20 minutes of trying different things I was able to put the Parachute Adams perfectly over his head and the take was near instantaneous.

Here my buddy is fishing the downstream side of the rocks where I caught the above fish but there was nothing happening so we headed back downstream.

As we headed down I snapped this picture of where we were at, boulder hopping and tight quarters was the name of the game.

For such a small stream there was a remarkable mayfly hatch, they were everywhere which was good to see. Hard to see it in the picture, but they were there.

This was a pretty typical approach for this stream, kneel in the water and slingshot the fly upstream because the cover was just to thick to cast.

The last fish of the day and also the largest, it came from that little plunge above my right hand, a gentle bow & arrow cast put the fly on top of his nose and the hit was picture perfect.

On the way out we were greeted with a beautiful sunset, it's moments like these that I live for, that my heart aches to see and experience and I'm thankful for every moment I get to spend in the hills, regardless if I'm fishing, hunting, going on a picnic with my family, I cherish them all.

Exploring a Local

"In the beauty of a river, I find happiness
In the smell of a river, I find joy
In the abundance of a river, I find life."

Unknown

There is a little creek nearby, a ''Local'' if you will, that I've started to investigate. It's small, tight, overgrown and it has a decent population of Brook Trout. It's not much to look at, the fish are small and fishable spots are at a premium but there's not a single sign of other anglers going there, the only tracks are from hikers and kids playing in the water.

As you can see most of it is a tangled mess, tiny pockets that I was throwing tung head KB's into to get the fly down quick to the fish before the pool ended. There is one nice little run that is maybe 20 yards long but all the other pools are tangled up, debris ridden holes. Beautiful Tenkara water.

In an hours time I was able to bring 4 beautiful gems to hand, I missed another 5-6, mostly due to not being able to set the hook because of low hanging branches but for a stream this close to home and frequented by kids throwing rocks, people lounging in the water on hot days and dogs splashing I think that's a pretty respectable amount and much better than I honestly expected.

The largest fish pictured was a real surprise and I was thankful to land it as it went straight into a tangle and I was barely able to pry it out with my little Soyokaze 270 and 6x tippet. All in all a productive trip out, now to keep exploring...

The Driftless

''Between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting."

Cormac McCarthy

The Driftless...Spring creeks...Dairy cows...Trout...

Fishing The Driftless has always been a dream of mine, an article I read when I was 10 told of the beauty, the springs creeks and the fish, I knew I needed to go but it would take 31 years before I realized this dream.

The trip was planned around attending the Midwest Tenkara Fest, a great event put on by my friend Matt Sment who I'd met the previous summer at the ONI School in Utah and his partner Mike Lutes, owners of Badger Tenkara. My buddy Paul Vertrees of Zen Tenkara was going to give a presentation and I decided it was a good time to fulfill a lifelong dream, I was going to The Driftless!

Being 30 seconds late to the door of our flight cost us a full day in Wisconsin and a night spent on the floor of Minneapolis Int'l, waiting for the rental car place to open at 6 but in the end it didn't matter, we were there, finally on our way.

I wish I could say that I patiently sat through all the speakers and then went fishing but as soon as the talking began I was gone, impatient to get on the water that I'd dreamt about for over 30 years and I was not to be disappointed.

The water here is different than the high gradient pocket water of Colorado that I'm used to, it's slow and meanders and it's unbelievably clear so the fish can see you coming.

I managed to turn up a dozen or so Browns on Coon Creek just behind the event hall. After it was done for the day we explored a pretty, yet frustrating creek and I managed a couple more Browns.

After a couple hours here we headed to our camp on the Bad Axe River and after setting up my tent I did some more fishing until almost dark. Others were fishing it also and it was interesting to see the different rods and techniques being used but I stuck with my Tanuki 325.

This was the only place I was able to catch any brookies and it was nice to think that I was catching a native fish in their native habitat, unlike the brookies here in Colorado which are viewed as a plague.

The next morning found us back at the hall by 9 or so and I was gone again. I'd talked with a guy who's name I never learned around the campfire the night before and he'd mentioned some deeper holes further upstream from the hall that sometimes had larger fish so off I went in search of them and I found the holes, many were deep, 5+ ft deep in fact and I was able to dredge a few smaller guys out of them and I lost one that felt solid although as to what size I can't say, just that it was solid.

 

I got back from this foray just in time to eat some cold pizza and head out to Bohemian with Paul and a couple other guys and I must say that that was my favorite stream that I saw during my brief time there, it reminded me a bit of another creek I know here in Colorado. While everyone else got into the fish during a really nice caddis hatch I struggled and only managed to hook into 1 brown.

All to quickly my time here was over, the 2 days I had were all to brief, barely enough to even begin to scratch the surface of what this region has to offer for the fly fisherman. After I was done fishing that last evening I just sat on the bank along the Bad Axe River not far from camp and watched the Brookies as they rose to an evening hatch, contemplated a lifelong dream that had come true as the sun slid under the horizon and once it was gone I went back and sat by the fire with old friends and new and relived my short stay here, fish caught and lost, and realized...

I will be back again.