Bowers

Why Do Only Small Fish Like Me?

April 27, 2011 by n.taylor 4 Comments

Because I suck, as if that answer wasn’t obvious.

Rainbow

I’m pretty sure that if the weather was any worse this weekend then I would not have gotten out of bed. Relentless wind coupled with some snow, rain, sleet, wet snow, and some more wind made for a challenging “vacation”. Visibility was poor due to the precipitation and the windy conditions but that didn’t prevent my companions from getting some respectable trout.

So aside from my car of people Sean also met us up on the river to show us how it is done and help me perfect the nuances of fly fishing… like blood knots.

Greg and Sean

Once everyone else got out of the car and confirmed that I was not going to either blow away or freeze to death instantly I geared up and headed to the river. I will have to say that being a full time photographer for your party isn’t as bad as you would think. Among the dozens of skip job browns that we landed there were a few that had some pretty interesting colors which allowed me to pretend to have an artsy side. Chad, Sean, Greg, Jeff, and Mike all caught nice fish within an hour or two, which left the pressure of “skunk” firmly on my shoulders.

Brown Trout

Lucky for me there are still dumb fish in the eco-system and one of them thought they wanted to get a picture with me for the website. I was happy to oblige and so just like that, the skunk was off but I never stopped getting shit from everyone else on the trip. Carr caught a brown with some really unique coloring that I thought was pretty neat.

Between Mike’s chili and the BBQ that Chad brought from Moe’s we ate like kings at night. Honestly, without those meals I’m not sure I could have made it out of the house in the mornings. It was hard to get excited about fishing when you heard the tapping of the rain on the roof all night, knowing that it wasn’t going to subside the following day and you were going to have to stand in it. Then I would think about ribs with mac n’ cheese or pork and beef chili and I told myself that I might be able to make it through the next day, if only for dinner and the thought that big fish might like me.

Ribs and Wings

Forgotten Fish

March 5, 2011 by n.taylor 5 Comments

I believe Mel Gibson said it best in the movie We Were Soldiers when he said empathically to his troops, “Leave NO man, behind”. Well apparently this dude got left behind. He was the only one we found among all of the rainbows and cutts this past week. To my friend Chad I would like to say nice fish. I would also like to thank Tyler for a fantastic netting job, (an area that he has been diligently working to improve in).

Forgotten Fish

Uncle Paulie

September 12, 2010 by n.taylor 5 Comments

This summer for whatever reason the flows below GMR have not been to my liking. As much as it pains me to say this, my first float down this section was in September. Pathetic.

The only reason I got to go was because Chad Bowers called me up and said they needed another man who can man the oars. Trust me, if you can teach yourself to row, you will see more opportunities come your way than you ever thought possible. It is truly amazing how many people cannot pilot a raft down a river.

The day we decided to go was the coldest day of the week, as evidenced by the temperature at our 10:30am put in being only 55 degrees. The wind was ferocious, it was seriously blowing us upstream in several sections. This is not an exaggeration, there were five minute spans of us not moving anywhere as gusts of what seemed to be 40 miles an hour pretty much took our boat wherever it wanted. The fishing through the canyon was less than spectacular with a few fish being picked up, most of which were not photo-worthy.

Uncle Paulie's Slide

If you haven’t heard of Uncle Paulie you are missing out. His ranch is pretty much the most incredible thing you will ever seen in your life. If I remember right, I believe the guy made somewhere in the ballpark of $750 million…in 2006. Needless to say this commodities trader, turned retired billionaire has invested an unfathomable sum into his fishing reserve. With the Sheriff, county, and Army Corp of Engineers in his back pocket he has been able to put in massive stream improvements without permission (the Corp of Engineers say they “don’t exist”) and stock the river with some sort of weird hybrid steelhead/rainbow/super-fish cross. Going over his weirs it is not uncommon to see 1,000 lbs of rainbow sitting below each one, most of which tip the scales close to 10lbs. He has manicured basketball, tennis, and volleyball courts. His guest house looks like a 4 Seasons and I’m sure there are a plethora of other amenities that you can’t even see.

After missing several good fish Chad finally was the one to bring in a respectable rainbow so that we could all go home feeling just a little bit better about ourselves.

Bowers

As is becoming the “norm” on this section we ran across several other boats, which brought the grand total to over a dozen fisherman for this stretch on a weekday. For many years this was one of the best kept secrets in Colorado. Recently however, it has become increasingly more popular, and having to wait in line to launch your boat is not uncommon. The fishing on this section has definitely slowed as time has progressed but the big fish are still in there, you just have to work harder for them. I hope that I can squeeze one more float in this year to see if I can get a few real nice ones to help fill up my iPhoto library. Just in case you were wondering, this is what we are considering “nice” to be.

Drapeau