5 things we did NOT read online...

...before driving around trying to catch trout (more specifically, a trout home run, consisting of any three of the major trout species in one day).

 the least of our trouble

You can read all you want online about the rivers that are fishing best and what kind of water to fish and what flies to get into that perfect drift, but the truth is that all that info is mostly meaningless once you're out there and get replaced by nagging details. We found this truth within the first few hours of being in Colorado. Here's the 5 things learned real quick:

          1. Fence lines are hard to see on Google Maps- I probably spent over 5 cumulative hours on Google Earth before heading out, finding the best looking most easily accessible yet remote spots on the river and marking them with way points. What I found out was that most of them were past a fence on someone else's private property- not to be waded into either because of Colorado's ingenious river laws.

          2. Dehydration happens before you are thirsty- Most mornings, the thing farthest from our mind was hydrating properly. I began to regret it when I was wading over slippery rocks, falling left and right from dizziness. The trout laughed at me.

          3. EFF fishing midday- Seriously, this was our very first mistake we made. There are a few issues with midday fishing such as the stressful realization that you are sacrificing your lunch to try to coax finicky trout into eating theirs OR the well known fact that the sun dries up all the good vibes midday. So its a better idea just to run into town and style on some pizza and brew so your well rested for the evening hatch.

          4. When sifting through local advice- Always take the humble ramblings of well to do locals seriously. We ran into one such case at a hostel in Salida. He quietly told us stories about killer fishing he had done over the years and how he had started tying a sinking mosquito fly for big browns on one certain stretch of river that he recommended we both fish at and keep our lips shut about....it was our best day of fishing.

          5. Have a sleeping plan for post night fishing- One of the worst feelings I had last week was realizing we didn't have a place to sleep once the bite died at 12:30am and we were close to 2 miles down a canyon from our car. In this instance, Advil PM came in handy while sleeping upright in a car seat that would have been to small for me sitting back in 4th period french. BUT the situation could have been avoided by bringing our camping gear.