Time: 12:00PM – 2:00PM

Location: O’Fallon Park

Fish Landed: 0

Bear Creek 03/30/2010 Photo Album

I read in the local Orvis newsletter that Bear Creek was a good early season place to fish in the Denver metro area. Temperatures were forecast to be in the upper 70’s on Tuesday, but I had a dentist appointment at 8AM, so I decided to try Bear Creek due to its close proximity. I’d fished Bear Creek once before on Labor Day several years ago and caught some small trout, but this was much closer to Morrison.

By the time I returned from the dentist and packed a lunch and reorganized the flies in my fly pouch and drove to the stream it was 11:30. As I drove west on route 74 from Morrison, I noticed that the amount of snow along the highway was increasing rapidly with each 100 feet of elevation gain. I found O’Fallon Park easily and turned in the dirt road which led to a small cul de sac. The turnaround was so muddy that I decided to park along the right side of the road and not risk getting stuck in the deep mud.

I ate my lunch and climbed into my waders and then hiked down the mud lane that branched off from the turnaround. The lane was a big oxbow that followed the stream around a hill and then came back to route 74. I stopped where the stream paralleled the road again and entered the water at a wide open area. I tied on a Chernobyl ant and trailed a San Juan worm and beadhead hares ear. The water was flowing somewhat high and mostly clear but had discoloration from the rapidly melting snow.

I worked my way through all kinds of water…riffles, runs, pockets and pools but experienced no success. I didn’t even spook any fish. When I got to a stretch where the stream narrowed and formed several nice deep pools with deep runs entering the pools, I switched to a deep nymphing setup. This didn’t make any difference.

By 2PM I approached the top of the oxbow, and I’d lost all confidence. There was a man playing with four dogs in the snow and stream just ahead, so I decided to call it a day.