Monday, September 15, 2014

Blue River- 9/10/14

After catching a few pike early last week, it was time to head up into the mountains to catch my first love: trout.  I left Denver bright and early to beat all of the rush hour traffic, and almost felt sorry for the people out there heading to work.  Almost.  Pulled into Silverthorne just as the sun was coming up.  I love early mornings on the river, stringing up your rod and pulling your waders on, with the anticipation of the day ahead of you.  You never know if you'll catch the fish of a lifetime, or on the other hand, not catch a fish at all.

Big shout out to Cameron Mortenson (The Fiberglass Manifesto) for hooking me up with a brand new Blue Halo fiberglass fly rod as part of his rod demo program.  I've been looking at these rods for the last couple of months on the internet, and was super excited to find the 5 wt in my hands just days before I was to head out for this trip.  I had casted this thing on my lawn and really liked the feel, and thought it would be just perfect for playing some Blue River monsters on 6X.

Started the day up by the dam, sight fishing to fish in every pool.  With the higher flows all summer, it appears that the fish have been feeding heavily on Mysis Shrimp.  There were fat and healthy fish everywhere, and they were feeding hard.  I wasn't sure how the softer glass rod would perform with a nymph rig compared to my graphite rods, and I was thrilled to find this rod more than capable to do pretty much anything I wanted.  Roll casting this rod was my favorite part, as it was effortless to cast the flies wherever I wanted them to go.  Ultimate test was hooking some big trout, and I just loved the feeling of this rod bending over when a  big trout was on the line.  Even though the rod was softer, it had more than enough backbone to corral in some big fish, and with the supple tip, you knew the fragile tippet was going to be protected throughout the fight.

After spending the day fishing by myself all through town, I was eager for my Dad to make the drive up the hill and meet me.  We had decided to fish some new water, and were headed out of town to see what kind of fish we could find.  More about the trip in the next post.




2 comments:

  1. Nice post, glad you got to fish some new glass. It is a pure hoot, and something very enjoyable. I would have never guess the power these new rods have in them. Can not wait to get a slightly longer, heavier weight rod.
    Blue River certainly looked in stellar shape, as well as the fish. Hope the trip with your father was even better.

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  2. My second favorite place to fish and my wife's favorite. This is the first time in many years that we just couldn't make the time to go. (at least not yet) Thanks for the great post.

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