Streams Above Fort Collins

[cpierce]

Hit a couple of streams above Fort Collins for a few hours.

On this first one I stopped lower down, but it was really swollen with rain runoff so I moved further upstream. Higher up it had a lot of brookies, but the stream was in better shape.

It was clear, cold, and small, but the fish were willing. Pretty little brook trout dominated many of the pools.


There were a lot of browns too. Unfortunately they weren't much bigger than the brookies.


They were a lot of fun to catch though, and catching in a small stream is better than striking out in a rain swollen one. The stream and mountains were nice and sparkley clean in the sun. It was a nice break from the rain.


There were a few bigger browns that I missed or didn't get a picture of.

This one was a bit on the skinny side.



It was a fun stream, and I would have stayed longer, but I needed to be back down in town to pick up the grandkids from school. I will have to explore this area more thoroughly as when I get some time.

The next stream I visited was on today on Saturday so I had a bit more time, but it required a hike in. I decided to go to a section of public stream that access was blocked by private land ownership.

First step was to check the county plat maps and find out who owned the strip of land I needed to cross. First step done and permission granted. I was excited as I figured this area would have been fished less. Turns out there were well beaten trails all up and down it where the land owners in the area have fished it hard.

It was a good idea, and if the thunderstorms hadn't started rolling in I could have walked further from the access area and maybe done better. As it was, the fishing was pretty good, just not up to my unreal expectations of it not being pressured at all.

The area was beautiful and well worth the half mile walk down into the canyon.



There were absolutely clouds of baby fish everywhere in the slack water. It has been a long time since I have seen a stream with so many young fish everywhere. The bigger fish were hanging at the head of the deeper holes.

I didn't see a lot of bugs in the water. The rocks were all covered in a downy layer of algae. There were lots of crawdads though that I thought was kind of unusual.



If I get back to this one, I need to bring some crawdad streamers to drift through the deep spots.

I caught two nice browns right close to where I accessed the creek, but my camera was IN my backpack which was on my back. I also caught several rainbows. All of the fish were fat and chunky.



The stream must have a lot of water come down it at times, or maybe it was just from the floods last year. There were trees, and brush in piles high on top of rocks and hanging in the trees and bushes.

In this picture there is brush piled up on top of the rock on the left.



But my favorite was this balanced log.



Such a beautiful stream





With some beautiful fish.



Even the little guys were amazing.



The only thing that I didn't like in this canyon was the rattlesnake that I almost stepped on.

Dang near gave me a heart attack! This is really thick wide bladed grass and the snake was not as small as it looks in this picture. The grass was waist to chest high. I was beating the grass in front of me with my staff for the rest of the afternoon.




The hike out was accompanied by lots of rumbles from the storm clouds.

Here I am about 3/4ths of the way up and can see my car. The little white dot just up and left of the center of the picture.



I hope to get back to this creek, but next time I can do without snakes or lightning.





[url "http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/"][/url]
[signature]