Fish On!

/ ridingwithgary

We are so over this riding-and-ribs thing.

Today, we’re going fishing.

Harleys won’t even leave the garage.

***

So we take a short drive from our Carbondale home to the Fryingpan River, not far from Basalt. The Fryingpan has some of the best fly fishing waters anywhere.

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Ever the optimist, Dave has his net at the ready — for the big moment.
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It’s a beautiful spot on the river.
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That’s Dave, way off in the distance. He has the river almost to himself. Four trout found his flies.
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Cast away!
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Sarah had her first fly fishing experience today. She’s a natural.
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Nice form!
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She even had herself a top-notch assistant.
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We had three rods and three reels. We used five flies. We had a surefire recipe for success.
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And yet … the closest we came to trout all day was at City Market’s fish department.
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The ones that didn’t get away. These were the trout that Dave was photographing in the pic above.

We still manage a seafood dinner on Dave’s last evening in Colorado.

It’s not anything that would ever be caught in a Colorado Gold Medal river. But nobody’s shoving away from the table hungry tonight.

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Farewell dinner. End of a great ride.
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Garlic shrimp. Garlic potatoes. Garlic everything!

***

Day Fourteen Summary: We’re done riding. Fish on!

Vroom, vroom.

***

Today’s Colorado Fishing Fun Fact: Colorado’s Parks and Wildlife service does a wonderful job promoting sustainable fishing, and gives guys like me who’ve never fished before a reason to try it: my 2018-2019 fishing license cost $1.00. Cost breakdown: 25 cents for Search and Rescue; 75 cents for Wildlife Education Fund Surcharge. That’s all. Eat your hearts out.

Today’s Rocky Mountain Rib Rally Fishing Fun Fact: Basalt, which we’ve ridden through and dined in several times, is the only town in America with two Gold Medal rivers flowing through it: the Fryingpan and the Roaring Fork. The Crystal River, which we cross every time we ride out of our River Valley Ranch subdivision, offers 30 miles of fishing waters from Carbondale to Marble. In these local waters you’ll find rainbow trout, cutthroat trout and brown trout.

Today’s Colorado Food Fun Fish Fact: A shore dinner of trout caught just minutes before eating them is often said to be the best fish meal you’ll ever have. Native fish with an orange or pink color to their flesh are the best tasting, whether brown trout, brook trout or rainbow trout. The cutthroat trout, the state’s only indigenous variety of trout, is the official state fish of Colorado.

11 thoughts on “Fish On!”

  1. I got so excited when I saw the title “Fish On” then… wah wah wah. Looking good my girl Sarah! Thanks for sharing your guys adventure with us Gary, We enjoyed the ride too! Dave, I love you, I miss you and can’t wait for you to arrive safely home!

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    • Sorry to disappoint, Gail .., but it was a hoot on the river, even without fish in the net. It’s about the process, not the outcome. Thank you for sharing Dave with us the past two weeks. We’re returning him to you in pretty much the same way he arrived on Fathers Day: happy, healthy, and always ready for a good time. Nice to have you along for the ride!

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  2. Impressed w Sarah’s fish. You go girl
    So sad to see it end! But just in time for u to start reading mine. We arrived Reykjavik almost 16 hours ago and I’ll start posting once I get my bearings.

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  4. Enjoyed the journey. Glad y’all are still learning new fun sports. Thx for the mentioning of Ray along the way. Helped him remember things he did which he can barely recall. Enjoy Colorado!! Can’t you somehow add a visit home to Tennessee?? Plenty of sleeping space here
    Tina

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    • Glad you enjoyed it, Tina. Thought of Ray often on this trip. He introduced me to a number of places we went this year: Independence Pass, Loveland Pass, Trail Ridge Road, Million Dollar Highway, Hoosier Pass, Fremont Pass, and many others. Will have Sarah look at our Tennessee prospects. Vroom, vroom.

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