Near Disaster

  Hello all and thanks for checking in. I know it’s been a few weeks since my last write up, and I was really looking forward to posting something about my incredible fishing on the water yesterday. Cat and I tried to make it out a little earlier than usual yesterday and began our drive to the water before 9:00a.m. I know that’s not early for most, but definitely early for us. Cat’s phone began to beep and she had a text message asking if we knew anything about the river being shut off. We laughed it off, and she texted back that the gauge they had been reading was probably frozen. We pulled into Juniper parking lot and Cat gasped and said “what have they done to my river.” I had to take a double take but yes, the water was shut off. We got out and started walking up and noticed the water wasn’t moving and already was beginning to freeze through. We frantically began making calls to those in the know and they began making calls as well. After about an hour, Alex, Cody, and My personal Abe Lincoln (Ants) met up and the only word we got back was “this is the law and too bad”. We stood above Cat’s run for what seemed an eternity in complete disbelief that our little stretch of paradise may have come to its end. The Seagulls were the only living being that looked happy about open the buffet of exposed bugs and trapped fish. We all complained for a while and then decided to go home and try to make some calls.

  On the way home I looked over and saw tears coming down Cat’s face, it reminded me of the seventies commercial of the kids throwing trash at the “old Indian’s” feet. There was a Christian song out a few years ago that stated “that you don’t know what you got til it’s gone, paved Paradise and put up a parking lot”, kept playing through my head. We made it home just in time for the call of the day. The call from early in the day, which stated that it was “law” was returned to Ants but this time with a “sorry, we did not know that water was completely shut off and people were on the way to fix it.” It turns out that one of the dam gates was shut off and another was supposed to open but somehow failed. The next hour we sat on the DWR site and kept hitting refresh, my computer hasn’t seen the refresh button hit that many times since the Husker recruitment of Andrus Peat. Unlike the depression I felt when Andrus picked Stanford, a shriek of joy rang through the O’Grady household when the river was back to 63cfs. The river for now is back to its wintertime flows…A day like yesterday sure makes me thankful for the incredible fishery we have…

  As many of you know, the fourth annual Frostbite Fishoff was held this weekend on the Pueblo tailwater.  First I would like to congratulate Pat and Manny for taking home the trophy. The tourney sure seemed like a microcosm of the fishery of late. Many teams were completely blanked, several landed only a few fish, and some that had done well in either the morning or the afternoon sessions. Good times were had by all and I heard that the lunch form Subway was spectacular and perhaps the best lunch that many of the contestants had ever tasted. Thank you for the incredible job the Subway’s on the north side of Pueblo did…hehe

  For anyone interested in the river conditions and not my endless ramblings, the river seems to be right back to normal. With the weather forecast showing a warming trend I would expect to see fish beginning to awake from their wintertime slumber. Some fish will move into staging areas while others should begin to make their way to their beds. Fish will begin to eat more readily and fishing takes should become a little more aggressive. As always, thanks for reading, Connell, Cat, Winston, Subway(north Pueblo), and The Drift Fly Shop……….