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.

Time: 1:30PM – 4:00PM

Location: Stone Bridge

Fish Landed: 5

According to the DWR site, the flows on the Arkansas River near Salida were down to 775 cfs. From past experience, this is decent for edge fishing, and the fishing reports from the fly shops were touting this very approach. I had to meet the house inspector for our new house at 8AM, but hoped to be on my way by 9AM. I had the minivan packed with all my fishing stuff plus my suitcase for a weekend in Eagle, CO with our friends, the Gaboury’s.

As I drove southwest on US 285, I could see heavy cloud cover, and when I stopped for gas in Aspen Park it was quite chilly. This was the story of the day. I passed through a stretch between Kenosha Pass and Fairpay where there was 2-3 inches of snow on the road, and then passed through several thunderstorms before arriving at the Stone Bridge parking area at around 1PM. There was no precipitation at the time of arrival but nasty looking clouds were approaching from the west. I ate my lunch in the car, then put on my waders and rigged my rod.

I used the steps to go over the fence, then slid down the bank and went under the 291 bridge and up the left bank a bit. It was quite cloudy and chilly and I wore my fleece plus raincoat. I tied on a yellow Letort hopper and trailed a beadhead hares ear. This didn’t produce, so I switched out the BHHE for a beadhead pheasant tail. I worked up the left bank for the next couple hours and fished the likely pockets and slow areas behind rocks. I managed to land five small brown trout on the BHPT. Part way through the afternoon, it thundered and I saw lightning, and it rained fairly steadily. I fished beyond the raft launch area at the Stone Bridge access area, but never really got in a good groove. At 4PM I hiked back to the car and stashed everything to dry out while I drove to Eagle, CO to visit the Gaboury’s.

Time: 10:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: Below Salida at Fremont – Chafee county line

Fish Landed: 13

Arkansas River 05/14/2010 Photo Album

The online fishing reports stated that the Arkansas River remained low and clear with decent BWO hatches on cloudy days and some spurts of caddis hatching activity. To be able to fish on May 14 in Colorado in clear rivers is bonus time. I decided to make the trek to the Salida area. The one foreboding piece of information was the threat of heavy afternoon showers similar to that experienced the last three days.

As I drove the US285 route and ascended to Aspen Park I noticed approximately three inches of fresh snow on the hillsides. This continued all the way until half way across South Park where it diminished to an inch or less, and by the time I descended to the Arkansas River drainage, there was no snow on the ground. When I crossed the river for the first time below Buena Vista the river was indeed low and clear.

The sky on the other hand was gray with high cloud cover. Occasionally specks of blue appeared, but it was very overcast. Would this promote good fishing or simply keep air and water temperatures too low?

I planned to park at the same location as I’d used on my previous trip and fish upriver from where I’d ended. But when I made the U turn on US50, another fisherman was stringing his rod and preparing to fish. I drove back toward Salida and stopped at the next pullout. Since I hoped to eat lunch at noon, I decided to not cross the river and fish up along the roadside bank. I began with a nymph set up…prince on top and bright green caddis pupa on the bottom. I wasn’t seeing many caddis flitting about, but figured they were so plentiful that fish would still grab them. This strategy however proved to be fruitless. After covering some juicy water with no action, I tied on a yellow Letort hopper and trailed a beadhead prince. Again there was no action. Next I tried a caddis dry fly. This brought two refusals and a momentary hookup, but it wasn’t producing the way I expected. Next I arrived at a nice deep eddy that fanned out into a nice deep run and spotted several rises. I looked closely at the water and spotted some small BWO’s riding the current like tiny sailboats. I switched to a CDC BWO and covered the fish in the eddy for around 15 minutes, but could not entice any action.

It was now around noon, and I was at a decision point. Should I break for lunch and possibly miss a BWO hatch or continue fishing? I had left my Camelback in the car anticipating a return in 1.5 hours. I chose to return to the car. As usual I ate my lunch overlooking the river and spotted numerous rises on the far side from the eddy I’d been fishing. After finishing lunch I retrieved my rod and fishing gear and returned to where I ate and surveyed the river for a crossing point. The current appeared to be too swift directly across from my position, but there was a deep slow pool that fanned out to a wider tail upstream a bit. I walked up along the bank for 70 yards and began my crossing. When I was 2/3 of the way across, the river was covering the bottom of my front pack, and I realized I wasn’t going to make it. I did a 180 and had a few steps where only my tip toes were touching due to my increased buoyancy and the depth of the river. I had to thrust my right arm below the surface of the river nearly up to my elbow in order for my short handmade wading staff to touch bottom.

Having evaded this wading danger, I returned to shore and decided to drive back down to the Fremont-Chafee pullout and cross at the tail of that pool. I had done this several times during my previous visit and I really wanted to get to the rising fish across from where I ate lunch! The fisherman who I’d seen earlier had now departed, so I had the entire pullout to myself. Despite my fleece cardigan, I was still feeling chilled as the wind blew from the east and the sky darkened, so I put on my new Columbia raincoat that Jane gave me for Christmas. This would prove to be a crucial positive move.

I waded across the tail of the long pool without incident and hiked the railroad tracks on the north bank for two football fields until I came to the area I targeted. In the short time after I left my spot, a pickup truck had arrived and two fishermen were rigging up to fish. When I got close to the water I observed and noticed BWO’s on the surface but also some caddis. I decided the fish were going for the BWO’s and kept my CDC BWO on the line and began casting. It was quite difficult to see the tiny fly and the wind had picked up and threw off my accuracy. Windblown casts and not being able to spot your fly are difficult to overcome. Meanwhile the two fishermen arrived across from me, and the taller of the two caught a trout on the first cast. I’d been fishing for almost two hours and had yet to land a fish. After perhaps 20 casts in the area of rising fish, I hooked and landed a chunky rainbow on a downstream drift. The rainbow grabbed the BWO just as it started to drag.

After releasing the fish, I paused to dry my fly and observed the water. I could see emerging caddis skittering across the water and several of the rises looked like fish moved laterally, so I guessed that some of the fish were on to the caddis. I switched to a dark olive deer hair caddis and in short order landed a couple fish. I continued working the nice area and landed five trout in total. The productive area was around thirty yards long and 15 yards wide and consisted of three or four wide runs that fanned out beneath rocks that poked above the water. There were probably 20 fish rising in this area with average depth of 3-4 feet. I occasionally observed the fishermen across from me, and they weren’t catching fish. They were spending more time changing flies.

When I reached the top of the sweet area, an inflated river raft came down along the bank and got hung up on some rocks 15 feet above where I was fishing. The gentleman rowing gave me a gruff  “sorry about that” apology. I replied, “If you tried to ruin my fishing, you couldn’t have done a better job.”

I walked up along the bank to a point that I guessed was above where the raft had floated. It was now around 2PM and the sky darkened more and the wind picked up and it began to rain. I already had my raincoat on, so I simply pulled up the hood to cover my stocking cap. I looked down the river and the fishermen across the way had disappeared. I was just below a narrower fan run and spotted three separate rises. I cast the caddis to the lower fish first and then the upper plus a couple prospecting casts and land four trout from this small area! I continued working my way up along the bank. The fishable water was smaller here as the riverbed was narrow with swifter current not very far out from my position. The rain picked up as I worked my way upstream along the bank and landed another four trout. The twelfth fish I landed was a beautiful chunky rainbow. I was facing downstream as I played, landed and released the fish and just as I turned around a raft drifted by (further out than the previous one), and the oarsman said “nice fish”.

Finally at around 3PM I got to some nice looking water, and the rain was coming down harder than it had up until that time. But the hatch had died back, and I no longer saw steady risers working consistently. My hands were raw and chilled from the evaporating water, so I decided to make the long hike back to the car. I now had about 2.5 football field lengths to cover and another river crossing. As I hiked back, the two gentlemen on the opposite bank were still at it, wearing raincoats now. Apparently they missed some of the best fishing while they returned to the truck to get their rain gear.

Time: 10:00AM – 4:30PM

Location: Texas Creek and braided area above Pinnacle Rock

Fish Landed: 13

Arkansas River 04/28/2010 Photo Album

Reports on the Arkansas River looked promising as the low level snow melt was over and water clarity improved. Wednesday’s high was supposed to be mid-70’s, and then four days of cool and possibly damp weather after Wednesday convinced me to make the trip.

I arrived at the Arkansas River above Pinnacle Rock and began fishing at around 10AM. The sun was out and the sky was blue but wind was an issue. I hiked up the road and spotted two fishermen in a spot where the braids merged. I went further up the highway and then dropped to the river and crossed two channels and cut through the willows to a spot on the north braid. I was only 20 yards or so above the other fishermen, but they couldn’t see me.

I tied on a Chernobyl ant and dangled a bright green caddis pupa, but this wasn’t drawing any interest. I switched out the Chernobyl for a yellow Letort hopper on top, and still no interest. There were thousands of caddis on the willows along the stream, and they occasionally fluttered and dipped on the water. It was obvious that the caddis had already emerged in this stretch.

I decided to go deep with a split shot and strike indicator so I could generate more movement on the flies subsurface. I tied on a beadhead prince nymph as the top fly and added a beadhead bright green caddis pupa on the point. This proved to be the ticket and five browns grabbed the prince as I prospected up the north braid. After covering a small amount of water, the two fishermen rounded the corner and asked if I planned to fish upstream. I nodded emphatically, and then they asked where I’d begun. I informed them, and they jumped in below my starting point.

I continued quite a bit upstream and near the point where I stopped for lunch, had a sharp strike on the first cast into a nice little pocket above a split in the current. I set the hook and the line flew back to a bush. When I retrieved the line, I realized I’d snapped off the fly in the fish’s mouth.

I hiked back to the car and decided to drive upstream to Texas Creek to hopefully get to a point where the caddis were about to emerge. I parked in the lot across the bridge and immediately scrambled to the river and shook some willows. Very few caddis flitted from the branches.

I ate my lunch then hiked down the bank along the river further than I’d ever gone before to some nice water where the river widened out. I stayed with the nymphing set up but went back to the bright green caddis and a gray wet fly. I was assuming I was fishing water where the trout would be focused on emerging caddis. I got snagged several times and ripped off quite a few flies before finally catching a decent brown on the bright green caddis pupa. During this time, the wind began to gust so strong that I turned my back and held my hat in place. The sky clouded up for periods and the caddis on the willows began to swarm and dap the surface. Apparently I was wrong, and the caddis had already emerged in this stretch as well. I decided to go back to the prince nymph, and this proved to be a great decision. During the afternoon I picked up another eight brown trout, several quite nice in the 13-14 inch range.

The fish were in the deeper pockets and runs just off faster currents. When I reached the island near the confluence with Texas Creek, I fished along the south side of the island to the top of the island. There was another fisherman at the top so I circled back to the bottom and fished up the right channel. The same fisherman was at the top of the run waving at me as I approached. I finally figured out that he was telling me in sign language that his hat had blown off and was floating down the river toward me. I scanned the water but didn’t see anything.

It was now around 4:30, so I decided to call it a day and head home.

Time: 10:00AM – 2:00PM

Location: Braided area above Pinnacle Rock

Fish Landed: 0

Arkansas River 03/31/2010 Photo Album

I caught up on all my work at Saddleback and another nice spring day was forecast with high’s in the low 70’s. I was able to get an early start on Wednesday, so I read the report on the Arkansas River. It sounded encouraging with the potential of a BWO hatch, so I decided to make the trip. I stopped at the Royal Gorge Angler and purchased four golden stonefly nymphs recommended by Bill Edrington, the owner. Bill said the golden stoneflies were molting and fish were taking them at the top of pools. He advised to switch to bright green caddis pupa and BWO nymphs in the afternoon. He also cautioned that the river had quite a bit of discoloration. This should have been a red flag.

I drove to the area above Pinnacle Rock where the river splits into four channels. Quite a bit of discoloration was an understatement. The river was the color of dark olive split pea soup. Visibility was 6 inches at best in the riffles and along the edges. I rigged up and tied on the chenille rubber leg stonefly nymph I purchased and trailed a beadhead hares ear and began working the top of runs with a strike indicator. I did this for an hour and a half in some nice juicy deep runs to no avail.

I walked back to the car to eat my lunch, but decided to drive to Texas Creek and check out the water on the smaller tributary. Texas Creek was raging and murky, so I returned back to the braided stretch and ate my lunch. After lunch I waded across two channels to get to the nice northern most run which historically is one of my favorites. The water was discolored, but not high, so I switched to a yellow Letort hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear and beadhead RS2. This produced nothing in some nice riffle stretches that normally hold fish.

When I got to a third nice stretch of water, I replaced the flies with a glass bead caddis nymph followed by an emerald caddis larva fly. I finally managed to hookup with a small brown, but as I set the hook and lifted, the fish turned its head and got off the hook. I worked my way upstream some more hoping to see a BWO hatch. When I reached a point where the streambead narrowed and the water wasn’t as enticing, I decided to walk back to the bottom of the north braid and rest on a log and observe the water in hopes of a BWO emergence. I lied down on the ground with my head propped up on a log and dozed off. I woke up and discovered I’d taken a 45 minute nap and it was 2:45. I decided I’d had enough fun and returned to Denver.

Time: 10:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Braids above Pinnacle Rock

Arkansas River 04/14/2009 Photo Album

I took advantage of forecast nice weather and shifted my non-working day from Friday to Tuesday and drove to the Arkansas River. Temperatures were forecast to be in the 60’s and sunny. This proved to be 50% correct.

I pulled into the pullout above Pinnacle Rock and below the braids. There was a pickup truck there already, but the fisherman was next to the pullout, and I wanted to fish up the river. I put on my new waders and wading boots. I discovered the neck strap that enables me to wear just my front pack without the backpack was missing from my bag, so I had to wear the frontpack and backpack. I also discovered that my new waders were so tight around my chest that I couldn’t stash my camera and case behind them as I did previously with my old waders. But I persisted.

[peg-image src=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-LnkhIINX4qg/VGGPNZGnRRI/AAAAAAABCR4/mBkwTIQonPQ4Vjpn-r3f9qH91poBYVv3ACHM/s144-o/P4140001.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/04152009ArkansasRiver?locked=true#6080298432166577426″ caption=”Starting Point on Arkansas” type=”image” alt=”P4140001.JPG” image_size=”2048×1536″ ]

I began fishing up the left channel right next to the highway and prospected with a yellow Letort hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear. Fairly quickly, a 10 inch brown rose and inhaled the hopper, and I photographed the first trout of 2009. I continued working up the left bank and caught three browns on the hares ear and another on the hopper. One came from the very narrow 8-10 foot wide channel section along the highway. When I got to the deep pool above the lower braids, I switched to nymphing as I spotted some BWO’s flying around. I kept the beadhead hares ear on top and tied a small silver bead RS2 on the point. I swung this through the deep riffles and run at the head of the pool and picked up a rainbow on the hares ear nymph. I had a few other hookups that got off fairly quickly.

[peg-image src=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-GZqDY0AVVCk/VGGPWRY8_4I/AAAAAAABCR4/1Aa0ylCr7FgU_R37aLlcf1J4EMEhQ0FYQCHM/s144-o/P4140003.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/04152009ArkansasRiver?locked=true#6080298584714837890″ caption=”First Fish of 2009″ type=”image” alt=”P4140003.JPG” image_size=”2048×1536″ ]

Around noon I hiked back to the car for lunch. The truck and other fishermen departed, and the sun emerged so I shed three layers. I removed my waders and adjusted the straps to loosen up the upper section. This worked nicely and gave me enough room to stash the camera. I was concerned about a fingerprint on my camera lens, so I cleaned that.

[peg-image src=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-i0CYTG3eqzo/VGGPYtaaROI/AAAAAAABCR4/Kw-MTx1UVqEO6qOJDTcY5LAguM4_qtFCwCHM/s144-o/P4140008.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/04152009ArkansasRiver?locked=true#6080298626596881634″ caption=”Here’s the CDC BWO” type=”image” alt=”P4140008.JPG” image_size=”2048×1536″ ]

After lunch I hiked back up the highway and crossed two braids, so I could fish the right-most stretch, which is my favorite. I had the river to myself. I went back to the hopper and beadhead hares ear, but fairly quickly some clouds moved in, and BWO’s started to emerge. I nipped off the hopper and hares ear and tied on a size 22 CDC BWO. The cloud cover remained most of the rest of the afternoon, and the BWO’s emerged off and on as well. I gradually worked up the north (right) channel spotting rises and catching fish. The rises were fairly sporadic and difficult to spot in the riffles. My greatest difficulty was following the small gray fly in the sun glare and riffle, and I had to position myself for the best light many times. At one point, I thought the hatch had ended and went back to the hopper/dropper and caught a brown, but then BWO’s re-emerged, and I switched back to the CDC BWO. During the afternoon I caught 8 browns on the CDC BWO.

Fish Landed: 15

[peg-image src=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ERyBfHb5xL0/VGGPYcJY21I/AAAAAAABCR4/tQWNYupoaHUvGyJufCsS2Klgr2TC3hFRQCHM/s144-o/P4140007.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/04152009ArkansasRiver?locked=true#6080298621962083154″ caption=”Nice Brown Inhaled CDC BWO” type=”image” alt=”P4140007.JPG” image_size=”2048×1536″ ]

[peg-image src=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cqlMVOy301s/VGGPZCyn8wI/AAAAAAABCR4/z1KuPDeu_2kdJcIey0jZIRqO3S-pv3dDwCHM/s144-o/P4140009.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/04152009ArkansasRiver?locked=true#6080298632335586050″ caption=”Channel Covered in Afternoon” type=”image” alt=”P4140009.JPG” image_size=”2048×1536″ ]

Time: 10:00AM – 4:30PM

Location: Salida Area – County Line

Arkansas River 04/30/2006 Photo Album

The Royal Gorge Angler report stated that the cold weather slowed the progression of the caddis hatch, and it was projected to be in the Salida area for the weekend. I passed on fishing Saturday due to unsettled weather and decided to give it a try on Sunday. With our new house on the north side of Denver, I checked the map, and it appeared to be closer from Stapleton to Salida via US 285 compared to going through Colorado Springs. The Springs route was my normal choice from Castle Rock or to access the lower Arkansas near Canon City. Also, there was much road construction on the north side of Colorado Springs, so I hoped to avoid this potential delay.

I left early, around 6:15AM and arrived at the river by 9AM. There was already a car in the pullout with three fishermen charging down the bank. I watched them, and when I was ready, I hiked down US 50 a ways to the point, where I can normally cross the river and fish around an island. I descended to the river and fished up from a large rock wall with no luck. I rigged up with a strike indicator, split shot, double bead caddis (Scott Sanchez book), and an emerald caddis pupa. Since there were fishermen above me, I decided to try and cross to the island, and then work down the far channel. But I progressed one-third of the way across and realized it was too risky and retreated. I then decided to reascend to the highway and continued down river below the large rock wall below me and the island to see whether a different crossing point emerged. Unfortunately there was no place to cross, so I fished back up to the rock wall. Along the way I had some significant tangles and tree hookups.

I was quite frustrated and feeling like I hardly fished, when I approached the downside to the run along the rock wall. I waded up around eight feet out to the head of the run, and I began to swing casts through the area. On one of the swings away from the wall I felt a tug and hooked up with the beautiful rainbow that is pictured in the associated photo album. Next I fished along the left bank of a long pool/riffle above the island, since the fishermen on my side moved on. I caught one small rainbow, and by 11AM, while one-third of the way up the long run, I decided to head back to the car and eat lunch early in case the caddis hatch occurred. Large numbers of caddis occupied the bushes and rocks, so I felt it was unlikely there would be an emergence.

Rare Arkansas Rainbow

After lunch, I returned to the spot where I ended, but I grew tired of nymphing, and decided to tie on a caddis dry. Perhaps fish along the edge in fairly shallow lies would be opportunistic and pounce on the caddis. The tactic did not produce, so after giving it a good try, I switched back to nymphs, and this time I tested a beadhead prince on top and beadhead hares ear on the end. I caught a fish on this combo and then eventually moved the beadhead hares ear to the top and tied on a size 18 grey sparkle caddis pupa that I produced a long time ago. It was the only one I had, but I caught several fish on the classic fly. I caught at least two while just holding the flies dangling below me (on purpose, not by luck as I’ve sometimes experienced). All this time there were strong gusts of wind, and several times I needed to stand sideways and hold my hat.

A Very Rare Ark Cutthroat

Around 3PM the wind subsided and caddis started dancing and dapping on the water. I spotted several sporadic rises, so I changed to a deer hair caddis dry. I started fishing where I spotted sporadic rises, and I was able to pick up another six fish. One of these was a surprise cutthroat. I caught some by prospecting in likely spots in addition to casting to observed rises. The last one I landed, a nice brown that I photographed, actually took the dry, when it sank at the end of its drift in front of a rock. When this happened, I thought the fish were tuned into egg laying adults, so I experimented with a prince nymph, which usually works in this situation, but it did not tempt any fish, so I decided to call it a day.

Fish Landed: 11

This One Didn’t Escape