Singin' River Ranch

Boy did I hit the jackpot over memorial day weekend! A co-worker of Henderson's had mentioned that her family possesses 150 acres in Evergreen, CO. Oh, and by the way, upper bear creek runs directly through it and cycles water through 4 ponds. It's called The Singin' River Ranch. It's All. Private. Water.

BOOYAH!

Henderson, Claudio (Henderson's roomate), Steph, Caitlin (her Ranch), Nate (Caitlin's BF), Mark (Henderson/Caitlin's co-worker), Michael's daughter, Rufus (150lb. great dane) and I head to the property on Sunday with the intentions of grilling and riding Claudio's 2 brand new Yahama quads (one of which is a YFZ-450 *drool*) all day.

As a deduction sheerly from the name of this blog one should be confident that I also brought along a not-so-secret agenda of fishing the hell out of those ponds.

I roll up about 11:00 right as they are unloading the quads, do a crude recon of the drainage basin section of the property on said quads, and then get down to business and wet a line.

There were spaced out, lazy risers. I recall chuckling to myself under the belief that the fishing was going to be a cake walk. After casting some dries 'just to see' I quickly broke down and strayed to the dark side of fishing streamers.

I tie on a purple woolly bugger that I've been eager to bust out. It's a variation I've recently started tying.

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Fun fact:

This same pattern put Nick into his personal best trout back in October at Gross Reservoir on its inaugural appearance. The video of that can be seen here.

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There are three ponds in a row on Eastern side of the ranch. The water comes out of bear creek, into the first pond, which drains into the second, which drains into the third, which in turn drains back into bear creek. This keeps the ponds cool and allows the cold water fish to survive.

I immediately spot a healthy brown down on the bed of pond 2. I creep up, cast ahead of him, and wait as the fly and line begin to sink. Just a moment after the fly descends out of sight into the deeper murk I feel a tap on the line. I tighten the line; it's heavy and rapidly pulsating.

This guy just sulked in the depths of the pond in an outright objection to his current situation. Then he took a few deep runs just spooling my line off. After weathering those initial surges, I'm able to work him into the still and clear water up closer to the surface.

He would open his mouth and display rigorous fits of head-shakes in which I could see the bright white of the inner mouth and throat. I was starting to get nervous because his technique looked very efficient and I mash all my barbs on my hooks.

I finally get him close and scoop him up in the net. He was still full of fight!

(click photo to enlarge)

This guy is a wild brown through and through. I later talked to a fellow who was a friend of the ranch's care-taker who said that the ponds went about 10 years with no one fishing them.

The rest of the day I got no action at all except for a cliche "big one that got away". It's true though! He was double the size of the other one I caught, TRIPPLE I tell you! He scooped up my fly from the deepest hole there, bolted to the surface, rolled, and snapped my line all before my jaw had enough time to drop at the sight of the big gold flash underwater. That brown lifted my spirits and then crushed my soul all within the blink of an eye. I just kind of bent over and made a pathetic groaning noise for a while.

The worst thing about it wasn't that I didn't have the reaction time to roll with the punch; I was actually proud that such a nice fish took an experimental crayfish design that I had tied. The worst thing was that it made the brown that I landed earlier all of a sudden feel small.

I took a few breaks from fishing to ride the quads up the sheer mountain trails. That 450 YFZ is sick! I have a whole new respect for quads now. I'll post pictures of us blowing through streams and hitting jumps once I get them from Henderson.

After the long day and a camp fire we all decided we wanted to stay overnight. Caitlin had offered for everyone to stay at her Grandparent's house just up the road. They were out of town and there were beds for everyone. She's one cool and gracious chick. She even hooked Henderson, Claudio and me up with "Singin' River Ranch" tee shirts for the next day!

Unfortunately, it rained on memorial day. The bright side was that the drizzle made riding the quads much better. There were no more dust clouds streaming off the rear wheels, and they got much better balance and traction in the softer ground.

On the fishing front for Monday - I lipped and lost one brown.

I would have stayed there all day despite the rain but most everyone was cold, muddy, and soaked from riding so it was time to go. I had such a good time and can't wait to go back. I'll bring my waders and fish the creek section up to the 4th pond at the west edge of the property next time. I'll be camping on the property and night fishing next time as well.

I'll post all the pics as soon as I get them. Tight lines.