The second day, this old man had to redeem himself and show the young lad that I can still catch my fair share, and so I did. He was struggling and I couldn't keep them off. I caught a nice thick rainbow that fought like the devil. I thought many times I was going to lose this fish, but the tippet I had tied onto my furled leader held like a champ, as did the hook.
![Image](https://i.postimg.cc/htVw83nY/20210703-114952-HDR.jpg)
Before we took our trip I was on the computer looking at areas around Meeker that may be accessible to fish, and I found two creeks way up the canyon that I was interested in. So while everyone was at the parade happening in town, I took off to scout these creeks. I ended up finding them and was a bit saddened by the lack of water. This part of Colorado didn't get as much snow this past winter, and it was showing. So I kept driving up the road and found a place to turn around and I noticed it had three signs, so I stopped to take a look. This stretch of river was open to the public and it was about a mile in length. No one was fishing it that I could see. Well, to be honest, at that point in time I couldn't even see the river because of the thick willows and brush. It was like a wall of brush that no human could go through, so I had to look around for an entrance. I soon found one and this is what I saw.
![Image](https://i.postimg.cc/BQ4M9Qfm/20210704-105918-HDR.jpg)
Just a beautiful wild area.
The next day I returned with my son, and we decided to just go in and wet wade. It was a hot day and though the water was very cold, we got used to it quickly and fished on. I soon hooked into a lovely brookie. I thought it was a rainbow at first by the way it fought, but after my son netted it I was happy to see this fish in such great shape.
![Image](https://i.postimg.cc/X7jc1H9h/20210705-123442-HDR.jpg)
A few minutes later I was fishing a riffle in the shade of a tree, and I cast a flymph fly and watched the line drift down until it just stopped. I thought I had snagged a rock and tried to get the fly unhooked but no luck. So with the water being low I just walked into the water to unhook my fly by hand. Then all of a sudden the rock swam to the other side. ????????
I lifted my rod tip and kept pressure on what ever it was. As it went down river I chased it and thought for a moment it was a cutthroat, but it was a large whitefish about 20 inches. My net is 23 inches long and this fish fell just short of it.
![Image](https://i.postimg.cc/GpdcvyWk/20210702-181848.jpg)
My son caught his first cutthroat, about 12 inches, but he was very pleased with himself and so was I. I wasn't able to get a photo because he released it too soon for me.
After awhile my son was getting nervous about all the thick willows because we saw a lot of bear scat where we parked. I told him since we had a great day exploring this new area we could go back down river and get out and head back to town. He agreed.
Here's some more photos.
![Image](https://i.postimg.cc/jdS3nd3L/20210704-110422-HDR.jpg)
![Image](https://i.postimg.cc/s2dJmVmP/20210704-110838-HDR.jpg)
The next time we go to Meeker I will be fishing this area again. This is my type of water and it was challenging enough to make it interesting. I can see why no one fishes it, the thick brush, tricky wading, searching for fish, and bears. I can't wait to return to this beautiful gem of the White River.