Before the trip you could almost hear Matt McClure barking out, “Omaha, Omaha”. No, we weren’t going to Omaha to fish but like Payton Manning, Matt was calling an audible on our trip to Colorado. We were originally going to the South Platte River area but due to exceptionally low water (our guide Landon Mayer cancelled), a dam that was shut down and a major flood in Cheeseman Canyon, Matt called an audible and a great audible it was. We now were headed to Carbondale, Colorado near Glenwood Springs to fish.
Greg Krochta, our member from Denver, got in the act and purchased four days with Rarewaters to fish private locations four of our six fishing days. We switched VRBO’s and were on our way. Matt McClure, Jim Craig, Glenn Haake, and I (Kenny Klimes) left St Louis to meet up with Greg Krochta. On arrival Greg and his bride Michelle had put together a cookout for us to get “acclimatized” to Colorado. The weather normally is very unpredictable at this time of year but for almost the entire trip the weather was in the 60s and sunshine. Greg set up locations with Rarewaters and we were on our way to some formidable fishing.
Instead of going into detail on each day I will just provide a synopsis of the trip. Matt got us a beautiful cabin in the mountains just outside of Carbondale, Colorado. We all had our own bedrooms, big kitchen, living room and more. We fished six days and used Rarewaters four of those days. We fished the Eagle River, Colorado River, Roaring Fork River, Frying Pan River, and Crystal Creek! We caught beautiful Browns and Rainbows – both big and small.
Greg worked on fishing streamers. Kenny and Matt fished and practiced Spey fishing one day on the Colorado River. Jim and Glenn and the rest fished dry droppers, ESN, and more. Each day we had a chance to do all diverse kinds of fly fishing. Some rivers were wide, and some were “skinny.” We had some impressive private waters to fish – each one special in their own way. Matt discovered on one of our locations a pond on the property loaded with BIG trout. He fished it for a while catching one BIG trout after another then felt bad and called us to join him. It was fishing from a dock, using trout egg patterns (brown to look like fish pellets) and we couldn’t stop laughing about all of the monsters that were rising. It probably helped to have fish food (brown pellets) available to “call” the trout in. Enjoy the pictures of the fish.
We had some superb dinners each night eating out at restaurants (Mexican and BBQ) and at our VRBO. Glenn made a great pork roast dinner that we couldn’t finish and breakfast one morning with over a dozen eggs. We should have gained a few pounds but all the walking we did every day I am sure we lost a few.
Throughout the long week we caught loads of fish, a few of us fell in, got caught in the trees and bushes more times than not, put a bunch of miles on the cars and had one helluva good time. The weather was beautiful – in the 60s most days with sunshine – except the last day. With snow predictions of 10 – 20 inches of snows in elevations higher than 8000 feet on Friday night, we unanimously decided to vacate the area, head to Greg’s house (Denver area) to stay the night and fly home Saturday afternoon. We were a little late arriving back in St Louis due to de-icing of our aircraft in Denver. But all went well, and the trip was a tremendous success with lots of trout and more laughs. I am proud to be part of this organization with brothers to fish with.
