[music] the world of american angler you're up with the sun with a fish on your line a days just begun. on lakes and on streams now you're living the good life catch the one of your dreams hi i am pat traynor last week on the americanangler we started our two-day whitewater trip down the beautiful gunnison riverthe giant stone flies are hatching and a big
rainbows and browns feeding so you join us as we fish this trout fisherman dream [reel drag] whoo! boy did you see him slam that. he slammed that now! a shot and a half was a picture cast and a picture strikeright there. bob had the camera covered up because we're getting ready to godown the whitewater. you bet isn't that the
way it is what you're going to get alook at a pretty brown fish he's strong semicircular in size oh did he eat that fly! if you want to take him over to that other side that shallow water we canwherever you want to go i could probably net this fish pretty easy right at the top of that rapid lookdownstream got a class 3.5 rapid. your timing impeccable
boy that's a yes! alright, whoa! settle down big boy we'regonna just unhook here and let you go right back in ah! look at the color in thatbrown .i mean he gobbled it! he did. there is no oh look at that right out. great! yes. indeed. beautiful fish, beautiful fish nice bigbrown. that's probably one of the prettieststrikes i've ever seen! right underneath
that ledge as it was hanging over... dry fly fishing he just got it! oh man!. isn't this a blast i am telling ya. yes sir! well nice fish are you going to roll it all the way down bob? alight here we go!
pat i'd appreciate it if you wouldn'tuse those terms roll ok for this rapid well we will have theshutter going at immense speeds as we go down this rapid. how well put! howthoughtfully put hopefully not as fast as we're going to go down this well i know you've been a guide so youunderstand that guide survive through being superstitious i'll definitely wow! alright let's go down here
hit the green [rushing water] keep the big waves out of the boat. ya! [rushing water loud.] there we go! right dow to the slot you guys begin to see the path? perfect! now what we're going to do here ischanged from this variant left to a variant right.
work our way laterally get a good angle laterally across we're going to sneak through these rocks yes the slot and then we're gonna sneakthrough these aren't we well we're going to try to tuck on backbecause that's a pretty good fall and drop right through here through that slot. that will work!
[rushing water] there we go! [splashing] oh nice one! nice fish nice fish big bow you are a good man dave you're a good man dave. big bow! [drag]
[reeling] got him on [reeling] not trying to do too much just holdingthe current little rainbow [drag] he's got his head down now frisky little fish looks so pretty inthat water
you about ready? i think he's about ready all righty [splash] [repeated splashing] well maybe he's not as ready as i thought. [lots of splashing] alright! pretty fish there were 2 of them working at bank rightthere. ! saw the one holding there before
that fish even came up nice barbless hook easy to get outdoes not hurt the fish at all yeah he is just gorgeous i just lovelooking at these colors whoop! good bye! you did the grand canyon before thisright. well that's rowed the grand canyon for four years prior tocoming back to the gunnison that was the place that i was trained that's bigwater in the grand canyon the canyon is pretty nasty stuff right if you want to be a guide and know riversand learn to love them and respect them
the grand canyon is one heck of a placeto start we don't have a resource like that in the world that matches what thegrand canyon is so and i'm awful thankful for being here and my lifestylebeing a guide. the canyon had a lot to do with that. the reason i love this so much isbecause of my experiences in that canyon and the gunnison gorge was a situationwhere a lot of us began to learn about some development plans to build the damand the black canyon here and on the gunnison gorge those plans were goingto ruin the rivers you and i see as a matter of fact we'd be rowing downthis river and right now and it actually would be completely be underwater byprobably 500, 600 feet at the base of a
damn and that damn would stretch all the wayup beyond the area that we walked in to the chucker trail and we've set that that damn aside and taking a whole bunch of people down the river that ithelped us and join us in the fight to make surethat the gunnison remains a wild river gives all the.. how many trips will youdo in a year? well i'll probably, probably be down here 40 times. 40? 40 times many of our trips are three and in four days lots and lots offishing
the company will be down here 90 times. gunnison river expeditions yeah you might say that this is our ourhome as much or more so than are our real home hmm that's a pretty nice place to live oh and i think you're gonna like that one ithink i'm gonna like this one i've already like it i got a good look atthis one oh yeah he's a nice one he's going to godownstream on us don't do that big boy come around. getthat rod tip up and aim the butt of the
rod at that fish. if you can't let alittle bit of line out. aim the butt of the rod at that fish. if you want him there is right there. there you go aim it that's it keep thebut of the rod aimed at that fish and he won't be able to do that again al....right!!! there. is a quality...oh! quality fish look at--look at that the fly popped right out i got the fly. excellent! well done with thatbarbless hook and we gotta show him off you have proven that that barbless hookworks
okay well looking down stream are we ready we're ready for this series ofclass 3 to 4 rapids this one beginning in rock and roll on the leftyou see the beautiful walls that are formed by ancient lava flows petrifiedcalled amphibolites beautiful quartzsite protruding up through them now i best pay attention to this rapid. i'm trying to take the smoothest. the smoothest route here we go! you bet ya! there's a big wave here good bucking wave
stay with us bob stay with us want to movelaterally here get away from these rocks we go a big rock there don't we. got got a big one here looks like a good slot right down through here we will straighten her up and let the v of the water direct us oh yeah we got a good line on this one [rushing water] we got one more big rock
now there is a hole at the bottom! then we will get a good.. look at that hole this water is not so bad hey the fish aren't down and either we be right back after this commercial break. fish on! little guy. fish on. it like a small brownyeah it is oh ya they picked up that stone fly. ya! they did. excellent indication
they're starting to look up again today i didn't even see the strike on that fish here is your net we like those fish looking for the drys. you bet! that ought to be real easy for you toget out of there yeah excellent well done you're right on today pat there's no question about that
he aw sure isn't huge but he has somemagnificent color to him pretty fish came right out of that fast water alright real good this fish you you'venoticed we've touched him as little as possible our hands were wet previous to touching them and you canalso see that he's not a scarred fishing anyway no ruptured no ruptures and is inhis scale structure and so we're going to gently put it back in and ah amd release him with his head
head facing upstream i am just gently cradling him so he couldmove at any time that he feels like it this fish will get an opportunity toregain some of its strength its just poured a lot of lactic acid into itssystem and that last lactic acid has backed off a little bit and this fish has recovered and we're ready to goget another one. catch another one yes! he smacked brown pretty nice little brown
you bet he certainly did take that didn't he. he slammed it let's get him in we are getting pretty close to these rapids look at that barbless and came right out well caught pat. yes. not a bad little fish. i wouldn't say so he's going deep. is he using that currentor we might be surprised when we see that fish. no i do not think he's not real big but it's a nice fishthere is right there whoa!
i would say not. not a bad fish [reel] whoa wee! got him coming around the boat he stillgot a little green in em! see what i mean i would say so a little green i think he had breakfast of stone fly he has been eating big rib eye steak stone flys now this fish is not long but you are just going to be amazed at the depth
nice broad back. he has a girth on himand he is barely hooked there you go all right! what! you gotanother nice one look at this! so strong fish hey we're tearing them up with this well he tore that fly up too. let me gethis teeth out of there and give you an idea of what he's looking like. actually this is ah the fish is very wide. this is a male
beautifulfish give him a little bit of a chance to re cooperate here bringing back outshow you some of the colors i think he's ready to go. very nice very nice. now he's been spawning do yousee a little bit of scar on the lower tail there and the upper tail and right in hear and right in here. right there in the pectoral fin also so he's been downin the gravels spawning he's about prime size for spawn 15 to 16 inches andthese are the fish that they require us to put back and these thefish that are the most prolific
reproducers as we said earlier this is anative rainbow a strain known only to the gunnison because it hasn't beenstocked in many many years there he went look what he did to our little fly wenow have a..... [laughter] now what? now he is going to retire now you can't complain about my fly like that
well, no i blame that on the fish well itkinda looks like alfalfa's back... alfalfa's head that's what that looks likemaybe that's the new pattern we probably could just trim that and it will be alright. huh i... wouldn't. you wouldn't? i would probablypull out another fly that had a hackle on it. i like the way that one operate how do youfeel about that one it worked rather well i was pretty pleased you decided to tie that one on in fact. really you needed that we'regonna hit that all along you've just been playing well in the last hour andyeah i know
yeah i love pressure. you were making me sweat. i love pressure too you know it feels so good on my stomach. huh. wondering when the next fish is coming alright this one looks long and lean this one is long and lean pat we'regoing to have to kind of hang on this one we've got about a 10-foot drop atthe very bottom we're going to work our way from the right shore here over to theleft and then back laterally to the right again and then get ready to dropthrough that slot and hang on this rapid cable fall owns a lot ofequipment at the bottom of it and it's
the subject of many stories. you know these rafts really take this water good i am glad you believe that i do too i believe these rafts row excellent for both fishing andwhitewater [loud rushing water] aw this looks good oh yeah you can see thedrop coming up now. uh -oh i am a little to the right i might have tospin at the last minute whoa! [sound of a hawk] yeah this is a very special part of thecanyon called the cathedral were finally loses
its gradient slows down to a snail'space okay you did a good job getting that one out hank you worked hard for me all day long now i'm going to set you up on one... it'sabout time you let me relax for no other reason than my age. now do you want theleft or do you want the right i will tell you what if i get over this fear of you rowing i'll be able to decide. okay. which side he's a decent brown do you want to go to the bottom with him? you are a skilled rower pat.
well we're kind of committed now i guesswe're going to go to the bottom with him still got you you bet i do. oh he is a nice brown he looked good i saw him. if will just hand me that net down there on your right no no no that's my job you gotta get himup here i will net the fish ok i am taking this guide business serious now [laughter]
thisoutfit i row for....if they knew i didn't net that fish that run me off your jobs in jeopardy? yeah definitely [spalsah] yeah! gorgeous brown here i did know you had him that close you want the net? you bet thank you sir
now that has..oh that is pretty fish. look at the color in that fish very nice alright now that is a stocky brown i am glade to see you have not forgotten how. thanks pat! hank yeah it was great!
i mean great doesn't touch it you know i wasexpecting a good fishing trip here this was a quality true outdoor experience!well i'm glad you enjoyed yourself. i mean it was fantastic the scenery the water onthe fishing was good better than good but just seen those mountains and thatfast water..it's phenomenal it's pretty river i have ever been on in my life i cantruthfully say that and from this beautiful gunnison river in colorado andpat traynor thanks for watching we'll look forward to seeing you next week onour next episode of the american angler. [music]