Had a really fun day with Julie, Terry, and Sophie on the Gunnison River. After a slow morning, we got into some good dry fly fishing in the afternoon. Julie did really well and caught several nice browns like this one here.

A nice cutthroat from the Taylor River on public water up in Taylor Canyon. We’ve had good hatches and dry fly fishing in July.

Randy had an incredible day of dry fly fishing on the Taylor River at Taylor River Lodge over the 4th of July weekend. He landed some really nice rainbows, cutthroat, and browns throughout the day. This chunky cutthroat was our last fish of the day. Randy tossed a single dry fly and this big trout inhaled it. It was a great day!

My sister Judy caught some really nice fish yesterday on the Taylor River. She had not fly fished in several years but she quickly got back in the groove.

Had a fun day with Peter on the Taylor River at our Taylor River Lodge today. He caught browns, rainbows, and cutthroat, including this really nice chunky cut here.

Doug Dillingham’s new book, Fly Fishing the Gunnison Country, is a must-read if you’re planning to fish in the Gunnison Valley. It’s great to have a new fly fishing guide for our area written by a local with extensive knowledge of our rivers, streams, and high mountain lakes. Anyone who has ever fished here or plans to fish here should have this book. You can find Doug’s new book in local fly shops, or contact Doug at DriftingDrake@q.com.

During the early season when the big rivers are in run-off, the small creeks can offer some great fly fishing opportunities. Moose and I scouted the AEI Guide and Outfitter stretch of Illinois Creek yesterday afternoon and found the creek in great shape. It’s still early, but the fish were pretty active. We caught some browns and rainbows, and plenty of brookies. AEI is located up in Taylor Park at about 10,000 feet, and their 1,500 acres include a very nice private stretch of Illinois Creek and several trout ponds, as well as plenty of beaver ponds along the creek. It’s a beautiful area and a really fun place to fish. We’re looking forward to getting some of our clients up there this season.

Tyler didn’t fish very long today, but he still managed to catch this really nice rainbow trout on the Taylor River at our Taylor River Lodge. He did an excellent job fighting the fish out of the current and into the net.

Had a fun couple of days on the Taylor River at Taylor River Lodge with John and his friends from Oklahoma. Everyone did well, and lots of nice fish were landed.

We got a nice break from recent winter storms and had a beautiful day up in the Taylor Canyon yesterday. Mac and his son Matt spent the day at Taylor River Lodge catching rainbows, cutbows, cutthroat, and brown trout. The fish made us work, but the guys did really well.