You know, some friends last a lifetime; some friends come into your lives fast and furious, leave an impression and don’t remain, and others you meet late in life and just want to squeeze every moment you can out of your time with them. Yes, that’s what I want with Marshall.
]]>I had the good fortune of meeting Becki and Marshall Pendergrass at the annual Colorado Trout Unlimited event in Redstone, CO earlier in the year. Becki had arranged a most extraordinary event for women at this event and I knew that I had made a new friend with this charming and giving woman.
Fast forward six months. I had a scheduled book signing in Telluride and Becky and her husband were going to the local TU fundraiser in town. Becki kindly arranged for us to stay at some friends of hers – Richard and Marshall Whiting. For the TU fundraiser Marshall and Richard offered to take a couple fishing high up in the mountains near the West Fork of the Dolores, just south of Dunton – the high-end hot springs resort.
Not only did we get to fish and chat and breathe in mountain air, we hired a mushroom guide and spent the better part of a day tracking down chanterelles. My husband and I remarked on how long it took for us to get in tune with the environment to spot these delicious edibles. But in tune we became and that evening we had a meal of fresh trout and chanterelles.
We also fished at supposedly the highest gated community in the country at Hidden Lake – several miles above Trout Lake. This pristine wilderness preserve is surrounded by national forest and the lake houses some really nice rainbows. After hearing from our hosts for the weekend, my husband immediately went home and bought a smoker so we could cook the trout properly. It was the best trout we’ve ever tasted.
So, I’ve broken the spell of catch and release. Although it’s still my preference to release, I now salivate at the opportunity to eat one of these treasures.
November, 2015. Durango, CO During my year on rivers, I had been told both that Whitefish were an insignificant catch and that they were a sign of a healthy river.
This month’s Hatch magazine has a great article on Whitefish and their importance. As they say in the article, ““If you don’t have a healthy population of whitefish, you don’t have a healthy population of trout.” They really are a rather “cute” fish with their puckered mouths. You can’t help but want to kiss them… kind of.
The one thing I really don’t like about catching Whitefish is how difficult it is to take the hook out of their very soft mouths. I’m not skilled enough or quick enough to avoid causing the fish to have a very bad day.
In the end, I’m just happy to catch a fish, and to be honest – I can’t really control what goes on under the surface of the water at this point in my fishing career.
September 2016. Telluride, CO. When fishing with our friends Marshall and Richard up in Telluride, we decided that the perfect match for some freshly caught trout would be some chanterelle mushrooms. So, with local guide John we hunted down mushrooms and learned about all kinds of food to eat and not to eat in the woods.
As everyone knows, some of the most beautiful mushrooms are the most toxic.
We were fortunate to find some chanterelles and catch some trout in the West Fork of the Dolores and had a wonderful evening with these wonderful Telluride folks.
+ A nice hike on the Yellowstone
Δ Some don’t make it
]]>To reach the trailhead, we drove a couple hours in the park starting out in West Yellowstone and heading east past Towers Junction so we could approach the river from the east side instead of the easily accessible west side. It was on the east side that we would be in one of the wildest sections of the park and where we would find the most hungry and undisturbed fish. The hike to the river took about 90 minutes – not bad time wise – and although our guide seemed to bounce down the trail like a white-tailed deer, we edged our way down on loose gravel. Riverside, we scrambled over large boulders until we approached the northernmost point of the river before the Tower Falls.
My husband fished some dries by the edge of some granite cliffs coming up with a beautiful 20 inch Yellowstone cutthroat. I fished to a riffle in the middle of the river and came up with some 12-inchers. This fishing spot was so beautiful with water the color of that in the Caribbean, that we stayed for a long time joined by beautiful Harlequin ducks. After several hours, we made our way back until we found a large pool behind a huge boulder and the fun began. There must have been dozens of fish held up in this hole because one after another succumbed to the delicious allure of my foam pattern that resembled a Chernobyl ant. (Clear for all your non-fly-fishers??) The fishing was fantastic, the sky a royal blue and being in the back country was a thrill.
In the middle of this fishing frenzy, a couple on the other side of the river started waving at us. We thought they were cheering us on because of fishing success but we later heard that they had spotted a badger up on the cliff behind us! We missed seeing it, and I’m sure he was plenty scared of his encounter with us.
But, the charge for the day was an encounter with a Buffalo that caused quite the episode with Connie, who had been peacefully casting her fly in the middle of the river and didn’t notice this monstrous creature approaching her. With a frantic warning from the guide, Connie turned too quickly, fell and injured herself creating a hematoma the size of a baseball on her leg ending the day for her and making her climb out to the car extremely arduous. We didn’t hear about her mishap until we met up with the other folks on the hike out, but we did watch the buffalo cross the river like it was a small brook in the mountains.
It was a day to remember and I hope to continue my yearly trek up to this amazing national park. Summers bring a mass of people, but the park is well-managed although you need to be patient with traffic that oftentimes occurs when someone spots an elk or bear or wolf. That’s actually what people come to Yellowstone to see. Personally, I like the fish.
]]>