Such beautiful country!! Thanks for taking us along on the road trip!! Enjoy it!! Try a brown leech pattern under an indicator on those western lakes…usually my favorite fly! Or under a small weighted bobber on your spinning rig works great, too!!

Thanks Caleb! My son moved to Boulder, CO last summer and so I want to get out to try some trout fishing with him. I like you diversity of methods.

Very cool man! The Wisconsin boy goes rouge in beautiful Colorado! Man that place is gorgeous! I’m originally from Wisconsin and miss it. Never been to Colorado but always wanted to go there. Rocky Mountain high they say. Spent 6 years in California catching rockfish and Capazone. Then Hawaii for most my life catching huge Ahi, Mahi, Ono, and Marlin. Still, I missed a quiet beautiful lake I knew as a kid in Wisconsin. I found that when I moved to Vancouver Island, BC Canada. Back in the kind of place I remember. The difference was, huge snow capped mountains. Wisconsin doesn’t have mountains, but the water is still very familiar. Quiet and clear. My dad planned what was actually our last great adventure together. We boarded a float plane in Eagle River into the outback 50 miles from civilization. Landed on a reservoir fed by snowmelt. No humans for miles. Just me and dad and trout jumping like crazy. Salmon jumping even more as they were heading upstream to spawn in the river connected to our reservoir. The bush pilot who dropped us off for 5 days alone said we didn’t need our tents. There was a three-walled abandoned ranger cabin that he brought adventurers and fishermen once a year. No hunting allowed, only fishing, and only barbless hooks. He laughed, “Use whatever guys for fishing, no fish and game can even get up here. Just eat what you catch and fertilize the woods. No bringing trout or salmon out on the plane. Use the canoe, just put it back clean where you found it. See you next Thursday at noon.” Boom. We were alone. An amazing feeling. We could have rented a satellite phone for emergencies but screw that. Me and dad alone can survive forever out here. In fact, we may even cancel our pickup on Thursday. Who knows. Dragging our gear up to the three-walled cabin, there was a bear lock on the door we had to get past. Hmmm. I walked around to the front of the cabin and climbed onto the porch, and walked though the missing wall and opened the door for my dad from inside. “Welcome home!” The bear lock on the back door was ridiculous since any bear could walk right in from the front porch like I did. We learned later that the ranger who lived here was completely insane and didn’t think things through in terms of bear access to your home. Back door locked like a safe. Front porch, zero obstructions into the cabin. Fine, it was equipped with a wood stove and we had a cooler with a six pack of great Canadian ale to last 5 days. Couple nice ribeye steaks but that’s about it. They were gone on day one. The plan was to survive only on fish. And this was ridiculously easy. Trout and salmon jumping everywhere after bugs and they’d never seen lures or fishing line or humans before. It was spawning season and I only got a couple nips on my Mepps spinner. They’re looking for eggs. I had a jar of salmon eggs and stuck three on the treble hook of the Spinner. Immediately whacked by a 16 inch trout. Yelled up to dad on the porch, “We got dinner!” He waved, smoking a pipe, reading his book. He knew I’d figure this lake out. Vancouver island has the highest cougar population in the entire world. And I’m all alone at the water’s edge gutting and bleeding a trout. Never felt so vulnerable in my life. I’m listening for sneaky cat paws in the woods coming toward me. I’m American, I own guns, but in Canada they’re not allowed up here. Especially for a visitor. Do Canadians generally fight off cougars with their bare hands? I guess so, but no cougars made a sound near me. That doesn’t mean they aren’t there though. Only a man would know this feeling, and that’s the tickle in your balls when you think you’re totally screwed. But, nothing happened. No cougar jumped me. I cleaned my trout, threw the guts and head out into the lake and walked unscathed to our cabin. Built a fire and we smoked the trout on a stick. Super good. The next morning I took the canoe out to the river mouth and did the salmon eggs on the hook thing. These salmon were spooky huge and I only had ten pound test on my reel. I lost three lures very quickly and backed off into the reservoir where I could see the smaller ones avoiding the big ones in this crystal clear water. This was day three and we were hungry man. I was sight-fishing. Perfect hole full of smaller salmon and I was on. Loosened my drag because they fight like crazy but no structure or branches to cut me off. “Go ahead and tire out my friend! You’re mine!” Paddling back up the reservoir to the lake I whistled to my dad on the porch and held up two sockeye. He clapped and gave me a thumbs up and we ate well that evening. Salmon for breakfast too. Not even afraid of cougars anymore, I guess they’re not even here. (We found out later by the bush pilot that we were surrounded by these cats) but they’re well fed and afraid of humans up here. That’s cool. Thursday at noon the bush pilot landed on our lake right on schedule. Bummer. I didn’t want to leave. I could live in this three-walled cabin with the ridiculous bear lock and open porch forever, easily. Such a pristine and beautiful place. The cougars are polite. The bears are non-existent or just real good at hiding. Back in Nanaimo I hugged my dad and flew back to Hawaii. That was the last time I ever saw him. He died three months later. I miss him terribly. Sorry to bother you with this drama but I just had to tell this story. Nobody but me and him knows it. Happy fishing, have fun on your adventures and stay safe my Wisconsinite friend. Aloha. 🤙🏼

Caleb - Heading out to Dillon area next week. Can you tell me which lake you were on during the second half of the video?

hopefully not too weird a question, but what type of wading shoes do you wear/recommend?