That particular river has mostly Brook trout and cutthroats in the upper sections, and rainbows and browns further down.
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This is right down the street from me.
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Caught just one, but only fished for like an hour at and after sunset. I saw others on the sonar but they didn’t want to bite
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Looks like a crappie day.
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Its a Snapper this is about 11 lbs but they grow to about 30 lbs
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If we can stop killing them all, more would grow to this size. This fish was released after 10 minute walk around, I still think she was a bit weak swimming away, but I was not carrying 45lbs home She would have had zero chance of survival on a stringer, or bashed with a bat.
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Anyone in these waters? I’ll get set up and will be down! Let’s just make sure we use our life preservers in case one takes us out of the boat! Lol
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Nice is that considered a master angler?
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Illinois River is full if them, need to worry more about broken face parts.
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Estes park is a small mountain town just mere miles away from this beautiful area!
We have a “the one that didn’t get away” patch from the state when you submit fish if a certain size for a species, but I haven’t looked into that. I didn’t even measure that one lol, the biggest I’ve caught and measured was 14.5”… damnit I should of measured that one lol.
My recorded best
Then again I didn’t measure this one I caught while fly fishing for pike
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My wife caught a 15” one in the brainered lakes region off a private lake Aggate off one of the decks but it was put back for another day!
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Hey I know where that’s at, I live about 10 minutes from that lake.
I live just outside of Brainerd
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Sweet I was thinking I’d get a hit in that one! Was 2002 so awhile ago!
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That’s where I stopped, Ark Anglers (i tghink) in Salida. They were definitely a good stop. I talked to the guy for a while after they got their guided trips out the door for the day. I hear you on the scenery. That was my main reason for that trip and I had a blast. It had been years since I’ve been up there.
I lived in Montana for 12 years and taught myself to fly fish there. I learned on the Yellowstone and It was tough. Same with the Madison. The float boats are the better way to go on those rivers. I fished the smaller feeder streams to those rivers and loved it.
That reminds me of a stream I grew up close to in north central Alabama; the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River. They had really nice large Smallmouth bass in them that were mean as hell, ha. Hard to land them, but I caught some nice ones and even bigger ones that jumped out to show me how big they were as they shook my fly off, lol.
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Pound for pound smallies are definitely stronger than largemouths. Spend their whole lives getting a workout in the rivers and streams.
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First time I ate those was in North Dakota on the Missouri River. I never fished for them but a local working with us treated us to a feast after he caught one that was really large, maybe 60#? The guys mom made fish stick like fillets and fed our whole crew. Some of the best fish I’ve ever had. There was a super large bowl of these golden fried fillets and they just kept coming.
He was snag fishing and I guess that’s the primary way to catch them?
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@SubSoilSelections . Female Paddlefish are moving out of the lakes and into the rivers out here. We were at limit within 2 hrs with four in the boat. My largest was 78#. That was just a few days back.
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