Hello friends and thanks for
checking in at the O’Grady Fly Fishing Adventures. Before I go into our latest
adventure, I need to explain why we were so excited about this particular trip.
Eight or nine years ago, Cat was asked to be part of a wedding in Nucla,
Colorado. I did not get to go with her, and when she got back all she could
talk about was the beauty of the river she passed on her drive. As Cat went on
and on about the scenery, the bug life, and all the awesome people she had met,
I began to wonder if she had accidently driven through the Emerald City from The
Wizard of Oz. What she described sounded too good to be true, but she assured
me that someday we would make it back and fish the river so I could see it for
myself. Now a few years ago, by chance, I began following a guide out of
Ridgeway and once a month or so he would post a pic of fish that were just
enormous. Needless to say, I would drool and dream of one day fishing the area.
With our Arkansas Tailwater having an off summer, Cat and I started thinking of
places we could go and when we realized that our two fantasy rivers were so
close to each other, there was no other option.
We headed out Sunday morning and
made it into the Ridgeway area early in the afternoon. There was a storm
building out to the west, but we got a chance to look at the San Juans. I had
seen them once before many years ago and had forgotten how breath taking they
were. Now I’m a SOCO guy and I love the Sangre de Christos, and it may be
blasphemy, but the San Juans absolutely blow the Christos away when it comes to
scenic beauty.
As we pulled into Paco-Chu-Pak state park, the rain began to
come down. We got ready and started fishing. The stretch felt a little
manufactured but still had a fishy feeling. The first hour or so was a struggle
with Cat catching a couple of dinks. We eventually found a hole and while working
it, we began to see little fish eating. Now these little fish initially looked
to be of the variety where you can throw anything and they eat it, but very
quickly we learned that these fish were smarter than they appeared. We changed
weight, depth, flies, drifts and finally, whatever I did, worked and I got a 12
incher to the net. We figured that we now had it all figured out and we were
wrong. We went back to changing up and finally I caught the fish of the trip.
Not a Paco trophy, but a stout 18inch brown. We started working our way back up
and that’s when the excitement of the trip came. Cat spotted the only real monster
we saw the whole trip(a thirty plus inch brown), and just as her second drift
went passed the fish, a little rainbow grabbed her fly. Before she could scream
noooooo, the big brown turned and ate her rainbow whole. Cat stood stunned and
said what the heck and started to lift, the flies popped back at her, and the
brown leisurely swam off, never to be seen again. We fished until dark but only
caught a few dinks and a 17inch cutty. On our way to the hotel, we began to
plot the next day’s tactics but quickly got lost in the beauty of our
surroundings.
Monday morning, we got back to Paco
at around 9:30 and covered a lot of ground. We tried taking our time and
looking for fish but all we could do was hook a few dinks. Lighting rolled in
at around three so we took a break until around four. We started working our
way up river and only hooked a few fish. As evening rolled in, Cat found a
18inch or so brown and after trying many different things, I hooked him but,
after a fairly quick battle, he beat me like a drum.
We were feeling a little dejected,
so Tuesday we decided to go explore Cat’s “Emerald City” river. As we were
driving toward the San Miguel, I was hoping it was as magical as she remembered.
We got just a few miles from Ridgeway and looking to the south found it to be
as picturesque as any place on the face of the earth. The river was just a
quick thirty-minute drive and seeing Cat’s smile, it was indeed as pretty as
she remembered. We jumped in and after the first ten minutes, I began to wonder
if I had forgotten how to fish. Cat had landed three and started feeling sorry
for me and then the groove hit. We started hooking fish on every other cast and
the “ciggle”, could be heard through the whole valley. The lighting rolled in
at around 2:00 and we decided to take a drive into Telluride. As we were just
getting into town, I looked around and was thinking if I were a little younger
this place would be awesome. We walked through town and found Telluride Anglers
and were blown away by the friendliness of the shop. We try to go into every
shop we ever go by, so that we can steer our customers into the best situations,
and this shop gets the A++++++++++++ designation. So, if you are ever in the
Southwest area, make sure you stop by Telluride Anglers. We headed back toward
Ridgeway and decided to give Paco another try. Tuesday was the toughest, we saw
a few fish in the same places they were the night before but we could not get
them to eat anything. We got back to the hotel and while sitting in the pool we
discussed why Paco was such a difficult place to fish. We have some theories
but then the conversation shifted to our hope that our home river never changes.
I know this has been a difficult summer for our Ark but after fishing so many
other tail waters over the years, I am always reminded how great we have it. We
were trying to decide what to do on Wednesday and we just missed our river too
much.
We got up this morning and after
packing the car, Cat and I stood, hand in hand and admired the beauty of Cat’s
Emerald City, but were also thinking about how much we missed home. We closed
our eyes, clicked our heels three times and said, “there’s no place like home,
there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home,” but when we opened our
eyes, we looked at each other and said, “crap, we still have a long drive home.”
So, what’s next for the O’Gradys, the fall looks pretty busy for guide trips
and then we are heading to the Bahamas in search of the next Emerald City, or
maybe the Fountain of Youth. As always, Connell, Cat, Winston, Dorothy &
Toto, and the Drift Fly Shop want to thank you for reading……
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