Time: 12:00PM – 3:00PM

Location: National Forest Land

Beaver Creek 09/22/2025 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.

I decided to pay daughter, Amy, another visit, as she lives in the heart of some excellent fishing destinations. I departed Denver on Monday morning and made the drive to the western slope. I arrived at my planned fishing destination and immediately prepared to fish. My casting tool was my Orvis Access four weight, since I was about to fish a relatively small mountain creek.

Once I was prepared, I completed a .8 mile hike in a constant ascent, and then I cut down the bank to a medium sized log, where I consumed my lunch. By the time I was prepared to fish, it was noon.

Lunch Spot

While I ate lunch, I overlooked a nice deep hole just below a small spillway over a log and above some overhanging branches. After lunch, just for kicks, I dropped a cast in the five foot by three foot space, and a nice eleven inch rainbow slammed the peacock hippie stomper.

Watched Me Eat Lunch

At the outset I prospected with a solo hippie stomper. For the first hour I moved steadily up the stream and built the fish count to seven. I experienced refusals and temporary hookups, but when I encountered a spot with decent depth and moderate current, I generally interacted with a fish. Toward the end of this time frame, however, the refusals became more frequent, and I felt like prime spots were not delivering as expected.

So Colorful

I paused and added an ultra zug bug on a one foot dropper to the stomper. The change worked miracles, and suddenly decent rainbows began to materialize from the better locations, as most snatched the ultra zug bug.

Ooh. What a Hole.

By 1:30PM a dark gray cloud floated overhead, and I quickly waded to an open spot on the shore and extracted my raincoat and pulled it on. I was outfitted with my rain shell just as the rain intensified, and for a brief amount of time I was pelted with tiny white ice pellets the size of a pea.

Parr Markings Visible

I weathered the brief storm and continued to compile netted fish. I got above a small tributary, and the stream narrowed, while the gradient increased. My catch rate slowed, as there were fewer prime fish holding spots. I boosted the fish count to twenty-eight, and once again the sky darkened. In this instance the blackness was accompanied by thunder and a couple visible streaks of lightning. I climbed the bank and found a large evergreen with dry soil beneath it. I crowded under the tree to wait out the storm.

Another Hot Spot

By now it was 2:50PM, and by 3:00PM the rain intensified. The temperature dropped significantly, and the rain created small streams of run off on the trail. I decided to abandon thoughts of resuming my day of fishing, and I marched back to the parking lot.

Some Length Here

Monday was a numbers day. My largest fish may have reached twelve inches, and of course the count include a bunch of six and seven inch dinks, but there were enough ten to eleven inch feisty ‘bows to maintain my interest. I love the surprise of a take by a wild rainbow in a small stream regardless of the size.

Fish Landed: 28