5-14-13 It is so about time...

About time for that action right there! No not the girl that snuck into my pic, behind her silly. The Park. RMNP. Natty Park. Natty Rock. Rocky Nappy. Heaven on Earth. Whatever you call it, it's time for Rocky Mountain National Park. I have had to cancel my first trip of the year there 3 times now and nothing was stopping me today.

So after dropping C-Dog (the kid) off at school, I took off and arrived to the Beaver Meadows entrance 45 minutes later. You can't beat that convenience. I couldn't help but notice how slow it was with just a (near) total absence of people and cars. Just the way I like it.  

After soaking in the views for an hour or so I set out to destroy The T. First hole I missed what had to be at least a 16" trout. He turned on me the first cast and got me all crazy excited. Just what I came for, right? And then second cast...I missed him. You thought I was going to say I caught him, ay? I didn't. I moved on.

I continued to walk downstream, throwing my black BH booger into all the slower water, for which there was not much, and stripping it back up. Nice thing about a meadow though, every turn is a hole. I was getting a ton of bites but most were those short bites on my long booger tail. I continued and then finally hooked into a really nice trout. I lost him though.

I stopped and took a break to enjoy the view. That really is my favorite part of this place, the serenity. I never feel the need to just stop and soak it all in like I do this place. Today's view was elk that were about 25 yards or so away from me.  After a while, I turned around and continued to fish upstream. This time, I would dead drift my booger and see if I had any more luck. Sure enough I did.

 I ended getting 2 or 3 on the way back up on the dead drift and they were all really nice healthy browns. The key was just pounding those banks and looking for the undercut banks. This is where most, that were fishable on the drift, were hiding out. I continued onto my truck and then again took another break and grabbing a bite. I was hoping the storm would pass during lunch, but it just never really materialized and ended up only dropping a few drops during and after lunch. I decided to keep heading upstream of my original start point and fishing on the dead drift. I got some more bites but no more trout.

By around 3:00 or so I decided to make my way back. I would once again go back to stripping my booger on the way down. This time, same result. Several bites, but no takers.

Finally one did eat that whole thing. I set the heck out of that hook. He was going nowhere. Ended up putting up a great fight for his size. Took himself into some pretty deep holes with some timber and rocks. He tried to sneak out but I wouldn't let him. After finally landing him, I could see that he practically swallowed the whole thing and I had to perform trout surgery on the banks. That is why you will see him on the ground in the picture. But have no fear, by the end of it all, and a few minutes of assisted swimming he was off. Somehow, that barbless booger slid all the way down to his stomach. But like I said, he swam off safely.

Being more satisfied than I have been since the last time I was in the Park, I decided to head back. A great day.  

Pre surgery trout. Notice the lack of wooley boogers in the picture. That is because it is (not for long) in his tummy.

Tight Lines-Rocky Nappy style