Author Archives: wellerfish

Eagle River – 07/07/2023

Time: 10:00AM – 6:00PM

Location: Edwards to Eagle, 17 mile float

Eagle River 07/07/2023 Photo Album

Each year over the past three I have scheduled a guided float trip with my friend, Dave G. Actually Dave G. schedules the trips, and I select a few to accompany him. Friday July 7 was the first of two such trips in 2023. Our guide, Reed, selected the Eagle River as our river destination. The flows at the gauge in Avon were peaking around 1050 CFS, and the downstream gauge at Milk Creek registered 1250. For wade fishing I prefer flows approximately 200 CFS lower, but floating in an inflatable raft made managing the higher flows quite feasible. In fact, the high flows accentuate the capabilities of a nimble, high-floating raft.

Launch Site Was Crowded

I stayed at Dave G.’s house in Eagle on Thursday night, and on Friday morning after a delicious breakfast, we drove separately to the Eagle museum parking lot. Here we parked our cars and jumped into Reed’s truck, and he drove the trailered raft to our launch point west of Edwards, CO. The boat ramp area was buzzing with guides and fishermen, so it was evident that prime floating season was in progress on the upper Eagle River. Reed notified the shuttle company that he needed a shuttle to the Eagle Museum, and this committed us to a 17 mile trip!

Stimulator

The weather was perfect, as the temperature at the start was in the mid to upper sixties, and the high probably spiked in the low eighties. Rain never developed, however, some strong gusts of wind hindered us for short periods in the afternoon. I wore my fishing shirt and quick dry wading pants with my Chacos, and I completely lathered up all exposed skin with sunscreen. I strung my Sage One five weight, and Reed provided a six weight for the heavy lifting of tossing a large dry/dropper configuration.

Attractor Dry

We launched and began fly fishing by 10AM. From our start until noon Dave G. and I fished mostly dry/droppers with a chubby Chernobyl as the top fly and an olive-brown Pat’s rubber legs and yellow sally nymph. Several other flies factored in the mix including a Frenchie (jig pheasant tail), but the three mentioned previously were the mainstays of the morning time period. I landed four fish before lunch, and one of the four was a stunning eighteen inch brown trout. What a fish! The husky brown put up quite a battle, and I was thankful for the 4X tippet and the heft of the six weight rod.

Looking Back

Toward the end of the morning Dave G. and I swapped positions, and I moved from the normally favored bow to the rear of the raft. By noon or shortly thereafter, we began to notice a dense emergence of pale morning duns and to a lesser extent, yellow sallies. Caddis were present throughout the day, but they were never on the water enough to distract the trout from feeding on the other two more prevalent insect food sources. Reed was quick to switch Dave G. and I to dries, when he spotted the mayflies floating up from the surface.

Bank to Bank Flows

Love the Red Rock Cliffs

The two hours between noon and 2:00PM were the most exciting of the day. Trout fed ravenously, and we could spot nice fish hovering just below the surface and then rising to snatch tasty morsels from the film. Many of these trout were tight to the bank, so accurate casts and drag free drifts were the keys to success. On several occasions Reed rowed the raft back upstream to fish especially attractive pools and eddies behind current breaking structures. These instances were dry fly fishing at its best, as Reed positioned each of us to make medium range upstream casts to pods of feeding fish. My heart rate elevated with the adrenalin rush that accompanied my anticipation of hooking a steady feeder. During this time our lines featured yellow sally dry flies and parachute pale morning dun imitations.

Reed’s Chubby

By 2:00PM the PMD hatch waned into random stragglers; however, the yellow sallies continued their fluttering reconnaissance over the river. Unfortunately the trout did not seem as excited over yellow sallies compared to their appetite for pale morning duns. Eventually we converted back to a dry/dropper approach, and I picked off a few trout to boost the fish count to double digits. In order to reach the take out ramp by 6:00PM, Reed rowed through some of the less desirable sections, and he converted me to a double dry rig for the home stretch. Caddis became the more prevalent insect, and I hooked and landed a small rainbow trout near the take out to raise my fish count on the day to eleven.

Afternoon Beauty

Friday was a fun day of fly fishing on the clear but high Eagle River. Seventeen miles was a long trip, and Dave G. and I enjoyed a lot of fly fishing. My casting was off as evidenced by losing at least eight flies on riverside vegetation, and I tended to rush my forward cast, and I allowed my arm and elbow to elevate upward. These were all faults that took the power out of my forward cast. Casting close to the bank and not wasting time on break offs and snarls were critical to experiencing a spectacular day on a float trip, and I was a bit off my game on Friday. Nevertheless, I landed double digits and my catches included five trout in the thirteen to eighteen inch range with the early eighteen inch brown my prize. A slow motion surface take of a dry fly by a respectable rainbow trout during the dense PMD hatch was another highlight of the day. I am looking forward to my second guided float trip on July 21, and conditions will dictate our destination.

Fish Landed: 11

 

Jefferson Lake – 07/05/2023

Time: 11:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: Eastern shore

Jefferson Lake 07/05/2023 Photo Album

After a somewhat disappointing day on Monday on the Eagle River, I yearned for a return. I was hopeful that two days would allow a 200 CFS foot drop, and that would place the flows at the upper limit of my favored range for edge fishing. Unfortunately, when I checked the flows on Tuesday evening, it was apparent that the run off had leveled off, and the graph depicted no appreciable decline. I also checked the Arkansas River, although I was reluctant to make the nearly three hour drive, and the flow graph displayed a similar trend of flat water levels. I considered the Big Thompson, and flows there remained on the high side at 127 CFS, so I ultimately chose to visit another high country lake.

I scanned my list of lakes, and I singled out Jefferson Lake. I never fished Jefferson Lake, however, I recently read a brief article about it in American Fly fishing, and I searched and found the article that I scanned. The brief description of Jefferson Lake was found in my destinations folder on the computer. After reading the article, my curiosity was peaked, and I decided to make the trip. Jefferson Lake is located in South Park a little over 1.5 hours from Denver.

I needed to make some phone calls about appointments, so I got off to a late start and departed the garage by 9:00AM. This enabled me to pull into the boat launch parking lot by 10:40AM after paying my $5 fee to use the Jefferson Lake Recreation Area. The air temperature at the high elevation lake was 51 degrees, and huge snowfields were located along the western side of the parking lot. I pulled on my fleece hoodie and raincoat, and I assembled my Sage R8 four weight, and I was prepared for a day of fishing. An ominous dark cloud appeared in the western sky, but I began my hike with the hope of getting in thirty minutes of fly fishing before the rain began. The article in the magazine suggested fishing the eastern shoreline to get away from the crowds of fishermen that pressured the water near the south end parking lot.

My Fly on the Still Surface

I followed the instructions perfectly and hiked to a spot roughly one-fifth of the length of the eastern bank. I tied a yellow size 8 fat Albert to my line and then added an olive-brown size 16 deer hair caddis on a three foot dropper. I do not usually fish such a long tippet in a double dry arrangement, but I was reluctant to cut down the leader without a place to dispose of the excess. I began lobbing relatively long casts toward the center of the lake, and during the times when the wind died back, I observed sipping rises in the vicinity. The feeding was very sporadic, but I used the action to locate fish, and tossed casts nearby. I counted thirty seconds and then stripped, and I generated several swirls, but no commitment to the fake food source. Finally after several teases, a fish absolutely crushed the fat Albert, and I landed a fine twelve inch rainbow trout.

Number One Was Pretty

I was rather excited that I unlocked the secret to catching Jefferson Lake trout, when the wind kicked up, and a curtain of rain descended on me and the water. It was too early to get soaked, so I retreated to the shelter of a clump of pine trees, and I waited out the weather interruption. The rain varied between very heavy and moderate, before I heard loud smacks, and at this point I realized that small hail balls replaced the liquid precipitation. I waited for roughly thirty minutes, until I resumed casting in light rain under partially blue skies at 11:30AM. Rising trout were absent after the storm ended, so I spent twenty minutes making fruitless casts and strips, until I adjourned to a large rock, where I consumed my lunch.

North End of the Lake

After lunch I decided to move toward the north to sample different sections of the lake and to eventually investigate the inlet. Between 12:30 and 2:30 I walked the shoreline to the inlet, and I stopped intermittently to cast the flies, when I spotted random rises. During this process I added two additional rainbow trout in the twelve inch range. One crushed the fat Albert, and the other inhaled a peacock hippie stomper that replaced the Albert. At one point I removed the caddis and replaced it with a salvation nymph in case the trout were focused on subsurface offerings, but that change never produced success. When I removed the salvation, I used the changeover as an opportunity to exchange the fat Albert for the hippie stomper, and I also swapped the salvation for a black size 18 parachute ant.

Inlet Area

The catch rate was below average, and there was very little activity in the form of refusals, looks or temporary connections. By 2:30PM I arrived at the first inlet to the lake. A very small mountain stream trickled into the lake, but the entry was not attractive to fish. I crossed the small entering stream and walked across a spit of land to the point where another slightly larger stream entered. This area had more depth, where the current flowed, and it fanned out into a nice wide mouth with moderate depth. I began spraying casts upstream and then across the little inlet cove, and as I did this, some sporadic feeding activity materialized. Finally on a cast to the center of the lake where the stream current ended, a fish rocketed to the surface to inhale one of my flies. The take was so rapid, that I was uncertain which fly was attacked.

A Lake Trout Perhaps?

The fish put up a stronger fight than my previous catches, but eventually I landed it, and I was both pleased and surprised to see a lake trout. I think it was a small lake trout, although I read that the lake contains splake, so that was another possibility. After releasing the cold water species, I resumed casting, but the wind kicked up, and the rises ended, and my flies were not productive.

I stripped in my flies and once again changed tactics. For my final effort at salvaging Wednesday, I knotted an olive-black woolly bugger to my line along with a wiggle damsel nymph. For the next hour I worked my way back along the eastern shoreline, and I stopped periodically to cast and strip the streamer combination. I cycled through a black mini leech, a blonde woolly bugger, and a Mickey Finn during this last hour, but my only reward was a soft bump to the mini leech.

Columbine Family

When I was next the last cove before the parking lot, a wide bank of black clouds rolled in from the west. Distant thunder suggested ominous weather, so I hustled back to the car and removed my gear and broke down my rod. My timing was perfect, as large but widely spaced raindrops smacked my shirt, as I climbed into the Santa Fe for the return trip.

Four trout in 3.5 hours of fly fishing was a sad catch rate. The rainbows were feisty adversaries, and it was fun to break the monotony of stocker rainbows with a small lake trout. I would have liked more fishing time without wind and a riffled surface, but I explored quite a bit of the lake, and if I ever return, I now know the layout.

Fish Landed: 4

Eagle River – 07/03/2023

Time: 10:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: Below Wolcott

Eagle River 07/03/2023 Photo Album

I did more lake fishing in June than I ever fished lakes during my entire fly fishing career. I was proud of my improvements in lake fishing knowledge and fish catching success, and I also enjoyed sampling some lakes that I never fished previously. However, as I scanned the stream and river flows in Colorado a couple days ago, I felt the urge to once again wet a line in moving water. Our trip to Creede, CO at the end of June coincided with the Yampa River flows falling to my preferred range of 1,000 CFS, so I missed out on one of my favorite annual trips to Steamboat Springs. I turned my attention to my other prime edge fishing destinations, the Eagle River and the Arkansas River.

The DWR chart for the Eagle River presented steadily dropping water levels, with the Avon gauge registering 1060 CFS and the gauge below Milk Creek in Wolcott displaying 1250 CFS. Judging from the slope of the curve, I estimated that the Eagle would drop below 1,000 CFS at Wolcott by Monday. The Arkansas River was rolling along at 1860 CFS, and the fly shop stream reports documented good edge fishing, although they mentioned stained water. The mention of poor clarity spooked me, and I targeted the Eagle River for Monday, July 3.

On Monday morning I revisited the DWR website, and I was disappointed to discover that the graphs for the Eagle and Arkansas Rivers showed a temporary leveling, and the Eagle flows remained very close to the numbers that I quoted above. My preference would be for 200 CFS less, but I concluded that I fished at the current levels before with some success, so I made the drive. I arrived at a roadside pullout by 10:00AM, and the temperature was in the low seventies. It was clear that Monday would be a hot day, but I decided to wear my waders, since I anticipated fighting through bushes, willows and thorny plants. My Sage One five weight was my rod of choice in order to handle the higher flows, wind, and larger than average fish. I cut off all my tippet extensions and constructed a new series with a section of 3X followed by 4X. This move was an effort to preempt bad knots or damaged tippet in the event that I connected with a large fish.

A Good Place to Begin

By 10:30 I was perched along the river at a spot, where the nice long slowing section of water filled the space between the bank and the main current. I selected an amber ice dub chubby Chernobyl from my fly box and then added an olive-black Pat’s rubber legs and a 20 incher. I wanted large weighted flies to get deep in the morning session. Neither flies produced results in the first two prime locations, so I swapped the 20 incher for an emerald caddis pupa. The caddis pupa fooled a five inch brown trout, but it subsequently got replaced by a salvation nymph. Neither of these flies attracted the attention of the fish, so I changed flies once again. I replaced the Pat’s rubber legs with an iron sally, and I then swapped the salvation nymph for a beadhead hares ear. Finally, at the top of a churning pocket behind some exposed rocks, I spotted the flash of a fish and netted an eleven inch brown trout. I was on the board.

A Small Start

Willows in Water

I remained at one fish, when I broke for lunch along the flooded willows at 11:50PM. As I munched my sandwich, I observed the river, and I noticed the beginning of a sparse pale morning dun hatch. In addition, yellow sallies fluttered up over the river. I resumed casting the dry/dropper after lunch, but as I prospected a nice deep run, I spotted a very fine rainbow trout, as it rose to sip something from the surface. I was reluctant to reconfigure with dries after one random surface sip, but I was doing nothing with the nymphs, so I made the change. I tied on a size 14 yellow stimulator (stonefly) and then added a size 16 cinnamon pale morning dun. The once viewed rainbow never reappeared, but I did generate a few looks and refusals from some smaller fish.

Nice Length

Just a Bit Smaller Than the Rainbow

I moved on and fished the double dry for another ten minutes, but with no rising trout, it seemed rather futile at the elevated flows. I returned to a dry/dropper setup that featured a yellow fat Albert instead of the chubby Chernobyl, and behind the large foam fly I added the iron sally and a hare nation (PMD nymph imitation). The density of the fluttering PMD’s increased, but the trout were not feeding on the surface, so I concluded that nymphs might be the ticket. I plucked a size 18 pheasant tail nymph from my fleece wallet, and I replaced the hair nation nymph. Suddenly I had a hot fly, and between 1:00PM and 3:00PM I landed five additional trout. All the afternoon netted fish succumbed to the pheasant tail nymph or its close cousin, the PMD super nova. Between 1:00 and 2:00 the intensity of the hatch peaked, and this period coincided with my hottest action. Two of my prize catches were a rainbow and brown trout in the fifteen inch range, and these fish displayed excellent girth. A rainbow of thirteen inches also found my net, and the other two fish were rainbows of eleven inches. I also hooked and failed to land an excellent rainbow that fought valiantly and eventually maneuvered into the fast water and broke off all three flies. I lost a fat Albert, iron sally and pheasant tail nymph to the combative cold water fish, and I was not pleased.

Entering the River

Hooked My Cast Around the Branches

During the 1:00PM to 3:00PM time frame I probably connected with as many fish as I landed. All except the one that broke off my flies managed to toss the hook after a very brief hook up. Between 3:00 and 3:30 I approached a section that I refer to as the flats. The river widens and the left side features a wide riffle stretch with a water depth of two to three feet. I thought I saw a rise, so I removed the dry/dropper and tied a size 16 cinnamon comparadun to my line. Repeated drifts over the site of the rise failed to induce a response, so I added the yellow stimulator with the cinnamon comparadun on an eight inch dropper. Neither of these fly options coerced as much as a look, so I reeled in and quit for the day.

Cactus Flower

I would be fooling myself, if I did not admit that I was disappointed with Monday. Yes, I landed two very hefty trout, but six fish in 4.5 hours is a below average catch rate. Before the hatch activity, the trout languished in an inactive state. I suspect that the flows remained on the high side, the water temperature was cold, and it took longer to reach the prime range required for insect hatches and subsequent feeding. If I return to wade fish, I will deploy a deep nymphing rig for the morning session. I am scheduled for a guided float fishing trip on the Eagle River on Friday, and I expect conditions to be prime. Stay tuned.

Fish Landed: 6

Urad Lake -06/30/2023

Time: 11:30AM – 2:30PM

Location: Inlet area

Urad Lake 06/30/2023 Photo Album

Friday was available for a short day of fly fishing, since Jane and I had a whitewater rafting trip planning session on the agenda for Friday evening. I checked the Front Range flows, but they remained unfavorable, so I once again chose a lake for my fly fishing outing. The Big Thompson River was actually a stream possibility with flows at 124 CFS, and I have had moderate success at those levels in the past, but I felt more comfortable with a lake adventure. It has been several years since I visited Urad Lake, so I decided to revisit the high elevation gem just up the mountain from the Henderson Mine. Fortunately the mine is not visible from the end of the lake, where I fished, but the drive on a rough dirt road to the parking lot was not scenic. Actually I had very little time to look at the scenery, as the access road was extremely bumpy with potholes everywhere. I suspect that my average speed was less than 5 MPH, as I crept along fearful of bottoming out on one of the bumps.

Weather was another consideration. The closest Weather Underground station was Idaho Springs, and the graphic depicted thunderstorms in the morning and then again at 2PM. I gambled that I could sneak in three hours of fishing before the weather forced me to quit. I drove through the morning thunderstorm and showers, and when I arrived at the parking lot just under 11,000 feet, the temperature registered a cool 41 degrees. I pulled on my Adidas pullover and followed that with my North Face light down coat and then covered those layers with my rain shell. My New Zealand billed hat with earflaps was a no brainer, and I was pleased for every layer that I added. For casting, I assembled my Sage R8 four weight pole, as I expected an abundant quantity of longer casts.

South Looking North

The Cove Beyond the First Inlet

I climbed a steep four wheel drive road for .2 mile, and I paused three or four times to catch my breath. Once the road evened out, I maintained an even pace and then dropped down a winding trail with switchbacks to the edge of the lake by the eastern inlets. Two creeks enter the lake at the southern end of the stillwater, and I began my day with the first one that I encountered. I began with a tan size 8 pool toy hopper, a prince nymph and a salvation nymph. A prince and pheasant tail were suggested by the book. In this case the book was not helpful, so after a reasonable amount of time I swapped the salvation for a salad spinner. These flies proved ineffective, and I exchanged the salad spinner for a zebra midge, and finally a small rainbow trout followed the flies and then turned and snatched the midge imitation. I was on the board with one fish before lunch.  I sat on a grassy bank and inhaled my lunch, and by now some blue skies appeared, so I removed my raincoat and stuffed it in my backpack.

Brilliant

After lunch I stayed with the dry/dropper; however, I replaced the prince with a hares ear and added a zebra midge as the end nymph. I wanted lighter nymphs to combine with the less buoyant hippie stomper. I could see sipping rises throughout the plume of the entering creek, so I was fairly certain that the trout were tuned into some form of midge. I decided to explore the other entry creek, and I moved west to a prime spot, where the faster water spread out and dropped off in the lake. Quite a few fish were visible in the narrow riffle section of the creek right above the entry point, and fish rose along the current seam that flowed into the lake. I began prospecting the riffle area, and the fish count mounted to five, as rainbows and brook trout picked off the zebra midge and hares ear. This period of success was accompanied by quite a few refusals to the hippie stomper.

Look at the Speckles

After I disturbed the water considerably by landing fish, I turned my attention to the deeper water of the lake proper. I pivoted to face the lake and several sporadic rises were evident to my right. I fired some casts to the vicinity of the rises, and in one instance after I allowed the flies to rest for a thirty second count, a fish raced to the surface to crush one of my flies. I was certain that it took the stomper, but when I settled it in my net, I found the zebra midge in its lip. Moreover, the fish was a six inch tiger trout. I am not sure I ever caught a tiger trout before, so I was rather excited despite the small size.

Inlet Number Two

Beauty Over Size

Next I focused on the deeper water, where the entering current fanned out, and here I landed a couple very small brook trout, but the hippie stomper continued to elicit splashy refusals. After a particularly long lull in action, I stripped in the flies, and I made another significant shift. I removed both flies and attached a single light gray size 16 deer hair caddis to my line. The move was a roaring success, and over the remainder of my time the fish count elevated from eight to fourteen. The solitary caddis was particularly effective in the riffles of the creek, and some spectacularly colored rainbows in the eleven to twelve inch range lingered in my net. A few hungry feeders also nabbed the caddis where the creek fanned out into the lake.

Yellow, Blue and Green

Love This

By 2:00PM some threatening dark clouds appeared above the ridge to the southwest, and I heard the din of distant thunder. The wind escalated, and I pulled up my hood and snugged my collar around my neck. It became increasingly clear that I was in the bullseye of the storm, so I hooked my fly to the rod and began the .5 mile hike back to the parking lot. I ascended the steep hill to the rough road, and at this point heavy snow flakes began to pelt my body. My raincoat did a fine job of protecting me, but my bare hands took the brunt of the wet snow and sleet. Ice accumulated on the cork rod handle, and I switched the grip from left to right and back to left in order to shove the off hand in the fleece lined wader pockets. My hands were stiff claws, when I reached the Santa Fe, and the stiffness inhibited my ability to remove the fly and breakdown the rod. The parking lot was muddy, so I left my fleece lined tights on under my jeans, and I did not bother to swap out my socks. When I was ready, I jumped in the car and turned on the defroster and ran the heater for five minutes, before I made the challenging pot hole drive down the four wheel drive rock garden.

Submerged

Lovely Shade of Pink

In spite of the rough drive and the adverse weather, I enjoyed my brief day on Urad Lake. I was challenged to solve the riddle, and eventually success came my way. This was an instance where experimentation and persistence paid dividends. It was evident that Urad Lake has not been stocked yet in 2023, but I actually liked the challenge of catching wild or carryover trout. Hopefully I can transition into edge fishing bigger rivers next week, but if lakes continue to be my destination, I feel like like I have made significant progress in my lake angling evolution.

Fish Landed: 14

Clear Lake – 06/28/2023

Time: 10:15AM – 2:15PM

Location: Mostly the inlet area, but also next to the lower parking lot.

Clear Lake 06/28/2023 Photo Album

After two partial days of fly fishing in the Rio Grande drainage I was feeling unfulfilled, so I logged another day of fishing on June 28, 2023. Jane and I were committed to a social obligation on Wednesday evening, so I needed a fishing spot that was not too distant. The Front Range creeks remained high, so I turned my attention to lakes, and I decided to revisit Clear Lake. The high temperature in Denver was forecast to peak in the upper 80’s, so I wanted a high elevation option, where temperatures were moderated by altitude. I experienced quite a bit of success on my previous visit, so I departed for the small stillwater near Georgetown, CO.

I arrived a bit before 10:00AM, and the lower parking lot was full, so I grabbed a space in the upper lot and quickly assembled my gear. My rod of choice was my old Sage four weight, and a temperature of 64 degrees allowed me to proceed with no extra layers. I immediately hiked to the inlet area, and I was greeted by several anglers who arrived before me. Two young men occupied the side closest to the road and another angler was perched on a large rock high above the spot where the creek first entered the lake. My greatest disappointment was a fisherman across from me in the spot that yielded ridiculous quantities of trout on 06/21/2023, but I determined there was adequate space below him, so I crossed North Clear Creek and settled by a cluster of rocks on a point that jutted into the lake. I began my day with a tan size 8 pool toy hopper, a size 12 prince nymph and a size 14 iron sally. The iron sally was crack to the Clear Lake fish on June 21.

My Spot Near the Inlet

I began to lob casts to the lake surrounding my position, and I quickly observed quite a few fish finning in Clear Lake above, across and below me. However, my hopper and nymphs were apparently not on the trout diet on Wednesday. A fair amount of surface sipping prompted me to switch to a double dry approach. I removed the dry/dropper flies and replaced them with a peacock hippie stomper and trailed a size 18 deer hair caddis. The caddis drew some attention but no connections, so I replaced it with a black size 18 parachute ant. The ant fooled a small trout, and I was excited to be on the right track, but apparently the little rainbow eating an ant was an aberration. Once again I made a swap, and this time I replaced the ant with a size 16 olive-brown deer hair caddis. The caddis also generated some looks and eventually a bold feeder grabbed it, as I gave it a twitch. Unfortunately the trout continued to sip periodically, but my flies were not targeted, so I decided to return to the dry/dropper. The man in the sweet spot continued landing fish at a torrid pace, and I concluded he was drifting nymphs in the area that displayed stronger current.

Fine Rainbow

Once again I knotted the pool toy to my tippet, but unlike earlier, I extended the 4X tippet from the bend for at least 3.5 feet, before I tied a beadhead hares ear and size 20 salad spinner (midge pupa) to my line. Finally I achieved a degree of success, and I grew the fish count from two to nine, before I took a break for lunch just after noon. The catch rate lagged June 21, but I finally settled on a fly configuration that seemed to satisfy the appetites of the stocker rainbows. Of the seven fish landed before lunch, five nabbed the salad spinner and two plucked the hares ear. During the late morning time period I gradually edged south along the bank, so that my casts were covering water that exhibited slightly more current, and I feel that this extra movement was also responsible for my greater level of success.

A Bit More Color

After lunch I resumed fishing the dry dropper above the rocky point, and the fish count moved to twelve. Two of these fish favored the hares ear and one snatched a zebra midge. I replaced the salad spinner with a zebra midge, after I lost the hares ear and salad spinner in an evergreen tree on an overly aggressive hook set. After I landed number twelve, I stared at the lake bottom and noticed that it was a red-brown color. Why hadn’t I observed this earlier? My gaze shifted to the incoming creek, and I was astounded to see red-brown turbid flows entering the lake. The leading edge of the muddy plume contained pine needles and typical debris from the floor of a forest. Very few clouds appeared in the southern or western sky, so a brief thunderstorm as the source was unlikely. I could only conjecture that someone did some digging in the creek and churned up the sediment.

From the Parking Lot End

In response to the discoloration, the other anglers departed, but I moved north along the shoreline to a nearby area where the clarity of the lake remained unaffected. The dry/dropper ceased to interest the trout, so I decided to experiment with some streamer fishing. I began my lineup with an olive woolly bugger with rubber legs and below that I added a Mickey Finn. I began to distribute casts in a fan formation from the rocky point, and I was rewarded with two trout that chased and crushed the woolly bugger. I also felt some grabs on the Mickey Finn, but then I noticed that the trout pulled the bucktail fibers from the head wraps, so I replaced the Mickey Finn with another old tie that may have been in the Edson tiger family.

At this point I checked the incoming flows, and they remained a very thick red-brown color, and I grew concerned over my ability to wade across the incoming stream, so I hiked back to the inlet and safely made the crossing. The fish count was at fourteen, and I felt satisfied with my day, so I hoofed it back to the entry road. I intended to end my day, but I stared at the small cove north of the lower lot, and I decided to give the area a try with my streamer combination. I inspected the Edson tiger, and I noticed that some of the yellow and red bucktail had escaped on this fly as well, thus presenting a much narrower baitfish profile than desired, so I exchanged it for a wiggle damsel nymph. In the next fifteen minutes I landed two trout on the damsel nymph and generated several temporary hook ups, but then the action came to a screeching halt, and I decided to finally end my day of fishing.

Roadside Grazing

Sixteen cookie cutter rainbows between seven and twelve inches were a respectable day, and this temporarily satisfied my fly fishing addiction. The surge of muddy creek water was an unwelcome surprise, but I managed to work around it and salvage a fun lake fly fishing day. Experiencing success with streamers in Clear Lake was an added bonus. I suspect that I will be tying some bucktail streamers in the near future.

Fish Landed: 16

Big Meadows Reservoir – 06/25/2023

Time: 10:15AM – 2:30PM

Location: Black Creek inlet/South Fork of the Rio Grande inlet

Big Meadows Reservoir 06/25/2023 Photo Album

As I discovered on Saturday, stream fishing in the Creede area was a very challenging proposition. Before departing for Creede, I tracked the flows on the Rio Grande River, so I knew that the river was high compared to the average due to the above normal snowpack. In anticipation of this circumstance, I studied my Easy Access Mountain Lakes book, and I determined that five lakes existed in the Rio Grande Valley within reasonable distance of Creede. One that caught my attention was Big Meadows Reservoir, as it also offered hiking trails for Jane and Amy.

At the Start

The three of us arrived at the parking lot on the northwest corner of the lake by 9:45AM. I assembled my Sage One five weight, while Jane and Amy departed on the Archuleta Trail. The temperature was in the low sixties, and I set out along the northern shoreline and followed the same Archuleta Trail, until I crossed a small creek on a rickety pedestrian bridge. I cut down to the inlet and knotted a tan pool toy to my line and trailed a beadhead hares ear and prince nymph. I waded into the shallow area, where the creek dropped into the lake, and I began casting the dry/dropper into the plume. Almost immediately I noticed quite a few rises, so after ten minutes of fruitless casting, I switched to a double dry approach with an olive hippie stomper and a tiny size 24 midge emerger. The trout continued rising next to my flies, so I concluded that the tiny midge was a non-starter. I swapped it for a size 16 light gray deer hair caddis. Over the next 45 minutes I fired cast after cast to the entering flume, and I managed two rainbow trout. One nipped the caddis, and the second gulped the hippie stomper. I was happy to register two trout, but this was by no means easy fly fishing. The trout in the area rose confidently to natural food morsels and ignored my offerings with the exception of the two rainbows that settled in my net.

Small Creek Inlet

Caddis Eater

The book described good fishing at the inlet of the South Fork of the Rio Grande, and I was interested in exploring it, so I hooked my flies to the rod guide and continued westward on the trail. Eventually it was clear that the trail was veering away from the lake, so I made a left and bushwhacked my way to the South Fork of the Rio Grande. For the most part the creek was churning at high velocity, but I found a bend, and I was sure it would deliver a trout or two. My certainty was misplaced, so I reeled up and stumbled upstream through some dense low lying shrubs searching for more water that could hold trout. I found nothing except high gradient runs and riffles right up against the banks.

I reversed direction and scrambled through some marshy land, until I was in some slower-moving bends just above the inlet. A deep run along a deadfall looked promising, but it failed to deliver, so I advanced upstream to a narrow ribbon of slower moving water along the left bank. A cast to the extreme top of the run yielded a flash, and I set the hook and found myself connected to a hard fighting rainbow trout with an iron sally in its lip. I brought it to my net and celebrated with several sips of water.

South Fork of the Rio Grande Beauty

Productive Spot

Next I retreated to the mouth of the South Fork of the Rio Grande. A shallow sand bar ran into the lake for thirty yards with deep drop offs on either side. A cluster of spin fishermen were along the deep channel between the sandbar and the bank, so I confined my casts to the left side. My lineup consisted of a yellow size 8 fat Albert, a 20 incher, and an iron sally. On one of my casts the fat Albert dipped, and I was connected to a rainbow trout that chowed down on the 20 incher. By the time I released my catch, it was 12:30PM, so I sat in the grass on the peninsula and ate my lunch.

After lunch the wind kicked up and the dry/dropper was not delivering results, so I changed tactics. I pulled an olive-black woolly bugger from my fleece and added it to my line after removing the dry/dropper configuration. Below the woolly bugger I knotted a black mini leech on a ten inch tippet extension. I began spraying casts and stripping along the sandbar drop off. Two rainbows were duped by this approach, with both nailing the mini leech. I cast and counted to 15 or 20 seconds and then began my retrieve. Next I pulsed the line with two very quick strips, and then I resumed my choppy retrieve. Quite often I felt a soft bump with the resumption of movement after the initial quick burst, but on two occasions the trout made aggressive grabs.

Afternoon Waves

At one o’clock Jane and Amy arrived and announced they were ready to leave. I negotiated two more hours and hiked with them along the southwest side of the lake to the parking lot. I continued one-third of the way around the lake, where I scooted back down to the Black Creek inlet, but a family with two young boys occupied my desired fly fishing position. By the time I re-rigged my line, however, the family departed, and I had it to myself. I began casting the bugger and mini leech across the entering current, and within a short amount of time a nine inch brook trout flopped in my net. Brookies are wild and brilliantly colored in Big Meadows Lake. The bugger/leech combination failed to interest additional trout, so I replaced the leech with a Mickey Finn that I tied forty years ago. Hooray. My classic fly produced two more brook trout and a rainbow before the streamer disintegrated. A trout apparently locked its teeth on the bucktail fibers and pulled them free of the thread wraps without getting the hook in its mouth. What a wily trout! I was left to stare at a hook shank with an unraveling tinsel body and nothing else. Another Mickey Finn replaced the denuded version, but I ended my day of fishing at 2:40PM, when the wind accelerated to ridiculous speeds leaving whitecaps on the lake and making every backcast a life threatening event.

Decent Brook Trout

Ten trout in 3.5 hours of fishing is respectable. I learned about Big Meadows Lake and in the process found productive areas. I gained confidence in streamer fishing and advanced the renaissance of the Mickey Finn. It was not all bad for a windy day during run off.

Fish Landed: 10

Rio Grande River – 06/24/2023

Time: 3:15PM – 4:15PM

Location: Across from and upstream from Marshall Park Campground

Rio Grande River 06/24/2023 Photo Album

As I grieved over my wasted opportunity to land some fish on Saturday, June 14, I considered the idea of edge fishing the Rio Grande River. I was familiar with a public section across from and upstream from the Marshall Park Campground, and it was conveniently along my return path to the cabin. I decided to give it a try. I continued beyond the Marshall Park Campground turn off and made a right turn on to Middle Creek Road. I passed the campground area and found a narrow pullout along the dirt road. I walked downriver along the shoulder of the road a short distance, and I surveyed the river in the process. After a short distance I spotted a nice slack water spot behind a jumble of sticks and branches, so I decided to make the approach. I thrashed through some picker bushes and attempted to plant my right foot on a branch, but the branches parted ways, and I found my right leg extended below the branches, which were now even with my thigh. I was in an extremely awkward position, and in the process of trapping myself I hooked my flies and the leader on the thorny plants that grew in thick clumps along the bank. I was stressed out by my time limitations, but I eventually raised myself out of the hole, and cut off the flies in order to free myself from the trap. I revisited the tan pool toy, hares ear nymph and added a prince nymph; and I managed to edge into some shallow slow-moving water, so that I could extend some backcasts beyond the branches of a tree below me.

Prince Nymph Eater

I began lobbing short casts to the top of the bankside pool behind the log jam, and much to my surprise an eleven and a ten inch brown trout gobbled the prince nymph. My skunking was a thing of the past, and I smiled accordingly. During this short bout of success, massive quantities of size 18 caddis flies were buzzing about. I climbed back up the bank and tried three additional spots with no success. The Rio Grande fishing represented a very difficult game of climbing and sliding down the steep bank, because it was impossible to wade along the shoreline due to the powerful current at high flows.

During the last two bank scaling exercises I noticed a cluster of salmon flies, as they flew across the river, and one perched on my hat brim in an upside down position. It would have been a pretty cool photo opportunity, but it flew away before I could ready my camera.

Fish Landed: 2

South Brown Lake – 06/24/2023

Time: 2:00PM – 2:30PM

Location: A knoll at the end of a two-track road on the south lake.

South Brown Lake 06/28/2023 Photo Album

After a fun trip to Creede in June of 2022, Jane and I booked another stay at an Airbnb in Creede from June 23 through June 27. For our 2023 trip we were joined by our friend, Amy S. Prior to departing for the journey from Denver to Creede I reviewed the flows on the Rio Grande, and I was disappointed to learn that the river was raging along at high run off levels. Consequently I developed a backup plan, and I skipped ahead in my Colorado Easy Access Mountain Lakes book to read about five lakes in the Rio Grande Valley vicinity.

Jane, Amy and I departed from Denver on Friday and made the 4.5 hour drive without incident. We easily found our cabin overlooking the mining town of Creede, and after we unloaded our baggage, we made the less than one mile drive to Main Street. The Rio Grande Angler was closed for the day, so we continued our stroll along the small downtown area, until we reached the Ramble House fly shop. I entered the shop and immediately met with a young salesperson. I bought two spools of tippet, and then I questioned my salesman for fishing information in the area. I discovered that the Rio Grande remained very difficult to fish due to the high flows and that the salmon fly hatch was just beginning. I described the successful edge fishing that I enjoyed on other freestone rivers, and the gentleman suggested the Coller State Wildlife Area as a spot to try edge fishing.

Next I asked if there were other moving water options, and he offered Crooked Creek by Road Canyon Reservoir and North Clear Creek west of Creede. My final line of questioning revolved around lakes, and he suggested Big Meadow Reservoir and Beaver Creek Reservoir, and he assured me that both were ice free. Both reservoirs were in my Easy Access Mountain Lakes book, so I was pleased to gain the information about the status of the lakes.

On Saturday morning Amy, Jane and I completed a five mile out and back hike on the Deep Creek Trail. When we returned to the cabin, we ate our lunches, and then I was free to embark on a fly fishing excursion, while the ladies ventured forth on the Up and Over hike. I dropped them off at the trailhead, and then I drove west on CO 149. I planned to explore the North Clear Creek option, and my backup included Brown Lakes State Wildlife Area. My easy access book presented Brown Lakes as a solid destination for hungry brook trout.

When it came to North Clear Creek, I was shooting in the dark regarding a section to explore, so I set North Clear Creek Campground as my destination. I knew that a National Forest campground provided some assurance of public water in a national forest setting. As I entered the campground, I spotted a rectangular wooden sign that pointed to fisherman parking, and I made a left turn and parked. Jane reserved tickets for a play at the Creede Theater on Saturday night, and we had dinner reservations before the show, so I was on a tight timeline. I quickly pulled on my waders and assembled my Sage four weight and anxiously crossed the campground entry road and dropped into the forest. I could hear the rushing water of the creek, but it was not visible. I advanced twenty yards toward the sound of water, when I felt a thick twig in my right boot foot. I tried to ignore it in order to avoid removing all my gear and my waders, but it was pressing into the bottom of my foot, and I could not imagine continuing to fish under these circumstances. At the time I noticed a high barbed wire fence that angled from the road to the creek, and this sealed my decision to retreat to the road. I grabbed a seat on the bench of the first campsite after the parking area, and I removed my front pack, backpack, wading staff, camera, and my right wader foot, until I was able to hold it upside down to empty the irritating twig. I put myself back together and continued down the road past several campgrounds, and then I cut back to the creek.

My first glance at the creek was not reassuring, as the water was rushing along at high velocity and very tight to the bank. I decided to walk upstream a bit, but viable places to cast a fly were practically nonexistent. The two that I observed were quite marginal, and I could foresee excessive hiking along the creek between possible fish holding locales. I decided to cut my losses, and I returned to the car, stashed my gear and proceeded a few miles to the Brown Lakes SWA.

Brown Lakes was two miles off of CO 149, and as I approached, I noticed the parking lots were completely devoid of cars. The lakes were in a wide open setting with no trees, and the wind gusted relentlessly and created whitecaps on the small bodies of water. Adding to my initial feelings of doubt, the color of the water was brown with minimal visibility along the edges. The book did not suggest which lake to fish, so I drove by the north lake parking lot, until I reached a parking lot for the second, and here I spotted a two-track lane that stretched toward the south end of the lake. I was hoping to find the inlet, since fishing near inlets had served me well in other stillwater ventures. The two track eventually curled onto a knoll that rose twenty feet above the lake on a small point.

South Lake Looking North

I removed my fly rod, which remained strung from my aborted effort on North Clear Creek, and I added a tan size 8 pool toy hopper and a beadhead hares ear nymph and black mini leech. I dropped down a steep bank on the north side of the knoll, and I was positioned in a calm, murky cove. I never saw any surface activity, but I was at least protected from the wind, so I began spraying casts toward the calm water in the protected portion of the lake, as I moved toward the corner. I allowed the flies to rest for varying amounts of time and then deployed short jerks and strips, but the fish, if they were present, ignored my actions. I lost confidence and grew frustrated, so I decided to explore to the south in hopes of finding the inlet. After a brief hike, I once again encountered a barbed wire fence, and it extended into the lake, so I abandoned the inlet search. I returned to the point that protruded from the knoll, and I reconfigured with a streamer, but ten minutes of casting and stripping did not yield anything besides arm exercise. I cut my losses and returned everything to the car. Fly fishing in the Rio Grande Valley in June of 2023 was not getting off to an auspicious start.

Fish Landed:0

Clear Lake – 06/21/2023

Time: 10:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Next to parking lot and inlet area

Clear Lake 06/21/2023 Photo Album

The rivers and streams of Colorado remained in an elevated state, and I was attempting to ratchet back the strenuous nature of my endeavors for a few weeks, so I decided to visit another lake. On Wednesday, June 21 I opted for Clear Lake, and this was another example of a lake described in my Colorado’s Easy Access Mountain Lakes book. The weather was predicted to be cooler than earlier in the week, and the threat of precipitation was minimal.

I departed Denver at 8:30, and I arrived at my chosen destination by 10:00AM. I quickly assembled my Sage four weight, and I ambled a very short distance to the south side of the beach area next to the parking lot. The easy access book repeatedly emphasized not fishing right next to the parking lot, but I ignored this advice. The sun was bright and the air temperature was in the upper sixties, so I wore no layers beyond my fishing shirt and stuffed my raincoat in my backpack.

Double Dry in Place

In the early going I tossed an olive hippie stomper and trailed a size 16 gray caddis, and this double dry fly combination enabled me to establish a fish count of three. Two of the stocker rainbows caught during this time frame nipped the size 14 stomper, and one grabbed the trailing caddis. I also experienced quite a few brief connections, as the trout bumped the caddis without fully chomping down. The book suggested working along the southern shoreline, but it consisted of a steep rocky bank, and I was reluctant to negotiate the relatively severe terrain with my pledge to reduce stress. I clipped my flies to the rod guide and mounted a dirt bank next to the entry road and then followed a rough two-track to the inlet section. The book suggested that the inlet was the place to be, and the author described hours of hot fishing with a dry/dropper.

Salivating Over This Area

Initially I persisted with the double/dry, but other than a refusal or two, the offering was not effective, so I decided to make a switch. I followed the author’s lead, and I rigged with size 8 tan pool toy hopper, beadhead hares ear nymph and a size 12 prince nymph. This combination proved to be the ticket, and I notched five additional trout before lunch to increase the fish count to eight. The hopper accounted for one fish, but the others nailed the prince. I began fishing the inlet by prospecting the faster run where the creek emptied into the lake, and this locale yielded a fish or two, but when I slid westward, so I was beyond a moderate-sized exposed boulder, I began to enjoy more success. The lake in this area dropped off and still carried some current; however, the tongue of the run fanned out to much slower moving water.

One of the Better Fish

Just before lunch I inadvertently broke off the two nymphs, so after lunch I replaced the prince as the top subsurface offering and then added an iron sally. What a fortuitous move this turned out to be! Just before lunch some thick clouds blocked the sun for an extended period of time, and I grew quite chilled standing in the waist deep water. I decided to return to the car for another layer, but I left my rod and all my gear on the gradual shoreline. I decided to vacate the area, and a solo fisherman was below me, so I approached him and made the offer for him to take my spot. He was very thankful, but I was not certain he would change his position.

I quickly hiked back to the car and grabbed my North Face light down coat, and upon returning to my pile of gear, I snugged the down coat under my thin rain shell. My comfort level zoomed to positive and remained in that status for the remainder of the afternoon. Not wishing to wade waist deep again, I began shooting longer casts to the deep and moving water that rolled by forty feet across from my position. The fun began instantly. On the first three casts a rainbow trout attacked the iron sally, and for the remainder of the afternoon this torrid success level continued, until I boosted the fish count to thirty. Sixty percent of the time a trout locked on to the nymph on the drift, but a strip or twitch initiated action the rest of the time.

Got a Grip

After an hour of this trout catching bonanza a trio of kids arrived, and they set up operations fifteen yards below me. The male of the group was likely in his late teens, and the two females were probably ninth or tenth grade. Their tools consisted of two fly rods and two spinning rods. They were not having much success, and they looked on in awe, as I hoisted fish after fish from the honey hole that was across from me.

At one point between fifteen and twenty landed fish, I snapped off the prince and iron sally on a backcast, and I retooled with a beadhead hares ear as the top fly and stayed with an iron sally for the bottom offering. During this time one of the young ladies asked to see my fly, and when I showed her, she produced her fly box and asked which of her flies I thought would work. I pointed to four flashy hares ear nymphs.

Next to the Bank and Between the Boulders

After breaking off two valued flies I decided to follow the gentleman who was below me before lunch. He crossed the creek above the lake and scaled a steep bank and positioned himself along the opposite shoreline thirty yards below my position and that of the teenagers. I hoped to eliminate the risk of loss during long backcasts, as the prime water ran very close to the bank across from me. The tactic worked, and after a brief creek crossing and short hike I was prepared to cast from the north shore.

Nice Gleam

I was pleased to discover that my catch rate resumed at a similar pace, if not perhaps even greater. The rainbow trout were all over my nymphs, although the hares ear began to produce, albeit at a lower ratio than the iron sally. Several narrow evergreens invaded my space, so I was forced to be very cautious with my backcasts and hooksets. Short roll casts served the purpose of keeping my flies in the water and out of the timber.

From the Opposite Shore

By 3:30PM I grew weary of the easy fishing (I cannot believe I am writing this), so I snugged up my line, climbed the bank, followed the trail, crossed the creek and returned to the trio of teenage friends. I asked the young man, if I could look at his line, and he gleefully handed it to me. He told me the rod was new and called it a Crosswater (I think). I inspected the fly, and he had a thick leader with a tiny elk hair caddis knotted to the end. What comes after 0X? I nipped off the fly and added three feet of 4X using a surgeons knot, although it was very difficult to cinch the thick leader side. I asked if he had any large foam flies, and amazingly he produced a size 10 chubby Chernobyl. I knotted it to the 4X, and then I asked to inspect his fly box. I instantly spotted a pair of flashy beadhead hares ear nymphs, so I added a three foot dropper to the chubby and added the flashy nymph. I proclaimed him ready to catch a fish and suggested that he cast to the area, where I was landing fish after fish from both sides of the lake.

The young angler gave it a game effort, but he was unable to extend a cast more than thirty feet or so, and the sweet spot required another ten feet. He was left handed, and he was applying his forward stroke way too early, and this drained all the energy from the line. I attempted to instruct him on how to pause to allow the rod to load, and he managed it a few times, but then he angled his arm on the forward cast and landed the flies upstream in still water rather than the target area. I began to shout at the moment that the rod loaded on the backcast, and that helped, but his flies continued to fall short. Meanwhile the two females landed a pair of fish on the spinning rod, and I sensed he wanted to transition back to that form of fishing.

One of the Better Rainbows

I said my farewell, and they thanked me for my assistance, and I returned to the small cove next to the parking lot. Several fish rose sporadically, but the hopper/dropper was not their cup of tea, so I clipped off the flies and tied on a size 16 gray deer hair caddis. For the next fifteen minutes I fished this tiny morsel solo, and I increased the fish count to thirty-five, before I called it quits and ambled back to the car. Of the last five fish to feel my net, three reacted to a twitch or strip, and the other two crushed the fly, while it sat in a stationary position.

Ram Tough

Wednesday, June 21 evolved into a fish catching orgy. All the trout were rainbows except for one brook trout that barely exceeded my self imposed minimum of six inches. The iron sally was far and away the favorite of the lake residents, although the prince, hares ear, pool toy, hippie stomper and deer hair caddis contributed to the haul. I suspect another lake fishing adventure lies in my near future, and my confidence in the Easy Access Mountain Lakes book is growing.

Fish Landed: 35

Pine Valley Ranch Lake – 06/19/2023

Time: 2:00PM – 4:15PM

Location: Southern shoreline

Pine Valley Ranch Lake 06/19/2023 Photo Album

After experiencing some mild health setbacks on Friday and Sunday, I desired a less taxing day of fly fishing on Monday, June 19. I settled on Pine Valley Ranch Lake, because it represented a bit over an hour drive, and the hike to the lake was only .2 mile. The high temperature in Denver spiked in the low nineties, so that was an additional consideration.

Jane and I arrived in the lower parking lot at Pine Valley Ranch Park by 1:30PM, and we were fortunate to snag a spot near the trailhead, because only a few spaces remained. June 19 is Juneteenth, a new federal holiday, so we assumed that this circumstance impacted the greater than normal number of park visitors on a weekday.

Looking East

I considered wet wading, but I did not wear the proper shirt to hold my dry fly box, so I reverted to waders, and I never felt overheated during my time on the lake. For casting, I selected my Sage R8 four weight, and I have grown to love my newest graphite stick. Jane and I departed from the parking lot and hiked along the northern shore using the dirt road that separates the lake from the North Fork of the South Platte River. Anglers were spaced out along the south and north shorelines by roughly thirty feet, with the only remaining open spaces on the earthen dam and at the upper end of the southern shore. I decided to inspect the narrow channel at the west end, and it was devoid of fishermen, but as I scanned the shallow slough, I was unable to spot any fish, nor were any fish feeding on the surface. The combination of no sighted fish and no fishermen convinced me to move on. We circled around the west end of the lake, and I grabbed a spot toward the western end of the southern shoreline. The vegetation grew into the water, so waders or wet wading were required to fish in this section. Most of the fishermen at Pine Valley Ranch Lake were shore bound, so I saw this as an advantage. Jane set up her chair in the pavilion in the southwest corner.

West End

Release Time

I began my quest for rainbow trout with a double dry configuration that featured a peacock hippie stomper as the first fly and a size 16 gray deer hair caddis as the trailer. For the next two hours I fired forty foot casts in a fan pattern from my waded position, and I edged my way eastward. After an hour the man and woman who claimed the spot by the angled dead tree departed, and I quickly replaced them. How did I do? I landed nine stocker rainbow trout during 2.25 hours of fishing. I utilized the same technique that resulted in a twenty-five fish day on a previous trip. I allowed the flies to rest for thirty seconds, and then I made quick pulsing strips back to my casting position. All but two of the trout sipped the fly, while it was motionless, and two made a grab on an early strip. The caddis accounted for six trout, and the hippie stomper attracted three smacks. The hippie stomper eats seemed to coincide with a breeze or wind and the presence of a slight chop on the surface of the lake. Many fruitless casts were part of the equation, and doing the thirty second countdown repeatedly tried my patience, but nine fish in 2.25 hours during air temperatures in the low eighties was actually a fairly solid performance.

Send It

By 4:15PM the pace of action slowed to a crawl, and my back began to tighten, so I stripped in my flies, and Jane and I returned to the car. Jane enjoyed watching my efforts and actually called out a take, when I looked away for a split second. We were both awestruck, when an osprey assumed the shape of a wedge and plunged into the lake at high velocity directly across from us. Neither of us had our cameras available, but we then watched, as the majestic bird of prey circled the lake several times. On two occasions it swooped, until it was twenty feet above the surface of the lake, and we were sure another dive was imminent, but on both occasions it backed off and regained altitude.

From the Earthen Dam

I hope to explore a few more lakes within the next couple weeks before rivers and streams return to fishable levels.

Fish Landed: 9