That’s the Gore Range. What does it tell you? It tells me, it’s “game-on.” Nirvana. Like a kid who waits anxiously for Christmas morning, I wait to see this. Lightly-draped in snow, the peaks have given us their best. Runoff is ending.
And to me, there are three windows I love to fish more than any other time of the season.
Numero uno is week one after runoff. It’s officially summer, baby. And trout get to look up for the first I ever in about two months. And when they look up, they see Yellow Sallies, and PMDs, maybe a stray hopper. Cue the aria… this is why we fish. Love you Eastern peeps… and you’ve been going strong for weeks now. But now, we’re going to play the Super Bowl out West.
Window 2… pre-runoff… April. Fish know they gotta eat. Bugs are thick. And the Texans are still in Texas. (But I love you Texans, you know that…)
Window 3… October when the silver dollar snowflakes fly, and the fish gorge on baetis as a matter of stocking up… But that one is bittersweet, because it also tells me I have to wait several months for numero uno.
Soak it up. Get on it. Right now.
— Kirk Deeter