Blue Valley Ranch Trip

Transcription

1 Blue Valley Ranch Trip It was Thursday morning on May 19, 2016 when I left to meet up with the Colorado Springs PHWFF organization on their Blue Valley Ranch Trip. Stan Elliot and I were invited to attend this outing. We all met at the Wendy's Resturant in Silverthorne where we had breakfast. After leaving Wendy's we convoyed to the local fly shop, Cutthroat Anglers and did a little bit of window shopping. We were graciously given a souvenir baseball cap with the Shop's Logo. We continued on our trip to Blue Valley Ranch and arrived to our designated meeting place, a nice set up of a large canopy, table and chairs. We were paired up with our guides, Stan paired up with a fellow named Paul and I was paired up with Doug. We were told to return to the meeting place at 4:30 PM so that we could go for dinner. We all took off in different directions, Stan, Paul, Doug and myself were teamed up and we were togeather the entire trip. The weather was very plesant so on the first pond we fished, I landed a nice size Trout.

2 Stan was having fun with his guide, Paul, on the other side of the pond. He seemed to be enjoying himself. After a few hours of fly fishing on Thursday we returned to our meeting place. We all got togeather and convoyed to one of the Host and Hostess's ranch where we had a fantastic BBQ dinner. The locals that gather at the ranch to serve us were great, a very nice bunch of people. They spoked with us as if they had known us for years, treated us as if we were dignitaries. This type of treatment when on every day. Thought I died and went to fly fishing heaven.

3 On Friday, our first entire day of fly fishing, we were honored by Lt General Boykin (Retired) with his great speech and also with prayer. He welcomed us and let the younger vets know that we are all a team, a team of Veterans that scarificed ourselves for the good of the country. Afterward, we went to a different location on the 3300 acres ranch. On this particular day I was gifted with the catch of the day, the largest Rainbow Trout ever caught on this ranch. I was told that it was the largest Rainbow Trout on record, 37 inches long and 20 lbs. in weight. We did not have a net large enought to capture it so my guide tried to pull it to the bank with the net he had. It was difficult to hold it in my hands for a picture so I held it down before it squirmed away. Talk about excitement, WOW!!!

4 Stan landed some large fish too, as long as I have known Stan I have never, ever seen him smile so much. He seem, to be as happy as a mouse in a cheese factory. Saturday was more of the same, the catches were nice and large. Stan was visited by one of

5 the local guides while fly fishing, the guide asked Stan if he could try a new fly that he had brought with him that had never been tested. Well Stan agreed to try it. He casted his line into the water and in no time he had a bite, and WOW was that a bite. The guide was hooting and hollering because his untested fly had just gotten a bite. The fish took off like a freight train and took all of Stan's line with it, almost to the backing and then, what none of us likes for this to happen, the line snapped. Stan was not very happy that this had happened, not only for losing what could have been a monster fish, his line being snapped and for losing the guide's fly. The guide was not unhappy at all and was so excited the fish took his fly and told Stan that he was naming the fly after him. Now Stan has a fly named after him and also a new nick name, "Freight Train". As the day was coming to an end we were not thrill that the trip was coming to a conclusion, but we were very happy that we had experience this trip with the Colorado Springs PHW Organization. We met a Great bunch of people on this trip, the guides, the hosts, the volunteers, the group from Colorado Springs, every one was fantastic. Our Kudoos go out to our guides Doug and Paul for showing us where the fish were and giving us some new pointers on Fly Fishing. I can honestly say that I learned some more techniques in the art of Fly Fishing. Thank You Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Juan Martinez You do not have to be great to learn to fly fish, but you do have to learn to fly fish to be great!!