Trout Fishing the West-- an alternative?

[SAUERKRAUT]

I have poured energy, money, and driving miles into finding some replacement for Cape Cod, and it is a huge disappointment. Take last week for instance: 592 round trip driving miles from this desert, Fort Defiance, just to rest my soul and eyes on some surface water. So, upon "advice", I bumped 32 miles in to Ground Hog Reservoir, above Delores, for high alpine fishing. Wrong. I get in there and it is a madhouse of campers, blaring radios, bank maggot fishing (chair fishing, rods propped up in forked sticks with the obligatory Power Bait and a 1 oz. sinker, coolers and trash all over), and kids racing around on their high whine 2 cycle moto cross dirt cycles, along with some of the adults who think like the kids that they own… I was out of there in thirty minutes.

So, now I know…look for places with NO legal mechanized access. Fine. I hike in to a high alpine, Navajo Lake, above Dunton. 5.4 miles one way…up, on the way to a 14 K peak, Mt. Wilson. Pristine. Beautiful. But apparently so small, and too shallow, that it probably freezes solid and creates a complete winter fish kill. And, of course, with the funding and budget crunches, the helicopter stocking program is gone, or else bypasses this one. Who knows? There always seems to be some explanation or excuse, but the end result is the same. Another high alpine: Trout Lake, above Rico? The dam broke and there's almost no water in it. The San Miguel River west of Telluride? Drought, low water, the farmers s#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g even more out of it for their irrigation rights; so, the river is "too warm" and the hatchery truck fish all died.

Gees, do I really want to depend on helicopters, hatchery trucks, farmers for any quality of fishing? I guess I'm home sick for some real environment.

Next week is a river guided trip on the Conejos. I wonder what the excuse will be this time. I already have a hint…."do you want to pay an extra $75. to fish a stretch of Private Property Water" ??!! Where I come from, nobody can own the ocean.

Bonds,
Alan Cordts, MD