Well crap… 3 months. I guess its time for another recap
post.
I’ll start in mid December. My dad and I headed up into the
hills to hit one of our favorite brown lakes. Unfortunately, we had to leave a
great bit or else we would have been snowed in. we hit one lake on the way out
though, and it was amazing. We both got one over 4lbs, and nothing smaller than
15in! Video here:
Ice Beatdown 12/22/14
We went back up a few days later to get my buddy Hayden out
on his first ever ice trip. Long story short, 66 fish between the three of us,
none smaller than 15in! Video here:
Big Trout On Ice 12/27/14
On new years day, Hayden and I headed out to Lon Hagler lake in Loveland. We fished hard, but came up empty handed. We decided to hit Boyd lake on the way home, and I ended up catching my first fish of the year, and my first walleye ever!
A few days after that, I headed up into North Park for an overnight trip. We started of at Seymour, and the fishing was great! I ended up with 20 something fish! we then went to Lake John, and although it was slow both days, we managed a few.
A few days later, I got the chance to fish the Tightline Outdoors Ice Addiction tournament at Boyd, and although I didn’t stick anything, it was
still a lot of fun!
A few weeks later, I got the chance to go fish down at Chatfield
res. With a bunch of guys from fishexplorer.com. Although we didn’t catch a ton
of fish, we still had a lot of fun, made a bunch of jokes, and had some great brauts
afterwards! Video here:
Chatfield 1/17/15 with FishExplorer Members
At the end of January, I got the chance to do some of my
first open water fishing of the year up at Lake Estes. Hayden came along, and
the plan was to throw meaty streamers all day. We planned to meet up with
another guy from fishexplorer who knew the lake, and it was going to be a
blast! What we didn’t anticipate was the brutal wind. It was a sustained 35mph
all day. Despite that, by the end of the day, I managed my first open water
trout of the year!
I went up the next day to Estes again, but this time for some ice. We started up in RMNP, and got some nice brookies, and ended on a little pond in Estes with some perch.
The first part of February was un-seasonally war, so that
left us with open water everywhere. There wasn’t any ice down here, so we were
going to head for the hills. Our game plan was to go back up to that lake with
all the big trout. All was going according to plan, until we got on the dirt
road. Out of the blue, a deer jumped in front of the car, nearly coming through
the windshield! We ended up having to drive from 40 miles outside of Laramie,
back into Fort Collins with a broken windshield that dropped glass every time
we hit a bump!
My buddy and I tried
to fix the day by going carp fishing, but that didn’t work out too well. I had
one hit, and that was it. We finally headed to a little lake to see if we could
pick up some bass, and finally, something worked out! We both got our first bass
of the year, and it was a blast.
A few days later, over a foot of snow dumped, and all of the
lakes capped again. That bring you up to speed on where everything is now, and
how my winter went down
Tight lines,
Rob
Now the Big T has one of the few tailwaters nearby, so I was of course going to take advantage of some open water. However, it sounded like the inlet was open as well, so we hit that first. The fish were spooky, but after some hunting, I spotted a pod of around 16 fish. I sat on these fish all day, and watched as they moved up on a midge hatch. At first they were munching emergers, so I was throwing a #22 bunny midge at the few risers, and pulled 2 bows. But as the hatch got underway, I changed up to a pattern I've been experimenting called the winged midge. The fish were all over it, and I pulled 12 fish on it. as the fish went down, My dad came in and picked up one nymphing, and after that, we left the spot to hit the tailwater. 
