The True Reward of Fishing: A Journey to Crystal Mill

"Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after." ~ Henry David Thoreau A buddy of mine who is not a hardcore fisherman but a hardcore photographer has been hounding me to take him to the Crystal Mill for a little while now. Our calendars and probably the stars finally aligned and we were able to do an over nighter up on the Crystal River.
Granted I?ve never fished that high on the river so I was excited to get up there and do some fishing? he was excited to be at one of the most photographed places in Colorado. The timing was not perfect as the leaves still hadn?t started their change but it?s such a beautiful spot that it didn?t matter. We setup camp and I got some fishing in before sundown. Tagging a couple brookies and a cutthroat.

One of the things that a photographer struggles with is how do I take a picture of ?one of the most photographic spots in Colorado? and make it unique. I also struggle with this when taking photos of fish. Our decision for the mill was to go at night and take some night photos of the mill since we?ve never seen any. It paid off and here are a couple of my shots.

Even with the long hours at night we got up hoping for perfect conditions in the morning for some brilliant sunrise shots? this however didn?t work out like the night shots but we dealt with it.

Then it was time to fish again! And we tore up the river starting at the mill and fishing downstream for a couple miles. The water is super clear one might even say ?crystal clear? on the Crystal River. This means you have to be stealthy and sneak into the good runs without presenting to much a silhouette or the fish will spot you and head for safety. Approaching low knees or lower from downstream was key. There were no monsters but plenty of action to make up for it.