Time: 9:30AM – 12:30PM
Location: Upper Pinnacle Rock through braided area
Fish Landed: 10
Arkansas River 09/23/2012 Photo Album
G and W were up early on Sunday morning after spending the night at the refurbished Royal Gorge Angler Lodge. Both were anxious to perform a scientific experiment on fly fishing on the Arkansas River, but first they enjoyed a hearty breakfast at Mr. Ed’s Family Restaurant in Canon City. After breakfast they stopped at the Royal Gorge Angler fly shop and Taylor’s dad Bill helped them purchase flies that matched the successful flies used by Taylor on Saturday. Next they made the short drive to a pullout above Pinnacle Rock along the lower Arkansas River.
G and W rigged their rods in the manner recommended by Taylor and tied on flies that matched Taylor’s selections and began fishing at 9:30AM. Sunday’s fishing would be a scientific experiment to determine how much better the private water was than the public water on the Arkansas River. The weather was nearly the same as Saturday, and they began fishing at the same time of the day with the same set up and the same flies. The only variables that changed were the stretch of water and the absence of Taylor, the guide.
W began fishing with the 20 incher and a red midge larva and immediately landed a 10 inch rainbow in a deep run just above Pinnacle Rock. Next W picked up a small brown on the 20 incher in a short deep pocket next to the bank. A fairly long dry spell followed as W moved into the sunlight and out of the shadows and began fishing a more open stretch with moderate riffles. Eventually in a spot just above the pullout where the car was parked, W landed another small brown in a three foot deep riffle section where the current angled against the bank.
When W caught G at the thirty yard long riffle below the junction of the three braids, he crossed to the northwest side of the river. Between the long riffle and the left braid above the junction with the north channel, W landed another four fish with the largest measuring eleven inches. W circled back to the north braid and fished the low end and landed one brown, but another fisherman was stationed 15 yards up the river and this blocked W’s further progression so he dropped back to the main branch and waded across the second braid to the southern most branch. When he reached the top of the island between the southern and middle branches he discovered G in the delicious long deep run next to the highway.
Sunday Morning Brown from Arkansas
G and W slowly worked up this deep run in parallel as W landed a small brown near the tail out of the center current. But that was the extent of W’s success in this beautiful stretch of water as meanwhile G caught fish after fish including some nice chunky browns in the 13 and 14 inch range. W began changing flies and tried the stonefly that matched G’s, an RS2, and a beadhead hares ear. Eventually G decided to rotate back to the bottom of the run and make another sweep while W proceeded up the river to the pocket water. After using the nymphs in a few marginal pockets, W decided to return to hopper/dropper fishing and so he took the time to reinstall his tapered leader.
W elected to tie on a parachute hopper and dangled a beadhead hares ear two feet beneath the hopper. In a sweet deep pocket next to and behind a large protruding rectangular rock W hooked a fish on the dropper that immediately raced into the neighboring fast water. In an instant the line snapped and W discovered he’d lost both flies to a bad knot. W replaced the hopper with a Chernobyl ant and another beadhead hares ear and in another pocket upstream landed his tenth brown of the morning on the BHHE. Just as W released the fish, G appeared on the shoulder of the highway overlooking the river and pointed to his watch. It was time to depart so G could catch his flight from Denver back to Kansas City.
What were the results of the experiment? G and W probably caught nearly equivalent numbers of fish during the same time period as the day before, but clearly the average size of the fish was down by several inches. It’s good we had to quit when we did because we were clearly spoiled by fishing the Holy Water.