Start of Summer 2019 well, sorta... Happiest first days of Summer from Sacred Waters CO, Inc. & Charity Foundation in the land of Polar Opposites. It's officially the Summer Solstice but here in the Rocky Mountains of Pagosa Springs, Colorado and it's still snowing in the mountains and pouring sheets of rain as I type this... Over the last few months I have been analyzing snowpack, short-term and long-term weather forecasts, stream flows trying to figure out and predict future fishing conditions, hatches, etc. here at Sacred Waters CO in around Southwest Colorado it's been a little tougher than usual to say the least. Continually putting off writing to get the best prediction/forecast out for you. Any real good fishing in the next 2 weeks would be at very best-case scenario. My original prediction was July 15-20 timeframe of the San Juan getting under 1000 cfs and clear enough to be fishable, depending on how much more rain and snow we may get from the peak out of 4030cfs a few weeks ago as my standard baseline. With this following suit in our other local fisheries. But I never officially published any of my thoughts cause of the forecasts of more rain & snow since it peaked till present, most didn't accumulate too much moisture till the last few days now it has rained & snowed a lot more so need to recalculate my math some more too. There was a period of time I thought I could of been inaccurate of runoff calming down sooner than originally predicted because of the rain forecasts if temps would of stayed hot (normal) the rain could/would of burnt off the snow a lot faster but with most all these storms being from cold fronts it continues to snow up high instead of rain and cold days & nights just keep slowing down the melt not accelerating it. But, we finally are getting to more true average weather, Summer type conditions with similar throughout the next two weeks so hopefully this is our last big push of runoff water and we'll be fishing soon enough... *PLEASE keep an eye out for more updated fishing and weather conditions soon and much more frequently! * Assuming most should know by now last year 2018 we had experienced one of the worst droughts and wildfire seasons in recorded history. Now this year 2019, we have experienced one of the larger snowpack and higher water years in a long long time. Throughout most of 2018 those of you who follow Sacred Waters CO social media pages, websites, receive our newsletter emails and/or from personal conversations. You may recall me predicting these events we have and are experiencing. The optimistic outlook I have also mentioned multiple times in the last 10 years or more on the standards of nature has its ways, survival of the fittest, and the nature of weather. Based on the cyclical nature of our historic weather patterns, these kinds of droughts, wildfire years through recorded history go on about 12-18-year cycles. My theory is this stuff has happened most likely since we entered this age even before accurate recorded history. Most of us know these forests have burnt for thousands of years and need to do so to be healthy. We know as well the USFS admit they mismanaged wildfire for most of their existence till recently. My theory is Nature has its ways whether we like it or not. Yes, our wildfires are more intense and do more damage than good due to 75+ years of wildfire & forest mismanagement but I’m just considering recent state of affairs as a cleanse and yes, the recovery time will take longer in some areas. The purge or cleanse of these wildfires, and drought conditions killing off some flora & fauna can also be viewed as a survival of the fittest and the strong will survive is just another step forward in the current evolution of our flora & fauna. As our plants and animals are thinned out by wildfire, lack of food & water, the strong will survive and eventually thrive creating healthier, smarter, stronger class of genes in our fauna & flora in the long run. Another light at the end of the tunnel is historically speaking and if history repeats itself after a few years of severe drought we usually have 2-3 years of above average precipitation and cooler than average temperatures as we are experiencing currently, then leveling off to right around average plus or minus just a little for another 6-8yrs. Nature always finds a way and the strong will survive. So, on that note here at Sacred Waters CO we survived are into our third year with much optimism new exciting changes, and projects in the works with a lot of new more diverse board, guides, donors, & waters. C.A.R.E. Report/Recap: First off, THANK YOU Donors!!! Sticking to Sacred Waters C.A.R.E. Mission we had Advocated and Educated Conservation and Rehabilitation as much as possible through the last 3 years. I can’t easily breakdown each of our CARE Mission Pillars of Conservation, Advocacy, Rehabilitation, & Education because they all do tend to go hand and hand while overlapping greatly. But below are some accomplishments of our Mission so far over the last 3 years and many are always ongoing hopefully well into the future.
With some extra monies too since we had to cancel some events due to the drought of 2018 we were able to give monetary donations to other conservation & veterans based nonprofits such as Trout Unlimited, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, National Veterans Hockey League, Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, and Patriot Anglers of N. TX & S. OK
We have also started an Interest growing savings account in 2018. A Tax-Deductible Conservation Fund from Guest Fees and Donations that can carry over unlike most Non-profit Accounts to build a fund for future Conservation Efforts Only.
Fortunately, we did get in a rescheduled Patriot Anglers Disabled Combat Veterans Charity Event here from Oct. 21st-27th 2018 that was a Great Success! To see photos from that event they were posted on Sacred Waters CO Facebook & Instagram Social Media Accounts and in attached photos on this Blog Post above on our websites. Somehow my last Blog Post of Nov. 2018 did not save or post. As always, all our Charity Participates have all gone home with some Free Gifts from Sacred Waters CO and a Partner / Pro Staff Fishing Companies ranging from anything from Free rods, reels, lines, leader/tippet, tools/accessories, nets, flies, hats, t-shirts, and/or decals/stickers.
We cannot say enough thank you’s to our donors and donor members as should everyone who may fish here locally or future members. We have accomplished a lot here in our Sacred Waters and it has not only benefited our Ranches but has benefited our local fisheries public &/or private as a whole. Thank you again, Sacred Waters Donors & Donor Members for making this all possible. So should anyone else who is Not a Donor, Donor Member, Guest, Charity Participate, always remember well into the future as you fish around here the quality of fishing be it on Sacred Waters Conservation Waters/Ranches or waters affected by and influenced by our Conservation Waters/Ranches that these 2017 & 2018 Donors & Donor Members made this possible. Sacred Waters CO will continue doing the best we can to save what we can. But everything above or below our Conservation Waters we don’t have any control over. On the bright side for many is fish don’t have boundaries so the fishes protected in all our waters will help repopulate everything else that gets abused & destroyed every year. Unfortunately, this tends to be our reality every Summer just a lot worse this last Summer of 2018 and now as I predicted we are starting this recovery process. Thank you, thank you, thank you........ “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” – John Lennon
We have a change of the guard going on this year with many New Board Members, Officers, and Professional Anglers joining the Sacred Waters CO Team. Adding a much-needed diversity of backgrounds, experiences, talents, &/or ideas to the organizations. You may have noticed this on our websites About Us Pages and our social media pages, with more being added over the next few weeks as the Board & Professional Angler Staff grows and changes through our next few board meetings. We are now in our third year with a solid annual donor base for Donor Members and Charity Donors keeping the lights on per se. Which has financed not only all our initial startup costs, everything we’ve accomplished so far with our Mission Goals, and charity events. Even in one of the worst droughts ever and now highest water/flood year in a long time. As always thank you all for being selfless and generous understanding, supporting SWCO, our Mission, and seeing the bigger picture… But we are limited to only 15 High Level Donor Memberships (5 of each Level) and semi-limited/conditional availability on Bronze Level Trips till we grow, and we can’t grow without you the New Donors and Members. We had added a New Testimonials Page on both the SWCO Websites and had been shared also on our Facebook Page. These pages don’t just warm our hearts with the wonderful words shared about Sacred Waters CO and me personally but in turn will show many people who we truly are and what we have/are accomplishing here. You will also see a Comment Submission Form on Page to add your own comments too. We have been working on Grant Applications throughout this Spring to generate more funds for not only to help provide more Charity Events in the future here. But as well as to finance bigger better environmental, conservation projects we had planned on since day #1 of SWCO and have slowly been able to work on as time and money have allowed. As mentioned last year major data collections of our fish and aquatic insect populations and habitat evaluations by our Fisheries Biologist and two Stream/Habitat specialists will be much easier to accomplish if we do receive some of this funding from Grants. We originally planned on bi-annual evaluations and annual follow up work we put them off last year because of the drought, so far could not do anything in 2019 because of the flooding, hopefully we will be able to get back on track with this major long-term project starting this Summer or Fall. We had just finally received a US Forest Service Permit for Guided Fishing trips in the San Juan National Forest. This opens more locations and fishing opportunities from the continental divide of Wolf Creek Pass to the East the whole way through the Pagosa District to the Piedra River drainage to the West. These guided trips are available to ALL Donor Levels and will especially benefit the Bronze Level (Daytrip) Donors/Clients and the public. We hope this too will not only help SWCO get more exposure to the general public, up our revenue with monies outside of guide pay going to our growth and the greater good of the SWCO Mission. Having so many more locations to choose from too will help us to continue to spread out fishing pressure even more, have a choice of different waters to always have options of the very best locations, in the best fishing conditions, and much greater variety of waters, landscapes, fishes, &/or new adventures for our Donors, Clients, Charities, etc.… Much of the same or better benefits as we explained in 2018 emails and blog posts about adding fishing to the Bronze Level. These guided trips will be priced the same as our Bronze Level Fees, with day-trips, overnight/multi day backpacking, or horseback available. Multi-day backpacking/hike-in & horseback fees based on location & number of days (please contact us for details & pricing). The San Juan River Cutthroat Discovery. Recently Colorado Parks and Wildlife had discovered some populations on a sub-species of Cutthroats unique to this region that had been thought to be extinct for 100+yrs. We had shared this information on our SWCO & Personal Social Media Pages. If you had not seen or heard about it, we have attended meeting with CPW, USFS, & TU discussing these unique rare fish, where they have been found so far, the steps and plans of cultivating stocks/populations of them, and recovery projects to repopulate them. This is an amazing discovery and project, possibly the biggest thing in fisheries science to or that may ever happen in our lives. We at SWCO had reached out in said meetings to help however we can so in the future here (current scope of work on project is 6-year process) so far. With this being said as thing move forward with this project, we may be soliciting you for volunteer time, donations, etc.… to help SWCO, USFS & CPW to work on this project. The other exciting news about this discovery and these rare unique fish is we have some of the locations they currently live in and are planned to be repopulated in with of USFS Outfitting Permit so we can not only have a possibility of catching these fish but also having these areas we can monitor these fish, shut down at least guided fishing in these areas when conditions aren’t good for the fish and so forth. I could go on & on for pages on all the details, plans, excitement but I’ll keep it short. Anyone wanting to learn more though please feel free to contact me and I share what I know and find out in the future. We are also opening lines of communication and putting feelers out with some new ranch owners in the area. As well as revisiting with some other ranch owners on working out lease contracts to expand our Conservation Waters/Ranches here locally. The Year of the Float Trips… One of many good things to come out of this large snowpack and high- water year is the extended Float/Boat Trip Season. We should see more fishable floating conditions soon enough probably in the next week or two. Many of those who know about Mesa Canyon/Bass Ranch Floats on the San Juan know it’s usually a really short season sometimes a few weeks, sometimes only a few days and know it can be one of the Best Floats & Fishing Trips you can have in the entire Country. The float trip season on the San Juan Proper usually ends by the first week of July at best most years this year it may not even get started till then. This has always been a hard trip to schedule due to its short somewhat unpredictable window. This year being forecasted to be a wetter than normal and cooler than average Summer and with a high-water equivalent well above average deep snowpack it may last for a long time this year. If interested in Float trips on the San Juan Proper this is the year, my thoughts at present are we should have clearer water above town any day may be within the next week and floatable & fishable conditions probably into the second week of July or so. Boat fishing below town could start to be good by the second week of July or so and only get better till it gets too low to float which may not be till August. Charity Events on the Books so far for 2019: At present we have 3 Veteran’s Charity Fishing Events already on schedule for 2019. The Dark Horse Group, 5-6 Combat Marines who were the frontline in Fallujah, Iraq. These Marines are from all over the country and not any kind of nonprofit group scheduled for Sept. 5 th -9 th 2019. (with this group any volunteers &/or donations of housing options, cooking/food, &/or money to help with travel expenses would be greatly appreciated and please feel free to contact me to discuss details, make donations, or to volunteer. Thank You) Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing Group of Fort Hood, TX. 6 Veterans Scheduled for Sept. 18 th -23 rd , 2019. (PHWFF is a national nonprofit group we have worked with for 5-6 yrs. Prior to and after starting SWCO with chapters hosted from Dallas, Ft. Hood, & Colorado Springs over the years.) Of course, any volunteers and/or donations are welcome and appreciated housing is already booked, but monetary, fishing gear, and/or food/cooks always welcome and helpful. Patriot Anglers of N. TX & S. OK 6-8 Disabled Combat Veterans scheduled for Oct. 21 st -25 th , 2019. This group is a nonprofit of disabled combat veterans from all around Northern Texas and Southern Oklahoma. We had worked with this group since their start as a PHWFF Chapter before branching out into their own new, different program and group in 2016 hosting them on trips here at SWCO in 2017, 2018, as well as joining them in Texas, Oklahoma, other locals in Colorado for events, fundraisers and such. (Of course, any volunteers and/or donations are welcome and appreciated housing is already booked, cooks & food already taken care of but monetary, or fishing gear always welcome and helpful.) With some of our recent changes here within and out of our control we have stopped operations on some of the Pine/Los Pinos Tailwater Conservation Ranches/Waters for the moment. This river had been underutilized the last two years due to it overall mismanagement of water flows and tough fishing conditions. Not being favored by our Donor Members and Charity participates. With one ranch owner going through a divorce and both our leased ranches recently going up for sale recently we could not work out a good plan for this season and not all that big of a loss considering all the factors. Most of you have heard me express my love for this fisheries and opinion of it being 1 of the best big trout waters in the country which I still believe and can be even better with actual proper management. We will revisit the ideas of leasing or purchasing some waters/ranches on this river in the future as we grow, but at this point in time we just are not big enough or have a large enough budget to influence Pine River Irrigation District to properly manage this rivers flows to benefit the fishery &/or anglers nor can be benefit ranch owners financially speaking if people can’t get enough good fishing condition windows on these ranches. And at this point and with our current donor base its unfavorable compared to our other waters/ranches. We do still have the same amount of Private Conservation Waters/Ranches as we did our First year of 2017, technically more than last year 2018 because we had to shut most of them down prior to and after the main busy fishing times because of the drought, and in 2019 with all the New National Forest Waters on our new permit of 100+ miles of water and not having to worry about shutting down to fishing due to waters/ranches getting too low, hot, lethal and unethical to fish this year we actually have the most water ever available here at Sacred Waters CO. With some ongoing contract/lease negotiations it may be even more soon enough too. New or Renewing Donor Memberships: Donation amounts for 2017 Charter Donors are set for Life at the discounted rate if renewed Annually as discussed annually and in your emails & member agreements/contracts packet that were mailed out with your Free Gifts. 2017 Charter Donors that have not renewed annually you will not get the 2017 discounts in the future. For New/1st Time 2018 or 2019 Donors/Members their rate will be set for 3 years at discounted rates listed below benefiting them to renew Annually if we ever must raise the rates in the future. “The future depends on what you do today.” -Mahatma Gandhi Discounted Rates for 2019: Rates for New Donor Levels for 2019: Bronze Level: Was $150.00. Now Only: $100.00, Applicable Guide Fees Apply and less (-) $25.00 on total Guide Fee on Bronze Level Donor Trips for all your trips in 2019 up to December 31st of 2019. Silver Level: Was $3500.00. Now Only: $3400.00, Less (-) $25.00 off for Guest Guide Fees for all trips in 2019. Gold Level: Was $5500.00. Now Only: $5200.00, Less (-) $25.00 off for Guest/s Guide Fees per person per trip for all Trips in 2019. Platinum/Corporate Level: Was $10,000.00. Now Only: $9500.00. Less (-) $25.00 off for Guest/s Guide Fees per person per trip for all of 2019. Much more Details or to become a Donor Member please review SWCO Donor Contract, Rules, Regulations, and Procedures Booklet by Clicking this link or visiting our Join Us / Donate Pages. *Please keep in mind if you do donate in 2019 this will also be your membership renewal level for up to 3 years if you consecutively renewed annually. * (*After January 1st of 2020 all Donor Member Level Packages will go back up to Original Pricing, Guest/s Fees will also return to original pricing, and all level prices are subject to increase as we expand through the future. *) Please review the FB & IG Social Media Pages and our Websites. I hope it can help show you all more easily and clearly the Efforts and Accomplishments SWCO has put forth with your and other donors’ generous donations. These Social Media Pages are updated with the most up to date need to know information almost daily. If you want to get some of the best fishing anywhere in 100 miles of Pagosa Springs, CO in the future here. Donate Today and help us protect our local fisheries and provide the healing benefits of outdoor therapy to as many people as possible. We can't really predict or control/change the weather, but we can provide the best fishing at the best times and protect our waters and fishes at the worst times. But we can only accomplish this with your generous donations. Last but Not Least! We did get a few scouting runs in on our local waters in the strange somewhat of a Spring we had. This year has been weird to say the least going from Winter to Summer, to Winter, to Summer, to Winter, to Finally actual Summer. The fishing windows were very few and far between from Ice Out to Present but we at least got in a few Guide Days/Scouting Trips to evaluate how the fishes survived the Winter. It's looking to be a Great Season for 2019! (A few photo samples here below...) Thank You, Tight Lines;
Joseph Eichelberger Founder, President of Sacred Waters Co Professional Angler, Custom Fly Tyer/Designer Freelance Outdoors Writer, Photographer, & Fisheries Consultant Contact Us: http://www.sacredwaters.co http://www.sacred-waters.org (970)-444-2187 (970)731-1443 Sacred Waters CO 135 Country Center Dr F 166 Pagosa Springs, CO 81147 joe@sacredwaters.co Sacred Waters Facebook Sacred Instagram (* Sacred Waters CO, Inc. and Sacred Waters CO Foundation are Equal Opportunity Employers and Service Providers working through Special Use Permits from USDA San Juan National Forest Pagosa District and the State of Colorado. Licensed/Permitted, Bonded & Insured Outfitter in Colorado #OUT.0003217 * )
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AuthorOur President Joseph Eichelberger, with 20 years of guiding experience and a long family heritage of responsible outdoorsmanship, brings a unique perspective to our blog as he promotes fishing conservation and education in Pagosa Springs, CO where he's lived since 2008. Archives
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