Was able to take a buddy from Dallas on a little backcountry fishing trip. The hike in was crazy hard, because of all the deadfall this year. We went further back in than any human has been this season for sure (which was clearly evident), and likely no one has been up this particular canyon in a few years. When we FINALLY bushwhacked and tree hopped our way back to the secret spot, it didn't take long to find a couple honey holes. I was catching 6-8 fish out of a hole with a dry fly, then switching to a foam ant and pulling out another 5-6, then finishing it off with a bead head nymph to catch the rest. Pulled 23 fish out of one hole alone. Move up stream 50 yards, rinse and repeat. Caught well north of 60 fish in just a few hours of actual fishing.

These cutthroat are BEAUTIFUL!!! These are 100% pure native Colorado cutthroat, not everyone gets a chance to find these little guys. Tough to get to, but they are voracious eaters, and hard fighters. Just had to get the drift rate right, and they would CRUSH it. I even caught one fish that literally jumped OUT of the water and took the fly when it was dangling 3-4" above the surface!!! Aggressive little dudes if you get the presentation right. I'll let the pictures tell the story. Hope you enjoy

We are heading WAY up there, skirting this canyon


standing in the same spot as the picture above, turn 180 degrees and this is where we came from, WAY down there!


crossing 10,000' selfie!


One of the more open parts of this "trail". It hadn't been used in so long, it was hardly a deer path anymore. Very very hard to navigate, especially with a 45lb pack


mid-hike power up- Always carry the jerky


Finally at the "honey hole" - teaching my buddy how to stalk fish using the rocks without silhouetting yourself


His very first cutthroat!


My first one of the trip


Amazingly beautiful little fish. Anything over 10" is a REAL whopper up this high, but they fight hard and know how to use the current





This was actually a really nice fish, coming in just under 11". You can see my buddy still up on that rock, dabbing fish with a fly rod.


"friendly" bear that hung around us most of the evening. This thing was a toad, and seemed to have zero idea what humans were. Not a real safe combination


some pretty awesome looking deadfall on the way out

Well done gentlemen!

Great write-up and pics! I am going to try my luck in 3 weeks! Have never been, but I'm looking forward to it like a 6 year old waiting for Christmas. Any tips on picking the right water to fish, or are there cutthroats in most of the backcountry streams?

Beautiful fish and landscape.

Awesome writeup and photos.

Yeah, I'd be the guy using the fly rod as a fancy cane pole.

Well done. Thank you.

F'ing Great post. I have never caught a cutty, and I think that needs to change next summer.

(ursus, get to work on e-stalking him and tell me where that is!) ;-)

Sean98 said:

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F'ing Great post. I have never caught a cutty, and I think that needs to change next summer.

(ursus, get to work on e-stalking him and tell me where that is!) ;-)

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I'm sure that a decent steak could buy your way up there...

Where abouts are you going birddog?

Many of the streams will have trout of some kind. Most are hybrid cuttys, that have cross bread with browns or bows. From what I understand, it is pretty hard to find truly pure natives, as you have to have some sort of physical barrier to keep the lower elevation fish from crossing with the cutthroats. But if a native is what you want, they are out there for those willing to go get them.

There are very very few places where the fishing is like where we were, because humans seldom get back there (for good reason). Not for the faint of heart. But if you wet a fly in most streams, you should be able to get a rise out of a few fish. A hopper dropper is a great rig to try this time of year too. Look for pools, pockets, eddies, or laydowns in the stream. Anything that gives a little slack next to flowing water is likely to hold fish, as they will hang near bigger rocks to logs, and let the stream bring things down to them. A good tip is to always work upstream, approaching holes from below. I know it is easier to cast downstream, but the fish sit facing upstream and will see you coming. Trout can be notoriously wary of movement on the bank in areas where people frequent.

ursusguy said:

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Awesome writeup and photos.

Yeah, I'd be the guy using the fly rod as a fancy cane pole.

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Nothing wrong with that, nothing at all!!!

I think it would be easy to make that happen.

What length and wt fly rod are you using? Curious as I've been looking at getting a smaller backpacking/small stream setup (fly rod/tenkara/cane pole). The 9' gets to be too big and cumbersome at times

Soon

cupofjoe04 said:

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Where abouts are you going birddog?

Many of the streams will have trout of some kind. Most are hybrid cuttys, that have cross bread with browns or bows. From what I understand, it is pretty hard to find truly pure natives, as you have to have some sort of physical barrier to keep the lower elevation fish from crossing with the cutthroats. But if a native is what you want, they are out there for those willing to go get them.

There are very very few places where the fishing is like where we were, because humans seldom get back there (for good reason). Not for the faint of heart. But if you wet a fly in most streams, you should be able to get a rise out of a few fish. A hopper dropper is a great rig to try this time of year too. Look for pools, pockets, eddies, or laydowns in the stream. Anything that gives a little slack next to flowing water is likely to hold fish, as they will hang near bigger rocks to logs, and let the stream bring things down to them. A good tip is to always work upstream, approaching holes from below. I know it is easier to cast downstream, but the fish sit facing upstream and will see you coming. Trout can be notoriously wary of movement on the bank in areas where people frequent.

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I'll be going to Platoro. Thanks for the tips, I plan on fishing the Conejos most of the week, but will get into the backcountry at least one day to try and find some cutthroats.

I fished Elk Creek in the conejos last summer. We went pretty high. Did very well on brows in the 3rd meadow. Caught mostly on black ants and nymphs, as the hoppers had not yet emerged. Will have to match the hatch there- fish were feeding on these black egg casings form some sort of fly that was emerging (cut a fish open to find out), so we matched that and did well. They didn't want anything that wasn't small and black. Up in 4th meadow starts the cuttys in that creek. Elk hair caddis all day long, just bring a variety of sizes and shades

My backcountry setup is an Echo Base 8' #4. It is a 4 piece, so you lose a little feel, but it is SO much easier to pack and maneuver in thick stuff. I have a Ross Eddy reel seated on it, not the best, bust great for the money. Enough drag and just enough spine to handle a 20" rainbow with some skill, and delicate enough to nymph for 6" cutthroat in a tight creek. The wind is the biggest killer to this setup

Damn, I REALLY need to get out more.

Thanks for the pics! Some of us can only live vicariously through them. One day perhaps....

I must have missed the invite...oh and what stream was this again?

We will just say this was towards some headwaters of the Piedra River. You shouldn't have any problems finding the place -

Fantastic! One of my first fly fishing experiences was high country cutthroat. Beautiful fish.

Great pics and beautiful fish.

Cuts don't cross breed with browns. Browns and Brookies tend to out compete them. Rainbows, also non-native, will cross breed with cutthroats. That said, there are a lot of non-native cutthroats in Colorado too. CPW has put a lot of effort into identifying truly pure strains of cutthroats and making those streams catch and release only. Check the regs before you have that trout dinner. Brookies are always fair game and great table fair!

This. I scarf alpine brookies with great gusto when I'm up high.

I'm always a fan of protein that I don't have to carry up the mountain.

I grew up fishing Brookies. All trout really, but Brookies are my favorite.

Now I get more excited over bass, sunfish and catfish. Never got to catch them growing up.

Thanks for the info! Didn't know that about brooks & cuts (which is what I mean to say, I thought they crossed with bows and brooks, not browns). Which still wouldn't be correct, I guess. Learn something new every day!

Yeah, this area is definitely a pure strain from what I have been told by a local GW. Apparently DOW has gone up there several times with electrofishing equipment to harvest these little guys. Though surely not in the last 2-3 years, given the state of the "trail", ha ha!

Awesome! They are finding a lot of pure strain cutthroats all over south west Colorado. One of the dreams that flows through our place down low that is barely a trickle has pure Colorado River cutthroats up high. Go figure.

Streams, not dreams.

BradMtn346 said:

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Streams, not dreams.

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Dreams probably isn't too far off base.

Quote:

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I didn't see you mention this spinning rod in your writeup (grin).

As this board can attest, I am a sucker for native fish in wild places taken on the fly. There is nothing that makes my heart sing like a nine mile backcountry hike for native brookies in the Appalachians.

This might challenge it, though.

Ha ha, busted! yep I packed that in just incase my buddy was struggling with the fly. Really wanted to get him on some fish. He caught several dropping micro-jigs, and I used it to tease a big one out from under a log jam- where I just couldn't get the fly to sit in there long enough. But we did far better on dries and nymphs.

I've never had the pleasure of hiking the Appalachian, always wanted to. I'll show you mine if you show me yours?!?! (Or something less awkwardly worded)