Just as the title says, sometimes I like leaving the office for my lunch to fish Monument Lake.
About a year ago I started fishing Monument Lake when I didn’t have the opportunity to go to my ‘normal’ digs. It’s tough to drive 45 minutes to Elevenmile Canyon for lunch on a weekday. Normally, I prefer the South Platte in Colorado– But sometimes you need to chase stocked trout when your time is limited.
I had a fire to put out at work in the morning, which is why I immediately went to my ‘happy place’ when a buddy asked me to hit the lake for lunchtime. Lucky for him, he works at home and has a bit more freedom on his lunch hour (maybe not that much more freedom). I consider myself less likely, but how many people can disappear for an hour and a half and get into some fish?
Fish? At lunch? Sign me up. Monument Lake is not that far off from Downtown in the Springs. It’s stocked. However, with an hour on the water it doesn’t take much to fool the rainbows up there. You should see how the fish there react after they have been recently stocked. It’s a lot like how I envision a war zone without having actually been in one. I’m not sure when the DOW stocked the lake last, but I doubt it was recently. The fish were going nuts on top of the water, but not in the way I have seen earlier this year.
Violent. I don’t think it matters much what you toss on top of the water at some of the local waters in Colorado Springs. If it looks like a bug, even if poorly tied, it WILL work.
For an hour on the water, I suppose it doesn’t matter how many or how big of fish I got into. I’ll happily take none and still call a trip like that a success.
And no… I don’t normally wear a dress shirt while proudly wearing my Simms gear. But, you know what? It felt great.
-Justin