Time: 10:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Fremont-Chafee County line upstream

Fish Landed: 16

Arkansas River 09/13/2011 Photo Album

I was disappointed with the size of the fish I caught on the Big Thompson on Saturday, and I was itching to visit the Arkansas River for some September fishing. The reports from the fly shops were encouraging and the flows were ideal. Amy and her roommate Joe were visiting, and they wanted to tag along and do some hiking while I fished so we planned a trip for Tuesday, September 13. We got up early and were on the road by 7:15AM. It was quite cool and overcast and the temperature registered high 40’s on the mountain passes on the trip to Salida. It would remain cloudy most of the day with the sun peeking through intermittently between noon and 2PM.

I parked at the pullout just east of the Fremont-Chafee county line and put on my waders and gathered everything I would need for a day of fishing without access to the car as Joe and Amy were driving toward Cottonwood Pass and hiking to Ptarmigan Lake. I said goodbye and hiked down the path to the river below the cable and crossed at the bottom of the long pool. I then walked along the railroad bed to a point below the island and angled down to the river. I began with a Chernobyl ant and a trailing beadhead hares ear and cast to the deep run below the island. My first action included two temporary hookups on the Chernobyl ant, but both fish got off before I could apply any pressure. In the riffles below the channel on the right side of the island, a rainbow grabbed the BHHE and I was on the scoreboard with one fish.

Arkansas Rainbow Trout

I worked up along the left side of the small island and landed a small brown near the top, but the water was largely unattractive. I retraced my path to the base of the island and covered the right channel. In an unusual change from previous experience I failed to land any trout from the right channel. I probably experienced five or six refusals to the Chernobyl ant and startled a few nice fish from their lies along the edge. When I reached the top of the island I took time to swap out the Chernobyl for a yellow Letort hopper. I landed two more twelve inch rainbows along the right bank between the top of the island and the tail of the long pool across from where Amy and Joe dropped me off. I covered quite a bit of real estate so the fishing was quite slow. Since I had my lunch in my backpack, I sat down on a rock just below the long pool and munched while observing the water. The river was largely barren of any aquatic insect activity.

After lunch I climbed up the bank to the rail bed and skirted the long pool. A dad and two boys were fishing from the other side, and I didn’t want to disturb them, and I was looking for pocket water not a long smooth pool. I resumed fishing at 12:45PM and remember looking at my watch at 1:30 and thinking that I was averaging less than two fish per hour and it was turning out to be a dud of a fishing trip in spite of the nice overcast conditions.

Nice Fat Rainbow with Yellow Hopper in Mouth

In my mind I was debating switching to deep nymphing in the faster runs and channels, but as I was doing this some denser darker clouds rolled in and the wind picked up and it felt like rain was imminent. I put on my raincoat anticipating the rain and tied a small RS2 to the BHHE. Ahead of me was a nice long side pocket between a strong run and the bank. I made a 25 foot cast, and a fish rose and smashed the hopper. I played a decent rainbow to the net and moved up a few steps and punched a cast into the wind to the top of the pocket. Wham! Another rainbow attempted to inhale the hopper. Amazingly as the weather got worse, the fishing got better. I’ve observed this trend on numerous occasions.

The Back of a Feisty Brown

Next I noticed a nice wide pocket in the middle of the river behind a large horizontal rock. I flicked the three fly combination up and across to the top of the pocket and just as the hopper began to drag a beautiful rainbow grabbed the trailing RS2. I was now observing very sporadic BWO’s fluttering above the water. Perhaps the trout were tuned in to BWO nymphs subsurface? Between 2 and 3PM I landed seven very nice trout with roughly four hitting the yellow Letort hopper and the others taking either the beadhead hares ear or RS2. I also snapped off the hopper twice on rising fish and in the process lost six total flies. I’m not sure if I was setting too hard or had a bad knot attaching the hopper to the leader. After losing the second BHHE of the day I substituted a beadhead pheasant tail and landed two fish on that fly.

Pretty Rainbow Near End of Day

By 3PM I worked my way up the river to a point across from a wide pullout bordering a huge rock next to the highway. Another fisherman was fiddling with his line, and then I noticed he sat on the top of the bank overlooking the river and watched me fish. This required a show, so I focused on my task and landed three smaller fish along my side of the river from small pockets while he observed. I also foul hooked a nice 14 inch rainbow while he was watching. I didn’t count this fish, but as far as he knew it was another fish I landed while he was a spectator. After I landed three fish he made his way down to the river and began fishing. He moved almost in parallel with me but slightly downstream on the opposite shore. During this period of observation I landed five more trout to bring my total to 16 on the day.

After a very productive couple hours in the afternoon, it was approaching 4PM, and I told Amy and Joe I’d meet them at 4, so I hustled back up the steep bank to the railroad bed and hoofed back on the railroad ties, and then waded across the tail of the long pool and up the bank to the car. Amy was reading in the front and Joe was sleeping after their high altitude hike. I told Amy I wanted to check out the river from the high rocks next to the car, so I walked down to my convenient observation point. Sure enough four or five fish were visible warily rising and feeding on something small next to and above the high rock wall. Amy came down to check things out and also saw the rising fish. I clipped off my three fly set up and tied on a CDC BWO and cast from high above the river to a nice sized rainbow that was feeding pretty actively. The wind had picked up and repeatedly blew my cast five feet to the left of my target. Finally I compensated and placed a cast above the fish. I couldn’t really see my tiny fly and it was difficult to control drag from the high casting angle, but on perhaps the sixth or seventh cast with Amy watching and poised with a camera I noticed a rise approximately where my fly would be. I set the hook and nicked the fish as it put a nice bend in the rod tip, but while Amy looked on the fly slipped out of the rainbow’s mouth and came flying back toward me. I stumbled as I protested demonstratively and that probably put down all the other fish. On that note, my fishing adventure on the Arkansas ended for the day and we made the long return trip toDenver.

Of the 16 fish landed I estimate that 10 or 11 were rainbows. This was the second time in recent memory that rainbows outnumbered browns on the Arkansas River.

Time: 1:30AM – 5:00PM

Location: Lunch Rock upstream

Fish Landed: 3

Arkansas River 07/27/2011 Photo Album

I convinced Dan that since the fishing slowed on Chalk Creek we should move to the big river, the Arkansas, and give that a try. We returned all our gear to the Santa Fe, and I drove the half hour or so to the Arkansas River below Salida. I parked at the big rock I refer to as Lunch Rock. We made sure we had our water and sunscreen as there was less cover and we were at lower elevation.

The river was still running fairly high at 1320 cfs when ideal is typically 500 – 700 cfs. The edges were clear and there was usually around five feet of water to fish. Dan and I took turns casting to the likely runs and pockets. Dan continued with the Chernobyl ant, but in spite of some expert casting wasn’t creating any interest. I switched to a yellow Letort hopper because the fly shop reports usually recommend something large and yellow. I landed three 11-12 inch browns over the first hour or two, so I switched Dan to the same fly with a hares ear dropper. I had a beadhead pheasant tail dropper, but most of my action was on the hopper.

The wind did gust from time to time and we were punching casts directly into the wind most of the afternoon. The conditions seemed to support good hopper fishing. We arrived at a large rock that protruded out into the river ten feet or so, so we walked out on the rock and observed the eddy created behind it. We were probably ten feet above the river and we initially spotted a nice rainbow hovering a foot or so below the surface where a myriad of currents met. As we continued to observe, we spotted two more fish further out in the eddy right along the seam of the downstream current where the backflow met. Dan cast for the near rainbow first and in short order the fish darted up and grabbed his fly. Dan set the hook and for a split second felt the weight of a decent fish but it managed to free itself before being introduced to the net.

Next he cast a bit further out and in a flash a fish crashed the hopper. Dan played the fish expertly while I clumsily scrambled around and down the rock to net it. The brown was a nice fat fish, and Dan loved the visual experience of seeing it all develop. We tried to find additional spots to sight fish in this manner, but they didn’t exist at this stage of flows in the area where we were fishing.

Dan's Catch of the Day

We were re-energized and moved up along the bank continuing to cast our hopper/droppers until five PM. I had a couple refusals and missed a decent fish, but our fish catching pretty much ended mid-afternoon, and we suffered through a long dry spell at the end of the day.

Casting Along Arkansas River

Time: 1:00PM – 5:00PM

Location: Lunch Rock upstream

Fish Landed: 9

Arkansas River 07/17/2011 Photo Album

On the way to camping at Alvarado Campground near Westcliffe with Jane I stopped at Royal Gorge Anglers to chat with Taylor Edrington. I asked him where I could fish, and he told me that flows at Grape Creek were 6 cfs, extremely low, and areas were closed due to forest fires. He informed me that the area south of the Arkansas River was actually in a state of drought and was vastly different from northern Colorado which is floating on snow melt. His suggestion was to try edge fishing the Arkansas below Salida. Per Taylor, “don’t even wear your waders and cast within six inches of the bank.”

Jane Enjoying the Ride on Rainbow Trail

Salida was too far to drive from the Alvarado Campground, so I spent Friday setting up camp, mountain biking and hiking the area. On Saturday Jane arrived and we did another mountain bike ride and then a two hour hike and cooked dinner and enjoyed the beauty of the area. On Sunday after packing up camp, we strolled around Westcliffe and explored the shops and had a tasty lunch on the patio at one of the restaurants. After lunch Jane headed back to Denver and I headed to the Salida area to try edge fishing as recommended by Taylor.

I parked at lunch rock just above the Wellsville bridge. It was extremely hot, probably in the mid-90’s so I initially took Taylor’s advice and just wore my shorts and my front pack. I assembled my Sage 4 weight and bounced down the rocks and tied on a yellow Charlie Boy hopper. I worked up the stream for a bit but didn’t have any luck with the Charlie Boy so I switched to the old standby, yellow Letort hopper. I was just hopping from rock to rock and popping the hopper within three feet of the bank, and in short order I picked up two brown trout and photographed them. After landing the first two I failed to hook one, and then I broke off the hopper on a hook set.

First Trout from Arkansas on Sunday

The hopper was producing reasonably well, but I decided to try a Chernobyl ant for more buoyancy as my next fly. This produced a third brown, and then from a position six feet above the water on some rocks I hooked and landed a nice rainbow on the Chernobyl. I had to hoist the fish up to my level and then toss it back down.

This One Was Pretty Long

Next I reached an area where the water fanned out and was fairly slow and shallow, but there were a bunch of willows along the edge. Normally I could have walked out on a rocky gravel bar, but I couldn’t get in good position without my waders so I skipped this area. But the going was getting rough because the vegetation was tight to rapid current, and I found myself scrambling up and down the bank to get around these tough access spots. I decided to go back to the car and put on my waders. I moved the car a bit upstream to where I ended my fishing and put on my waders in the 90 degree heat and returned to the river.

Next some black clouds rolled in, and I heard some thunder so once again I returned to the car and dug out my raincoat and wrapped it around my waist under the waders. Finally I returned to the river ready to fish and started getting into a rhythm. I wasn’t catching fish in every likely sheltered lie along the bank, but frequently enough to keep me enthusiastic and moving along.

At another point I spotted a very nice brown that appeared to be in excess of 15 inches within a foot of a large rock sticking above the surface. I was careful in my approach, but he didn’t respond to the Chernobyl ant. I added a copper john dropper in hopes the big guy might grab something subsurface, but that didn’t work and the brown disappeared.

There Was a Large Trout Off the Point of This Rock I Couldn't Catch

I left the copper john on as a dropper and kept working up along the bank picking up nice browns along the way. My last fish was a beautiful rainbow that grabbed the copper john. The rainbow charged out into the fast water, and I had to work him up and allow him to run several times before landing. After releasing the rainbow I looked at my watch and it was approaching 5PM, and I still had a 3 hour drive ahead of me and unpacking all the camping gear, so I quit for the day.

Time: 9:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Texas Creek area

Fish Landed: 5 trout

Arkansas River 05/05/2011 Photo Album

My obsession with meeting the 2011 Arkansas River caddis hatch drove me to make another Thursday trip to the lower river above Royal Gorge. I reviewed the reports on ArkAnglers and Royal Gorge Anglers. Both indicated the hatch had advanced up the river as far as Coaldale, but the wording led me to believe it wasn’t the all out blizzard hatch that fishermen seek, so I decided to focus on the lower river near Texas Creek.

I got off to an early start again and the day was forecast to be beautiful with temperatures in the low 70’s. This would prove to be accurate with clear blue skies all day and only moderate wind from time to time. I crossed the river at Texas Creek and parked in the fisherman parking area and hiked down the path beyond the abandoned ranch and then descended the bank to the river below the island. I was encouraged to see no competing fishermen even though there was another car in the lot. The flows were up from the previous week and the water was tinged with some murkiness, but still relatively clear.

With the higher flows I decided to go deep with nymphs and rigged up a double nymph set up with a beadhead prince as the top fly and a beadhead emerald caddis pupa on the end. I worked the juicy run below the island from top to bottom and then back up again, but with no success. I thought this was unusual, but moved up the right channel and covered all the likely spots. In this stretch I had several one to two second hookups, so I was at least beginning to attract some attention.

First Trout on Thursday

I dropped back to the downstream tip of the island and worked my way up along the south bank of the island. When I reached the nice pockets toward the top of the island I finally hooked and landed my first trout of the day on the emerald caddis. Somewhere during this time I tore off both the flies, so I reconfigured with another prince nymph and a bright green caddis pupa this time. I moved above the island to a nice stretch of long riffles over a rocky bottom with moderate depth. In this area I experienced several more 1 -2 second hookups. At 11:30 I exited the river and hiked back to the car for lunch. I’d landed one fish, but had at least four or five opportunities that I failed to convert.

I grabbed my lunch bag and skipped over the fence at the bridge and sat on the beach below the bridge to eat while observing the water. I spotted very occasional caddis flitting about, but no fish or rising activity. After lunch I returned to the parking lot by way of the old cabin and shook some willow branches along the way. Hardly any caddis erupted from the branches as would normally be the case if the heavy hatch had advanced to this point.

Starting Point after Lunch

I stashed my lunch back in the car and grabbed my rod and gear and decided to hike down the path as far as I could go. This led me to a sweet spot where some large vertical rocks blocked further progress without climbing to the railroad tracks which were blocked by a barbed wire fence. I climbed out on a large rock that served as a small pier at the end of a pool formed where the river angled in toward the north bank. I drifted my nymphs through this area, and while doing so another fisherman arrived and positioned 30 yards above me beyond the nice pool.

I did notice several BWO’s floating on the surface in the deep pool, but had no action so I exited and climbed up the hill and skirted the other fishermen and went 50 yards up the river before cutting back to the bank to resume my quest for trout. I fished some shallow runs behind rocks and then decided to switch the flies again. I moved the caddis pupa to the top fly, returned the prince to my foam pocket, and added a RS2 to the end of the leader. With this combination I continued fishing up along the right (north) bank. The next hour or so from 1-2PM resulted in my most consistent fishing of the day as I landed four browns on the RS2. Two of the fish were a bit larger than what I’d been catching over the last two outings. I also was frustrated to experience two or three additional quick releases.

Fish Landed in Afternoon on RS2

When I reached the bottom of the island where I’d begun in the morning, I noticed several fishermen working around the island. The sky was bright blue and it had warmed up to the low seventies. I was seeing no caddis hatching activity or BWO’s for that matter, so I decided to head back to the car and drive back toward Royal Gorge and test the waters below Spike Buck where I’d had a 17 fish day several weeks ago. This was along the way on my return to Denver and also closer to Canon City where caddis were supposedly hatching for several weeks.

Blossom Next to Texas Creek Parking Lot

I parked the car in a small pullout and dropped down to the river and worked the nymphs up along the left bank for 20 yards with no success. Once again when I shook the shrubs and branches I saw no evidence that a heavy hatch had occurred. When I reached the area where the river widens a bit and creates some nice shallower eddies and pools, I clipped off the nymphs and tied on a bushy size 14 caddis. I thought I’d prospect with it a bit in the shallower areas and perhaps interest some fish. It was a nice thought, but didn’t work so I quit fishing at 3:30 and returned to Denver.

Time: 9:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Braided area above Pinnacle Rock

Fish Landed: 5

Arkansas River 04/28/2011 Photo Album

With the return of cool weather I knew the caddis hatch continued to stall in Canon City in spite of optimistic reports coming out of Royal Gorge Anglers. But based on my decent outing the previous Thursday, I felt I could catch my share of fish even without a blizzard hatch. Temperatures in Canon City were forecast to reach 72, so I felt it would be a nice day with a small chance of the big hatch kicking in.

I decided to park at the braided area I’d fished when Jane accompanied me two trips ago. There was another car parked in the pullout, but I didn’t see fishermen. Once I’d rigged my rod, I walked down the highway a bit to check out the very small braid that runs next to the highway. Some beavers built a dam at the bottom just before it rejoins the main river. I crossed below the dam and put on a caddis dry fly and flicked some casts into the pool created by the beaver dam, but I couldn’t see signs of any fish in the clear water. I walked to the small run at the top of the pool and made a couple casts there.

Next I waded across the tail of the main braid next to the highway and went up along the right bank next to a beautiful run and pool. I cast the caddis in some attractive areas of moderate depth, but again no fish. I decided I’d like to try the north channel, my favorite, while it was devoid of other fishermen and while I had the caddis on my line. I crossed over the next channel and then followed the bank to where the north channel met the main stem and made some casts in the first tail and pool. Nothing was developing, so I clipped off the caddis and tied on a yellow Charlie Boy hopper and dropped a beadhead prince and then a beadhead emerald caddis pupa.

North Braid Above Pinnacle Rock

I landed a fish on the prince, but then hooked up on a pair of fish that seemed pretty nice, but they freed themselves rather quickly. Something felt odd about these fish, so I finally brought my flies to hand and inspected them. I quickly found the answer. I’d tied the last fly on backwards. The tippet was tied to the bend of the hook with the eye facing forward. I had used the caddis pupa as the top fly on the last trip with an RS2 beneath, and returned the pupa to my foam pocket with the leader attached. I forgot to clip of the pupa and tie it back on in the correct manner. I reversed the direction of the fly and continued fishing the three fly combination up the north channel for the remainder of the morning. I landed three more small browns while covering quite a bit of normally very productive water. Three of the fish grabbed the prince nymph and one nailed the emerald caddis pupa.

At noon I waded back across the intervening channels and returned to the car for lunch. After lunch I wanted to resume on the north channel from where I’d ended the morning, but when I approached the stream I spotted another fisherman who had worked his way up behind me. I reversed direction and went back to the main channel by the highway and worked my way up along the right (north) bank probing all the likely pockets and runs with the three fly combination. I managed to catch a small brown in a juicy run at the head of a nice long pool on the emerald caddis, but the rest of the nice water that normally produces fish, yielded nothing. The sky remained pure blue with hardly any clouds and it warmed to the low 70’s. There was no evidence of caddis or BWO’s. I walked back down to where I’d ended the morning, and the other fisherman had disappeared, so I worked up the north channel to the top where it spilled away from the main channel. I couldn’t even get a refusal.

A View of Arkansas River Through Cactus

It was now 2:30 and I had lost confidence and decided that a change of scenery was in order. I remembered a trip two years ago when I fished up the small Texas Creek tributary and caught some nice fish relative to the size of the stream, so I decided to explore it again. I made a left turn and drove .2 miles to the first pullout and parked. I hiked along the road for a ways until I saw a place where the fence was down. I scrambled down the bank and over the fence and through the willows to the small stream that was low and only five feet wide at most places. I tied on a Chernobyl ant and trailed a prince nymph and began flicking the flies into all locations of enough depth to hold fish.

The next hour and half held amazement and frustration. I had several momentary hookups and numerous refusals on the Chernobyl Ant. My amazement stemmed from the quantity of wakes and darting fish that I spooked in the low clear water. I was unable to land a single fish although I spotted at least 30 fish in a short stretch of Texas Creek.

At 4PM I’d experienced enough frustration and called it a day.

Time: 9:30AM – 4:30PM

Location: Below Spike Buck

Fish Landed: 17

Arkansas River 04/21/2011 Photo Album

I was pretty well caught up at work, and the weather forecast for Thursday was high of around 72 degrees for Canon City. It was supposed to turn cooler for the weekend, so I decided to make another trip to the Arkansas River. Royal Gorge Angler reported caddis hatching in Canon City, so I felt there was a remote chance that I’d catch the hatch between Parkdale and Texas Creek, but if not, I knew from the previous trip that the flows were ideal, and I could probably have some luck working the water with nymphs.

I packed the night before and left the house at 6:40. It looked like rain in Denver, and I encountered dense fog as I drove south between Castle Rock and Monument. But the fog cleared and the sun broke through just north of Colorado Springs. I arrived at my chosen destination at around 9:15 and was on the river by 9:30AM. I parked in a small pullout .5 mile downstream from the Spike Buck access area.

I began fishing with a royal stimulator trailing an emerald caddis pupa. I wasn’t getting any action on the stimulator, but twice as I worked along the left bank, I experienced momentary hookups as I lifted the flies to make another cast. I was having great difficulty following the stimulator as it was too small to support the beadhead pupa, so I switched the top fly to a bright yellow Charlie Boy hopper. This was much more visible, and I landed three brown trout on the emerald caddis pupa before breaking for lunch at 11:30.

Brown Trout Landed Early in the Day

After lunch it was partly cloudy, and it seemed that every time the sky clouded over, the wind would pick up. I removed a layer, and overall it was quite pleasant for fishing. The water I was fishing was mostly nice pockets, and small runs within 15 feet of the bank. When I reached one point where there was a deeper run, I tried the strike indicator nymphing technique with a prince nymph and emerald caddis pupa, but this didn’t produce and I lost two sets of flies.

Typical Brown from Afternoon Fishing

I switched back to the yellow Charlie Boy with an emerald caddis and a beadhead RS2 below that. I spotted caddis dancing on the water very sporadically as well as an occasional BWO. I was landing fish at a fairly regular pace. It wasn’t fast and furious, but enough to hold my interest. I was moving from pocket to pocket at a fairly rapid pace and making a lot of casts.

Charlie Boy Hopper with One Leg

Low Clear Flows below Spike Buck Access

At one point the Charlie Boy hopper lost its entire wing, so I was fishing with a yellow foam strike indicator with legs. I clipped it off and replaced with a Chernobyl ant but retained the emerald caddis and RS2. I caught one trout on the Chernobyl ant. Toward the very end of the day, the number of caddis skittering on the water became more abundant, so I clipped off the Chernobyl and droppers and tied on a gray body caddis. I caught my last two trout on the caddis dry.

Time: 10:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Braids above Pinnacle Rock and Texas Creek

Fish Landed: 8

Arkansas River 04/16/2011 Photo Album

Jane agreed to travel along to the Arkansas River above Canon City and Royal Gorge on Saturday, April 16, 2011. We packed lunches, loaded the Santa Fe and got off to a nice early start. We stopped at Royal Gorge Anglers and I bought some tippet and leader and spoke briefly with Taylor Edrington, the agent I used for my Alaska trip. Taylor showed me a Beulah 5 weight rod and recommends that I purchase a similar 6 weight for Alaska. I told Taylor I’d be back on another trip to discuss a rod, reel and line purchase.

When we descended the hill to the river at Parkdale, I could see that the flows were at a nice low level and clear. We drove along Big Horn Sheep Canyon to a pullout across from the multiple braids above Pinnacle Rock. I noticed the northern most channel was vacant, so I left Jane with the car, and waded across two channels below a pair of fishermen and headed for the north braid. One of the two fisherman fishing the nice run and pool along the highway, apparently saw me heading for the north braid, and made a dash toward that area as well. The fisherman would later become known as nemesis.

Arkansas Brown Takes Beadhead Emerald Caddis Pupa

I began fishing at the bottom of the braid where it meets the main stem of the river with a tan Charlie Boy Hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear. In short order I landed a small brown on the Charlie Boy hopper and then another small brown on the BHHE. As I worked upstream over some attractive water, the response to my flies ended so I switched the BHHE out for an emerald caddis pupa. Eventually when this also failed to produce, I switched to a nymphing set up with a strike indicator, split shot and beadhead prince on top with the emerald caddis pupa on the point.

Looking Back at Shack and Bridge

In an area with nice moderate depth of 3-4 feet and many subsurface rocks I landed two browns on the emerald caddis. At this point I was restricted from moving further upstream as nemesis was standing in a nice long pool spraying casts in 180 degrees. I retreated back to the main river above the confluence with the north channel. In this stretch I landed a brown on the prince nymph and had another hooked that escaped.

Deserted Ranch

I hustled back to the pullout to meet Jane as we’d agreed to meet at noon. Jane had driven down route 50 to a nearby river access point to get off the highway more and find some sunshine away from the canyon walls. We decided to drive west to Texas Creek and crossed the bridge and parked in the fisherman parking lot and ate our lunches shielded from the wind by the car. After lunch Jane hiked along the fisherman path with me beyond the abandoned ranch to a point where I dropped down the bank to the tail of an island. I love the deep run below the island but two fishermen were already there. They must have arrived while we parked and ate lunch since they weren’t there when we drove by on the highway. Guess who was now fishing the delicious run below the island? Nemesis was back.

Crumbling Corrall

I ignored the irritation and fished up the north side of the island and landed two browns; one on the prince and one on the emerald caddis. When I reached the top of the island, I dropped down 1/3 of the way along the south side of the island and fished back up to the top. Jane had set up her chair along the shore at the top of the island sheltered from the wind and snapped a few photos of me.

Dave Fishes North Side of Island

Dave Wades Around Rocks

Nice Chunky Fish in Afternoon

I continued along the right bank facing up the river and switched to a Chernobyl ant with the emerald caddis as a dropper. I landed one more trout on the emerald caddis between the island and the bridge. It was quite windy the entire time, and was a relief to quit and get out of the constant blow.

Time: 9:30AM – 5:00PM

Location: Between Salida and Wellsville then Wilderness Aware Rafting

Fish Landed: 8

Arkansas River 10/15/2010 Photo Album

With high temperatures forecast to spike to 80 degrees on Friday, I decided to make a trek to the Arkansas River below Salida. The reports suggested that the browns were beginning to spawn, and the BWO hatch had pretty much waned, but I decided to give it a shot. Perhaps I could still tempt some fish with BWO nymphs, and I’d caught increasing numbers of rainbows on recent trips, so maybe they would provide interest if the browns were busy spawning.

I left Denver at 6:30AM and beat the morning traffic and arrived at my chosen beginning point and was ready to fish at around 9:45AM. It was still chilly, so I wore my light fleece over my fishing shirt. I’d discovered a nice hidden path as I exited the river on one of my  trips earlier in the season, so I chose to park at the top of this path. The location is three miles east of Salida just beyond the Arkansas Recreation access spot below the stockyard bridge.

I began with a hares ear nymph (no beadhead) and a beadhead pheasant tail with a strike indicator and split shot. I began working the nice riffles and deeper runs as I fished my way up along the left bank. Much to my surprise, a nice rainbow hammered the beadhead pheasant tail after I’d fished for 15 minutes or so. I landed the rainbow and photographed it and released. Within the next 15 minutes I landed a nice brown trout that was somewhat larger than the rainbow. This brown snatched the hares ear in a fairly shallow riffle as it tumbled back toward me. Two nice fish in the first half hour created some optimistic expectations.

First Trout on Arkansas, a Rainbow

I continued fishing in this manner and landed another nice rainbow on the beadhead pheasant tail before breaking for lunch. The rainbow was larger than the first one and probably the same size as the brown. I reached the point where the path ended at 11:30, so decided to utilize it and return to the car. I’d had some success several years ago around this time of year at a bend in the river above the stockyard bridge, so I threw my gear in the car and drove back up the river toward Salida to the stockyard bridge and ate my lunch there along the side of the river.

Fall Foliage

After lunch I took the path down to the river and then went under the bridge and up along the north side of the river to the bend. I slid down a steep bank, and when I looked up the river to the spot I had in mind, there was another fisherman and his two dogs. It was the only other fisherman I saw on the river the entire day, and he was positioned where I wanted to fish! I retreated and fished above and below the bridge a bit, but had no success, so I decided to move back down the river to a point below where I’d begun but upstream from the Fremont-Chafee County border that I fish frequently.

I Love These Cottonwoods

I went down the path at the location described and began fishing up the south (left) bank. I wasn’t having any success, but as I approached a long deep pool I noticed a man walking along the shore above me. As he got closer, he asked how I was doing, and I told him I’d caught three in the morning, but it was slow since then. Just when he’d gone below me I cast to a relatively shallow riffle at the tail of the deep pool and hooked up with a medium sized brown. I looked back at the stranger, and he gave me a thumbs up.

I moved on beyond the large pool, and as it was now early afternoon, and the air temperature was quite pleasant, I decided to switch to a parachute hopper and a beadhead hares ear. I tied this combination on and began prospecting the pockets and riffles on my side of the river. I had some occasional refusals on the parachute hopper, but by 3PM I’d landed two additional small brown trout on the trailing beadhead hares ear on a 2.5 foot dropper.

By 3PM I’d covered the new water and covered for a second time the water I’d fished in the morning. The sky was bright blue and the sun was high in the sky and warm. I debated calling it a day, but then thought about trying the river further upstream closer to Buena Vista. I needed to drive that way to return home anyway. I put all my things in the car and drove to the spot where 285/24 crosses the Arkansas River. I parked at the Wilderness Aware Rafting parking lot and headed down a road used to launch rafts in the summer time.

Teased Out Grass Seed Head

Towards the end of my fishing below Salida, I’d switched the parachute hopper for a
Chernobyl ant, and this remained on my line at the new location. In the first pool, a brown darted up from the lip of the pool and smashed the Chernobyl, but immediately fell off. Next a rainbow jumped on the Chernobyl, but it too released itself. As I moved upstream I began getting refusals to the Chernobyl, and the fish showed no interest in the nymph whatsoever. I’d read that attractors with some red color were working on top, so I clipped off the two flies and tied on a royal stimulator. This fly produced two hook ups in the remaining time on the water. I fished this stretch from 4-5PM. At five I was pretty weary and the fishing action had subsided so I hiked back down the irrigation ditch that paralleled the river and began the drive back to Denver.

Time: 10:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Chafee-Fremont County boundary

Fish Landed: 10

Arkansas River 09/09/2010 Photo Album

With the Labor Day weekend behind me, and the fantasy football draft history, I was feeling the itch to explore some Colorado streams again. It was September 9 and the nights had grown perceptibly cooler. I checked the reports and decided to give the Arkansas River a try. Historically I’ve experienced some great September fishing on the Arkansas.

Rabbitbrush in Bloom

I arrived at the river and parked at the wide pullout just beyond the Chafee-Fremont county border sign, and I was ready to fish by around 10:30AM. I crossed the river (380 cfs) at the tail of the long pool beneath the pullout, and then hiked down the railroad tracks on the north side of the river to my traditional beginning point below a small island. I tied on a size 12 parahopper with a gray body and added a beadhead hares ear (BHHE) 2.5 feet below the hopper. I began prospecting a nice run and within 10 minutes landed a small rainbow on the trailing BHHE. I kept moving up the river a few feet at a time and cast the double presentation upstream. Around half way up to the island, the hopper dipped and I set the hook and played a feisty fat thirteen inch rainbow to my net.

Chunky Rainbow

Next I began working the right side of the island. This has traditionally been my favorite stretch of the Arkansas River. The right channel has several cascading small pools at the end before merging with the main channel, then a smooth pool that is fed by a deep run down the middle, then another series of small pools before reaching the top of the island. I began by probing the small pools at the bottom and spotted a couple fish flash toward the hopper but then drop back to a position on the bottom. I covered the three or four pools but then noticed a small one along the north bank tucked behind a tumbleweed that had become lodged against a protruding boulder. The pocket was only five feet long at most. I looped a cast around the tumbleweed into the short pocket and noticed two fish move toward my flies. I set the hook and was surprised to be attached to a beautiful 15 inch brown. The brown bolted downstream a bit then came up behind me before finally succumbing to my pressure and splashing into the net.

Tumbleweed Brown

Next I worked the smooth pool area and again noticed a refusal or two to the parahopper. When I moved up higher in the pool and cast to the center current, a brown grabbed the BHHE and I landed another fish. Next I encountered a nice little wide but short pool with several protruding boulders that the deeper current swirled around. Initially I worked this pool and experienced a refusal, but then I created a tangle. Amazingly after I rested the water while I untangled my line, and then began casting again, the fish turned on to my BHHE. I was casting a very short line and holding my rod high with only the flies and leader touching the water. Using this technique I extracted four brown trout from the small pool in a half hour. The fish were decent size averaging around 12-13 inches and fat and chunky. Perhaps this was going to be one of those days.

Pool on Right Channel

Toward the top of the right channel I had several refusals to the hopper in very shallow water. I could see these were decent sized browns lurking in very shallow lies. I’d now exhausted the opportunities in the right channel, so I crossed over the river to a nice spot that is only fishable late in the season when the flows are down. The river cuts against a large vertical rock, and there are nice riffles above the rock and then a nice smooth run with some depth along the rock. I had two momentary hook ups in this area, and then decided to follow a path up along the large rock to the road and return to the minivan for lunch.

Path to River Along Large Rock

After lunch I returned to the same spot and waded back to the north side of the river. In some fairly shallow riffles along the bank where the river begins to divide around the island, after making some fairly long upstream casts, I flipped the flies into some very shallow water. As I watched with little expectation, a beautiful rainbow finned up and slurped in the hopper. This proved to be a hot fish that made numerous charges out toward the middle of the river before being subdued and cradled in my net. My expectations for the remainder of the day were now sky high.

I methodically worked my way up along the right bank and prospected all the likely pockets, pools, slots and slack areas for the next three hours. Elation transformed into frustration. I observed numerous refusals, but the fish no longer showed any interest in the beadhead nymph. I tried to analyze why fish were attracted to the parahopper but wouldn’t take it, and began switching out the top fly. I tried a yellow Letort hopper, a smaller parahopper, a small stimulator with a green body, and a royal stimulator. I also began switching the trailing nymph and eventually settled on a beadhead pheasant tail. Finally perhaps around 3PM in a short deep pocket a fish aggressively hammered the BHPT and shot toward the heavier river current. I fought this fish and eventually landed a fat 14-15 inch rainbow. That was my tenth fish and only second of the afternoon. By 4PM I was bored by the lack of action and decided to quit for the day.

I was encouraged by the number of fish I saw during the day. I believe some fantastic fishing on the Arkansas River lies ahead as the temperatures cool a bit and the fall BWO hatch develops. I was amazed at the number of large fish I spooked from extremely shallow lies along the bank. I generally fish the edges more than most fishermen, but this was water that even I wrote off as not containing fish. Visualizing these large fish sipping BWO’s in shallow lies along the edge during cool fall days gets the juices flowing.

Time: 4:00PM – 7:30PM

Location: Wide pullout next to large rock formation along highway 50 downstream from Salida

Fish Landed: 2

Arkansas River 07/16/2010 Photo Album

I drove to route 50 and turned right at Poncha Springs and headed west then turned off and drove the remaining six miles to Angel of Shavano. There were three remaining open campsites, so I quickly paid for and secured site 17. We’ve used 17 numerous times and like the shallow wide trough between two natural berms where we set up our tent. It was extremely hot as I set up the Eureka tent and attempted to stash the cooler and food bins in shade away from the direct sun. I wanted to leave the food at the campsite in case Jane arrived from Denver before I returned from fishing.

I was off and driving to the Arkansas River by around 3PM and on the water by 4PM. I chose some water east of Salida where there is some nice pocket water on the highway side of the river. I figured with the heat, the fish would be attracted to the oxygenated pocket water, and the flows at 775 cfs were too high for crossing to the opposite bank. I initially tied on a yellow Letort hopper and beadhead hares ear, the standard default beginning fly choice. I managed to land one small brown on the BHHE as I worked the pockets along the bank, but I was doing a lot of casting with minimal results. It was absolutely sweltering, and I was perspiring as I waded through the shallow water and climbed the rocks along the bank.

At one spot as I was passing a large boulder along the bank, I noticed quite a few caddis fluttering away when I leaned on the rock. I looked closely and there were many caddis tucked in the crevices and cracks on the rock. I pinched one and observed a dark olive/brown body.

I continued on and clipped off the hopper/dropper combination and tied on a lime green trude. This produced a second small brown in one of the more attractive riffle stretches, but that was it. I also tried an olive deer hair caddis, but that didn’t seem to interest the fish anymore than the previous offerings. I had now lost confidence in my ability to catch fish and the heat was really sapping my energy, so I hiked further upstream through an area that I’d never fished before. I was searching for an exit path up the steep bank between the river and highway that was covered with dense vegetation. Eventually I found what I was looking for and a nice path led me on a gradual angle up the bank and terminated by a pullout next to highway 50. I filed this location for future reference.