Time: 10:00AM – 3:00PM
Location: Above Buena Vista
Arkansas River 07/20/2021 Photo Album
Flows and fly shop reports for the upper basin of the Arkansas River were favorable, so Jane and I reserved a campsite for Monday and Tuesday night, July 19 and 20. We completed a new hike in the Arkansas River Valley on Monday afternoon after making the nearly three hour drive from Denver. After camping on Monday night, Jane and I had a light breakfast, before we completed an out and back 6.4 mile bike ride from our campground.
Upon my return to the campground, with the temperature now in the upper seventies, I prepared to fish. I chose to wear my wet wading pants and wading socks, and I was never disappointed with my decision. The river was in near perfect shape with flows in the 650 CFS range and exceptional visibility. The flows were being augmented from Twin Lakes to support the whitewater rafting operations, and us fishermen were the beneficiaries.
Side Pocket
Once my gear was in place, I hiked along the west side of the river for fifteen minutes and then cut down to the shoreline, where I tied on a peacock hippie stomper and a size 14 yellow stimulator. A fly shop report recommended golden stoneflies, yellow sallies, dark caddis, and pale morning duns: and these suggestions influenced my choice of flies at the start of the day. I persisted with the double dries for thirty minutes and landed two small brown trout while enduring several refusals.
Hello Mr. Brown
Fish Were Hanging Out at the Head of Pools Such As This
I concluded that I could do better and switched to a dry/dropper approach. My choice for this method that covered a deeper portion of the water column was a size 10 tan pool toy hopper, iron sally, and a salvation nymph. These flies proved to be winners, and I maintained their presence on my line, until I quit at 3:00PM. My net felt the sag of twenty additional brown trout, and the salvation accounted for eighty percent of them. The game on Tuesday largely centered around reading the water and not dwelling in one place too long. Productive water consisted of moderate depth and velocity, and these attributes when combined with proximity to large boulders offered a high likelihood of success.
River Beast
I returned to our campsite at 1:00PM for lunch with Jane, and the fish count was perched on sixteen. After lunch amid the threat of thunderstorms I notched an additional six fish to bring my cumulative total on the day to twenty-two. The trout on Tuesday were predominantly in the eight to eleven inch range, but three or four pushed the tape to twelve to thirteen inches.
The Sun Shines on Mt. Princeton
Tuesday was a fine day of prospecting promising lies, and steady persistence was rewarded with hard fighting wild brown trout on the Arkansas River. A return trip is not out of the question.
Fish Landed: 22