2003-10-10 - 9:03 a.m.
Before I went off to bed Dave and I agreed to be up early to do some more fishing before we headed to Denver to play at Quixote’s. I awoke to a fine western morning. We choose the quickest breakfast available…. McDonalds. We had seen a nice stretch of the Gunnison River just west of town that we wanted to explore. As usual, Dave’s dog Luke is with us. Luke’s a big, yellow lab and one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever met. He’s such a good dog I tell him he is destined to be re-incarnated as a human in his next cycle. He just blinks his eyes and lays his head back down.
Dave pulls the truck off a large pull-off, right down to the rivers side. Here the river is about as wide a four-lane highway. It curves along a canyon wall just beyond the far bank. I slip into Dave’s new waders. The man is incredibly generous to allow me to be the first person to use his $200 waders! Once again I’m using an elk hair caddis of Dave’s creation. There is sporadic insect activity and I see some light colored caddis flies hatching at the rivers edge. This encourages me as I enter the streams strong current. You could get into deep trouble here as one slip lands you in the river. Visions of my waders filling up with water as I’m swept downstream makes me extra careful as I make my way to mid-stream. There’s an older gentleman casting a dry fly effortlessly into pocket water about fifty yards downstream from me. That’s my approach as well. Nothing. I move a little further out and send several long casts to the far side of the river. A few of them land on a large rock just above a nice looking hole. I gently tug the fly off and it falls lightly into the likeliest spot. Hell, if I were a fish I’d eat it but there are no takers. As I make my way back across the river a young fisherman moves into the water just above me. He’s casting quickly and proficiently and before too long he’s onto one. When I reach the far side, Dave says, ”I hope you have your license on you, because there’s a warden making his way up river.” Boy, am I glad I bought that license now! The warden comes up and we make small talk about fishing, the weather and the like. After a spell he gets around to asking me for my license. I start to sweat as he checks his watch to see if it’s still valid and I remember it was a 48 hr license. What time did I get that thing? He hands it back to me and says happy hunting. Dave changes my fly to one with plain colored wings and I set out again. This time I quarter my casts to cover as much water in the shortest time. After about ten casts, boom, I’m onto one. It’s small but proves a good fighter. I land the little rainbow trout and continue to cast the same fly. Shortly I’m into another rainbow that’s a little bigger. At this point I change flies as the one I have been catching fish with is a bit chewed up. The insects we’re seeing now are smaller mayflies so I switch to something similar; wade out, and catch another right away. This is fun. I thank each one I catch for the pleasure and apologize for interrupting their fishy day and return them unharmed to their watery home.
As much as I’d like to stay we call it a day and head on down the road to make it to Denver on time. Quixote’s turns out just fine with Gayle, Anne and Andrea getting their last shows in before Halloween. This is our last night in Colorado. At shows end I thank Dave profusely for his incredible largess. Tomorrow it’s out through the beautiful Glendale Canyon and on to Salt Lake City.
