Fishing the Gunnison, Lessons in Flyfishing

"There is no was to fish this stretch using roll casting, you have to first cast downstream because of the willows. Then you can cast your line upstream and fish the edge of the break", George explained as I sat and watched him fish. He next watched me fish and said that I needed to learn to high stick and better mend my line and here I thought I knew how to fly fish!

We had left Wyoming and headed south to visit George and Val at their Colorado hay ranch near Crawford, Colorado. It was our second trip there as last year Val had lead us down the Gunnision in a kayaking expedition and this year George was going to take me fly fishing.
So on our first day there, we had headed to a lower stretch of the Gunnision where George showed me how to high stick and mend. He talked of fishing Alaska and how I didn't need to make long casts, like you see in the fishing shows, that by high sticking I could catch the fish I would see in the resting pools.

Val, an expert fly fisher herself, added that we would need to watch the bears and be ready to break off our lines as they had learned that the sound of the drag meant a salmon or rainbow dinner. She quietly watched us fish before asking George if she could use his fly rod to cast to a spot he had missed.

I didn't catch any that day but I watched as George caught a beautiful brown and Val handed the fish and then released it back for another day. It didn't matter as I had just had a lesson in fly fishing nymphs from two masters fly fishers on a beautiful river in Colorado. Clear skies