Blake McGhee with a beautiful Brown on the Roaring Fork

This winter has been awesome for Fly Fishing in the Roaring Fork Valley. The sunny days have kept the river free of flow-ice, and although the water level is low this time of year, the fish are abundant and active. Our typical trip over the last couple of months has been a 1/2 day trip (4 hours) in the middle of the day. Usually the guides will pick the guests up at our shop in the St. Regis Resort, Aspen at about 10AM and have them back at around 2PM. It has been pretty common to hook upwards of a dozen fish in this short amount of time, and fish that have been landed are large and healthy.

The above picture was taken at about 10AM by our head guide, Karl Page. The fisherman is Blake McGhee from Baton Rouge, LA. Karl modestly describes this one as 16″, and goes on to say that it was dwarfed by the ‘one that got away’ just an hour or so later. Karl says that it was quite possibly the biggest Rainbow Trout that he has ever seen on the Roaring Fork, and that it threw the hook by tail-dancing across the river and then diving under the overhanging ice on the far side. Blake was very enthusiastic about his fishing trip, saying in an email:

“I can’t say enough about the day I had . Of course the big one got away but we saw him . Otherwise , lots of nice browns and a about a 16″ rain bown . What a day !!! I shall return . Beats the hell out of skiing anyday. Thanks Blake McGehee”