Photo by Brian K. Strickland

Cold, clear water pushed against my waders as I eased to the edge of the run. The gurgling sound of the moving river filled the chilled air as I surveyed the river and looked for any willing plump participant to unhinge its winter-tight jaw.

Winter seemed colder than usual, but a recent handful of warm days had made me want to be streamside. It was early March, and Old Man Winter was still holding on. The river had a thick layer of frozen snow skirting its edges, and the water was cold.

As the day pushed on, the sun began warming the water. Large rainbows that had hidden were now beginning to show themselves as they fed on some midday midges.

I tied a pair of No. 22 midge imitations with 7X tippet, eased below a small pod of feeding trout and placed a rollcast a few yards in front of them. With each cast, I anxiously watched my strike indicator float over the pod. Before the indicator could pause, I saw the flare of a trout’s mouth and knew one had been fooled into inhaling my best imitation.

With a firm downstream swing, I set the hook. The scream of my drag told the rest of the story.

For several minutes, the flex in my 5-weight Sage fly rod played this 20-inch hog. After several drag-ripping runs, my 7X tippet could only take so much and with the next hard tug, it snapped and brought this fly-fishing junky to his knees. Even though I was disappointed, it was a great encounter and an outstanding way to start this year’s Colorado trout season.

No question about it -- if your pastime is presenting delicate flies or cranking spinners and spoons, then it’s an excellent time to be fishing within the borders of the Centennial State. With over 9,000 miles of moving water, nearly 2,000 lakes and a robust population of trout, you can see why anglers thronged to the banks this past year, trying to fool some of the slippery residents.

According to Greg Gerlick, Colorado Division of Wildlife trout czar, Colorado has seen a significant increase in license sales every year since 2002. And with the current fishing opportunities and conditions, he sees this trend continuing.

“Overall, surveys indicate there is a high degree of angler satisfaction throughout the state,” said Gerlick.

The most recent survey also indicated that about 75 percent of Colorado’s anglers target the abundant trout as their prime fish.

Of those anglers, about half are opportunists who want access to large numbers of trout. The other 50 percent prefer tippet-busting hogs.

“What’s appealing to Colorado anglers,” Gerlick said, “is not only the amount of fishable water and the different angling opportunities, but the overall angling success.”

As a resident of Colorado, I’ve had opportunities to test these waters last season on my many sojourns --though not nearly enough. And I can say with no hesitation that I caught not only more fish, but a good number of tape-stretchers too. It was definitely a good year!