Time: 9:00AM – 5:00PM

Location: Nature and Raptor Center on the Arkansas Tailwater below Pueblo Reservoir

Fish Landed: 6

Arkansas River 11/23/2015 Photo Album

All the factors were aligned for a noteworthy late November fishing trip. Unfortunately the dark side of mankind made an appearance during our otherwise enjoyable fishing trip, and this placed a dark cloud over perhaps my last outing of the 2015 season.

My friend Danny Ryan emailed me a week in advance to inquire whether I was interested in joining him for a trip to the Arkansas River in Pueblo on Monday November 23. I read several articles about this fishery, and the literature suggested that the Arkansas tailwater was the premier winter fishery in Colorado. The southern location and lower elevation combined with the constant water temperatures associated with a bottom release tailwater to create a benign environment for fishermen and fish. The long range forecast suggested that high temperatures would be in the low sixties on November 23, so I quickly responded to Danny that I would love to join him.

The weather did in fact develop into a gorgeous late fall day, and the water clarity was perfect. The flows were actually lower than desired at 115 cfs, and fly shop reports suggested that we could expect a dependable blue winged olive hatch. Fishing surface flies near Thanksgiving is icing on the cake for avid fly fishermen. Although the flows were somewhat low, this condition translated to fairly ideal conditions for wading and crossing back and forth on what is normally a very large river.

Danny Begins His Day on the Arkansas River Tailwater

We departed from Denver by 6:30 and arrived at the first parking area after the pay station lot at the Nature and Raptor Center of Pueblo by 8:30. My Weather Underground app indicated that the temperature hovered around the freezing level as we hastily dressed in our layers and pulled on our waders. In a concession to the cold morning temperatures I wore my down vest, wool finger-less gloves, toe warmers, and New Zealand brimmed hat with ear flaps. I am not a big fan of fishing in temperatures below 45, so I was a bit concerned about my comfort level as we strode down the path to the river. Danny on the other hand loves winter fishing, so he could barely contain his high energy as he guided me to the first decent run.

Fortunately the bright sun warmed the air quickly, and I managed to endure the first cold hour before conditions became quite pleasant. Danny and I began our day tossing nymph rigs, and I began with an ultra zug bug and RS2. For the first two hours we did a lot of slinging of split shot and indicators with little action, but I did manage to land two small rainbow trout in deep runs below man-made stream improvement structures. There are many angled rock deflectors throughout this section of the Arkansas River below the dam.

My first rainbow attacked a size 22 black zebra midge, and the second chomped the same diminutive fly. After forty-five minutes with no action, I swapped the RS2 for the midge larva, and then a bit later I exchanged the ultra zug bug for a bright pink San Juan worm. Danny meanwhile was experiencing similar success, although he seemed to land several fish that were slightly larger than mine.

This Area Was My Favorite on November 23 2015

By 11 o’clock we approached a bridge, and I noticed a very attractive section of water with numerous large midstream boulders and several nice deep runs. I paused to claim this water while Danny circled around and moved above me. As Danny was moving by, he pointed to an area along the current seam where he spotted a rise, so I observed some more and spotted several additional sips. I was not setting the world on fire with my nymphs, so I decided to make the conversion to a single blue winged olive dry fly, and I extracted a size 22 CDC BWO from my fly box and knotted it to my line.

A Decent Rainbow Trout

For the next half hour I experienced the best action of the day, as I landed three rainbows in the 11-13 inch range. I enjoyed this success by casting across and then allowing the fly to drift downstream to the point where the center current tailed out into the pool. On three occasions a  rainbow trout tipped up and slurped in my tiny surface offering. Unfortunately after landing the third fish, I hooked my fly on a stiff branch high in a tree, and I was forced to snap it off and replace it with another CDC BWO that had a bulkier wing.

Eventually the rises stopped so I exited the river and circled beyond two fishermen who entered between Danny and me. A third fisherman was on the upstream side of the bridge, so I went around him on the north side of the river, and then I spotted quite a few fishermen occupying inviting pools for the next one hundred yards. I traversed on a high bank until I could look down at the river, and after passing two fishermen, I found a stretch of water that looked attractive and offered a decent buffer between downstream and upstream fishermen. The other allure was the ridiculous number of rises that dotted a sixty foot segment of the river.

I began to cast across and allowed my fly to drift downstream using an approach that served me well in the previous pool. Initially I landed a small rainbow to bring my count to six, and then I pricked a pair of fish. Quite a few refusals joined the mix, but I was lured into thinking that my fly was a reasonably good match to the blue winged olives that bounced on the surface and fluttered into the warm November air. Danny joined me from the other side of the pool, and for the next hour we cast relentlessly to the pod of rising fish that slurped and sipped ravenously in front of us. Sadly for the most part we simply exercised our arms and shoulders. There had to be at least twenty-five fish feeding in the water surrounding us, but our flies went nearly unmolested. Toward the end of the hatch at approximately 3PM, I used my seine to collect samples from the surface film, and I discovered quite a few cripples and stillborn baetis along with a large quantity of empty nymph shucks. Upon close examination it was clear that the blue winged olives in my net were size twenty-four or smaller, and this probably explains the rejection of our over sized offerings. I probably should have skimmed the water earlier, but it would have made no difference, as I did not possess BWO’s that were that small.

Danny Changes Flies Late in the Day

From three until 4:30 I stripped a sparkle minnow through five or six deep pools, and I experienced one hook up, a couple bumps and one follow but no landed fish. Danny returned to nymphing, and he managed a few momentary hook ups, but the action was quite slow. While the sun remained above the horizon, the air temperature remained quite pleasant, and although stripping a streamer did not deliver much action, it allowed me to remain in constant motion while I basked in the unseasonably mild weather.

By 4:30 Danny and I returned to the area where we experienced the dense hatch in the early afternoon, and I decided to retire the sinking line and returned to my floating four weight. I was reluctant to return to nymphing, so I decided to try a size 14 stimulator with a trailing beadhead soft hackle emerger. I saw a few large caddis on the water thus the stimulator, and I also hoped that perhaps the soft hackle emerger would imitate straggling blue winged olives. Over the next half hour as the light quickly diminished I managed a few refusals to the stimulator. Quite a few fish resumed feeding on the surface, and I could not see anything obvious in the water, so I swapped the soft hackle emerger for a griffith’s gnat. On one upstream cast I pricked a fish for a split second with the gnat, and then I temporarily foul hooked another fish that refused the stimulator and could not avoid the path of the trailing gnat.

Danny continued deploying his nymphs thirty yards above me, and miraculously he reveled in a game saving hot streak as he landed three very nice rainbows as darkness descended. One of his fish attacked a black leech and the others nabbed a small gray midge pattern. By five o’clock it grew quite dark, and although Danny was reluctant to terminate his belated streak of good fortune, he begrudgingly agreed that we needed to begin our long return hike. We waded along the edge of the river for .3 mile, and then we found a path that intersected with a dirt road and hiked another .75 mile to the parking lot. By the time we approached Danny’s truck it was quite dark and cold, but Danny asked if we left the window open on the passenger side. I replied that I never put the window down, and as we grew closer, we were astonished to see that someone had smashed the glass so that the window was entirely open.

Danny instantly checked for his wallet and phone and found them in the center console. I was concerned about my blue and white tote bag which contained my wallet, iPhone 6, and prescription sunglasses; but I was too cold to climb over the seat to look immediately. I did remove the rod case that was angled toward the window, and I quickly assured myself that the two piece Loomis rod remained in the tube. I quickly clipped off my flies, broke down my rod and climbed out of my waders. Once I was back in my warm and comfortable street clothes, I climbed over the passenger seat that remained covered by shards of glass and searched for my blue and white tote bag. It was gone! The low life cretins that smashed the window apparently grabbed my bag and took off. There is nothing worse than the sinking feeling of being robbed and the realization that one’s wallet is gone.

Well I could go on bemoaning my misfortune, but my impression of the Arkansas River tailwater in Pueblo will be forever tainted by this experience. Until this point, I enjoyed a gorgeous day with some late season trout in a new location. Unfortunately individuals that have no regard for personal property ruined our fun on November 23.

Time: 10:00AM – 3:30PM

Location: .5 mile below the county line

Fish Landed: 7

Arkansas River 10/13/2015 Photo Album

The summer weather in October continued on Tuesday October 13, and I could not resist the temptation to take advantage. 9:30AM found me standing behind my car at a small pullout along the Arkansas River below Salida, CO. My dashboard informed me that it was 51 degrees, so I wore a fleece top for my morning on the river. I pulled my Sage One five weight out of its case, and proceeded to set it up with the Thingamabobber/level line configuration, since I expected to fish deep with nymphs during the morning session.

Once I was prepared, I walked down a worn path to a huge rock that jutted out into the river. A large deep pool and eddy formed below the jagged rock, so I stealthily walked to the tail and began to probe the depths with a salvation nymph and a zebra midge. I was quite confident that I would pick up some fish in the delicious water in front of me, but the pool did not deliver. After fifteen minutes I vacated the pool and moved above the rock to some deep runs that were very similar to the water that delivered outstanding results on October 2.

Once again my hopeful mindset was misplaced, but I continued to move upstream along the left bank. I was anticipating that as the water warmed up, the fish would become more active. The river structure that I was prospecting was very similar to areas that contained many hungry wild brown trout during previous visits to the Arkansas River. By 10:30 I lost confidence in the tiny zebra midge, so I swapped it for a RS2, and for the remainder of the morning I enjoyed a modicum of success. Five fish spent some time in my net. The first two were small brown trout that snapped up the RS2 in some narrow slack water along the bank.

Salvation Nymph Victim

Number three grabbed the salvation as it began to swing at the tail of a midstream pocket, and the fourth brown trout grabbed the RS2 in a riffle section with moderate depth. The fifth trout was a fifteen inch brown trout that hammered the salvation nymph in a deep trough in front of a large submerged boulder. As I climbed the bank to access the highway to hike back to the car for lunch, I was complimenting myself for managing to land five decent fish in relatively challenging conditions.

The Nice Brown Was In Front of the Exposed Rock

Opportunistic Morning Feeder

After lunch I drove west and parked at the familiar Fremont – Chafee county line. I contemplated crossing the river to fish the north bank as is my custom, but I convinced myself to seek some variety and remained on the south side of the river. I began fishing above the high ledge rock that often serves as my lunch spot. and I continued offering the salvation nymph and RS2. The morning session provided an average amount of action, so why tamper with success?

The afternoon water was even more attractive than that which I covered in the morning, but the fish were totally uncooperative. The sky was bright blue, and the sun was bright and warmed the air temperature to 80 degrees. These were not favorable conditions for a blue winged olive hatch, and in fact I only spotted one small adult during my entire time on the river. When I saw the one tiny mayfly above the river, I exchanged the RS2 for a beadhead soft hackle emerger. I fished with the nymph arrangement from 12:30 until 3:00 and connected with two more brown trout. The two afternoon fish were actually very nice, but I expected to land many more. In fact I was about to abandon the nymphing approach just as the larger of the two hammered the soft hackle emerger at the top of a long deep run. The second fish came from the same area.

Best Fish of the Afternoon

Between 2:30 and 3:00 I approached some juicy deep pockets right next to the rocky shoreline. These places are usually money in the bank, but on Tuesday that was not the case. I was able to spot two fish hovering a couple feet below the surface, but they were oblivious to my nymph and emerger, as I drifted them by the targeted fish repeatedly. I gave up on these fish and moved to the next deep pocket, and once again I sighted two fish. One was hanging out in front of a large submerged boulder, and it appeared to be actively feeding as it shifted from side to side to sip something.

I decided to make the time consuming switch from the thingamabobber/level line system to the conventional tapered leader, so I sat on a flat rock and made the change. I tied a Charlie boy hopper to my line and then knotted the salvation and soft hackle emerger below it. I lobbed the dry/dropper combination five feet above the visible trout that was suspended in front of the boulder, and the fish twitched its tail and made a slight move toward the terrestrial. But that was the extent of its interest, and repeated drifts were totally ignored. I probably should have plopped a beetle, but I did not think of this ploy at the time.

I now continued up the river prospecting the dry/dropper threesome for ten minutes, but shadows were making it difficult to follow the hopper, and my confidence was at a low ebb. It was three o’clock when I approached a nice wide deep riffle and pool, and I was bored with nymphing, and the dry/dropper move was not producing. I sat down on a rock and decided to convert to a sinking tip line and a sparkle minnow. The streamer saved my day earlier in the summer on the Williams Fork, so perhaps it was the answer on October 13. All the fly shop reports mentioned streamers as highly effective on pre-spawn brown trout during October.

Sparkle Minnow Ready for Action

I manipulated the sparkle minnow aggressively through three separate pools with no success. All three areas likely held multiple fish, but none responded to my thorough coverage and varied retrieves. The only response was a follow from a twelve inch brown, when I tossed the streamer directly upstream to some fairly marginal water. This gave me some hope, but it was the zenith of my sparkle minnow experience for the day.

By 3:30 I was feeling quite exhausted, and I lost all confidence in my ability to catch more fish. I found myself thinking more about my return trip and a snack than fishing, so I reeled up the streamer, climbed the bank and returned to the car.

Tuesday was a disappointing day of fishing, as I landed seven fish in 5.5 hours of wading and casting. I did not see a cloud in the sky during my entire stay, and the temperature reached eighty degrees. The flows dropped from 280 cfs to 230, so the combination of low flows, clear water, and high air temperatures caused the brown trout to hunker down and close their jaws. Six hours of driving is a significant commitment for seven fish. I need to take a break before giving the mighty Arkansas another chance.

Time: 9:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: Lunch Rock and upstream .5 – 1 mile.

Fish Landed: 20

Arkansas River 10/02/2015 Photo Album

Fly fishing is a fickle endeavor. Since I reserved a room at the Woodland Motel in Salida for Thursday night, October 1, I remained in the area. Otherwise I would have probably driven home on Thursday night. Thursday was one of the toughest and most frustrating days I ever experienced on the Arkansas River; a river that has grown to become my favorite Colorado river. I was seriously reevaluating that designation. Even though I was committed to stay in Salida for the night, I weighed alternative fishing options for Friday. The South Platte River in Eleven Mile Canyon was one obvious candidate, as I estimated it was probably a one hour drive from Salida.

To help with my decision, I decided to visit ArkAnglers along US 50 after breakfast. I needed some new strike indicators, so that was an obvious excuse to stop at the fly shop and ask questions. A young man was behind the counter when I entered the store, and he quickly assisted me with my purchase, and then I began to pelt him with queries. He essentially confirmed the information that was already presented on the ArkAnglers’ web site. Fish the deep runs in the morning with nymphs including a midge larva. Switch to a baetis nymph at 11AM, and look for the fish to spread out a bit to the moderate depth riffles and pockets. If the sky is cloudy, adults appear on the surface between 1PM and 4PM. If it is sunny and bright, try fishing a dry/dropper along the edges from mid-afternoon until evening.

I concluded that I should give the Arkansas River an opportunity to redeem itself. It was forecast to be cooler, the fish had an additional day to acclimate to the higher flows, I would try new water, and I planned to adjust my approach after speaking with the young man at ArkAnglers.

Starting Point Above Lunch Rock

I drove along U.S. 50 until I approached Lunch Rock, and here I executed a U-turn and parked by the rock facing west. Lunch Rock is approximately .5 mile above the Wellsville bridge. The temperature was in the low 50’s, and the sun finally broke through the thin cloud cover, so I chose to stuff my raincoat in my backpack and fish without an extra layer. As a significant commitment to changing my technique I rigged my Sage four weight with the level line nymph set up that Taylor Edrington taught me several years ago. I removed my tapered leader and attached a six inch section of 0X tippet via a loop to loop connection to my fly line. Next I used an improved clinch knot to tie the 0X section to a thingamabobber, and then I unfurled a five foot length of 5X tippet and knotted that to the thingamabobber as well. My final step included crimping a small split shot a foot above the top fly, and then I added a salvation nymph and size 22 beadhead zebra midge. I was skeptical that the tiny midge larva would produce fish in the big water of the Arkansas River, but the store clerk insisted.

First Fish Inhaled a Zebra Midge

I am still somewhat in disbelief over what happened next. I positioned myself above Lunch Rock to fish a narrow deep slot, and on the fifth drift deep in the tail of the trough, the indicator dipped, and I fought and landed a fourteen inch brown trout. When I examined the fish more closely in my net, I was shocked to discover the zebra midge in its lip! How could such a large fish detect such a tiny morsel in the large volume of water spilling through a chute above Lunch Rock?

I continued fishing upstream along the left bank for the next hour and landed four more trout. Three inhaled the tiny midge larva imitation and one snatched the salvation nymph from the drift. It was mind boggling, and I was indebted to the ArkAngler store clerk for insisting that I use a midge imitation. In addition to the fourteen inch brown the other fish were quite respectable and measured in the twelve inch range with a thirteen inch brown also in the mix.

Pretty Fish

By 10:30 I spotted a blue winged olive or two hovering above the water, and this was a clue to change out the midge larva for a RS2. It was a bit early according to my ArkAnglers’ directions, but I decided to make a slight deviation. It proved to be a fortuitous move, as I landed six additional brown trout before breaking for lunch at 11:40. All the deep pockets and runs seemed to yield fish, and four attacked the RS2 while two more were attracted to the salvation. I was actively imparting movement to the nymphs by lifting and reverse mending, and the trout seemed to respond to this action.

Just before lunch I approached a large ledge rock that jutted into the river to create a huge deep eddy. I did not expect this type of water to yield fish, but I lobbed a couple casts to the very tail of the eddy where the turbulent current swirled and sent water in every direction. It looked like the eye of a hurricane to my searching eyes. Miraculously on the fifth cast the indicator darted sideways, and I set the hook and stripped in a twelve inch brown that inhaled the RS2. Another subsequent cast produced a similar reaction, and I was chastising myself for almost skipping this type of water. Several more casts failed to produce, so I moved up and across from the middle of the eddy and flicked a cast to that area. Again the indicator streaked sideways, and I netted a third eddy dweller. I had one more momentary contact with a fish that felt heavier than the others, but this feeder managed to shed the hook in a brief amount of time.

I climbed the steep bank to the shoulder of the highway and marched back to the car and then drove west and parked a bit beyond my lunch departure spot. After lunch I scrambled back down the bank to the eddy, and I began to fish upstream. Between noon and 1:30 I built my fish count to seventeen by employing the same techniques that served me during the late morning hot streak. I saw a few sporadic rises, so I exchanged the RS2 for a beadless soft hackle emerger, and this fly became a desirable commodity to the Arkansas River brown trout. Once again the fish responded to active line movement. The most productive maneuver was to cast three quarters upstream, and then as the indicator drifted back across from my position, I executed downstream mends that accelerated the flies for two to three feet. This action apparently created the illusion of an emerging blue winged olive, because the fish responded quite often by snaring the trailing emerger.

Lots of Vivid Spots

One particularly memorable experience occurred when I approached a long riffle that was two to three feet deep. In this case I shot a long cast directly upstream to the top of the riffle, and after the indicator drifted five feet it paused. I immediately lifted and set the hook and found myself attached to a throbbing head shaking fifteen inch brown trout. I always get a huge thrill out of extracting big fish from less than obvious locations.

Toward the end of this period I reached a spot where a large vertical rock wall bordered the river. This was actually where I sat and ate my lunch high above the water, and while munching my sandwich, I spotted two decent trout in a large pocket behind a large submerged midstream boulder. I made quite a few casts to the area where the fish were observed, but they were not interested in my flies whether dead drifted or twitched. I gave up on the wide deep pocket and climbed to the high point of the rock and then cautiously stepped down the other side so I was just above the deep pool. At this place there was a relatively deep trough similar to the one where I began my day above Lunch Rock.

Only Rainbow on the Day Was This Bruiser

I decided to give it a shot, and began drifting the nymphs through the fifteen foot long slot as I stood near the tail. I allowed drift number seven to swing deep and below me, and as I lifted to make another cast, a heavy throbbing weight interrupted my action. A pink-sided silvery missile instantly launched from the river, and I managed to stay connected through several more leaps and hot runs. This fifteen inch beauty proved to be my only rainbow on Friday and also my largest fish.

Wide Body Out of the Net

By 2:30 the sun was bright and the sky was largely cloudless. The wind began to gust periodically, and my blue winged olive techniques failed to excite the fish as they had during the late morning and early afternoon time period. I decided that it was time to abandon the thingamabobber nymph set up and return to dry/dropper fishing along the edge. I sat down on a rock and removed the level line, thingamabobber and 0X connector and reattached my tapered leader. With the leader in place I tied on a Charlie boy hopper, salvation nymph and soft hackle emerger and began probing all the deep pockets and runs right next to the bank.

My catch rate slowed substantially, but I did manage to extend my day for another hour and landed three more fish to reach twenty. The first fish was a fifteen inch brown that snapped up the salvation nymph as it drifted tight to a protruding boulder. Needless to say this catch was both surprising and gratifying.

Dry-Dropper Victim

By 3:30 I came to another large rock formation along the left bank. Unfortunately this eddy did not produce in similar fashion to the one I enjoyed in the late morning, but I was using a shallow water dry/dropper technique and not the deep nymph set up that adorned my line earlier. When I climbed to the top of the rock with the intention of moving upstream, I encountered another fisherman positioned twenty yards above me. This was a convenient excuse to reel up my flies while I climbed the path to the highway. I was feeling exhausted, the fishing had slowed measurably, and I had a three hour drive in front of me.

Is fly fishing fickle, or are the brown trout of the Arkansas River changeable? Perhaps it has more to do with the fisherman’s ability to read signals and make adjustments? Certainly fishing deeper with the thingamabobber nymph rig seemed to dramatically change my fortunes from Thursday to Friday. I can envision another trip to the Arkansas River before winter places a firm grip on Colorado.

Time: 10:30AM – 4:30PM

Location: Fremont – Chafee country line upstream for a mile

Fish Landed: 11

Arkansas River 10/01/2015 Photo Album

Admittedly I held high expectations for Thursday, October 1 on the Arkansas River. I searched this blog and read a post from 2013 when I landed 26 fish on October 3. October 1 was close enough to October 3 so that I could expect to replicate the experience, right? Remember that the only constant in fly fishing is change.

I made reservations to stay at the Woodland Motel in Salida, so I could optimize my fishing time after a three hour drive. As it turned out, the weather was quite mild, and I could have camped at Vallie Bridge, but I discovered that the Woodland Motel is a reasonably priced convenient stay over option for future cold weather trips to the Arkansas River.

I departed Stapleton at 6:45 on Thursday morning, and after a three hour drive I pulled into my usual parking space at the Fremont/Chafee countly line. The air temperature was in the low 50’s, and this prompted me to wear my raincoat as a windbreaker and extra layer until the sun warmed the temperature to the high 50’s. In fact the high on Thursday reached 83 degrees, and minimal cloud cover ruled the sky. In addition when I gazed down at the river, it appeared to be higher than my visit two weeks prior. A check of stream flows on Thursday evening confirmed that the flows spiked from 200 cfs to 278 cfs on Wednesday night.

Since I spent two days fishing the water downstream from the long pool at the county line on my previous visit, I crossed the river at the usual location and climbed the bank to the railroad tracks and then hiked westward. When I reached a position that was perpendicular to the top of the long pool, I cut back down to the north shore and prepared to fish. The water at this point was faster and more conducive to the dry/dropper technique that I planned to deploy. The historical blog post that I read documented that I enjoyed success with a Chernobyl ant and beadhead hares ear, so these became my initial offerings.

Nice Water Ahead

These two flies failed to generate any looks or takes over the first fifteen minutes so I added an RS2, and this addition paid off with two small brown trout that snatched the RS2 as it drifted tight to the rocky edge. A dry spell commenced after the first hour and continued until I sat down on a rock and ate my light lunch. After lunch I resumed fishing the north bank of the river with the dry/dropper offering, and I managed to land a third small brown, but this one fish was my only reward for covering a huge amount of very attractive water. In short I was pretty frustrated by my morning and early afternoon on the Arkansas River, and with the temperature soaring and bright clear skies above, I was not optimistic that my day would improve.

My confidence was at a low, when I remembered the success I experienced on the Big Thompson River with Jake’s gulp beetle. If the beetle attracted the fish on the Big Thompson, perhaps it could do the same along the banks of the Arkansas River. I tied four new gulp beetles on Wednesday night, so I removed one with a peacock ice dub body from my fly box and tied it to my line. In case a blue winged olive hatch commenced I added a 2.5 foot dropper to the beetle and knotted a soft hackle emerger to the tippet section. This move finally created some minor interest, and I landed two small brown trout on the soft hackle.

Brilliant Buttery Color

I was still feeling rather depressed about my Arkansas fall fishing trip going awry, when I approached a nice run of moderate depth. I plopped the beetle to the top of the run, and as it drifted back toward a large boulder at the tail, I spotted a small brown that rose to inspect the terrestrial. The fish rejected my fake, and then on the next drift, a second larger brown trout copied the actions of the smaller cousin. I made additional drifts, and the two fish repeatedly demonstrated movements that indicated they saw the beetle, but they refused to eat. During this time period, I also observed the larger of the two fish as it swirled about and sipped a natural insect from the surface. I concluded that it must have eaten an adult blue winged olive.

I was now faced with a dilemma. Should I go to the trouble of removing the beetle and emerger to tie a CDC BWO to my line, or should I simply move on and continue prospecting in the hopes that other fish might be less selective? I was not setting the world on fire, so I decided to make a fly change and focus on the two visible fish in front of me. I tied a size 22 CDC blue winged olive to my tippet, and on the second drift over the two fish, the larger specimen rose and confidently inhaled my offering. I set the hook and after a brief tussle, I slid my net beneath a nice twelve inch brown trout.

This Run Yielded the Previous Nice Brown

As I focused on the two reluctant eaters before me, I spotted a single swirl in the next short pocket upstream of the run I presently occupied. With the release of the twelve inch brown, I moved upstream a bit so that I was in a position to fish to the initiator of the swirl. The water in the pocket was quite active, and I realized it would be nearly impossible to see the small CDC BWO, so I once again made a change and reverted to the beetle/soft hackle emerger combination. I flicked a short cast to the bubbling top of the pocket, and as the beetle slowly drifted to the lip, I lifted to avoid entanglement in a large boulder. This action prompted a fifteen inch brown trout to grab the fleeing emerger, and I landed my best fish of the day to that point. Needless to say this sent my optimism to a new high, and I resumed prospecting the beetle with greater intensity. I moved quickly upstream along the north bank and managed to landed another small brown on the soft hackle emerger, but then by 2:30 the action ended.

A Fifteen Inch Beauty

The air temperature was now at its peak and the sun was quite bright and nearly directly overhead. The small amount of blue winged olive activity ended, and the fish decided to close their mouths, seek shelter and rest. I persisted with the beetle and emerger much longer than I should have, since I was slow to recognize the change in conditions. Eventually however I grew bored with fruitless casting and made another change. I tied a Charlie boy hopper to my line, and below that I added a salvation nymph, and then knotted a soft hackle emerger below the salvation. The emerger was in place in case stragglers remained, but the hopper and salvation were present as larger attractors.

While the change did not dramatically improve my fortunes, it did allow me to land three additional fish over the remainder of the afternoon during some fairly adverse conditions. One of the last three fish was a respectable twelve inch hard fighting brown, and another was a surprising fifteen inch prize that matched the one that snatched the emerger earlier. This late afternoon brown materialized from a short deep pocket in an area where the entire river spilled through a wide section of large exposed boulders.

Resided in Pocket Water

The last three fish enabled me to reach double digits, but it was a tough day of fishing under very adverse conditions. Making matters worse, the weather forecast for Friday was similar unseasonably warm dry conditions. Had I not reserved a room at the Woodland Motel, I probably would have jumped in the car and returned to Denver. It was undoubtedly too late to cancel, so I pondered alternative fishing destinations. I covered at least a mile of the river, climbed over hundreds of boulders, and taxed my arm and shoulder muscles to exhaustion; so I was too tired to consider logical options for Friday. I returned to the car and checked into the motel and enjoyed a nice dinner at the Boathouse Cantina in Salida. The room at the motel turned out to be nice and clean, and the best part of the day was falling into a deep sleep.

Time: 9:30AM – 2:00PM

Location: Fremont – Chafee County line

Fish Landed: 12

Arkansas River 09/19/2015 Photo Album

Clearly my week on the two forks of the White River in the Flattops spoiled me. I was back to the reality of fishing the more pressured and accessible rivers of Colorado, and these waterways required much more work to catch smaller and fewer fish. I was certain that the Arkansas River would provide me with some exciting fall fishing, but Friday taught me not to take anything for granted.

After a Friday fraught with frustration, I debated whether to follow through with my plan to camp overnight in order to be in a position to fish the Arkansas River in the morning on Saturday. The weather forecast projected Saturday to be a carbon copy of Friday, and I was reluctant to endure another day of battling wind and slow afternoon fishing under bright blue cloudless skies. However as I evaluated alternatives, I realized that September 19 was a weekend, and most of the local options would likely involve waves of fishermen unable to enjoy their pastime during weekdays. I packed the camping gear in order to avoid the three hour morning drive, so I finally concluded that my best option was to carry on with my original plan. The Arkansas is a very large river with many miles of public access, so it can accommodate hordes of weekend fishermen.

I drove from my Friday fishing spot below Salida to the Vallie Bridge Arkansas River Recreation Campground and arrived by 5PM. It was unusual to arrive at my camping location with several hours of daylight remaining. Even more surprising was the absence of other campers on a Friday evening. I set up my REI two person tent and then took a break to enjoy a beer before I prepared a quick dinner and cleaned up. The wind abated, and some large gray clouds moved over the Sangre de Cristo range to the south. I snapped a photo of the mountains just below a gray cloud with the sun reflecting off the northwest face. The air temperature remained quite comfortable, and I applauded my decision to follow through with my camping plans.

Sangre de Cristos Shrouded in Clouds but Reflecting the Sun

According to my plan I pulled up stakes on Saturday morning by 8:30 and arrived at the Fremont – Chafee county line by 9:00. I remembered fishing the Arkansas River at this same time several years ago with Dave Gaboury and guide Taylor Edrington, and we experienced a decent amount of success using deep nymphs. In fact one of the productive flies from that outing was the iron sally, and I had several in my fly patch that I tied during the 2013 winter. This then became my game plan; to probe the deep runs with a pair of nymphs and an indicator.

Once again I crossed the river at the tail of the long pool below my parking place, and then I hiked down the railroad tracks until I was below the small island. There were two sets of nice deep runs that did not yield any fish on Friday, and I was convinced that the deep nymph approach would reverse this outcome on Saturday. I was right. I hooked and lost a fish on the top third of the first run, and then a second fish hammered the iron sally as the nymphs began to swing at the end of the drift. My first fish of the day was a chunky fourteen inch brown trout, and I was very pleased to register a fish within fifteen minutes of my start.

Great Start to My Day

I continued up the river with the indicator, split shot, iron sally and salvation nymph until 11 o’clock, and during this morning session I incremented my fish count to seven. The average size of these fish was in the twelve inch range with my initial fourteen inch brown and a thirteen inch wild fish included as well. I was much more selective about the water type I chose to fish, and I skipped many segments of the river that were not amenable to the deep nymph approach.

Another Fine Arkansas Brown Trout

Nice Edge Water

Late in the morning I encountered a stretch of river that looked fishy, but it was not a deep run similar to the water that I was seeking. I made a few casts, and my flies repeatedly snagged the rocks and sticks on the riverbed. I decided that I could obtain better drifts with a dry/dropper approach, so I converted to a yellow Letort hopper and beadhead hares ear. I made some great casts with this combination and managed to keep the hopper floating, but my only reaction to the change was several looks at the top fly. Next I exchanged the Letort hopper for a hares ear parachute hopper, and this performed in similar fashion with only a couple subsurface investigations. Since the top fly was not matching the expectations of the fish, I decided to go in a buoyant direction and tied on a gray pool toy. Since this fly could support more weight, I added a small beadhead RS2 and swapped the iron sally for a beadhead hares ear.

Finally this combination yielded a nice twelve inch brown that grabbed the RS2 just as I lifted the flies in front of a rock. I was feeling a bit more optimistic now that I hooked a fish after a long dry spell, but I reached the long smooth pool across from the Santa Fe. I skipped around this water via the railroad tracks, and then dropped back down at the head of the pool. When I surveyed the river at this point, I concluded that it screamed out for the deep nymphing method that rewarded me during the morning. Once again I patiently converted my system and began probing the deeper runs with the nymphs. Much to my amazement the nymphs were soundly ignored. By now the sun was high in the sky, and the air temperature was pushing into the seventies, as it was around noon. Could the day already be entering the summer doldrums period?

Landed a Nice Fish by Sweeping Flies in Front of Rocks and Branches

I began to consider an early departure, but persisted by moving upstream at a more rapid pace while selecting only deep sections of the river where I judged that the indicator method might produce. Finally I was across from a spot where a large boulder jutted out from the bank and trapped several branches and logs. In front of this mess was a short but deep pocket. I accurately dropped a cast six feet above the boulder, and before the nymphs could snag the sunken logs, I moved my rod upstream and caused the flies to swing by the snarl. Within seconds of executing this maneuver, I felt weight on my rod and set the hook and battled a thirteen inch brown trout to my net. This was my best fishing tactic during my two days on the Arkansas River, and I was quite pleased with the response.

As I continued moving upstream with the nymphs I met with no additional success, so I decided to resume the dry/dropper gambit. The water before me consisted of a lot of pockets and runs of moderate depth, and it would be much easier to prospect with a shallow dry/dropper offering. I elected to knot a gray pool toy to my line and beneath that I added the beadhead hares ear and RS2. I drifted these flies through some prime locations for twenty minutes, and then I saw a rise in a very attractive deep pool next to the bank. I could see the fish, and it appeared to be of above average size, but it drifted up to inspect the hopper and then returned to its holding position.

Jake’s Gulp Beetle Produced

How could I interest this fish in one of my flies? The prospecting technique was not producing, so why not focus on this fish and experiment with some fly changes? I removed the trio of flies and tied on a parachute black ant. I was certain this would do the trick since periodic gusts of wind probably dispersed terrestrials into the river. Not a chance. The ant provoked no interest. Next I remembered Jake’s Gulp Beetle that delivered twenty fish to my net on the Elk River in BC. I replaced the ant with a beetle and began to plop it along the bank of the river.

I gave up on the targeted fish that prompted fly changes, but the beetle yielded three more trout over the remainder of the afternoon before the wind forced me to retire at two o’clock. Beetle plopping did not work in all the juicy spots, but it did often enough to maintain my interest, and clearly nothing else seemed to tempt the fish of the Arkansas River to eat.

Another Beetle Victim

The Arkansas River needs some clouds, rain and cool temperatures to initiate some true early autumn fishing conditions. Honestly I expected to catch more that twenty-one fish during two days on the Arkansas River in the middle of September, but given the circumstances I am actually pleased with my results. Hopefully things will change before I return after our trip to Pennsylvania next week.

Time: 12:00PM – 4:30PM

Location: Fremont – Chafee county line.

Fish Landed: 9

Arkansas River 09/18/2015 Photo Album

Have you ever watched those blooper clips that they show between innings at major league baseball games? Well Friday September 18 was my day of fishing bloopers, but more on that later.

I had not visited the Arkansas River since the time period prior to snow melt, so I was anxious to return. I chose to travel to the Frying Pan River early in the week because the weather forecast projected above average temperatures in the Arkansas River Valley, and I suspected this meant a continuation of summer doldrums conditions despite the fly shop reports suggesting otherwise. The Frying Pan on the other hand is a tailwater and tends to yield more consistent conditions, although I was bewildered by the lack of hatches on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I was still feeling the urge to test the Arkansas before Jane and I make a week long trip to Pennsylvania to visit our son Dan and attend our niece’s wedding, so I packed the car with my camping gear on Friday morning and departed for the Big Horn Sheep Canyon segment of the river. The weather was expected to continue with warm afternoons and no precipitation, and this is what led me to defer the trip earlier in the week, but I was curious if the fly shop reports were correct. Historically fly fishing in September on the Arkansas River has been quite productive, and I did not want to miss out.

Because I needed to finish packing the car with camping provisions, I got off to a later than normal start and arrived at the Fremont – Chafee county line by 11:30. The flows were at 290 CFS which is relatively low even for September. As forecast the skies were cloudless and a deep shade of blue, and a bright sun warmed the air to high temperatures in the upper 70’s. I hoped otherwise, but I was rather convinced that the fishing conditions would be challenging.

I extracted my Sage One five weight and cautiously worked my way down the bank below the car and then crossed the river at the tail of the long smooth pool. Even at 290 CFS this crossing dictated a slow pace and cautious approach. When I reached the north side of the river, I climbed the steep bank to the railroad tracks and hiked downstream for half a mile until I was below the small island. Grasshoppers flushed in front of my every step as I moved through the brush, so I decided to knot a hares ear parachute hopper to my line. I feel that the parachute hopper is the most realistic grasshopper imitation that I tie.

Looking Upstream Toward the Island

From the middle of the deep run to the tail of the pool where I began, the parahopper did not produce, so I augmented it with a beadhead hares ear. This paid off, and I landed two fish in a short amount of time. One slurped the hopper on the surface and the other snatched the hares ear nymph. In addition I experienced a foul hooked fish and a momentary hook up, so the fish were definitely looking for food between noon and 12:30 when I paused for lunch.

Better Position

After lunch I continued my progress upstream to the area just below the downstream tip of the island. I replaced the parachute hopper with a Charlie boy foam imitation and added a RS2 to the hares ear. For some reason I fall into the trap of applying deferred gratification to fly fishing, and I was eagerly anticipating an opportunity to fish the right channel, so I chose to move up along the left side of the island first. This ploy paid off with two small browns that grabbed the beadhead hares ear, as I lifted my rod to make another cast, and I also felt a momentary hookup and observed several refusals. All this suggests that there were quite a few fish along the left side of the island, and they were looking for food.

Next I retreated back to the bottom end of the island and began to fish the long smooth pool located on the right braid. This is typically very technical water, and I did not wish to begin plopping the large foam hopper and two beadheads, so I went small. This entailed a size 14 light olive stimulator with the tiny beadhead RS2 trailing nymph. I stayed back from the pool and made some nice long fluttering casts, but the only result of my measured approach was a refusal to the stimulator. Maybe a terrestrial would be more to their liking? I exchanged the stimulator for Jake’s gulp beetle. I spotted a rise in the current that entered the top of the pool, so I plopped the foam beetle, and a fish immediately chomped it. I made a solid hook set, and the fish suddenly streaked upstream at an alarming pace. Line began unraveling from my reel, so I glanced down and realized that slack fly line had wrapped around the butt of my rod. Alas I discovered this too late, and before I could flick the line free, the fly popped out, and the fish was gone. This was blooper clip number one, and I was rather distraught as evidenced by some very nasty words uttered.

I continued plopping the beetle a bit longer in the attractive deep pockets and runs at the head of the pool, but the interest of the trout became more casual, and they began to look but not eat. The parachute hopper is a light slim terrestrial imitation that does not disturb the water as much as a foam hopper, so I elected to switch but retained the hares ear nymph and RS2. While these flies were on my line, my polarized lenses enabled me to detect a couple below the surface looks, but the trout did not finish the job and chow down. It was around this time that I looked back and saw a large juniper tree next to the bank. I told myself to be aware of its presence as I cast upstream, but in my haste to fire a cast toward the ten o’clock position, the self warning evaporated from my brain, and I wrapped a high backcast in the tree. There was no strategy that would allow me to recover the three flies, so I yanked and left them for mother nature. Blooper number two was recorded.

A View Back Down the River at 290 CFS

I sat down on a large rock and reconfigured my line with the same three flies and resumed my upstream migration. The top half of the right braid is typically less productive than the bottom, but I landed two more brown trout in the twelve inch range to boost my spirits. In addition I registered a few momentary hookups including blooper number three. In this case I cast directly upstream to a relatively shallow riffle, and as the flies drifted back toward me, a decent fish materialized out of nowhere and nabbed one of the nymphs. As I went to strip line and apply pressure to the fish, I realized that somehow my fly line wrapped around my rod tip three times. Naturally my efforts to strip and remove slack were ineffective since the twists created a temporary knot. The trout raced back toward me and beyond my legs and then broke off the RS2. Needless to say, these three successive examples of fisherman error put me in a foul state of mind.

As I released one of the fish that I landed, it snagged the RS2 that was hanging from my net and broke it off. Chalk up blooper number four. It did not end there. Twice as I was changing flies, another fly fell from my foam pad in my front pack and began floating down the river away from me. The first time this happened it was my one and only Jake’s gulp beetle. A GoPro recording of my ridiculous effort to scramble to the bank and then dash downstream to scoop the fly from the water would obviously provide great YouTube humor. This happened again with a different fly later in the afternoon. The only positive in these two examples was the fact that I did manage to recover the flies.

Another Wild Brown

From 2:30 until 4:00 I fished from the top of the island to the water across from the high rock ledge upstream from the Santa Fe. This was the warmest portion of the day, and to make matters worse, a strong headwind began to sweep down the canyon. I managed to land two additional brown trout in this time slot. One twelve inch brown grabbed the RS2 along the edge of a current seam in a deep pocket, and number nine on the day rose and slurped the Charlie boy hopper along the bank near the bottom of the long pool where I crossed.

The big story in the afternoon however was the stiff wind. My shoulder was complaining after the excessive effort required to punch casts upstream into the wind. In addition when I tried to counter the wind currents by fishing across, the wind blew downstream and created drag on my line.

At four o’clock I surrendered to the zephyr and swapped my floating line for a sinking tip and tied on a sparkle minnow. I was hoping the sparkle minnow could once again salvage my day and take me to a double digit fish count. I was at the top of the long pool with some nice deep runs across from me, and I stripped the sparkle minnow from top to bottom over a thirty minute period. Unfortunately I cannot report even one follow. It was a tough afternoon on the newly declared gold medal fishery.

Looks Kind of Lonely

Based on my experience I concluded that the Arkansas River continued to fish similar to late summer. Fishing is best in the morning and evening time periods. but it is best to seek shelter from the wind and take a nap in the afternoon.

Time: 12:00PM – 4:00PM

Location: First pullout west of Fremont – Chafee County line and upstream

Fish Landed: 9

Arkansas River 07/24/2015 Photo Album

Friday was get away day, and I was not thrilled to leave behind the wonderful Conejos River and the productive fishing that it provided on Tuesday through Thursday. But life moves on, so I woke up early on Friday morning and took all the necessary steps to break camp by 7:30. I was fortunate that the clear dry air of the upper Conejos did not produce any dew on the tent, so I was able to quickly stuff it in the sack without any concerns about moisture during storage.

My plan included a stop over on the Arkansas River to break up the return trip. When I checked the flows prior to departing for the Conejos River on Monday, the river remained at 1,000 CFS, so I hoped to experience some hot action from edge fishing before the fish spread out. Google maps indicated that the drive from Lake Fork Campground to Salida was 3.5 hours, and this proved to be very accurate. I stopped at ArkAnglers on route 50 to replace my nipper retractor that  broke on Tuesday, and while there I purchase several attractor flies for dry/dropper fishing and asked the salesperson about local stream conditions. He informed me that the flows remained at 1,000 CFS, but the river was clear until the Vallie Bridge area. I planned to fish below Salida and above Vallie Bridge, so this news did not impact me.

Armed with some new flies and stream information, I departed for the pullout at the Fremont – Chafee line, but a car with Ohio plates was parked there. I jumped out of my car to scout the river, and a single fisherman was upstream, so I executed a U-turn and drove to the next pullout when traveling west. It was overcast and cool with temperatures in the low 70’s as I donned my waders and boots. Since the Arkansas River is much larger than the Conejos, and flows were high at 1,000 CFS, I chose my Sage One five weight rod.

Near My Starting Point. Water Swamped the Willows.

I descended the steep path and then fought my way through the willows to the edge of the river. Indeed I quickly discovered the flows were high with water deluging the streamside willows a bit. I walked upstream until I reached a slower riffle of moderate depth and rigged my line with a Chernobyl ant, salvation nymph, and iron sally. The salesperson at ArkAnglers told me iron sallies were working well. On the second or third cast I landed a small brown on the salvation and then a second small brown near the top of the riffle. I was actually startled to experience such sudden success as I tossed one more cast in the middle of the riffles. In an instant the Chernobyl disappeared, and I landed a quite nice brown on the iron sally.

Best Fish of the Day Was This Brown Trout

What a start! I moved upstream and fished all the likely spots along the bank and picked up two more browns before I decided to stop for lunch. A second brown of around 12 inches grabbed the iron sally and the other brown took the salvation. It was around 1PM when I stopped for lunch, and the sun burned off the clouds, and it actually became quite warm. Before lunch I noticed several refusals to the Chernobyl, and it seemed to be distracting fish from the nymphs somewhat, so I decided to try a yellow Letort hopper. I observed the occasional golden stonefly, so I thought that perhaps the yellow body hopper with a slim profile would imitate an adult golden. It is difficult to support two relatively heavy nymphs such as the salvation and iron sally with the dubbed body Letort hopper, so I added only the salvation as a dropper.

On the first two casts I experienced refusals to the hopper, and on the second one I foul hooked the fish with the trailing salvation. The fish shot downstream, and after a few seconds the flies became disengaged and shot back above me and landed in a tree branch. I could see the hopper and salvation dangling from a dead limb, and then I bungled the situation even more when I wrapped the tapered leader around another dead tree branch separate from the first.

I put down my rod so as not to endanger it and climbed through some dense streamside willows until I reached the larger branch that held the tapered leader just below the tip of the rod. I rocked the branch a couple times and suddenly it broke free from the stump, and I was able to unwrap the first snag. Unfortunately the two flies continued to dangle high above me. I was not about to give up. My wading staff was too short to reach the hopper, but the branch I just broke down was quite long. I picked it up and used it like a jousting pole to hit the small dead branch holding the two flies, and succeeded in breaking it off on the first attempt. I picked up the small twig and unraveled the two flies, and in a short amount of time I was back in business.

I moved up a bit and cast to the middle of a short run, and as the hopper drifted back toward me I saw a swirl and set the hook. I thought the fish took the top fly, but when I managed to land it, I noticed the salvation nymph was embedded in the lip. The Letort hopper appeared to be attracting attention, but it was not exactly what the fish expected. I clipped it off and tried a yellow stimulator size 12 2XL, that I purchased at ArkAnglers as a golden stonefly imitation. This did not even generate refusals.

Maybe they were looking for yellow sallies? I tried one, but it was soundly ignored. Next I tried a solitary size 16 gray deer hair caddis. This actually generated a rise on a prospecting cast, and I added another fish to my count. By now I reached seven fish, and it was 2PM, and the sun was high in the sky, and the air temperature reached its peak. The conditions became quite challenging. The Chernobyl ant produced most effectively for me in the early going as a top fly because although it was refused, at least the fish also tuned in to the nymphs. I decided to return to my original threesome for the tough afternoon conditions.

Iron Sally in Upper Lip

I picked up my pace and did not dwell at any particular spot for long. I was particularly focused on depth along the bank, and I covered a lot of stream real estate. I landed two fish in the last two hours, and one was a decent brown of around thirteen inches that hammered the iron sally. Despite being debarbed the hook point  got stuck in the tough cartilage that forms the lip, and I had a difficult time removing the fly. Some dark clouds appeared in the western sky as 4PM approached. I was quite weary from four days of camping and fishing and the action was quite sparse, so I decided to call it quits.

I ended the day with nine fish, and a few were in the 12 -13 inch range, but it was by no means the hot edge fishing that I anticipated. Although the flows remain at 1,000 CFS, it seems the fishing has slowed a bit particularly in the middle of the afternoon when the sun is bright and the air temperatures peak. If I return to the Arkansas River, I will schedule my fishing time for the morning and evening, and do something else from 2-5PM.

Time: 9:30AM – 3:00PM

Location: Fremont – Chafee county line

Fish Landed: 10

Arkansas River 05/01/2015 Photo Album

When we discussed our plans for Friday, Danny decided he wanted retribution for all the lost fish on Thursday and therefore wanted to return to the same place that we fished the previous day. Our plan was locked in, or at least we thought so until I met one of the other young campers at Vallie Bridge. He was wearing a Duke hoodie so I asked him if he was a Duke fan or graduate, and the conversation eventually led to a discussion regarding the whereabouts of the caddis. The young man volunteered that he and his friend were heading downstream toward Texas Creek as some fishermen told them the heaviest hatch was in that locale. Now Danny and I were faced with a dilemma. Should we change our plans to search for the much hyped caddis hatch, or should we return to the Fremont – Chafee county line so Danny could seek vengeance on unsuspecting Arkansas River brown trout?

I suggested that we could spend the morning on a return tour of the Fremont – Chafee area, and then if the fishing was slow, we could make the drive east to Texas Creek in search of the elusive caddis hatch. We packed up all our camping equipment and drove west on route 50 to the Fremont – Chafee county line where we parked and then crossed the river at the tail of the long pool. Once on the north side of the river we ascended the steep bank and hiked down the railroad tracks to the spot below the small island. On Friday we continued farther down along the river and began fishing in a long shelf pool.

I elected to test an old producer; a yellow Letort hopper, and added a beadhead ultra zug bug on a 3.5 foot long dropper. Danny began with a nymphing rig, so I relinquished the deep portion of the pool to him and moved immediately to the narrow top section where the river spilled over some large rocks. In a very short amount of time I foul hooked a brown, and then added two momentary hook ups in two very short marginal pockets along the bank. In the next attractive shelf pool I experienced a refusal, so I began to question my choice of the Letort hopper. It was extremely effective in catching the attention of the trout, but they were turning away at the last instant.

Once again I ceded most of the next pool to Danny and moved to the riffles at the top, but unlike Thursday this area did not produce a fish nor even a refusal. I was eager to approach the right channel around the island, but Danny was still methodically working his way through the pool below me, so I called out that I planned to fish up along the left side of the island and then return when he caught up.

Out of the Net

Top of the Island

In the first small pocket next to the bottom tip of the island I observed yet another refusal to the size 10 hopper. The shape of the hopper is similar to a caddis although ten times larger. Could these fish be drawn to the body shape, but then execute a reversal when they discovered the excessive size? I decided to test my theory and tied on a size 16 olive-brown deer hair caddis. This proved to be a winner, and I landed two medium sized brown trout from pockets along the island until I reached the whitewater at the top, at which point I turned around and walked back to the bottom where Danny was beginning to cast his dry/dropper arrangement. I told him of my success with the size 16 caddis and offered him some of mine.

Danny and I now began to move into the long pool at the bottom of the north channel. Danny’s water looked more attractive than mine, but he was seeking retribution so I relinquished it to him. My side was largely wide shallow slow moving water, whereas, deep runs and pockets screamed big fish all along his side of the river. Sometimes you cannot go by appearances. There were very few caddis in the air particularly when compared to the cloud of small tent wing insects that hovered over the water on Thursday afternoon at the Vallie Bridge lease site. I began tossing long casts to the shallow tail of the pool on the left side and much to my amazement, two fat fourteen inch brown trout rose and confidently sucked in my fly. This was too good to be true. There were no visible caddis on the water, minimal evidence of a hatch in the surrounding bushes, and I was catching nice fish in the less attractive shallow side water.

Danny Ties on a Deer Hair Caddis

As I photographed and released the two brown trout, I certainly caught Danny’s attention. I suggested that he switch from the dry/dropper approach to a single deer hair caddis, and he wandered over to my position to receive two of the ten imitations that were arranged in my front pack. We resumed our casting, and I quickly picked off another fine brown from left side of the current seam that ran down the middle of the pool. Next I moved up five feet or so and made a long cast to the middle portion of the shallow slow moving left side, and once again I was amazed to witness a slow confident slurp of my deer hair caddis. Again this proved to be a solid healthy fifteen inch brown, and I once again snapped some photos.

Very Nice Chunky Brown Trout

Danny meanwhile observed a refusal to his size 16 caddis, and then I nabbed a fifth chunky brown from the center current seam. I could sense that Danny was feeling left out of the fun, so I offered a switch, and he readily accepted my offer. We switched positions, and he resumed the progression up the left side of the north braid, while I crossed to the north bank and began working up along the right side of the center current seam and prospected all the likely deep pockets and runs. The water looked ridiculously delicious, and it did in fact produce two additional nice fish plus one foul hooked escapee, but it paled in comparison to the left portion.

Close Up of the Healthy Brown

While I moved cautiously forward, Danny began to connect with regularity similar to my previous experience. I counted at least five landed fish, and Danny guided one downstream to a point across from me so I could photograph a sixteen or seventeen inch leviathan. I rarely catch fish on the Arkansas in excess of fifteen inches, so this catch was quite noteworthy.

Best Fish of the Trip for Danny

We both now converged at the top of the island, and we decided to use a leap frog strategy to cover the right bank as we moved up the river. It was slightly after noon, so I found a nice grassy spot on the bank and munched my sandwich and carrots, but Danny was still working off his adrenalin rush from the holy water. He wolfed down his sandwich in five minutes and resumed his manic casting and wading.

Unfortunately after lunch the game changed considerably. Since we never saw an abundance of caddis during the red hot action of late morning, I can only assume that the bright sun and warmer temperatures caused the fish to become lethargic and less interested in snatching our deer hair caddis from the surface. We moved upstream through some attractive areas, but neither of us were able to resurrect our morning success.

Focused

When we reached our crossing point, we debated returning to the car to seek another location, but I saw some large gray clouds building in the west, so I guessed that the action might improve if we continued on the north bank toward the west. I was familiar with this water, and I knew there were some very productive stretches ahead of us. Danny agreed with my suggestion, and we continued on, but my theory did not prove out. Danny’s confidence sank and there were several periods where he sat down and rested and watched me.

When the fish ceased showing interest in my size 16 caddis after lunch, I switched to a dry/dropper configuration with a Charlie boy hopper, beadhead ultra zug bug and beadhead hares ear, and these flies remained on my line for the remainder of the day. During one of the time slots when Danny watched and rested, I lobbed a backhand cast to a deep run behind a large boulder, and as we both looked on, a mouth appeared and engulfed the Charlie boy. I set the hook and an underwater missile rocketed downstream. I applied pressure as best I could but in short order the fish broke off all my flies, and I reeled up a vacant tapered leader. This bit of excitement provoked Danny to resume casting.

Long Slender Rainbow

Finally after several hours of fruitless casting, I approached a juicy section of the river consisting of large submerged and protruding boulders with nice deep pockets and runs flowing around the current breaks. Normally I view this type of water as prime brown trout habitat, but on Friday the browns seemed to be spread out in shallow riffles and next to the bank. Sure enough as the Charlie boy drifted down along a current seam, it took a dip and I set the hook and fought a spirited fish. When I slid my net beneath the rugged fighter, I discovered a seventeen inch rainbow. I was proud to make this my tenth catch of the day, and the long slender rainbow gave me a temporary boost in confidence.

I convinced Danny to make one more forward leap, so we ascended the steep bank and walked west along the railroad tracks for another 100 yards and then descended to some nice shallow runs and riffles, where we split the sections. I fished my way upstream once again and finally after twenty minutes without success, a fish emerged near my Charlie boy. I set the hook, but either I was premature or the fish refused my fly, and this resulted in another foul hooked incident. The fish got free before I netted it, but the tussle created a huge tangle of all my flies, so I used this as an excuse to call it a day and waded back downstream until I found Danny.

Did we succeed in finding the elusive Arkansas River spring caddis hatch? When compared to several of the exciting experiences of my past when caddis blanketed the river and crawled into every available nook of my physical person, the answer is no. But for two hours on Friday morning, the brown trout in the area of the Arkansas River where we were fishing were feasting on our deer hair caddis with reckless abandon. It may not have been the core caddis emergence, but it was an incredible period of fast action, and we were rewarded with nice fish in the 13 – 17 inch range. No complaints will be voiced by Dave and Danny.

Time: 11:30AM – 6:00PM

Location: Upstream from Vallie Bridge; Fremont – Chafee county line

Fish Landed: 8

Arkansas River 04/30/2015 Photo Album

Every year at this time I visit the Arkansas River in my perpetual quest to locate the sweet spot of the annual grannom caddis hatch. In my 25 years in Colorado I discovered this to be a frustrating hit or miss proposition. In 2015 Danny Ryan joined me in the difficult search for the mythical leading edge of the emergence, as he read the stories but was too new to Colorado and the sport of fly fishing to have experienced the madness. The ArkAnglers report indicated that the hatch advanced to Salida, and caddis were present throughout Big Horn Sheep Canyon. I’ve grown to distrust the fly shop reports as they are always bullish in an effort to attract front range fishermen and their wallets. I’m sure they are truthful in stating that caddis are present, but the density of the hatch and precise location are left to one’s imagination.

I picked Danny up at 8AM on Thursday, and he added his fishing and camping gear to the Santa Fe. We made the uneventful drive southwest on US 285 and then turned left on CO 291 and passed through Salida. We decided to begin our caddis hatch exploration upstream from Vallie Bridge between Coaldale and Howard. This was near our targeted campground, and it was farther downstream than Salida and, therefore, we felt offered a higher likelihood of stumbling into the center of the hatch progression. As we traveled via US 50 along the river below Salida, we were disappointed to find nearly every pullout occupied with multiple vehicles. Was this really a weekday, and would we find fishing space farther downstream?

We made the turn off and crossed Vallie Bridge and then drove west on the dirt road that paralleled the north shore of the river until we reached the lease parking lot. Two vehicles occupied spaces, but we noticed that the owners were returning from the river. We were pleased to discover that we had our choice of river real estate, at least for the moment. It developed into a rather warm day with temperatures eventually peaking in the high 70’s, so we lathered up with sunscreen and made sure we carried adequate water supplies. I broke out my new Sage One five weight, and together we found a nice path across a dry irrigation ditch and then moved through some willows that opened up at the tail of a long deep pool.

Danny claimed the tail of the long pool while I advanced to the head and set up my nymph rig with an ultra zug bug and bright green caddis pupa. I worked the deep run for fifteen minutes, and then I snagged the bottom in an area that was too deep to approach. I eventually pried my flies loose, but the pent up energy from the whipping lift launched the flies into a large branch in a tree above me. I was unable to reach the limb and resigned myself to a total break off. The tree clung to my split shot and two flies. I sat down and reconfigured my nymphing arrangement, but substituted a prince nymph for the ultra zug bug.

Five casts later I lost track of my position under a tree, and I launched my backhand cast into another tree limb. The result of this error in judgment was the same as the previous stroke of bad luck, and I once again donated a split shot and two flies to mother nature. I was now uttering unspeakable words and exhibiting outward signs of extreme frustration, so I sat down once again and decided to abandon the nymph game and instead converted to a double dry fly strategy. I rarely fish two dries, but I loved the idea of showing the fish a Chernobyl ant and a size 16 olive-brown caddis. The Chernobyl was on fire on Clear Creek and the Big Thompson River, so why wouldn’t it work here? The caddis was a no-brainer since quite a few of the winged creatures were on the willows, and we were on the Arkansas River in search of a caddis hatch.

A Caddis in the Corner of This Fish’s Mouth

The ploy worked in short order and a nice chunky 13 inch brown tipped up and slurped in the trailing caddis in a nice run near the bank above the fly thieving trees. My optimism surged as I moved along the bank and popped long prospecting casts to likely trout havens, but alas the success became fleeting.

Danny approached from below and given the lack of action and the warm temperatures, we decided to retreat to the car for lunch. While we ate our small meal, several additional fishermen arrived, and when we returned to our exit point, we discovered that a trio of hopeful anglers usurped our continuation spot. We were not experiencing great success so we circled around them and dropped back to the rivers edge a respectful distance above the other fishermen. I resumed casting the double dry upstream along the bank, and in a twelve foot long and ten foot wide run I enticed a second brown trout to gulp the trailing caddis.

Unfortunately our progress was once again impeded by the presence of another fisherman, so we circled around by climbing a high bank, and then we found a gradual dry wash that enabled us to approach the river’s edge again. We fished some attractive water in this area but then our upstream migration was once again impeded by a large vertical rock wall. The quality of the fishing did not merit continually climbing and descending, so we decided to return to the car and move to another spot.

Upon our return to the car we debated our options. Perhaps moving downstream would put us in the midst of a heavy caddis emergence. On the other hand, I was quite familiar with the quality stretch between Wellsville and Salida, and could attest to the dense population on large brown and rainbow trout. There were no guarantees that we could locate the hatch sweet spot, so we elected to travel west. At a minimum it would be an opportunity to introduce Danny to some quality water, and we could scout it for Friday. There had to be a reason so many fishermen were present in the morning as we traveled east on our trip from Denver.

Danny Walking the Railroad Tracks

We drove thirty minutes west on US 50 and parked along the highway high above the river between Wellsville and Salida. It was now around 3PM and some large dark clouds were building in the western sky as we descended the steep bank and crossed to the north side of the river. After a five minute hike down the railroad tracks, we reached the river and resumed fishing. Since we spotted far fewer caddis on the branches and rocks along the river, we abandoned the caddis dry fly approach and converted to dry/dropper fishing.

I began with a Chernobyl ant, ultra zug bug and beadhead hares ear and started prospecting a wide shelf pool. A shelf pool is a place where the main current pushes water to the side creating a steeply tapering trough between the main current and the shoreline. My attitude improved when I foul hooked a brown in the first pool because at least the fish showed interest. I circled around Danny and advanced to the wide riffle at the top of the shelf pool, and here I began drifting my trio of flies along the inside seam. Yikes, the Chernobyl dipped, and I reacted with a swift hook set and instantly felt the weight of a decent fish. I carefully landed a nice chunky brown trout and gently removed the ultra zug bug from its lip.

Next I waded across the riffle, and as the flies dangled downstream in the current a small brown slammed the ultra zug bug. Clearly I was experiencing a dramatic change in fortunes. The sky was now quite overcast and a brisk breeze kicked up from time to time. The weather changed, and it seemed the fish grew more active. I released the small brown and positioned myself in the middle of the riffle so I could effectively reach a nice deep seam where the currents merged below the tip of the island. I made several casts and allowed the flies to drift through the deep slot created by the merging currents, and on the fifth such pass, the foam top fly dipped at the downstream tail of the trough. The weight on the end of my line streaked upstream and then down until I applied side pressure and maneuvered a hefty fifteen inch brown trout into my net. Nice!

Zoomed in on a Gorgeous Brown

Next we moved into the right channel around a small narrow island, and Danny worked the middle and right side while I advanced along the left half of the braid. My dry/dropper combination covered the length of the left side of the north channel, and I landed two additional quality brown trout. In the process of landing the first fish, the bottom fly broke off, so I replaced it with a soft hackle emerger with no bead, and this fly yielded the second brown.

Still Working

Meanwhile Danny was working through some ill fortune. He managed to land one nice brown, but this was the only fish to find the net out of six opportunities. Two Amy’s ants were left in the lips of fish, and one heavy fighter sawed off Danny’s juju nymph on a large subsurface rock.

Definitely an Ultra Zug Bug

We skipped the water above the island and then covered the quality deep pockets and runs before reaching our crossing point. In one sweet spot where two currents merged near the bank, I hooked a hot rainbow, but as I guided the feisty fish toward Danny to net, it performed a quick U-turn and slipped free of my hook. Danny got a good look at the fish and described a rainbow in excess of fifteen inches.

The soft hackle emerger seemed to be irrelevant in the late afternoon, so I swapped it with a LaFontaine dark gray diving caddis. I was anticipating egg laying adult caddis becoming active in the late afternoon and early evening. The ploy worked as I landed a medium sized brown from a run behind a boulder as the wet fly began to swing at the end of the drift. When we reached our crossing point, we decided to call it quits and  returned to the car and ultimately to the Vallie Bridge Campground.

After a tasty chicken red curry dinner, Danny spotted some rising fish along the south bank of the river below Vallie Bridge, so he put on his waders and made the crossing. I tagged along and stayed on the bridge to watch his persistent efforts to dupe one of the risers. The fish continued to rise sporadically throughout the twilight period, but the activity seemed to happen in brief waves. Danny rotated through an array of flies until finally trying one of my Chernobyl ants at dusk. I looked away momentarily, but upon hearing some serious thrashing, I whirled around in time to see a fish shake the fly from its lip. Danny was disappointed for a moment, but eventually we both celebrated his ability to actually entice a take on a Chernobyl ant in near darkness.

Danny Works the Water at Dusk Below Vallie Bridge

It was a fitting way to end a strange day on the Arkansas River. We failed to locate the fabled caddis hatch and suffered through a dead period during the middle of the day only to stumble into some decent action on a portion of the river that appeared to be largely devoid of caddis. Danny was frustrated by his inability to land a higher percentage of his hook ups, but he did generate some action. He was haunted by the large brown that sawed him off on a rock, and his goal for Friday became seeking revenge on the elusive Arkansas brown trout in the area we fished on Thursday late afternoon.

Our Campsite Viewed from the Bridge

Time: 11:00AM – 3:30PM

Location: Lunch Rock and Chafee-Fremont Country Line

Fish Landed: 5

Arkansas River 04/24/2015 Photo Album

Overcast skies, dense blue winged olive hatches, and a caddis emergence were in my dreams as I anticipated my planned fishing trip to the Arkansas River on Friday. I read the Royal Gorge Angler reports as well as ArkAnglers, and I was convinced that the stars were aligned for some fantastic fishing.

Jane decided to join me for this cool spring day, and we departed from Denver at 7AM. I planned to fish from the lease stretch west of Vallie Bridge, so we followed the route through Colorado Springs instead of route 285 that I usually choose for trips to the Salida area. During my fishing trip to Wyoming, I realized that I needed a spool of 3X tippet and a pack of tapered leaders, so we stopped at Royal Gorge Anglers along the way and made that purchase.

By the time we drove west through Big Horn Sheep canyon, we arrived at the Vallie Bridge lease by 10:30, and I began to prepare to fish. There were two cars in the parking lot, and as I pulled on my waders two additional vehicles arrived with a total of seven fishermen. I was quite concerned about the availability of open water given the number of fishermen in the parking lot, so Jane suggested we move to another spot, and I readily agreed with her proposal.

We continued west on route 50 until we reached Lunch Rock just beyond the Wellsville Bridge. A small RV was parked in front of us, but when I walked out on Lunch Rock, I could not find any other fishermen in the area. After I assembled my Sage One five weight and attached a new tapered leader, I began fishing in front of the large rock and continued up the river along the south bank. I began with a strike indicator, split shot, emerald caddis pupa, and RS2; and after fifteen minutes of fruitless prospecting, I managed to hook and land a twelve inch brown trout. Since it was the first fish of the day, I paused for a few minutes to snap a photograph.

First Fish Landed on the Arkansas on a RS2

Unfortunately the brown trout represented my total action in the morning before I paused for lunch at noon. I returned to the car and found Jane exploring the stone beach next to the huge eddy and pool below Lunch Rock. We both grabbed our lunches and munched them next to the river. Large high slate gray clouds covered the sky, and a constant breeze kept me on the edge of being uncomfortable, so after lunch I pulled on a fleece layer and my New Zealand hat with ear flaps.

Overcast Day Did Not Deliver a BWO Hatch

I did not see any fishermen downstream from Lunch Rock, so I decided to explore that area after lunch. I walked along the shoulder of the highway for .3 mile until I found a spot where I could climb over the barbed wire fence that blocked my access to the river. Once I was next to the river, I traversed a path along the top of a steep bank until I found an angled path that allowed me to easily descend to the edge of the river. Almost immediately I encountered a long pool with a slight riffle as the river flowed over a moderate depth. This water was extremely attractive, and I judged it to be a prime spot to occupy should a hatch evolve.

Nice Section of Slow Riffles Over Moderate Depth

At this point I had a beadhead prince nymph with a RS2, and I made some great drifts with no results. I exchanged the prince nymph for a bright green caddis, and still I was thwarted in my attempts to harvest the gorgeous pool. As I was changing flies and prospecting the water the sky darkened, and a breeze kicked up, and I spotted a couple caddis skittering across the surface. Shortly after making this observation, some sporadic splashy rises commenced. I maintained my methodical wet fly approach and attempted to impart some lifting action near the spots where I observed rises, but all these ploys were to no avail.

I could not believe that the beautiful stretch of water in front of me held no fish, so I decided to jettison the nymph rig and convert to a single dry fly. My fly of choice was a size 16 deer hair caddis with a dark olive-brown body. This fly proved to be a great choice, as I landed three fine twelve inch brown trout on the caddis imitation. I spent quite a bit of time in the area, but the rises were very spaced out and sporadic, and prospecting the tiny caddis dry fly without the benefit of a rise seemed quite futile. After fifteen minutes without any rises, I decided to explore new water upstream. The next attractive area consisted of a nice deep run that fanned out from a large vertical rock along the left bank.

Note Deer Hair Caddis in Mouth

Again I spotted two or three random rises and began drifting my deer hair caddis in the vicinity of the riseforms. Eventually after quite a bit of casting, I induced a small brown to slurp my dry fly. The fly actually dragged a bit at the end of the drift, and this provoked a savage attack.

The sparse caddis hatch only lasted an hour or even less, and once the rises ceased to expose fish, I grew impatient with trying to follow the tiny caddis. I added a gray stimulator in front of the caddis and fished a pair of dries for awhile, but this ploy did not yield any results.

A pair of fishermen appeared above me, so I circled around them and then skipped some marginal water and arrived at Jane’s sand bar. I had pretty much exhausted the possibilities around Lunch Rock, so Jane and I jumped in the car and drove west to the Fremont – Chafee county line. Here I descended the path to a perch high above the river and a large pool, and I began probing the depths with an emerald caddis pupa and RS2. These flies attracted no response so I moved upstream and cast to all the likely deep runs and pockets for another fifty yards, but the river was devoid of fish as far as I was concerned.

I was about to return to the car to call it quits when I remembered that I had a five weight sinking tip line in my backpack, so I removed my floating line and replaced it with the sinking tip and attached a peanut envy to the end of the tippet. I worked the articulated streamer for another twenty minutes and saw one small trout follow the fly and also felt a bump in the large pool next to the high rock where I began. It was fun to work the pulsing streamer, but unfortunately it did not reward me with a fish.

I have to admit that Friday was a disappointment. Five fish in four hours is a subpar catch rate, and the average size of the fish was below average. The weather was chilly and blustery, but I believe I determined that the main caddis hatch has not yet migrated to upper Big Horn Sheep canyon, so I will look for future opportunities to meet the 2015 caddis emergence.