North Fork of St. Vrain Creek – 07/23/2006

Time: 10:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: Wild Basin, Finch Lake Trailhead

North Fork of St. Vrain Creek 07/23/2006 Photo Album

After having a great day on the Eagle River on Saturday, Jane and I agreed to go to Rocky Mountain National Park for the day on Sunday. Jane invited her friend, also Jane, to join us. We left the house around 8:30AM and decided to go to the Wild Basin entrance in the southeast corner of the park. This is where I fished on the Fourth of July with great success. The girls laced up their hiking boots and took off on the Ouzel Lake trail. I geared up and walked down the dirt road a decent distance. 

The stream level dropped considerably since the Fourth but was still flowing strong bank to bank. I tied on a green trude, and fairly quickly I landed a beautiful brook trout. I continued to catch fish, but not in the expected places. When another brookie came to my net, I thought it was going to be a brook trout day. By the end of the day I caught perhaps 5 or 6 brook trout, and they were in the 7-8 inch range, but they were very colorful. 

First Trout of the Day

I did not think the green trude was producing that well, so I converted to the royal stimulator that worked late afternoon on the Eagle. It is very buoyant and visible due to the swept back white calf tail wing. I picked up a few after the switch to the stimulator, but in a very nice run, refusals predominated, so I added a beadhead pheasant tail dropper, and the refusals morphed to takes. With the addition of the pheasant tail I began to catch predominantly brown trout. Many were in the 6-10 inch range with the occasional 11-12 inch fish, but it was great fun popping the stimulator in all the likely lies and pockets. The stream width enabled me to cover the entire area from either left, right or center position. 

Classic High Country Stream

At around 12:30 I returned to the car for lunch. I decided to remove the backpack and just fish with the front pack to lighten the load, and I returned to the stretch where I ended before lunch. At this point the stream spread out some, whereas before lunch I moved through a section where the stream narrowed and the gradient increased. The high gradient produced deep plunge pools, but they were not yielding fish. Unlike the Fourth of July, the fish spread out from the banks, but this was only the case in areas where the gradient was more gradual, and the stream bed widened. 

One of the Larger Browns

In the first hour after lunch, I caught trout with regularity on the royal stimulator. In fact, the pheasant tail dropper became a nuisance, so I removed it and fished with only the attractor. Unfortunately after about an hour of fishing, and 20 trout landed, the hackle unraveled, and this was the only royal stimulator in my possession. I switched to a green trude again, but the hackle on this fly also broke after a few fish. I decided to return to the car to my backpack and obtain more attractor dries.

Antennae Visible

  

When I returned to the creek, I fished a small size 14 lime green trude. This produced quite a few fish, although I also noticed quite a few green drake mayflies fluttering about. This was at 2:30PM, and I approached a beautiful deep pool with a large rock on the left bank. I experienced a refusal on the green trude from two fish, so I switched to a green drake cripple, and I drifted this large fly over the trout that I could see in the center of the pool. The visible trout indicated that it saw the drake cripple; when it rose, inspected, and then drifted downstream under it. I held my breath, and finally the cautious trout rose and slurped the cripple. What a fun scenario.  

A Very Productive Stretch

I continued fishing the green drake cripple and caught three or more fish, but eventually I lost it on a branch on a back cast. I looked in my front pack and spotted a gray humpy, that I placed there upon my return to the car. I tied on the humpy and landed another four or five. Eventually I reached the bridge where the road crossed the stream just before the Wild Basin parking area. By this time I landed approximately 40 trout. The largest fish was only 12 inches, but it was great fun, as I popped attractors in all the likely lies, stood in an ice-cold mountain stream, and enjoyed the beauty of the Rocky Mountains. I even sat down on a rock several times and drank from my water bottle, while I took it all in. 

Fish Landed: 40