It wasn’t five minutes after boarding our guide’s skiff when a fat brownie sucked in my fly as it swept along an eddy edge. A battle ensued as the fish moved away downstream into the swift run. The stubborn trout jumped a couple of times while running in and out of the current as I hung on. A couple of whitewater rafts with jovial paddlers whooping it up quickly moved by on the opposite side of the river.
The fish surfaced again in the shallow riffles, and I pressured it toward the boat. Guide Jeff Ehlert oared us toward the edge of the slower-moving flats as the brownie tired. The 17-inch trout made one last turn at the surface before I pulled it into Jeff’s waiting net. We took a few quick photos before carefully releasing the fish. Then we paused to take in the scenic peaks on each side of the pine forest valley.
The mighty Colorado River has shaped the landscape of the Rocky Mountains and the American Southwest for millions of years. Its headwaters lie just below La
