“Hey man you want to float today?” The weather was forecasted to be snowy so I hesitated in my respons. “Why not.” As I was riding through the canyon I saw nothing but blue in the heavens and cursed the weather man I as dug on some Allman Brothers on the winding highway. The section that we were floating is a short 5 mile float that is a bit boney with the current water level but Zimm has been “jonsing ” to give it a go. We eddied out about .10 of a mile from the put and started putting the nymphs to ‘em. First fish was a giant rainbow that looked like a steelhead. I set the hook and watched it come to the surfacelike a log the whites of its mouth shaking madly. Boom, a long distance release. “Zimm did you see the size of that thing? it was giant?” “I can’t land ‘em for ya Joey.” zimm responded with a little jab at yours truly. We staying in that hole for over and hour and each fish was bigger than the next……never did get that first one again.

First one in the Boat

Had to chase this one.

We caught a few Browns Too……Still Sunny

The sun was shining and the fish were hammering Zimm’s Black Flat Diamond Flash Shuck Midge. Ocasionally they would hit the “whitey killer” aka the Prince Formerly. As we floated towards Glenwood some ugly weather was moving in and we feared that the good fishing woud come to a hault.

Sha Sha Sha Shuck Midge

Still Sunny…..

What a difference an hour makes. So we thought that the fishing was over. The front moved in and the temp dropped an easy 10 degrees. It was very uncomforatble and we still had some miles to cover. We pulled over and had a few bites and Zimm hopped up front and put me on the sticks. I had no problem with this, I was cold and needed some movement to get the blood going. This didn’t last long, Zimm hooked a rock fish that broke him off and he stuck me back up front. Dammmmmmn. At the next pool I was glad to be casting. Fish were rising all over the bank, big fish. They would come up slowly and sip midges on and below the surface.

Our fingers were sticks of ice so instead of doing the noble thing and putting on dries, we took all the weight off our nymph rig and fished it just below the surface. It worked.


We continued throught the snow fishing to risers until the take out. I couldn’t feel my feet when I jumped out of the boat but I was still all smiles. Zimm and I were due for a good day, our last couple outings were slow at best.

It felt good to be out of the snowy beast and into the warm truck.