Every summer we need to catch some big trout in Colorado. So, we head to Walden to fish the three Delaney Buttes lakes. It’s great fun to sight fish big rainbow and brown trout from shore in clear water with dry flies. Over the years, we have found grasshopper patterns will draw strikes all day long. Our favorite flying ant pattern also works and on this trip was the winner. These big fish are locally measured in pounds rather than inches. In any case, they can be a net full! We usually start with our 5-wt. rods and 3X tippet but bring along the 8-wt. rods just in case. No matter which way the wind blew we could find a lee shore to cast from. Unfortunately, the lee shore was occupied by clouds of hungry mosquitoes so we spent a lot of time casting into the wind.

This summer we scouted Cowdrey Reservoir, North Michigan Creek Reservoir and Big Creek Lake since we were in the area. North Michigan Creek Reservoir produced a few fish. Cowdrey Reservoir was very shallow and yielded no strikes on this bright sunny day. As we moved on to Big Creek Lake, the wind came up and we decided to head back to Delaney Buttes and those addictive big fish. Stopped at Willow Creek Reservoir on the way home where Kimball caught more large trout on grasshopper flies. More about this grasshopper event later.