Time: 1:00PM – 5:30PM

Location: Lunch rock upstream to my favorite island below Chafee – Fremont county line

Fish Landed: 16

Arkansas River 07/09/2014 Photo Album

The perfect wave. A powder day of skiing. Edge fishing a river in Colorado as runoff subsides. Participants in the related sports go to great lengths to experience these peak events. Well, perhaps edge fishing doesn’t rank with the others, but it is a lot of fun and on the few occasions when I’ve timed it perfectly, it leaves me thirsting for more. This describes my mindset after a three hour sampling of outstanding edge fishing on the Eagle River on Saturday, July 5. I immediately began formulating a plan to experience more excellent edge fishing even as the streamflows on the major freestone rivers began to trend downward.

My desire to return to a river while edge fishing remained in its prime spurred me to work efficiently, and I completed my closing responsibilities by the end of Tuesday and formulated a camping and fishing plan for the rest of the week. I decided to pack the car on Wednesday morning and drive to the Arkansas River to check on the fishing there. The reports from Royal Gorge Angler suggested that edge fishing was superb with flows still at 1600 cfs and five feet of visibility. I would fish the Arkansas on Wednesday afternoon and then stay overnight at one of the campgrounds along the river. If the fishing was excellent, I planned to remain and fish there again on Thursday, and then drive to Hornsilver Campground Thursday evening, and this would position me to fish the Eagle River on Friday. If the fishing was less than excellent on Wednesday, I would move to the Eagle River on Thursday morning and fish there for two days.

Everything went according to plan, and I departed Stapleton by 8:45AM on Wednesday morning. I elected to drive the route through Colorado Springs as I targeted the Vallie Bridge Campground as my camping destination for Wednesday evening, and I felt the drive on I25 south was a bit easier than heading southwest on US 285. Unfortunately when I descended the long hill from Royal Gorge to the river, I discovered that the water was quite turbid and there was at best one foot for visibility along the bank. Would I even be able to fish on the Arkansas River? I began to chastise myself for not going directly to the Eagle River.

I drove west on US 50, and the river remained quite murky. When I reached the turn for Vallie Bridge, I detoured briefly and examined the accommodations. There were quite a few tent pads, fire pits and picnic tables and only one appeared to be claimed. The bathroom was along the river and quite a distance from the campsites, and there were only a few cottonwood trees, thus providing minimal shade for two or three campsites. I decided I could make this work, but I also concluded that I would check out Rincon Campground seven or eight miles upriver.

As I neared Rincon I passed Badger Creek, a small tributary that enters the river from the north, and here I discovered the source of the discolored water. Badger Creek was dumping coffee colored water into the river, and the river above this point was much clearer with more than five feet of visibility. I was excited to make this discovery and continued on in a more upbeat frame of mind past the Rincon Campground. The campground appeared to be empty at 12:30PM, so I resolved to stop and explore the option of camping there once my day of fishing ended.

With my renewed positive attitude about fishing the Arkansas River, I decided to begin fishing at a large rock that juts into the river near a bend in the highway above the Wellsville Bridge. I refer to this as lunch rock, as I return to this spot to eat my lunch when I am fishing in this area. I’d purchased a sandwich in Canon City, so on this day, I began by eating at lunch rock before beginning my day of fishing.

It was a hot sunny day with little cloud cover as I pulled on my waders and rigged my Loomis five weight rod. The river was indeed high at 1600 cfs, and the only viable place to fish was along the rocky bank that separated the river from highway 50. I decided to tie on a Chernobyl ant for flotation and visibility and then added a copper john since I’d gotten away from this fly, and I wanted to experiment to see if it produced results similar to a salvation nymph; my early candidate for 2014 fly of the year. Like the salvation nymph, a copper john is a general attractor nymph and not a precise imitation of a single insect species.

Nice Rainbow from the Arkansas River

I began working my way upstream from lunch rock, but the copper john wasn’t producing in water that seemed to be excellent holding water for Arkansas River brown trout, so I snipped it off and replaced it with a beadhead hares ear nymph. The beadhead hares ear nymph has historically been one of my best producers on the Arkansas River. Unfortunately I remained without any fish, so I relented and tied on a salvation nymph below the hares ear. The nymph combination spurred more interest, and I landed two modest-sized brown trout to finally get on the scoreboard. The hares ear by itself did not yield any fish, but once I added the salvation nymph, it began to produce, and I landed three more fish as I moved on, and all the fish grabbed the hares ear.

15 Inch Brown

I heard what the fish were telling me and removed the salvation nymph and tied on a prince nymph as my top fly and moved the hares ear to the bottom. At the same time the Chernobyl ant wasn’t generating any interest, so I replaced it with a yellow Letort hopper since this fly produced for me on previous years during the edge fishing time period. Unfortunately the hopper did not attract interest and only grew saturated with water and sank forcing me to continually dry it to maintain buoyancy. I grew frustrated with this routine and exchanged the hopper for a chubby Chernobyl, and this fly stayed on my line for quite awhile along with the prince nymph and beadhead hares ear as I progressed up the river and landed more fish.

The chubby Chernobyl was performing its job well of floating and remaining visible and even resulted in a fish caught, but after I reached eleven fish landed, the wing absorbed water, and the fly began to sink. Once again I decided to make a change, and I replaced the chubby Chernobyl with a tan pool toy with yellow legs. The prince nymph had yielded one fish, so I replaced it with a black wet fly with a shiny body and kept the beadhead hares ear in place. This combination produced the last five fish in late afternoon, and all fell for the hares ear nymph.

A Nice Stretch of Edge Pockets

The catch rate slowed over the last couple hours, however, I did land some sizable brown trout, and that offset the reduced quantity of fish netted. On the day I landed sixteen fish and three were rainbows and the remainder brown trout. Two of the rainbows were around 15 inches and the longest brown measured 14 inches. On the surface this would seem to be a great afternoon of fishing, but numbers can be deceiving. I covered a huge amount of water, and many areas that looked like prime trout habitat did not produce. It was a fun afternoon, but it wasn’t quite the hot fishing that the web site described, or that I remembered from several past experiences.

Opened Wings Just for Me

At 5:30 I found a path to climb the steep bank to the road and hiked a mile back to the car. I decided to check out the campgrounds that I’d passed and stay along the Arkansas for the night, but I also resolved to move on to the Eagle River on Thursday morning. When I pulled into Rincon I discovered a mass of river rafters setting up camp in all the available sites, so I continued down US 50 through Howard to Vallie Bridge. Four or five sites were also occupied by whitewater enthusiasts here, but plenty remained, so I made my claim of site no. 1 and unloaded my gear.

My 2 Man Tent in Foreground

Sixteen fish is a decent day, so perhaps I was taking a risk to move to the Eagle River, but I couldn’t get Saturday’s three hours of success out of my mind, and I needed to know whether this could be repeated.

Time: 10:00AM – 3:30PM

Location: Salt Lick, Spike Buck, and Parkdale access areas

Fish Landed: 3

Arkansas River 04/21/2014 Photo Album

Are my skills permanently eroding or am I in a slump or are external factors controlling my fly fishing results? I’ll choose to blame external factors such as weather and streamflows for now, but if the 2014 fishing outings continue down the current challenging path, I may need to reevaluate.

My friend Steve and I exchanged emails and settled on a trip to the Arkansas River on Monday, April 21. The weather was projected to be warmer on Tuesday and Wednesday, but we were concerned that the wind would be more adverse, so we decided to make the trip on Monday when high temperatures would peak in the sixties. I had my gear packed on Sunday night and was able to leave the house by 6:30 and arrived at Steve’s home in Lone Tree by 7:15. We were off early, and this paid dividends as it allowed us to park along U.S. 50 above Salt Lick access by 9:30. The air temperature hovered around 52 degrees as we prepared to fish, and I pulled on two layers thinking I would shed at least one when Steve and I met again at noon.

River High and Murky at Starting Point

Steve walked back down the highway toward Salt Lick to begin his fishing, and I migrated west along the shoulder and then scrambled down a steep rocky bank to the river. The river flows were elevated for April with the DWR site reporting flows at Parkdale around 800 cfs. We anticipated this, but we did not expect the turbid water that appeared below us. There was visibility of around two feet along the edges of the river, so we assumed this would allow the fish to see our offerings if we presented our flies in the five to ten feet of water along the bank. Given the higher flows, we assumed this was actually the only water that the trout could hold in.

Working the water along the bank is exactly what I did over the next two hours as I worked my way up the river and scrambled over large boulders to fling my nymphs into all the likely protected pockets and slack water areas where I expected to engage hungry trout. I began with a weighted 20 incher and trailed a bright green go2 caddis, but these apparently didn’t appeal to the tastes of trout in this area of the Arkansas River. I worked through numerous fly changes including an emerald caddis pupa, prince nymph, San Juan worm and apricot egg. None of these turned the tide. As 11AM arrived and passed I decided to follow the advice of the Royal Gorge Anglers web page and moved to a RS2 in case the blue winged olive nymphs became active.

I also replaced the 20 incher with an iron sally as the top fly, and finally in the period between 11:30 and noon, I hooked and landed a nine inch brown on the iron sally. As I released the fish I realized that it was approaching noon, and I needed to hustle back up the bank and down the highway to meet Steve. Steve reported that he landed three small browns early on, but had not enjoyed any action since. We decided to move on and try new water, so Steve executed a U-turn, and we drove east to the Spike Buck access parking lot. Here we took our lunches down to the boat launch area and observed the water from some large rocks while we ate.

Intermittent clouds blocked the warming rays of the sun, and when this occurred gusts of wind swept up the river. Fortunately the wind was blowing out of the east and up the river so casting was not as difficult as my last trip to the Arkansas River. Halfway through consuming our lunches, we began to observe small mayflies skittering across the surface of the water in front of us. The small BWO’s didn’t remain on the surface more than a fraction of a second before they were swept up in the air by the wind. For fifteen minutes or so as we watched, there was actually a fairly dense emergence, but we did not spot any rising fish nor any fish hovering below the surface.

Second Fish Landed on Monday

After lunch Steve decided to fish upstream a bit, and I walked downstream to the last point before the river crashed through a narrow chute. I decided to try one of my soft hackle emergers and went with a combination of the emerger on top and a RS2 as the bottom fly. I began to work my way up the river along the left bank and managed to land two additional brown trout in the twelve inch range. Both of these fish snatched the emerger on the lift or swing, so movement appeared to be key to attracting fish. This sounds like great action, but in reality this took place over an hour and a half, and I was convinced that I should be seeing and landing many more fish during this fairly strong BWO hatch.

Soft Hackle Emerger Fooled Two Brown Trout

In fact, I did not spot many fish over the course of the entire day, and this is highly unusual for the Arkansas River. Normally as I work my way upstream I startle numerous fish that dart from cover tight to the rocky bank, but none of this was occuring on Monday. Perhaps the murky water afforded the fish more cover than usual, and they felt safe spreading out to holding locations in the river behind current breaks, and I was largely excluding the middle of the river from my prospecting?

At 2PM Steve and I met up and decided to move once again, and this time we migrated east to Parkdale where we parked at the upstream edge of the access area. I grabbed my rod and walked down the exit road for quite a while and then battled through some stiff dead vegetation to the river. I never fished in this area before, so this was a bit of a scouting expedition. Unfortunately sometimes scouting trips enable one to dismiss certain water, and this was one of those occasions. The stretch of water below the boat launch was a 50-75 yard long featureless trough. I gave it a chance and began at the base and began casting my nymphs upstream within five to ten feet of the bank. I covered the entire stretch until I reached the riffle at the top, and during this one hour of exploration I didn’t see nor hook a single fish.

I exited the river at the boat ramp and walked back up the road and found Steve casting near the picnic tables near the car. We both decided that we were weary and not having any success and looking forward to snacks on the drive home more than continuing to fish.

Steve Calls It Quits

I’m beginning to fear that the current conditions on the Arkansas River will continue right into snow melt, and I will miss productive pre-season outings before the river rages out of control in May. Since my trip to Wyoming I’ve experienced four fishing outings, and the highest fish count was three. Is this a slump, permanent erosion of skills, or convergence of adverse conditions? Too early to know, but I’ll keep plugging away.

Time: 10:30AM – 2:00PM

Location: Below Texas Creek

Fish Landed: 3

Arkansas River 04/09/2014 Photo Album

The story line for Wednesday is wind. I was anxious to go fishing after nearly a two week hiatus, and when I noticed the weather forecast for March 9 with a high temperature of 78 degrees, I exercised poor judgment and discounted the “windy” part of the report.

The fly shops near the Arkansas River were raving over the blue wing olive hatches, so I decided to make the trip. As it turns out, I spent more time driving than fishing with five hours necessary to make the long trip to lower Bighorn Sheep Canyon and back. I arrived at the parking lot at Texas Creek by 10AM, and after putting on my gear, rigging my rod, and hiking along the path to the area below the island it was nearly 10:30AM. I worked the sweet run below the island with a weighted 20 incher and a RS2, but these flies didn’t produce any fish in spite of some great drifts through very attractive water.

Nice Area Where Channels Merge Below Island

When I arrived at the head of the run, and the two fly combination continued to fail, I replaced the RS2 with a bright green go2 caddis. This generated more interest, and I landed a tiny brown trout that was less than six inches and then hooked another small fish that managed to free itself from the fly. Next I worked up along the right side of the island, and once again entered a slump until I arrived near the top of the right channel. Here I finally felt the tap of a fish and responded with a hook set that led to the throb of a live fish. The first fish of the day was a skinny brown trout of approximately 12 inches. I continued along the right bank and added another nine inch brown that pounced on the go2 caddis, and by noon my stomach was growling so I walked back to the car for lunch.

First Decent Fish Landed

I grabbed my lunch bag and water bottle and climbed down the bank below the bridge and sat on the stone beach so I could observe the water while I ate. Sometimes this enables me to spot or observe fish, but on this day, I simply watched the water flow and the wind blow the willows. While I was eating lunch two gentlemen arrived in their pick up truck, and they were ready to fish before me, so they went through the gate and hiked down the path. I was relatively close behind, and I intended to begin fishing after lunch where I ended the morning. Unfortunately the two fishermen stopped at that exact spot, so I dropped down to the river a good distance above them and began working my way back toward the bridge.

The 20 incher was not producing any fish, so I moved the go2 green caddis to the top position and then knotted a BWO soft hackle emerger to my line as the point fly. For the next two hours I worked these flies upstream through the 15 feet of water next to the right bank. I continued under the bridge and another 300 yards beyond, and I added one eleven inch brown trout to my count. The fishing was extremely frustrating due to the constant wind, and my attempt to fish a two fly nymph set up. Because I am right handed, most of my casts required a backhand sling, and needless to say this resulted in numerous entanglements.

The flows were up somewhat for this time of the year and running around 674 cfs when I normally expect around 500 cfs. The water was slightly off color but not enough to impact the fish’s visibility. I discovered that quite a few fish were resting in the clear low water next to the bank, but they were very skittish. In order to cast the indicator, split shot and flies into the strong wind, I needed to accelerate my forward stroke and push my rod tip down toward the surface of the water. Unfortunately this style of casting resulted in quite a splash when the split shot and indicator splashed down in the relatively shallow water within five feet of the bank. I observed at least twenty fish scattering and hiding due to the disruption caused by my approach and casting method.

Unfortunately there really wasn’t an alternative. If I tried to fish from above, the fish would see me and scatter even more hastily. If the wind had been less of a factor, I would have tried a buoyant attractor with a nymph dropper to cover the shallow edge water, as these flies would have caused less disturbance. However, the wind was so strong that this approach would have resulted in the flies landing at my feet with each cast no matter how much I overpowered the forward stroke.

The wind, the tangles, and the constant fruitless casting finally took their toll on me, and I reeled up my line and returned to the car at 2PM. It was a difficult day on the Arkansas River, and I learned that air temperature is not the only factor to consider when choosing a day to fish in Colorado.

The Sign is Self Explanatory

Time: 10:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Above Spike Buck access and then downstream from the parking area in the afternoon

Fish Landed: 6

Arkansas River 03/13/2014 Photo Album

I fished once in February for roughly three hours on the South Platte River below Deckers on a day when every fisherman with cabin fever in Colorado decided to venture outside to enjoy the abnormally nice weather. I failed to land any fish, and this brief experience served to wet my appetite for a legitimate fishing day. I examined the weather forecast regularly in hopes that there would be another nice spring day, and sure enough the high for Denver on March 13 was projected to touch the low 60’s.

Meanwhile the Royal Gorge Angler web site announced the arrival of molting golden stoneflies in the Arkansas River corridor and the presence of blue winged olives in Canon City and lower Bighorn Sheep Canyon. The confluence of these factors was all I needed to schedule a day trip to the Arkansas River on Thursday March 13.

As I left the house on Thursday morning I felt both excitement and apprehension. Ever since the first day of trout season in Pennsylvania during my youth, I get extra excited for my first serious fishing outing of the year. At the same time there was a sliver of doubt that I could still catch fish after a winter layoff.  I knew the air temperature would be quite chilly in the morning, but I left the house at 7:20 in spite of this sound reasoning. It was my first day trip to the Arkansas River, and I have to admit that there was an extra dose of adrenaline circulating through my body.

My lack of patience haunted me as I encountered heavy rush hour traffic at the junction of I225 and I25, but once I negotiated this slow stretch, I resumed normal speeds and made the trip in three hours. The dashboard thermometer displayed 49 degrees as I turned into the pullout .5 mile upstream from the Spike Buck access area, but when I exited the car it felt more like the upper thirties with a cutting wind slicing through my shirt. I decided to wear my down vest in addition to my Adidas pullover and supplmented these layers with my recently purchased New Zealand fishing hat.

Rod Strung and New Wading Staff Ready

Because of the wind and the likelihood of cold water temperatures, I assumed that I’d be fishing deep most of the day, so I assembled my Sage 9 foot, 4 weight and then configured my nymphing rig using a Thingamabobber and five foot section of level 3X line. When I was ready, I walked down the road for two-tenths of a mile or so and scrambled down a steep rocky bank to the river. The flow was fairly normal for March, but some low level snowmelt upstream was causing a tinge of cloudiness, although I concluded the clarity would not be an issue.

I began my day with an Arkansas rubber leg to imitate the lighter coloration of molting stoneflies, and then I knotted a copper john to the point 18 inches below the stonefly. I reminded myself that I committed to using the copper john more frequently, and when would a better scenario present itself than slightly murky cold early season flows? This was all sound reasoning but I fished a twenty yard stretch of river with no action, and it was now approaching 11AM, so I decided to abandon the copper john and put my faith in an RS2. This proved to be a solid move and I hooked but failed to land a fish that apparently spit out the tiny RS2.

After this second failure of the season to land a hooked fish, I experienced another unproductive period, and the Arkansas rubber legs wasn’t doing anythng, so I clipped it off and replaced it with a Dave’s beadhead hares ear. The hares ear and RS2 combination finally paid dividends, and I landed a skinny 12 inch brown on the RS2 by 11:30AM. This was my first landed fish of the year, so I paused to photograph the spunky brown just above the water and quickly returned it to the icy flows. After reading an article about the significant increase in mortality when exposing a trout to air for more than 30 seconds, I’ve pledged to really limit my photography to shots of fish still in the water or held just above the water, and I honored my pledge on Thursday.

First Fish Landed in 2014, a Skinny 12″ Brown

I decided to move along at a more rapid pace as the key seemed to be covering a lot of water, and by noon I’d landed two more small brown trout on the beadhead hares ear. It was good to discover that both the RS2 and hares ear were capturing the attention of the Arkansas River brown trout.

By noon my left hand was curled and stiff and displayed the appearance of a red claw, so I quickly returned to the Santa Fe and the welcome shelter from the wind and ate my lunch while my hands warmed up. After lunch I attempted to fish without my down vest and New Zealand hat, but after moving to the edge of the water just below the car, a stiff wind kicked up and made me reconsider. I returned to the car and added a fleece layer to the Adidas pullover and donned my New Zealand hat once again.

Nice Stretch of Water Above Spike Buck

After another slow period I abandoned the hares ear and RS2 and experimented with a 20 incher and BWO emerger. The reports stated that the stoneflies got darker after molting thus my move to the 20 incher; and my thinking suggested that perhaps the fish would more readily see the soft hackle emerger in the slightly olive-tinged water. From 12:30 until 2:00PM I continued working my way upstream and covered a lot of water before I added a fourth fish from a nice deep run in the channel closest to the road that flowed around a small island. Shortly after this I snagged a rock or stick and ripped off both flies so I tried an iron sally and returned to the RS2.

Very few fishermen were present on the Arkansas River on Thursday, but as I moved around a bend in the river I encountered one. He waved his hands apparently to let me know he was there, so I beat a hasty exit and walked down the road to the Santa Fe. The fishing wasn’t that great anyway, so I moved back down route 50 to a small slanted pullout just beyond the entrance to Spike Buck. I grabbed my gear and crossed the highway and walked downstream fifty yards or so and cut down to the river. For the remainder of the afternoon I fished along the bank closest to the highway and covered all the slower moving pockets and pools. Some clouds moved in and blocked the sun off and on, and this seemed to provoke even more wind, but I stuck with my method and managed to land two additional small brown trout on the RS2. The last two fish seemed to respond to the swing that naturally took place at the end of the drift.

It was nice to land six fish in my fist full day outing of the season, but it was a slow day by any measure. Six fish in five hours of fishing is a slow catch rate, and the size of the fish was disappointing both in terms of length and weight. I attribute the slow day to wind, icy water temperatures, and the corresponding lack of insect activity. I did not see a single blue winged olive and only observed sparse clusters of infinitesimal midges after lunch. Despite these factors, I’m already noticing a weather forecast for highs in the seventies during the early part of next week. I’m always optimistic.

Time: 11:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Fremont – Chafee County line and upstream

Fish Landed: 15

Arkansas River 10/23/2013 Photo Album

Tandem streamers produce in the fall according to the experts. I’ve read about this technique and tested it for an hour in September 2012 on a guided fishing outing with Taylor Edrington. Supposedly big brown trout get territorial and aggressive in October and strike out at invading fish and streamers that venture into their territory. Would Wednesday October 23 be an opportunity to test this theory on the Arkansas River?

As the 2013 fishing season winds down, I lower my expectations for number of fish and size of fish. Once the steady stream of aquatic insect hatches dwindle to midges it seems that the fish become less active and I’ve never been very successful at understanding the timing of brown trout spawning and the impact of this event on catching fish.

A week of cool weather moved into Denver around the time that I had surgery on the back of my hand, so I took a twelve day break from fishing, but weather forecasts predicted a moderate warming trend during the middle of the week so I made plans to fish  on Wednesday October 23. My hand seemed to be healed enough to tolerate exposure to water and highs in the low 60’s were comparatively pleasant for mid to late October. I read the fly shop reports on the Arkansas River, and they were encouraging enough that I decided to make the three hour drive.

As I planned the trip I had two goals in mind. One was to use the nymphing rig that I learned from Taylor Edrington that involved a Thingamabobber and level line, and the other was to experiment with a tandem streamer rig on my sink tip line. In preparation for the latter, I found my sink tip line and reel and extracted a length to inspect the leader and sinking tip section. I hadn’t used this line in 20 years, so I wanted to make sure it was in adequate condition for fishing. I concluded it was fishing worthy and made a mental note that it was a 5 weight line.

I arrived at the Fremont – Chafee County pullout by 10AM and the dashboard on the Santa Fe registered 42 degrees and this was accompanied by a light cold breeze. I started adding layers including my long sleeve Columbia undershirt, a fleece and my raincoat as a windbreaker, but as I stood behind the car, I still felt cold so I put on my ski hat for temporay warmth while I rigged my line. It took extra time, but I removed my tapered leader and configured the nymph set up that I learned last September; a six inch section of 0X attached via a loop to loop link to the fly line, and then a clinch knot to tie on the Thingamabobber. I clipped off a fresh five foot length of 3X tippet material and tied that to the Thingamabobber and then extended the five foot leader with another 18 inch section of 5X tippet. I crimped a BB split shot above the surgeon’s knot and then tied on a beadhead hares ear. Next I fed the end of a one foot section of 5X through the eye of the hares ear nymph and tied a clinch knot and then tied on a beadhead RS2 as my point fly.

I removed my ski hat to put on my wide brimmed hat, but I was instantly met with a cold gust of wind, so I whimped out and put my ski hat back on and left the brimmed hat in the car. I packed my lunch in my backpack, but at this point I expected to return to the car for lunch and exchange hats and also perhaps switch to my 5 weight Loomis rod and that would provide the option of trying my sinking tip line and streamers in the afternoon.

I carefully made my way down the crude cement steps and then maneuvered down the rocks to the edge of the large pool below the pullout and carefully waded across the tail. At this point I decided to work my way upstream instead of going downstream as I had done on the previous trip. I was intrigued with the nice pocket water and deep runs along the north bank where I had ended my fishing on the previous Arkansas outing. The nymph rigging and dressing for the cold added precious time to my preparation so that I was finally stationed at my starting point and casting by 10:45AM.

I methodically worked my way up along the right bank with the nymphs for 45 minutes without any sign of fish, and I was beginning to despair that I’d made a three hour trip only to be skunked, but just as that thought entered my brain, the indicator dipped and I landed a nice 12 inch brown that attacked the beadhead hares ear. Within the next half hour I landed three more browns in the same size range with the largest being thirteen inches and a victim of the RS2. Suddenly after an hour of fishing I had landed four fish and my outlook had shifted from despair to optimism.

Beadhead RS2

By noon I was quite hungry and the sun had risen high in the sky and the air temperature warmed considerably. I was now at a turning point where I needed to decide whether to retreat to my morning crossing point and return to the car for lunch and a hat and rod exchange, or simply find a nice rock in the sun and eat my lunch and then continue on upstream. Since it was late in the season with less daylight and a shorter window of actively feeding fish, I didn’t wish to waste an hour trekking back to the car, so I chose the path of least resistance and ate my lunch on a nice rock next to the river. This meant I sacrificed using my sink tip line and I faced the prospect of fishing in the afternoon sun with no brim on my hat.

Nice Stretch of Water

The decision actually proved to be favorable as I spent the next three and a half hours prospecting the water next to the north bank with my nymph tandem and landed eleven more fish. The most amazing aspect of this day of nymph fishing was that I didn’t lose a single fly to the sticks and rocks on the river bottom despite numerous hang ups. Nearly all my catches were spunky brown trout in the 12-13 inch range with one rainbow landed toward late afternoon. The hares ear nymph produced roughly 75% of the fish, but I switched the RS2 out for a BWO emerger over the last hour and a half, and this fly probably accounted for three fish including the rainbow. I also experienced brief hook ups with two fish that felt heavier, but these fish managed to shake free of the hook in short order.

Golden Leaves Still Clinging to Streamside Vegetation

The most productive water proved to be the head of the runs and slicks where the faster current slowed and fanned out into a slower moving pool and passed over a deeper trough in the run. I probably covered a mile of the river over the course of the 4.5 hours of fishing, so I was definitely moving along quickly and there were some lengthly fishless intervals, but overall it was a fun day in late October on the Arkansas River. Tandem streamer experimentation remains as a goal for a future trip in 2013 before the severe winter weather takes control.

Nice Afternoon Catch

Time: 10:00AM – 5:00PM

Location: Chafee – Fremont County line area

Fish Landed: 26

Arkansas River 10/02/2013 Photo Album

I’m in love with the Arkansas River. Why? Read on.

I planned to spend a couple days on the Arkansas River when my friend Jeff Shafer visited in September but the five days of heavy rain and then some heavy thunderstorms the next week caused the river to be off color, so we switched plans and substituted the Taylor River. I love fishing the Arkansas in the fall and Wednesday October 2 offered the first opportunity in 2013 to quench my desire to make the trip and do some fishing. The high temperature was forecast for the mid-70’s and the fly shops reported that the river was once again clear and providing excellent fishing for hungry pre-spawn brown trout.

I packed up everything on Tuesday evening except for food and water so that I was able to leave the house by 6:30AM and avoid morning rush hour traffic. Of course this was after discussing the purchase of a second home in Eagle Ranch with Jane and deciding to submit an offer. Jane planned to contact our real estate agent during the day and do whatever was necessary to make a bid.

My Favorite Crossing

Aside from several five minute delays due to road construction on 285 in South Park, the trip was uneventful and I turned into the pullout at the Chafee-Fremont County boundary at 9:45. The temperature was in the low 50’s as I prepared to fish so I wore my raincoat for warmth and that allowed more room in my backpack for my lunch. I crossed at the tail of the huge pool directly below the Santa Fe and climbed the steep bank to the railroad tracks and then hiked downstream a half mile or so. Here I cut down a gully to the river and then carefully stepped through some rocks to a point 50 yards below the small island. The smaller north channel around the island is my favorite spot on the Arkansas River, and I was trying to manage my day so that I would be on that water in the early afternoon.

I originally planned to use my Sage four weight rod and rig up with the nymphing setup that Taylor Edrington taught Dave Gaboury and me on our guided fishing trip in 2012, but I was haunted by the small north channel around the island, and realized the nymphing approach was not appropriate for that water. For this reason I abandoned the nymphing idea and decided to go with the conventional nymphing approach with a tapered leader and strike indicator. The other approach makes converting to dry flies much more time consuming and I wasn’t willing to commit the day to exclusive nymphing.

I placed a strike indicator on my tapered leader and tied on a weighted 20 incher as my top fly and as my source of weight and then added a beadhead hares ear nymph. I began searching the nice deep runs and seams with my nymph tandem and much to my surprise went a half hour or so before connecting with a fish. My first fish was a nice rainbow in the 13 inch range and when I got to the more shallow riffles at the top of the run, I landed three more small browns that hit the hares ear. A brief foray up the left side of the island yielded another small brown on the 20 incher and then I returned to the base of the north braid.

Because of the large amount of recent rain, I probably could have continued with nymphs as the flows were more like spring levels instead of the usual low clear conditions that prompt me to use a dry/dropper approach, but I was weary of tossing nymphs so I converted to a parachute gray hopper and kept the beadhead hares ear. Unfortunately these flies only produced one medium size brown and I’d covered the gut of the channel where I usually land the bulk of my fish. I decided to make a change and replaced the hopper with a Chernobyl ant, and I also added a RS2 as a third fly. This immediately paid dividends and a nice 14 inch rainbow slammed the Chernobyl and I managed to land it, but it escaped my net somehow before I was able to photograph.

I was now optimistic that the north braid would return to super productive status, but now I began getting refusals and on one of these I set the hook and foul hooked a big fish that rocketed downstream and eventually tore off all three of my flies! In a fit of frustration I sat down on the bank and removed my frontpack and backpack and ate my lunch. It was around noon and I’d covered 2/3 of my north braid holy water. Two hours of fishing yielded seven trout, but only the last rainbow was above average size and my sweet spot wasn’t producing.

A Heron Along the Riverbank

I could go on with a blow by blow description of the flies and approach but essentially there were two distinct periods and I had success during both of them. Initially after lunch I began to see the occasional BWO emerging and fluttering skyward and from the top 1/3 of the north channel until the point where I crossed at the tail of the large pool I had quite a bit of success with the Chenobyl/hares ear/RS2 combination although I broke off a couple RS2’s so I decided to substitute the BWO emerger developed by Charlie Craven.

During this time between 1PM and 3PM I landed approximately ten fish and most were in the medium size range of twelve inches. Most of the fish were taking either the hares ear or RS2/emerger and most of the fish were coming from either the tail of riffles and slick areas behind rocks or from the very edge of the river next to the bank. In fact I landed two or three decent browns from very thin runs of water only a foot or so deep. I was quite shocked that I didn’t see these fish as they seemed to just materialize out of the rock and sand bottom. Brown trout possess an amazing camouflage. The belly or midsection of the pools and runs were largely unproductive, and I probably could have saved a lot of time by skipping them.

At 3PM the BWO’s were largely absent but a solitary mayfly would appear on rare occasions. I braced myself for slow fishing as is normally the case in late afternoon on the Arkansas River and I was now located on the north bank of the long slow moving pool below the car and pullout. I find this water difficult to fish because it is largely featureless and I was about to circle around it and jump to the next section of faster water with bankside pockets that are much more to my liking. But some part of my brain gnawed at me to be thorough and complete so I decided to quickly cover this water, but rationed myself to one cast within four feet of the bank and then take three or four forward steps and make another cast and continually move along.

Guess what happened? Big fish started swirling and chomping on the Chernobyl ant. Fish numbers 17 through 21 were 13 – 15 inch fish that came to my net during this period and most confidently sucked in the Chernobyl. I covered quite a distance between fish, but when one appeared and mangled my fly, it was always a pleasant surprise. Twice I cast with my left hand so I could support myself with my wading staff in my right hand and while doing this, I noticed a swirl to the Chernobyl and set the hook left handed.

Afternoon Brown Just Over 15″

Because of the size of the fish, the intermittent success, and the pleasant air temperatures I continued on beyond 4PM until finally quitting at 5. I continued to have decent success over the last 1.5 hours, but the emerger and hares ear returned to the flies favored by the trout. Some of this may have had to do with the type of water as I moved into faster water with pockets, riffles and runs. In addition a second wave of BWO’s appeared although the late brood was even more sparse than the earlier emergence. The BWO emerger did, however, begin to shine and accounted for two or three of the fish landed during the late afternoon time period.

It was just a great day on the Arkansas River. The sky was brilliant blue and the air temperature rose to the mid-70’s so that I fished without any layers in the afternoon. There was enough insect activity to get the fish active in spite of the bright blue sky and lack of cloud cover. And best of all I was able to prospect with a large buoyant visible Chernobyl ant and catch large fish on it. One couldn’t ask for more late in the season when aquatic insects and terrestrials become scarce due to the freezing nighttime temperatures. I’m already trying to figure out when I can return.

Sunset Over South Park

Time: 10:00AM – 4:30PM

Location: Chafee-Fremont County Line

Fish Landed: 14

Arkansas River 08/10/2013 photo album

Jane and I decided to embark on another camping trip on the weekend beginning August 9, and I had been following the fishing reports on the Arkansas River through the Royal Gorge Angler and ArkAnglers web sites. Both sites suggested that numerous bugs continued to hatch on the Arkansas including pale morning duns, caddis, yellow sallies and red quills. The flows were back up to the 740 cfs range after a fair amount of rain earlier in the week, but both sites indicated that the water clarity was good. One of our favorite campsites near the Arkansas River is Angel of Shavano as it is fairly remote, and we’ve had good luck finding sites available without a reservation. The campground is roughly five miles off of route 50 as one drives west toward Monarch Pass. Jane and I decided to make this our camping destination for the weekend.

Jane was able to get off work early on Friday, so I packed the car and picked her up outside her office in downtown Denver and we were on our way by 2:30PM on Friday. We drove through several rainstorms as we took 285 southwest and crossed South Park; however, the rain had ended by the time we reached the campground. With some threatening clouds remaining in the western sky, we set up both our tent and our canopy before eating dinner and going to bed.

On Saturday I planned to take the Santa Fe and drive to the Arkansas River to fish for the day while Jane expected to hike the Colorado Trail toward Mt. Shavano as the trailhead is right next to the campground. I was able to depart by 9:15 and arrived at the river by the Fremont-Chafee County line by 9:45AM, and I got my waders wet by 10AM. The sky was bright blue with no clouds visible and the air temperature was in the low 70’s as I began. The water was a bit off color, but actually perfect for fishing as the fish could still see the surface but less care was required in approaching fish.

I considered crossing the river at the tail of the long pool below where I parked, but changed my mind as I gazed at the higher volume. Why risk it when I had practically the entire river to myself? I climbed back up the bank to the road and walked east along the shoulder for .3 mile and then descended on a worn trail next to a vertical rock wall. I decided to begin with a yellow pool toy hopper and trail a beadhead hares ear. There was a nice wide run that deflected off the vertical rock wall below me, but I couldn’t interest any fish in my offerings in this area.

I moved further upstream to a nice wide tailout below some long riffles, and here I landed a small brown on the beadhead hares ear while I experienced two additional momentary hookups. I continued on fishing mostly the 10 to 15 feet of water out from the left bank, but nothing was going for my flies, so I swapped out the pool toy for a gray parachute hopper. This at least generated some refusals but I couldn’t close the deal and the trailing nymph wasn’t generating any interest. I again switched flies and experimented with a yellow Letort hopper as the top fly and tried a 20 incher as the trailing fly. It was about this time that I glanced at my watch and noticed it was 11:30, and I was quite close to the spot where I parked the car, so I exited the river and climbed the steep slope to a nice high rock overlooking the river. Here I munched my lunch while observing, but I didn’t really see any evidence of fish.

Prickly Lunch Location

After lunch I circled around the large lunch rock and positioned myself at the top and adjacent to the beginning of the deep pool just below the lunch rock. I began making casts into the slow moving water and just as my confidence waned and thoughts began to enter my head to move on, a nice rainbow emerged from the depths of the pool and slowly glided up to the Letort hopper and confidently devoured it! Much to my surprise and delight I was connected to a battling 14 inch rainbow and I moved closer to the river and netted the fish after a brief battle.

Took Letort Hopper Above Lunch Rock

I continued on and added a few more fish to my total but the 20 incher wasn’t producing and it was a heavy fly to support with the dubbed body hopper, so I decided to trade it for a lighter nymph. As I inspected my fly patch, I noticed two iron sallies that I’d tied over the winter. These nymphs are intended to imitate yellow sallies and the reports suggested that yellow sallies were present in early August. Lacking another strategy, I tied on the iron sally and it proved to be an excellent choice. I began to pick up fish on a more regular basis on the iron sally but now the yellow Letort hopper ceased to produce and it was becoming waterlogged quite frequently. If the top fly wasn’t producing fish, shouldn’t it at least be buoyant and easily seen? Of course, so I went to my old standby, the Chernobyl ant.

The Chernobyl ant combination would produce most of my remaining fish with a few exceptions. I worked my way along the left bank and plopped the two fly combination in all the likely pockets and slots behind current breaks. The Hofer strain rainbows now populating the Arkansas River proved to be my saviour on this Saturday. The rainbows occupied the deeper eddies and pools, and in many cases I could spot them hovering a foot or so below the surface. They didn’t smash my flies instantly, but if I spotted them and put enough casts over them, I could generally eventually extract a smashing take of the Chernobyl or a grab of the iron sally as I lifted to recast.

Canoers Below Me

I was stuck on nine and working hard to reach double digits when I encountered a nice long eddy where the current circled back along the bank until it intersected with a large rock that protruded into the river. The intersection of the current flowing downstream past the rock and the recirculated current along the bank created a sucking vortex. I cast upstream but short of the whirlpool and allowed the Chernobyl to drift slowly toward the intersection when a large mouth surfaced and inhaled the surface fly. I set the hook and saw a large rainbow clear the surface and crash back to the river, but the connection didn’t last long before the fish was gone. I reeled up my line and discovered the trailing iron sally was gone, so I’m not sure if the fish rolled on it or whether it got hooked into a rock or branch in the short battle. I was disappointed to lose a nice sized number ten and I only had one more iron sally in my fleece patch.

I mustered my energy and focus and moved on upstream after replacing the iron sally with a beadhead hares ear. In a short amount of time I encountered another nice narrow deep ten foot stretch of water, and as I began casting I spotted another rainbow positioned in front of a large submerged boulder. I made at least ten drifts over this fish, but it showed no interest in my offerings. I paused and observed closely and saw the rainbow rise to the surface and sip something quite miniscule from the film. What should I do? In these situations in the past I have resorted to a parachute ant, so I decided to give it a try again. Unfortunately while I concentrated on tying on the ant, the trout disappeared. I was ready to cast but now my target was gone. But wait a second, I looked below the submerged rock and now there were not one but two rainbows hovering six inches below the surface in front of another submerged rock.

I made a couple extremely short casts and allowed the two flies to drift no more than five feet below me, but the flies were beyond the two fish. I could clearly see the orange poly tuft on the parachute ant leading the Chernobyl ant, so I was pleased with that circumstance. I lifted the two flies and gently placed them on top of the upstream submerged rock and watched as they slowly drifted to the position of one of the rainbows. As I held my breath the rainbow slowly elevated and tipped its nose above the water and sucked in my ant. In a split second I lifted my rod tip and the agitated rainbow splashed and fought but eventually slipped over the wooden rim of my net. Number ten was certainly worth waiting for.

Rainbow Smashed Chernobyl Ant Out from Log

It was now late afternoon and some large gray clouds began to build in the west. I attempted to recover my earlier magic on the nymph and tied on my last iron sally, but this didn’t produce as it had done in the early afternoon. I came to a nice long side pool where a long log or stick jutted out over the tail above a large protruding rock and I made a nice long cast ten feet above the rock. The slow current brought the Chernobyl ant bobbing back toward me and just as I was preparing to lift to recast before the nymph tangled in the rock, the foam fly disappeared, and I made a slightly late hook set, but connected with another nice rainbow. Perhaps I didn’t need a trailing nymph?

Nice Rainbow Near End of Day

With the darker skies and lower light intensity I hoped that perhaps some pale morning duns would emerge, so I decided to exchange the now unproductive iron sally for a salvation nymph. This proved to be a fortuitous move as the last three fish landed snared the salvation nymph. The most memorable was a 14 inch brown that stopped the Chernobyl ant by snatching the salvation nymph in a tiny pocket that was no more that two feet deep right along the bank. I released this fish and as I did so, heard the intimidating sound of thunder and saw a flash of lightning in the distant western sky. I wanted to catch another fish, but I also didn’t want to get caught in a thunderstorm deluge.

Nice Brown Took Salvation Nymph in Very Shallow Lie

I picked up the pace and quickly covered some attractive water along the bank, and it wasn’t long before I landed a small brown to reach 14 fish on the day. With this fish released, I hustled through some thick brush, climbed a steep narrow path and reached the shoulder of route 50. I quickly strode east along the highway until I reached the Santa Fe. I tossed my rod, wading stick, frontpack and backpack in the back of the car and as I stepped into the driver’s seat with my waders on, it began to pour. Timing is everything.

Time: 8:00AM – 3:00PM

Location: Upriver from Rincon Campground

Fish Landed 15

Arkansas River 06/28/2013 Photo Album

Heat. That is what I will remember the most about my trip to the Arkansas River on June 27 and 28. It was one of the few times in my life when I was set up for some fishing, but I was too hot to actually do it.

I wrapped up the financial package for May at Saddleback Design on Wednesday so that I was in a position to go fishing on Friday and Saturday. Jane agreed to play tennis with her teammate in the summer league on Saturday morning, so Saturday was available for some fishing and I anxiously reviewed the streamflows and reports from the fly shops. Even though the snow pack was below normal in 2013, it was still much greater than 2012, and deep enough to create runoff on many Colorado Rivers. I noted that the Arkansas River had dropped to just under 700 cfs and the Eagle River was averaging around 600 cfs. I checked these first because they are freestone rivers and fish best as runoff declines and then become more difficult once they level out and resume summer flows.

I’ve experienced some success fishing the edges on the Arkansas River when the flows are up, but I was concerned that 700 was already too low for the type of fishing where the trout are all pushed to the bank to seek relief from the strong flows of the main river. The Eagle River at 600 is still a bit high and difficult to fish. The reports on the Arkansas from Royal Gorge Anglers and ArkAnglers were typically upbeat, but I checked the reports of Cutthroat Anglers in Dillon, CO, a shop that isn’t very close to either the Eagle River or the Arkansas River, and it rated the Arkansas as four stars and “on fire”. This clinched my decision and I made plans to fish the Arkansas on Friday and Saturday.

I had a dermatology appointment on Thursday morning at 8:45AM, so I planned to pack the Santa Fe afterwards and then drive to the Arkansas River below Salida and find a campsite and fish Thursday evening as well as Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately I had two biopsies taken by the dermatologist on Thursday morning thus requiring bandages, an additional complication I was not planning on. One of the spots removed was on the back of my left hand, and it was a location where a band-aid did not adhere very well.

I packed the car and was on my way by 11:15 and arrived at the first campground below Salida by 2:30PM. Unfortunately this campground was quite primitive with no fire pits or picnic tables, so I decided to move on to Rincon as I remembered this to be a more official campground. Meanwhile it was a very hot day with temperatures reaching the mid-90’s in Denver and probably the low 90’s around Salida, but I was cruising along in my air conditioned vehicle and oblivious to the heat around me. When I arrived at Rincon I quickly found an open campsite next to the river and paid for two nights, but this turned out to be a mistake. The sites were actually fairly nice although there was no shade whatsoever and the tent pad and area around the picnic table and fire pit was covered with a thick layer of gravel. This was actually quite nice for preventing tracking dirt into the tent and car, but it afforded no opportunity for driving a tent stake into the ground.

I began the task of setting up my tent in the peak late afternoon sun. Normally I can erect the REI two person tent in 15 minutes, but that would not be the case on Thursday, June 27. I forgot that the center pole of the rain fly needed to run through the center hook of the main tent, so I struggled for awhile trying to follow the directions on this step. While focusing on this last step, some strong gusts of wind began to sweep up along the river. I quickly staked out the main tent, but as I mentioned there was virtually zero penetration of the tent stakes into solid ground. A stronger gust of wind came along and tumbled the tent over a couple times and I quickly rescued it from rolling into the river. Meanwhile the bandage on the back of my hand kept sliding loose due to perspiration and all the hand movement, and I was concerned about keeping it clean and preventing infection.

There were numerous large boulders scattered about the tent pad area, so I grabbed one and tied the rope around the rock to anchor the tent instead of using the tent stake. I also threw my sleeping bag, pillow, pad and clothing bag in the tent to provide more ballast against the strong wind. Alas, even this was not enough and another gust of wind tumbled the entire tent including all my contents.

It was about this time that the occupants of the neighboring campsite arrived, and a gentleman walked over and told me that their neighbors the previous two nights had similar problems with their tent, and that explained all the boulders scattered about the tent pad. He held the tent against the relentless wind while I tossed four boulders the size of bowling balls into the tent to anchor all the corners. I then placed two more boulders on top of the outside edge of the tent on the side facing into the wind. After over an hour of frustration, my tent now withstood the steady hot wind blowing upriver, albeit with a strong lean.

Rocks Inside and Out Anchor REI Tent

At this point I was exhausted from standing in the sun and the heat and fighting the wind and stressing over how to attach the rain fly, so I set up my stool in the shade of the Santa Fe and filled my plastic cup with a large handful of ice. The water from the blue container was so warm that it melted the ice almost instantly. I drained three large 16 ounce cups of ice water while I read an article in my fishing magazine. I planned to fish after 6PM, but I was feeling extremely drowsy, so I decided to go inside the tent and lie down. After all, the tent did provide some shade from the intense sun. But as you can imagine the heat and the wind resulted in a long nap, and when I awoke, I decided to make dinner before dark and bypass evening fishing. I had positioned myself for bonus fishing time, and now I didn’t feel like taking advantage! After dinner I cleaned up the dishes and then took a walk along the river upstream from the campground. It was around 8:30 and the intense sun dropped behind the mountains to the west as I carefully observed the river. It was running high compared to my recent visits, but there were numerous attactive slack areas behind rocks and along the bank. At one point I looked down from high above and noticed a flurry of rises in a slow moving area off to the side of the strong mid-river current. I was tempted to return to the car for my fly rod and some twilight action, but it was now 8:45 and it would be nearly dark by the time I returned. In addtion accessing this area required negotiating a steep rough path from the highway down to the river. I returned to my tent and curled up between four boulders and fell asleep almost instantly.

I awoke rather early on Friday morning and a somewhat cool breeze greeted me as the sun had not yet risen above the canyon wall on the opposite side of the river. I prepared a quick breakfast and packed up all my gear and moved the Santa Fe to a parking lot at the end of the campground intended for fishermen and rafters. I did not plan to go through the windstorm again on Friday, and I called Jane to let her know that I was bailing early and would be home Friday evening after fishing.The positive to the Rincon camping experience was that I was packed up, in my waders and ready to fish by 8AM on Friday, a welcome circumstance since it was forecast to be another hot one on the Arkansas River.

I waded into the cool river next to the campground and began casting my Loomis five weight with a Pool Toy yellow hopper and a beadhead hares ear. The Loomis handles large flies better than my Sage and Orvis rods as it flexes more in the tip section and slings larger weighty flies with ease. I worked my way upstream covering the slower moving areas with three to five casts and then moving on. At some point in the first hour I hooked two fish for a split second but failed to land, and the inability to finish was due to inattentiveness on my part. Sometime between 9 and 10 I encountered a huge rock that bordered the river and forced me to circle up and around on the bank. As I descended back to a nice looking pocket along the bank in front of the large rock I was forced to make a large step down from one ledge rock to another three feet above the river. When I reached my right foot down I couldn’t touch so I had to made a small aerial drop, but as I executed this I bumped my left side against another rock and lost my balance. I felt like I was in slow motion as I tucked my right shoulder and somehow released my rod from harms way. My legs flipped around and I remember seeing their shadows against the rock wall. In an instant I landed in the water and found my footing but not before some cold river water spilled over the top of my waders. For the first time on this trip I was actually feeling cool and refreshed. I considered returning to the car for a change of clothing, but knowing the hot temperatures ahead of me, I decided to continue fishing in my wet suit and enjoy the cooling effect of the evaporation.

I moved on and encountered some nice pockets along the edge, but continued to go without any fish. I spotted a solitary golden stonefly fluttering over the water, so I exchanged the pool toy for a size 10 yellow Letort hopper, but maintained the hares ear as the dropper fly. This didn’t change my fortunes and eventually I decided to abandon the dry dropper and try a size 14 dark olive caddis. During my walk the previous evening I noticed clouds of caddis around me and swiped one from the air and discovered a dark olive body.

The dark olive caddis turned the tide and I began to catch fish at a fairly regular rate from 10:30 until around 1:30PM. The fish were in the 9-11 inch range with an occasional 12-13 incher, but I was enjoying the fairly consistent action. When I reached the area where I’d observed rises the previous evening, I landed a couple fish, but also spotted several nice size fish right along the bank that I spooked in my efforts to manuever upstream around the shrubs and rocks.

Slack Water Area Where Fish Were Rising Thursday Evening

At around 12:30 I climbed the bank to circle around a large rock and a big tree and as I came down the other side I found a nice deep narrow slot along the bank between two large exposed boulders. Not wanting to scare any fish, I stopped 10 feet up the bank and flicked a cast to the edge of the slot. Wham! Immediately a trout rose and smashed the caddis, but as I tried to pressure it to bring it back upstream, the line snapped where I’d connected the tippet with a surgeon’s knot. This was the fourth dark olive caddis I’d lost during the morning, and only one remained in my frontpack, so I decided to return to the car and restock.

Upon my return from the car I continued working up along the left bank through some very juicy runs and pockets and reached eleven trout landed by 1:30. At this point I reached a nice deep run that fed into a twenty-five foot long pool, and here I began to see refusals to the caddis. At the same time I spotted a few pale morning duns drifting up from the river, so I tied on a light gray comparadun, but this also failed to produce. Next I opted for a light gray size 16 caddis, and this prompted more refusals so I moved on. I moved around a large bend in the river and found myself across from two modern day prospectors. I also noticed three or four golden stoneflies flying above the river in their lumbering bomber style, so I paused to return to the yellow Letort hopper and added a beadhead pheasant tail dropper 18 inches below the hopper. Hopefully the narrow profile of my hopper would imitate the stoneflies present, and the pheasant tail would represent the nymph stage of pale morning duns.

As I paused to reconfigure my flies, I gazed across the river to the prospectors and watched their routine. I’m sure they felt that climbing rocks along the river in the afternoon heat in waders and flailing away repeatedly was a boring activity, but what they were doing was even worse in my view. They were shoveling dirt from a bank twenty yards away from the river into a pan and then stooping over the river and adding water and swishing around the dirt looking for gold particles. I have no idea if they were succeeding enough to make it worth their while, but it looked like a horribly hot activity, and they had two tents set up so they appeared to be using their vacation for multiple days of gold panning.

The move back to the hopper and beadhead pheasant tail paid dividends as I landed four more browns over the remainder of the afternoon before quitting at 3PM. Two were quite nice browns that grabbed the nymph as it drifted very tight to the rocks. The best fish was a beautiful rainbow that nailed the pheasant tail at the tail of a pocket as I lifted to recast. I fought the fish for 3-5 minutes, and in the process obtained some good looks at a fish that probably went between 15 and 20 inches. One of the prospectors across the river watched the battle and yelled out an admiring comment. Unfortunately late in the fight the rainbow got in some heavy current and make a quick turn and broke off the pheasant tail.

A Nice Arkansas River Brown

I endured a lot of frustration, but it was worth it to be able to land fifteen wild brown trout on the Arkansas River with the river at 700 cfs and air temperatures hovering in the 80’s. As I expected, Colorado rivers should be in prime fishing condition by the Fourth of July in 2013.

Time: 10:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Lunch Rock and downstream to nearly Wellsville Bridge

Fish Landed: 7

Arkansas River 05/10/2013 Photo Album

With the pre-snowmelt season winding down, I planned yet another trip to the Arkansas River in hopes of intersecting the caddis hatch. I hoped to travel on Thursday evening and set up my two person tent in one of the riverside campgrounds, but the precipitation and cold temperatures prevented this plan from becoming reality. Instead I got up early and managed to leave the house by 6:45 thus missing the rush hour traffic. I cruised through South Park on dry bare roads, but it was evident that the recent rain in Denver added more snow to the high country snowpack. The peaks above timberline were pure white and probably hold more snow on May 10 than they had over the entire winter season.

It was 45 degrees when I arrived at the pullout by lunch rock as I planned to experiment with the stretch of water between lunch rock and the Wellsville bridge. I visited this area in the fall and had some success but I was foiled in my attempt to fish the opposite bank by a thunderstorm that forced me back to the car. I pulled on my fleece and raincoat and strung my Sage four weight and headed down the shoulder of the road to a point where the top strand of barbed wire was removed from the fence thus enabling me to carefully climb over and descend to the river. I reached the point where the river split around a long narrow island and waded across the shallow wider channel closest to me. At this point I decided to walk to the downstream point of the island and explore the smaller braid.

The water was up a bit from what we encountered on Saturday and stained a light olive, but visibility for the fish was still adequate. Because of my success on Saturday with the dry/dropper rig and the continuing low flows I elected to go with the dry/dropper configuration and tied on a tan pool toy and below that knotted a beadhead bright green caddis pupa and a beadhead prince nymph. I thoroughly covered a nice deep pool at the bottom of the braid with no success and then moved to a nice run towards the top of the braid. It was here that I spotted a couple looks from trout that rose toward the surface and inspected the hopper but then returned to their position. This wasn’t a good sign. I continued a bit further and finally experienced a hook up with what felt like a decent fish, but it shed the hook after a thirty second connection.

When I reached the top of the island I encountered a very long deep pool so I climbed up on the rocks on the bank opposite the road and negotiated my way up along the pool. It was slow going as the bank was steep and comprised of loose gravel and I had to frequently climb and descend to get around the rabbitbush occupying the arid soil. After doing this for thirty or forty yards, I paused and spotted a nice rainbow very tight to the rocks along the shore. I dropped a few short casts above the fish, but apparently I startled it and could no longer spot its position. However, as I looked upstream, I noticed a rise in a small slick next to the bank where the current deflected from the rocks back toward the river. It was still quite sunny and before noon, so I was curious to observe what these fish might be interested in. I looked at the water more closely and as I did this spotted a couple small blue winged olives on the surface and then two or three fish magically appeared in the small area where I’d seen the previous rise. They were hovering a foot or so below the surface and finning up to snatch tiny morsels on fairly regular intervals.

Scene of Some Dry Fly Action

I clipped off the pool toy and nymphs and tied on my trusty CDC BWO and lofted a cast toward the pod of fish. Unfortunately as the hatch began some clouds blocked the sun’s rays and the wind kicked up. This happened on Saturday as well and I’m curious to know how the BWO’s know to anticipate the cloudiness and wind. I continued to work out line and extended my casts by compensating for the wind with more power on the forward stroke and shooting further up above the fish. Eventually I got the fly to land in the middle of the small pool and as it drifted a foot or two a small whirlpool appeared where one of the trout sucked in the imitation. I set the hook and the rainbow did an immediate tail dance and then shot across the river a bit before it paused and I applied some side pressure. I was able to gain some ground before the rainbow sensed it was getting close to me and my waiting net at which point it bolted downstream and peeled off line at an alarming rate. Just when I thought I’d have to follow it downstream over the rocky shoreline, it stopped and I furiously reeled up line.

Same Fish Held in Net

A couple more shorter runs ensued, but I finally managed to net the fish. Unfortunately I was in an awkward position and I couldn’t find a flat surface to photograph the silvery beauty so I snapped one photo while it rested in the net and followed that with a photo while I gripped it through the net. It was a thrilling first catch of the day. After I dried the CDC BWO and fluffed the wing I gazed back at the small pool and sure enough spotted a rise. Luck was on my side and the fish had resumed feeding, so I shot my fly higher up to the top of the pool as the two visible fish were above the position where I’d hooked my first victim. After numerous unproductive drifts I spotted a sip in the vicinity of my fly and raised the rod tip. Whoosh! Another rainbow shot toward the main current and put on an aerial display with several leaps above the surface. This fish put up an equally valiant battle compared to his brother, but eventually I landed and released the fine finned warrior. The second rainbow was probably fifteen inches in length and equally powerful.

Once I was ready to resume fishing I spotted a third remaining fish make a quick rise to snatch a BWO. I dried my fly and flicked a few casts to the area where the remaining fish was working, but after ten or so drifts, I never spotted the fish or another rise, so I tipped my hat and moved on. The sun was bright now and the air had warmed considerably so I removed my top layers and my backpack and sat on a large rock next to the river and ate my lunch. After lunch I resumed my up and down scramble between the river and the railroad tracks until I reached the head of the long pool. I didn’t spot anymore rises and propecting with the tiny BWO always seems futile, so I reverted to the dry/dropper method except I substituted a Chernobyl ant for the pool toy.

I continued with the caddis pupa but replaced the prince with a beadhead hares ear and worked the pockets tight to the bank. When I was opposite and slightly below a pair of fishermen on the opposite bank, I landed a 12 inch brown on the BHHE. I continued on covering quite a bit of water and picked up two more browns on the hares ear using the dry/dropper technique with three flies. It was pretty slow going, but at least I was catching the occasional fish to keep my interest up. Finally I reached lunch rock and proceeded upstream from there to a nice riffle stretch with perhaps three to four feet of depth over a rocky bottom. This type of water always produces on the Arkansas and I did manage to hook a fish that shot to the left toward the middle of the river and shook off the fly.

Stark Beauty of the Arkansas River

By three o’clock I reached another long slow moving pool and I was looking for faster water with riffles or pockets along the bank. Once again the sun disappeared and a breeze kicked up and I was about to skip the slow water and move up to the head of the pool and try some faster water. As I looked closely at the pool I spotted a decent trout hovering below the surface in front of a large submerged rock. I watched for a bit and I was excited to see the fish rise and sip something from the surface. There were some caddis tumbling on the surface, but then I began to see BWO’s again. I decided to convert back to the CDC BWO and as I worked on removing my flies and tying on a CDC BWO, I noticed some rises near another submerged rock eight feet further downstream.

Now the trick was how to present my tiny fly without drag and accurately to these fish. The wind was once again blowing upstream, and as I cast my fly across, the wind whipped it directly upstream. It was very difficult to see where the fly landed because of its tiny size and because the wind caught it and pushed it further upstream. I continued working to get my fly over the upper fish, and eventually as I lifted to make a cast I felt the weight of a fish. This fish turned out to be another rainbow and it put up a nice fight, but eventually I slid my net under a 14 inch fish. As I netted the fish I noticed a red round object in the corner of its mouth and thought the fish had taken an egg fly, but upon closer inspection I realized that the red growth was a tumor or abnormality of some sort.

Nice Afternoon Rainbow Had Red Growth in Mouth

Once I released the fish, the hatch waned and the sun appeared briefly. I worked my way upstream a bit to a nice deep run with a lot of swirly currents. Again I was seeing an occasional caddis tumbling on the surface, so I decided to replace the CDC BWO with an olive brown deer hair caddis. This was much more visible, and I was determined to catch a fish on a caddis dry fly. I began prospecting the seam and run with the caddis, and much to my surprise a brown rose and slurped in the caddis. It was smaller than the rainbows I’d cuaght, but it was still fun to catch a fish on a caddis dry fly. I continued prospecting with the caddis, and once again the sun disappeared and I observed some more BWO’s on the surface. The caddis was not attacting any more interest, and as my watch ticked past 4PM I decided to walk back to a crossing point and return to the car.

It was a slow cool day on the Arkansas River but I managed to land seven fish including three quite nice rainbows that put up strong fights. I have to admit I was somewhat discouraged by the low catch rate and the off colored water. Perhaps I need to rest the Arkansas and look for some action closer to Denver before the snow melt makes fishing difficult.

Time: 10:00AM – 12:00PM

Location: Braided area above Pinnacle Rock

Fish Landed: 9

Arkansas River 05/05/2013 Photo Album

The spring weather regressed on Sunday and it was quite chilly so Dave and I decided to enjoy a nice big breakfast and take our time getting to the river. We drove across the highway from our hotel to the Patio Pancake House and managed to arrive before the throngs. I ordered eggs and toast while Dave had something similar with the addition of a slice of breakfast ham. After lunch we began our drive east along the river as our strategy was to go to Texas Creek and hopefully get into the area where the caddis hatch was already in force.

Unfortunately when we arrived at the parking lot in Texas Creek there were four or five cars parked in the lot, so we made a quick U-turn and continued down the highway. When we arrived at the braided area above Pinnacle Rock, there were two cars parked at opposite ends of the long shoulder, so we decided to snag the middle spot and hopefully find some space away from the other fishermen. As we prepared to fish the dashboard thermometer displayed 41 degrees. I was quite chilly with a piercing wind making it seem worse than it was. Dave and I found the nice long deep run next to the highway void of fishermen so we grabbed our positions first thing. Dave remainded on the road side, and I waded across below the pool and worked up the side away from the highway. I began with an indicator, split shot, bright green caddis, and a size 14 prince nymph. My thought process on the prince nymph was that the caddis had already emerged, and I’ve had previous success using the prince to imitate diving caddis behind the hatch.

We shook the vegetation to see how many caddis would escape, but we were disappointed to see very few flying up from the willow branches. As I worked up the deep run with my nymphs I managed to land a small brown on the prince. I was somewhat above Dave G., and he was not having any luck at all with his nymphs. When I reached the top of the long run, I continued on for a bit to some shorter pockets, but again I wasn’t seeing any action. At this point I decided to cut across the willows to see if the north braid was occupied. Sure enough when I pushed away the willows and looked down the north channel, I spotted a fisherman downstream in the area that I like to frequent. I bushwhacked through the willows thinking I’d get above the visible fisherman by 50 yards and begin fishing from there. Unfortunately when I broke through the willows there was another fisherman close to the bank and only 10 yards downstream.

I beat a hasty retreat and began fishing where two braids join, so I was working with less volume than I desired. Over the next 1.5 hours I landed eight small browns in the 8-11 inch range and perhaps one of them reached 12 inches. All the small browns were grabbing the prince and quite a few were hanging tight to the bank in 3-4 foot slots, and they darted from their holding lie to snatch the trailing prince as it swung by. Eventually I caught up to another fisherman, so I plowed through the willows again and came out on the main stem. Here I worked some juicy pockets to no avail and then crossed by a dry creek bed and circled back to the highway.

Pockets and Run Sunday Morning

I walked down the highway a short distance and found Dave back in the deep run where he began the morning, and he wasn’t having much luck so we decided to head back to Denver as I had a 6PM flight to Philadelphia to catch.