Time: 10:30AM – 3:00PM

Location: End of path back to the boulder area along the fisherman path

Fish Landed: 15

South Boulder Creek 08/30/2014 Photo Album

South Boulder Creek is rapidly becoming my home water. I can drive from my house to the parking lot below the dam in one hour so it meets the proximity criteria that is associated with home water. Intimacy with the stream is the other factor cited in descriptions of home waters, and with each visit this summer, I am gaining more knowledge of the nuances of fishing South Boulder Creek. Having said that, the only constant in fly fishing is change.

After returning from whitewater rafting on the Arkansas River and fishing in the South Platte River, I needed to spend a full week at work in order to catch up. A few unexpected glitches forced me to work on Thursday and Friday, so I was in dire need of some river therapy, and I scheduled a rare weekend fishing day on Saturday. It was Labor Day weekend, so I was concerned that the local streams would be unusually crowded. The flows on the Big Thompson River and South Boulder Creek were attractive, and I selected the latter since it was a shorter drive, and the Big Thompson attracts more out of state tourists due to its proximity to Rocky Mountain National Park.

I got off to a reasonably early start in an attempt to beat the crowds, but the parking lot was already approaching capacity with five or six pickup trucks and cars present as I pulled in at 9:30AM. Perhaps I did not get an early enough start. It was a very nice late August day with the temperature reading at 71 degrees as I stood in the parking lot and prepared to fish, and the high temperature probably reached 81 in the middle of the afternoon before some large clouds rolled in. The flows were at 125 cfs, and this level is a bit high resulting in slightly more challenging wading than ideal levels between 80 and 100 cfs, but I have fished at higher flows, and 125 is certainly enjoyable.

I hiked down the path on the north side of the stream as far as I could until it faded into dense bushes and vegetation, and then I found a faint spur that allowed me to reach the creek further downstream than any previous visit in 2014. I’m very intrigued with the idea of crossing and bushwhacking even further downstream, but I need to get an even earlier start to satisfy this curiosity. As I hiked along the path, I passed quite a few fishermen on the upper .5 miles, but miraculously the entire lower stretch appeared to be void of competing anglers.

I tied on a parachute hopper as my first fly simply because it was readily available in the small fly box that is attached to the strap of my frontpack, and also because I had a hunch it might produce. I began my day by working downstream to some short but deep pockets on the edge of the creek below me, but this strategy did not produce. Perhaps I spooked the fish because of my presence upstream? This may have been the reason for the lack of production from the parachute hopper, so I left it on my line and reversed direction and worked upstream popping the large dry fly into some juicy pockets and deep runs. Alas the hopper just wasn’t attracting fish even after giving it the benefit of the doubt, so I clipped it off and attached a size 12 stimulator with a medium green body. A stimulator with a gray body had been a top producer for me on two previous trips to South Boulder Creek earlier in the season.

The stimulator finally generated a rise, and I hooked and landed an eight inch brown trout, but I continued to be disappointed with my ability to attract fish in some very attractive locations, so I replaced it with a green drake comparadun. It was still early in the day for green drakes, but a similar fly was on fire in my previous visit, and large juicy green drakes sometimes draw fish to the surface at all times of the day. Once again these thoughts were sound in theory, but proved to be flawed in reality. I did manage to hook one decent rainbow that rose in a deep run along a current seam, but then refusals became the ongoing pattern. At least fish were seeing the green drake as a food source and checking it out.

After an hour of focused fishing, I landed two fish, and I was dissatisfied with dry fly fishing so I elected to make a more dramatic change and converted to the dry/dropper method of fishing. I defaulted to my standard Chernobyl ant and beadhead hares ear with the addition of a salvation nymph, and I began to prospect all the likely spots. This move turned the tide, and I landed eight more fish before breaking for lunch at 12:30. I had a blast moving along quickly and popping casts into likely holding spots, and I picked up fish with rapid regularity. Much of my success came from less obvious pockets particularly when I lifted the flies at the tail before they spilled over a faster chute.

At 12:30 I approached a beautiful long run and pool and fished up to the midpoint until I saw a nice spot on the bank to sit and eat lunch. As I munched my sandwich, I observed quite a few yellow sallies slowly fluttering above the water and landing in the bushes. I thought about returning to a single dry yellow Sally or lime green trude after lunch, but I was having solid success with the dry/dropper approach, so I stuck with the method that was producing.

After lunch I resumed fishing the long pool, but amazingly the top half did not yield any fish. Between 1PM and 2:30PM I landed five more fish and hooked but did not land at least another three. My catch rate fell off, but the size of the fish improved as evidenced by the fact that most of the afternoon trout that rested in my net were in the 10-12 inch range. For one memorable stretch in three successive small pockets along the left bank, I spotted rainbows holding in front of a large submerged boulder. In each case there was a deep depression in front of the rock, and the fish was a foot or two out from the bank. Because I could see these fish, I allocated more than the usual three casts, and when I lacked success with a dead drift, I began to deploy a lift in front of the nose of the fish. In all three cases persistence and the lifting technique resulted in a hook up on the salvation nymph. It was very gratifying to spot the fish and devise a tactic to entice a take.

It was a fun day although the fishing action slowed measurably from 2:30 until 3:00, and this window coincided with the warmest portion of the day. As I walked back to the parking lot, I stopped at a few places and made some casts, and as I was doing this, some large clouds moved in from the west and blocked the sun. This change in light intensity provoked a sparse BWO hatch, so I swapped the salvation nymph for a size 20 soft hackle emerger. I paused to fish a small pocket as I made my final crossing of the stream and managed a momentary hook up with a brown. I’m guessing this fish slammed the soft hackle emerger on the swing, and perhaps I could have enjoyed additional success by imparting movement to the soft hackle, but I was tired and satisfied with my day, so I climbed up the bank and made the final steep ascent to the parking lot.