Back from out west...

[Johnsfolly]

Awesome adventure, great scenery, and great fish! Thanks for taking us along buddy! Maybe next time some of us will actually get an invite !

[ness]

18 minutes ago, JestersHK said:

The fish! They weren't much size wise but was just awesome catching them.  Allot of them could of passed for Duane's jerk baits lol.

Love that right there!!!

[JestersHK]

So the last say had arrived.  After the pretty epic day we had up on the mountain we were fired up to hit the water again.  I made the mistake at dinner the night before, at a place called the Tipsey Trout no less, that after that day I could care less if I caught another fish the whole trip... Man was that a mistake lol.

We started out the morning and the guys wanted to chase big fish at the bowl again.  This would prove fruitful as both Ray and Brandon caught there personal best rainbows, both at 21.5in and Brandon's was just a hair under 4lbs and Ray's was just a bit smaller.  some chunker fish for sure.

My morning consisted of breaking off my leader, then breaking off on the hookset, then breaking off on the rocks... Spent most of the morning rigging up lol.

It was shaping up for me to be a DJ day... @Seth had actually witnessed one of these days with me a few years ago at CAM tourney.  I literally cannot win, and when these days occur I should just go back to bed instead of punishing myself lol.

After getting disgusted at my fly rod I went to jigging determined to catch something... We hit up a few holes that I had success at last year and my day continued to go downhill.  After breaking off jigs across lake and then in the bushes behind me I say down to retie.  I stood up and there went my phone into the silty bottom of the river.  As I was kneeling on the bank to get to my phone the mud have out and I proceeded to fall in the river right on top of where my phone was... After standing up and assessing the damage I then got to sift through all the mud and silt and finally found my phone lol.  Poor phones been at the bottom of Taney before and survived another dunking in the Pan.

You'd think it would be close to the end of my mishaps but I wanted downstream and missed fish after fish on the jig.  They were short striking and every attempted hook set sent the jigs flying back into the brush behind me.  I finally hooked one and started to bring him towards me.  At this point jig popped out came flying back and busted me right in the mouth.  Split my lip open and now I added bleeding into my day... 

Finally I hooked another and was able to get my first fish into the net a dinky little brown.  I'd avoided the skunk but man i worked hard for it lol.

We moved farther down and the boys picked up a few more fish here and there but it was tough this day.  My only complaint about the Pan is that there's a ton of private water and the public access spots get hammered.  The spots were packed most of the week, and it was hard finding places for the four of us to squeeze in.

We wrapped up the day and headed back to pack up.  What a journey and truly some great and special memories were made.  

I think coming back here I'd focus on the smaller creeks versus the Pan and roaring fork.  They are great waters for sure, but we all enjoyed the days we spent off the beaten path more.  There's so much water out here ripe for exploring.  That little creek I def will be heading back to.  

Well that's about it for this journey.  We had 3 gopros running and my buddy is doing the editing so hopefully I'll have a video to drop here soon.  I did get a few hook ups of the little cutts on video.

Until next time guys...

[ness]

Sounds like a great trip -- thanks for sharing. I love these trip reports from out west! RMNP is one of my favorite places on earth. Plan to spend a lot more time out there in the future, and hopefully I'll have a shiny new knee to take along with me

Oh, and I've certainly had days where everything seems to be going wrong, so I can relate. 

[JestersHK]

17 minutes ago, ness said:

Sounds like a great trip -- thanks for sharing. I love these trip reports from out west! RMNP is one of my favorite places on earth. Plan to spend a lot more time out there in the future, and hopefully I'll have a shiny new knee to take along with me

Oh, and I've certainly had days where everything seems to be going wrong, so I can relate. 

I hope you and your new knee make it out there!  If you decide to go and you're up for a nice day hike I'll gladly share the spots with ya ness.  Soo much water and scenery out there waiting to be explored.  Even going out there blind you can find water that holds fish.  If we can do it anyone can

Sure we're leaving the bigger fish behind here with Taney and the White, but there are some bruisers out there to be found for sure.  Not always about that sea monster size though and my favorite fish from this trip was my first cutt that was barely 6 or 7 inches LOL.

[ness]

5 minutes ago, JestersHK said:

I hope you and your new knee make it out there!  If you decide to go and you're up for a nice day hike I'll gladly share the spots with ya ness.  Soo much water and scenery out there waiting to be explored.  Even going out there blind you can find water that holds fish.  If we can do it anyone can

Sure we're leaving the bigger fish behind here with Taney and the White, but there are some bruisers out there to be found for sure.  Not always about that sea monster size though and my favorite fish from this trip was my first cutt that was barely 6 or 7 inches LOL.

Thanks!

In my book, it's not about size, it's about the total experience. Beautiful places, running water, clean air, solitude, a chance at seeing some wildlife, and stalking native or stream-born fish count for me.