Trouting in Colorado 
Letters from personal fri'ends in the South¬ 
west during and since my fishing in Colorado, 
indicating a degree of ignorance of trout angling 
equal to my own before I went there, prompt 
me to set forth some details for the edification 
of the many who may be as ignorant as they. 
Criticism is not invited because I am presenting 
situations and conditions as I found them and 
am not deducing facts nor advancing theories 
on the higher forms of the delectable art. I 
am striving to teach the primary grade. 
In Colorado Springs, the intended starting 
point, I was fortunate in meeting Tod Powell, 
who freely gave good advice about tackle. His 
selection of lures was not later improved upon, 
except in one instance, when I believe it to 
have been the characteristic good luck of the 
novice. 
Another fortunate circumstance was the pos¬ 
session of a letter of introduction to Sam. N. 
Proudfoot, chief train dispatcher of the Colo¬ 
rado Midland Railway. I had learned through 
many inquiries made there locally that good 
fishing was not to be had within seventy-five 
or a hundred miles of Colorado Springs. Mr. 
Proudfoot, therefore, kindly directed personal 
'messages on his wire to various agents dis¬ 
tant 150 miles and more. The reply from Ruedi, 
170 miles west, on the Frying-Pan River, 
seemed the most satisfactory and promising. 
With this knowledge Mr. Powell’s selection 
of lures consisted of gray haAles, sizes 8 and 
10; common coachman, sizes 8, 10 and 12; brass 
spoon (small), double swivel, treble trailing 
hooks, size 10. The flies retail at fifteen cents 
each, or two for twenty-five cents; the spoons, 
THE FRYING PAN RIVER. 
IN RED ROCK CANYON. 
twenty-five cents each. A better quality of 
flies may be had at increased cost; also cheaper, 
but these proved satisfactory, resisting to a de¬ 
gree commensurate with their cost the des¬ 
perate efforts of the beginner to whip them 
off. These two kinds of flies, tied tandem, the 
coachman leading, on a three-foot gut leader, 
proved generally consistent in the water in 
which they were used and for which they were 
intended. That is, if an inexperienced angler, 
on a given day, cannot angle good enough to 
get- a rise to one of these lures, it is extremely 
unlikely that, in his ignorance and inability, he 
can select from a well-filled book the particular 
fly which would be taken on that day. His 
experiments would necessitate a trial of each 
fly, selected at random, until the supply was 
exhausted, or until the successful lure had been 
found. To give each a thorough try-out would 
about exhaust the daylight hours. 
I had with me in Colorado Springs my two 
bait-casting rods—a two-piece very light split 
bamboo and a one-piece—both of the finest 
workmanship and productions of art and 
science. While these excited interest and ad¬ 
miration they, or, rather my intentions with 
regard to using them, incited much laughter. 
However, I insisted on taking along the shorter 
and lighter two-piece rod and found a use for 
it which afforded much pleasure. 
Mountain railroads were and are exempt 
from the two-cent law, that class of lines charg¬ 
ing five cents per mile, but of their own volition 
they have evolved a scheme of “fishermen’s 
rates,” in effect during the season, based on the 
number of passengers riding on each ticket, dis¬ 
tance and time limit. By virtue of these conces¬ 
sions the round trip rate, Colorado Springs- 
Ruedi, involving a haul of 340 miles, is $9.85. 
The first view of the Frying Pan River, in the 
embryo was had at Lake Ivanhoe, the Conti¬ 
nental Divide, at an elevation of 10,944 feet- It 
is said that the bottom of this lake has never 
been reached. Some large fish have been taken 
from it. From its western end flows the tiny 
stream which, after a most tortuous career, 
unsurpassed in natural beauty and grandeur, 
attains to a respectable size, although its 
troubles have by no means abated, at Hast, a 
railway station fourteen miles distant, although 
the river mileage is much greater. At this 
point good fishing is to be had and may be con¬ 
tinued for a distance of thirty-two miles, end¬ 
ing at Basalt, where the Frying Pan is joined 
with Roaring Fork Creek, and is known by the 
latter name from there on. I do not believe 
that the stream can be navigated in a canoe for 
any distance worthy of the attempt. 
There is little to choose from for fishing 
purposes as regards the river in canons and in 
the small valleys where it widens on the 
meadows to one hundred feet. The going is 
more difficult in the canons, and the flow prob¬ 
ably attains its maximum speed at points in 
the Red Rock Canon, beginning at. Ruedi and 
ending at Basalt, a distance of fifteen miles. 
Manipulation and landing of a fish weighing 
fhree-quarters of a pound is made extremely 
difficult by the terrific rush of the water. At 
Ruedi excellent accommodation was had at 
Smith’s Ranch, a large two-story log house 
with almost all modern conveniences, at a week¬ 
ly rate of ten dollars. The river is but a few 
hundred feet from it. 
My first attempt to place a fly on the water 
was under the instructions of W. W. Holder, 
. . d W ' 
WHERE THE RIVER WJDENS. 
