Author Archives: danweller

North Fork of St. Vrain River – 7/28/10

Time: 9:30AM – 2:00PM

Location: Wild Basin area of Rocky Mountain National Park

Fish Landed: 15

North Fork of St. Vrain River Photo Album

Odd Upside Down Wildflowers

Jane and I had tickets to the Rockies game on Wednesday night, so I couldn’t travel as far as the Arkansas or Colorado to fish, so I chose to try the North Fork of the St. Vrain in Rocky Mountain National Park. In previous years I’d had some fine outings at this time of year on the St. Vrain. I arrived at the park entrance around 9:15 and parked across from Sand  Lake just inside the entrance gate. I began fishing at around 9:30. It was still overcast and a bit chilly with some dark clouds to the west, so I wore my raincoat in the morning.

I started at the RMNP border at the bridge over the road that is outside the park. As it turns out, I am not fond of this water. It is wide and shallow much of the time with few good areas that hold fish. I covered quite a distance and landed four trout, one brown and three brook. The brook trout tend to hold in slow moving areas with very little current. I was using a Chernobyl ant and caught the first couple on it, but switched to a lime green trude at some point. I recall catching one on the trude and the others on the Chernobyl. At around 10:45 I reached a long beaver pond and there were numerous sporadic rises. I cast my lime green trude and let it sit for the next 15 minutes or so. I had one refusal and that was it. I grew weary of the waiting game, so backed out away from the pond and retraced my steps and found the path back to the car.

Beaver Pond on NF St. Vrain

I drove further into the park and was stopped by a ranger telling me that the parking was full and I needed to park at the location where stopped. This was fine as I was close to the stretch of the stream where I wished to fish. I munched down my lunch as I sat on the tail of the minivan. Once I’d finished lunch, I gathered my fishing gear and hiked the horse trail to a spot just downstream from a bridge. Here I began the quest with the lime green trude still attached to my line. In the long pool just below the bridge I landed another brook trout on the trude. In a pocket nearly under the bridge a decent fish rose and floated under the fly, then took it, but I hooked the fish only momentarily. I had switched back to the Chernobyl ant as I was dissatisfied with the productivity of the trude.

Pretty Brook Trout

I advanced above the bridge and hiked up the path on the right side a ways as the water was fast with minimal holding spots. When I re-entered, I began prospecting with the Chernobyl ant and picked up fish fairly consistently. I was having great fun moving upstream and plopping the Chernobyl in the likely locations of fish. I began spotting occasional green drakes and other smaller mayflies emerging in the dappled light created by the sun overhead and the shade of the trees. When I’d caught and released twelve or so trout, the effectiveness of the Chernobyl seemed to wane, so I tied on a green drake comparadun. I should have done this sooner. In a stretch where the water hadn’t produced a look to the Chernobyl, three fish emerged and smashed the green drake. One was too small to count, one got off early, and I landed the other one. The trout were obviously tuned into green drakes.

St. Vrain Brown with Chernobyl in Jaw

Unfortunately, I discovered this at around 1:45, and I needed to quit at around 2:15 to hike back to the car and return to Denver at the appointed time to go to the Rockies game. I landed two decent browns on the green drake to put my total for the day at 14. On the way back down the road, I decided to make a couple quick casts to the pocket below the bridge where I’d experienced a momentary hookup earlier. On the first cast, the nicest brown of the day emerged from the shadows and inhaled the comparadun with confidence. I landed and released the brown as a parade of horseback riders passed me on the bridge above. They complimented my catch, and I basked in the adulation of the tourists.

 

Fooses Creek – 7/17/10

Time: 3:00PM – 6:30PM

Location: Reservoir to just beyond road crossing

Fish Landed: 14/2010 Photo Album

Fooses Creek 07/17

It was forecast to be another hot day, so I decided to hike the Colorado Trail with Jane to the Blanks cabin in the morning, and then fish in a small headwater stream in mid to late afternoon. Jane and I got off to a nice early start and actually went beyond the Blanks cabin to the turn off to hike to the summit of Mt. Shavano. It was quite an accomplishment two months after hip surgery.

Jane at Turnaround

When we returned to camp we put up the canopy as some dark clouds were building in the west and then we had lunch and lounged a bit and read. I gathered my fishing things and left the campground at around 2:30 and drove to Fooses Creek. Fooses Creek is a small tributary to the Arkansas River that begins near the Continental Divide near Monarch Pass. I’d fished it once before many years ago. It was a short drive from the campground to Route 50 then up the highway a few miles then a mile or two on a dirt road south of 50.

Our Whole Set Up

The stream flows into a small reservoir, and when I crested the hill and saw the reservoir, there was no where to park as the lake was surrounded by fishermen. I later learned that the lake had been recently stocked. I performed a three point turn and parked in a lot below the reservoir. After putting on my fishing gear, I climbed back up the hill to the lake. The sky was quite cloudy and a welcome relief from the last week of bright sunny days. I spotted quite a few fish rising in the lake, but moved on to the inlet as I’d targeted the stream. When I reached the inlet, I could see a fish rising and taking something right in the current where the stream entered the lake. I tied on an olive body deer hair caddis, and quickly hooked up on a fish, but it got off just as quickly. Next I spotted a rise where the stream dropped off into deeper water in the lake. A longer cast brought a fish to my fly, and I had another momentary hook up.

Cluster of Pretty Flowers Along Fooses Creek

I reminded myself that my goal was to fish the stream, and retrieved my fly and moved on. At this point I ran into a couple fishermen coming down the road to the lake with fly rods. I asked if they’d disturbed the stream, and they asked me if I fished it before. I replied that I had, and they said, “Then you know there aren’t that many fishable spots, so we didn’t disturb much.” I decided to press on.

Sweet Spot on Fooses Creek

Fooses Creek is quite narrow, probably five feet wide in most places. It tumbles down at a fairly steep gradient and there is much streamside vegetation, rocks and debris to hinder a fisherman. Some streams present a challenge of reading the water and finding fish and some offer the challenge of identifying insects and selecting the correct fly. The challenge of Fooses Creek is how to get a fly over fish without spooking the target. I used normal casts, bow and arrow casts, and dapping over the next 3.5 hours to land 12 trout. I used a Chernobyl Ant the whole time as it was very buoyant and I had minimal space for false casting to dry a fly. I had a blast. As I moved to each spot I had to determine how to position myself and then how to execute a cast in tight quarters. Once again, the small fish dropped off the fly as it was too big for their mouths. The fish I did land were typically 6-10 inches, but colorful and feisty. In many cases I spotted the trout and carefully presented the Chernobyl. In other cases, the take was a complete surprise. I caught numerous fish with the fly within two feet of the top of my rod as I reached the long rod above and beyond a possible trout lie, then brought the rod back at the same speed as the current. Of the twelve trout I landed from the stream, 11 were browns and 1 was a rainbow.

A Monster in Fooses Creek Environment

I crossed the dirt road and fished the stream on the southeast side of the road a short distance. The clouds grew darker, and I could hear thunder and see occasional lightening.

I decided to leave the stream and hike back to the lake with a half hour or so of time remaining before I needed to return to Jane at the campground to help prepare dinner. Quite a few additional stocker stalkers had arrived and pretty much owned the inlet area of the lake, so I moved to the north end along the road. I tied on the olive caddis and began sending out long casts to where I’d spotted rises. I learned that I needed to allow the fly to sit for what seemed like an interminable length of time, and a fish would eventually rise to it. I had quite a few refusals, but did hook up and land two stocker rainbows. The second rainbow actually nailed the fly as I stripped it slowly but fast enough to create a small wake. I thought this was the solution to catching more fish, but it was very inconsistent.

Rare Rainbow from Fooses Creek

The sky darkened considerably and while fishing the lake it showered several times. I put on my raincoat and fished on. After a half hour or so of lake casting, I called it quits and headed back to the campground.

Homestake Creek – 7/14/10

Time: 7:00PM – 9:00PM

Location: Where angled road cuts away from route 24 and heads to Red Cliff

Fish Landed: 11

Homestake Creek 07/14/2010 Photo Album

REI Tent in Nice Setting

When I returned to the campground, I set up my two person REI tent and made my delectable dinner of chicken noodle soup and carrots and bread. After I cleaned up, I decided to fish Homestake Creek until dark. Homestake is a small tributary to the Eagle that runs directly across from the Hornsilver Campground. I drove downstream a bit toward where a side road angles off to the left from Route 24. I drove to the bottom of the hill where there is a big curve, and the stream was cutting deeper and deeper into a canyon. I didn’t want to scramble down a steep canyon late in the evening, so I did a U-turn, and parked half way back up the hill.

Homestake Creek Wednesday Evening

The gradient was quite steep where I began with numerous plunge pools. I tied on a light gray body deer hair caddis and caught three small browns in the plunge pools as I hop scotched my way from boulder to boulder moving upstream. However, the caddis stopped producing and it was getting progressively darker, so I switched out the caddis for the royal stimulator that had produced so well for me on Brush Creek. I picked up a few fish on the stimulator, but I knew there were more fish than I was attracting, so I added a beadhead hares ear under the stimulator. This proved to be a smart move and my catch rate picked up. The stream was narrow enough that I could cast to the slack water on the far side of the fast midstream current and reach my rod out and up and let the combination drift back through the juicy pockets and slack water without drag. More often than not, a brown would grab the trailing hares ear when I executed this technique.

When I got to the portion of the stream where the road Y’ed away from Route 24, the gradient was less steep and the stream widened. By this time it was getting quite dark since it was approaching 9PM, so I called it a night and returned to my sleeping bag.

Eagle River – 7/14/10

Time: 12:00PM – 4:00PM

Location: Edwards Bridge to long run/pool then from island upstream quite a ways

Fish Landed: 3

Eagle River 07/14/2010 Photo Album

I was itching to return to the Eagle River after some decent action the previous Friday near the rest area above the pedestrian bridge. Denver was in a heat wave and escaping to the mountains was an additional appeal. I decided to pack the van with camping gear and fish the Eagle Wednesday and Thursday and camp at Hornsilver high above Minturn. I got off to a reasonably early start and arrived at Hornsilver around noon. The campground was empty, so I grabbed site 4 and paid my fee, ate lunch and then headed to the Eagle. I arrived and was on the stream at around noon. I hiked downstream to the auto bridge next to the entrance to the rest area and began working the pockets tight to the left bank facing upstream. I picked up a small brown near the start, but that was all I’d catch over the entire stretch from the bridge to the long run/pool above the rest area.

It was a very hot day with temperatures in the 80’s and clear, blue skies. I skipped past the stretch of water I’d fished the previous Friday and hiked behind the condos on the left around the bend with the pedestrian bridge and then beyond the next 90 degree bend near route 6. I began fishing again below the island and up the left smaller channel. I had been using a yellow Letort hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear, the combination that produced so well on Friday, but it wasn’t working on this day. I decided to experiment with some alternatives. Part way up the left channel I tied on a lime green trude and two-thirds of the way up the channel a nice 15 inch brown sipped it in. I battled the brown and landed it and photographed. I moved on to the top of the island and fished the nice pockets along the left bank and caught one more small brown on the lime green trude.

Nice Fat Brown from Eagle River
Large Brown Came from Pocket

That would be my count for the day, two small browns and one very nice fifteen inch fish. I was very disappointed. I had changed out my tapered leader at the start of the day, so decided to stop at the Alpine River fly show in Riverwalk and purchase a new one. I asked the gentleman behind the counter what happened to the fishing, and he said that fishing in the middle of the day when it is hot, is generally not productive. He suggested morning or evening and going deep with nymphs if I wanted to fish in the afternoon.

Eagle River – 7/9/10

Time: 1:30PM – 4:00PM

Location: Edwards Rest Area

Fish Landed: 11

Eagle River 07/09/2010 Photo Album

After lunch we hopped in Dave G’s rental car and drove to the rest area in Edwards, CO. We hiked along the fisherman path upstream from the parking lot to a point where a long pool is fed by an attractive deep run. Here Dave hooked and landed a decent brown to start his afternoon. I moved beyond Dave and fished the attractive pockets between the long pool and the pedestrian bridge. In one of the lower pockets a decent brown smashed and inhaled my yellow hopper. The area around the rest area represents my favorite stretch of the Eagle River, and I was very optimistic at this point.

Dave G. moved past me and fished the pockets along the left bank. He finished covering the pocket water and moved beyond the pedestrian bridge and out of sight, while I continued prospecting the pockets, but trying to cover water a bit beyond what he had just covered. I didn’t have any luck, and perhaps the fish became wary due to Dave G’s presence along the bank.

Fishing Buddy Dave Gaboury

After finishing the pockets, I moved quickly up to the pedestrian bridge and crossed to the south side of the river. A fisherman (wearing shorts but a fishing vest) stopped and asked me why I went around the nice deep pool at the bend just below the bridge. I showed him how I was set up for dry/dropper fishing which requires fishing shallower water and not very effective in the deep pools. He nodded and I moved on. I dropped down just below the bridge, waded under it, and then began fishing the pockets along the right bank. I knew from previous trips that this stretch contains many nice fish, and I feel it doesn’t get the degree of pressure as the left bank because it is difficult to get to, tough to wade, and requires backhand casts.

Fat Eagle River Brown

Sure enough, I started hooking fish. The sky clouded up some, but I didn’t see much hatching or surface feeding, so I stuck with a yellow Letort hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear. I landed eleven additional trout in the 100 yards or so of water along the west/south side of the river. Many were fat spunky browns in the 13-15 inch range. I was catching half on the hopper and the other half on the beadhead hares ear. I used the same hopper throughout the afternoon, and it held up quite well until losing a bunch of deer hair near the end. There was one sweet area where the river curled against the bank then flowed back out between some rocks and fanned into a wider pool/pocket. I landed at least four beauties from this spot and had some additional hookups that I didn’t land. In fact, in addition to the eleven landed fish, I probably had another 5-6 refusals and momentary hookups.

Another Brown from Eagle River

At around 4PM I reached the top of the pocket water area where the river makes a 90 degree turn and parallels route 6. Dave G appeared on the opposite bank and I could see he was fishing half heartedly, so knew it was time to go.

Roaring River – 7/2/10

Time: 11:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Ypsilon Trail Fork Upstream

Fish Landed: 19

Roaring River 07/02/2010 Photo Album

I stopped at Estes Anglers to buy a tippet spool and the Aussie behind the counter told me Roaring River was fishable, although high due to heavy rain the previous day. He suggested Glacier Run as another alternative in RMNP. The Big T was swollen from the rainstorm.

Roaring River Near Where I Stashed My Gear

I drove to the Lawn Lake Trailhead and after a 40 minute hike uphill with my gear in a backpack, stopped at my normal sandy area to stash my backpack and put on my waders. It was a beautiful day weather wise with temperatures probably in the upper 70’s and partial clouds most of the day. Some small storms rolled north and south, but never affected me. The stream remained quite high, almost as high as when my friend Allen and I hiked along the trail on Memorial Day.

Still High Flows

As it was nearly lunch, I hiked down from the Ypsilon Trail crossing and fished my way back to my base area for lunch. I began with a lime green trude attractor and caught a small greenback in short order. I caught a second before I reached the log bridge crossing, but it was now noon and I was quite hungry, so I returned to my base camp and ate lunch. While eating I spotted three trout holding in some slack water in front of a large boulder near where I was eating. After lunch I tried for these from the right side behind the boulder, but had no success.

Scarlet Head

I hiked back down to the Ypsilon Lake Trail and crossed to the other side. The volume of water was still high and the current very swift. The only places where fish held were in the pockets and soft water along the bank where there were current breaks such as boulders and logs. I worked my way upstream along the left bank casting to these types of areas. There were long stretches between fishing spots where the gradient was steep and few refuges from the current existed. I could see some fish and they weren’t reacting to the lime green trude, so I added a BHPT. When I arrived across from my lunch spot I cast across to the three fish and landed two on the trailing BHPT.

Super Macro of Teardrop Flowers

At one point as I moved up the left side I spotted a decent cutthroat in a shallow lie behind a stick covered with moss hanging in the stream. I knew I couldn’t cast the dry/dropper as I would catch the stick on the trailing fly, so I removed the combination and tied on a black fur ant with an orange poly wing post for visibility. On the third cast the greenback made a quick move and I hooked and landed it. I was very proud of this catch. I moved on using the fur ant a bit, but it was very difficult to follow in the fast water, so I tied on a Chernobyl ant trailing a beadhead hares ear.

Colorful Trout

I used these flies for the remainder of the afternoon and caught most of my remaining fish on the Chernobyl. Even the large Chernobyl was difficult to follow in the foaming water and glare at times, and I received numerous refusals. I lost two beadhead hares ears to rocks and trees, so I replaced with a bright green caddis pupa at some point. But I probably could have made life easier by fishing the Chernobyl solo. I’d guess I received one refusal for every catch.

Indian Paintbrush

At around 4PM, the skies darkened a bit more than usual and I was extremely tired so I found the trail and returned to my base. I was probably further upstream than I’d ever been on the Roaring River before. I changed back into my shorts and stashed everything in my backpack and hiked back to the trailhead and the minivan.

South Platte River – 6/6/10

Time: 2:00PM – 4:00PM

Location: Pullout downstream from Nighthawk before big bend

Fish Landed: 1

South Platte River 06/06/2010 Photo Album

It was a very hot Sunday and Allen Gilbert had returned to Vermont and Wendy hadn’t yet arrived. I suggested to Jane that we head to the South Platte, and she could sit in her chair and read in the outdoors while I tested the water with flies. I checked the flows, and they were recently raised to 312.

Flowering Shrub Along South Platte
Jane Avoids Sun and Heat

We got a late start and arrived at the parking lot a mile or so below the Nighthawk turn off after noon and ate our lunches. After lunch I put on my fishing gear and hiked down the road a bit. There were campers, and picnickers, and kayakers and tubers everywhere. I fished back to the car and then went around a gentleman above the parking lot. The water was somewhat murky, but visibility to around 3 feet or so.

Kayakers Approach Dave

I fished upstream for another hour or so and finally managed to land a small brown in the area where a small narrow island is positioned close to the roadside bank.

South Platte River – 4/11/10

Time: 11:00AM – 2:30PM

Location: Cheesman Canyon above Second Bend after Cow Crossing

Fish Landed: 0

South Platte River 04/11/2010 Photo Album

The forecast called for temperatures in the 70’s, so I decided to give the South Platte another chance. As I drove up Jarre Canyon towards the South Platte I noticed a significant amount of remaining snow on the hillsides and feared the river would be muddied by low elevation snow melt. When I reached the river below Nighthawk, my fears were realized. The river was flowing green-brown with minimal visibility.

I decided to drive to Deckers and check out the water above Horse Creek. Sure enough, Horse Creek was feeding turbid water into the main river, and the South Platte was crystal clear above the tributary. There were quite a few fishermen in the stretch above the bridge, so I decided to hike into Cheesman Canyon. I parked at the Wigwam parking area and put on my waders and hiked to the canyon holding my rod and lunch box.

Trailhead to Cheesman Canyon

I hiked in quite a ways to get above the many fishermen on the lower water. I finally stopped at a nice spot above the second 90 degree bend after Cow Crossing. I tied on a yellow Letort hopper and trailed a beadhead RS2 and then a brown bead midge larva. I noticed occasional midges fluttering over the water. I fished up the river in some nice juicy runs, but had no success and didn’t spot any fish. I got to some nice deep runs, so switched to a nymph set up with strike indicator and beadhead hares ear and beadhead RS2. This also didn’t bring any action, so I returned to a long rock next to the river and had my lunch.

Crystal Clear Flows in Cheesman Canyon
Lunch Rock

While eating lunch at around 12:30 I observed a sparse emergence of BWO’s. I also hiked up the bank a bit for a high vantage point and thought I spotted a trout holding in a pool close to the opposite bank. After lunch I waded ¾ of the way across the pool to the far side where I’d seen the fish and ran my nymphs through the area, but no take. I continued working my way up the river for quite a distance switching between deep nymphs and hopper/dropper. Finally between 2 and 2:30 I spotted 5 to 6 fish holding in a nice pool near the left bank. I tied on a CDC olive and trailed a non-beadhead BWO nymph, but could not attract any of the observed fish.

A Nice Riffle Stretch
Remaining Snow Patches Along the River

Eventually I hooked a branch along the edge and disturbed the pool after dislodging the fly. I decided to call it quits since I had a long hike back out of the canyon and a drive back to Denver.

South Platte River – 3/28/10

Time: 11:15AM – 2:30PM

Location: Whale Rock

Fish Landed: 3

South Platte River 03/28/2010 Photo Album

With temperatures finally forecast to reach 60 degrees, I decided to visit the South Platte River downstream from Deckers on Sunday. Jane agreed to accompany so we packed a lunch and left the house around 10AM. As we drove from Sedalia there was a lot more snow on the hills, and we were concerned about the condition of the steep Nighthawk Hill. When we turned on to the dirt road at Sprucewood, we could see it was packed dirt and mud, so we made the descent and turned right and parked at the Whale Rock parking lot.

South Platte Below Parking Lot
Jane’s Set Up Before Lunch

It was still chilly when I began, so I had on a fleece top over my fishing shirt. I walked down the road beyond the parking lot then cut some footprints through the snow on the relatively steep bank and approached the river. The river was running at a nice flow, probably 200, and mostly clear with a tinge of color from the nearby snowmelt.

Capturing Some Riverside Snow

I rigged up with a strike indicator, split shot, San Juan worm and beadhead hares ear to start. I covered a fair amount of water with no action. I was constantly clearing moss from both the flies. But after 45 minutes of fishing, I caught two small browns in some 3 foot deep riffle sections. The first brown grabbed the San Juan worm and the second took the BHHE.

I continued working my way up along the roadside bank, but to no avail. I quit fishing at around 12:30 and climbed the bank and walked back to the car where I found Jane reading in her chair with her hood pulled up due to the wind. I ate my lunch and then decided to hike up the road beyond the next parking lot, and fish the rocky stretch that borders the road where I’ve had much success over the last several years. I knew there were fish in this area from past experience. Jane decided to drive the van to the next parking lot and read there.

I cut down the short steep bank to the river above a large boulder and fished the first deep run with the nymphs with no success. I moved up to the next pool/run and switched my flies to a Chernobyl ant trailing a BHHE. The next series of pools were shallower so I felt the dry/dropper could fish deep enough. I didn’t have any success in the next pool, but in the third pool, I caught a 9 inch brown on the BHHE. I continued working the remaining attractive water in this manner along the road and then around the bend and through a riffle stretch until the river came up close to the road again. I had no success in this area, although another fishermen and his young son came down this stretch with spinning rods, and this may have spooked the fish.

Jane Gets Closer Near End of Fishing Day
Dave With New Hat Above Favorite Rocky Stretch of River

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, so the likelihood of a hatch was remote. I spotted only occasional midges in the air. I was growing weary of the lack of action, so we called it quits at around 2:30 and returned to Denver.