Heading west need advice

[vanven]

Just thought I would add a follow up to this thread.

We spent 6 days in a cabin outside Flourisant, CO. That is definitely some beautiful country. I got to fish 3 days of the trip. the first day we spent most of the day trying to find a fly shop, get licenses straightened out, and drive back to Eleven Mile Canyon. What a beautiful spot to fish. Fishing was rather tough and we only managed an hour on the water before afternoon thunderstorms and heavy winds chased us off. It was interesting to fish a tight canyon with huge boulders and limited open areas. Lots of fast water and hiking down a 50 foot wall of rock to get to the river in waders and felt boots was interesting...

Second day we drove up to "the Dream Stream" between eleven mile Reservoir and Spinney Reservoir. What an odd place. You drive down out of some rather steep mountains onto a perfectly flat plain at an altitude of 9,000 feet. I about passed out bending over to put on my wading boots. The river is about 30 feet wide and rambles a mile from the spillway of Spinney and dumps into the start of Eleven Mile reservoir. it's a perfectly flat field surrounded by mountains. Fishing was tough again. It was very windy and afternoon thunderstorms chased us out quickly. I did manage my firsh Colorado rainbow, a 7 inch monster on a small copper john.

Third day I managed to get out of the cabin at 7am and get up to the river early; same "Dream Stream" mentioned above. Fishing was better and I managed about 10 fish, the biggest being a 12 inch rainbow. I did manage about 6 hours on the water before heading back to the cabin for an afternoon nap.

I am not sure how to catagorize the fishing besides simply stating that it was different. I have learned and been accustomed to fishing wide rivers with slower flow and long drifts. I had a really hard time fishing the small flies that the shops suggested and presenting them with any success. It was like fishing Taney with the water at low levels, yet it was moving at 4 generator speed. Tough for a noob.

It did leave me with a very spoiled feeling. I have to consider Taney as my home waters for fly fishing despite it's 3.5 hour distance from home. I have had my rough days where i left Taney cussing, but I am not sure I will look at it the same again. It is such a great resource that I dont think I really appreciated before visiting Colorado.

Next time I will check out some of the water further south or take my float tube and check out some of the higher elevation lakes.

-Jerod

Edited to add IMG links.