Terrestrials, Cutthroat, and Old Memories

I was fortunate enough to make a trip up to estes park with my dad the other day in pursuit of rainbows below olympus dam. We also met up with some family friends that were in from virginia, making it a great experience!  After brief conversations, and many handshakes, we hit the river with high expectations.

I have fished below the dam at lake estes several times before, and unfortunately for us, these fish are super smart for the Thompson.  They get fished to so much that they become super picky, in turn making the catch rates start to dwindle. The upside? Well, it is now dead in the middle of summer (at least for me), and ants, beetles, and even hoppers are starting to show up on the surface of the water. This meant that we could fish big buoyant dries to rising fish.  Well, after several missed attempts, we finally got into some fish, but nothing worth writing home about. Frustrated, we decided to hit up Village Pizza for some lunch, and then we decided to head to Lily Lake in  search of Greenback cutthroats.

When we arrived at Lily lake, the parking lot was full, and people were crammed into, and around the lake.  I suppose this makes sense seeing as it is the most accessible lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, and its beautiful scenery is unparalleled.  Braving the crowds, we grabbed our gear, and walked the shoreline on the lookout for cruising fish. We didn't find any cruisers, but we did find quite a few fish that were willing to engulf our ant patterns, making for an excellent day on the water.

Greenback Cutthroat

I was blown away by the colors on some of these fish...

Now, on to the old memories part of this post. I was looking through some pictures, and found a few good shots of some nice sized bass that I caught a few years back. I thought that they were good enough to put up, so without further ado...

Nice largemouth from a few years back...

Bassin' at night...what a thrill!