muskalungee  07/14/2004 - 23:53    When I found out I was going to be in Colorado for a week I figured I’d to try and squeeze some fishing into my schedule. As always, I was interested in chasing some smallies but after some web research I became a bit frustrated because the vast majority of guides in Colorado only fly fish for trout in the cold streams of the Rockies . When I finally found a guide who offered smallmouth and walleye trips I gave him a call to see if I could secure a date. Unfortunately his schedule didn’t cooperate but he said he had a good buddy that could take me if I was interested. That ‘buddy’ turned out to be was Bobby Hix of AllPro Fish n' Sport, one of the premier guides in Colorado, an angler with years of experience, and an all around good guy.

I met with Bob the day before our trip at his shop to iron out the details and we ended up talking for 90 minutes trading stories our experiences (his stories were phenomenal) and our favorite techniques. Bob is a walleye guy by trade, but he told me of a lake that held both smallies and walleyes and suggested we head out there. I took his word for it and we agreed to meet back at his shop just before 6AM for our half day trip.

I can’t say I got much sleep on Tuesday night, and the sleep I did get included dreams of bronzebacks and walleye. We met at the shop before 6AM and proceeded to the lake in pursuit of smallies. After we launched, Bob recommended that we hit the rip rap and try the topwater bite first. This made me even more excited b/c as you all know there is nothing like the sight of a hungry smallmouth exploding on a topwater bait. It didn’t take long until I had my first fish of the day:

Read volume II of this story HERE