Time: 2:30PM – 4:30PM
Location: Clear Creek Canyon 2-3 miles upstream from CO route 93
Fish Landed: 3
Clear Creek 03/29/2014 Photo Album
A rare mild day on Saturday March 29 gave me the itch to get out my fly rod and test the waters. The high temperature was projected to reach the mid to upper 60’s, and the weather experts predicted the wind would be moderate compared to what I could expect to encounter Sunday and Monday. I wrapped up some garden chores and completed my long run in preparation for the Cherry Creek Sneak 10 miler and then downed a quick lunch, packed my gear and departed. Since I was off to a late start and didn’t want to drive very far, I decided to sample the closest water, Clear Creek in the canyon just west of Golden, CO.
I drove two or three miles into the canyon, and many pullouts were filled with vehicles, but eventually I spotted several nice wide shoulder areas without cars. The water appeared to have nice alternating pocket stretches and smoother pools, so I executed a U-turn and parked on the shoulder facing east. I put on my waders and boots and strung my rod and carefully scrambled down a steep bank. I began fishing with a Chernobyl ant trailing a beadhead hares ear, and within the first 15 minutes I experienced two refusals to the Chernobyl. This was good news as the fish were looking to the surface for their meal despite the icy water temperatures, but it was frustrating that they wouldn’t close the deal. The water was a tinge off-color, so that was another reason I was pleased to spot fish inspecting my fly.
I moved on and switched the hares ear for a salvation nymph, and in the next nice deep pool another fish appeared below the Chernobyl and then dropped back to the depths. What should I do? It was pretty clear the fish were not interested in my beadhead subsurface nymphs, so I decided to switch the dry fly offering and clipped off both flies and replaced with a size 16 deer hair caddis with an olive body. This didn’t even provoke any refusals, so I scaled up and tied on a size 14 stimulator with a gray body. This generated another refusal or two from some tiny trout. Not only were the fish in this stream small, they were playing hard to get. Clear Creek is renowned for dumb fish that rise readily to attractors, and these fish were certainly rising, but they weren’t slamming the fly like they were supposed to.
Clear Creek Where I Began Fishing on Saturday Afternoon
I sat down on a rock and decided to make a radical change to my approach. I added a strike indicator and a weighted 20 incher and returned to a beadhead hares ear. This proved to be futile, and eventually I snagged a rock in a spot where the water was deep and fast causing me to snap off both flies. Perhaps the discolored water meant that worms and eggs were present in the subsurface drift? These flies worked on the North Platte so why not try them here? I extended my leader and crimped on a split shot, apricot egg and chocolate San Juan worm and began to cover the attractive water. These flies did not attract one iota of interest; however, in one deep run a small brown trout rose and inspected my neon red strike indicator!
How should I interpret this action? In the past when this occurred, I tied on a dry fly that displayed some red coloration; and I had some success with this strategy, so I elected to try it again. I found a size 14 royal wulff in my fly box, removed all the nymphing gear, and tied on the red and peacock dry fly. I began prospecting this gaudy fly that doesn’t really imitate any natural insect and guess what happened? I landed three small trout barely over six inches and in addition had several refusals, a foul hooked fish, and a momentary hook up on a fish that escaped. That represents a lot of action over a hour of fishing, but as 4:30 approached I decided to call it quits and head home.
The fish were tiny and infuriating in their selectivity toward attractor flies, but I partially solved the riddle and managed to land a few fish. Solving the problem is what attracts me to this sport and keeps me coming back.