I’ve been fly fishing for nearly a year now, during this time I’ve managed to catch four species of trout: Rainbow, Brown, Brook, and a Cutbow. For the summer of 2018 I set a goal to explore at least 20 new lakes/and or rivers and go on multiple multi-day backpacking trips. June 7th-10th, my mission was to explore a few alpine lakes and live in the back country for a few days with just my backpack. I went with my buddy Tyler, and met a few other friends up at one of the alpine lakes on our second day. Our mission – Catch a Golden Trout and while we are at it, catch some stunning Cutthroat Trout too.
Day 1
To start the trip, we began on a Thursday after I got off work, around 3pm. We had planned to go to our favorite “honey hole” to catch dinner for the night – pan fried rainbow trout with butter, lemon, and garlic. We struggled hooking into any fish that were worth keeping right away, but after about an hour of fishing, we both had our dinners on the stringer. It was only about 6pm at this point and we decided instead of continuing to fish, we should clean our fish and head to Buena Vista where we had planned on camping to get an early start the next morning. Cleaned our fish, got to our campsite, and began cooking the trout on a cast iron over a little camp stove. We got the skin perfect and crispy, you could eat the skin like a chip, it was delicious. Tyler and I both agreed, some of the best trout we’ve ever cooked. To end the night, we had a few beers then got a good night’s rest.
Day 2
The next morning, we grabbed breakfast in town to start the day. We had to go into town to stop at the fly shop anyway and grab a couple last minute camping supplies. After we got some intel from ArkAnglers we were off to the trailhead. We arrived at the trailhead, packed our bags, double checked we had everything, then began the hike to the first lake.
I’ll tell you what, after the first mile my bag was feeling pretty heavy and was starting to regret my decision on packing in my waders and an extra pair of hiking boots. The first lake we went too is off trail, so once we arrived at our turn point, we had about half a mile left. It wasn’t an easy half mile, we crossed a creek, only to run into a huge lumber and boulder field. Tons of massive trees that had fell down or been cut down for some time. Some trees up to 4 feet tall and wide, which climbing over with a 40lb pack on your back gets old pretty damn quick. After we got through a majority of the trees, it turned into large boulders which also was tough to get through. Then a few more trees, and bam, made it to the lake. Absolutely stunning. We walked right into a perfect campsite, took in the scenery, rehydrated, scoped the lake and found trout cruising the banks looking for food – hell ya.
After setting up camp and eating some food, it was time to get fishing! I won’t lie, the first 2-3 hours fishing was uneventful. These fish weren’t interested at all in any of the flies we were throwing. At one point, during the later afternoon, the fish all started gathering on the South West Corner of the lake, right near our camp. There had to of been at least 50 fish just swimming around the corner of the lake eating dry flies off the top. I got a decent video of the fish swimming around in this section. It was a blast watching them, but was starting to think that’s all I’d be doing. I guess YouTube doesn’t allow multiple HD uploads daily, so it’s not super high quality but you still get the idea.
As desperation set in, Tyler and I put our heads together and discussed how we could catch these damn fish. We came to the conclusion the flies we were using were simply too big, and we need to go smaller. The fish appeared to be eating tiny bugs on top. We each put on smaller flies, and within three cast I had a fish on. Tyler had walked about 50 yards away at this point and he had the net, this was my first Cutthroat so I wanted to get it in the net. He hustled over and we landed it. What a gorgeous fish. Tyler ended up putting on a similar fly in hopes he would catch his first of the day too. I let him fish the area with the fish gathering, but he wasn’t able to get them to bite and decided to move to a different section. I grabbed a drink and relaxed for a second, then went back to where I caught my first fish. I saw a large cutthroat trout rising and smashing flies so I casted at it, first cast he looked at it, decided he didn’t want it. I pulled my fly back in and then made a perfect cast right near him, he saw it and came and hit that fly like a rock! Fish on! I yelled for Tyler to come over because I had a nice fish on. After putting up a good fight, we got it in the net. FUCK YES! Personal best Cutthroat (not hard to beat consider I’ve only caught one other at this point). Super awesome.
Day 3 – Made breakfast, packed bags, hiked to the next lake. Found a hidden path which ended up being a nice short cut. Caught Golden Trout, Caught tons of cutty’s, caught a fish while night fishing.
Day 3
After a good nights rest, we made breakfast, tried to fish one more time, then packed our bags to hike to the next lake. The hike to the first lake was miserable, we both hoped that the hike to the second lake wouldn’t be as tough. While making our way back to the trail, we ended up running into hidden trail that would eventually meet with the main trail. We think this made our hike considerably shorter. We ran into a guy leaving the lake we were headed too and got a quick fishing report from him. Sounds like the fish are bitting!! Walking up to the lake, we ran into my buddy Mike B and some of his friends had already made it to the lake by the time we arrived. It was good to see them! Eagerly wanting to get our fishing poles in the water, we found our camp and set out some of our stuff, then rigged up.
Mike and friends had already been catching fish for a good hour or two. We ended up fishing the creek coming out of the lake, the Cutthroat trout and Golden trout were getting ready to spawn since the lake had just thawed. The amount of trout in this little creek was insane! It was hard not to catch fish. I caught fish with dry flies, midges and egg patterns that day. It was a great experience. Tyler ended up catching a Golden Trout before me and also ended up catching one of the biggest goldens of the day, but ended up losing it out of the net before capturing a picture for evidence. Golden Trout are so beautiful it’s insane. And what an experience to be able to catch them in Colorado!
Day 4 – Final Day
It was time to leave nature and make our way back down from the mountain. After eating mostly all freeze dried food for the weekend, my body was ready for some fresh food. Talk about some bad gas! The hike back down was easy, we got to the car, had a beer, then stopped in town for a quick bite to eat.
Backpacking for three days for my first time was an awesome experience. I’m looking forward to hitting the trails hard in 2019!