Greetings to all my friends and readers. I hope your holidays have been peaceful, and here’s wishing you the best for a great 2020. It’s been a very interesting and rewarding year writing my blog. In addition to providing an admitted excuse to go fishing and explore remote places and share them with my friends, my main goal continues to be helping reinforce and building the constituency to preserve and protect these wild and wonderful places fish inhabit. Given the current state of politics in the country and multiple threats to our environment and natural resources, it’s more important than ever to take a stand and do whatever we can to protect Mother Nature and her finny denizens.
I was especially gratified to have some of my piscatorial peregrinations published by Florida Sportsman magazine in an article about kayak fishing in the Everglades. You can find a link to it in my October post.
It was also great to see that by late December, the Hooknfly blog has had over 53,000 views and over 23,000 visitors, a 40%+ increase over 2018An added and very satisfying benefit has been connecting with people and making new friends around the USA and the world.
Among them are readers from over 60 nations. Now it’s easy to figure out why people who follow my blog are mainly from English-speaking countries, but who am I to ask why anyone from Belarus, Ukraine, or Russia would read my articles. Hmmm, but on second thought perhaps there is indeed a common thread here—could it be I’m on Putin’s watch list after posting a not-so-flattering wise crack and photo of him in a 2018 article on upper Saguache Creek:
“By now it’s nearly 2 p.m., and the sun is beating down and things are heating up. I decide to shed some clothing and strip off my long-sleeve fishing shirt and polypro T under it, reveling in my bare-chestedness in the mountain air with no prying eyes. Visions of Vladimir Putin, similarly bare-chested and buff, riding over the ridge float through my mind. No wonder Agent Orange couldn’t resist him at Helsinki! What a hunk!!”
Agent Orange’s Dreamboat
But seriously, as the year comes to a close it gives me great pleasure to look back on the best, the bummers, and the blood-curdling moments of 2019 from an angling perspective. It’s been a treat to have you with me! Here we go…
I am always on the lookout for a new, scenic, out-of-the-way creek overlooked and rarely visited by other anglers, where there is solitude and hungry fish. But sometimes the little gems are hiding in plain sight. That’s the case with the upper reaches of Tomichi Creek, just over Monarch Pass from my cabin near Salida, Colorado. I have hustled by the creek many times on the way to fish fabled waters like the Gunnison River or my favorite backcountry streams like Cochetopa Creek. As you come bombing down the twisty, turny U.S. 50 from one of the highest paved vehicle passes in the USA, you descend into a lovely valley where gorgeous little Tomichi Creek flows through private ranchland–visible and within a stone’s throw of this major highway. But awhile back on my way to Cochetopa Creek, I noticed a sign on a fence along the highway declaring special access, so I turned around and took a look. I was surprised to find that the Colorado State Land Board owns a full section along the road called Daley Gulch near the hamlet of Sargents, and it was open to fishing. I tucked away that information till a year later when I was hankering for a mid-week trout fix but had to be back home for a conference call by 4 p.m. Oh those pesky clients! I figured if I left early and was on the water by 8:30 a.m. I could fish till 1 or 2 p.m. and make it back to the office with ease. Now this was admittedly a long shot–a little like the Trifectas and Daily Doubles I used to bet on at Arlington Park in Chicago. The creek is very small as it flows through Daley Gulch, and with public access so close to a major highway I expected it probably got plenty of pressure. But with high hopes, that evening I rigged two rods, got the waders and boots out, set the alarm, and hit the rack with chubby trout dancing in my head.
Day 1: Daley Double On Tomichi Creek–See my July 2016 article on fishing Tomichi Creek at Daley Gulch
Day 2: Tomichi Creek: Hidden In Plain Sight—The Lower Canyon Section—See my June 2018 article on fishing Tomichi Creek below Sargents, Colorado.
Day 2.5: Exploring The Tomichi Creek Headwaters
After a good half-day of angling for scrappy brown trout in the canyon stretch of Tomichi Creek below Sargents, Colorado, I decide to drive up to the headwards—about 9 miles north of the town. The colorfully named U.S. Forest Service Snowblind Campground is my destination for a late lunch before I explore the upper reaches of the creek.
The turnoff for County Road 888 is just over a mile north of Sargents off of U.S. 50. Then it’s a scenic drive through the Cross Bar Ranch, a well-tended working spread. I nearly bump into a momma cow and her calf as I salivate over the picturesque creek wending its way through the valley.
How Now Black Cow?!
The ranch is reportedly owned by a millionaire businessman out of Miami, and there is no fishing access for the public until you reach the campground, about nine miles from the U.S. 50 turnoff.
The pavement ends about three miles up followed by six miles of a decent gravel road. The county road crosses Tomichi Creek just before it reaches the campground. Up here at about 9,000 feet elevation, it is rollicking little mountain freestone water, with canyon walls starting to pinch in and spruce and pines covering the slopes.
Tomichi Creek Headwaters Fishing Starts At Snowblind Campground
The campground is a so-called “primitive” one because it has only vault toilets and water. No 50 amp hookups for those roughing it in 40-foot RVs! But a nice little travel trailer or tent would be just perfect in this well-laid out facility. The bonus is that Tomichi Creek runs right through the middle. There were plenty of open sites this day, so I got get one right next to the creek for my lunch break.
Attractive Snowblind Campground Is A Good Base To Explore The Tomichi Creek Headwaters
Very relaxing and just what I needed after the ordeal of having to land all those fish earlier in the day.
After lunch I reconnoiter upstream. A mile or so up the road I pass the well-tended White Pine cemetery then in another mile the former ghost town of White Pine, now a little village of summer homes.
There is a lot of history up here, mostly related to mining. Silver was discovered in 1878, and a boom let to the creation of White Pine, named for the dense stands of pine on the surrounding slopes. The boom peaked in 1884 when the town had almost 1,000 people, a newspaper, three saloons and several hotels.
Hearty Miners Of White Pine
It’s hard to imagine all that development shoehorned into this cramped valley. Indeed the tough topography made building a challenge and transportation in and out a travail , not to mention deadly avalanches. When the Silver Panic hit in 1893, White Pine soon became a ghost down. There was a revival in the early 1900s when the Akron Mining Company drove an almost mile-long tunnel into nearby Lake Hill and pulled out coal and zinc. The mine continued in operation until the 1950s, supplying critical metals like zinc, lead, and copper in two World Wars. When the mine closed, White Pine again faded.
Of course what got left behind was a legacy of pollution and scars upon the land, a story repeated throughout Colorado and the West. Toxic sediment from a huge pile of waste rock and mine tailings that abutted the creek near White Pine for years damaged the trout population in the Tomichi. Downstream the Tomichi Mill site on the stream was also heavily polluted.
Mine Tailings Along Creek
The fish—browns and brookies—were still there, somehow managing to survive, but the long-term future of any aquatic life in the upper Tomichi was dim. That is until the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. EPA teamed with other agencies and Colorado Trout Unlimited in 2015 to clean things up. This award-winning $1.5 million major earth-moving and remediation project, has recently been successfully completed and things are looking up and the results are promising. The photos below depict the heavy earth moving required and before and after conditions. (These project photos are from an excellent 2017 article on the remediation efforts by Jason Willis, the Trout Unlimited project manager, available on-line.).
Not that things are completely hunky dory. When I start to explore a promising stretch of the creek below White Pine, I find very few bugs in the water—almost no mayfly nymphs and a few caddis nymphs here and there. Further downstream around Sargents the predominant bug is still the caddis which can withstand pollution better than mayflies, indicating that heavy metal pollutants are likely still present courtesy of the upstream mines. But the fish are there in the headwaters, as witnessed by electroshocking done prior to the remediation project.
Pre-project Electroshocking Results Shocked The Shockers: Big Brownie
This is no stream for beginners, especially between the campground and White Pine. Rarely will you flip a cast longer than the length of your leader. The creek is mostly fast-moving water with tiny pockets where the fish hide.
My first little brownie flashed out lickety-split to nail my #16 Royal Coachman Trude, but any bushy high-floater will do. I also get one on a small #18 green hotwire caddis nymph trailing a foot under the dry—any longer dropper will just result in more snags in the willows and assorted trees and brush crowding the creek.
Patience And Persistence Will Be Rewarded
You will get snagged and probably break off a fly or two, and you will be tempted to scream epithets, but it is still fun. And just remember there are some sizable brownies that rarely see a fly hiding underneath the thicket. Did I mention there are also several miles of beaver ponds on Tomichi Creek above White Pine that I have yet to explore….let me know how you do!
Big Beaver Ponds Upstream From White Pine: Big Trout Hangouts??
I am always on the lookout for a new, scenic, out-of-the-way creek overlooked and rarely visited by other anglers, where there is solitude and hungry fish. But sometimes the little gems are hiding in plain sight. That’s the case with the upper reaches of Tomichi Creek, just over Monarch Pass from my cabin near Salida, Colorado. I have hustled by the creek many times on the way to fish fabled waters like the Gunnison River or my favorite backcountry streams like Cochetopa Creek. As you come bombing down the twisty, turny U.S. 50 from one of the highest paved vehicle passes in the USA, you descend into a lovely valley where gorgeous little Tomichi Creek flows through private ranch land–visible and within a stone’s throw of this major highway. But awhile back on my way to Cochetopa Creek, I noticed a sign on a fence along the highway declaring special access, so I turned around and took a look. I was surprised to find that the Colorado State Land Board owns a full section along the road called Daley Gulch near the hamlet of Sargents, and it was open to fishing. I tucked away that information till a year later when I was hankering for a mid-week trout fix but had to be back home for a conference call by 4 p.m. Oh those pesky clients! I figured if I left early and was on the water by 8:30 a.m. I could fish till 1 or 2 p.m. and make it back to the office with ease. Now this was admittedly a long shot–a little like the Trifectas and Daily Doubles I used to bet on at Arlington Park in Chicago. The creek is very small as it flows through Daley Gulch, and with public access so close to a major highway I expected it probably got plenty of pressure. But with high hopes, that evening I rigged two rods, got the waders and boots out, set the alarm, and hit the rack with chubby trout dancing in my head.
Day 1: Daley Double On Tomichi Creek–See my July 2016 article on fishing Tomichi Creek at Daley Gulch
Day 2.5: Tomichi Creek: Exploring The Headwaters–See my June 2018 article on fishing the Tomichi Creek headwaters
Day 2: Tomichi Creek: Hidden In Plain Sight—The Lower Canyon Stretch
I was bragging to a friend and fellow trout angler about my good day on Tomichi Creek at Daley Gulch, he asked if I had ever fished the mile or so of public water on Tomichi along U.S. 50, just below Sargents. I hadn’t—just assumed it was private property. But a little research revealed that indeed there was an attractive stretch of water sandwiched in between a couple of private tracts that was open to the public….it looked good on the Google Earth map satellite view sporting some nice twisty bends and deep-looking pools.
Bird’s-Eye View Of The Lower Canyon Stretch
My fishing fever was stoked, but before I got too excited I figured with the low snow pack and drought conditions plaguing southern Colorado this year, I’d better check the creek’s water level on the Division of Water Resources surface water flow web site. I was bummed out to find that Tomichi was already extremely low, running about 30 cfs at Sargents which is late summer level. 100 cfs is normal in early June. Still 30 cfs is plenty to float a fish so off I go.
I’m on the road at 8 a.m., heading over Monarch Pass on U.S. 50, a scenic paved highway that skirts the sky. I slow as I pass the State Land Board stretch of Tomichi Creek at Daley Gulch and breathe a sigh of relief—while low, the stream has a decent flow. Things look even a bit better below Sargents with a couple of rivulets adding their waters. I drive past the ranch above the canyon stretch, a barbed wire fence clearly marking where the private property ends and the public section begins. I decide to scout a bit and drive to the west end of the public water, where again fences and a smattering of cabins mark the lower boundary. I whip a U-turn and drive back east to the main turnoff on the south side of U.S. 50, about in the middle of the public water. By 9:15 a.m. I have donned my waders and am walking back downstream past the turnout on the north side of the highway, keeping a cautious eye on the traffic that is speeding through the canyon on the highway.
As I start to bushwhack down to the creek, I stir up a bunch of hoppers, a good sign. My Royal Coachman Trude #16 will be a passable imitation for them, and a #18 green hotwire beadhead dropper is a reasonable facsimile for the scads of caddis I find under the rocks below the first pool. On my double-nymph rig I have a #16 Tung Teaser and a #18 lime caddis nymph. I end up not using the nymph rig much today, having plenty of action on the dry/dropper.
This canyon section of Tomichi Creek is an interesting one topographically. It has, as expected, some narrow, fast runs flanked by big boulders with deep plunge pools. But it also has lengthy sandy/gravel runs that require long, accurate casts; these are interspersed with deep “S” bends that remind me of a meadow stream. This variety of water and secluded nature of the creek, thanks to willows and assorted brush lining the bank and blocking views of the highway, makes this stretch a delight to fish.
In the very first pool I pull out three frisky brownies, ranging from 6-11 inches. From there it’s steady action till I make it back to my SUV by 12:30 p.m. The water is low but for now in beautiful condition, clear and cool. Both the Trude and the caddis nymph produce, as well as a #16 lime caddis nymph.
Oddly, the weighted nymph rig results in only a couple of fish, even in the deeper holes. That’s not to say the fishing is easy, especially in the flatter stretches where long pin-point casts are required over the shallow water into the small pockets just below riffles where the trout are holding. Similarly, I find some good brownies up tight against the banks (and under them) along swifter glides in a few feet of water. If the fly drifts down more than a foot away from the bank, it draws a goose egg. Within six inches, a fish is almost sure to jet out and nail it. In this faster water it can be a challenge to get a drag-free float or avoid getting the line snagged in overhanging branches. But all that adds to the satisfaction of luring a trout from its lair.
I end up catching and releasing over 40, all brownies, mostly 6-12 inches, but a couple over 13-inches. And I am sure I hooked and lost one a couple of inches bigger than that in a pool just below the SUV in full view of traffic whizzing by on U.S. 50. Even though I didn’t get a good look at the leviathan, that’s my story and I am sticking to it.
Trophy Of The Day–A Chunky 13-Inch Plus Brownie
The verdict? A great stretch of water, easy to wade, loaded with spunky brownies–the only drawback being the vehicle noise from the highway.
But when the fish are biting it’s easy to tune that out. And of course there’s another almost one-half mile of water I haven’t explored yet!! Just remember to treat this short stretch of public water with respect, pick up your trash and that which others left behind. Enjoy the beautiful wildflowers that line the creek. And release those brownies carefully so others can enjoy!
Daily Double–A long shot bet won by choosing winners in two consecutive races.
I am always on the lookout for a new, scenic, out-of-the-way creek overlooked and rarely visited by other anglers, where there is solitude and hungry fish. But sometimes the little gems are hiding in plain sight. That’s the case with the upper reaches of Tomichi Creek, just over Monarch Pass from my cabin near Salida, Colorado. I have hustled by the creek many times on the way to fish fabled waters like the Gunnison River or my favorite backcountry streams like Cochetopa Creek. As you come bombing down the twisty, turny U.S. 50 from one of the highest paved vehicle passes in the USA, you descend into a lovely valley where gorgeous little Tomichi Creek flows through private ranchland–visible and within a stone’s throw of this major highway. But last fall on my way to Cochetopa Creek, I noticed a sign on a fence along the highway declaring special access, so I turned around and took a look. I was surprised to find that the Colorado State Land Board owns a full section along the road called Daley Gulch, and it was open to fishing. I tucked away that information till early July this year when I was hankering for a mid-week trout fix but had to be back home for a conference call by 4 p.m. Oh those pesky clients! I figured if I left early and was on the water by 8:30 a.m. I could fish till 1 or 2 p.m. and make it back to the office with ease. Now this was admittedly a long shot–a little like the Daily Doubles I used to bet on at Arlington Park in Chicago. The creek is very small as it flows through Daley Gulch, and with public access so close to a major highway I expected it probably got plenty of pressure. But with high hopes, that evening I rigged two rods, got the waders and boots out, set the alarm, and hit the rack with chubby trout dancing in my head.
Off-The-Beaten Path Adventures and Eclectic Musings Of An Itinerant Angler 