Time: 11:00AM – 3:30PM

Location: National Forest

Beaver Creek 07/30/2025 Photo Album

Note: In order to protect small high country streams, I have chosen to change the name for a few. This particular creek happens to be one of them. Excessive exposure could lead to crowding and lower fish densities.

After a week away from fly fishing, I was itching to return to western streams. I planned to fish on Monday, but projected high temperatures near 100 degrees dissuaded that notion. The heat was too much for even high elevations according to my reasoning. My grandsons’ “other” grandparents arrived from Pennsylvania, and they assumed our kid sitting responsibilities  on Thursday, July 31, and this provided a window of opportunity for fishing. I asked my daughter, Amy, if I could stay at her condo for three nights. She readily extended the invitation, so I had a home base for fly fishing adventures from July 30 through August 1.

High Gradient

On Wednesday morning I was set to depart Denver at 7:10AM, but as I drove down 35th Avenue, I noticed the low tire pressure warning light appeared on the dashboard. Just my luck. I did a quick U-turn and parked behind the garage, where I connected my portable air compressor and inflated the left rear tire from 25 PSI to 32 PSI. The meter on the compressor showed 32 PSI, but when I resumed driving, the dashboard displayed 28 PSI. If there was a leak, I gambled it was slow, and that I could enjoy a day of fishing without facing a flat tire. My gamble paid off, and when I returned home on Saturday, I learned from the tire store that my left rear tire picked up a tiny piece of metal and did in fact have a slow leak.

Brilliant Colors

I arrived at the trailhead for Beaver Creek by 10:30AM, and I prepared to fish the small mountain creek with my Orvis Access four weight rod. A short but steep climb advanced me to an entry point, and I rigged with a solo peacock hippie stomper. Fly choice was rather straight forward on this day. I stuck with the hippie stomper for the first four hours on the creek, and it delivered twenty-nine trout. The same fly produced all the fish without unraveling, before I carelessly snagged it on a backcast. Rescue was not possible, so I snapped it off and replaced it with a size 14 purple haze. I am not sure what motivated the choice, but it immediately became a hot fly, and I moved the fish count from twenty-nine to thirty-six in the last half hour. My day was too excellent to second guess, but what if I had switched to the purple haze sooner?

Hippie Stomper Did the Job

The trout seemed to relish the parachute attractor, as they attacked it quite often on the first drift. The white wing post was far more difficult to track than the large wing of the stomper, but on several drifts decent trout grabbed the purple haze as I lifted, or when it was not visible.

First Brook Trout

Tough Wading Ahead

What sort of fish was I catching? Three of my netted finned fighters were brook trout, and the remainder were rainbows. This is highly unusual for a small Colorado stream. Size was lacking, as the largest may have extended to twelve inches. The rainbows made up for their lack of size with their spirited fights and vivid colors. Many were in the ten to eleven inch range, but they were all quite chunky, and they fought hard on my light four weight stick.

One of the Best

Melon Color Scheme

Did I mention colors? The stripes ranged from purple to pink to orange to red, and the same color scheme matched the cheeks in many cases. Although it may sound like a walk in the park, it was not. The gradient was severe, and this created very challenging wading. The willows, bushes and trees inhibited moving along the bank, so climbing slippery rocks and clambering over large fallen logs were the only options to advance. Of course, the tight quarters reached out to grab flies at each turn, but my caution limited the frustration on that front.

Very Nice Spot

The effort was very challenging, but it did seem that the trout were more prevalent in sections that featured difficult access. I love prospecting with dry flies and a small rod in a high mountain stream, and Wednesday was very satisfying.

Fish Landed: 36