This past week was a busy one! Once my friend Dillan left town I had a few days before the next round of people came out to visit me. I worked two of those days but had the opportunity to fish on the third one. The day that I made it out was an overcast day with temps hanging in the low 30’s, my favorite kind of winter weather for fishing. To start the day I took a gamble and explored a lower section of river that was quite a ways downstream of this rivers tailwater. On the hike in I found the small tributary that followed the trail to be mostly ice free and I couldn’t help but toss a fly in. In some of the deeper pockets I found a few willing browns and a brookie to take a jiggy fix. Once I got to where the tributary dumps into the main river, I found it to be almost completely frozen over. The only sections of open water I did find here were a few shallow fast water spots that didn’t seem to be holding any fish. I did however find some cows for company (little more rare to fish with cows in Colorado than in the Driftless) and a coyote. I first saw the coyote about a hundred yards upstream of me walking along the river. When I was hiking out the coyote came running by me at full speed and scared the heck out of me. I’m not really sure what was going on with it but it was cool to watch it run by.
See the coyote? 
Around 1:30 I decided to hike out and head to a new spot. Before I could get on my way I spent a good 20 mins shoveling my vehicle out of the parking spot. I knew driving into the spot that it would be dicy getting back out but man I was stuck pretty good. Once I got out I hit the road and made it back on the water again. I hiked to where I had finished fishing the prior time I fished this section of river then fished another long stretch of new water. It was a good mix of riffles and pools and the streamer bite was pretty solid. I found a number of good browns before the wind, cold feet, and minimal remaining daylight sent me back to the car.
On Friday two of my cousins and one of their roommates came to town to stay with me. We had a great time skiing, snowboarding, and hanging out around town. Yesterday (Wednesday) they caught a bus back to Denver and now life slows down a little again.
Trout Travels 