sometimes luck sometimes not

I wanted to take my wife up to see the beauty of Aspen and get in a little fishing of course. When single I would go there for the sole purpose of targeting some of the largest and smartest fish in Colorado on the Frying Pan River. But this time it was more about touring around and seeing the sites. I was given a suggestion of a good brook trout stream flowing off Mount Sopris where I thought the action would be plentiful and the scenery nice.

There had been a lot of rain the week before and although the water of Avalanche creek was running clear it was fast and hard to wade. Nevertheless we were able to get into some of the usual suspects...

I was worried about my wife falling and the forest on the side of the stream was almost impassable with wild rose and deadfall. Banging through the brush I lost my tippet dispenser. Wading in the stream I slipped and cracked the wood on my reel seat. I wrapped my expensive furled leader around a logjam and broke it off. I was starting to get pissy in only the way a grown man could when he is alone with his wife. "I'm done." I proclaimed with a pout kicking the water, "I'm too unlucky today."

I told her she could fish for a while then we would have to make the hard trek back downstream. She took the rod from me and began flogging the water with the large stimulator I had put on the way to short leader....

"If you can hit that rock," I said only half paying attention, "there will be a decent fish in the current break behind." She made it on the third cast and a true monster of the stream came up to attack the fly. The next few seconds were tense with me yelling instructions and trying to land the fish. A beautiful cutt-bow hybrid on a size 12 stimulator.....

After we released the gorgeous fish we knew it was time to quit and headed back to the car. It was easier going than I thought with the high of the fish still with us. We stopped at a hot springs where the little stream meets the main river. Moving the river rock, so that the hot and cold mixed to a perfect temperature, I realized that even if we had caught no fish we were luckier than most just to be out in the mountains enjoying the day....