Good Stuff On The Roaring Fork

The Roaring Fork River fished quite well yesterday. Crowds are nonexistant with seemingly all anglers heading up to go fish the Frying Pan. Fine by me. The great thing about the Fork is that the water is very easy to read. Where you think a trout should be holding, it is. I love picking apart structure and holding water and the Fork has a wealth of it. I also get to use and fish "real" flies. By real, I mean Princes, 20Inchers and the like, instead of the ultra-techie midge and mysis shrimp patterns that you commonly fish on the Frying Pan. Normal flies, normal water, abnormal fish. That's what the Fork is all about. Quality. As much fun as it is to go poke a 5-8 pound fish out of the Pan, an 18" inch fish out of the Fork fights much harder and has those wild "freestone" genes that just make them incredibly strong fish. Spent most of the day fishing right through town with Monday Morning crew member and guide, Travis Lyons. Trav and I fish a lot together so we thought we'd fish "out of the box" and hit some overlooked water that neither of fish too often. Driving down on Two Rivers Road in Basalt, Travis suggested hitting the Lower Bypass Bridge. By the time I was done rigging my rod up Travis already had six good fish in the net within fifteen minutes. Once rigged, I quickly landed a 13" inch brown. Once on the ice bank, the fish coughed up a still living 5" inch sculpin. Way cool! This has happened to me before but never has the sculpin still been alive. I was fired up after that. We stuck a few more fish and decided to head up river to go poke around the Lower Woody Creek Bridge. We fished the downstream side of the bridge in a long run where both of us landed more than our fair share of fish. My largest was a solid 16" inch rainbow. I do want to make mention of the fact that many fish are keying in on stoneflies. A #12 20Incher was my best fly, though we did stick fish on princes, eggs, and midge patterns as well. All in all, a great day. Out. -Kirk-