Good Things to Come

What a last couple of months it’s been!  On Christmas day, while snowboarding I hit a tree. Somehow I managed to snowboard down the mountain and walk home.  As the hours wore on I realized how injured I was. 

It was not till a week that I made myself get some X-Rays and that is when the worries started.  Through going to various doctors in the weeks to come and getting an MRI, I found out I had fractured L1 thru L5 with a burst fracture in L4.  This turns out to be quite a serious situation. 

I immediately was getting warnings to be very careful even walking and heard the dreaded ‘You may not be ever doing what you love again!’  As you can imagine this was not a good day. 

After coming to terms with this as a possibility I really decided to think positively and wait for my next appointment with a back specialist.  This appointment couldn’t come fast enough.  I really wanted and needed to know what my next steps in recovery were.  Was I going to need surgery, a back brace and was I going to be able to be active again?

Then my luck seamed to change.  The back specialist’s PA turned out to be a friend of mine and he proceeded to ask me how I pancaked my spine.  Then he explained that somehow I got very lucky and that because the burst fracture went forward toward the belly, I was not in danger of damaging the spinal cord and that I was going to be alright and without surgery.  What a relief!

My last 3 or 4 weeks have been much higher in spirit and I have been making great progress with recovery.  I am even at a point where I feel I am getting better every day.

As I am coming out of this injured period the excitement of healing and getting better is also accompanied by the excitement of the fishing emerging from the winter.

The last couple of weeks have brought some much needed, snowfall, to the mountains and next few weeks promise to as well. Even with the snowy weather you can start feeling spring starting to creep in, with longer days and warm sunshine.

Many of our rivers will start to free themselves of ice in the months to come and this brings some great fishing on many rivers.  You can always count on Colorado’s premier tailwater fisheries, like the Blue River, Frying Pan, Williams Fork, Taylor and the S. Platte below Spinney and Eleven Mile reservoirs. 

You can also look to fish many of Colorado’s freestone rivers as they free of ice. A few of my favorites are the Eagle River, Colorado River, Roaring Fork and Arkansas River.

After ice off, don’t be surprised to find many insects in the streams. Large stoneflies, caddis, mayflies and midges can be abundant in the river system and the trout will be gorging themselves after the long cold winter.

This is also the time of year to look for the first Blue Wing Olive hatches.  Many of these rivers have great BWO hatches on cloudy spring days. Midge hatches are also common on the tailwaters and freestones and don’t be surprised if you see fish rising to midges during a spring or winter snow.

The next few months look to be exciting, not only for my health but for the fishing as well.  I highly recommend getting out of the house and checking out the fishing on one these rivers. I know I will be!