Wild Wild West

[skypilot]

Forest fires. Flash floods. Fly fishing. Family fun. Fantastic friends.

Five weeks on the road, and 6,500 miles later, my wife and I returned with memories to last a lifetime.

I bumped into a man in the parking lot, at Texas Hole, on the San Juan river in New Mexico. It turns out that he and I played football, on opposing teams, in the sixties, as military brats in Germany. We both served on rescue helicopters . . . . he was a UH-1 Dust Off pilot in Viet Nam. He mentored me through a fabulous day, catching more beautiful trout than we could count.

My son, Mark, invited me along on a salmon fishing trip, at the mouth of the Columbia river. We launched from Cape Disappointment, WA., catching our limit of Chinook and Coho salmon on conventional gear.

While fishing the Crooked river, near Prineville, Oregon, I met Marv and Dennis. After teaching me the right way to fish the river, Dennis informs me that Marv is the fisheries biologist who wrote most of the conservation regulations for the State of Oregon. Together we caught dozens of beautiful and powerful native rainbows.

Near Telluride, Colorado, there are some natural Alpine depression lakes, loaded with wild brook trout. I was fortunate enough to arrive at one,just as a hatch of tiny mayflies were being gobbled up on the surface of the lake. There is no greater joy than seeing your #22 dry fly disappear into the mouth of one of these feisty fish. They kept biting until echoing booms of thunder and lightning chased me off.

At Durango, I stepped into the Animas river late in the afternoon, just off the downtown 9th street bridge. My second cast was greeted with a 12" rainbow. You got to be kidding!

Finally it was time to come home. My one final wish was to catch a brown trout in the Rio Grande river, near the Continental Divide in Colorado. The river was muddy from recent rains, so I upsized a Texas style (San Marcos river) nymph and dropped a slightly smaller one from it. A pile of rocks invited me to wade out to the middle of the river, and a nice brown trout swallowed the nymph and took off into the white water. A lengthy battle ensued, but the fish finally surrendered long enough to pose for a couple of photos. Ten minutes later an even bigger brown jumped on the bug and leaped a couple of feet out of the river. He also fought for his life before coming to the shore for a quick pic and release.

Thanks to all my mentors and new friends. Thanks Lord for protection and unexpected blessings. What a trip through the Wild, Wild West.

Let's go fishing.

[larry long shadows]

Glad you had a safe trip and a great time...love road trips

[walkeraviator]

What an awesome journey. I fly fished that same area in Durango when I was on a layover there. Sometimes my job puts me in great fishing locations. Need to take advantage more often.

[larry long shadows]

What an awesome journey. I fly fished that same area in Durango when I was on a layover there. Sometimes my job puts me in great fishing locations. Need to take advantage more often.

2x I have been to some great places to fly fish and I don't take advantage of it...

[Bear]

I was on the San Juan fishing the 16th through the 19th of this month; fished the upper flats above the Texas Hole.

Had a blast cathing Bows on size 26 midges, bigest was a 21" caught on a size 28 UFO.

Bear

[fisher of people]

Sweet. Thanks for a great report.

[Aggroman]

Very Cool! Thanks for sharing!

[Do It]

Sounds like an epic trip...congrats
D.

[skypilot]

It was an epic trip indeed. The best part was two days of fishing with our son, who now lives with his wife and two daughters in Oregon.

[SmilinJoe]

Welcome back, what a great adventure!

[aggie182]

Sounds like an amazing experience and trip.

[rockin4m]

Great report. Nice pics also!!!