Time: 11:30AM – 3:00PM
Location: Five Points Access Area
Fish Landed: 6
Arkansas River 11/18/2012 Photo Album
As Jane improved from her pelvic injury she yearned to get outside and offered to accompany me on a fishing excursion. Temperatures were forecast to reach the low 60’s in Denver and along the Arkansas River, so we planned a trip for Sunday, November 18. We left the house at 8:30 and arrived at the Royal Gorge Angler store outside of Canon City by 10:30. We did some Christmas shopping and then moved on to the Five Points Arkansas Recreation Access area.
Jane got set up with her folding chair and reading material while I rigged my Sage four weight with the level line nymphing system. I began the day with an iron sally nymph as my top fly and a beadhead hares ear as the point, and I was in the water fishing just above the observation deck by 11:30AM. The weather indeed turned out to be quite pleasant for mid November with clear blue skies and temperatures that reached the low 60’s.
The water above the protruding observation platform was fairly fast with many pockets and I covered it thoroughly with no response to my offerings. The next stretch below the small island was a bit slower and offered more attractive areas for drifting my tandem nymphs, but once again my efforts were thwarted. I finished the first hour off by working up the smaller left channel that flows around a small island above the access area until I reached a nice deep pool and eddy at the top of the left braid. I was certain this area would yield my first fish, but alas, after numerous expert drifts I reeled up my flies and returned to the picnic area.
River Splits Above Five Points
Jane and I retrieved our lunches and basked in the bright sunshine while munching down our sandwiches and other snacks. A cool breeze blew from time to time so I was glad I was wearing a fleece top. I decided to fish the huge hole next to our lunchtime picnic table immediately after lunch and Jane borrowed my camera to snap some photos. Again I was certain that the soft area next to the current seam below the large boulder would yield a fish or two, but once again I was proven wrong. Perhaps I needed to move away from the access area as it probably receives a large amount of pressure due to ease of access.
Dave Begins Fishing After Lunch
I walked down the shoulder of highway 50 for .4 miles and then slid down a steep bank to a nice location at the tail of a long pool that contained quite a few exposed midstream boulders. I broke off both my flies in the large pool next to Jane’s base camp, so I replaced the iron sally with a twenty incher and then added a new beadhead hares ear as the bottom fly. I began working my way up along the bank next to the road and fished all the likely spots and finally after fifteen minutes or so I was relieved to connect on a seven inch brown trout. Although this was a small fish it at least meant I wasn’t going to post a zero on this beautiful Sunday late in the season.
As I worked my way back up to eventually meet Jane I landed four more small browns in the 7-10 inch range. I seemed to catch all of them in small slow moving pools behind large boulders or off to the side of the main current. I cast my flies to the very top of the pool where the faster water tumbled over some rocks, and as the nymphs drifted slowly back through the top half of the pool a fish would grab the fly and cause a pause or twitch in the indicator. Of the six fish landed on the day five inhaled the hares ear and one had the twenty incher in its lip. One of the six fish was a 14 inch brown, but the back half of its body was covered with blotches of fungus, perhaps as a result of mishandling by a previous fisherman.
By 3:30 I’d returned to Jane’s base camp and she seemed impatient to begin the return trip and I’d pretty much fished the entire stretch of river near the access area, so we decided to call it a day. The fish were on the small side, but it was a gorgeous unseasonably warm day in the middle of November, and Jane and I enjoyed yet another fun outdoor day in Colorado.