Fishing blog: Tales of angling adventures from around the world
Welcome to our fish blog! Here you can read more sage advice from anglers around the world. This is the place for news, tips and non-fiction fish tales from mountain lakes to distant beaches. Please feel free to comment and join in on the conversations and share some fish tales of your own!
After delivering our new book to Kirk’s Fly Shop, we decided to make a few casts through town. A lot of folks overlook this stretch of the Big Thompson River but give it a try. We caught and released brown trout and a few larger rainbows that swam up from Lake Estes. Fish the edges and limit your back casts due to the crowds.
Dream Lake is a great choice for your first hike to 9,900 ft. It’s 1.1 miles and 425 ft. up an improved trail from the Bear Lake Parking Lot. It was only stocked once with greenback cutthroat trout in 1997. The trout here usually strike tiny size 20 or 22 flies, but this day a #16 flying ant pattern was in demand. Dream Lake is featured in our new SECOND EDITION of
Angler’s Guide to Rocky Mountain National Park 
Years ago, Kimball started a tradition of fishing on New Year’s Day…no matter where she is. My own belief in this “superstition” that became a tradition was limited at first. It took several years before I accompanied her. However, after 50 years of fishing with this amazing lady, it works. She believes that fishing on New Year’s Day and catching something portends another successful year of fishing fun.
A few years ago, Kim traveled to Colorado for Christmas and I stayed home with our old dog. The weather there was as expected with lows in the mountains at -20⁰F and plenty of snow. Sure enough, on New Year’s Day, she walked down to the Roaring Fork River in Carbondale, CO and there, standing in snow with an air temperature of -10⁰F she caught and released a bunch of big rainbow and brown trout while her fly line froze in the guides.
This year, with the weather forecast anything but inviting, we headed north to Sarasota Bay to avoid any red tide in the Manasota Key area and find shelter behind the trees on the north side of Big Pass. Ted Sperling Park, situated on the southern tip of Lido Key, not only features a fine kayak launch but also access to the channel at Big Pass. So, did we hunker down behind the trees and make a few casts? No. We noticed the surf, driven by a 20-mph wind, breaking across the beach to the west and decided to try and survive fishing there. The air temperature never got above 57⁰F, so with the wind chill factored in, it was quite chilly. But, the fish were there!
After trying jigs and shad tail plastics fished slowly along the bottom and fast on top, we put our live shrimp to use. By chin hooking and free lining them with the outgoing tide, using a split shot to help get them down and away from cruising seagulls, Kimball caught and released a couple of nice snook and kept a big sheepshead for dinner. This limited action helped her deal with the cold while I, a true Floridian shivering in the wind, went fishless except for one ladyfish. Kimball and I were the only anglers I saw catch anything all afternoon. A few cups of hot coffee for Kimball, a beer for me and a dozen raw oysters at Phillipe Creek Oyster Bar made a perfect end to the first day of this new year!
The sheepshead went on the grill for a variation of redfish on the half shell. I guess it could be called sheepshead in the whole shell. They’re in the porgy family and have big bones. Fileting results in a lot of wasted meat and scaling a sheepshead is something best done anywhere but in a kitchen. So, as a lazy cook and a fan of grilled fish, I would say this experiment went well. First remove the innards and head then cut the skin like you would to filet it. Sprinkle a little Cajun spice on the inside then lay it on a medium grill for 30 minutes on each side. Unlike a redfish, as it cooks the scales will stand up like fuzz but will stay with the skin and lift off when done. The scales keep the fish from sticking to the grill. The skeleton then lifts cleanly from the meat resulting in a boneless sheepshead on the plate with no mess and minimal waste. We enjoyed Kim’s fish with grilled zucchini and a crab cake, drizzled with home grown calamondin lime juice. Try it, you’ll like it.
On Labor Day weekend last year, we camped for a few days at Long Draw Reservoir in northern Colorado [10,180 ft.]. The camping was cold but the fishing was hot which led us to take another day trip from Estes Park in our search for big cutthroat trout. We took the short cut down the Big Thompson Canyon and through Masonville to Stove Prairie and up the Poudre from there. So, yesterday [Labor Day] we headed up the Poudre River as apparently every RV in Colorado was coming down.
We arrived around noon and fished from the dam for 2 hours before a picnic lunch. After lunch, we dropped down below the dam and fished the pool below the cascade from the lake. Both spots held the same big cutthroats we remembered though it seemed there weren’t as many fish wanting to play. Grasshoppers and flying ants were the best flies this trip, just like last year.The biting flies were out in force and not bothered by DEET as they landed…fangs first!
Kimball caught one last cutthroat and we left to enjoy a late dinner at El Burrito restaurant in Ft. Collins on the way home. Their unique chile verde is something everyone that enjoys Mexican cuisine should try. Locals have enjoyed this Godinez family recipe, unchanged, since 1960.
Every year about this time the German brown trout head to the inlet area to begin their pre-spawn party. That means feasting on larger dry flies, especially terrestrials like flying ants, grasshoppers and beetles. We like the area across the bridge from the Fisherman’s Nook parking area. This area is also popular with folks walking on the lakeside trail and elk. Watch out for both. The other hot spot is below the power plant if the turbines are running.
A little riffle on the water helps to hide your leader and tippet but if it is calm, you can still get strikes by going to a longer leader and lighter tippet [10’ total]. We find that a little twitch or skitter seems to draw their attention, no matter what the fly pattern.
There are a lot of smaller stocker size fish along the shoreline but at sunset and later, the larger fish begin to move shallower and mingle with the little ones for the feast. Often these larger fish just sip at flies the little ones get airborne over. Pay close attention…these fish seem to know when you glance away for a second.
Get more local information from our WATERPROOF guide “Angler’s Guide to Rocky Mountain National Park” available at local fly shops, the Nature Conservancy Stores in RMNP, The Chrysalis Gift Shop in the Stanley Hotel, Amazon as a hard copy or digital book, and on our website: www.anglerpocketguides.com. with free shipping