The Gunnsion Trip-2013

I've posted in the past about our annual trip to Almont, Colorado to fish the many rivers in that beautiful part of the state.  This year, we were able to have all seven of the regular group attend.  The fellow who coordinates the trip, Dave G, keeps us appraised of the countdown of days to the trip throughout the year, and during the week leading up to the trip, breaks it down to the hours and minutes.  This trip is eagerly anticipated by all, and when the time arrives to actually leave, it can seem surreal, since we have been looking forward to it all year.

On the day we leave, we wake up very early, meet at the same coffee place, then drive 5 hours straight through the mountains until we arrive in the town of Gunnison, and grab a bite to eat.  After eating, and grabbing a few supplies, we head to the river, and start several days of fishing from dawn until dark.  We always stay in the same series of cabins, which offer nice creature comforts at the end of the day.  Although we like to think of ourselves as a hardy group of outdoorsmen, the days of sleeping in the back of a truck are mostly behind us.  Having dinner in a modern cabin, and sitting on a deck overlooking the river at the end of long day of fishing seem to make the trip even better.

Many of you read Al's blog noconympher.blogspot.com.   As always, Al was on the trip, and has some fine posts about the experience.  BDF had a great time fishing with him, and I encourage you to check out his blog.  Al caught a ton of fish using an obscure fishing method called "nymphing".  He also ties a famous fly nicknamed ABU that seems to catch a lot of fish, no matter who uses it.  There were a couple times when we were both fishing on opposite sides of the stream with our prefered method of flies...I'll leave it up to the reader to guess which is more effective. 

 I will do a series of posts about the trip...focusing on different aspects of the experience, including several gear reviews.  There is nothing better than a multi-day, hardcore fishing trip to truly test out a piece of gear.

The trip was filled with good times, good friendship, and good fishing.  Dave G fished Tenkara for the first time, and learned the value of keeping his equipment with him,  Bryan V caught big fish on a Scott fly rod, Joel T hammered the trout on his famous "Copper Joel".  Jim B and Pete kept the pressure on the fish as well.

 As always, going through the photos make me wish that we were still in Almont.   I just have to open Dave G's latest email to see exactly how many days remain until the next trip...