Deerfly Diaries

Glenn Melus Lands Whopper Rainbow Trout on Frying Pan River, Colorado

It's true that every picture tells a thousand words, but you need a few details to fully appreciate this one.

Glenn caught this fish yesterday on an 8Ft 4Wt fly rod with 6x floro on the Frying Pan River. That's a light set-up for a fish estimated at 26 inches and at least 8 pounds.  OK, there's more.  Glenn was alone when he caught it, so he landed the fish, pulled out his camera and set it up in a snowbank with the auto-timer function. Catch and release, of course.

The fishing is good right now on all of our rivers.  Contact Glenn Melus at Alpine Angling in Carbondale.

Snow Geese Move Through Colorado

Last week my friend Gary, a long time local of Carbondale, Colorado, spotted a snow goose flying through the area.  The geese are moving through the state right now as part of the Western Central Flyway population, but it is uncommon to see the birds in Carbondale.

Snow geese are considered the most abundant goose in the world, according to the Colorado Division of Wildlife.  Hundreds of thousands of the large, white birds move through eastern Colorado during their spring migration from their winter range in southeastern Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, the Texas panhandle and northern Mexico.  The geese are heading back to their summer nesting grounds in the northern Canadian Arctic. 

Lamar, Colorado celebrates the migration of the Lesser snow goose February 19-22 with the High Plains Snow Goose Festival.
 
In recent years, hunting regulations have been relaxed in an effort to thin the flocks because the large population of snow geese has negatively effected the fragile arctic tundra where the flocks summer.