My Blue Heaven



The Blue River in Summit County is a real anglers dream. And living on the east side of the Continental Divide, that is about all I do when it comes to the Blue River. Dream about it. I recently got an opportunity to change that however. 
I planned on fishing the Blue for most of the day but due to a company party at Arapahoe Basin, I was temporarily delayed. After finally saying my goodbyes, me and my brother set down towards Dillon. I stopped on the way deciding that I should explore the Snake River coming through Keystone a little bit. Throwing a PT and an original Caddis pattern, I had no luck. I picked up several rocks in the stream and saw only a few size 28 midges in the sub 40 degree temperature. Good enough for me to know it wasn't quite time yet. I did however discover that this is one beautiful stream. It has a real nice meandering quality about it and I will be back sometime soon for sure to spend more time.
So we headed to Cutthroat Anglers in Silverthorne to get the 4-1-1 on the river. I figured they would tell me mysis shrimp but I wanted to stop in anyways. Sure enough, the soup du jour in town was the mysis shrimp. I bought an epoxy back sz. 20 and just a plain ole' mysis size 20. Talked with the clerk a few minutes, and headed out. Drove straight to the outlets and got busy. I found a nice spot on the river south of the overpass in between 4-5 anglers. Threw on the gear and hopped in. A beautiful stretch of freestone river here with clear water allows for optimum wading right now. I couldn't believe the water quality. Just as fertile as could be. There were several holes that expanded forty feet by 60 feet and I was in disbelief at the conditions. You don't get to fish rivers like this much living where I do in the front range area.
I got to throwing and within 15 minutes I had my first ever Gold Medal water trout on the end of the line. Problem was I could hardly see the little guy as measured over just 3". As beautiful as the native trout was with his markings, the only impressive thing I thought about the whole thing was catching ANY kind of fish in a Gold Medal stream. So that made me happy but the 3" fish did not. And neither did the next two 3" trout. About this time my brother headed out. He was not fishing and was really just spectating. I think you can only catch so many 3" trout, and you can be a spectator for even fewer. Thus, his departure.
Well I knew I was onto something as I was indeed catching fish; and the little fish eat the same things the big fish do. So I kept fishing. I did mentally remind myself that the gentleman in the fly shop told me that the bigger guys are further downstream however. After about another 20 minutes or so the weather started to come in. This made me optimistic as the beginning of a storm can start a mad feeding frenzy. I kept casting, the temperature falling even lower. Kept casting, snow falling harder and harder; temperature falling even lower still.
At last, I got a strike. A nice strike. One that can't be made by a 3" trout. I set the hook and out it came. I saw the 14" trout turn towards me as if to say 'nice try' and he moved on. I quickly turned excited now as the temperature seemed to phase me less now with the thought of bigger trout on the end of the line. I moved upstream to the next hole and there it was...a group of about 5-6 trout right in front of me. Each of them was pushing no less than 18" and I couldn't believe it. I turned back slowly and moved behind a boulder to stalk them. I started throwing again, with the snow now turning to a sleet and just making everything down right wet and cold. I kept casting and casting and finally, that little green indicator of mine sank 2 feet in a real hurry. I set the hook and I knew it was time. He gave me a great run, almost 60' upstream. To the left, to the right and in and out of the current. After about 6 or 7 minutes I finally got him near, pulled the net and scooped him. Success! I took one look and I was in my Blue heaven indeed. A beautiful male with huge shoulders, he measured just over 18".
I let the monster go and kept to casting.
A few minutes later, I just couldn't believe that I would be rewarded with two of these incredible specimens, but that was indeed the case. This one gave me an even bigger fight. And when I went to re-set the hook to make sure I had him on good, he ran straight upstream like he was not very happy, at all. My reel singing, I let him go. He got about 80' out and turned towards me like a torpedo. I don't think I have ever stripped line so fast. He got below me and I retreated further downstream to keep him above me. Again, he took another 80' run and jumped out of the water at the end of it. I knew then that he was bigger than the first one I had released. He once again got below me and feeling like I was the best fly fisher ever to dawn the planet, I did not retreat. He did however, and so did my fly. Lost. I was pretty disappointed with my stupid decision. I knew better and decided to not listen to myself.
The weather passed and I thought I lost my chance. The bite slowed and I began increasingly worried that my 'good time' on the Blue was short lived, producing one real trout only. I regrouped and took a five minute break. I decided to fish the whole entire whole again. So I set off downstream and jumped back in. Now I was right at the bottom where I had first started. I made my way up stream aggressively this time, just sight fishing for the monsters. Again, I found them. I cast to them and within my first few casts, it was on. This time I could see the coloring on the brute and I could tell that I caught a native. Beautiful color. I struggled to get him in as he was the biggest of the day yet. Finally I managed and I was once again in Blue heaven. This one measured out to be about 22".

Here are some pics. Don't mind the date. My camera resets every time I turn it on so I don't even bother usually. The actual fishing day was April 19th, 2012. Hope you enjoy! And a shout out to the guy who took the pic from me and gave me some locals advice. Brandon?? Can't remember.

Enjoy!

Tight Lines!