Dale,
Last Monday the 4th of July, a friend and I left for The Gunnison.  On the drive to Gunnison that morning we saw a lot of campers and vacationers on their way back from the hills.  We got to a small campground on the Gunnison just before Almont for 3 days of fishing and a couple nights in a tent. I hadn't fished the Gunnison/Taylor/East for way too long.

We arrived before noon and picked a camp site at the Almont Camp area just outside of town and we were lucky enough to have the entire camp to ourselves after everyone left. This included the stretch of river 15 feet from our tent. Gave us the opportunity to fish for a while whilst those who were there, were packing up to get out.

The river was flowing at a good 1700 cfs at the time due to the Normal' spring run-off that has been missing for the last 6 years and we could not do much as far as wading out and had to make due with working the banks and the holes just within our casting reach. This proved to be not much of a problem as when we arrived there were Caddis, PMD's, Stoneflies and Green Drakes all flying around. The fish were rising up and down the banks and taking fly's for the first 2 or 3 hours that we were fishing.  I was surprised that is was so easy to get into fish that first time out. I was fishing with a size 8 Madam X with a #12 copper john as a dropper.   About half the fish took the dry and half took the dropper.  The only problem was you had to work around the trees. Oh those trees. Fly eating trees.

Many fish were hooked and some even landed on both surface flies as well as some nymphs in the deeper pockets. Nothing in the Huge size but some decent ones. This was nice and I thought it would last forever. Well at least the days we would be there and hoped we would have this sort of luck the whole time through. You know this story, that did not happen. This was to be the last day of the Drake Hatch. So a guide said the day after. Should have been here yesterday.!

We stopped for a while to set up camp for the next three days. We went back down to the river and the surface activity was over.  However, the dropper part was still working pretty well for another hour.  At about five o'clock the fishing really slowed down.  We got in the truck and ventured up the Taylor canyon and stopped to fish the Taylor upstream of town and we did get a few smaller trout in each place we stopped. Also saw some awesome canyon and beautiful rivers. Rocky mountain Sheep climbing the rocks way up.

We ended up back at camp and fished again before sitting down for dinner.  After dinner we fished some more right out our front door. The fish seemed to really taper off until there really was nothing going on.

Next morning after breakfast was a stop right into the town of Almont and on their private campsite stretch of water that they allowed us to fish. All I had to do was ask. It was a little slow but we did manage a few. The Taylor River is one that comes out of the Taylor Res. and for some reason this river is as cold as any river I have ever stepped into.  A guide was setting up to float the Gunny and said the cold temperature of the Taylor is a big reason the fishing on the Gunnison is so good in the summer.  Small caddis were bouncing on the water and we hooked a few there until it was time for the rafters and guides to set out and we got a little crowded in the launch area so we went on up the river again and began to mostly explore. We stopped at the Pig Pen area there at the bridge close to the dam. Just for a look. There sure are a lot of trout in that area but there were also a lot of people hoping to hook into one of the huge fish that this stretch holds. We saw them, but we did not try for them.

We opted to keep moving and went up around the lake to look at the inlets. We found a little creek just the other side and went in to give it a try knowing that there may be some small brookies in there. We were right and this was a real hoot to see these tiny trout, both Brookes and Browns trying so desperately to grab your fly. 99% of them either missed, or their little mouths just did not have it in them to suck the fly in. But it was fun to try and get them. We managed a couple each but for the most part I was just laughing every time I would see a strike and notice that even though I did not set, the fly would still be floating down stream just to be hit by another fish. Taylor Park has to be one of the prettiest high country parks in the state.  

Back at camp, we sat 10 minutes and of course decided to fish some more there out our front door. A few hook-ups but no real luck. We steeped up the campfire and cooked dinner and sat back the rest of the evening and talked of fishing with old friends and where we started fishing and who we learned things from. What a great day.

My friend and I talked about so many things that night. About our experiences fishing and traveling around with so many friends. I realized most all them were from our TU chapter. So remember all of you, your legacy precedes you, travel with care...Kidding. Great stories and a great way to spend an evening by a camp fire. Felt like a young Boy Scout again.

Wednesday morning we got up early.  We again fished our little private river out our front door. I showed my friend another technique to use when nymph fishing. That is one thing that is really cool about fishing with a new person,  you can always learn more about fishing or pass along what you know to someone else.   I have always taken time to watch people fish and try to learn new techniques.

We broke camp and packed up the truck.  We stopped in a local fly shop in Gunnison, wet waders and all and we sat and talked to a couple folk there in the shop about access along the river downstream of Gunnison. They said there is plenty and we settled on the Never Sink pull off and gave that try. This is an actual Pik-Nik area for travelers wishing to stop and take a break and we had a little hike to get out of the area and worked up stream. Very limited access but we did manage to find a spot and fish for while.

I landed a brown and then it seemed that everything I caught was of the Bottom Feeder type. Hooked in the tail, the fin, the mouth, all but two of the more than half dozen were not what we were looking for.

We left and went further down stream into another Pik-Nik area and fished at a small boat launch. Rafts and Kayaks I would presume.  I caught a nice rainbow on the first cast in this area.  My friend was not having much luck using the new nymphing technique I had shown him that morning. We split up, I went upstream and he went downstream.   This was a really nice looking piece of river.   Every spot that I thought would hold a fish, I got a strike.  Didn't land all of them, but did land a 20" rainbow at the top of an island where the bottom dropped about 18 inches or so.   We had been fishing this area for a couple of hours so I went to find my friend.   I found him at the bottom of the island fishing a very good looking run.   He told me he hadn't caught anything the entire time.  But said he had seen a very nice trout come up right behind this one big rock.   He got caught up on the bottom, broke off, and told me to try his spot.   On my second drift behind the rock,  I hooked and landed a very nice 22" brown.   He was right, there was a nice trout behind that rock.

In the parking lot as we were planning on heading home, we ran into the Pik-Nik caretaker who came up to us and he said he was noticing US' catching fish all the way down the river.  He mentioned his name was Peach Tree, I am not making this up and he was in his say late 50's and seasoned in the art of outdoors. I gave him a couple flies to try as he said he was a Jigger, but was wishing to get into Fly Fishing. In turn he talked of a creek with some little Brookies and he also mentioned a River down outside of the Blue Mesa that just might be worth a shot. He laughed as my friend and I looked at each other and we were intrigued buy a chance to get into more before we left.

We drove and drove and went into a Huge canyon and the river was moving at quite a clip. Shooting thru this deep canyon that reminded me a lot of eleven mile when it is flowing about 500 cfs. We were both tired but took a minute to just go ahead and try this river. Fast water and all. My First cast, Nice fat rainbow. 4th cast - small brown - 8th cast another - 10th cast again another. This was the some of the most productive water I had ever seen and was seriously working up a sweat. All told, in 45 minutes, there was at least two dozen fish hooked.  And then, It happened. Both flies covered with a fish. The proverbial Double. I was on a Two Fly Two Fish line for the first time ever. 

I will tell you, out there in that area there is so much water and so much fishing that I just plain lost track of the rivers and creeks we scoped out and gave a try on. You could spend two weeks out there and not hit half the water available.

Give the Gunny A go and go while it is still there for all of us to enjoy. Hopefully, that will be long after our lifetime..