Going Home

I took the chance this past weekend to go visit some friends back in Boulder, Colorado.  I'm not sure if the purpose was to visit friends or to fish what I consider my home river there.  I spent pretty much equal times doing both and I can't say for certain which was more enjoyable.  I can, however, say for certain both were great.

The fishing on the South Boulder Creek was as good as it ever has been, at least for me.  I have a number of friends who claim that water is a waste of time, but my experience is that it's worth at least 10 days a year minimum.  And in those 10 days I can expect to catch a total of 200+ fish.  They may not be huge, but some are reasonably size.

I started on Friday by driving straight from the airport to Eldorado Canyon, which is actually a spot quite close town that I had never attempted before.  I met up with a friend from my old soccer team and we hit up the pocket water through the canyon and had a reasonably successful afternoon.  We each caught a dozen or so each from noon to 5.  Not an amazing day, but good for how hard we fished (not very).  Apart from one brief but heavy rainstorm the weather cooperated too.



























I apparently didn't take too many pictures on day one.  Probably because I forgot my camera in the car and didn't want to risk dropping my phone in the river.

On day two I met up with Brady, Cory, and John to drive up to my home waters on the SBC.  I won't give the spot away, but it doesn't generally get much pressure and holds quite a few fish.  Most of them are small but a few are reasonably sized.  The flows were a little higher than I expected, probably around 180cfs and I think this river is golden once flows drop to 125cfs.  We also saw quite a few other people, which is very rare.  Typically I will see one other person or no one on the stretch of the river I usually hit.  But at least we were numerous enough to scare away any hole-poachers.

Anyway, we all got to a good starting spot and discovered how cold the water was.  Who needs waders?  No one, but we all ended up with cuts and bruises all over our ankles the next day from knocking into rocks.  But at the time it wasn't an issue because we couldn't feel a thing below the knees.  I don't remember who caught fish number one, but I don't think it took too long.

John and Cory have only been out a few times, but John had a few bites throughout the course of the day, and Cory managed to catch a couple whoppers.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures on my camera, sorry Cory.

I don't remember who caught how many and I'm not sure anyone kept track. I'm sure we all caught fewer than we claimed, but I did get images of some of them.

In all it was of course a good trip and the fishing was pretty much exactly as expected.  Plenty of catching, a nice hike, and the discovery of the spicy mustard, warm whiskey shot.  Two were and remain classics, one will never happen again.

Can't wait to fish it again.