Time: 10:00AM – 3:30PM

Location: .5 mile below the county line

Fish Landed: 7

Arkansas River 10/13/2015 Photo Album

The summer weather in October continued on Tuesday October 13, and I could not resist the temptation to take advantage. 9:30AM found me standing behind my car at a small pullout along the Arkansas River below Salida, CO. My dashboard informed me that it was 51 degrees, so I wore a fleece top for my morning on the river. I pulled my Sage One five weight out of its case, and proceeded to set it up with the Thingamabobber/level line configuration, since I expected to fish deep with nymphs during the morning session.

Once I was prepared, I walked down a worn path to a huge rock that jutted out into the river. A large deep pool and eddy formed below the jagged rock, so I stealthily walked to the tail and began to probe the depths with a salvation nymph and a zebra midge. I was quite confident that I would pick up some fish in the delicious water in front of me, but the pool did not deliver. After fifteen minutes I vacated the pool and moved above the rock to some deep runs that were very similar to the water that delivered outstanding results on October 2.

Once again my hopeful mindset was misplaced, but I continued to move upstream along the left bank. I was anticipating that as the water warmed up, the fish would become more active. The river structure that I was prospecting was very similar to areas that contained many hungry wild brown trout during previous visits to the Arkansas River. By 10:30 I lost confidence in the tiny zebra midge, so I swapped it for a RS2, and for the remainder of the morning I enjoyed a modicum of success. Five fish spent some time in my net. The first two were small brown trout that snapped up the RS2 in some narrow slack water along the bank.

Salvation Nymph Victim

Number three grabbed the salvation as it began to swing at the tail of a midstream pocket, and the fourth brown trout grabbed the RS2 in a riffle section with moderate depth. The fifth trout was a fifteen inch brown trout that hammered the salvation nymph in a deep trough in front of a large submerged boulder. As I climbed the bank to access the highway to hike back to the car for lunch, I was complimenting myself for managing to land five decent fish in relatively challenging conditions.

The Nice Brown Was In Front of the Exposed Rock

Opportunistic Morning Feeder

After lunch I drove west and parked at the familiar Fremont – Chafee county line. I contemplated crossing the river to fish the north bank as is my custom, but I convinced myself to seek some variety and remained on the south side of the river. I began fishing above the high ledge rock that often serves as my lunch spot. and I continued offering the salvation nymph and RS2. The morning session provided an average amount of action, so why tamper with success?

The afternoon water was even more attractive than that which I covered in the morning, but the fish were totally uncooperative. The sky was bright blue, and the sun was bright and warmed the air temperature to 80 degrees. These were not favorable conditions for a blue winged olive hatch, and in fact I only spotted one small adult during my entire time on the river. When I saw the one tiny mayfly above the river, I exchanged the RS2 for a beadhead soft hackle emerger. I fished with the nymph arrangement from 12:30 until 3:00 and connected with two more brown trout. The two afternoon fish were actually very nice, but I expected to land many more. In fact I was about to abandon the nymphing approach just as the larger of the two hammered the soft hackle emerger at the top of a long deep run. The second fish came from the same area.

Best Fish of the Afternoon

Between 2:30 and 3:00 I approached some juicy deep pockets right next to the rocky shoreline. These places are usually money in the bank, but on Tuesday that was not the case. I was able to spot two fish hovering a couple feet below the surface, but they were oblivious to my nymph and emerger, as I drifted them by the targeted fish repeatedly. I gave up on these fish and moved to the next deep pocket, and once again I sighted two fish. One was hanging out in front of a large submerged boulder, and it appeared to be actively feeding as it shifted from side to side to sip something.

I decided to make the time consuming switch from the thingamabobber/level line system to the conventional tapered leader, so I sat on a flat rock and made the change. I tied a Charlie boy hopper to my line and then knotted the salvation and soft hackle emerger below it. I lobbed the dry/dropper combination five feet above the visible trout that was suspended in front of the boulder, and the fish twitched its tail and made a slight move toward the terrestrial. But that was the extent of its interest, and repeated drifts were totally ignored. I probably should have plopped a beetle, but I did not think of this ploy at the time.

I now continued up the river prospecting the dry/dropper threesome for ten minutes, but shadows were making it difficult to follow the hopper, and my confidence was at a low ebb. It was three o’clock when I approached a nice wide deep riffle and pool, and I was bored with nymphing, and the dry/dropper move was not producing. I sat down on a rock and decided to convert to a sinking tip line and a sparkle minnow. The streamer saved my day earlier in the summer on the Williams Fork, so perhaps it was the answer on October 13. All the fly shop reports mentioned streamers as highly effective on pre-spawn brown trout during October.

Sparkle Minnow Ready for Action

I manipulated the sparkle minnow aggressively through three separate pools with no success. All three areas likely held multiple fish, but none responded to my thorough coverage and varied retrieves. The only response was a follow from a twelve inch brown, when I tossed the streamer directly upstream to some fairly marginal water. This gave me some hope, but it was the zenith of my sparkle minnow experience for the day.

By 3:30 I was feeling quite exhausted, and I lost all confidence in my ability to catch more fish. I found myself thinking more about my return trip and a snack than fishing, so I reeled up the streamer, climbed the bank and returned to the car.

Tuesday was a disappointing day of fishing, as I landed seven fish in 5.5 hours of wading and casting. I did not see a cloud in the sky during my entire stay, and the temperature reached eighty degrees. The flows dropped from 280 cfs to 230, so the combination of low flows, clear water, and high air temperatures caused the brown trout to hunker down and close their jaws. Six hours of driving is a significant commitment for seven fish. I need to take a break before giving the mighty Arkansas another chance.