Time: 9:30AM – 3:00PM

Location: Bottom of hill just before RV campground and then just above Grandpa’s Retreat

Fish Landed: 9

Big Thompson River 07/18/2013 Photo Album

After a slow hot day on the Colorado River on Wednesday I had another day available to fish since the office manager didn’t have June ready for my attention so I decided to make a trip to the Big Thompson River below Lake Estes. Flows have been at 125 cfs for several months now and fish tend to love consistency. The other option was the North Fork of the St. Vrain, and that was tempting, but I’d been there twice recently and I was looking for something different. I checked out the various fly shop reports on the Big Thompson before I departed at 7:30AM and all suggested that the fishing was reasonably good.

I arrived along the stream at around 9AM and parked on the right shoulder just above the RV park at a large bend. Quite a few of the pullouts upstream were already occupied and I continue to be amazed by the pressure this relatively small stream receives. I suspect Rocky Mountain National Park attracts a lot of tourists and they decide to hire a guide for the day and the Big Thompson in the canyon is the best local fishery.

It was already quite warm for 9:30AM as I waded into the Big Thompson just above the last RV. As is my custom I began with a Chernobyl ant and a beadhead hares ear and it didn’t take long before I landed an eleven inch brown as I lifted to recast, but then I began noticing refusals to the Chernobyl ant so I clipped off the two fly combo and began experimenting with different dries that the fish might be willing to eat. I tried a light gray caddis and a small stimulator with a green body but this didn’t even prompt refusals. Eventually I went back to the dry/dropper with a yellow Letort hopper and a salvation nymph, and the nymph produced a nine inch rainbow. After an hour of fishing I’d landed two fish, but I was covering a lot of territory in order to land a few fish and the air was getting warmer.

I worked my way up along the roadside bank prospecting all the decent pockets and slots and landed another small six inch rainbow on the salvation nymph, but I experienced a long dry spell so I decided to replace the salvation nymph with a bright green caddis pupa under the theory that the reports mentioned caddis and a pupa with some movement might create some interest. Sure enough as I was climbing over some rocks to move upstream I allowed my flies to dangle behind me and a rainbow nailed the caddis. I played it for a bit and could see it was a rainbow when it leaped from the water, but then it turned in some faster water and the fly came free.

It was now 11:15 so I decided to return to the car and eat my lunch and exchange my Loomis five weight for my Sage four weight as this is a stiffer rod and better for deep nymphing. After lunch I returned to a nice deep slot and began working the nymphs deep with a lot of movement. You don’t know until you try, and in this case I tried  with no results.  I grew bored with nymphing and hadn’t the fish at least been looking toward the surface and refusing the Chernobyl ant? I removed all the nymphing gear and returned to a gray parachute hopper with the beadhead hares ear below and returned to popping the dry/dropper into the likely pockets.

Pretty Rainbow from Big Thompson

Sure enough in one nice pocket a rainbow tipped up and confidently slurped the parachute hopper, but the success did not repeat as several refusals ensued. By now the sky was getting dark and some large gray clouds were building to the west and I could hear distant thunder. I didn’t think it would rain much so I ignored the weather for awhile, but then the rain intensified so I waded to shore and pulled my raincoat from my backpack and slid it on under my wader straps. I pondered the success on the parachute hopper and then the refusals and remembered that one of the fishing reports mentioned drakes as a hatch that was present. I’d seen them on the Big Thompson quite a few years ago. Fish have a long memory for green drakes, so could they be mistaking the gray parachute hopper for a green drake?

Another Nice Rainbow from Big T

I had nothing to lose so I pulled out one of the brand new parachute green drakes I’d tied this winter and tied it to my line. It looked great with a clump of long moose mane fibers for the tail and a white calf body wing that I colored gray with a marker and left the tip white for visibility. I applied floatant and flicked it upstream in a nice pocket and, wham, it disappeared in a confident swirl. Was this a tease like previous single hit flies? I continued casting the green drake and landed two more rainbows in the process, and I was quite excited by this discovery. Unfortunately the water wasn’t offering many good holding spots so I progressed quite rapidly to an area where another fisherman had just been so I decided to exit, return to the car, and drive to another location.

Parachute Green Drake Produced

It continued to rain lightly as I drove further east on the highway and stopped at the small pullout just before the dirt road that leads to Grandpa’s Retreat. I jumped out of the car and grabbed my rod and gear and walkded down the dirt road until I spotted an RV parked along the shoulder. I wasn’t sure if this was a fisherman, so I decided to cut down to the water ten yards above the RV. I began casting the green drake but now the thunder grew louder and some flashes of lightning lit up the sky. The wind and rain picked up a bit, but I continued on and two more rainbows rose to the green drake. Unfortunately an increasing number of refusals were also occuring and it seemed I was covered more juicy spots with no reaction.

I had now landed nine fish so I focused extra hard to try and net number ten and this led me to an extremely juicy hole just down from the Santa Fe. I flicked the green drake to the foam line in the center of the hole and allowed it to drift right along the current seam to the tail. With my polaroid sunglasses I could see one, then two and then three rainbows rise to within six inches of the fly and then drop back down. I witnessed a triple refusal! It was clear that these fish were not going to be duped by the green drake so I ran through some fly changes….a light gray caddis, a lime green trude and an ant. They were having none of them and I was beginning to feel a bit chilled and it was approaching 3PM with no sign of let up in the weather so I called it a day and returned to the car.

In summary it was a slow day on the Big Thompson, but I at least unlocked the secret to some decent surface action in the afternoon. It was gratifying to see the success created by my parachute green drake invention. I was surprsed that the overcast and light rain didn’t initiate more hatching activity.

Time: 3:30PM – 5:30PM

Location: Downstream from Moraine Park and Bear Lake Road toward YMCA camp

Fish Landed: 3

Big Thompson River 07/13/2013 Photo Album

Having experienced the worst fishing ever on Roaring River, Jane and I packed up our gear and hiked down the Lawn Lake trail to the car and proceeded to drive to the Moraine Park area. Some dark clouds had moved in from the west and the sky was becoming threatening so we made sure we had our raincoats as we began hiking the trail along the Big Thompson River. We continued under the Bear Lake Road bridge and followed the path for a ways until we hit a wide path that led to a pedestrian bridge over the river.

Jane set up her hammock between some trees on the other side of the river and I waded in to a nice spot just above the bridge. I went back to my Chernobyl ant and salvation nymph and began prospecting the slack water along the side of the main run hoping I could induce a strike while Jane watched from the bridge, but I wasn’t so lucky. I moved up along the right bank and found a nice spot with a deep narrow slot about three fourths of the way across the river. I began casting high in the smooth water between faster currents and saw the foam ant dip and reacted with a hook set. Sure enough I felt momentary weight and spotted a fish flashing near the surface, but the weight disappeared in an instant.

I cast again and higher in the three foot slick area the same scenario repeated, and I was even more frustrated with my inability to land a fish. From this point until 5:30 I worked upstream and fished from small pocket to small pocket. The entire width of the river was 100% pocket water and I popped casts into each one that appeared deep enough and long enough to hold fish. This method of fishing involves short casts, keeping the rod high and the line off the water, and very short drifts before drag takes over. The other main accompaniment to pocket fishing is rock climbing. I carefully moved from boulder to boulder until I was in position to peer over the rim of the next upstream rocks into another pocket.

Difficult Wading

The Chernobyl and salvation nymph were not producing so I tried some caddis, but these also didn’t bring any action to my rod, so I eventually tied on a lime green trude. This fly elicited some refusals but also accounted for the three small fish I landed during the remaining time I fished. Two were six inch browns and one was a 6-7 inch rainbow. Some dark clouds moved in and it began to rain, but not enough to make my fishing shirt totally wet so I fished on.

But then I heard some thunder and saw some lightning and I heard a voice on the bank and it was Jane coming to be my better judgment and reeling me in from a poor fishing experience. I fished a couple attractive small pools as she looked on and almost fell in when my foot got wedged between two rocks. I did land the third small brown while she observed and then retreated to the bank and walked with Jane back to the car.

It was a rather frustrating fishing day in Rocky Mountain National Park, but the scenery was spectacular and I had the companionship of my lovely wife and I purchased a $10 lifetime admittance to all national parks so it was still a pretty good day in Colorado.

Time: 11:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Grandpa’s Retreat upstream

Fish Landed: 6

Big Thompson River 05/13/2013 Photo Album

Was my slow day on Friday on the Arkansas River evidence that the delayed snow melt was finally commencing? Was it a lull in the early season insect emergence cycle? Was it an inability of the fisherman to solve the ever changing riddle of trout feeding habits?

With high temperatures projected to reach the 80’s on Monday and a bit of a lull in my workload, I decided to try a different stream and settled on the Big Thompson as the flows were at 103 cfs, and my experience has taught me that this is a decent stream level for fishing. In fact, I researched this fishing blog and discovered that I fished the Big Thompson on May 10, 2011 when flows were 95 cfs, and I landed 13 trout mostly on a beadhead hares ear and a beadhead emerald caddis pupa. On Monday the time of the year and flows matched my 2011 trip rather closely.

Nice Area That I Covered

Unfortunately my fish catching experience did not match up as favorably. I fished intensely from 11AM until 4PM and landed six fish and all but one were brown trout with one rainbow in the mix. I couldn’t find a fly or combination of flies that produced consistently during this time period, but I certainly experimented with a number of standby patterns. I began with a pool toy trailing a beadhead hares ear and had a few momentary hook ups on the hares ear. The pool toy eventually became quite water logged so I swapped it for a Chernobyl ant. I noticed some BWO’s emerging early between 11:30 and 1:00PM and tried a RS2 and then a soft hackle emerger. Eventually I spotted some rising fish and tried a CDC BWO and pricked a couple fish. When the rising ended I decided to stay with a single dry and tied on a olive brown deer hair caddis and managed to land a pair of browns.

Small Rainbow Typical of Monday Catch

This success didn’t last so I experimented with a larger stimulator with an olive body and this produced no interest. I remembered that during my 2011 visit I used a yellow Letort hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear or beadhead emerald caddis, so I tried these combinations. The emerald caddis produced one brown and a rainbow and one small brown actually rose and slurped the yellow hopper. I covered a lot of water with the hopper/dropper and went through a period where the hopper was attracting refusals, so I reverted to the olive brown caddis and landed my last small brown.

I probably had an equal number of fish that were hooked for a moment and then escaped, so the action was somewhat better than the fish count would indicate. Despite this, it was a slow day and I could never find a fly that produced in a consistent manner. Perhaps the warm air temperatures and sunny skies were the main reason, but I think I am going to rest my arm and body for a bit and focus on gardening before returning to my fly fishing passion.

Time: 10:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: AM in area across from first large turnaround after private section and in PM from Grandpa’s Retreat upstream

Fish Landed: 10

Big Thompson River 04/28/2013 Photo Album

As the first nice days of spring continued through the last weekend of April and into the first part of the week, I felt a strong urge to spend another day on a Colorado trout stream. I had work commitments for Tuesday and a dentist appointment on Wednesday morning, and then the weather was forecast to take a turn to a cold state again, but Monday was open so I announced my absence and planned a fishing trip. The caddis emergence on the Arkansas appeared to be lagging according to the reports from Royal Gorge Angler and ArkAnglers, and I didn’t want to make the long trip again without the strong probability of hitting the major hatch. I had a nice day on the Big Thompson on April 25 and the flows had increased moderately to 53 cfs, so I made Estes Park my destination. Temperatures were expected to hit 80 degrees in Denver, so I expected a pleasant day in the Big Thompson canyon below Lake Estes.

I departed Denver by 9:30AM and took the I25 North route and then cut over north of Longmont to Lyons to avoid the Boulder Turnpike and the associated road construction. I arrived at the river by 10:15 and I was making my first cast by 10:30. I chose a spot perhaps .5-1 mile below where I’d fished on Thursday where there is a large pullout/turnaround on the right side of the highway when traveling east. Once again I elected to fish with my new Orvis four weight and hiked down the road a bit until I encountered a parked car and looked for the associated fisherman. Sure enough another fisherman was located approximately forty yards downstream from the car, so I turned around and descended the small bank and began fishing above the car and slightly below a long narrow island.

Since the Chernobyl ant and salvation nymph combination worked well for me on my prior visit, I tied on the same combination and began prospecting the likely locations. The area below the island offered no interest from fish and then I worked up the narrow right channel around the island. Toward the tip of the island I made a long 25-30 foot cast and as the Chernobyl made a four foot drift toward me, it paused. I lifted my rod and a spunky brown trout bolted downstream and made several leaps. I landed the spunky guy and quickly released it to go on with its humble life. Things were looking promising as I’d landed a fish in the first 15 minutes on a beautiful spring day. Sometimes the early signs can be quite misleading.

With fresh optimism I retreated to the bottom of the island and worked up the wider and deeper left channel. I spotted quite a few fish, but they were showing no interest in either of my offerings. I fished hard for the remainder of the morning and covered all the likely pools, runs, pockets and riffles until I reached a point across and slightly below my car. I had nothing to show for my efforts except a tiring arm and a few tangles caused by the wind. I saw quite a few fish and experimented with many fly combinations including a deer hair caddis, yellow Letort hopper, beadhead hares ear, RS2, and beadhead pheasant tail.

After lunch next to the stream I converted to nymphing with a beadhead hares ear on top and a RS2 on the bottom. There were two very nice deep runs near my lunch spot and 10 yards upstream where I was certain the nymphs would produce, but my confidence was misplaced. I looked upstream and noticed another fisherman had cut in fifty yards above me and I realized I would not be able to progress further in this area. I did manage to land a second small rainbow in a pocket above the deep run, but then I was forced to return to the car and evaluate my next move.

My next move was to drive further downstream and look for open pullouts. Quite a few fishermen were also drawn to the river by the nice weather forecast, but a mile or so of travel yielded a small pullout just before the dirt road that leads to Grandpa’s Retreat. I quickly slipped into the space and grabbed my rod and walked down the road to a point just above the no trespassing signs. I removed the strike indicator and split shot and decided to return to my gold standard; a Chernobyl ant trailing a beadhead hares ear. Unfortunately the value of gold must have depreciated because these flies were not producing results other than a few refusals to the Chernobyl. Clearly the fish were looking up, but what would make them close the deal? Perhaps a smaller attractor was the answer, and could they be looking for wind blown ants on the surface? I found a lime green trude attractor in my patch and then added a parachute black ant. The white wing of the trude would allow me to follow the two dry flies.

By this time on Monday another huge factor came into play…wind. It had been vexing in the morning, but now the velocity really picked up. In the AM the wind was largely a cross wind, and this made it quite difficult to deliver my flies with any sort of accuracy. In the early afternoon the wind was a headwind and in order to cast my flies, I had to overpower the forward stroke. This allowed me to get the flies upstream, but I couldn’t check my cast and create slack to counteract drag. This may explain my lack of success with dry flies and the greater than normal refusals. The trude and ant combination proved to be no different, and I observed two or three refusals to the trailing ant.

As the afternoon moved along some high clouds blocked the sun and I began to observe some BWO’s ascending from the surface of the stream, and it wasn’t long before I noticed some rising fish. I clipped off the trude and ant and tied on a CDC BWO to see if I could cash in on the surface feeding activity. Unfortunately I lost awareness of my position and hooked my newly tied-on fly high in a tree, and spent a fair amount of time bending the limb down to retrieve it. I moved upstream a small distance and guess what happened? I did it again and scrambled to remove my fly a second time. This removal was much more difficult than the first, and I created quite a tussle with the tree. At last I was free and ready to focus on the rising trout, but as I reached for my plastic floatant dispenser that is tethered by a section of backing and usually lodged in a small pocket on my frontpack, I discovered that it was missing and all that remained was the frayed end of my backing cord. I didn’t relish the idea of fishing dry flies without floatant so I retraced my steps to the scene of my battle with the tree and sure enough found the red capped floatant bottle on the rocks beneath the tree. I knotted the remaining backing cord and resumed my quest for trout. It was proving to be one of those days, and I was mentally thankful that I hadn’t broken my rod or reel, fallen in the river, or punctured my waders.

Typical Rainbow

Finally I was positioned by a nice stretch of river of moderate depth and spotted rising fish. It was still difficult to place my casts with any degree of accuracy using the tiny CDC BWO and without introducing the dreaded drag, but I did manage to land eight trout in the 8-12 inch range between 2PM and 4PM. I discovered that getting above rising fish and making casts down and across and then letting the fly drift downstream to the position of the riser was the most effective method of catching fish. This was easier said than done, however, and not all situations allowed me to execute this technique without spooking the fish.

Fish Taken Tight Against Rock

By 4PM I’d wrestled with a couple more trees and lost a couple CDC BWO’s and the hatch seemed to be waning. I was weary of fighting the wind and the everpresent tangles and tree limbs so I decided to retreat to the car. It was a tough, humbling day on the Big Thompson and I was pleased to have landed 10 fish and not injure myself in the process. I did discover that there are quite a few fish in the stretch from Grandpa’s Retreat boundary back up to where the Big Thompson parallels the highway, and this information will prove useful in the future.

Time: 11:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Downstream from first bridge after Noel’s Draw and back up to bend

Fish Landed: 17

Big Thompson River 04/25/2013 Photo Album

After another April cold snap and snowstorm I was anxious to get out on Colorado streams. I checked both flows and weather before settling on the Big Thompson River below Lake Estes. The DWR web site indicated flows of 40 cfs, but because this area is higher in elevation than the Arkansas and South Platte drainages, I was concerned about how cold it would be. The high in Denver was forecast to be low 60’s so that translated to low 50’s near Estes Park. I decided to give it a shot, but planned to depart at around 9:30PM and expected to be on the water by 11AM. This allowed time for air temperatures to rise to reasonable levels.

This plan worked pretty well and it was 49 degrees when I arrived at the first bridge downstream from Noel’s Draw and quickly prepared to fish. I wore my Under Armour long sleeve shirt along with my fishing shirt, fleece, and raincoat as a wind breaker and I was comfortable for most of the time I fished. I elected to test my Orvis four weight rod for the first time in 2013 since the Big Thompson is a smaller stream and the flows were relatively low. I decided to walk downstream across the bridge and then another 100 yards or so beyond a small bend in the river to a point where the bank was lower and the water spread out a bit. My choice for the initial stretch of fishing was a Chernobyl ant and a salvation nymph and this performed rather well as I landed five trout before I broke for lunch at 12:30PM. The first three fish of the day, two browns and one rainbow, were some of the largest I would land, so that was an auspicious start. I also noticed several splashy refusals presumably to the Chernobyl ant.

Beautiful Colors on This Big T Rainbow

When I reached a cement structure that funneled runoff from the road to the river, I climbed up the rocky bank and broke for lunch. As usual I munched my lunch along the river even though the air temperature was probably in the low 50’s. I mysteriously broke off the salvation nymph right before lunch so I replaced it with a beadhead hares ear nymph after lunch, and this yielded three small fish, two from a deep hole slightly upstream from the cement culvert where I ended my morning fishing session.

40 cfs and Snow Visible on Hillside

When I waded above the bridge I noticed several active fish below the surface as they darted from side to side to intercept some form of drifting food. Unfortunately they were not interested in my Chernobyl ant or beadhead hares ear nymph, so I swapped the BHHE for a salvation nymph and then added a RS2 as a third fly and second dropper. I managed to prick one fish most likely on the tiny RS2, and then I observed a few fish actually break the surface as they sipped a tiny morsel from the film. It didn’t take long before I noticed some small BWO’s drifting slowly up from the surface of the stream, so I removed the three fly combo and replaced them with a single CDC BWO. It didn’t take very long before I landed a deeply colored rainbow on the tiny olive imitation.

Another Brightly Colored Rainbow

Between 2 and 3PM I enjoyed some great suface action and landed six rainbows on the CDC BWO as well as experiencing several momentary hookups. Toward the end of this period before I moved upstream I hooked and landed a nice rainbow that was feeding in some relatively shallow smooth water 25 feet across from me. As I played this fish I noticed at least fifteen other fish scatter due to the splashing and commotion created by my hooked fish. I was amazed at the number of fish that were dispersed across this area just upstream of the bridge.

After the fish scatter event I decided to move on and skipped the faster water between the Santa Fe and the next bend in the river. I cut down to the river where there is a tiny island and just above the island there is a nice deep run with some small pools on either side. Here I spotted two fish rising on the right side and I began making some long casts and checking them high to create some slack upon landing. It took awhile, and I experienced a momentary hook up with the larger of the two fish, but eventually I duped the smaller rainbow into sipping my fly and landed it. Next I moved to the left side of the deep run and shot a cast to the top of the smooth area along the current seam. I didn’t see any rises or spot any fish, but as the fly drifted four feet, a silvery dart emerged from the bottom and shot a foot to the right and inhaled my imitation. This was the most exciting take of the afternoon, and I landed a fine Big Thompson rainbow.

Nice Run Delivered Two Fish

The stretch of water above the pool was not as conducive to prospecting with the tiny CDC BWO and the hatch had pretty much subsided, so I decided to switch to an olive brown size 14 deer hair caddis. I’d spotted a few caddis flitting about so felt this might attract a few aggressive fish still looking toward the surface for a meal. This move proved to be reasonably correct and I landed three more smaller fish, one rainbow and two browns, on the caddis before quitting at 4PM.

All in all it was an enjoyable day particularly the BWO surface action between 2 and 3PM. I’d fished the area above the bridge many times before but never experienced much success, but the emergence of the tiny mayflies apparently made these fish more susceptible to my offerings.

Time: 9:30AM – 2:30PM

Location: .5 mile below end of catch and release water

Fish Landed: 18

Big Thompson River 10/03/2012 Photo Album

Wednesday was forecast to be the last nice day until early the following week so I decided to once again take a fishing day. The flows on South Boulder Creek were back up to 107 cfs so I was tempted to give that nearby stream a try. Waterton Canyon was still running at depressingly low levels of 30 and I didn’t want to invest in the preparation and physical exertion required to bike up the canyon with flows that low. The Big Thompson flows were up to 75 and I tied tiny size 24 flies for the BWO hatch and hadn’t had a chance to deploy them there, so that became my destination. It was supposed to reach the low 80’s in Denver, and then a cold front was expected to move in and create a 20 degree plunge in temperatures. I decided to fish until the plunge arrived.

Beginning Point on Wednesday

I decided to drive downstream below the dam beyond the end of the special regulation water. I did this in the afternoon a year ago and had some reasonable success, and I felt this area was not as crowded as the catch and release water. I arrived at a nice wide pullout .5 miles downstream from the special regulation water and was in a position to fish by 9:30. I tied on one of the newly minted yellow Letort hoppers and added a beadhead hares ear beneath and began working my way upstream. The gradient was pretty steep so I performed quite a bit of rock climbing along the bank and moved from plunge pool to pool while I skipped cascades and rapids in between.

Typical Small Colorful Rainbow

I landed four trout in the first hour, but the action seemed quite slow in spite of this as I covered a lot of water and made many casts. In the second hour I broke off the beadhead hares ear and elected to convert to a salvation nymph as my dropper. The newly discovered productive fly really performed and I landed another 10 trout before breaking for lunch. I discovered that most of my catches were in narrow deep slots right next to the bank typically with tall grass growing and predominantly rainbows attacked the salvation on the lift.

Salvation Nymph Produced

Unfortunately right before lunch another factor came into play in a major way and that was wind. Extremely strong gusts blasted down the canyon intermittently and I had to stoop into the wind, grasp my hat and hold my flies out to avoid getting toppled over. Unfortunately this wasn’t enough and a powerful sudden blast caught me by surprise which resulted in my losing footing and momentarily falling in some shallow water. Only a tiny amount of water trickled over my waders, and it wasn’t enough to cause me to quit or even discomfort, but the wind certainly took much of the fun out of fishing. It was nearly impossible to cast, and when I was able to execute a forward cast between gusts, accuracy was absent.

After lunch the wind continued to howl and unfortunately the fishing slowed so I was really losing interest. From noon until 2:30 when I retired for the day I landed another four trout, but the amount of action did not compensate for the frustration of climbing rocks and battling the wind. Over the last hour I switched the salvation nymph for one of the new Craven soft hackle emergers that I tied the night before, and I managed to land a nice rainbow on the emerger, but that was the extent of its effectiveness.

Chubby Rainbow

The wind literally blew me off the water. I landed 18 fish, and that was rather rewarding considering the conditions, but perhaps only one fish reached 12 inches. Perhaps two of my netted fish were browns and the remainder were rainbows. The rainbows were brightly colored but rarely extended beyond seven or eight inches, so that may have been another reason for my disappointment. As to the BWO hatch, I may have left before it occurred but I can’t imagine the tiny mayflies spending any time on the surface of the water with the strong gusts of wind present in the canyon. When I arrived back in Denver, Jane and I dropped off the Santa Fe for a 30,000 mile service appointment and the temperature did in fact plummet from 85 to 65 in the matter of 30 minutes. I was certainly glad I escaped the wind before the temperature took a dive as well.

Time: 9:30AM – 1:30PM

Location: Same locations as Tuesday except in reverse order

Fish Landed: 15

Big Thompson River 09/27/2012 Photo Album

Jane and I had plans to join friends for dinner at 5:30PM on Thursday in Castle Rock, so I had to limit my travel time for fishing and; therefore, chose the Big Thompson River again. I got off to a nice early start and that enabled me to be on the water by 9:30AM. Once again it was quite chilly as I began fishing in the morning and I bundled up with two layers and my stocking hat. Initially I parked in the same location where I ended my fishing on Tuesday, but as I began to walk toward the river another fisherman appeared in the very location I intended to fish just above the private residence.

I walked back to the car, stashed my stuff, and drove up the road .2 miles and parked. I walked back down the road and began fishing just above the spot where I quit on Tuesday. The other fisherman was not visible, so I gave him quite a bit of real estate to cover. I began with a Chernobyl ant and a beadhead hares ear and began prospecting upstream. I covered quite a bit of water during the morning and the fishing was fairly slow as I landed 8 or 9 with two taking the Chernobyl on the surface and the others gobbling the subsurface hares ear nymph.

I reached a point above the car where the river went around a ninety degree bend away from the road. There were no trespassing signs on the opposite side of the river, but none on my side so I continued fishing. Shortly I came to a beautiful deep rocky pool and I began flicking casts just off the current seam in the slack water next to the bank under some overhanging branches. By this time I’d lost a beadhead hares ear and tied on a salvation nymph to preserve my dwindling supply of hares ears. I landed three nice trout in the area between the current and the bank including a beautiful rainbow that fell for the salvation. In fact all three fish liked the salvation, and I was quite pleased to have found another productive attractor nymph fly.

Pretty Rainbow Took Salvation

I continued a bit further along the left side of the stream but when I circled around the boulders at the top of the sweet area where I landed three fish, I noticed a white no trespassing sign ahead. I suspect I was OK fishing where I was, but further progress was clearly off limits based on the sign so I retreated and crossed the river and returned to the Santa Fe.

I decided to return to the first bridge below Noel’s Draw to fish for the remainder of my time on the Big Thompson. I recalled that two fishermen jumped in above me on Tuesday, so I had never migrated upstream to the area I love where the river makes a big bend and runs behind a nice cabin. I began fishing on the road side twenty yards below the large bend and experienced three decent hook ups, but I didn’t land any of them. Despite this frustration, I continued on and landed a small brown to the right of the island just below the big bend, and then landed a nice brown in the deep current seam right below the point of the island.

The next section of water was very attractive with numerous deep pockets, but I wasn’t generating any action except for a few refusals so I switched to a light gray caddis with a beadhead RS2 knotted to the bend in anticipation of BWO emergence activity. The last four trout landed came from the stretch of water behind the cabin and they inhaled the RS2, but the action was quite slow. Normally this water produces nice quantities of above average fish. The angle of the sun also made it very difficult to see the small caddis as it drifted from shadows to glaring sunlight and back. One of the four landed was a nice rainbow and the last fish landed was a 12″ brown that darted out from an obscure lie tight to the bank.

Another Nice Rainbow from Big T

As I reeled up my line at 1:30 to make sure I had adequate time to drive back to Denver and prepare for dinner, some very dark clouds rolled in from the west and I could hear distant thunder. It was probably time to quit for reasons other than a dinner commitment.

Pocket Water Above Bend and Cabin

Time: 1:30PM – 3:00PM

Location: Downstream from catch and release area just above town of Drake

Fish Landed: 1

I continued north from Wild Basin to Estes Park and traveled along the Big Thompson River downstream from Lake Estes. There weren’t many fishermen for a holiday so I probably should have taken that as a sign. Flows looked pretty decent from the highway and when I checked them later they were around 130. For some reason I decided to skip beyond the catch and release water and drove on until I was near the town of Drake. I remembered a time last year when the catch and release was crowded and I went below and had some great action, but this was much further downstream than the previous experience.

Very Red

As it turns out the gradient was pretty steep where I began fishing and combined with the somewhat higher flows, there were limited holding spots for the fish. Unlike the St. Vrain, the Big Thompson has very little foliage and trees to shade the water so I was standing in direct sun the entire time and temperatures were definitely in the 80’s. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the fish apparently weren’t very hungry. I tested all manner of flies and approaches including a royal stimulator, lime green trude, yellow Letort hopper with beadhead hares ear, Chernobyl ant and a pair of nymphs with a split shot and indicator. Finally near 3 o’clock I tied on a size 12 olive caddis or stimulator and managed to bring a small brown to my fly. I fished a bit further but as I advanced upstream the gradient increased and I was climbing over a lot of rocks to find small holding areas. I was hot and tired, the fishing wasn’t very good, and I needed to be back in time for dinner before going to the Rapids game so I threw in the towel at 3PM.

Time: 9:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: Downstream boundary of catch and release water

Fish Landed: 14

Big Thompson River 04/27/2012 Photo Album

One might assume that a fourteen fish day will prompt the author to rave about the wonders of early season fishing on the Big Thompson, but the reader would be quite mistaken. In short, Friday on the Big Thompson was an exercise in frustration. It was still a step above work, but my day of fishing was in some ways about work and persistence.

Part of the disappointment may stem from the outstanding outing on Tuesday that will certainly rank among the top ten of 2012, so Friday on the Big Thompson was destined to suffer by comparison. But it was mostly the weather that conspired to make for a difficult experience. The string of five unseasonably warm days in Colorado in April ended on Wednesday and a front moved through the Rockies on Thursday evening resulting in cool seasonable weather. Clearly I was spoiled and for this reason the comparison to Tuesday was ill fated from a second perspective.

As I researched the options for my Friday fishing experience I checked out the South Platte River at Deckers, Clear Creek, the NF of the St. Vrain below Buttonrock Reservoir, and the Big Thompson below Lake Estes. The flows on Clear Creek were climbing to the 140 range so I guessed the early effects of snow melt were kicking in. The South Platte was at 119 cfs and this is quite low for this time of year. In retrospect this may have been a better option due to lower elevation and perhaps warmer temperatures. The St. Vrain flows were up a bit, but the DWR site does not provide a gauge below Buttonrock so it is difficult to assess whether the increase in flows initiate on the North Fork or South Fork. The Big Thompson flows were ratcheted down from +150 cfs to 51 cfs over the last couple days. These flows would be good for September, but very low for April. I was a bit concerned about the low flows, but decided to give it a try. The high temperatures were forecast to be low 60’s in Denver.

Big Thompson at 51 CFS

It was the weather that I underestimated. Low 60’s in Denver translate to low 50’s in the mountains and that is exactly what I encountered. When I began fishing at 9:30AM on Friday the dashboard temperature reading was 48 degrees. When I departed at 3:30 in the afternoon the air temperature had increased to a balmy 52. But I haven’t even mentioned the factor that put the frustration in Friday. Wind. The wind bursts were intense and constantly rushed down the canyon in my face and against my attempts to cast. On numerous occasions I nearly lost my balance due to the intense force of the strong wind.

When I began fishing in the morning I wore a warm Adidas pullover and a thick fleece, and I was chilled most of the time as the wind cut through my layers. After lunch at 1PM I actually added my raincoat as a third windbreaker layer and a ski hat instead of my wide brimmed hat and I was still chilly at times. I wore out my shoulder as I was forced to make five casts instead of one to hit my desired drift in nearly every location and the greatest frustration factor was tangles. I probably spent an hour of my total fishing time untangling snarls caused by the wind. The worst part was standing with my back to the wind trying to undo a massive monafilament mess while the wind howled and moved the line in every direction while I tried to make some sense out of the mess. The sound of wind rushing by my ears made me shriek numerous times out of frustration. Fortunately there were no other fishermen to hear me, and even if there were, they couldn’t hear me above the loud rush of the wind.

I landed fourteen trout mostly on the small side ranging from 6-9 inches with a few decent twelve inch fish in the mix. I probably caught an equal number of browns and rainbows, and that is unusual for the Big T where rainbows usually predominate. I landed four on a beadhead hares ear, five on a dark olive deer hair caddis with a palmered body, two on a tiny black midge larva, two on a beadhead RS2 and three on the muggly caddis. As you can see I was unable to get in any kind of groove from a fly selection perspective, and spent a lot of time reconfiguring. In several nice deep holes I sighted three or four fish hovering a foot or so below the surface but could not entice any takes despite changing flies and switching from dries to nymphs. In these cases, I could see that some of the larger fish were rainbows, and they were surprisingly selective, but to what I still don’t know.

Decent Brown Landed in the Morning

Between 11:30 and 1:00 I did hit on one fly that provided some level of consistent production, a small black midge larva with a fine silver rib and silver bead. I managed to land two small fish on this tiny imitation, but hooked at least five fish that felt larger and were rainbows that escaped the hook before I could bring to my net as the tiny hook makes it difficult to maintain a grip in the fish’s lip. Unfortunately I spotted some BWO’s on the water between noon and 12:30 and switched out the midge larva for a RS2. This was a case of overanalyzing as the fish didn’t respond to the RS2 anywhere close to the success of the midge larva.

Saturday and Sunday weather forecasts call for similar weather to Friday, so I will have plenty of time to rest my shoulder and prepare for better days ahead.