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So this is the conclusion, or 2nd day to my trip to Dolores Colorado, which was absolutely amazing! This time of year gives so many opportunities to catch fish, and pretty much every time I go out to Dolores I have a great time, and am usually successful. This trip was no exception to that. I caught a ton of fish! And had a great time with my good buddy Jeff.

This was one of the most fun trips I've had in a long time. Such a wide range of fish species to catch! From Salmon running up stream, to brown and rainbow trout. I got to fish a lake, and also the Dolores river. I also was able to stay in a really nice campground which was very reasonably priced for the accommodations. The cabin was rustic, but nice. Much better than in a tent, and the river was very close (walking distance). Before we got to check into the Dolores river campground http://doloresrivercampground.com we decided to go back to those little lakes where I caught a 27" brown. While we didnt get any really large fish, we did have some great luck fishing for rainbow's. Jeff caught a few on a streamer, I caught a few on a dry fly. So they were ready and willing to take anything we threw at them. After we got back to the campground and grabbed a bite to eat, we decided to hit up the Dolores River. This is the free flowing section of the river that dumps into the McPhee Dam. Its not the tailwater. This stretch of river holds massive amounts of rainbow and brown trout, and I have seen some good sizes pulled out of there. However, during this time of year, the Kokanee salmon start making their way up the river to spawn, and we were in them so thick we could not catch any trout. But they were fun to catch! However we wanted some trout so we decided to make our way up river to find areas without salmon, and hopefully catch some trout. I did get a nice brown the first day. But stay tuned and our 2nd day fishing I was able to pull in some really nice rainbow and brown trout, same with Jeff. We really caught more than our fair share of fish!

So while I cannot name the creek, I will say that this is my new favorite place! However its a little more crowded than the other small creeks i've been to, It had bigger fish, amazing scenery, and fish very willing to eat my dry flies. Just absolutely amazing fishing! I went the day before they closed down the San Juan National Forest. Because of such a dry season, and little moisture, we have had some bad fires in and around Durango. They have been devastating. So the authorities closed down the national forest, and I had to get out and hit some small creeks before I couldn't anymore. Luckily I had an amazing trip, and caught quite few fish! And I could not have asked for a more beautiful place to be!

So this trip was not my best on the San Juan. Only one decent fish in the net on the river, but I took a quick drive down to a small lake close by and got a really nice brown trout! Wonderful fish, and almost better than what I was going for in that lake, which was carp. The reason why the river wasnt doing all that great was because they recently changed the water flow, which sent the trout deep for cover. Just a week before, a buddy of mine caught 10+ fish over 17", but the water flow change definitely messed things up.

If you remember a few weeks back, I went fishing the San Juan River with Fresh Salt Fishing, and we had a great time! We caught many Brown Trout, and one was really really large! They came back to fish with me, and we decided to hit up the Animas River. We had a float trip scheduled for the next day, however we had some time this day to wade the river. Fishing the Animas can be tough. Its not one of those rivers that many people can go out and guaranty a boat load of fish. But when you catch one, usually its a very good sized fish. Mostly browns live in this river, and they are wild. They pull hard, and make you fight for every inch of line. Keep in mind this river is very slippery, so if you come out, make sure and bring some wading boots with studs in them.

The Animas river is a tough river, but when you catch fish, they are good sized and energetic fish! I have had some trouble catching fish during the summer months here on the river, due to the season's high water flows. I thought taking a float boat would help give us some more luck. However this was not the case. While we didn't hook any fish on the boat, we did have a great time. Weston was in the kayak the entire time, and said he loved it! It was fun, and sorta like a roller coaster. After the float trip was over, we still had some daylight, so we went to wade a spot we saw coming down on the float trip. It looked good, but we didnt catch any. Colin though hooked a decent fish, that started jumping like a tarpon. It really was an amazing site to see. Overall we had a great time. Even though there weren't any fish in the net, it was enjoyable just being on the water, and with some great company. I think even Matt had a good time while floating us. He was very skilled, and made for a fun day.

Fly fishing on the San Juan River can be really good, and it can be really bad. Luckily the day that I had guests with me from FreshSaltFishing it was a good day fishing. We caught 7 browns that day, and most were really good sized. http://youtu.be/nyT4Y9fyBC I am always asked what flies I used to catch fish, so here are the lists of the flies I used, and also links to videos on how to tie them. Slump Buster: https://youtu.be/Pzi6fIDEsNs Simple Annelid: https://youtu.be/LrKL06HTSQY

Here is a quick video of my best brown. 27". I think some of you have watched the full length version 14.5 minutes.. However this one is just of that fish, not the entire day, so you don't have to listen to me ramble on... Its under two minutes, so a quick and sweet video.

Breaking your rod has to be one of the worst feelings to have while fishing. Especially when its such a high end rod. This Sage Method retails for $850 and is an absolute amazing fly rod, especially for fishing streamers. Luckily Sage, along with some other high end rod makers offer a no questions asked lifetime warranty for the original owner. It still costs about $70 because you have to pay the shipping back and fourth, however they will fix your rod no matter what for that cost, which is a lot better than $850. The turn around time though is a little slow, and it can take 3 weeks to a month. Really, the fact that this rod broke doesn't speak to bad quality of this rod. Its really a fantastic fly rod, but it is made of high modulus graphite. While that allows for a light, and fast action blank, the rod can be a bit fragile when it comes to impacts. And that is what happened here. If you never hit a rock with your rod, then this rod will not break, not on any fish. Its almost impossible to break it when its used the way it properly should. This was an interesting day. The weather could not figure out what it wanted to do. It rained, then got sunny, then snowed, then got sunny again. It kept doing this multiple times. I was able to get one brown at least, however I could not get any more after breaking the only rod I brought on this trip. These little lakes are great for fishing big browns. Last time I came here I ended up with a 27" brown trout, and 2 other browns right around 20". Also, you don't really need waders and you are not getting in the water. With a really good cast, you can almost reach the center of each of these little lakes, and there are lots of fish everywhere. Not just browns, but rainbows as well.

Best fishing trip I've had in a long time. I caught 3 large browns, one of which was about 27". This was a really fun day. I was supposed to fish the Dolores River today, but the river was blown out and super chocolaty. So as I was driving home, I saw some small lakes along the river. They were old beaver dams that were converted into small lakes for the public to fish. They are stocked with rainbows, but have some large browns in them. I decided to streamer fish with my sage method and an intermediate sink tip line. I had to let the streamers sink for a long time though as the lakes are super deep and the larger trout were sitting on the bottom. I was fishing two of my flies this time. A black monster bugger, and my jointed green dragon. Both preformed really well, and caught a bunch of fish. I caught 2 fish on the jointed green dragon, and 3 on the monster bugger. If you tie flies, you can find these videos here... Monster Bugger - https://youtu.be/cpRKubvkowY Jointed Green Dragon - https://youtu.be/j0aKieaEWhE Overall a very fun day. Dolores is a small town in southern Colorado, and its really beautiful there. Beautiful mountains, small creeks, and a few lakes and ponds. An outdoor enthusiast's playground.

Well this video was a few months in the making. On my 2nd episode I met Joe out on the river. We were both fishing the San Juan River and struck up a conversation. He told me he made fly reels, so I was obviously instantly interested in taking a look at these reels. When I first saw the reel, I was blown away by the beauty of the design. It really is a pretty reel. However I hadn't gotten to fish with it until today. After fishing with it, I feel that the reel is really well made. Unfortunately I didnt get to hook any fish that stripped drag, however I could tell that it was smooth by just stripping line off. Also, while fishing with it, I liked the click sounds (very quiet which is good) and I liked how light the reel was. However it was solid feeling, unlike some super light reels that are hollow. This is really solid and really high quality. So the day on the San Juan was kinda slow to say the least. We didn't even see a single fish hooked by anyone until probably 11:30 or so. But even at that, it was few and far between. Finally after hitting Texas Hole around 1:00 the action picked up a bit and Joe was able to hook 3 fish and bring in 2 of them. One was a really good sized brown! 24" or so. So the day was fun even though it wasn't super productive. Its always great having someone else on the river with you as well. We enjoyed ourselves even though we weren't bringing fish in left and right. The San Juan River is a great river located in the north west corner of New Mexico. The river usually fishes amazing, and all through the year. However the last few weeks have been kinda slow as the river flows have been up and down and the weather isn't always permitting for nice fishing days. But there have been days on this river where I have netted 20+ trout. Its fun to fish and you will see trout everywhere when the water is clear. They will come up and nip at your waders.

One of the last free-flowing rivers in the state of Colorado, the Animas River is a unique and rare treasure. With the newest and one of the best Gold Medal Water fly-fishing sections in Colorado, the Animas is a river that should be on your list of places to fish. When Juan Rivera passed through this corner of Colorado in 1765, he named the river El Rio de las Animas Perdidas en Purgatorio, “The River of the Lost Souls in Hell.” To Rivera and his Spanish compatriots, the valley was remote, bleak, and had little to offer them in the way of riches. The Animas River is the major stream draining the high alpine terrain of the Needle Mountains. It heads in small meadows on the flanks of Cinnamon Mountain north of Silverton, then plunges through wild canyons as it carves a route between the Needle and West Needle Mountains. By the time it reaches Durango, the Animas has grown to a large river. Out of the mountains the Animas meanders through a shallow depression across broad plains. South of the New Mexico border at Farmington the Animas joins the San Juan River. Fortunately, public access to the Animas River within the city of Durango is plentiful with almost 7 miles of river from 32nd Street Bridge to the Rivera Bridge south of town. Two parcels of private land are found in this stretch, but they are well marked. Foot and bike trails parallel the river through much of town, providing abundant easy access. The Animas is big water. In Durango the river is almost 100 feet wide, filled with huge rocks and deep holes. The river offers extensive riffles, freestone conditions, and stretches of pocket water. The bottom consists of gravel and cobbles. The rocks are as slick as those in any river in the West, and anglers must always be very cautious when wading. Wet wading is popular in summer, but waders are called for in the early season and in the fall. A year or so back, the EPA spilled about 3 million gallons of toxic chemicals into the river. These chemicals included heavy metals like lead, arsenic, zink and iron. For a week the river turned bright orange and many thought the river was done for. However after cleanup, and time, the river has seemed to turn back to what it originally was. Fish show no signs of poisoning, and supposedly the river water is safe to drink. This trip started (and almost ended) very frustrating. I didnt see a single fish all day, and didn't even get one bite on the line. At the end of the day when I was further down stream, I fell in the water which pretty much made me quit fishing. As I walked back to the car, I decided to try one last spot. The spot where I hooked a big trout my last trip. I ended up hooking a very good sized brown trout, one of the largest Ive ever caught. It had to have been 24-25" at least. It was a beautiful fish, with hooked jaws. The rod I hooked that fish on was a 9' 6wt Sage Method, with a 3250 sage reel. I had a 7wt outbound short line with an intermediate sink tip, and I was fishing a size 10 cone head slump buster streamer in olive. Some of the above info about the animas was gotten from the Duranglers website with their permission.

Decided to start gearing up for spring with some brown trout streamers. Also through in a Detroit Red Wings color themed copper john! Finn Raccoon Hog Snare Hog Snare meet Sasquatch. Sasquatch meet Hog Snare. Copper John