Monthly Archives: July 2023

Eagle River – 07/03/2023

Time: 10:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: Below Wolcott

Eagle River 07/03/2023 Photo Album

I did more lake fishing in June than I ever fished lakes during my entire fly fishing career. I was proud of my improvements in lake fishing knowledge and fish catching success, and I also enjoyed sampling some lakes that I never fished previously. However, as I scanned the stream and river flows in Colorado a couple days ago, I felt the urge to once again wet a line in moving water. Our trip to Creede, CO at the end of June coincided with the Yampa River flows falling to my preferred range of 1,000 CFS, so I missed out on one of my favorite annual trips to Steamboat Springs. I turned my attention to my other prime edge fishing destinations, the Eagle River and the Arkansas River.

The DWR chart for the Eagle River presented steadily dropping water levels, with the Avon gauge registering 1060 CFS and the gauge below Milk Creek in Wolcott displaying 1250 CFS. Judging from the slope of the curve, I estimated that the Eagle would drop below 1,000 CFS at Wolcott by Monday. The Arkansas River was rolling along at 1860 CFS, and the fly shop stream reports documented good edge fishing, although they mentioned stained water. The mention of poor clarity spooked me, and I targeted the Eagle River for Monday, July 3.

On Monday morning I revisited the DWR website, and I was disappointed to discover that the graphs for the Eagle and Arkansas Rivers showed a temporary leveling, and the Eagle flows remained very close to the numbers that I quoted above. My preference would be for 200 CFS less, but I concluded that I fished at the current levels before with some success, so I made the drive. I arrived at a roadside pullout by 10:00AM, and the temperature was in the low seventies. It was clear that Monday would be a hot day, but I decided to wear my waders, since I anticipated fighting through bushes, willows and thorny plants. My Sage One five weight was my rod of choice in order to handle the higher flows, wind, and larger than average fish. I cut off all my tippet extensions and constructed a new series with a section of 3X followed by 4X. This move was an effort to preempt bad knots or damaged tippet in the event that I connected with a large fish.

A Good Place to Begin

By 10:30 I was perched along the river at a spot, where the nice long slowing section of water filled the space between the bank and the main current. I selected an amber ice dub chubby Chernobyl from my fly box and then added an olive-black Pat’s rubber legs and a 20 incher. I wanted large weighted flies to get deep in the morning session. Neither flies produced results in the first two prime locations, so I swapped the 20 incher for an emerald caddis pupa. The caddis pupa fooled a five inch brown trout, but it subsequently got replaced by a salvation nymph. Neither of these flies attracted the attention of the fish, so I changed flies once again. I replaced the Pat’s rubber legs with an iron sally, and I then swapped the salvation nymph for a beadhead hares ear. Finally, at the top of a churning pocket behind some exposed rocks, I spotted the flash of a fish and netted an eleven inch brown trout. I was on the board.

A Small Start

Willows in Water

I remained at one fish, when I broke for lunch along the flooded willows at 11:50PM. As I munched my sandwich, I observed the river, and I noticed the beginning of a sparse pale morning dun hatch. In addition, yellow sallies fluttered up over the river. I resumed casting the dry/dropper after lunch, but as I prospected a nice deep run, I spotted a very fine rainbow trout, as it rose to sip something from the surface. I was reluctant to reconfigure with dries after one random surface sip, but I was doing nothing with the nymphs, so I made the change. I tied on a size 14 yellow stimulator (stonefly) and then added a size 16 cinnamon pale morning dun. The once viewed rainbow never reappeared, but I did generate a few looks and refusals from some smaller fish.

Nice Length

Just a Bit Smaller Than the Rainbow

I moved on and fished the double dry for another ten minutes, but with no rising trout, it seemed rather futile at the elevated flows. I returned to a dry/dropper setup that featured a yellow fat Albert instead of the chubby Chernobyl, and behind the large foam fly I added the iron sally and a hare nation (PMD nymph imitation). The density of the fluttering PMD’s increased, but the trout were not feeding on the surface, so I concluded that nymphs might be the ticket. I plucked a size 18 pheasant tail nymph from my fleece wallet, and I replaced the hair nation nymph. Suddenly I had a hot fly, and between 1:00PM and 3:00PM I landed five additional trout. All the afternoon netted fish succumbed to the pheasant tail nymph or its close cousin, the PMD super nova. Between 1:00 and 2:00 the intensity of the hatch peaked, and this period coincided with my hottest action. Two of my prize catches were a rainbow and brown trout in the fifteen inch range, and these fish displayed excellent girth. A rainbow of thirteen inches also found my net, and the other two fish were rainbows of eleven inches. I also hooked and failed to land an excellent rainbow that fought valiantly and eventually maneuvered into the fast water and broke off all three flies. I lost a fat Albert, iron sally and pheasant tail nymph to the combative cold water fish, and I was not pleased.

Entering the River

Hooked My Cast Around the Branches

During the 1:00PM to 3:00PM time frame I probably connected with as many fish as I landed. All except the one that broke off my flies managed to toss the hook after a very brief hook up. Between 3:00 and 3:30 I approached a section that I refer to as the flats. The river widens and the left side features a wide riffle stretch with a water depth of two to three feet. I thought I saw a rise, so I removed the dry/dropper and tied a size 16 cinnamon comparadun to my line. Repeated drifts over the site of the rise failed to induce a response, so I added the yellow stimulator with the cinnamon comparadun on an eight inch dropper. Neither of these fly options coerced as much as a look, so I reeled in and quit for the day.

Cactus Flower

I would be fooling myself, if I did not admit that I was disappointed with Monday. Yes, I landed two very hefty trout, but six fish in 4.5 hours is a below average catch rate. Before the hatch activity, the trout languished in an inactive state. I suspect that the flows remained on the high side, the water temperature was cold, and it took longer to reach the prime range required for insect hatches and subsequent feeding. If I return to wade fish, I will deploy a deep nymphing rig for the morning session. I am scheduled for a guided float fishing trip on the Eagle River on Friday, and I expect conditions to be prime. Stay tuned.

Fish Landed: 6

Urad Lake -06/30/2023

Time: 11:30AM – 2:30PM

Location: Inlet area

Urad Lake 06/30/2023 Photo Album

Friday was available for a short day of fly fishing, since Jane and I had a whitewater rafting trip planning session on the agenda for Friday evening. I checked the Front Range flows, but they remained unfavorable, so I once again chose a lake for my fly fishing outing. The Big Thompson River was actually a stream possibility with flows at 124 CFS, and I have had moderate success at those levels in the past, but I felt more comfortable with a lake adventure. It has been several years since I visited Urad Lake, so I decided to revisit the high elevation gem just up the mountain from the Henderson Mine. Fortunately the mine is not visible from the end of the lake, where I fished, but the drive on a rough dirt road to the parking lot was not scenic. Actually I had very little time to look at the scenery, as the access road was extremely bumpy with potholes everywhere. I suspect that my average speed was less than 5 MPH, as I crept along fearful of bottoming out on one of the bumps.

Weather was another consideration. The closest Weather Underground station was Idaho Springs, and the graphic depicted thunderstorms in the morning and then again at 2PM. I gambled that I could sneak in three hours of fishing before the weather forced me to quit. I drove through the morning thunderstorm and showers, and when I arrived at the parking lot just under 11,000 feet, the temperature registered a cool 41 degrees. I pulled on my Adidas pullover and followed that with my North Face light down coat and then covered those layers with my rain shell. My New Zealand billed hat with earflaps was a no brainer, and I was pleased for every layer that I added. For casting, I assembled my Sage R8 four weight pole, as I expected an abundant quantity of longer casts.

South Looking North

The Cove Beyond the First Inlet

I climbed a steep four wheel drive road for .2 mile, and I paused three or four times to catch my breath. Once the road evened out, I maintained an even pace and then dropped down a winding trail with switchbacks to the edge of the lake by the eastern inlets. Two creeks enter the lake at the southern end of the stillwater, and I began my day with the first one that I encountered. I began with a tan size 8 pool toy hopper, a prince nymph and a salvation nymph. A prince and pheasant tail were suggested by the book. In this case the book was not helpful, so after a reasonable amount of time I swapped the salvation for a salad spinner. These flies proved ineffective, and I exchanged the salad spinner for a zebra midge, and finally a small rainbow trout followed the flies and then turned and snatched the midge imitation. I was on the board with one fish before lunch.  I sat on a grassy bank and inhaled my lunch, and by now some blue skies appeared, so I removed my raincoat and stuffed it in my backpack.

Brilliant

After lunch I stayed with the dry/dropper; however, I replaced the prince with a hares ear and added a zebra midge as the end nymph. I wanted lighter nymphs to combine with the less buoyant hippie stomper. I could see sipping rises throughout the plume of the entering creek, so I was fairly certain that the trout were tuned into some form of midge. I decided to explore the other entry creek, and I moved west to a prime spot, where the faster water spread out and dropped off in the lake. Quite a few fish were visible in the narrow riffle section of the creek right above the entry point, and fish rose along the current seam that flowed into the lake. I began prospecting the riffle area, and the fish count mounted to five, as rainbows and brook trout picked off the zebra midge and hares ear. This period of success was accompanied by quite a few refusals to the hippie stomper.

Look at the Speckles

After I disturbed the water considerably by landing fish, I turned my attention to the deeper water of the lake proper. I pivoted to face the lake and several sporadic rises were evident to my right. I fired some casts to the vicinity of the rises, and in one instance after I allowed the flies to rest for a thirty second count, a fish raced to the surface to crush one of my flies. I was certain that it took the stomper, but when I settled it in my net, I found the zebra midge in its lip. Moreover, the fish was a six inch tiger trout. I am not sure I ever caught a tiger trout before, so I was rather excited despite the small size.

Inlet Number Two

Beauty Over Size

Next I focused on the deeper water, where the entering current fanned out, and here I landed a couple very small brook trout, but the hippie stomper continued to elicit splashy refusals. After a particularly long lull in action, I stripped in the flies, and I made another significant shift. I removed both flies and attached a single light gray size 16 deer hair caddis to my line. The move was a roaring success, and over the remainder of my time the fish count elevated from eight to fourteen. The solitary caddis was particularly effective in the riffles of the creek, and some spectacularly colored rainbows in the eleven to twelve inch range lingered in my net. A few hungry feeders also nabbed the caddis where the creek fanned out into the lake.

Yellow, Blue and Green

Love This

By 2:00PM some threatening dark clouds appeared above the ridge to the southwest, and I heard the din of distant thunder. The wind escalated, and I pulled up my hood and snugged my collar around my neck. It became increasingly clear that I was in the bullseye of the storm, so I hooked my fly to the rod and began the .5 mile hike back to the parking lot. I ascended the steep hill to the rough road, and at this point heavy snow flakes began to pelt my body. My raincoat did a fine job of protecting me, but my bare hands took the brunt of the wet snow and sleet. Ice accumulated on the cork rod handle, and I switched the grip from left to right and back to left in order to shove the off hand in the fleece lined wader pockets. My hands were stiff claws, when I reached the Santa Fe, and the stiffness inhibited my ability to remove the fly and breakdown the rod. The parking lot was muddy, so I left my fleece lined tights on under my jeans, and I did not bother to swap out my socks. When I was ready, I jumped in the car and turned on the defroster and ran the heater for five minutes, before I made the challenging pot hole drive down the four wheel drive rock garden.

Submerged

Lovely Shade of Pink

In spite of the rough drive and the adverse weather, I enjoyed my brief day on Urad Lake. I was challenged to solve the riddle, and eventually success came my way. This was an instance where experimentation and persistence paid dividends. It was evident that Urad Lake has not been stocked yet in 2023, but I actually liked the challenge of catching wild or carryover trout. Hopefully I can transition into edge fishing bigger rivers next week, but if lakes continue to be my destination, I feel like like I have made significant progress in my lake angling evolution.

Fish Landed: 14