Fishing at the exclusive Marabou Ranch development in Colorado

Published 11:22 am Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Here’s another fly fishing story, this one from Ray Sasser of The Dallas Morning News on the Elk River in Colorado. It includes some tips for beginners.

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — The imitation grasshopper drifted at a brisk pace in the Elk River current. As it came past the swee

t spot, a big silver snout breached, and the fly disappeared.

It wasn’t a dramatic slam dunk like a largemouth bass crashing a topwater plug, but there’s an undeniable thrill to standing thigh deep in a 60-degree mountain river and tricking a 20-inch rainbow. Particularly when the grasshopper was designed and tied by my fishing guide, Will Morgan.

Morgan is a tall, rangy outdoorsman who grew up fishing and hunting in Wisconsin and headed west from there. Like many of Steamboat Springs’ residents, he came for the snow skiing and discovered that he liked everything about the Rocky Mountains.

Largemouth bass put up a totally different fight than a swift river rainbow. A bass comes at you with fury and power, but he can’t sustain the pace. He’s like a 300-pound lineman coming off the snap. If you can hang on for a few seconds, you’ve got him whipped.

A rainbow, on the other hand, is a solid slab of muscle and sinew that trains in nature’s own aerobics gym, forever fighting a relentless current.

A rainbow is the long distance runner of the freshwater fishing world. It never stops fighting. On a 4-weight fly rod, it took about 10 minutes to land the fish and rescue Will’s Hopper, which caught another trout just casts later.

“It took me about two years to fine-tune the grasshopper fly,” said Morgan. “You have to repeatedly put floatant on most hoppers to keep them from sinking. Mine is made of nothing but foam, so it always floats.”

It also looks more like a grasshopper than the fly-shop imitation I used earlier in the day. Appearance proved important to the big, selective fish. In late August, my wife Emilie and I couldn’t take the heat any longer and took a week of vacation wandering the Rocky Mountains.

We wound up at Steamboat’s Marabou, an exclusive development just five miles from town.

To learn more about the Marabou development, Click here

It’s like Augusta National without all the stuffy rules. Instead of a golf course, there’s two private miles of the Elk River. Fishing is a big deal in the summer but so is mountain biking, horseback riding and hiking. Steamboat Springs is one of Colorado’s top skiing attractions.

In fact, the Marabou ski instructor is a former Olympic champion. The equestrian expert is a former championship rodeo cowboy. The master fishing guide is Pat Stefanek, originally from Michigan. He took one look at Steamboat Springs and vowed never to leave. Stefanek is an expert angler, but he’s also a biologist.

I don’t fish for trout often enough to get good at it. In fact, I went two years between rainbows. Stefanek often fishes with beginners, including youngsters. I asked him for advice for anyone lucky enough to sample Colorado’s cooler weather, stunning scenery and big trout.

Pat Stefanek’s tips for novice fly fishers

Practice casting 10 to 15 minutes a day before your fishing trip. The best place to practice is your backyard or a nearby park where you can concentrate on the mechanics of casting and not worry about catching fish. It’s very important to put the fly in front of the fish. There are great videos to help your casting.

Set your expectations at a reasonable level. Unless you’re very good at this, you won’t catch 20 fish a day. It’s like golf — the more you play, the better you get. Have a great time, catch a few fish and build on that experience.

Hire a local guide. A pro will know what flies have been working and how to rig them. Ask the guide to send you a gear list of what equipment you will need for that particular area and season.

Don’t fish angry. Fly fishing can be frustrating, and I’ve heard of guys getting so mad they break fly rods like golfers break clubs. Just take a deep breath and look around you. Trout don’t live in ugly places