Fishing the Conejos River near Platoro

After getting some flies and advice from the Conejos fly shop, we drove up 20 miles of dirt road to the Conejos River near the town of Platoro. We fished in the meadows below Platoro. We saw large fish feeding on the surface, but had no luck until Marianne hooked a big one. She was working hard, wanting not to lose it. When she tried to work it into an eddy it dived and caught on an underwater snag. Luckily, it was not too deep, and Richard was able to wade in, free the fish from the snag, and net him. After Richard removed the fly, the fish escaped the net, before we could measure it. We are going to call it an 18 inch brown trout.

There are campgrounds up and down the Conejos, both commercial and forest service. The forest service campground a few miles below Platoro, Lake Fork, may be the best choice for fishing, but reservations may be needed to get a good site, such as site 17.

We drove into the town of Antonito to go to church. The parish has a total of 6 mission churches, scattered around the area. The main church, in the town of Conejos, is the oldest church in Colorado, founded in 1858. The people in the church were very friendly. The priest was from Chihuahua, Mexico, very nice. On the way back to the campground, we stopped at the old burned out church in Las Mesitas. Richard wanted to take pictures. The cemetery was moderately interesting, including a stone for someone who earned a Silver Star in Vietnam. The saddest was a pair of elaborate stones, one for a teenager, and the other for his father and mother. The Father died a few months after the son, at the age of forty-two. Sunday we get up very early to drive to Durango, to try to get there early to greet the reunion participants.