August means hoppers in the Gunnison Valley. Hopper-dropper rigs are the ticket during late summer, and some of the nicer fish are looking for a big meal, like this nice brown from the East River recently.

We’ve had lots of family and friends in town this past week, and everyone is getting out and catching fish here at the house. Tami hooked and landed this chunky 21-inch rainbow yesterday all on her own!

I’ve been getting some very big rainbows to come up and gulp a size 8 adult stonefly on the surface. Big swirls and takes, and then the battle!

The big rivers are running clear but will be pretty high for a while. It’s a great time to get up in the mountains and fish smaller creeks. The wild flowers are popping and the fish are looking up.

Had some really nice rainbows looking up at size 8 adult stoneflies today. Nothing like a big gulp on the surface! (Click on the image to enlarge.)

I made this video with Todd Moen of Catch Magazine a few years ago while working for Eleven Angling. I figured it was a good time to post this again. It’s going to be a very good season for fishing our small streams. (YouTube video may take a while to load.)

Midges and small BWOs were hatching up at the C&R today, and some nice fish like this pretty rainbow here were taking small dry flies.

The rivers in the Gunnison Valley are in full runoff now and it will last a while. It’s a good time to find some smaller water that’s really starting to fish well. These fish were all caught on small streamers on a fork of the Arkansas River last week. Beautiful place and a really fun small stream to fish, full of pretty wild trout.

Finally got out to fish and work more on Euro Nymphing yesterday. It was a beautiful day and the fish are getting on big stonefly nymphs in the deeper and slower water. I caught a lot of pretty wild rainbows and a nice 20-inch brown. (Click on images to enlarge.)

Had a great trip to New Zealand, traveling around the South Island for nearly a month. We fished for a week out of Eleven Experience’s Cedar Lodge and caught some nice fish, including this 6-pound brown trout here. Can’t wait to get back there!