Upper Big Thompson River: Rocky Mountain National Park

On our hike back down to the trail head I decided to fish a few sections of the Upper Big Thompson River from "The Pool" down to the car. The stream follows the trail in a few sections making access easy, and other parts that flow away from the trail have footpaths to get back to the steam. The water in this section has some serious flow to it, the fast water and different currents make getting a good drag free drift challenging, especially the first 1 mile below "The Pool." Still there is plenty of good holding water and I managed a few fish on a #14 Lime Trude. There were tons of anglers fishing so getting a piece of water to myself was challenging. The biggest reward came when I fooled a Greenback laying next to a log in fast moving water. There are tons of fish in this section, when the water gets down to normal summer flows I would imagine many good days with dry flies are had. If your looking for small mountain stream fishing it doesn't get any better then the Big Thompson above the meadow.

Fern Lake: Rocky Mountain National Park

   I was lucky enough to get out and do some fishing at Rocky Mountain National Park this past weekend. I have been itching to get back from the minute my brothers and I left on our September 2010 trip. This time around I had less fishing time, so I planned out a short overnight in the back country.

  Our Destination was Fern Lake via the Fern Lake Trail. We didn't get to start hiking till noon and finding a parking spot was a challenging to say the least. I would recommend getting to the trail head before 9 am if you are looking for a convenient parking spot.  The trail meanders along the Upper Big Thompson River through a narrow gorge between scenic mountains. The first 1.7 miles to our campsite at the Old Forest Inn was very flat and highly traveled by other hikers and anglers. The park service only issues 2 permits for this spot but there are at least 4 different locations to set up your tent. We situated ourselves atop a nice knoll that offered scenic views of the nearby mountains. Just an FYI if you are looking to escape the constant winds that howl down the valley I would recommend staying in the lower sites. We got everything ready by 2:30 and decided to make the 2 mile uphill trek to Fern Lake. The trail from Old Forest Inn to the lake was mostly uphill with gradual switchbacks. You pass the picturesque Fern Falls about 1 mile into the climb. Compared to my hike at Lawn Lake this one was much less grueling. You could definitely make this a relaxing day trip to a back country lake if you desired.

I got to the lake around 3:45pm. There was a light rain falling for the first 30 minutes. Myself and the other 7 anglers fishing didn't seem to mind. Once I got my gear together the rain stopped and fish immediately started feeding on the surface. I tied on a #22 Griffith's Gnat and brought four 8-10 inch Greenbacks to hand. Man I almost forgot how amazing these fish look! The 2 mile hike up was a distant memory after hooking into a few of these guys. The lake itself was much smaller then Lawn Lake. The banks were much more choked with trees and bushes as well making it difficult to back cast. The fish were very eager to take the gnat, and there were plenty of them cruising around. I only fished the back end of the lake where Fern Creek dumps out, there is a shallow shelf there and fish were hanging out right where the water went from deep to shallow.

For the next 3 hours I caught fish on #14 CDC Caddis skating it across the water and also managed 10 more on the #22 Griffith's Gnat. Overall this lake has plenty of Greenbacks, they average 3-4 inches smaller then the ones we caught at Lawn Lake. Even so it was well worth the hike and I would return in the future.

Lawn Lake: Rocky Mountain National Park

It was hard to imagine the fishing getting any better then the Roaring River. But we strapped on our boots and headed up to Lawn Lake where we would camp for the night. Most of the hiking guides we read stated the hardest stretch of trail was the first 3 miles. We thought they were way off! The second part of the hike took us from 9,500 ft to 11,000 feet in 3.5 miles but seemed a bit harder then day 1. The 1st set of switchbacks were long and steep, seemed to go on forever. After 2 1/2 hours of trekking up the mountainside we finally arrived at our destination. We set up camp and set up the rods very quickly as we were excited to see how the lake would produce.

The three of us started slamming hoppers close to the shoreline and soon enough we were catching plump 12-16 inch Greenbacks! Cast after Cast produced big fish coming out to gobble our hoppers. We even ventured our casts out further into the lake and fish were coming out from the bottom to eat them. For 8 hours the catching of fish continued and once the wind died down it got even better! We switched to a Royal Wulff at night and at one point my brother and I were catching or missing fish on every cast for 30 minutes straight! This was by far the greatest experience of the trip for us. I think with it being my first back country camping experience in the Rockies and the setting of the Lake it was one of the best fishing experiences of my life for that matter. The solitude and beauty of the lake and fish will be something my brothers and I will never forget. If you are in Rocky Mountain National Park do not let the 6.3 mile hike scare you away, the grueling journey is quickly forgotten once you hook into a few greenbacks. Enjoy the pics, they don't do it justice........

Roaring River: Rocky Mountain National Park

The highlight of our 8 days in Colorado was the two day back country experience on the Lawn Lake Trail. We were out to seek the elusive Green Back Cutthroat Trout, a fish that resides only in a few watersheds of the park. This took most of our pre-trip planning as two days in the wilderness is not something you can plan overnight, especially when you are coming from Pennsylvania. Our destination on the first day was the Golden Banner campsite which is located about 3 miles from the Trail head. We started off at 8,500 feet and gained 1,000 feet in those first 3 miles. The first mile was an uphill switchback that weaved up the mountain. We gained most of those 1,000 feet in the first mile for sure! Once you get through the first mile the last two have a slight grade to them and don't feel as bad. At 9,500 feet we arrived at the Golden Banner Site and set up camp. The park ranger warned us of a nuisance bear which got into a campers tent a few weeks before so we were keen to keep food and stenches (outside ourselves) in a mandatory bear canister.

After setting up Echo Base we decided to fish right above the campsite. To our liking there were fish positioned in every holding spot on the stream! Greenbacks chomped on all our hopper patterns no matter where we were casting. The fish here ranged from 6-10 inches which was a lot bigger then what we are used to back in PA! I would say the stream was about 10-12 feet wide but had plenty of holding water. We fished about 1 mile above the Golden Banner then turned around and walked to the Cutbank site. We got into the water and fished right back to camp. Same results as before, tons of fish eager to eat dries. Needless to say we had an absolute blast catching these beauties in this little stream, definitely worth the first three miles of rugged terrain! I can't even imagine how many fish per mile are in this stream, most say the best fishing is below the Cutbank campsite, I can't imagine the fishing getting much better then what we experienced.