It has been many months since I was able to get a session in on the bank with Chris (C-DOG). Our last trip together, to Pueblo Reservoir, had ended with a spectacular dust storm, 50 mph winds and the destruction of my new HD camcorder from dust in the internal mechanism’s. Tumbleweeds were flying through the air and we finally had to take cover behind our car to avoid injury!
We both had an afternoon to spare and decided once again to head back down to Pueblo to see if we could finally get some fish on action together!
We drove down to Pueblo in my new car; well, not so new, it’s a 1999 4-runner that has been heavily modified for “expedition” and “off-road” use.
The banks around this venue can be steep, rock strewn with many deep ruts. Previous drives across this terrain in my wife’s Lexus RX300 likely contributed to it’s downfall !
Arriving just before noon Pueblo was a packed madhouse of people, cars, boats, jet-ski’s, off leash dogs and children splashing in the water. This was “father’s day” weekend and it should have been no surprise to us that our usual fishing spots were taken. Driving around the edges of the reservoir we were finally able to find a clear spot. The area looked good being just on the inside edge of a sheltered bay with the wind blowing in towards us. There was a “fence” to our right and no other anglers close by to our left.
Whilst setting up the gear I was curious when “carp dog” Raven was suddenly obsessed with in a nearby stick She was almost touching it with her nose – tail wagging happily! I had walked past that “stick” a few minutes earlier, likely almost stepped on it with my bare feet in but a pair of crocs. On closer investigation, to my horror, I realized “that’s no stick”, it was a rattlesnake!
I removed the serpent from our area. Thankfully Raven and I avoided being bitten. So darn close to total disaster. If Raven had not been on a short leash to me, I would not like to imagine the outcome of this encounter!
We finally finished setting up and took a brief respite beneath the sport-brella; it was a hot and sunny 90F with a warm wind blowing in. No sooner had my backside touched the chair when we observed Park Ranger boat heading directly towards us.
The inevitable doom occurred, though I tried to ‘wave” the boat away from our lines it did no good. The boat came right into the shore, parked up to our right, the prop sucking in both my lines and spooling off a good 50+ yards of line before the engine was cut. I was fortunate the bait runners were on lest my rods had followed the line into the prop of “death” and been sliced to bits!
Our fishing licenses checked, a few unhappy words with the officials, and they were back on their way – well, on their way after I helped cut the line from their prop and pushed them back out into open water as they were literally “beached” in the shallows!
The carp “gods” favored me mid-afternoon and I was rewarded with 3 captures, in just over an hour, a 15’6 common, a 9’10 common and finally an feisty 8 lb common.
Sadly Chris was not so fortunate. It appeared that the carp were travelling into the bay from that right hand edge and encountering my baits first. We did swap sides towards the end of the session but it was too little too late. A powerful storm front moved into the area with winds gusting to 40+ mph or more. With flashes of lightning in the distance it was time to pack up and head home.
Here is the video we took of the session.
Tight-Lines,
John