The World and It’s Fish

As I sit here, late to the party, the world seems to be a little bit more back on track. I was going to write this blog post in the spring, back when coronavirus existed. But here I am, late September, wondering where the hell my Colorado Guide season went.

First of all, I want to thank everyone that came out to Colorado to fish with me and everybody that came to visit Minturn anglers even if we didn’t get on the boat together.

The biggest question I’ve been getting all summer long is how business has been- relating to the virus. I’ll start off by saying I am f’n tired! This is a very good thing in the seasonal guide world! So thank you to all my return clients that made the season great, kept business pumping and kept funding my addiction to guiding. Honestly, this year was a crapshoot in the spring- Nobody knew what to expect; if we could travel, if we could guide, how guiding would be, And the ton of other questions running through everybody’s mind. So again, thank you everyone that made the summer successful, fun, and one of the best Colorado seasons I have ever had as a professional flyfishing guide.

This year’s Eagle floating season was relatively short-lived as the snow melted quickly and the obvious lack of rain- if you’ve been paying attention to any of the fires out here in the west. Most of your pretty aware that my bread-and-butter of the Eagle River on the raft fishing drys, streamers, and bobbers for as long as I can. When we were floating the eagle it was great, lots of fish were caught, and some large fish we landed. When the eagle was done sometime in July, my efforts were pushed towards the upper Colorado River. I did get over to the roaring Fork river near Aspen for a few trips which was a nice change of pace. The upper C Fished extremely well. In the first half of that season I focused on the pumphouse area and that turned out to be the best decision for that time. I had lots of beginners and lots of return clients but I rarely strayed from my typical program. While most trips can be memorable, obviously the biggest fish of the season stands out quite a bit. We have a group trip with some guys from all around the country here for a meeting or something. One of my guys was a beginner, and in the back was an old head who had fished before- Being from Idaho I’m surprised he wasn’t an expert but either way he did pretty damn good! We ended up landing the most fish out of a five boat float and that included a 26 inch bruiser of a cuttbow! I have had clients hook this phish two or three times in years past but this year we managed to get this once-in-a-lifetime Fish to the net for some photos! As we got later in the season I focused, predominantly, on our short Rancho to State Bridge section. This is typically a section I try to steer away from but the fishing got extremely good down there, so I stayed. It’s a pretty section, generally used for half days but we were able to punch out three-quarter and full days by getting out of the boat and wade fishing a little bit.

Fishing this year was incredible and I’m really excited I got to share it with everybody that was on the boat with me.

With all of this being said, the Colorado season is quickly coming to an end. As most of you know I split time between Colorado and Arkansas. The current game plan is to get to Arkansas sometime in October and start guiding around November 1. I am ready to start booking trips confidently starting on November 10 but if you plan or want to come earlier you know how to get a hold of me- 2147382035 , stephen@riffletripoutfitters.com , or click the link on this website to directly send an email.

You can go to my Arkansas trips page to get an idea of what we will be doing or feel free to ask me any questions via Instagram, phone, or email.

This was a quick write up just to thank everyone and let yall know that it’s time to book Arkansas trips. I will try to stay on my blogging-in-the-bathtub more regularly and will definitely let you guys know about my trips to Mexico to fish for permit and my amazing time down at a tournament in Port O’Connor Texas!

All the best and I can’t wait to hear from you guys!

Stephen