Time: 11:30AM – 1:00PM
Location: City of Boulder
Boulder Creek 11/152/2023 Photo Album
I should have gone to Bear Creek. Have you heard that familiar refrain? No, I haven’t either, but that is my current thought, as I approach my computer to record this brief report on my day of fly fishing on 11/12/2023. A high in the mid-sixties was predicted for Denver on Sunday, so I could not resist the call for a day of late season fly fishing. I mentioned my desire to my son, Dan, that I might visit Boulder Creek within the city of Boulder, and he remarked that perhaps his family could pay me a visit. That explains my single minded focus on Boulder Creek. On Thursday during my physical therapy, my exercise specialist, Nate, related that he spent recent time on Bear Creek, and he experienced reasonable success; thus, my opening sentence.
At any rate Jane decided to accompany me at the last minute, so we loaded her road bike on the Santa Fe hitch rack, and we made the relatively short drive to Boulder. Jane planned to log a nice ride on the trails of Boulder, while I prepared for a few hours of fly fishing. I planned three hours maximum. The temperature was in the upper fifties, so I pulled on my fleece hoodie. My fly fishing stick of choice was my Orvis Access four weight, as I did not anticipate battling any lunkers. As I slid my right foot into my stocking foot wader and then stepped down to seat my foot in the boot, I flinched at the sensation of something piercing my heel. I pulled off the right leg and examined the heel of my boot, but nothing was amiss. Next I felt the bottom of my hiking sock, and I was surprised to discover one of my streamers stuck in the heel of my sock! I was perplexed regarding how it got there, and amazed that the hook found its way into a point side up position.
Low and Clear
I hiked downstream for .5 mile, and Jane walked her bike along beside me, at which point I cut to the creek to begin my November fly fishing outing. Jane reversed direction and cycled westward into Boulder Canyon. As we ambled along the creek, I remarked to Jane that I was concerned about the low flows and the extreme clarity of Boulder Creek. I anticipated very challenging conditions, and little did I know how accurate that assessment would prove to be. When I returned home, I checked the flows, and they were a meager 14 CFS.
Lunch View
I began my quest for late autumn trout with an olive body hippie stomper and a beadhead hares ear nymph. I persisted with this combination for my entire time on the stream, and I managed to land one nine inch brown trout toward the end of my fly fishing outing. I covered the entire 5 mile that I hiked in 1.5 hours, and the only fish I saw was the brown trout that I was able to net. I witnessed no rises, nor did I spot darting fish escaping my wading. I skipped wide shallow sections, and focused on deep pools and deeper entry runs at the top of pools,; and, eventually I skipped the pools and cherry picked the moving water with some depth.
My One and Only Trout
Brown Trout Came from the Point of the Rock on the Left Bank
Where were all the fish? Did they congregate somewhere for a massive spawning orgy? I have no answer for that question. I should have listened to Nate and made the short drive to Bear Creek. In Fact, with nice weather in the forecast for this week, I may yet undertake that trip.
Fish Landed: 1
Dave, I really enjoy your fishing reports and so appreciate the details you provide on each trip. Since I’m new to Colorado and fly fishing all of your fly and technique suggestions are really helpful.
Based on your reports I started tying and using the hippie stomper with great success on the front range streams and even on a trip to the mountains in North Carolina.
Since I’m retired software guy, I created my own stream flows site that I used to check the flows, water temps and weather forecasts as I plan my weekly trips.
Feel free to check it out at:
http://watersheds.site
It shows data from the USGS and DWR data sources , weather from the National Weather Service and mapping from Google Maps. And if you create an account, you can save your favorites and get a daily email report of your favorites.
Best of all..its free to use!
Thanks again for the time you take to share your experiences with the rest of us.
Best – Mike
Mike – Wow, thanks for reading my blog, and I’m pleased that you are deriving value from it. The hippie stomper is an amazing fly. I took a fly tying class with Andrew Grillos, the creator. He’s a great guy. I will definitely check out your web site. It sounds like you consolidated a lot of the key info I use before embarking on a fly fishing trip, so that sounds extremely useful. Nice work. Best of luck on your fly fishing pursuits. Dave
Mike, I just spent some time checking out Watersheds. It’s pretty amazing. I have a couple of questions. 1. Could I put a link to it on my blog? 2. When I click on a watershed and look at the screen that displays the graph, it seems like the weather for a few days is missing. Am I just not scrolling or moving the screen correctly? 3. Is the weather for the closest weather station on some app? I’m curious to know how close the weather is to the watershed. 4. I tried clicking on the Google maps link for Boulder Creek – Orodell. It looks like it brings up the map for where the gauging station is. Correct?
I set up an account and created favorites for all the gauges I routinely check in the South Platte drainage. Nice work. Thanks. Dave
Dave, Thanks for checking out Watersheds. I’m glad you’ve found it useful. It’s still a work in progress so over the winter I’ll be adding more features before the season kicks off in the springtime…
To answer you questions…
1. Could I put a link to it on my blog?
Yes! Definitely! I would love to get more exposure it if it appears helpful for others.
Just add the following URL wherever you need it: http://watersheds.site
2. When I click on a watershed and look at the screen that displays the graph, it seems like the weather for a few days is missing. Am I just not scrolling or moving the screen correctly?
The NWS 7 day daytime forecasts should show under the CFS graph. If it’s there but missing a few days, it’s possible the NWS reporting site didn’t for that day or I might have a bug in my code. Send me the stream you saw the problem and I’ll look into it. thanks!
3. Is the weather for the closest weather station on some app? I’m curious to know how close the weather is to the watershed.
I use the geocode (Lat/Long) of the stream gauge to display the forecast which should be coming from the NWS reporting station closest to the Lat/Long. But a good addition to the forecast would be to list the reporting station which will be helpful. thanks for the idea.
4. I tried clicking on the Google maps link for Boulder Creek – Orodell. It looks like it brings up the map for where the gauging station is. Correct?
Yup. You are totally correct.
As I mentioned before, Watersheds is a work in progress. I’m currently working on the following new features.. and feel free to suggest more..
– Adding the NWS forecast to the daily favorites report
– Adding a Comments feature to the Stream so that we can share tips, reports, and other information collectively about the stream.
– Adding a User Help feature
Feel free to contact me with any more questions, ideas or issues.
My email is: [email protected]
thanks again!
Best – Mike
Hi Dave! Thanks so much for checking out the Watersheds site. So glad you’re finding it helpful..
Let me answer your questions…
1. Yes! You can definitely put a link in your Blog. That would be so great in getting the word out about the site.
The URL you need to add is simply: http://watersheds.site
2. When I click on a watershed and look at the screen that displays the graph, it seems like the weather for a few days is missing. Am I just not scrolling or moving the screen correctly?
There are 2 levels of display within Watersheds: Watershed and Stream/River
When you select a State (say CO) and then select a Watershed from the Watersheds dropdown (say “SOUTH PLATTE RIVER”) and then Search, it will display all of the streams/rivers within that watershed. You can then choose to MAP WATERSHED or select the FLOWS for one of the rivers listed. However, when you map the watershed, it only displays a Google map with Pins for the location of each stream.
You’ll still need to go to the Stream/River level to see the actual flows, google map for the stream gauge and the weather forecast (based on the geocode (lat/long) of the gauge.
If you click on FLOWS anywhere (either on the main search or your Favorites), you will see the CFS graph, water temp (if available from USGS), Google map link of the stream gauge and the NWS Forecast based on the Lat/Long of the stream gauge.
If the NWS forecast is missing for a given stream gauge, then chances are it wasn’t available from the NWS API or perhaps I have a bug in the data capture. If you can tell me which stream is missing the forecast info, I’ll check it out. But it should be at the bottom of the StreamFlows page.
3. Is the weather for the closest weather station on some app? I’m curious to know how close the weather is to the watershed.
I use the Lat/Long of the stream gauge to display the weather forecast which comes from the station closest to the stream gauge. I’ll add the reporting station to the display so that is obvious. thanks for the idea.
4. I tried clicking on the Google maps link for Boulder Creek – Orodell. It looks like it brings up the map for where the gauging station is. Correct?
Yes. You are totally correct!
Feel free to contact me via email with anymore questions/ideas.
Watersheds is a work in progress. I’m in the process of adding the weather forecast to the daily favorites email. I’m also working on a comments feature where you can add a comment to the stream information for sharing tips, hints, trip reports etc. so we can share our notes on each stream for all to use.
My email is: [email protected]
Thanks so much for using Watersheds. I’m looking for any/all ideas to make it a better site for all to use so keep those ideas coming…
Best – Mike