BilletHead's ride again. 2018 trip, new fish,new places!

[ness]

...and did it in a minivan😄

[BilletHead]

3 minutes ago, ness said:

I’m an efficient fisherman. Didn’t need as much time as you guys took 😄

               I forgot you run the pay for pound trout pond. Did they supply worms?  We seen one in Estes Park on way in first time and out the second time. did you get your GreenBack there too? hahahahahaha

Bet it was cheaper for you than us back in the day.

   

2 minutes ago, ness said:

...and did it in a minivan😄

        Was it 4WD and not AWD? You know  that is what they said we needed,

  BilletHead 

[ness]

57 minutes ago, BilletHead said:

               I forgot you run the pay for pound trout pond. Did they supply worms?  We seen one in Estes Park on way in first time and out the second time. did you get your GreenBack there too? hahahahahaha

Bet it was cheaper for you than us back in the day.

   

        Was it 4WD and not AWD? You know  that is what they said we needed,

  BilletHead 

Oh, man. What are you trying to do here? Before your trip you’re Mr. Nice-guy—‘where should I go, what should I do???’

Hope, at least, you did take my advice and shoot for Gila and Apache trout while you were in the area. 😄

[BilletHead]

44 minutes ago, ness said:

Oh, man. What are you trying to do here? Before your trip you’re Mr. Nice-guy—‘where should I go, what should I do???’

Hope, at least, you did take my advice and shoot for Gila and Apache trout while you were in the area. 😄

   hahahahhaha You started it!   Dang!

[BilletHead]

                Part 4 the Gila Trout,

  I feel some of you may be getting bored?  So we continued to travel South until we came upon this,

  I had done some research and since we were so far south we figured we would try for another fish. The Gila trout. Not a Cutthroat but a native and one to catch or try to catch. Very limited range and a true little gem. I had printed off a little map of four little creeks in the Gila National forest and in the middle of that was the Gila Wilderness. Which stream would be the best? Which stream would have the best access for flatlanders? So many questions and where to start? As we traveled South West we hit a couple of big towns Santa Fe and Albuquerque.. The Mrs. Googled Fish and game office in Santa Fe. We followed the path on the phone to the office. In we went to the front desk. Greeted by one of the ladies she said. How may I help you? We gave her the scoop, she looked puzzled and said I don't know anything about that fish but I can sell you a license. Another guy heard the conversation. Said you guys are in luck we have the Gila trout biologist in the office today and i will get him. Our eyes lit up and we bought our license. Soon a young man named Ryder came out and we had a good visit. He had the same little printed map we had. Out of the streams he suggested two. One had poor access and the other good access and pretty easy to get to plus a couple of campgrounds. He said the fish will be small on the small stream but we may be surprised with a nicer one. With the big Gazetteer we had he showed us the forest roads to get there. Before we left he gave us his full name, phone number and state e-mail address. He wanted a report of what we found, fish caught and experience. That I will do today! We continued South and did an overnight in a commercial campground doing laundry and showers. 4AM wake up we still were going South until We hit Socorro. Here we would get off the interstate. We gassed up, drained water out of ice chests and re iced. There were two stations across from each other. We picked the cheapest. It was still dark thirty but lit up well. We gassed up drained the chests and I walked in for ice. Locked up, closed and would not open for an hour. I walked across the street  to other store and got ice. Came back to find Pat slightly peering out of the camper a slight look of fright in her face. Relieved to see me she pointed to a couple creepy guys in a sedan in the dark part of the station staring at us. Pat said she slipped her side arm in her pocket when I left. We finished our business and got back on track on a two lane highway. We drove along and started seeing radar stations pointing to the heavens,

In my wandering mind the first thing that came to me was the X-Files.

    Soon we got to the town of Apache Creek and our turn off. FR 94 Cox Canyon Road. Approx 60 miles of dirt forest service road. Low land pretty straight and as we went up some turn backs, up and down. We seen where there had been some big flooding with recent work to repair the road. Some rough parts but we had been in worse. passed back and track hoes doing road work. Then a slight road block,

     Pat was laughing her rear off as I said "Thank goodness for the SVEN-SAW. This little break down saw is the real deal and cuts wood like butter. Found it a couple years ago in the bargain Cave at Cabelas for half price brand new. Now you say why did I not just drag it out of the road? No rope, chain or sling and the tree was long and we could not move it. We went on and up seeing elk, deer nd other critters. Only met one other truck on rest of road and he was woodcutting for firewood. After the high point of the road we dropped into a small canyon to a couple of campgrounds. Both empty. We picked the upper one our destination. Ben Lily on Willow creek. We set up and built rods. Fish were waiting for us. Small, very small and thin water,

       The little jewels began to come to hands, many missed that were really small. 4 to 6 inch average. A 12 incher would be big. The state record coming from a lake was 5 lbs. plus. I had a nice one hooked from a cut bank hole. Got him to the top and he rolled and was off. I tried that place after rest two more times with nothing. I am sure he said fool me once but not twice,

     Several fish were landed. They looked like carbon copies of each other. Some like the right golden bellies. I read like the Arizona sunset. We snacked on Wild red raspberries along the creek,

  We walked in until we ran into a young couple walking along the road. We asked what was ahead and were told private ground and a few cabins, locked gate and no trespassing. Where we were already the creek was dwindling to very little water we decided to walk back to camp and eat. Grilled Mallard breast, mashed taters and salad was on the menu,

  We came, we caught, enjoyed a fire and slept like a rock. Up again next morning 4AM. We were ready for next place. The shortest way out was West. Map showed 159 and a color change on this road. We thought a better road. NOT first thing we seen on a sign, no trailers. Next thing we seen, grass and weeds growing in middle of road between the two wheel ruts. I mean bad, steep, blind switchbacks, rutted. part of this road I put truck in 4WD low range and let the transmission do the work. 5 to 10 MPH average. It took us almost three hours to go thirty miles. We will not take that road again, never ,ever. As we dropped even lower driving slow the light began to show flora we had not seen before growing out of rocky slopes, 

We flattened out and I stopped the truck. looking out I cried Blackberries! must be coming to civilization. Out of the truck to forage on the sweet treats by headlights,   Soon we started seeing a few abandoned homesteads and no trespassing signs. At a small valley we hit a narrow still one lane blacktop road. Then the town of Mogollon. The town was again in a narrow steep valley and buildings seemed to be coming out of the rock banks on the sides of this valley. Road and houses, buildings too so tightly packed. Fruit trees and I picked an apple out of the truck window. I made a note and googled the town up when home,

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/nm-mogollon/2/

https://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2016/06/historic-mogollon-new-mexico/

  Wish the town was awake and I could of talked to the meager few residents. A bit farther another old building right on the road. The crappy blacktop butting next to it,

  We peered inside, A Christmas tree!

   A cool cactus,   At the bottom the forest had became high desert. We continued Westerly and noticed on the map we were not far from old Mexico and another country. More to come. Another State, another fish,

   BilletHead 

 

 

[Johnsfolly]

 

On 8/15/2018 at 10:25 AM, BilletHead said:

           Part 3 the Rio Grande,

 

 

Congrats to you both for completing you're Colorado Cutt Slam! Prety jealous but don't currently have a vehicle to reapeat the sand dune adventure. Randy sounds lkke a great guy. Love to meet him sometime. Still look at these stream photos and think that there has to be some microfishing being missed while chasing those trout😝.

[Ham]

“We will not take this road again.” Classic

[Johnsfolly]

1 hour ago, BilletHead said:

                Part 4 the Gila Trout,

  I feel some of you may be getting bored?  So we continued to travel South until we came upon this,

  I had done some research and since we were so far south we figured we would try for another fish. The Gila trout. Not a Cutthroat but a native and one to catch or try to catch. Very limited range and a true little gem. Fish were waiting for us. Small, very small and thin water,

       The little jewels began to come to hands,

     Several fish were landed. They looked like carbon copies of each other. Some like the right golden bellies.

Grilled Mallard breast, mashed taters and salad was on the menu,

   A cool cactus,   At the bottom the forest had became high desert. We continued Westerly and noticed on the map we were not far from old Mexico and another country. More to come. Another State, another fish,

   BilletHead 

 

 

Again Congrats to you both on persisting and getting into some beautiful fish! Hope you gave the Gila biologist a good report. Did you see other fish in those creeks? Can't wait for the next install. You guys covered some territory on this trip so far. Always cool to see what's out there.

[BilletHead]

20 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

 

Congrats to you both for completing you're Colorado Cutt Slam! Prety jealous but don't currently have a vehicle to reapeat the sand dune adventure. Randy sounds lkke a great guy. Love to meet him sometime. Still look at these stream photos and think that there has to be some microfishing being missed while chasing those Wild Native trout😝.

       Don't know if I should like you, thank you, laugh at you or be mad at you. I changed the above statement for correction. In this creek seen nothing else.

     Randy is the best.

16 minutes ago, Ham said:

“We will not take this road again.” Classic

       From us liking to explore parts less traveled this is for sure!

9 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

Again Congrats to you both on persisting and getting into some beautiful fish! Hope you gave the Gila biologist a good report. Did you see other fish in those creeks? Can't wait for the next install. You guys covered some territory on this trip so far. Always cool to see what's out there.

      Yes seen other little fishes and some were chubs. There was a task at hand and I left the micros for the micro fishermen (You),

  BilletHead

[Johnsfolly]

1 minute ago, BilletHead said:

 Yes seen other little fishes and some were chubs. There was a task at hand and I left the micros for the micro fishermen (You),

  BilletHead

After you got one Gila to hand the task is completed! Time to reset the goals😁.

Livie caught her 40th different species last night and reset to catch a couple more! Which she did succeed in catching another but that is a post in the making once I download photos.