How do I go back to trout?

[pogiepika]

Just got back from a week on Abaco Island where my son and I had a great trip landing bonefish, barracuda and even a lemon shark. Pulling away from the dock the first day, our guide prophetically told us “trout fishing will never be the same”.

Well, he was right. Spending the day on the Marls in the sun without seeing another boat, sight casting to fish that will rip off more line in one run than I’ll lose to a seasons worth of high country trout wasjust amazing. Now I’m back home and I get to choose between combat fishing on the CO tail waters with size 24 flies or hitting the small creeks for some solitude and 6” fish. My fishing has become uninspired. All I can think about is getting back to the flats.

 

[el jefe]

Try a high mountain creek and a short glass rod...you'll get your trout mojo back.

 

[flafly14]

I used to fish for trout all the time. Now I'm in Florida and most of my fishing is in saltwater. Both are good. I'd love to get out west for some trout fishing for 6" fish!

 

[plecain]

I've been fishing saltwater for stripers for five weeks. It's loads of fun.

Just before that I was fishing for landlocked salmon for a few weeks.

Still, I plan in the next few days to go to the mountains and fish for wild trout. As you observe, most will be 6-10" long. I'll get the same kick out of fishing for them as I have for salmon and stripers. It's different, for sure, but still good.

 

[runningfish]

Do you have Carp where you live? maybe sight fishing for them would be an alternative.

 

[denver1911]

Good luck. I took my first redfish charter in 2015. Have since fished for them in South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. I have fished for bonefish and permit in Biscayne Bay. Been to Belize five or six times and Christmas Island twice. I’ve been trout fishing a few times during that same ... it’s not the same.

 

[trout trekker]

My answer to day trip & weekend fishing or quality of life style that doesn't thrill me anymore, is to move. I've done it several times in my life and it beats long drives, crowded waters and dreaming of being somewhere else or doing something else. Life's to short to live it all in one place.

Dave

 

[karstopo]

For me, any place that I can fish that is not crowded will rate high, but I generally have a low tolerance for enjoying being in any crowded place so there's that. Casting to a sighted fish also gets bonus points on the fun meter. I've never fished for bonefish, but they seem from what I've read to be just the kind of fish I would like, not so big that the fight is more akin to hard labor, but with plenty of speedy runs and power to provide ample thrills. Fishing that is more like stalk and shoot hunting is my favorite and that is what most folks seem to do when they bonefish. Shallow water, sighted fish, floating line, tricky presentations, and spirited fish check my boxes for fun fly fishing, not that I always get to check all of the boxes at once. Those are the best days when I do.

 

[mtboiler]

I vote for small streams or high mountain lakes! I chuckle when someone says, hey lets head to the Missouri, it has huge fish and they put up a great fight!!! Uh, so do bones, tuna and sharks. Once you feel that power and have a 50 plus yard run across a flat, you are spoiled! But, I still love chasing tough to reach trout in small streams. But chasing big trout gets 'boring' when it only takes 5 minutes to land them. I could use ultra light tackle but I think that I am just killing fish for ego. So, I hike to small creeks and lakes for the adventure of it.

 

[dillon]

It's all good...

 

[sweetandsalt]

As one who equally loves sight fishing for flats species and sight fishing to rising trout my proposal is to not compare one fish to another. I fish for tuna forms, big ones occasionally and small ones every fall. They are far faster and more powerful than bonefish but I prefer bonefish...more my style of angling. Bonefish are a wonderful game fish and the Bahamas can spoil you but, at least for me, my pursuit of them in no way diminishes my zest for presenting a floating mayfly imitation to a sipping trout in a complex lie. My two favorite forms of angling occurring at differing times of the year.

 

[fq13]

Yeah, I love the salt and am addicted to snook. But I live on a golf ourse and 100 yards from my front door is a pond full of blue gill, Mayans and small bass and grass carp if I ever get motivated to chase the carp.. I don't I just bust out the three weight or one weight and let small fish show off on small poppers and little streamers. It's less hassle than a trip into the glades and pan fish are kind of Zen like with light gear.I


I recently resolved to become a born again bass fisherman after neglecting them for years. They aren't a snook or tarpon, but chasing big ones with a six weight of eight weight is its own science, and I expect it to be challenging and fun. I mean getting a two pounder is easy, an eight pounder is something else entirely when you are targeting them. Same with peacocks, I have ignored them too long chasing tarpon. So basically the moral is that big fish are fun, but so are small ones if you see them as the goal not the consolation prize.

 

[rangerrich99]

Just got back from a week on Abaco Island where my son and I had a great trip landing bonefish, barracuda and even a lemon shark. Pulling away from the dock the first day, our guide prophetically told us “trout fishing will never be the same”.

Well, he was right. Spending the day on the Marls in the sun without seeing another boat, sight casting to fish that will rip off more line in one run than I’ll lose to a seasons worth of high country trout wasjust amazing. Now I’m back home and I get to choose between combat fishing on the CO tail waters with size 24 flies or hitting the small creeks for some solitude and 6” fish. My fishing has become uninspired. All I can think about is getting back to the flats.

Well, you could stop fishing tailwaters that require you to fish sz 24 flies and/or just choose to fish terrestrials, and stop fishing water that only hold 6-inch fish.

Just ribbing you a bit, but that's pretty much what I did several years ago. Stopped fishing tiny flies almost entirely; smallest bugs I fish now are sz 18s. And my standard offerings are now sz 10 hoppers, sz 6/8 PMXs, sz 10 stims, Turk's tarantulas, etc. Don't really fish nymph rigs at all anymore, just the occasional hopper/dropper rig. And my favorite dropper is a guide's choice sz 14 hare's ear.

I don't catch quite as many fish as I did before, but I still catch plenty, and rarely do I catch fish under 15 inches. And sticking 18+ inch 'bows in a good current like the Gunn (just mentioning the Gunn as I see you're in CO, and probably fished it), well it's still not bonefishing, but it can get exciting.

Btw, congrats on the successful fishing trip, sounds like you had a great time.

 

[acorad]

Living in CO you must be burned out with smelling pine trees and looking at blue skies and pristine water.

Me, not so much.

And that's why I still yearn to catch trout.

Andy

 

[del gue]

For me, it's not just the trout, but also the where of it. I'd rather be catching 6" trout in the grandeur of the West, in the mountains with cold streams, where the mule deer and elk roam, than be sweating my behind off in table-flat Florida, where every freshwater pond has at least one alligator in it, where the roads are clogged, you hear sirens all freakin day, the humidity hits you like a hot, wet blanket from before dawn until after the sun sets.

I'm movin' to Montana as soon as I can, and I'll have no regrets...at all...and will gladly catch 6" trout till the cows come home.

But, as they say, different strokes for different folks.

 

[cooutlaw]

If I fished only to capture fish, my fishing trips would have ended long ago- Zane Grey.

Big fish are thrilling....but they are not the real reason any of us fish, just as a big Bull Elk is a prize in hunting, but not the reason we hunt.

I once talked to a guy in Hawaii that really spelled it out...he said, people come here on vacation and fall in love with the islands, they have free time and can come and go as they please, they see and do things, relax, and enjoy their time, and are far away from their everyday world....they think how great it would be to live here all the time. Except, when one lives someplace, anyplace, they go to work, fight traffic, deal with daily problems and stress, home repairs, work issues, car issues, family issues, have limited free time off, they wake, work, eat, sleep, and work again, and cannot do the things one would do on vacation....no matter where you live, it's just like living anywhere else. I live in Hawaii, I rarely have time to go to the beach. He was pretty correct I think.

I think when any of us relax on vacation, enjoy our passions, escape reality for a bit....the "new" seems more appealing than the "old" as we have already spent more time with the "old"....we often spend our lives dreaming of "better" and never open our eyes to all of the wonderful in front of us everyday.

Personally I do not fish for trophy, or grand sport, or bragging rights, or some perceived conquest of species....I fish to become right with the world and to find my place within it....I fish for inner peace, clarity of spirit, cleansing of soul, and to enjoy simply what is...I fish to simply just be.....wonderfully encapsulated in that moment...to enjoy creation in it's most natural fashion and state, and to allow time to stand still if only for mere minutes and stamp that vision forever in my mind...I have no preference as to size, species, nor habitat, it is all more than grand enough for me....because whether 6"s or 60 lbs...it is, for me, amazing to....simply fish.

I'm very happy that you had a wonderful trip....and made some great memories with your son....but I'll offer the friendly reminder to not step over dollars looking for dimes.....and those dollars may be right in your own backyard. Sometimes we don't know what we have until it's gone. Crowded is ok...and 6" fish are just fine too....it's all in what one seeks.

 

[proheli]

I'm sure the guy that fishes for bone fish 100 days a year, says the same thing when he first gets to the mountains.

And the first time a a guy from canada, who skis and skates, tries surfing in LA and there are hot girls in bikinis says the same thing.

And vice versa, and so on.

I do love the caribeean though, you should just keep fishging there until you have had enough of it.

 

[pogiepika]

Thanks for the replies guys. A lot of it for me is the “grass is always greener”. I’m pretty luck with my job that I can break away almost every day and fish a small stream in the high mountains of Colorado for up to an hour. But man, those flats sure are a lot of fun. I like exploring to find small water with uneducated trout. There is still a lot of beauty to appreciate at 10,000 ft.

 

[Ard]

There's more to fishing than the fight. If I just wanted to have a good fight I'd go down to the Knik Bar and hurl a few insults and get all I can handle

All I want is to see if I can catch the fish whether it's a trout or a salmon, once it's hooked I know the answer to that one. I used to get upset when they came undone before I could touch them but I'm past that for quite a while now. Where I fish often there is always a good chance of getting involved with a really big rainbow or steelhead and that provides the suspense on every cast

Dave hit on something when he mentioned moving, I've done that several times and have no regrets. I still leave here occasionally to fish Oregon for steelhead but that's just me wanting a change of scenery.

You live in a great place for an outdoor lover with nearly boundless fishing venues and that's the good news. I lived there in Colorado and I miss it, I miss many places and assure you that you'll get over the flats.

 

[peterjay]

I moved to Boise, Idaho 30 years ago after living in RI for most of my life, and when the trout fishing turned out to be surprisingly mediocre, (without at least a 100-mile drive, anyway) I decided to specialize, and target big browns right in town, and to hell with the stockers. The result was an eight-pound wild brown on my wall. There were fishless days to be sure, but it was all about the challenge, and it was a lot of fun. Otherwise, I would have spent a couple of extremely dull years there. No matter where you live, there's something worth targeting, even if it's freshwater drum or big carp. Nothing in fresh water can match the power and speed of saltwater species, but that doesn't mean that the challenge isn't there. BTW: I realize it's not possible for everyone to do, but I'm also one of those guys who's willing to move to where the fish are. I'd rather be where I can get onto the water regularly and amass some local knowledge than have to depend on a few trips per year that can easily be ruined by local weather or water conditions. (I'm also one lucky SOB to have a wife who understands completely LOL)