Time: 11:00AM – 3:00PM
Location: Boulder Canyon
Boulder Creek 05/16/2021 Photo Album
After a reasonably successful day on Friday on the Arkansas River, I decided to squeeze in another day of fishing, before the run off kicked in permanently. Since it was a weekend day, and I was unwilling to drive a great distance, I chose to visit Boulder Creek in the canyon west of the city of Boulder. The flows were 80 CFS, and the graph trendline was not yet in an upward trajectory. I experienced flows in the 80 CFS range previously, and I knew that it was manageable. Because of ongoing construction in Boulder Canyon, I had not visited the area west of town in two years. I expected the fish to be small but felt that I could enjoy some action with smaller trout on a Sunday with relative solitude, and I assumed Sunday was an off day for the construction crews. I was correct on the latter assumption.
A one hour drive delivered me to a pullout in the canyon by 10:45AM, and after fifteen minutes of preparation I was standing along the edge of the creek with a dry/dropper arrangement that included a tan ice dub chubby Chernobyl, a size 12 prince nymph and a size 14 beadhead bright green caddis pupa. My Sage four weight was in my grasp, and I wore my Northface light down coat covered with a raincoat.
Promising Slick Next to the Rock Wall
The sky was very overcast, and the clouds threatened rain during my entire time on the creek, but other than an occasional fine mist, precipitation was not a factor. The flows were 80 CFS as advertised on the DWR web site, and clarity was excellent with a slight bit of color. The air temperature was 55 degrees, and that along with an occasional breeze explained my layers. I also wore my New Zealand billed cap with ear flaps, and I never felt like I over dressed.
During my four hours on Boulder Creek I cycled through a wide array of flies. I relied primarily on the dry/dropper approach, but toward the end of the four hours I switched to the double dry technique. Among my dry fly offerings I landed one on the chubby Chernobyl, two on a Chernobyl ant, one on a deer hair caddis, one on a hippie stomper, and three on a Klinkhammer blue winged olive emerger. On the subsurface side of the ledger I landed one on the prince nymph, one on an emerald caddis pupa and one on a beadhead caddis pupa.
Typical Small Brown Trout
Surprisingly, given the higher than normal flows and lack of hatch activity, the fish seemed to be looking toward the surface for their meals. This fact was corroborated by the ratio of fish landed on dries compared to nymphs, and in addition I observed quite a few refusals to the chubby Chernobyl and hippie stomper, and I recorded four temporary connections with the Chernobyl ant. I persisted with the two nymph dry/dropper for 75% of my time on the water, but I suspect that I might have performed even better with the double dry approach.
Productive Run
During the last hour I removed the nymphs and added a one foot dropper with a gray size 16 deer hair caddis. The two dry fly combination attracted quite a bit of attention, and I landed one nice brown trout on the caddis adult. The fish counter rested on eight, and I was about to quit after fishing a gorgeous wide run and pool of moderate depth, when I began to notice quick aggressive rises throughout the attractive water near my location. I executed some nice downstream drifts along the foam line and current seam, but the sporadic risers paid no attention to my flies. Since the source of the sudden feeding pattern was not evident, I assumed the trout were keyed in on small blue winged olives, so I swapped the caddis for a size 18 parachute Adams. The white wing post made the trailing fly a delight to follow, but the fish ignored both of my flies in pursuit of the presumed BWO’s.
Double
After ten minutes of futility I decided to make one more last ditch change. I exchanged the parachute Adams for a Klinkhammer BWO emerger. Eventually this fly proved to be the best of the day, but another period of fruitless casts preceded that welcome development. By some stroke of luck I began making downstream drifts and lifted the flies just as they approached the vicinity of previously observed rises. Voila! Five times a trout responded to the lift off, and in three cases a small brown trout rested in my net. Who knew that lifting the flies simulated a mayfly attempting to become airborne, and this movement was what triggered the feeding response in the fish?
Produced a Grab From Slow Water Along the Bank
By 3PM the rises ceased, and I was feeling chilled from the cool temperatures and standing in run off water, so I called it quits and hiked back to the Santa Fe. I ended up with the fish counter on eleven, and it was very gratifying to hook and land three trout on dry flies using the surface lift technique. Of course all the fish were on the small side with perhaps one ten inch giant among them, but it was challenging nonetheless. I managed double digit trout on May 16 on a freestone creek, and I consider Sunday’s results icing on the cake, before the snow melt begins in earnest.
Fish Landed: 11