The second day, this old man had to redeem himself and show the young lad that I can still catch my fair share, and so I did. He was struggling and I couldn't keep them off. I caught a nice thick rainbow that fought like the devil. I thought many times I was going to lose this fish, but the tippet I had tied onto my furled leader held like a champ, as did the hook.
Before we took our trip I was on the computer looking at areas around Meeker that may be accessible to fish, and I found two creeks way up the canyon that I was interested in. So while everyone was at the parade happening in town, I took off to scout these creeks. I ended up finding them and was a bit saddened by the lack of water. This part of Colorado didn't get as much snow this past winter, and it was showing. So I kept driving up the road and found a place to turn around and I noticed it had three signs, so I stopped to take a look. This stretch of river was open to the public and it was about a mile in length. No one was fishing it that I could see. Well, to be honest, at that point in time I couldn't even see the river because of the thick willows and brush. It was like a wall of brush that no human could go through, so I had to look around for an entrance. I soon found one and this is what I saw.
Just a beautiful wild area.
The next day I returned with my son, and we decided to just go in and wet wade. It was a hot day and though the water was very cold, we got used to it quickly and fished on. I soon hooked into a lovely brookie. I thought it was a rainbow at first by the way it fought, but after my son netted it I was happy to see this fish in such great shape.
A few minutes later I was fishing a riffle in the shade of a tree, and I cast a flymph fly and watched the line drift down until it just stopped. I thought I had snagged a rock and tried to get the fly unhooked but no luck. So with the water being low I just walked into the water to unhook my fly by hand. Then all of a sudden the rock swam to the other side. ????????
I lifted my rod tip and kept pressure on what ever it was. As it went down river I chased it and thought for a moment it was a cutthroat, but it was a large whitefish about 20 inches. My net is 23 inches long and this fish fell just short of it.
My son caught his first cutthroat, about 12 inches, but he was very pleased with himself and so was I. I wasn't able to get a photo because he released it too soon for me.
After awhile my son was getting nervous about all the thick willows because we saw a lot of bear scat where we parked. I told him since we had a great day exploring this new area we could go back down river and get out and head back to town. He agreed.
Here's some more photos.
The next time we go to Meeker I will be fishing this area again. This is my type of water and it was challenging enough to make it interesting. I can see why no one fishes it, the thick brush, tricky wading, searching for fish, and bears. I can't wait to return to this beautiful gem of the White River.
What a beautiful wilderness to be exploring! It looks like you could fish around one bend and pan for gold around the next! Well done to your son on his 1st Cutthroat 
