June, 2025
6/5 - 6: Our first camping/fishing trip of the year since getting back to Colorado from our place in Green Valley, Arizona.
This weekend was the annual four day GoPro Mountain Games in town which draws enormous crowds up from the front range, so as usual we looked for a likely spot to escape to for a combination of camping for Sue and some fishing for me. Unfortunately the weather was unlikely to cooperate for either of us as rain was forecast tor the entire time period,
Nevertheless we headed out optimistically on Thursday morning heading Northwest where the clouds were supposed to be more broken during this period. As it turned out, that wasn't the case. We drove something of a back way towards Vernal and then up to Flaming Gorge dam and down one of the side roads to the reservoir where we found a decent camping spot for the night. Enjoyed a nice sushi supper, plenty of decent jug wine, and spent a quiet night in the camper van. After a good breakfast, we took a hike around the peninsula and stopped at a somewhat steeper shoreline where I was able to do some unproductive casting with a crayfish fly for a half hour before we departed the area.
With the wind starting to howl we opted out of trying some casting at Little Hole on the Green and instead drove down the back route to the lower "B" section where I finally got a chance to trout cast for a bit. Very difficult throwing a small fly into riffle water with a downstream 20 mile per hour wind. Eventually got one strike and hooked and landed a very nice 18" brown. That was it for the fishing - period.
We'd hoped to be able to camp later in the day on the White River at Avery Lake so did the long drive back thataway, stopping for lunch in Maybell before taking a look at Rio Blanco Lake near Meeker. It was useless to try to cast there too due to the relentless winds. Cloud cover was nasty as well and got worse the closer we got to Meeker. The rain started in earnest. We gave up the rest of the trip's plans and spent the next two hours slogging our way back to Vail through never ending storms. Ugly couple of days. Here's the very short video of what highlights there were about the expedition.
6/11-12: Hopes for some early season success on No Name Creek proved futile this June. While the releases from the far upstream dam seemed workable, the creek itself was running way too high and off color this week. I tried it in a number of places using a variety of stone and caddis nymphs along with some small rainbow or black streamers and had nothing doing anywhere.
Topping off the bad water conditions was the rotten weather which was also not forecasted. I never got my down jacket off all day, and the intermittent rain kept up with out relenting. As my campsite was tenuous due to the wet conditions, I exited the spot (after six tries) and drove to Slumgullian Pass where I slept the night. Next morning drove past Montrose and Delta to the south bank road of the Gunnison and made that nasty drive to the named river.
Here again bad conditions were still in effect with both the Black Canyon and main stem running dirty. Although I eventually did release a few browns it was not what we could call an even moderately successful trip. Mid July will be a different story - I hope. Here's a short vid clip of what I found on the outing.
6/16 - 18: The bites I picked up on my scalp from no-see-ums and skeeters at Rio Blanco Lake are still itching three days later.
We had mentally given up on trying to continue to struggle on the nearby streams we love to fish all summer as the snow melt runoff is continuing relentlessly. So this week we opted to try a couple of still-waters in Northwest Colorado where we previously have had somewhat decent success. So off to Meeker we drove, heading first up the White River to our old stomping ground of Avery Lake. Whoops. It was empty. Apparently a couple of weeks ago it had been drained for maintenance work on the dam itself. Ugh. What now? A hiking shortly substituted at the Sleepy Cat SWA - not great fun, but a time killer (and good for the dogs).
The next choice was Rio Blanco Lake about 50 miles west. As the mammatus ridden clouds crossed over us, it was apparent that wasn't going to play well either. (Another day later we tried the lake again and were devoured by no-see-ums and mosquitoes ( so nothing doing here either ).
Needed to camp for the night so turned upstream and drove another 50 miles up the White to another favorite camp spot on the South Fork of that river Stream was running way too high for easy accessibility but tried anyway. See the video for the partial bit of success we had. Next day a bit of fun on the main stem and then further up river to the outlet of Trapper's Lake. Best hour or so of the trip was there.
Afternoon it was a turn to the right up and over Ripple Creek Pass and down to Vaughan Lake. Nothing but a raging wind as we walked on the edge of the dam to try to fish the lake's edge and tail-water. More ughs.
Camping was fine up above the lake with a nice smoked salmon app by Sue and some decent jug wine to accompany. Pretty good night's sleep in chilly conditions; a short walk around the lake early in the morning and then back home to Vail. Next week we won't be bothered by these same issues as we'll be on the Sea of Cortez chasing Pargo, Roosters, Hawkfish, and various Jacks. Stay tuned till then. Here's the down and dirty video:
Last Logbook Entry é for previous day
PUNTA PESCADERO MEXICO LATE JUNE 2025
This was not our first rodeo at Punta Pescadero. We initially visited there in the covid year of 2020 when that scourge shut down almost all international travel - with Mexico being the exception. We liked the resort and decided to try it again this June while our local Colorado streams are still running a bit too high from snow melt to be able to easily fish them.
We booked a reasonable priced UAL flight and got to the Los Cabo airport shortly after noon, hooked up with our driver and headed North along Highway 1. Stopped at Los Barilles for some groceries and the much less expensive wine for our evening happy hours than what we thought we might have to buy at the resort's bar. As it turned out, their bar has almost zero wine to offer as their clientele prefer beer or the hard stuff. This resort is not all inclusive so meals were extra, and a bit expensive they were. But the food was pretty outstanding - especially the breakfast offerings. (See the video for pics.)
Rooms are pleasant and somewhat Spartan but with decent bathrooms and even a good satellite TV setup. The weather was fine all week though the ocean's whims were up and down each day which made casting and throwing flies in the surf a bit of a crap shoot.
The fishing itself was a bit iffy too. While I'm used to blind casting for hours each day, I ran into too many toothy critters that chewed off way too many of my personally tied flies - probably a good 40 to 50 of them which is way over what we're used to having happen. Shitting to a wire setup didn't help either as all the fish seemed to have an aversion to the color of the wire.
OK. Enough complaining. We did catch some interesting fish, and a couple that we'd prefer never to see again. And I did hook a couple of monsters of whatever type I never found out, but they were massive and fast enough to put a Seychelles giant trevally to shame. So what did we like to release and what did we prefer not to have to touch. On the good side were fair numbers of a local jack. Very strong and fun to fight. A lone bluefin trevally came to hand, along with several nice goliath groupers, hawkfish, a decent little triggerfish, and a few tough giant needlefish (that didn't slice the leader). What we wish we could have avoided with the hordes of trumpet fish that were the bulk of what we released (even at four feet in length they're not much fun).
About the only negative to this resort is the road access. While the drive up Highway One is not too bad, the last few kilometers on the semi jeep type road is borderline dangerous and very unpleasant. So here's the video of the trip:
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