Time: 10:00AM – 3:30PM

Location: Lone Pine

Fish Landed: 13

Arkansas River 11/07/2012 Photo Album

I thought my last fishing day in Colorado was probably Sunday, November 4 on the Big Thompson River, but then I read the weather forecast for the following week and noticed a high in Denver of 74 degrees. Could I really ignore an opportunity to fish in unseasonal weather in November? Nope. I read the Royal Gorge Angler fishing report and supposedly the browns were beyond their spawning period and eating everything that floated their way.

I packed the car on Tuesday evening and had everything ready for an early departure on Wednesday morning. For some reason Jane and I both woke up at 5AM even though we had the alarm set for 5:45, so I was out the door and on the road by 6AM, much earlier than planned. This put me in Canon City at the Royal Gorge Angler fly shop by 8:30 to consult with Taylor Edrington and purchase some flies. I bought four iron sallies and five midge patterns as Taylor advised using the iron sally as the top fly and a chartruese midge larva as the bottom fly. Taylor also gave me a series of locations to try on the lower end of Big Horn Sheep Canyon.

I decided to drive a bit farther than normal to Lone Pine access and parked in the first pullout beyond the entrance to the access area. The river was quite low at 200 cfs and it was rather apparent where the fish might be. I parked in the shadows and wore my stocking hat and several layers as the air temperature was probably in the high 40’s when I began fishing. My fingers were quite numb and chilled as I methodically tied on all the components of the nymph rig that I planned to deploy throughout the day. As Taylor suggested, I began with a size 14 iron sally as my top fly and the chartruese midge larva on the point. I walked down the road to the lower end of the Arkansas access area and began fishing a long run that ran along the north bank. Nothing was showing interest in my offerings so I moved to the top just below a monstrous exposed boulder and then retreated in order to skirt a huge deep pool.

When I reached the top of the large pool I began casting and running drifts through the deep run and riffles at the head of the pool. These were nice long drifts as I cast the flies three quarters upstream and then allowed them to drift quite a distance downstream into the deep pool using stack mends. Unfortunately despite all this great technique, I was only practicing my casting and mending as no fish seemed to be present in this great water. Finally I decided to change flies, so I clipped off the chartruese midge larva and replaced it with a beadhead hares ear nymph. Taylor had mentioned that hares ears were working.

After 45 minutes of fruitless casting, Taylor’s words proved to be correct as a nice 13 inch brown inhaled the hares ear in the middle of the deep run and I landed and photographed my first fish of the day. I moved upstream and at the head of another nice run of moderate depth felt the weight of a decent fish and landed another chunky twelve inch brown trout. Near the same location a smaller brown attacked the iron sally on the swing and I was now at three fish despite the chilly temperatures and the lack of action in the first 45 minutes.

Fish Came from Riffles Next to Exposed Boulder

I was now opposite the Santa Fe so I paused and climbed the bank to retrieve my lunch and ate it by the side of the river as I looked for fish in the slow moving deep water opposite my lunch rock. There were no insects and no fish, but the sun was rising higher in the sky and I shed my fleece hat and one of my top layers as I stashed my lunch back in the car and proceeded to fish upstream from where I ended the morning. It was now 12:15 and before I made too much progress I snagged on a sunken stick that was lodged against a rock, and as I attempted to dislodge the fly, I snapped off the iron sally and the hares ear.

Since the iron sally hadn’t really produced much, I decided to go with one of the twenty inchers I’d tied a couple weeks ago. This became my top fly and I added another hares ear as my point fly. I continued fishing this combination nearly the entire afternoon and landed another ten fish before quitting at 3:30. I probably covered a mile of water as there were long shallow areas or slow moving stretches that I essentially skipped. Since there were virtually no other fishermen in my path, I decided to focus on the prime spots which encompassed faster moving runs and riffles at the top of pools or behind large midstream boulders. Between one and two the action seemed to really improve as I landed four browns on the twenty incher including a heavy 15 inch brown that put up a fine battle.

Fifteen Inch Beauty Took 20 Incher

Through this period the hares ear continued to produce as well but it seemed that the average size of these fish was smaller than the twenty incher eaters. During the prime time I discovered that fish seemed to grab the fly when I jigged or bounced the two flies through a prime run or pocket. I cast to the top of a run behind a rock and then lifted and lowerd my rod tip as they drifted back toward me. Unfortunately I also foul hooked three fish and I’m not sure if this was caused by a late hook set. There were probably four or five momentary hook ups as well during the afternoon period.

Nice Riffles and Runs Ahead

At one point around 3PM I got snagged to a large boulder in a deep area, and I was unable to wade to a position to free the flies. I applied pressure by pulling the line directly toward my chest, but it snapped at the knot where the split shot was attached. I decided to try a salvation nymph with the beadhead hares ear and landed a fish on the salvation and then numbers 12 and 13 on the hares ear. By 3:30 I realized I was quite a distance upstream of the car, so I began working my way back down the path along the bank until I reached an area where a steep exit route was obvious up the bank. I climbed to the top and found a well worn trail that followed the river downstream to a gap in the fence, and from there I hiked back along the shoulder to the Santa Fe.

Thirteen fish landed in early November was a challenging accomplishment as I fished hard and made an abundance of casts while covering a mile of water, however, the afternoon was gorgeous and it was quite rewarding to catch fish on recently tied flies late in the season.