Beauty Bow…It’s not always about warmwater.

(Above: What an amazing fish this is. A bit more delicate than warm water species. No time to focus on “mean mugging”. Just get the shot and go!)

Ok, so the bass footage has been pretty decent so far in 2009. Not taking advantage of the prespawn as much as I should have was a huge setback. Being able to bounce back with a few decent outings recently has really helped fill the pages with great pictures. With so much footage of warm water fish I decided to try and get a taste of the cold-water side of things. Loaded up the gear and headed to a spot that I recently scouted about 45 minutes west of Colorado Springs.

I was throwing spinners and spoons for trout and not getting quality results. Two small stocker sized trout had volunteered a few hits on the spinner and that was it. This was completely frustrating as both times I started out thinking that there was a big trout on the end. There is good fish here…I just wasn’t finding the pattern.

But here’s the crazy part. Running out of options I reach for some bass plastics. No fooling, man. I have caught trout on this stuff before. The plastics were also large enough to ward off the smaller trout that were tormenting me. I throw on a senko and work in tandem with the other stuff. Just when I am about to give up, the senko rod thumps loudly and then doubles over.

“Don’t lose this fish.” A voice echoed in my head.

There is a fine line between playing a trout and exhausting them. I am sure that line is crossed a few times by me. For larger fish I have no other option but to work them a bit longer. If I don’t, the fish is just going to thrash and bash around when I try to remove the hook or even consider the photo op. But playing the fish weakens the fish and a good number of trout die every year from overplaying and poor handling. This is a reality that a lot of anglers don’t even consider.

This trout was so fantastic that I took one shot and released. No second or third shot, no video. Heck I felt bad even touching the fish. Trout purists would also scoff at the vertical hold and for this I apologize. The fish is still swimming today unless some goober caught him later and took it home in a cooler.

The reason you see less trout photos and videos from me is the fact that trout just can’t handle my shameless photo ops like bass do. I still fish for trout and hold my own but admit there is a lot for me to learn here. The high mountain experience is so breathtaking to the senses that you might see me actually stop fishing for a moment just to soak in the beauty. Yes…it’s that awesome!

I will try to get more of this type of material in the future. Good luck and good fishing.