Written by: Jon Hill
Nick Meloy shows off a colorful cutthroat on a lake far from his home waters.
Photo by Jon Hill
I “met” Nick Meloy a couple of years ago on the fly-fishing forum on reddit, and this past week he was out in Denver on vacation. He had a free day and wanted to meet up and hit some Colorado water. We could have gone to the Dream Stream or the Blue or the Colorado, which are all fantastic fisheries. But being the altitude junky I am, decided to take him up to 12,000 feet above sea level. A three-mile each-way hike, with 2,000 feet in elevation gain, had the Pennsylvanian out of breath a few times, but we made it to the lake for an amazing day of catching cutthroat trout!
The hike in is a bit of a bear, but the rewards are manifold.
Photo by Jon Hill
Jon Hill lives in Littleton, Colorado and works in the digital-graphics field. But he spends almost all his spare time chasing trout in the high country, and his photos have been featured many times on the Orvis News. (See here and here for just a taste, or visit his blog, Ramblings.) He’s also a former Trout Bum of the Week.
The author shows his visitor how it’s done.
Photo by Nick Meloy
The heavy breathing from the hike was replaced by angling excitement as Nick fought trout after trout.
Photo by Jon Hill
These colors go together beautifully.
Photo by Jon Hill
What lake is that?