Lacey and I already had a pretty good morning of fishing here in Colorado… We each had a few browns eat our streamers and I had one big rainbow get my blood pumping as it chased mine but never fully committed. We also hadn’t seen another angler which is always a pleasant surprise when fishing any good water in the states.
Then the weather came in, we could see it coming for a while. Blowing in off the mountains and down into the valley we were fishing. The wind had been blowing hard already but this was another level, the sky darkened…as the rain and hail pounded my back I reeled up and found Lacey already walking my way. We had split up to fish two different braids of the river. I figured she was ready to call it a morning due to the weather that now had us engulfed. Instead she was frustrated as her rod just broke in pieces while making her last cast. I sloughed it off like I do about anything that shouldn’t be taken too seriously and yelled over the wind and rain “well we brought four so we might as well wait this out. I still haven’t got to fish the best parts just down river so let’s just sit here a minute.”
It was a cold 20 minutes but soon to be well worth it. Just after the storm passed I had a nice brown attack my streamer for 3 casts until I finally hooked him on the fourth. Then it got crazy! In the next hour and a half Lacey and I landed at least a dozen 4-6 pound rainbows with multiple smaller fish mixed in. We took turns stripping a little black streamer and nymphing, both methods were equally successful.
I laughed walking back to her car saying “sure glad you decided to put that rain jacket on last minute”. We agreed it was already a great morning even if we had packed it in early having caught a few already; though we were happy we weathered the storm and were rewarded with one of our best days fishing together.
Patrick Kissel
Fishing Consultant