Time: 10:00AM – 5:30PM

Location: Chaffee – Fremont County Line Upstream

Fish Landed: 28

Arkansas River 10/02/2012 Photo Album

After a great day on Friday, September 28 I was anxious to return to the Arkansas River while the favorable weather continued. The forecast called for temperatures in the 70’s for the Arkansas River Valley near Salida, so I pushed my work off until Thursday and Friday when the temperatures were projected to plummet, and made the long trip to Salida. How would Tueday compare to Friday’s outstanding day?

I arrived at the pullout below the county border at around 9:30, and once again it was quite chilly so I wore my Columbia long sleeve undershirt under my fishing shirt and added my raincoat as a windbreaker/outer layer. I stashed my lunch in my backpack and crossed the river at the shallow tail of the long pool straight below the car. Instead of hiking downstream as I had done on Friday, I climbed to the railroad tracks and walked west and then dropped down the steep bank to the head of the long pool. I tied five additional yellow Letort hoppers on Monday with full wings as these seem to float better than the ones I made with sparse wings. I put one on my line immediately and then attached a beadhead hares ear and began prospecting along the right bank and worked my way upstream.

Large Jaw

By noon I’d landed 11 trout mostly in the 9 – 11 inch range except for number nine and that was a nice chunky 13 inch brown and number eleven was a strong rainbow. Most of the fish went for the hares ear with perhaps one or two induced to rise to the hopper on the surface.

Nice Rainbow

After lunch I continued on my way and I began to notice a fairly dense swarm of midges hovering over the water with an occasional rise visible so I swapped the hares ear for a zebra midge and added a pair of decent fish on the size 22 midge larva imitation. Soon I began seeing a few BWO’s overlapping with the midges, so I switched the midge fly to a Craven beadhead soft hackle emerger. This fly became a hot producer and I was anticipating some great early afternoon action when I encountered a spin fisherman just above me. I chatted with the gentleman who told me that he and his wife had landed 52 trout so far on the day. He didn’t appear to be wading in the water very much so I continued fishing above him, but in short order he walked around me and waded across the river to his wife. He was a nice friendly fisherman, but I still wished he hadn’t disturbed the water.

Arkansas River

I probably should have rested the water and gone further upstream, but the area I’d reached was a great stretch with numerous riffles and runs of moderate depth and that was the sort of water producing fish. I remember noting that I was at 20 fish by this point, and as I cast to the top of one of the nice runs behind a rock, the hopper dipped and I set the hook and was attached to a hot fish. It immediately raced upstream to the left of the exposed rock and then paused a bit. Just as I began to apply pressure to gain line, the fish made a sudden move and accelerated further upstream. This move took me by surprise and the line popped and came flying back toward me. Both flies were gone and the line broke at the first surgeon’s knot that attached multiple sections of tippet to my tapered leader. I had three Craven soft hackles in my foam pad at the start of the day, and now two remained…one with a bead and one without.

Nice Rainbow After Lunch

I replaced the hopper with another that I tied on Monday and then added my last remaining beaded Craven soft hackle. It didn’t take long after this rude interruption before I hooked a nice rainbow as I got a good look at it when it leaped from the river. Once again I was battling a hard fighter but this time I let it run and take line and didn’t try to rush the process. Guess what happened? I gave the rainbow too much latitude and it ran downstream next to an exposed boulder and once again my line separated from the fish. I reeled up the line and the hopper remained, but the beadhead soft hackle was gone.

What should I do now? I wasn’t far from where I’d parked the Santa Fe so I considered wading across above my position, but I knew that I only had one remaining fly with a bead. Clearly I would need to tie some more of these effective flies when I returned to my fly tying desk, but that wasn’t going to help my current situation. I decided to try the soft hackle emerger without a bead by placing it as a dropper below a beadhead salvation nymph which would provide the extra weight. Perhaps this would actually work better if the BWO emergers were near the surface. This combination worked reasonably well as I landed another six small to medium size fish up until 3:30 with a few taking the hopper and the remainder chasing the soft hackle emerger; however, the beadhead version seemed to be more popular especially with larger fish.

By 3:30 it had actually gotten fairly warm and I’d gone without action for a bit so I decided to try a black woolly bugger and worked some medium depth runs with no results, not even a bump or follow. Above these runs I encountered a nice deep pool and as I stood on some high rocks on the north bank I could observe four different fish hovering a foot below the surface and occasionally sipping something small from the surface film. They were closer to the opposite bank so I made some long casts with the woolly bugger and allowed it to sink and then made some erratic strips near the visible fish, but there was no reaction. Next I tied on a Chernobyl ant and delivered some across and downstream drifts; however, after ten casts I realized that I couldn’t avoid drag long enough for the fish to get a good look, so I clipped it off and rested the water while I observed.

I decided that the only way to get a good drift over these fish was to cross below the pool and cast from the opposite side from below. I executed this move and began casting the Chernobyl upstream hoping that a large juicy attractor would induce a strike. Amazingly in the center run it aroused an eruption, but the fish turned away at the last instant. Again I rested the water and watched intently and observed a couple very subtle rises where the fish slowly came to the surface and sipped in something tiny. At the same time I saw a few sporadic BWO’s emerging so I replaced the Chernobyl with one of the size 24 CDC BWO’s that I tied for the Big Thompson. I moved upstream a bit to get better light on the lower part of the pool where the fish were active.

As I prepared to make downstream drifts to the target fish, I gazed across the river and noticed 4-5 fish rising next to the bank just below where I’d been standing before crossing. I debated returning but didn’t want to risk another dicey crossing so I refocused on the fish in front of me. Finally after quite a few downstream drifts I enticed a 13 inch rainbow to rise in the center current and sip in my fly. I was quite pleased to succeed in landing one of the fish I’d observed.

There was another deep pool 40 to 50 yards below my position but it had been occupied by a pair of fishermen when I passed on the opposite side, so I decided to explore that area for rising fish. Sure enough three or four fish were sipping in the eddy created by the huge protruding boulder above me. There was quite a bit of glare and riffle on the surface, and it was impossible for me to follow the size 24 fly, so I moved up tight against the large rock. This placed me above half of the pool, but more importantly I was above the area where the current fanned out and the fish were rising and the glare was eliminated. Once again I began making numerous drifts initiated by soft casts checked high to create a lot of slack and eventually another 13 inch rainbow tipped up its nose and sipped in my fly. On this note I called it a day and returned to the car for a three hour return trip.

I landed more fish than Friday (28 vs 26) and only lost two decent fish to break offs vs. four on Friday, and I didn’t lose as many flies, but the average size of the fish was down considerably. For this reason, I would rank the Friday Arkansas River adventure above the Tuesday outing. Will the weather provide me with one more trip to the Arkansas River in 2012?

Time: 10:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Fremont – Chafee County Line below Salida

Fish Landed: 26

Arkansas River 09/28/12 Photo Album

Insane. Ridiculous. These are adjectives used to describe my day of fishing on the Arkansas River on Friday. Apparently the rain and cool mid-week weather caused the brown trout in the Arkansas River to put on the feedbag prior to spawning and I experienced some great action. Landing 26 fish was a lot of fun, but that number could have been closer to 40, so the day was a little bittersweet, but even with some disappointment, it was a fabulous day of fly fishing.

I had everything loaded in the car on Thursday night so that I could make an early get away on Friday morning, and was in fact able to depart at 6:30AM. It was still rather dark as I backed out of the garage, but by leaving early I avoided the Denver rush hour traffic and made good time in my trek to Salida. As I reached the top of Kenosha Pass I glanced at the dashboard thermometer and noticed it was 28 degrees. How much could it warm up before I reached my planned destination below Salida? At the top of Trout Creek Pass the temperature climbed to 33 degrees. I wasn’t removing any layers. I passed through Salida and arrived at the pullout on the boundary of Fremont and Chafee County at 9:20 and by now the temperature reached 44 degrees.

I pulled on my long sleeve Under Armour shirt and wore it under my fishing shirt for added warmth. Instead of stuffing my raincoat in my backpack I decided to wear it as an outer layer and wind breaker. I could always remove it if it warmed up and stuff it in my backpack. I transferred my lunch from my insulated lunch bag to my backpack and then climbed into my waders and rigged my rod and I was on my way. This is my absolute favorite stretch of the Arkansas River and I headed for my sweet spot by crossing the river at the tail of the pool below the car and then hiking down the railroad tracks to a position below the small island.

Island and Right Channel Loom Ahead

I began fishing 30-40 yards below the island and this was further downstream than I normally begin. Initially I began fishing with a yellow Letort hopper and a beadhead hares ear and made prospecting casts from the bank out to the inner current seam, and that was typically a corridor of 15 feet or so. As I worked upstream along the right bank I landed six decent browns in the first hour between 10 and 11AM. I continued fishing up along the left side of the island, but this proved unproductive, so I circled back to the bottom tip of the island and prepared to move up through the smaller right channel. This stretch is my favorite area of the Arkansas River and historically my most productive. During a trip to this same area in late September 2011, I fished the right channel with a lime green trude trailing a beadhead midge larva and sunken trico with great success. I decided to repeat this approach except I substituted a beadhead RS2 for the midge larva and used an olive deer hair caddis instead of a lime green trude as the top fly. The main thing I was copying was going small on both the indicator fly and the droppers.

Below the long smooth pool I had several hook ups in the short pockets, but the fish escaped before I could net them probably indicating they took the tiny RS2 or trico flies. I did manage to land a couple medium sized browns before reaching the long pool, and I was exuding optimism as I began casting to the low end of the long smooth pool, but this eagerness was misplaced. I covered the pool from left to right and gradually lengthened my casts and checked them high to flutter my flies gently to the surface, yet these careful presentations went unrewarded. When I got to the top of the long pool where there was more current, I decided to revert to what had worked for me in the first hour. I knew there were fish in this area so apparently I wasn’t using the right ammo to attract attention. I went back to the yellow Letort hopper plus the beadhead hares ear and added a beadhead RS2, and this combination produced quite well over the remaining half of the right channel. The browns were hammering the nymphs in the likely locations, but also in nondescript lies such as tiny pockets behind exposed rocks, shallow runs along the edge, and tiny nooks along the bank.

15 Inch Beauty

Another Healthy Brown

I was on a hot streak when I reached the top of the island as I fished the right channel where there was a fish in nearly every location I cast to, even spots that appeared to be marginal. Could this type of fishing continue for the rest of the day? I decided to work up along the right bank and I was now dealing with the full width of the Arkansas River. I passed through a shallow riffle stretch with no action, but as the water deepened a bit and exhibited more of a riffle character, the fish began to materialize again. I stopped for lunch at 1:30 by a dead log and I’d accumulated approximately 15 landed fish. The action wasn’t as fast and furious as the right channel section, but it was steadily productive, and the average size of the fish improved. Because there was now more casting and more water to deal with, the sudden excitement of a hooked fish was even more rewarding.

Ate Lunch on Log to Right

After lunch I began to notice an occasional BWO fluttering up from the stream. The sky was clear and blue for most of the afternoon, but a few puffy white clouds blocked the sun for ten minutes or so, and this was enough to provoke some sparse hatching activity. I left the RS2 on my line and managed to catch a few on it, but the beadhead hares ear was probably outproducing the RS2 by 2 to 1. I landed eleven browns between lunch and quitting at 4PM and quite a few were in the 15 inch range and they were quite well fed browns for that length.

No Good Location to Place on Net

At one point shortly after lunch I suffered my third or fourth break off, and I lost all three of my flies. I was pretty pleased with the performance of the yellow Letort hopper as it duped three fish so I replaced it with another. However, I was depleting my valuable inventory of beadhead hares ear nymphs, so I decided to test a salvation fly, and I was also running low on beadhead RS2’s so I substituted one of the Craven soft hackle emergers that I tied this past winter. This proved to be a great experiment as the Craven soft hackle emerger became a hot fly and the salvation produced three nice fat fish. These flies will see more playing time on the Weller leader on future fishing trips.

Revival

Overall it was a tremendous day with 26 fish landed between my starting point below the island and the pool where I initially crossed. The action was fastest and most intense over the top half of the small right channel next to the island, but there was a steady stream of catch and releasing over the course of the afternoon between the top of the island and the huge pullout pool. Quite a few of the fish were 14 and 15 inch chunky browns that fought long and hard to avoid the net. Even the fish in the 12-13 inch range were fat and feisty and  fun to play and land.

The downside to all this was long distance releases. For every three fish I hooked I probably failed to land one, and this explains my earlier comment that I should have landed 40 fish. The worst part of this was that I experienced four hook ups that ended in break offs. These fish felt like heavy fish in excess of 15 inches, and I actually saw two hefty browns that cleared the water upon the hook set. From a distance these fish definitely appeared to be in the 15 – 20 inch range.

I’ll choose to dwell on the positive, and in most respects it was a glorious day. The foliage along the stream was glowing in golden hues and the weather was ideal with a high around 70 degrees. I would have liked a BWO hatch with more surface action, but the fish seemed perfectly willing to hammer my RS2 or soft hackle emerger, and even better a large proportion jumped on the larger hares ear which is better for hooking and retention. The average size of the fish was quite rewarding with probably 25% in the 14-15 inch range. I also landed a few from fairly shallow locations where the top fly paused, and I reacted by lifting my rod thinking the trailers were hung up on rocks, only to discover a fish thrashing and throbbing on the end of my line. Did the indicator fly pause because a fish inhaled the nymph, or did my lifting action emulate an emerging fly and that action caused the fish to react? I’ll never know the answer, but I love it when it happens.

Time: 9:30AM – 12:30PM

Location: Upper Pinnacle Rock through braided area

Fish Landed: 10

Arkansas River 09/23/2012 Photo Album

G and W were up early on Sunday morning after spending the night at the refurbished Royal Gorge Angler Lodge. Both were anxious to perform a scientific experiment on fly fishing on the Arkansas River, but first they enjoyed a hearty breakfast at Mr. Ed’s Family Restaurant in Canon City. After breakfast they stopped at the Royal Gorge Angler fly shop and Taylor’s dad Bill helped them purchase flies that matched the successful flies used by Taylor on Saturday. Next they made the short drive to a pullout above Pinnacle Rock along the lower Arkansas River.

G and W rigged their rods in the manner recommended by Taylor and tied on flies that matched Taylor’s selections and began fishing at 9:30AM. Sunday’s fishing would be a scientific experiment to determine how much better the private water was than the public water on the Arkansas River. The weather was nearly the same as Saturday, and they began fishing at the same time of the day with the same set up and the same flies. The only variables that changed were the stretch of water and the absence of Taylor, the guide.

W began fishing with the 20 incher and a red midge larva and immediately landed a 10 inch rainbow in a deep run just above Pinnacle Rock. Next W picked up a small brown on the 20 incher in a short deep pocket next to the bank. A fairly long dry spell followed as W moved into the sunlight and out of the shadows and began fishing a more open stretch with moderate riffles. Eventually in a spot just above the pullout where the car was parked, W landed another small brown in a three foot deep riffle section where the current angled against the bank.

When W caught G at the thirty yard long riffle below the junction of the three braids, he crossed to the northwest side of the river. Between the long riffle and the left braid above the junction with the north channel, W landed another four fish with the largest measuring eleven inches. W circled back to the north braid and fished the low end and landed one brown, but another fisherman was stationed 15 yards up the river and this blocked W’s further progression so he dropped back to the main branch and waded across the second braid to the southern most branch. When he reached the top of the island between the southern and middle branches he discovered G in the delicious long deep run next to the highway.

Sunday Morning Brown from Arkansas

G and W slowly worked up this deep run in parallel as W landed a small brown near the tail out of the center current. But that was the extent of W’s success in this beautiful stretch of water as meanwhile G caught fish after fish including some nice chunky browns in the 13 and 14 inch range. W began changing flies and tried the stonefly that matched G’s, an RS2, and a beadhead hares ear. Eventually G decided to rotate back to the bottom of the run and make another sweep while W proceeded up the river to the pocket water. After using the nymphs in a few marginal pockets, W decided to return to hopper/dropper fishing and so he took the time to reinstall his tapered leader.

W elected to tie on a parachute hopper and dangled a beadhead hares ear two feet beneath the hopper. In a sweet deep pocket next to and behind a large protruding rectangular rock W hooked a fish on the dropper that immediately raced into the neighboring fast water. In an instant the line snapped and W discovered he’d lost both flies to a bad knot. W replaced the hopper with a Chernobyl ant and another beadhead hares ear and in another pocket upstream landed his tenth brown of the morning on the BHHE. Just as W released the fish, G appeared on the shoulder of the highway overlooking the river and pointed to his watch. It was time to depart so G could catch his flight from Denver back to Kansas City.

What were the results of the experiment? G and W probably caught nearly equivalent numbers of fish during the same time period as the day before, but clearly the average size of the fish was down by several inches. It’s good we had to quit when we did because we were clearly spoiled by fishing the Holy Water.

Time: 9:30AM – 5:30PM

Location: Royal Gorge Anglers Private Leased Water Near Texas Creek

Fish Landed: 18

Arkansas River 09/22/2012 Photo Album

While visiting with Dave and Beth Gaboury at Eagle Ranch in July, Dave and I agreed to book a day of guided fishing on the Arkansas River through Royal Gorge Anglers with  Taylor Edrington, the proprietor of Royal Gorge Anglers, as our guide. I made all the arrangements, and we got on Taylor’s calendar for September 22. Dave Gaboury planned to fly to Denver on Friday evening, and I planned to pick him up and drive to Canon City where we would spend the night and meet Taylor at the fly shop at 8AM on Saturday morning. We also reserved a Saturday night stay at the Royal Gorge Angler Lodge next to the fly shop.

A couple days before September 22 Taylor sent me an email and asked if we were interested in reserving the Texas Creek private water that they also refer to as the Holy Water. Dave and I exchanged some emails and agreed to pay the $50 rod fee and reserve the Holy Water for our day of guided fishing.

Everything worked according to plan and I picked Dave up at DIA on Friday night after which we drove to Stapleton and met Jane for dinner at Chipotle and then continued on to Canon City. On Saturday morning we were up bright and early and checked in at the fly shop at 8. Taylor opened the lodge for us so we could stash our bags, and then we transferred our fishing gear to his truck and stopped at the shop to sign a waiver release form. Next we were on our way to the private stretch of water behind the old rock shop upstream from Texas Creek. It was cool in the morning but expected to reach 80 degrees with clear blue skies. These can be pretty difficult fishing conditions but Taylor was optimistic that we would catch our share of fish.

Taylor unlocked the gate and we crossed the river on a bridge and then drove a short distance up a crude lane with two bare tire tracks identifying the path. Since we were both Dave, Taylor asked what he could call us to distinguish us, and we decided to go by G for Gaboury and W for Weller for the day. G and W each selected their rods and reels for the day, and Taylor began rigging them for morning nymph fishing. W chose his 6 weight Scott and G went with his Winston 5 weight. Taylor clearly demonstrated his unique method of setting up the line for nymph fishing and started by removing our tapered leaders.

Next he cut a six inch section of 20 lb. fluorocarbon and tied a perfection loop on one end and used a loop to loop connection to the end of the fly line. He then pulled a thingamabobber out and knotted that to the other end of the fluorocarbon. Taylor then snipped a four foot long section of 4X monofilament and knotted that to the eye of the thingamabobber. He added a section of 5X to the end of the 4X and crimped a split shot above the knot and then tied a stonefly nymph to the end of the 5X. In W’s case he tied on a 20 incher stonefly. The last step was to use a clinch knot to add another section of 5X to the eye of the top fly and then tie on a second fly which was a red midge larva that was called a desert storm.

Both rods were set up this way and we walked downstream a bit to a juicy deep run that angled against a large boulder along the south bank. G began fishing at the top of the run and W began two thirds of the way down. W worked the current seams and deep riffles in this area for much of the morning and landed eight or nine fish with several chunky 14 inch browns in the mix. Meanwhile G landed a few fish and then circled below W to a sweet spot at the very tail of the run. This proved to be a honey hole as G extracted numerous beautiful browns from this area. Initially G was losing the fish in the faster current below the tail, but Taylor coached G a bit and G was on his way to a major streak of landing nice fish. Later G and Taylor told me that nearly all the fish were coming from a narrow slot so they must have been stacked up in a juicy feeding location.

Taylor Nets Nice Fish for G

After a banner hour or so of great fishing we crossed the river below the bridge and fished a long deep run with deep water on both sides. In this area G was positioned at the top closer to the bridge and W fished from the middle area down to the tail. W connected on a couple medium sized browns and worked both sides of the run down toward the tail. Meanwhile G after fishing the top circled around and waded in at the tail and landed several fish there. W retreated back to his starting point and fished the inside seam of the run a second time, and for some reason the fish became quite active and attacked his flies on the repeat run through. W landed a total of five or six fish in this area putting him at 14 prior to lunch. Several were nice hard fighting deeply colored browns in the 14 inch range. W also hooked up on a fine rainbow and played it for quite awhile until it wound the line around some sticks and escaped before Taylor could scoop the net beneath. Taylor was confident that the rainbow was in the 17 inch range.

W With Another Nice Brown Below Bridge

At 1:15 we adjourned to the opposite bank to some old patio furniture and munched our lunches. After lunch we walked up along the north side of the river to a small island. W began fishing at the bottom tip of the island while G went up along the north channel toward the top of the island. W was unable to interest any fish in the nice moderate depth riffle below the island so Taylor guided him to the tip of the island to some nice moderate depth runs along the north bank and above G. By now the sun was high in the sky with nary a cloud visible and the air temperature was probably in the high 70’s if not 80 degrees. These were very difficult fishing conditions.

The Holy Water

W persisted however and managed to hook and land a very nice brown near the far bank and that fish became the model for some photos. G meanwhile was hooking a few fish and while Taylor moved back down to assist him, W hooked and landed and released two more browns in the riffle area along the bank. One was a nice twelve to thirteen inch fish and the other was smaller.

Taylor Holds Up One of W’s Deeply Colored Browns

As the afternoon moved into the later stages we moved upstream again on the south bank to a beautiful area where two channels merged below a small island. This was juicy water with a deep run where the currents merged and then a long deep run that tailed out over the course of perhaps thirty yards. Taylor was ready to set us up for streamer fishing, but it looked too juicy to pass up running our nymphs through the top section. Unfortunately and surprisingly this didn’t prove to be productive so after we each covered the top part of the run, we reeled up, and Taylor took over and set us up with double streamers.

Top Streamer Fly

This involved a short section of very strong line connected to the first streamer with a Duncan loop and then another section of tough leader tied to the bend of the first streamer with a slump buster on the end. Both flies were heavily weighted and the act of casting was a frightful experience with all the weight flying back toward the caster at a high rate of speed on the backcast. Taylor demonstrated the technique that worked best in his experience. It involved a long cast as close to the far bank as possible directly across from the fisherman. He waited a couple seconds for the flies to sink and began a stripping retrieve with fairly short strips with the left hand while twitching the rod tip in the opposite direction. He continued this until the flies reached the heavy water and then repositioned himself a bit and repeated slightly downstream.

Slump Buster Was Trailing Streamer

For working the near side water he let it swing downstream and then dangled it and then made short stripping retrieves with pauses and allowed it to “die” as the streamers crept close to the rod tip. Taylor handed the rods to W and G and it was our turn. W tried to emulate Taylor as best he could, but his casting and line handling clearly needed some work. W and G each managed to land small browns on the streamers, and W felt like he had several hits but didn’t connect and land the fish. After a half hour to forty five minutes of relentlessly pounding the water and wearing out their arms and shoulders the threesome migrated downstream to the area below the island again, and there we pounded the far bank for a bit.

G and W

After this futile effort G and W both agreed that they’d had a great day but were weary and ready to call it over. We posed for some final photos by the river and then returned to the truck where Taylor removed his flies while G and W changed out of their waders. W and G both felt they had a great day given the warm clear conditions and were especially pleased to learn new rigging techniques, identified new flies that perform on the Arkansas River, and experienced streamer fishing techniques that can be applied later in the season. The private holy water was great, and G and W both felt they wouldn’t have caught the same quantity and size of fish on the public water.

Taylor and W

Time: 11:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Braided area above Pinnacle Rock

Fish Landed: 6

Arkansas River 06/17/2012 Photo Album

On Saturday of Fathers’ Day weekend Dan, Jane and I had great fun as we took two separate mountain bike rides, enjoyed lunch in Westcliffe while watching a storm develop, hiked the Rainbow Trail south from our campground, and fed the donkeys and horse that occupied the pasture by the entrance to the campground. Jane prepared a great meal of Thai green curry for Saturday evening, and Dan constructed another great fire in the pit at our campsite.

The plan for Sunday was to have a hearty breakfast and then break camp. Jane would drive the Santa Fe back to Denver while I transferred my fishing gear to Dan’s car so we could fish on the Arkansas River again. I decided to revisit the same area where I’d had success on Friday, as I felt it offered the best hope for Dan to have a great day as the braided area spread the flows out and the weather was forecast to be in the mid to upper 90’s again.

Dan was using his new Beulah fly rod for the first time so he was anxious to test it out. Sunday was another very hot day as high temperatures climbed to the mid-90’s, and we started fishing around 11AM just as the sun climbed toward its peak in the clear blue sky. We parked across from the spot where the river divides into three channels and waded across the first two to reach the bottom of the north branch. I gave Dan two lime green trudes, one size 16 and one size 12, and he began fishing up along the right side while I took the left. I started with a gray parachute hopper with a beadhead pheasant tail dropper.

Lifting for Another Cast

It didn’t take long before I experienced a refusal to the hopper and then a brief momentary hook up with the pheasant tail. My optimism proved to be premature, as I went through a dry spell. Meanwhile Dan was getting some action with his lime green trude, so I switched over to the same fly. Eventually I landed a fish or two on the lime green trude before we broke for lunch at 12:30. By lunch we had fished the length of the north braid from its confluence with the main Arkansas up to the point where another short channel joined.

After lunch I suggested we continue on the north braid from the point where the short channel joined to the point where the flow split off from the main river. This stretch contained some faster water with more pockets. I felt that this water would be more oxygenated and the faster riffled current would make it easier to approach fish in the hot afternoon with virtually no cloud cover. The green trude ceased to produce as it had earlier, and I really wanted to work nymphs through the short pockets so I tied on a buoyant Chernobyl ant and added a long leader section of three feet with a beadhead hares ear on the point. I mentioned to Dan that I hadn’t fished the beadhead hares ear as much early in the season as I had in previous years and concluded I was overanalyzing. Dan on the other hand had been fishing a beadhead hares ear since near the start and had landed his two fish on it.

Shortly after making the switch I landed a decent brown that smashed the nymph. In another short pocket I spotted a brown as it flashed up to look at but reject the Chernobyl ant. Two drifts later the same fish snatched the BHHE as it moved through the tail of the pocket. After releasing the fish I lobbed another cast to the top of the pocket and let it drift along the current seam and noticed another flash toward the Chernobyl. Once again on a subsequent drift I hooked but then lost the same fish.

First Decent Fish for Dave

The best action of the day would take place in the hour after lunch in twenty yards of pocket water between the junction of the small braid and part way to the main river. I landed an additional four browns in the 10-12 inch range on the beadhead hares ear. The remaining thirty yards of water were narrower and offered fewer prime holding locations. I covered this water fairly quickly with no luck and reached the junction with the main river. There were some nice deep pockets here, but I couldn’t entice any fish to grab either of my flies. Dan was forced to move to the bank I had just fished because the water was quite fast and tight to the north shore.with thick shrubs reaching out over the water.

Main Channel of Arkansas River

When Dan caught up to me it was approaching 4PM, and we were both extremely hot and tired and thirsty so we waded downstream along the edge of the larger channel to a point across from a small bridge. We were able to cross over here and walk the short distance back to the car. Our day ended with eight total fish landed, six by Dave and two by Dan. We both enjoyed breaking in our new rods and felt that we were fortunate to catch what we did under vary difficult conditions of clear skies, high sun, and warm air temperatures.

Very Focused

Time: 11:30AM – 3:00PM

Location: Five Points

Fish Landed: 7

Arkansas River 06/09/2012 Photo Album

After my return from Pennsylvania I worked on Thursday and Friday, but was itching to do some Colorado fishing. All the reports were indicating that run off was a non-event in 2012, so Jane and I elected to drive to the lower Arkansas River above Canon City on Saturday. I researched some nearby hikes for Jane, and we packed lunches and hit the road at around 8:30AM. It turned out to be quite warm with temperatures in the low 90’s, but we found a nice spot at the Arkansas Headwaters Five Points access area. Jane set up her chair under a huge cottonwood tree and propped herself there while she read her Kindle.

Meanwhile I put together my Scott 6 weight and prepared to fish the area directly across from Jane’s home base. I began with a yellow Letort hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear, and it didn’t take long before I landed a decent eleven inch brown. As I fished a flotilla of rafts drifted by, but they kept to the middle of the river, and I didn’t feel they were impacting my fishing along the edge. Another small brown inhaled the beadhead hares ear as I worked my way fairly rapidly along the bank hitting all the likely spots that might hold trout. Next a small brown inhaled the yellow Letort hopper and I continued covering the water; however, I was experiencing refusals, and the beadhead hares ear ceased to produce. I decided to swap out the BHHE for a copper john, and sure enough at the base of an island another eleven inch brown gobbled the copper john.

First Fish Landed Saturday on Arkansas River

I Fished Left Channel Around Island

The river divided around the long narrow island and the raft traffic took the slightly deeper straight channel to the north. I was quite excited to fish the left channel as it was devoid of raft traffic and looked like it contained some nice pockets and runs. It was 12:30PM or later and I told Jane I’d return for lunch within an hour, so I deferred the left channel and returned to her base camp for lunch. We decided that after lunch she would take the car and search for the Red Canyon Park to hike, and then we planned to meet back at our base camp at 3PM. In retrospect this did not allow enough time to drive to Red Canyon Park which required 20 miles one way, a hike and then another 20 mile return drive.

Jane Relaxes

I walked back to the left channel that made a big bend around the island and continued to fish with the hopper and copper john but didn’t manage any more fish until I reached a deep run where the channel deflected off a large vertical rock and then fanned out in a nice deep run. I covered the water with some casts of my hopper/dropper but this deeper water screamed for deep nymphing. I clipped off the hopper and copper john and tied on an
Arkansas rubberlegs and below that a RS2. I flicked the nymphs up into the deep run and on the fifth drift noticed an unusual movement in the indicator, set the hook, and landed a 10 inch rainbow.

Cactus in Bloom

I continued working up along the bank and up to 25 feet out and landed two more fish before I retired at 3PM. One of the remaining fish gobbled the Arkansas rubberleg along the edge of a current seam and this fish probably was in the 10-11 inch range. The last fish fell for the RS2. Jane was returning to the picnic area just as I walked up, and she told me she spent most of the time driving. Clearly we should have alloted at least another hour to our scheduled meeting time.

Zoomed on Arkansas Rubberleg

We packed everything back in the car and returned toward Canon City where we stopped at the Royal Gorge Angler where I met Taylor Edrington and asked him a series of questions about our trip to Argentina. I also purchased a new Orvis Access four piece 8’8″ four weight rod for myself and a Beulah four piece 9′ five weight rod for Dan. The Orvis rod is much lighter than my Sage four weight, and I’m quite anxious to test it out.

Time: 11:00AM – 5:00PM

Location: Champion Lease near Johnson Village and then at the Chafee – Fremont County Line

Fish Landed: 6

Arkansas River 05/12/2012 Photo Album

A cold front moved through Denver on Friday with overcast skies and steady rain. The weather forecast for Mothers’ Day weekend was highs in the low 60’s in Denver and additional precipitation. This is actually fairly typical weather for Colorado in May, but I’ve been spoiled by the many days of summer-like weather this spring. I wanted to go fishing on Saturday, but knew I’d have to stay at a lower elevation stream or risk fishing in temperatures in the 40’s and 50’s. The two lower elevation choices are the Arkansas River and the South Platte River. I read the fly shop reports and decided to make the Arkansas River my destination primarily because the flows on the South Platte below Cheesman Dam were 100, and that usually means tough fishing. The ArkAngler report on the other hand was touting remaining caddis between Salida and Buena Vista.

I didn’t bother getting off to an early start as I knew the air temperature would take a while to warm. I was correct on that assumption as there was snow covering the ground for my entire drive across South Park and the temperature stayed steadily at 29-30 degrees. Fortunately as I dropped down from Trout Creek Pass to the Arkansas River valley the temperature rose to the high 40’s and low 50’s. Based on the ArkAnglers information about caddis above Salida, I decided to try a lease that I’d driven by many times but never stopped. A big green sign informed me that it was the Champion Lease. I bundled up in my fleece and windbreaker pullover and followed the path down to the river.

Near Trout Creek Pass on Way to Arkansas River

The point where I entered the river and crossed was relatively unattractive compared to what I’m used to downstream on the Arkansas. It was wide with constant riffles and not many rocks or places that offered cover for fish. I worked up along the east bank in some marginal areas with a beadhead bright green caddis pupa and a beadhead RS2 with no action and I didn’t even spot any fish. Another fisherman arrived and crossed the river above me to my side, so when I came upon him I crossed back to the west side. He was left handed so I suppose that is why he preferred the side of the river I was on.

First Fishing Location

Once I crossed back to the west side I worked my way up the left bank with the nymphs and couldn’t muster any indication of the presence of fish. I clipped off the caddis pupa and tied on a beadhead hares ear. Nothing came from that change out so I tried an Arkansas rubberlegs on top. This heavy fly certainly sank quickly to the bottom, but again no response. By 12:30 I’d covered quite a bit of water, some of which looked attractive, and hadn’t even seen a fish. This is highly unusual for the Arkansas River. As to the caddis, there was scant evidence that this bug even lived in this stretch of the Arkansas.

Cacti in Bloom

I clipped my fly to the rod guide and decided to walk back to the car and move to another location. I could go upstream to Buena Vista near the kayak area or head further down to my favorite spot below Salida. As I was facing a skunking, I elected the latter as I had confidence I could pound up a fish or two there.

By the time I drove to the Chafee – Fremont county line and ate my lunch on the high rock perch as is my custom, it was 1:30 when I resumed fishing. I crossed the long pool at the tail and walked up along the north bank beyond the white water stretch at the top of the pool. I replaced the stonefly nymph with a duke nymph hoping the fish would remember egg laying adult caddis. Below the duke I kept a RS2 and hoped that some BWO activity would kick in.

Nice Stretch of Arkansas River Below Salida

I fished the nymphs hard for an hour or so and covered a fair amount of water that I knew held fish, but had only a couple sub-six inch browns that weren’t counters. In frustration I decided to go with a hopper/dropper and see if I could attract some bank dwellers to opportunistically feed. First I tied on a yellow Charlie Boy hopper and added a beadhead hares ear and picked up two more tiny browns. The Charlie Boy wasn’t attracting any fish and tended to sink when the deer hair became water logged so I switched to a Chernobyl ant and then added a RS2 below the BHHE.

Concurrent with this change some big gray clouds blocked the sun and the breeze kicked up a bit and I spotted one or two tiny BWO’s on the surface. This all occurred at around 3PM and I finally connected and landed a 10 inch brown. I’ve never been so pleased to land a ten inch fish. But this brown alerted me to the fact that fish were beginning to tune into the BWO nymphs. Between 3 and 4PM the fish became active and I landed five more trout, two rainbows and three browns. One of the rainbows was a nice 14 inch fish that put up quite a battle even against the sturdy six weight Scott that I was wielding. Of the six fish I landed on the day, five were fooled by the RS2 and one was attracted to the duke nymph.

Best Fish of the Day, a Rainbow

As quickly as the action heated up at 3, it shut down at 4. I continued fishing the same flies in the same manner in some very attractive runs and pockets along the north bank, but once again a case of lockjaw had overcome the fish. I decided to quit at five and make the return trip very happy knowing that I’d avoided a skunking and salvaged six decent fish. Unfortunately I experienced 4.5 hours of nothing for the sake of one hour of hot action.

Time: 10:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Upstream from Chafee – Fremont County Line

Fish Landed: 19

Arkansas River 05/02/2012 Photo Album

Following my spectacular outing on the Arkansas River on April 24, I began following the fishing reports of the fly shops in Salida (www.ArkAnglers.com) and Canon City (www.royalgorgeanglers.com). Both web sites indicated that the cool weather over the weekend stalled the progression of the caddis hatch around Cotopaxi, but the warmer weather this week was expected to prod the hatch to move up the river toward Salida. I decided to make another attempt to hit the leading edge of the hatch on Wednesday. Temperatures were projected to peak at the mid-70’s on Wednesday so I once again got off to an early start around 6:30AM.

I arrived at the river by 9:30 and parked at the Fremont – County line pullout as I had done the previous Tuesday. The river was in prime condition with great clarity and the flows appeared to be comparable to the previous week. What would a trip to the Arkansas River be without a bit of hardship however? Before I climbed into my waders I walked down the crude concrete steps and my shoes rolled on some round gravel. As I fell backward I used my left hand to brace my fall and felt a sharp stinging sensation. I looked at my hand and realized the rough concrete sliced off a couple layers of skin in a 1/2″ square area just beneath the little finger on my left hand. I returned to the car and cleaned the fresh wound with some antibacterial wipes and found two small Band-Aids in the first aid kit in the center console. Fortunately it was my left hand, and I wasn’t going to let this ruin my day of fishing.

I prepared to fish and waded across the river at the tail of the long pool, but instead hiking down the railroad tracks to the island as I usually do, I hiked up the tracks 100 yards or so to the next nice water above the long pool. I set up my Scott six weight rod with a Thingamabobber, split shot, beadhead bright green caddis, and beadhead RS2. It didn’t take long before I landed two nine inch browns on the RS2. I moved up along the north bank and probed the nice pockets and soft shelfs of moderate depth with my pair of flies. Just when I thought I was going to land all smaller fish, I hooked and landed a beefy 15″ brown and photographed it. Between 10AM and 11:30 when I paused for lunch I landed nine decent fish with all but one or two attacking the RS2. The Arkansas fish in this stretch below Salida were still in tune with the BWO nymph imitations.

Nice Fat Brown Landed Wednesday Morning

The fishing slowed a bit and I encountered a pair of fisherman above me, so I elected to return to the car and eat my lunch. I sat on my usual perch above the long pool, but didn’t observe any fish this time. After finishing my lunch I decided to drive up the highway toward Salida a bit and parked .5 miles west just beyond a large rock. There was a SUV parked on the east  side of the rock and several fishermen were in the lower pocket water that I was thinking of fishing. I remained flexible and began fishing 30 yards or so above the most upstream of the group of fishermen in a nice run where I’d spotted fish on previous trips. On the third drift at the head of the nice run the indicator dipped and I hooked, played and eventually landed a beautiful 15 inch rainbow. The hard fighter made several strong runs to the edge of the current before I could steer it back to my net.

Orange and Pink Cheek on This Rainbow Landed After Lunch

Right along the edge of some large rocks just above the rainbow run, I spotted a fish making a quick rise and sure enough on the second drift tight to the rocks a nice brown took the bright green caddis on the lift. I was getting pretty optimistic about the prospects of the afternoon. A bit further upstream I landed a smaller brown to put my count on the day at 12. But the fishing would slow considerably at this point. The sky was clear blue and now the air had warmed to the seventies. I continued working the nymphs until I reached a short pocket where I observed a decent rainbow reveal itself with a slow sipping rise. I tried sweeping my flies and jigging them past the rainbow but received no response. Finally I relented and removed my nymph fishing setup, and tied on a CDC BWO to entice the rainbow. Unfortunately this got ignored as well and after a few casts I could no longer spot the fish.

What should I do now? I didn’t want to tie on the nymphs and crimp on split shot and add an indicator again after having just removed everything, but I had no confidence in prospecting the big water of the Arkansas with a tiny BWO imitation. I decided to tie on a size 12 stimulator/caddis with a light olive body and then add the RS2 dropper a foot beneath the indicator fly. I worked this combination along the bank in some attractive water for twenty minutes or so and foul hooked one fish that apparently refused the caddis but got nailed by the trailing RS2.

I finally decided that the two fly nymph combination was the most effective approach and returned to it. I picked up a couple fish, one on the bright green caddis and one on the RS2 and then skipped around some big deep holes and came upon a stretch of pocket water. The river at this point was wide, so I could wade out a bit and hit some short pockets in the middle of the river. Some clouds rolled in and the breeze kicked up a bit and suddenly the fish were attacking the RS2 again. I moved quickly from small pocket to small pocket and tucked upstream casts behind the large boulders at the head of each pocket and began hooking fish as I lifted my flies at the tail. I landed five browns of moderate size using this technique with one taking the caddis pupa and the others falling for the RS2. I continued to be amazed at how effective the tiny RS2 continued to be throughout the entire day. I experienced quite a few momentary hook ups in this stretch in addition to the five fish I successfully landed.

I Love This Type of Water

When I reached the point where a tiny feeder stream entered the river, I was above the pocket stretch, and wasn’t experiencing any action so I changed the bright green pupa for a duke nymph as my top fly. For the last hour I fished the duke/RS2 combination and had three hook ups that felt like nice fish, but I failed to land them. The RS2 is a very effective fly, but because of the diminutive size 22 hook, it is difficult to keep fish attached long enough to land.

I worked hard to land a twentieth fish, but after losing three and with the sun back in the clear blue sky, I decided to call it a day and hiked back down the highway to the car and prepared for the 2 hour and 45 minute return trip.

Time: 9:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Fremont – Chafee County Line

Fish Landed: 22

Arkansas River 04/24/2012 Photo Album

Awesome and epic are probably two of the more overused adjectives in the modern English vernacular so I won’t use them to describe my day of fishing on Tuesday, April 24. Instead I’ll settle for spectacular, and this adjective was achieved even though I did not manage to find the sweet spot of the caddis emergence and had to overcome two significant hardships.

Dan and roommate Adam and I spent Saturday on the Arkansas River on the lower water near Salt Lick, and it was obvious we were below the emergence area. When this is the case, the caddis are everywhere but on the water until egg laying commences and this coincides with waning daylight. Saturday was a warm clear day and the egg laying activity probably occurred in the evening after we departed. I studied the stream reports on Royal Gorge Anglers web site as well as ArkAnglers in Salida, and as near as I could tell, the hatch had progressed to Cotopaxi by Saturday. With high temperatures forecast for the 80’s for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I felt the caddis would advance rapidly, and my only shot at meeting the front edge would be to return to the Salida area on Tuesday. I also decided to get an early start so I could be on the water in the morning before air temperatures and water temperatures soared.

I had everything prepared on Monday night and that enabled me to depart the house at just after 6AM and beat the morning commuter traffic around Denver resulting in arrival at the Fremont – Chafee County line below Salida by 9AM. There were quite a few campers at the area just east of Salida, so I felt I was on the right track. Fortunately because it was a weekday, this did not translate to a lot of fishermen on the water during most of the day. I quickly jumped into my waders, strung my rod and negotiated the path down the steep bank and crossed at the tail of the large pool next to the pullout. I climbed the bank on the north side of the river and hiked down the railroad tracks to my favorite starting point below the small island.

First Trout on Tuesday Morning

It was actually cool enough that I wore a fleece and was comfortable for the first hour of fishing as I rigged up my four piece Sage four weight rod with a thingamabobber, Arkansas rubber legs and a beadhead RS2. I began flinging the weighted nymph into the nice deep run at the tail and working my way methodically upstream to the island and within fifteen minutes I’d landed a nice 14-15 inch rainbow that snatched the RS2. The Arkansas rubber legs didn’t seem to be producing after I’d covered the water up to the bottom of the island and it was causing my flies to hang up frequently so I clipped it off and replaced with a beadhead bright green caddis pupa. At the very top of the run, my indicator paused and I set the hook and landed a nice feisty brown on the bright green caddis pupa. My outlook was pretty positive after catching fish on both a caddis pupa and RS2 which imitates a blue wing olive nymph.

I was very anxious to fish the right channel on the north side of the island as this has historically produced my best fishing on the entire Arkansas River system, but because the water is lower and not as fast, the indicator/nymph approach did not seem appropriate. I decided to fish up along the left side of the island with my tandem nymph approach and return to the bottom of the north channel and change my set up. It was a great decision as I landed another nice brown on the RS2 and then at the very head of the run near the top of the island, I hooked another rainbow. This fish was a tough opponent and it ran into the heavy current, and I worked it back and forth several times. Finally I worked the fourteen inch rainbow to within a couple feet of my legs, but when I pulled out my net, the fish spooked and shot out in the current again. It ran downstream a bit and then stopped, and as I applied side pressure to bring it back to me, the tip on my rod snapped. The exhiliration of landing a fine rainbow was surpassed by the sinking knowledge that I’d just snapped the tip on my favorite rod.

My Favorite Stretch of Arkansas River

After I grieved a bit, I picked up the broken tip and hustled back to the car and procured my Loomis two piece five weight. I’d been fishing for 45 minutes and landed four nice fish, but now I spent 20-30 minutes hiking back on the railroad tracks, crossing the river, removing my fleece, stowing the broken rod and setting up the backup rod. When I returned to the bottom of the island I had no flies on my new rod, so I could begin with a fresh approach. I elected to go dry/dropper with a size 12 bushy caddis/stimulator with a light olive body as my top fly and the beadhead RS2 on a 2.5 foot dropper. I worked up the full length of the north channel with this combination and landed six beautiful browns on the RS2. I began to see some BWO’s sporadically on the water, so the fish must have been tuned into the nymphs. I experienced numerous refusals to the stimulator as well and also quite a few momentary hookups. The action was fast and furious, but particularly strong in the large main pool near the bottom of the channel.

Length of the Net Bruiser

When I reached the top of the island it was close to noon and lunch time so I debated adjourning to the car, but decided to continue through the nice riffles and pockets along the north bank between the island and my crossing point. I managed to land two more fine Arkansas browns in this area on the RS2. Again I witnessed some refusals and several momentary hook pricks before I reached the tail of the large pool and waded back to the south bank for lunch at 12:45. I was feeling pretty euphoric with twelve fish landed in spite a losing 30 minutes during prime time and breaking the tip of my favorite rod.

Another Gorgeous Speciman

As is my custom I grabbed my lunch and water bottle from the car and walked down to a large ledge rock next to the large pool below the Santa Fe. I was perched eight feet above the river, and as I ate I observed a nice rainbow cruising the pool upstream from my lunch seat by ten feet or so. The fish cruised about in an oval path and every once in a while slowly moved to the surface and slowly sipped. Since I planned to clip off my flies and go back to the indicator/split shot method after lunch, I decided to try for the rainbow before going that route. I fetched my rod from the car and positioned myself upstream from the large rock but stood 5-8 feet back from the water. I tied on a CDC BWO and tried to place some casts at the top of the cruise area. The wind had picked up and each of the first five casts were way off target. The line was shooting straight out from me toward the desired target, but the cross wind knocked the fly back downstream beyond the large rock.

Finally I executed a low cast that was almost a roll cast. I couldn’t see the rainbow anymore and began to despair that I’d put it down. But as I watched the water I saw the fish appear two thirds of the way from the top to the edge of the rock and sip something on the surface. I estimated my fly might be the morsel sipped by the rainbow and I set the hook and felt the weight of the fish. I applied side pressure to prevent it from heading downstream and eventually brought it to my net. It was a beauty and larger than it appeared from my lunch perch.

Spotted During Lunch

Seeing no more rising fish, I gathered my line and crossed the river again at the tail of the long pool and walked part way down the tracks to a point at the base of the nice wide riffle section that I’d covered in the late morning. I tied on a beadhead bright green caddis pupa and below that added the RS2 and fished these two flies wet fly style with a split shot and indicator. Between 1:15 and 2:30 I picked up another four fish and three fell for the caddis pupa and one for the RS2. Most of these fish hit as the flies did a swing through water that was 3-4 feet deep and flowing at a moderate pace. These fish continued to be fine chunky browns in the 12-13 inch range.

By 2:30 I moved up into the right side of the long pool across from the Santa Fe. I was going to skip this water and move to the faster moving run that feeds the pool but as I worked my way up along the bank I spotted a couple rises. I paused and watched the water as some large clouds moved in from the west and blocked the sun and reduced the light intensity. The wind continued to gust relentlessly and the pool came alive with five or six fish rising with increased regularity. Should I go to the trouble of clipping off my wet flies and tie on a dry fly? I began swinging my wets above positions where I’d seen rises, but this had no impact so I relented and changed to a size 14 deer hair caddis with a dark olive body.

Initially I witnessed a few refusals and mentally was cursing my choice of a size 14, but I began to see more caddis tumbling on the water and made a downstream cast so it floated on a lane where a fish had risen. Smash! A brown aggressively hammered my fly and I had my first catch on a dry fly of the day. There were some fish rising no more that 5-10 feet above me and within 10 feet of the bank, but I was trying to execute a backhand cast into the wind and it wasn’t effective. I decided to wade out five feet in the deep pool so I was waist deep but away from the tall vegetation and able to make a backcast over the river. Having negotiated this repositioning, I shot a couple casts to the area where I’d seen a fish rise a couple times, but nothing was doing. But as I was about to turn and look elsewhere I spotted a rise within two feet of the bank five feet above me. I looped a cast so the fly came down in a curve to the right of my line and as the caddis drifted to the spot of the rise, and trout emerged and engulfed my fly. The fight was on and I managed to land a beefy brightly colored brown that extended beyond the length of my net. This was the fish of the day and the fish of my season so far.

Best Fish of the Day Took Caddis Dry

I waded over to the bank and photographed my prize brown and then returned to my spot in the deeper water. Somehow my flies got tangled in the net and my line was wrapped around the net, but in the process of clearing everything for another cast, I twisted my weight and my pivot food slipped on a slimy rock, and all of a sudden Dave was doing the breast stroke and trying to stand up again. Water gushed over my frontpack and the front of my waders and as I stood I could feel ice water running down my legs and saturating my long underwear and socks. What should I do now? I had a change of clothes in the car, but fish were rising under the overcast sky. Even if I changed into dry clothes I would not be able to dry out the inside of my waders quickly, so I’d be damp and wet again. I decided to suck it up and continued fishing.

I sprayed some casts across and downstream to some rises and landed two more medium sized fish on the caddis. Alas the large clouds passed and the sun came back out and the wind calmed a bit and the caddis were no longer tumbling on the water. As you might expect the fish stopped rising. I sloshed my way back to the bank and climbed up to the railroad tracks and debated calling it a day. It was 3:15 and I decided it was too early to quit without going back to wet flies. Besides the water in my boots was warming up to my body temperature, and I was now operating in a large wet suit. I hiked up the railroad tracks until I reached another nice stretch of the river that I enjoy fishing. The character of the river here is similar to the wide riffles and fan shaped pockets I’d fished right after lunch.

I returned to nymphs but this time tied on a duke nymph (my streamlined version of a prince nymph) and below that a beadhead bright green caddis. I worked my way up through the long pockets and riffles over the next 45 minutes and landed two more nice fish, one a rainbow and the other a brown. The rainbow attacked the duke nymph as I stripped it back toward me after the end of the drift. The brown hit the duke at the very tail of the drift when the fly began to swing. By 4 o’clock I began to feel a bit chilled from being wet and I’d landed 22 trout so I decided to quit and start the long drive back to Denver. I made the long slosh back to the crossing point, carefully crossed to the south bank and exchanged my wet clothes for dry.

I’d broken the tip on my favorite rod, fallen in the river, and never saw a significant caddis emergence but had still managed to land 22 larger than average fish. More than anything I was impressed with the size of the fish I was catching in this stretch of the Arkansas River. I also rediscovered how much I enjoy dry/dropper fishing in the right circumstances. The visual experience isn’t quite as addictive as a fish rising to take a dry, but seeing the top fly dip and then setting the hook and feeling the strong weight of a nice fish is a close second. This describes much of the action in the morning on the north channel as fish took the tiny RS2.

Was my day epic? Probably not but certainly spectacular. Will I return to the Arkansas River again before snowmelt? One never knows.