Slaying Fish on Gore Creek

Was up in Vail for the weekend, and could not resist to the temptation to hit up Gore Creek.  I have fished a few of Colorado's Gold Medal Waters, but I think I could see this becoming my favorite.  Me and my Dad fished both Saturday and Sunday, starting at around 6:30 in the morning and being back at the condo before the rest of the family is out of bed.  Between the two of us, I think we brought about 15 to the net, including a gorgeous Bow that my dad hooked on his third drift of the first morning.  The bow took us about 50 yards down the creek, but we managed to finally bring him to the net.  I had heard that the Gore was a very technical fishery, requiring small tippets and patterns, but we had luck with lots of different flies, including red Copper Johns, gray RS2's, Mercury Blood Midge, Red Hot, and Black Beauty's.  It's always nice when you step onto a new river, and have good fishing right from the start!!!

Very nice Gore Creek Bow!!!

Lower Blue River

Nice pocket water on the Lower Blue

Another Blue River beauty!!!

Had another great day on the Blue.  Started on the Blue River in town just before sunrise.  Hooked my first fish about 5 minutes after the sun hit the water.  It was an amazing rainbow trout.  Fished for about a half hour longer until my buddy made his way up from Denver.  Hit the lower Blue the rest of the day just above Green Mountain Reservoir.  Lost count of how many fish we caught.  The patterns of the day were PMD Barr Emergers and gray RS2's.  Not much else to say, so here's some pictures of the day.

Upstream view of the Blue from an old bridge.

Huge Golden Stoneflys.  2" Long!!

Frustration on Bear Creek

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

That's how I feel after fishing Bear Creek twice this week.  Despite seeing lots of trout rising everywhere in the river, I could not catch a one.  I tried everything that I could think.  Started with a dry/dropper rig with a small Elk Hair Caddis as the dry.  Tried everything I could think of on the bottom.  Pheasant Tail, Prince Nymph, Black Beauty, Two Bit Hooker, Cased Caddis, and San Juan Worm.  Nothing!  Moved onto a double dry rig, putting what felt like every dry fly in my box on the end of the line.  Still nothing.  I finally put on a Woolly Bugger.  I was fishing it downstream and slowly stipping through the deepest pools I could find.  Still Nothing.  I moved onto another deep pool, and finally, a strike.  But I lost him.  That's pretty much all the action I had on the two days I spent on Bear Creek above Morrison.

My attempt at an artistic photo

A pool full of stubborn trout

But I'm still happy.  It just feels good to cool off in the mountain water. The highlight of the trips was seeing two mule deer across the river from me.  They walked down in the river, not realizing I was there.  Finally they spotted me and took off up the mountain, but not before I snapped a picture.  Hopefully one of these days, I will figure out how to catch fish here.