Travel writings
I am delighted that the recent article I co-authored with my fishing buddy Steve Keeble about exploring the trout fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains area of North Carolina was featured in the January-February 2026 issue of American Fly Fishing. Come join us! Click on the link below to download a copy of the article.
Also take a look at American Fly Fishing’s home page. It’s a great magazine that I read cover-to-cover every issue!
March 2026
Through the hard work over the years of many, like executive directors James Van Hemert and Susan Daggett, it has become a leading national research and conference institute on land use and sustainable development law. 500 people were in attendance this year.
March 2026
This past year was an interesting and rewarding one, albeit challenging. Despite my paucity of new posts in 2025, I am grateful to my subscribers and readers that stuck with me. The number of my views and visitors to hooknfly.com remained at the record levels established in 2024. Again, the most popular article was Best Fishing Books Of All Time with thousands of reads. If you Google “best fishing books” my post on the subject will pop up at or near the top after the sponsored sites and the ubiquitous AI summary overview, even before it sometimes! That’s a real surprise in this era of videos, internet, and short attention spans. People do still read, especially anglers and nature aficionados! And comments from readers like “What fun to go on a walk with you. I love all the lovely details that you see and identify for us” make it all worthwhile.
The good news is more publications are on the way. My recent article coauthored with fishing buddy from Georgia Steve Keeble on trout fishing the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest North Carolina was just published in the January-February issue of American Fly Fishing. Check back here after April 1st for a link to download the piece.
Mr. Keeble At Work
The Author Scores With Mop FlyAnother about my quest to find rare Rio Grande Cutthroats on Jim Creek in the Colorado backcountry, a remarkable stream recovery story, will be out soon. I am also working on a feature article for the late summer issue of Florida Sportsman on fishing and exploring the Big Cypress National Preserve in southwest Florida. The huge preserve covering over 700,000 acres is adjacent to Everglades National Park and managed by the National Park Service. It is home to hungry snook, high-jumping tarpon, and a bevy of beautiful birds, not to mention the infamous Alligator Alcatraz!
January started off fine with a relaxing hike in a secluded, lightly visited part of the Collier-Seminole State Park, just west of Everglades City. It’s a true wilderness on the edge of the Everglades that is a great way to get to know a range of Glades environments from prairie to slash pine forests that transition into bald cypress strands and mangroves. There’s a chance to see deer, bear, and even Florida Panthers but also a host of other interesting smaller critters like shrews and tree snails as well as beautiful birds such as large pileated woodpeckers. (See https://hooknfly.com/2025/04/23/collier-seminoles-flatwoods-trail-a-hidden-gem-for-families-with-kids-and-for-bicyclists/ )
But then I hit a rocky patch. Aside from competing with artificial intelligence ( AI) and swimming upstream against the video tide, my biggest challenge started when I came down with a serious case of vertigo in early February. I always assumed vertigo was just a fancy word for motion sickness which has plagued me ever since I was a kid. No reading in the car or riding in the backseat for me. Not so! Vertigo is a whirling dervish, head-spinning trip that can knock you out of the ball game for extended periods. I struggled with it for several months, squeezing in a few good days fishing here and there in the Everglades without tumbling out of the boat. On one trip my granddaughter Aly caught a nice sea trout on the Turner River all on her own, outfishing her Daddy Matthew and me!
Fortunately in late March I found an ENT doctor who along with his team of audiologists cured me in short order after multiple tests finally identified the problem with pesky little crystals in my semi-circular canals that are so important to balance and stability. I was cured with a targeted physical head maneuvering treatment in Florida in late April, just in time to head to Colorado and chase some trout! So far so good!
I arrived back in Colorado with high hopes, my fly rod rigged and ready to go, only to miss a step on my cabin stairs in early June, take a tumble, and break five ribs! Fortunately, it was during runoff season in the mountains so had time to recover before the streams were fishable again. I was back on the water in early July and fooling some eager trout. But talk about intimations of immortality!
Solar Time…Here Comes The Sun
As I related in my 2024 yearly report, I was fortunate to play a major role in a ground-breaking study of how to deal with the significant impacts of large-scale solar facilities, so critical to meeting the soaring demand for clean electric energy. I took on an interesting assignment to assist Saguache County, Colorado, home of several of my favorite trout streams, in dealing with proposals it was grappling with to build huge industrial-scale solar energy facilities. Because the San Luis Valley is one of the sunniest locales in Colorado, it is a magnet for these facilities that can cover hundreds of acres with significant impacts on wildlife, agricultural areas, and scenic vistas. With generous support of the Gates Family Foundation out of Denver, I teamed with a bright, hard-working law professor, Jonathan Rosenbloom, to produce a detailed report recommending regulations to ensure the facilities are properly sited and operated to address potential adverse impacts while still accommodating these energy sources so essential to reducing carbon emissions and grappling with climate change.
We finished the study in December 2024, and I winged back to Colorado from Florida to present the final report to a SRO crowd in Saguache County including the three county commissioners, staff, and dozens of citizens. The report was well-received. I proceeded to hightail it back to Denver with a huge snowstorm nipping at my heels. Fortunately, got to do some sledding with my granddaughter Aly before returning to Florida. The report was then featured at the annual conference of the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute at the University of Denver School of Law which I co-founded with my good friend and fishing buddy Professor Ed Ziegler.
In November of 2025 the county commissioners adopted new regulations that incorporated the main recommendations of the report which has become a model for rural jurisdictions across the USA facing a surge of large-scale solar proposals to satisfy the hunger for electricity by sources such as electric vehicles and increasingly controversial data centers linked to mushrooming artificial intelligence use.
On a sad note, Professor Ziegler, also known as Zig Zag Ziegler for his elusive running style as an all-American running back at Notre Dame, passed away suddenly on late October due to a serious lung infection. Fortunately, I got to see Ed and talk with him before he left us. I cherish those memories of our time on the water together.
The Scrapers
I was delighted during the summer of 2025 to see the numbers of views and visitors to my site start to skyrocket! One day over 2,000 people logged in to read my blog, focusing mostly on trout fishing articles. But when those astronomical numbers kept repeating for a week, I got a little suspicious, smelling a rat! So I did a little investigating and discovered that of those 2,000 visitors, over 1700 were from China and Singapore. Now there are a few trout streams in China, particularly in remote mountainous regions, but the numbers looked fishy….and not in a good way. With the help of a company called Wordfence, I Iearned that the clicks from China, Singapore, and several other Asian countries were likely scraping information and text from my blog illegally, probably for AI outfits.
One proof was that some of the text for the AI overview that comes up when you search on Google for “Best Fishing Books” is a direct copy of language lifted from my related blog articles!
After a payment of $150 for its services, Wordfence shut down 99% of the scrapers who continue to try to bust through the protective fence that is blocking them from copying information from my site. This past week alone Wordfence blocked 3,791 scrapers from Singapore, 582 from China, and 186 from India!
What is particularly annoying is that I don’t try to sell anything on my site nor has it been commercialized in any way. I have been fortunate in life and feel sharing my adventures and information with other anglers and outdoor enthusiasts is a way to say thank you and a good vehicle to build constituencies to protect our beloved natural resources like trout streams that are under siege now more than ever. Frustrating when these scoundrels try to take advantage of that!
The Sirens
According to Greek mythology, sirens were beautiful creatures with the wings of birds and the faces and upper bodies of alluring women that used their mesmerizing voices to lure sailors to their deaths with irresistible songs.
That’s sometime how I feel about the allure of remote, high country trout streams that keep me young. But they are getting harder to find. Luck was on my side in 2025 though, when I met lady guide and author Michele White at a local Trout Unlimited meeting and got an autographed copy of her interesting book Lesser Known Fly Fishing Venues in South Park (Colorado) published in 2020. I immediately spied a couple of remote creeks in the book that sounded fantastic.
The first turned out to be a bummer. While secluded as promised, its beautiful beaver ponds had filled in with silt, and the creek in between ponds was completely overgrown since the guide was written. Grrr. One tiny brook trout saved me from the dreaded skunk! But the next one, with a very inviting name that shall remain nameless for the time being, lived up to its billing.
With my local fishing buddy Tenkara Tom, we did some four-wheel drive reconnaissance in the fall and had a good outing surrounded by breathtaking scenery, whetting my appetite for more to come this summer. Tune in then. The other siren is a new state wildlife area in South Park featuring miles of Tarryall Creek, one of my favorites. I have written about fishing the upper Tarryall on the Cline Ranch State Wildlife Area where I caught some big brownies. (See article at: https://hooknfly.com/2021/07/30/get-on-the-beat-at-tarryall-creek-in-south-park-colorado/ ) An initial foray into the new refuge with my acrobatic photographer Jody Bol in September was encouraging. More to come soon.
The Divine, Hard-Working Ms. Bol!
That’s it for 2025. A promising 2026 is already underway in the Florida Everglades thanks to some very cooperative snook and tarpon. Stay tuned!!
March 2026
This past year was an interesting and rewarding one, albeit challenging. Despite my paucity of new posts in 2025, I am grateful to my subscribers and readers that stuck with me. The number of my views and visitors to hooknfly.com remained at the record levels established in 2024. Again, the most popular article was Best Fishing Books Of All Time with thousands of reads. If you Google “best fishing books” my post on the subject will pop up at or near the top after the sponsored sites and the ubiquitous AI summary overview, even before it sometimes! That’s a real surprise in this era of videos, internet, and short attention spans. People do still read, especially anglers and nature aficionados! And comments from readers like “What fun to go on a walk with you. I love all the lovely details that you see and identify for us” make it all worthwhile.
The good news is more publications are on the way. My recent article coauthored with fishing buddy from Georgia Steve Keeble on trout fishing the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest North Carolina was just published in the January-February issue of American Fly Fishing. Check back here after April 1st for a link to download the piece.
Mr. Keeble At Work The Author Scores With Mop FlyAnother about my quest to find rare Rio Grande Cutthroats on Jim Creek in the Colorado backcountry, a remarkable stream recovery story, will be out soon. I am also working on a feature article for the late summer issue of Florida Sportsman on fishing and exploring the Big Cypress National Preserve in southwest Florida. The huge preserve covering over 700,000 acres is adjacent to Everglades National Park and managed by the National Park Service. It is home to hungry snook, high-jumping tarpon, and a bevy of beautiful birds, not to mention the infamous Alligator Alcatraz!
January started off fine with a relaxing hike in a secluded, lightly visited part of the Collier-Seminole State Park, just west of Everglades City. It’s a true wilderness on the edge of the Everglades that is a great way to get to know a range of Glades environments from prairie to slash pine forests that transition into bald cypress strands and mangroves. There’s a chance to see deer, bear, and even Florida Panthers but also a host of other interesting smaller critters like shrews and tree snails as well as beautiful birds such as large pileated woodpeckers. (See https://hooknfly.com/2025/04/23/collier-seminoles-flatwoods-trail-a-hidden-gem-for-families-with-kids-and-for-bicyclists/ )
But then I hit a rocky patch. Aside from competing with artificial intelligence ( AI) and swimming upstream against the video tide, my biggest challenge started when I came down with a serious case of vertigo in early February. I always assumed vertigo was just a fancy word for motion sickness which has plagued me ever since I was a kid. No reading in the car or riding in the backseat for me. Not so! Vertigo is a whirling dervish, head-spinning trip that can knock you out of the ball game for extended periods. I struggled with it for several months, squeezing in a few good days fishing here and there in the Everglades without tumbling out of the boat. On one trip my granddaughter Aly caught a nice sea trout on the Turner River all on her own, outfishing her Daddy Matthew and me!
Fortunately in late March I found an ENT doctor who along with his team of audiologists cured me in short order after multiple tests finally identified the problem with pesky little crystals in my semi-circular canals that are so important to balance and stability. I was cured with a targeted physical head maneuvering treatment in Florida in late April, just in time to head to Colorado and chase some trout! So far so good!
I arrived back in Colorado with high hopes, my fly rod rigged and ready to go, only to miss a step on my cabin stairs in early June, take a tumble, and break five ribs! Fortunately, it was during runoff season in the mountains so had time to recover before the streams were fishable again. I was back on the water in early July and fooling some eager trout. But talk about intimations of immortality!
Solar Time…Here Comes The Sun
As I related in my 2024 yearly report, I was fortunate to play a major role in a ground-breaking study of how to deal with the significant impacts of large-scale solar facilities, so critical to meeting the soaring demand for clean electric energy. I took on an interesting assignment to assist Saguache County, Colorado, home of several of my favorite trout streams, in dealing with proposals it was grappling with to build huge industrial-scale solar energy facilities. Because the San Luis Valley is one of the sunniest locales in Colorado, it is a magnet for these facilities that can cover hundreds of acres with significant impacts on wildlife, agricultural areas, and scenic vistas. With generous support of the Gates Family Foundation out of Denver, I teamed with a bright, hard-working law professor, Jonathan Rosenbloom, to produce a detailed report recommending regulations to ensure the facilities are properly sited and operated to address potential adverse impacts while still accommodating these energy sources so essential to reducing carbon emissions and grappling with climate change.
We finished the study in December 2024, and I winged back to Colorado from Florida to present the final report to a SRO crowd in Saguache County including the three county commissioners, staff, and dozens of citizens. The report was well-received. I proceeded to hightail it back to Denver with a huge snowstorm nipping at my heels. Fortunately, got to do some sledding with my granddaughter Aly before returning to Florida. The report was then featured at the annual conference of the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute at the University of Denver School of Law which I co-founded with my good friend and fishing buddy Professor Ed Ziegler.
In November of 2025 the county commissioners adopted new regulations that incorporated the main recommendations of the report which has become a model for rural jurisdictions across the USA facing a surge of large-scale solar proposals to satisfy the hunger for electricity by sources such as electric vehicles and increasingly controversial data centers linked to mushrooming artificial intelligence use.
On a sad note, Professor Ziegler, also known as Zig Zag Ziegler for his elusive running style as an all-American running back at Notre Dame, passed away suddenly on late October due to a serious lung infection. Fortunately, I got to see Ed and talk with him before he left us. I cherish those memories of our time on the water together.
The Scrapers
I was delighted during the summer of 2025 to see the numbers of views and visitors to my site start to skyrocket! One day over 2,000 people logged in to read my blog, focusing mostly on trout fishing articles. But when those astronomical numbers kept repeating for a week, I got a little suspicious, smelling a rat! So I did a little investigating and discovered that of those 2,000 visitors, over 1700 were from China and Singapore. Now there are a few trout streams in China, particularly in remote mountainous regions, but the numbers looked fishy….and not in a good way. With the help of a company called Wordfence, I Iearned that the clicks from China, Singapore, and several other Asian countries were likely scraping information and text from my blog illegally, probably for AI outfits.
One proof was that some of the text for the AI overview that comes up when you search on Google for “Best Fishing Books” is a direct copy of language lifted from my related blog articles!
After a payment of $150 for its services, Wordfence shut down 99% of the scrapers who continue to try to bust through the protective fence that is blocking them from copying information from my site. This past week alone Wordfence blocked 3,791 scrapers from Singapore, 582 from China, and 186 from India!
What is particularly annoying is that I don’t try to sell anything on my site nor has it been commercialized in any way. I have been fortunate in life and feel sharing my adventures and information with other anglers and outdoor enthusiasts is a way to say thank you and a good vehicle to build constituencies to protect our beloved natural resources like trout streams that are under siege now more than ever. Frustrating when these scoundrels try to take advantage of that!
The Sirens
According to Greek mythology, sirens were beautiful creatures with the wings of birds and the faces and upper bodies of alluring women that used their mesmerizing voices to lure sailors to their deaths with irresistible songs.
That’s sometime how I feel about the allure of remote, high country trout streams that keep me young. But they are getting harder to find. Luck was on my side in 2025 though, when I met lady guide and author Michele White at a local Trout Unlimited meeting and got an autographed copy of her interesting book Lesser Known Fly Fishing Venues in South Park (Colorado) published in 2020. I immediately spied a couple of remote creeks in the book that sounded fantastic.
The first turned out to be a bummer. While secluded as promised, its beautiful beaver ponds had filled in with silt, and the creek in between ponds was completely overgrown since the guide was written. Grrr. One tiny brook trout saved me from the dreaded skunk! But the next one, with a very inviting name that shall remain nameless for the time being, lived up to its billing.
With my local fishing buddy Tenkara Tom, we did some four-wheel drive reconnaissance in the fall and had a good outing surrounded by breathtaking scenery, whetting my appetite for more to come this summer. Tune in then. The other siren is a new state wildlife area in South Park featuring miles of Tarryall Creek, one of my favorites. I have written about fishing the upper Tarryall on the Cline Ranch State Wildlife Area where I caught some big brownies. (See article at: https://hooknfly.com/2021/07/30/get-on-the-beat-at-tarryall-creek-in-south-park-colorado/ ) An initial foray into the new refuge with my acrobatic photographer Jody Bol in September was encouraging. More to come soon.
The Divine, Hard-Working Ms. Bol!
That’s it for 2025. A promising 2026 is already underway in the Florida Everglades thanks to some very cooperative snook and tarpon. Stay tuned!!
For one of my earlier adventures on Grape Creek, see http://hooknfly.com/2019/10/14/exploring-grape-creek-in-the-hidden-recesses-of-temple-canyon-near-canon-city-co/
Fall 2024
I am on my annual trip to the Wet Mountain Valley in southcentral Colorado. It’s only an hour and a half drive from my cabin near Salida, Colorado, but a world apart. The people population in Custer County that covers most of the valley is 5,000, dwarfed by the number of cattle grazing in the scenic meadows. There’s great fishing to go along with the scenery, rugged soaring peaks of the Sangre de Christo and Wet Mountains, and a distinctly different vibe.
I am staying in my mobile fish camp at the fine Grape Creek RV Park just south of Westcliffe, the county seat, and will be here from Friday to Monday.
My plan is to sample several of my favorite trout streams like Grape and Medano Creeks…and maybe score a coveted grand slam—catching (and releasing) four different species of trout. I will also take in some of the sights in this historic valley and chow down at several of my favorite restaurants après angling.
Custer County was named for the famous General Custer. Like many mountain communities in Colorado, it owes its start to silver and gold mines in the late 1800s as witnessed by the name of the biggest town in the county, Silver Cliff, which abuts Westcliffe, and which sports a population of 747. Westcliff, population 435, was a railroad town serving the mining and cattle businesses. But ranching has always been a big part of the picture, some early spreads boasting over 10,000 cattle that helped to feed the miners. While the county has grown and Westcliffe sports artist studios, antique shops, and good restaurants, overall the valley maintains much of its old West atmosphere as witnessed by the fact it has been the of location of many western movies such as How The West Was Won featuring John Wayne, Cat Ballou with Lee Marvin, and Comes A Horseman with James Caan and Jane Fonda.
Day 1: Grape Creek At Bear Gulch
I decide on my first day of my grand slam quest to explore a remote section of Grape Creek below DeWeese Reservoir. The main stream in the valley, Grape Creek springs from the Wet Mountains and then flows north to DeWeese Reservoir. Deweese has been a fixture in the valley since 1896 when it was created by damming the creek to provide a steady source of water for fruit and shade trees over 20 miles downstream near Canon City where it flows into the Arkansas River. Bear Gulch, about seven miles downstream from the dam, and actually in Fremont County, is the only public access to just above Canon City and can be reached only by negotiating a rough 4wd road followed by a short but very steep hike down to the creek. Not for the timid!
I am on the road early, taking the Oak Creek Grade just east of Silver Cliff, a decent gravel road that takes about an hour to reach the turnoff to Bear Gulch. It’s a scenic drive often featuring deer and other wild critters, not to mention those of the bovine kind.
But things get a little baffling at the turnoff thanks to misdirection from Goggle Maps and some confusing signage. As illustrated in the photos below, the correct route is to turn north/left off Oak Creek Grade at the sign for Grape Creek Access then bear left (not right as directed by Google Maps) at the somewhat obscured “BLM Access” sign behind a big green electrical box, and finally to the right at the blue “To Public Lands” sign.
Then buckle up and get ready for some thrills and chills on the several miles of rough road that follow. I suggest using a 4wd vehicle, one with good all-terrain tires, especially if the road is wet.
Cars like a Subaru with all-wheel drive and good clearance can navigate it ok if the road is dry.
In about 15 minutes and 4 miles later, I come to the parking area on a bench above the creek with some descriptive signage providing information about the Grape Creek Wilderness Study Area.
I am the first one here today. I suit up in my chest high waders and head down the steep trail to the creek, using my trusting wading staff to prevent me from slip sliding away in the loose gravel. I am carrying two rods, an 8.5 footer-rigged with a #16 Chubby Chernobyl, a good hopper imitation, and #16 Dirk’s Delight green caddis larva, a proven favorite on Grape Creek. The second is a heavier 8.5’ nymph rod with a #14 conehead stonefly and #16 Psycho Prince nymph to probe some of the deeper holes in the creek.
When I get down the slippery slope to the water, I have a choice to either go downstream where the fishing pressure is lighter but with fewer big fish or upstream into a canyon stretch that has some deep pools and stout brown trout. Today I opt for going upstream since I got here early and will be the first one on the water in the canyon. I walk about a mile, hoppers whirring about me in the deep grass, and then come to the first deep pool at the foot of a sheer cliff that also features a big back eddy where I have fooled some good fish in the past. But not today. After a dozen casts with both rods, I come up empty handed. The same story repeats itself in several more good-looking pools for the next twenty minutes. Puzzling. The water is cool and appears to be in good shape.
By 10 a.m., the sun has started to warm things up under a beautiful Colorado bluebird sky, and finally the fish get hungry. I fool a scrappy 11-inch brownie on the caddis larva dropper, but things then go quiet again.
I manage a long-distance release and a few more strikes, but nothing to the net. Puzzling. Soon though I come to a honey hole bend pool that has been a sure thing on earlier trips, and what to my wondering eyes does appear but a thick blue-wing olive mayfly hatch. What look to be big rainbow trout are cruising and dimpling the surface as they slurp down the mayflies. I try a few casts with the dry/dropper rig and manage a few half-hearted rises before the hatch subsides and things go dead. I was too slow in changing flies. Grrr. Okay, it’s noon and time for lunch and an attitude readjustment.
That seems to do the trick. On the first pool upstream, I trick another scrappy brownie in some fast water then a chunky 14-incher, both on the green hotwire caddis larva. Now it’s steady action the rest of the afternoon. In one pool a couple of feisty 12-inch rainbows gulp down the larva and a brownie falls for the Chubby.
The further upstream I go, the better the action gets along with bigger fish. I net two 14-inch browns where the creek splits around an island and 10 minutes later two more of the same measure in a beautiful pool upstream.
I am thinking that nice brownie is the last fish of the day, but see some good looking pools upstream. Who can resist?!? I work up another 20 minutes and get another half dozen browns in shallow stretches before heading back downstream towards my SUV. It’s after 3 p.m. and the hike back to the trailhead will take at least an hour even for this buff (creaky?) septuagenarian.
On the way back, I come to the big, deep mayfly hatch pool where I bungled things earlier. But now it’s calm and quiet. Worth a try after being skunked here earlier? Of course….and on my second cast my dry is yanked under as a big rainbow feasts on the Dirk’s Delight caddis larva. The battle is on. He has a lot of room to thrash back and forth. When he lunges and pulls to the right I apply pressure and turn him back to the left. Hither and yon we fight, and finally after a worthy bout a beautiful 15-inch rainbow slides into my net.
He soon is finning back to his hideout. I decide that would be a good way to end the day, but then see a rise on the far side of the main current and of course decide just one more cast. The Chubby floats jauntily down the riffle into the pool, and the trout smashes it, is on, then thrashes free! I have to smile and shake my head. A good reason to come back. It’s almost 4 p.m. now and a good 30 minutes back to the trailhead.
On the easy jaunt back I enjoy the fall landscape, the soaring cliffs, the imposing thick stands of bristly thistle plants—some 4-5 feet tall, cholla and prickly pear cactus, and even a big wolf spider that I first mistake for a frog as he surprises me rustling through the underbrush. Be sure to watch out for rattlesnakes during the summer!!
I arrive at the trailhead around 4:30, just in time to be greeted by six campers, two whom are fisherman. All are setting up their tents in the shady camping area along the creek for the weekend. A reminder of why I come here during the week. And one couple has even made it in driving a Subaru!
The hour’s drive home is relaxing, featuring a series of beautiful vistas. Then I stumble on what may be the new secret Tesla product being tested in the backcountry, a travel trailer that appears to be a match for the famous CyberTruck. And I catch a glimpse of someone skulking inside. Maybe Elon himself?? Who knows in these days and times?!?
As the sun begins to drop below the Wet Mountains, I pull into my spot in the RV campground, stow my gear, and relax, soaking in the view and enjoying a glass of Pinot Grigio. I’m contemplating Day 2 of the Grand Slam Challenge. Two different trout today–browns and rainbows–and two more to go–maybe a brookie and a cutthroat. But I am a tad tuckered out after a long day on lower Grape Creek and my right arm sore from catching so many fish, so I decide to take tomorrow morning off and do a little touring in Westcliffe and Silver Cliff. Then in the afternoon I will pursue some of the wily brook trout that inhabit upper Grape Creek that just happens to run right through the RV park. How convenient for an angler of senior vintage!
