I got skunked. Actually it was a terrible day all together and I think that might have affected my fishing(that I am going to whine about now so skip to the next paragraph if you just want to hear about fishing). Woke up this morning around 5 and felt like shit so I went back to bed (knowing that it was going to really shorten my day of fishing that I had been looking forward to non stop meant I really was dying). Got back out of bed at 8:30 and finally got out of fort collins around 9:30 after getting my gear together which I meant to do the night before but it was my buddys birthday which explains why I felt so bad this morning. At this point I'm feeling good knowing that I'm going to get at least a half day of fishing in and get my first chance at a colorado pike(my goal this season). I decided to try and cut through estes park which was a terrible decision as they are doing construction on 36 meaning I had to back track all the way around the park and try and use some highways and cr that I had never driven to get me to parshall. This added a little less then another 2 hours onto my drive (it was also at this point that I realized that I left my camera at home) Anyways by the time I got my line wet it was around 3 and I had gone through twice as much gas as was neccesary.
About the fishing, having never been there before I drove around the lake and decided that with the ice and the weather we have been having the east bank looked the most promising. I parked at the campground and worked my way north as there was still alot of ice in south and west (except in the fingers but I didn't think they would be good with all the cold weather but that could have been a mistake). I worked spoons and jerkbaits without any luck. I was going to try a buzzbait when my reel birdsnested on me and I decided to call it a day and just went and scouted around some more. There was a slight south/south east breeze that picked up a couple times and the snow made a brief flurried appearance once for about 5 minutes. On the positive side I now have a better understanding of the lake and I know where i'm going to start next time and I won't try to cut through rocky mtn park without calling first.
