We’ve had a really nice fall so far, with warm weather and good fishing. The weather is changing now, and we have snow in the mountains. Cooler temps with cloud cover got the fish moving recently, and I caught some really nice, chunky rainbows on the Gunnison.
We took our camper up to Steamboat to visit friends and fish the Yampa. This was our third trip up there in four years. We had beautiful fall weather, but the fishing was slow and tough. The fish we did catch were really nice, like this big brown I caught and this chunky rainbow Nic landed.
Had a great time fishing the Crystal River at Redstone the past couple of days. Caught a ton of fish, mostly on dry-dropper rigs all day long. I caught mostly rainbows and really pretty cutbows, but I also landed a few browns, one brookie, and a couple of white fish. I got a few bows over 20 inches and one really huge fish that was probably around 4 pounds or more. A night at the Redstone Inn and a day and a half of fishing was my awesome birthday present from Peri. It was a really fun time. (Click on the photos for large images.)
I spent the day yesterday hiking up a small creek in the mountains, catching wild rainbows, cutbows, and native cutthroat. It was a great day with lots of fish, with some cuts up to about 14 inches. I fished one dry fly all day and had some fish come back at it two or three times. I fished a 7’6″ 3-weight fiberglass rod, which made the whole experience extra fun.
Had a great time fishing with Nancy (from my hometown in NY), along with her son Jack and his girlfriend Sophie. We fished the Taylor and also a mountain stream, and Nancy and Jack floated the Gunnison with Moose for two days. It was a fun time!
It’s hard to find a prettier fish. Big rainbows are in the fast and shallow water, feeding with reckless abandon. It’s a great time for Euro Nymphing.
Spring is a great time to find hungry plump rainbows on the Gunnison. Here are some photos of one of Peri’s nice fish.
I’ve been out just a couple of times here on the Uncompahgre River in town and have had decent success. I’ve been mostly Euro Nymphing and also jigging small streamers with the rig. Looking forward to increased flows from Ridgway Reservoir and some early snowmelt getting into the rivers. This is a fun time of year to get out and experience some great pre-runoff fishing.
After several months of traveling in our RV – from Colorado to Arizona, and on to California, and then back to Arizona – we now plan to get back to Colorado by early February. We are under contract on a house in Montrose and will be getting all moved in this spring. Peri and I are very excited to start this next chapter together after getting married last summer on August 2nd. So Riffle and Rise relocates once more, and I look forward to fishing the area again, from high mountain streams full of wild trout and native cutthroat, to the mighty Gunnison River full of big browns and rainbows. Stay tuned for more as the 2024 fishing season kicks in.
