This report is way overdue, i just dread having to put up 30 plus pictures.... took 800, 70 or 80 of just fish!!! Needless to say it was an absolutely incredible trip. The company is called Lillard FlyFishing expeditions and runs several backcountry fly fishing and backpacking trips to locations like yellowstone, rocky mountain national park, and my trip, the west elk adventure in CO. We had two group leaders and 9 kids for a grand total of 11 people. we slept in tents, usually a different location each night, and did two backcountry treks separated by several days of fishing in van accessible areas. Definitely picked up some great friends and leadership skills on this trip. the fishing was absolutely incredible, i was not skunked once and caught some truly spectacular fish, mainly on dry flies. I'll go a day at a time, showing only the highlights!
7/9: we entered the backcountry of the West Elk range, driving to a pretty impressive elevation that included having to pass through snow left from an avalanche to reach the campsite. we fished an absolutely gorgeous river that held only wild native cutthroats. If that thought doesn't excite you, you must not like trout. unfortunately the lower section we fished first was way too high, so no fish were caught. however we reached a flatter section of the river and i walked through some heavy willlows to find a nice pool. I kept hitting the current seam, and after about 25 r so casts i finally get one to rise. Fish on! one of my buddys had just reached me when i hoked the fish, so he was able to take pictures of me with my very first cutthroat, at about 10"
After that i hooked up with a smaller one, about 7 or 8" on a san juan worm.
this beautiful waterfall was also a part of the river.
7/13 Our group was lucky enough to gain access to some private waters of AEI Outfitters in the taylor park area in exchange for helping to improve their stream by removing beaver dams and other projects. i went out fishing with one of my good friends on the trip teddy. we went up from one beaver pond to the next, he was absolutely killing the small brookies and browns on a caddis fly, while i got this decent brown on a copper john beneath a dry
. soon after i lost both flies to a bsuh and decided i would go for a hopper. we reach a small pool beneath a beaver pond and we accidentally spook a big fish. i cast the hopper into the pool and see another big brown coming down from the top. this one sees the hopper and rises up in slow motion to take it. What a cool Strike! i fight it for about 3 or four minutes and finally land it, one of the nicest browns of the trip.
after that i lost one other decent one after a minute or two fight and had a few other short strikes, but quality over quantity for me that day.
7/15 This marks the first day of our second backcountry, a big 5 day trip that included some of the greatest trout fishing i've ever experienced, 30+ miles of hiking, breathtaking views and a few high alpine surprises... the first day of the backcountry started with 7 miles of hiking to our first campsite. after that we fished the creek that we were hiking adjacent to. crystal clear and full of fish! the stretch beneath a waterfall that we fished the first day was almost entirely brook trout. i got one cutthroat, and 15 brookies on my first 16 casts... just about every cast was a strike or catch... caught 30 or 40 in about 2 or 3 hours.
No big brookies like i catch here... but awesome colors.
7/16 day two of the backcountry had us hike 5 miles to the second campsite just under 12000 feet. boy was it cold in the mornings. once again the fishing was insane, all cutthroats this time to 10 inches must have caught 75 in about 5 hours. no outstanding pictures so onto the next day.
7/17 We woke up at 3:30 to hike 2000 vertical feet over 4 or 5 miles to summit Mount belford, 14,203 feet. reached the summit at 8:30, the views were just incredible.... heres a shot of the group at the summit
after that which felt like a day and a half we hiked back down... and then back up to 12,250 feet to an alpine lake filled with monster cutthroats... i mean monster! I caught six to 19" and last year they had a 23' one come out of there. these fish were in full spawning colors and hittting dries with a vengeance. here is me fighting the first one took a good 7 minutes to get in
finally landed about 16 or 17 inches
took a stimulator
magazine cover shot??
Teddy With a sick one
very cool fish and then i got this pig, in addition to some other super colored up fish about the same size as the first one
a few fish by their redds
total miles logged this day was 12
7/18 We hiked up past the alpine lake with monster cutthroats to a lake at 12,750 feet in search of the rare and beautiful... Arctic Grayling! These fish were stocked and were able to reproduce because of the cold due to the high altitude. everyone caught at least one, meaning we all got the Lillard triple crown, which is to hike a 14er, catch a 15" cutthraot and an arctic grayling. i only got one, on a parachute adams, but boy was it pretty. very unique fish and location to catch fish. here it is
sick dorsal fin
After that we had to head down due to inclement weather... saw this cool ptarmigan on the way down
that was the last day of fishing for that backcountry, it totally made the trip!
7/20 We only had a few hours to fish a small lake that gets stocked with rainbows, but i chose to fish the stream above. i was only seeing small brookies, when i suddenly spot a massive oddly colored fish in the middle of the 8' wide stream. after no interest in several dries, i threw a wooly bugger at it and finally got it to react. after 5 minutes of fighting i still couldn't id it. finally get it in and it starts spewing eggs everywhere, which means it was the biggest ugliest cutthroat i've ever seen. beat up fins, no colors... but at 22" my biggest trout ever ill take it lol especially out of a tiny stream. Charlie our trip leader said it was the first cutthroat he had ever seen from there. big ugly was returned to lay the rest of her eggs hopefully.
7/21 the sad, last day of fishing was upon us. we floated the arkansas river with guides from Ark Anglers and had a ton of strikes on dries and streamers, many of which i missed due to the moving boat thing... still landed quite a few in this river that holds 5000 wild trout per mile... wow! a nice brown from the trip ignore the goofy old guy glasses mine broke and i borrowed the guides
this last fish of the float was a nice ainbow that jumped 4' out of the water... awesome!
incredible fishing throughout the entire trip, caught only one stocked fish the entire time... incredible hope to do it again... i will post up scenery pics later... i know you guys missed me
Ethan
