Courteous Companionship in Colorado, and Carp.

  Matt, Lauren, and their dog Beatrice live in beautiful Longmont, Colorado.  Ten minutes north of Boulder and only an hour from the gates of Rocky Mountain National Park.  They live in a very comfortable house next to the Longmont City Park.  Ian knows Matt from growing up and going to school in Illinois, Lauren is Matts lovely girlfriend and chef extraordinaire, and Beatrice is a ponderous Newfoundland/Golden Retriever that make up a very mirthful nest.  They are kind enough to let Ian and I crash in their top floor.

  We have spent the Memorial weekend here with delightful weather and plenty of different species of fish on our flies.  The past few mornings we have been sleeping in because the weather conditions seemed far from nice in the A.M.  But not too long after our coffee cakes and red bulls the would peer down through the clouds onto the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains.

  Ian and I found Laughing Grizzly fly shop, north of town and entered for a fishing report.  The word sounded best to go and find the Big Thompson River just north near Forth Collins.  The Big T flows from the Estes Park Reservoir and dumps into the South Platte in Eastern CO.  We were to fish the upper stretch.  Being the time of year, waters were high, a little murky, and FAST.  But fish gotta eat and we wanted to tease them with our talent.  We ended up sticking probably a dozen browns and a rainbow.  Nothing huge, maybe 15 inches, and lanky.  The highway towards Estes Park was annoyingly busy with Memorial Day campers which kind of made the beautiful scenery feel a little over-loaded.


  The guides at Laughing Griz also told us about some good carp fishing.  They pointed at two different  reservoirs in the area.  We thought we'd try our luck warm water fishing, after fishing the frozen Big Thompson waters.
  It must be the time of year but the carp in this lake were going INSANE.  I think it was their spawning season.  They cruise  the cattail laced banks feasting on crawdads, sculpin, minnows, small nymphs. Almost anything that makes a "poof" in the mud, they'll eat.  They almost submerge themselves along the shores playing and fighting with one another.  It's a little alarming when your standing next to this quiet lake when all of a sudden three eight pound carp explode in the brush right next to you.  We had to catch one!
  It was a first time for both of us and it took some patients to figure out how to catch them.  They tail just like red drum, which will make your heart jump straight out of your chest when you see it. The water is so clear you can see them swimming thirty feet away.  You must place the sinking fly right in front of their face and make it pretty enough or they will just swim on by.  This got very frustrating after a while.  But with enough persistence you may get lucky, as we did.  I landed a phat carp, probably seven to eight pounds the first day.  Ian landed one too.  They fight hard.  One will easily take you past your fly line and into your backing.  The shortest fight we saw was over five minutes. Holding that 8 weight fly rod like a bear would grip a caught salmon with his mouth.
 We came back the next day with even better luck and more caught carp.  Ian held two today and one was a beast.  Damn near nine pounds!  I can't talk enough about how flawless the weather has been. We feel very fortunate because it's snowing on our friends in Montana and our friends on the east coast are baking away in 100 degree heat.
 Happy Memorial Day wherever you are....