Fly Fishing Small Streams in Summer!

Yesterday I fished two small streams that are in the headwaters of the Gunnison River. First, my dad and I left our house at 5:30 in the morning. We drove almost three hours, first on paved roads then on dirt roads which turned into just two tracks through the mountains until the road ended! After we parked and loaded our packs we hiked down the mountainside to the stream. When we drove through the town of Gunnison there were a few hot air balloons just going up.

The long trip and hike was well worth it when we finally reached the stream. These small creeks are so much fun to fish, especially when they are full of wild trout that are just beautiful.

I fished a size #12 Lime Trude pattern with a small Copper John on a dropper. The fish liked it a lot and I hooked up almost right away on a nice health brown trout.

Here is another very pretty brown trout. Look at the difference in the spots on these two fish.

A little after we ate lunch a storm started to move in so we hiked back to our truck and drove to a different spot and hiked into another small stream that was loaded with beaver ponds like this one.

The beaver ponds were loaded with brook trout!

The small creek was very brushy. To fish it I mostly just got close to a small pool and reached my rod over it so i could drop the flies onto the water. It was almost impossible to cast because there was some much brush. There were usually fish in every spot I thought might have fish living in it.

I was hoping to catch some small cutthroat. I never did find them but did catch some colorful brook trout and brown trout like this one.