Greenbacks

I got real lucky. My company has sent me to work in Colorado close to where I grew up for an entire month. My mother's cooking and fishing in home waters sounds perfect for August. I called my good small creek buddy on my first day off and he asked me, "So where do you want to go?". There's alot of water that comes to mind, but highest on my list is always catching native fish. In this case it would be the Greenback cutthroat trout on the east side of the continental divide and Colorado river cutthroat on the west. "I'm always in for some fast action." my friend said and we made the forty minute drive from my folks house up to the park in under 25 minutes. Rocky Mountain National park has always felt like my extended back yard. I skied and hiked and fished there so much that no matter where my travels have taken me the trails can be traced in my mind's eye with little effort.

We headed up to the aptly named Roaring river where a dam on a high mountain lake a long time ago had burst, screaming down the mountain tossing boulders around like stones and flooding the towns below. I was only a child when this happened but I remember after the flood when the park service took this disaster as cue to restock native fish that had been thought extinct for a long while.

We headed up the steep trail stopping to look down at the carnage the flood had caused in the riparian corridor, trying to imagine what it looked like in it's anger. The river is still rough and tumble, rarely taking it's time to stop and pool down the mountain. But in every seam, in every cushion lies a jewel to behold. We fished up the mountain as quick as we could letting only our flies touch the water, catching fish until we lost count. Exhausted and in serious need of beer we headed down the mountain with the roar of the creek in our hearts. Next time will be the Colorado River Cutt.........