Time: 11:30AM – 3:00PM

Location: National Forest

Canyon Creek 08/18/2025 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 postponed my trip to the western slope from last week to the week of August 18. The reason for the delay was the Elk and Lee Fires that were spreading smoke and ash in a wide radius around Garfield County. I checked with my daughter, Amy, and she informed me that conditions improved measurably.

My departure from Denver allowed me to arrive at my chosen stream destination by 11:00AM. The temperature was already in the seventies, as I fitted together my Sage R8 four weight. A .5 mile hike placed me along the stream ready to cast by 11:30AM. I initially knotted a solo purple haze to my line, and it was mostly ignored except for a small cutbow beneath the six inch size requirement for counting purposes.

Inviting a Cast

I persisted with the purple haze for twenty minutes, before I exchanged it for a peacock hippie stomper and a size 14 light gray deer hair caddis. This combination was moderately effective, as I landed two decent brown trout in the twelve to thirteen inch range, before I broke for lunch. On this day lunch was late at 12:45PM, since I began at 11:30AM. I also foul hooked a very nice fourteen inch brown and landed a couple sub-six inch browns during the pre-lunch session.

One of Only a Couple

After lunch I continued with the stomper and caddis, and I hooked what felt like a decent fish on the hippie stomper. By a stroke of bad luck, it wrapped around a submerged rock. I could see the trout trashing about below the rock, but just before I waded into range, it slipped free.

Narrow Pool

After this disappointment I suffered a long dry spell, so I changed to a size ten Chernobyl ant paired with a sunk ant. Shortly after the changeover, I hooked a seven inch brown, but then the two fly dry/dropper ceased to attract fish. I began a series of fly changes that included a tan body mini-chubby, but the creek was dead. I failed to generate a look or refusal during my remaining stay on the creek. The temperature soared into the low nineties, and I am sure that is the explanation for the trout lethargy.

At 3:00PM I found a convenient access to the trail and completed a 1.1 mile return hike. Monday was not a good day to be on a stream, and the heat was surely the reason. Three fish landed in three hours of fishing was very lackluster. I tried to be stealthy in my approaches, and I fluttered the flies down with minimal disturbance. I am not sure if I will return to Canyon Creek in 2025.

Fish Landed: 3