Time: 12:30PM – 3:30PM

Location: Boulder Canyon

Boulder Creek 04/28/2026 Photo Album

I attended the Timberwolves vs Nuggets NBA playoff game on Monday night, and I got to bed at midnight. This late night precluded pickleball, but once I woke up and completed my morning activities, I decided to make a short trip to Boulder Creek for a few hours of fly fishing. The air temperature was cool but expected to peak in the upper fifties in Boulder, CO, and the flows were around 30 CFS at Orodell in Boulder Canyon. Why not give it a try?

Site of First Fish

When I arrived at noon, I immediately downed my lunch, and then I prepared to fish. I gathered my fleece hoodie and layered on my raincoat. For my casting tool I assembled my Sage four weight. The wind was actually stronger than expected, and it was a nuisance throughout my time on the creek. The flows were indeed 30 CFS and low and clear. Run off was not yet a factor on Boulder Creek after a cool April.

Respectable for Boulder Creek

I progressed up the creek over three hours and landed six small brown trout. I was never able to identify a consistent producer among my fly selections. I began with a peacock hippie stomper and a hares ear nymph, and the stomper yielded one small trout, before it became an attractor fly that enticed refusals. The hares ear was ignored, so I switched to a double dry, and this approach remained in force until the last fifteen minutes. The dries that adorned my line in addition to the stomper were a size 16 olive-brown deer hair caddis, a size 18 Adams, a size 14 gray deer hair caddis, a black parachute ant, a size 14 lime green trude, a classic Chernobyl ant, and a mole fly. The olive-brown caddis produced one trout, and the gray caddis added another. The mole fly trailed the lime green trude and yielded two more trout. Nearly all the flies generated a host of refusals. I continue to be amazed at the selectivity of the small brown trout in Clear Creek and Boulder Creek.

Produced One Fish

For the last fifteen minutes I added a salvation nymph on a two foot dropper to the classic Chernobyl ant. This modification produced a small brown trout that struck the salvation at the tail of a pool. I persisted with the two fly dry/dropper for another ten minutes through an attractive area, but the effort was not rewarded, so I stripped in my line and hiked back to the car owning a six fish day.

Nice Deep Spot

Six small brown trout was obviously not what I had in mind, but I was out in the crisp spring air, and the trout educated me through there fussiness. I was pleased to land two trout on the mole fly, after I spotted a few tiny blue wing olives floating above the creek. I chose the lime green trude as the leading fly combined with the mole fly, as I hoped the trude would serve as an indicator and not divert the trout’s attention with refusals. It worked for awhile, but then I suffered an extended dry spell, when neither fly worked. As they say, nothing ventured, nothing

Fish Landed: 6