I’m not sure, but I think this was a once in a lifetime trip and it was incredibly hectic and I felt like we were on the road way too much, but damn it was worth it. Last Wednesday night, Brandon and I drove to Lubbock to knock out half of the trip, and spent the night with Matty. The next morning the three of us drove to Amarillo to pick up Justin, who had to delay his trip in order to finish out a bid. From there, the four of us drove to Trinidad, Colorado where we met up with Lee and Clayton, who had spearheaded this trip.
We went to Wal-Mart, picked up our fishing licenses and we were off to the local lake in Trinidad.
Matty waiting for the fish to arrive.
No High Life, and we had to settle for Yellowbellies.
The clouds finally break.
Matty and Brandon:
Fish was caught and we moved on to Lee’s house where we fried up some fish and potatoes. The next morning (Friday morning) we got up fairly early and made our way to the San Luis Valley. We hooked up with our guides, Spencer and David, who worked for an outfit called Solitary Angler and made our way out to some property that was owned by Van Beachum, who owned the fishing spot.
You’ll note that this was truly a valley and the land leading up to the Calabra River was more marshy than anything else.
We split into groups and I’m with Brandon and Justin. Here’s Brandon and Dave.
Justin with a freaking awesome back-cast, follow through and good sized trout.
Here’s your very own PDB (backpack was necessary to carry camera).
You might say that this was perfect.
Justin catches another trout and I have my camera handy.
We finish up fishing and we then head to a place that Lee suggested, which is a public land area near a small lake where we can camp overnight for free. The only problem was that the afternoon mountain ran shower happened until about 7:30 that night and which made putting up the tent more difficult. We got it done and needless to say, when you’re in Colorado, it’s pretty awesome.
The next morning, after a long night of Matty snoring (which he can’t help) Lee, Justin and myself get up for some breakfast in town, we clean up camp and we head to the next fishing spot which was some ranch (I think it was the Blanco Ranch?), which was 256 square miles of pristine Colorado countryside and mountains. The story goes that the ranch was formerly owned by Steve Forbes. The drive to our fishing spot was pretty spectacular and I’m pretty sure that who ever owned the ranch owned the mountain too.
Want to see a guy who had not had a shower in four days?
Now this fishing site was completely different. This was your mountain stream and the fish were going to be smaller.
If you can just imagine miles of this type of scenery.
Here’s Matty.
And Brandon.
I’m sorry that I never got photos of Lee and Clayton fishing, but here’s the entire group. In order, Brandon, myself, Matty, Clayton, Lee and Justin.
Again, this was maybe one of the best trips ever. I had a ton of fun and I’m pretty sure I’m hooked (no pun intended) on fly fishing.
Seek The Substantial 