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.

Time: 10:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: From below first bridge after Noel’s Draw to above the next bridge above Noel’s Draw

Fish Landed: 20

Big Thompson River – 04/10/2012 Photo Album

Today’s fishing success vindicated the time expended authoring these fishing blog posts. Temperatures were forecast to be 75 degrees or higher so I decided to take a day off to go fishing. I didn’t want to make the long drive to the Arkansas River, so I checked the flows and reports on the Big Thompson River below Lake Estes. The flows had been ramped up to 116 cfs five days ago, but the reports on Kirk’s Fly Shop and St. Peters Fly Shop were both favorable so I elected to make this my destination. Knowing that I was headed to the Big Thompson, I pulled up all my blog posts on early season trips to the Big T. As I read them, I realized that the big producers in early April were the beadhead hares ear and beadhead pheasant tail.

I left the house at 8AM and arrived at the river between 9:30 and 10:00AM. The air temperature was around 50 degrees when I began fishing so I wore my fleece. I parked just before the first bridge after Noel’s Draw and hiked below the bridge to a wide pullout and began fishing upstream from there. Because the golden stonefly rubber legs had worked for me on the Arkansas, I tied one on as my top fly and then added a beadhead hares ear 18 inches below it. The flows were up a bit from what I consider ideal, but the river was clear, and I was able to fish mid-river spots and was not confined to fishing only the edges. Because it was early in the season and early in the morning, I decided to go deep with a strike indicator and two nymphs. The stonefly was weighted thus allowing me to avoid adding split shot.

First Trout of the Day

After fishing upstream for 20 yards or so, I detected a slight pause and set the hook and landed a nice rainbow just downstream from the bridge. The first fish grabbed the beadhead hares ear nymph. I continued above the bridge in some juicy water with no luck and after covering quite a bit of water with no success, I decided to swap out the BHHE and replace with a beadhead emerald caddis pupa. I fished two nice pockets with this combination, but had no reaction from the fish, so I clipped off both flies and moved the BHHE to the top and added a beadhead RS2 as my point fly. Since these flies were not weighted, I added a split shot.

Another Fine Rainbow

The fishing picked up at this point and I landed another six fish by noon as I worked upstream to the large bend with an island. As I surveyed the island I decided that I had to wade up the shallow left channel as the current was too fast and tight to the brush on the right side. As I approached the shallow pool, I spotted quite a few decent trout finning in the tail. I lobbed the indicator and nymphs to the mid-pool area, but this caused the fish to scatter. I moved up into the bottom part of the pool just vacated by four fish, and tossed another cast higher up next to an exposed boulder. This didn’t bring a response, and I recognized that I was not set up properly to fish this type of water, so I waded to the top of the island and crossed to the roadside bank and walked back to the car.

I ate my lunch just above the bridge and observed the water, but didn’t see much in the way of insect activity. There were a few tiny midges, but that was the extent of it. The sky was pure blue with only a few periodic sparse clouds, so it didn’t bode well for a BWO hatch.

A Nice Brown

After lunch I returned to the top of the island and fished upstream along the left bank. I continued with the BHHE and RS2 and continued picking up fish at a fairly regular frequency. Nearly all the fish were falling for the BHHE, so after an hour or so of fishing, I exchanged the beadhead RS2 for a beadhead pheasant tail. I landed thirteen fish between lunch and 4PM and most took the BHHE; however, several nailed the pheasant tail and one of these was the largest fish of the day, a pretty, deeply colored brown. As I rolled to twenty fish I discovered a technique for fishing the smaller short pockets right along the bank. I lifted the indicator off the water and moved my rod at a pace equal to or slightly faster than the current. I probably landed three or four fish by using this style of fishing.

I actually spotted number twenty right next to me, and thought that the fish had seen me as well. But I flicked a cast five feet above the fish, and then led the fly back to the tail of the short pocket and as I lifted the flies the rainbow aggressively charged the accelerating fly and grabbed it. Of the twenty fish landed on the day, around four were browns, and the remaining sixteen were rainbows.

No. 18 Rainbow on Ice Shelf

The April 10 outing was largely an exercise in reading water, covering a lot of ground, and keeping the flies in the water. It wasn’t technical casting and hatch matching, although I did identify the technique described for short pockets that proved successful. The two flies that produced were the beadhead hares ear and beadhead pheasant tail. Had I listened to my blogs from prior experience, I would have started with the combination and caught even more fish.

Time: 11:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Between Noel’s Draw and Next Bridge

Fish Landed: 9

Big Thompson River 10/23/2011 Photo Album

Fishing is supposed to be a quiet non-competitive pastime and an escape from life’s many constant pressures, but for some reason I keep falling into the trap of counting fish and achieving goals. The last two outings in October exceeded my expectations and brought me within 18 of 2010’s cumulative total of 530. Was it possible to catch another 18 fish and equal last year’s total? Sunday was forecast to be yet another warm late October day with highs in Denver in the 70’s, so I decided to give fly fishing another try. I drove to the Big Thompson below Lake Estes and arrived and prepared to fish by approximately 11:30AM. I discovered that the fishing doesn’t heat up until early afternoon with the cold nighttime temperatures requiring more sun to warm the water to an optimal feeding range.

I elected to walk below the bridge to the next bend and began fishing my way back upstream toward the Santa Fe. I tied on one of the light gray deer hair caddis I’d made in preparation for the trip to Wildcat Canyon and began flicking casts to the likely holding spots. After working my way upstream 15 yards, I made an across stream cast in front of a large rock tight to the opposite bank, and a decent rainbow tipped up and sucked in the caddis. This was an auspicious start to my day, and I continued working my way upstream to the bridge. In another spot tight to the bank and below a rock, a fish flashed to my fly but refused it possibly due to the start of some drag.

First Fish of the Day

I carefully waded through the darkness under the bridge and came to a wide relatively shallow area. I startled several nice fish as I began to cast and didn’t meet with any success until I moved further upstream to a narrower chute section. I wasn’t drawing additional interest in the caddis, so I tied on a cream body parachute hopper, but that fly also didn’t produce looks or takes. Following the script of the Wildcat Canyon trip, I added a beadhead hares ear nymph dropper to the parachute hopper, and this finally produced a second trout, a small brown, on the BHHE. I was now positioned below a steep bank directly opposite the Santa Fe so I climbed out of the water and negotiated the large rocks and ate part of my lunch. I tuned in the Broncos to discover they were losing 6-0 to Miami at the start of the fourth quarter.

After lunch I resumed fishing the hopper/dropper combination and covered quite a bit of water from the car upstream and around the bend beyond the tidy cabin on the road side of the river. I landed another four fish, all on the BHHE and was feeling better about the day; however, the water I was anticipating was behind the cabin as this was where I had great good fortune on my last visit catching very nice rainbows. Unfortunately the water was totally covered in shade in this area, and the air was quite chilly without the benefit of the sun. I also had difficulty seeing the large upright white wing on the parachute hopper. I wasn’t generating any action or even refusals and was getting quite chilled so I decided to call it a day at six and around 3PM.

I trudged back to the car, but then decided to walk over the bridge and check out the water I’d begun fishing in the late morning. The sun was still shining on most of the water downstream for 50 to 75 yards below the bridge, so I kept walking until I reached the point where shade was encroaching. I hustled down over some rocks and tied an olive body caddis to my leader. It didn’t take long before a decent rainbow flashed to the surface as the fly bobbed along a current seam, and I eagerly landed number seven. I continued working upstream at a rapid pace making no more than three casts in likely spots and by the time I’d reached my starting point I’d landed two more fish to total nine on the day. Fishing in the sunlit sections of the river appeared to produce more ready fish than the chilly shadows.

Another Pretty Rainbow

By 4PM the shadows were beginning to migrate across the stream in all areas, so I clipped my fly in the rod guide and returned to the car to prepare for the drive home. As I walked across the bridge I paused and observed the water. I could discern the outlines of at least ten trout in the wide shallow area just above the bridge. One fish appeared to be a brown trout at least 15 inches in length, but my presence high above on the bridge appeared to spook many of the fish.  I decided not to approach from below and attempt to increase my numbers, and I made a mental note of the spot, and I’ll be there again at some future date. Maybe I’m learning to relax and enjoy the day and worry less about the numbers. Maybe.

Pretty Stretch of Big Thompson

Time: 9:00AM – 3:30PM

Location: Between Noel’s Draw and next bridge

Fish Landed: 25

Big Thompson River 10/5/2011 Photo Album

Would you expect to have one of the best days of the season fishing with dry flies on the Big Thompson River on October 5? I didn’t, but in fact that’s what occurred so read on.

The weather was forecast to continue nice albeit cooler than the recent run of 80 degree days, although mid-70’s in Denver is still bonus time in my opinion. With a trip to Hilton Head looming from October 7 through October 12 I was itching to get in another day of fly fishing. Jane and I had tickets to a Broadway musical for Wednesday night, so I needed to visit a close destination and elected to drive to the Big Thompson River below Lake Estes. The report from Kirk’s Fly Shop indicated flows were 67 and from experience that is a nice comfortable flow. The web site suggested fishing royal humpies and caddis as dries and for nymphs a myriad of RS2-like subsurface patterns.

I got off to a nice early start at around 7:30AM and arrived at the stream and was prepared to fish by around 9:00AM. The air temperature on the dashboard was 56 degrees so I wore a layer of fleece and a rain jacket as a windbreaker. I drove to the upper river and parked just before the first bridge after Noels Draw which used to serve as the upstream border of special regulation water until it was extended to the dam. I waded to the far side and tied on tan parachute hopper trailing a RS2. I cast this as I worked upstream for twenty yards with no response so I switched the hopper for a small olive stimulator. The stimulator was probably a size 12 2XL and I continued to fish with the trailing RS2. This combination served me as I fished to the bend, and I landed two browns on the RS2.

Early Rainbow from Big Thompson

The stimulator was generating a few refusals, but the fishing was definitely slow as I began thinking about the suggested flies on the web site. I’d stocked four red humpies in my fly box and considered tying one to my line. But then I remembered the caddis and decided to tie on a size 16 deer hair caddis with a light gray body. I did spot occasional caddis dapping the surface of the stream so perhaps the fish were used to seeing these insects when the food supply was lean late in the fall. Almost immediately a small rainbow attacked my caddis just as it began to drag away from the bank under some overhanging branches. I glanced at my watch and noticed it was around 11AM, and I’d now landed three fish.

Browns Were in Minority

As I worked around the bend I landed three more rainbows in short order and several were quite nice fish in the thirteen inch range. The fish weren’t rushing to explode on the flies on the surface, but instead were slowly rising and sipping the caddis with confidence. It was 11:30 and I had now netted six fish so things were picking up. Since it was now late morning and the air temperature was warmer, and I switched flies, and I was fishing water on the opposite side of the river from a cabin with no trespassing signs in the front; it is difficult to assess which variable caused the improved fishing success.

Nice Rainbow Glimmers in the Sun

The next two hours proved to be magical. I continued casting the caddis up along the left side of the stream, and I was consistently rewarded with confident sips and gulps of primarily rainbow trout. The most difficult aspect of this fishing was following the small size 16 fly as clouds intermittently covered the sun creating a glare. I managed to change the angle of casting and viewing frequently and on several occasions when I lost my fly I noticed a nose and mouth rise above the surface at which point I set the hook into nice fish. Several of the rainbows appeared to be in the fourteen inch range and that’s at the top end of the size range for the Big Thompson fishery based on my experience.

Gorgeous Day on the Big T

Another Caddis Eater

I continued beyond the cabin a bit and as I released the twentieth fish of the day glanced at my watch and was surprised to learn that it was 1:30PM. The fishing was so good that I skipped past my normal lunch hour.

Huge Fish by Big Thompson Standards

As I was leaning on my wading staff to cross the river to the road and return to the car it snapped in half. This was the second outing in a row where my wading staff malfunctioned. I picked up the broken end and returned to the car and decided to drive further downstream and test the caddis at a different location. There were a few other fishermen, but the fishing pressure was clearly down from my last visit. I don’t know whether this is attributable to it being a Wednesday or the later date in the season. I ended up stopping at a small pullout just above the exit from Grandpa’s Retreat and quickly munched my lunch on a rock overlooking the fall scene along the river.

Two Feet Didn't Do Dave Much Good

After lunch I went down the bank and found a dead branch that would serve as a temporary wading staff to cross to the side away from the highway. I began fishing the caddis similar to the previous location and once again began connecting with fish, although these fish were predominantly brown trout and smaller in size than the earlier fish landed. Five fish were landed in the next hour or so as I worked upstream in front of three or four cabins on my side of the river. The sky was getting even cloudier, and the glare was even more difficult to deal with than earlier in the day.

Scene from Lunch Rock

There was a car parked at one of the cabins, and I didn’t feel comfortable fishing right in front of the cabin, so I found another branch and crossed to the bank along the highway and worked further upstream. The glare was just as bad on the road side of the stream, and now I began to experience refusals to the caddis. I spotted two or three BWO’s rising slowly through the air, so perhaps the fish had switched to BWO’s? I planned to quit by 3:30 so I could return to Denver and watch part of the Phillies vs. Cardinals playoff game so I didn’t bother adding a RS2 dropper or switching to a CDC BWO or red humpy. I stalled on 25 fish for the day and didn’t add to my count over the last 45 minutes or so.

But even with the slow ending to the day, it still qualifies as one of the better days of the 2011 season particularly the hot stretch between 11:30 and 1:30.

Time: 10:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Upper river above no parking bend and then below special regulation boundary after lunch

Fish Landed: 14

Big Thompson River 09/23/2011 Photo Album

After landing two fish on the North Platte I was feeling unfulfilled and in need of some fish to bend my rod. With another day available to fish and high temperatures in Denver projected to be 85, I decided to make another fishing trip. I was weary of driving after the long haul to North Park so I checked the flows on the Big Thompson. They had dropped to 90 cfs over the past two days and that is still a bit high for late September but much improved over the 150 cfs spike I experienced on my last trip. I left my gear in the car so packed a lunch and filled my Camelback, and I was off by around 8:30AM.

As I drove down the canyon from Estes Park I was looking for a stretch where the sun was hitting the water, and I found a nice area a couple miles below the dam. After rigging up I hiked down the road a bit to the bend and noticed some no trespassing signs, so I reversed approximately twenty yards and cut down to the water through some dense willows. I tied on a Chernobyl ant and a hares ear nymph as the dropper and began flicking in the likely pockets and pools. In short order I had a couple refusals to the Chernobyl and then a ten inch brown darted up and inhaled the large foam imitation. For the next two hours I worked my way upstream mostly on the left bank away from the road and picked up two more trout on the Chernobyl. I was getting five refusals for every fish that succumbed, and this frustrated me. I went through a period where I tried a caddis, a royal stimulator, a gray parachute hopper, and a yellow Letort hopper; but none of these ever created refusals so I returned to the Chernobyl ant.

Bright Pink Cheek on Big T Rainbow

Toward the end of the morning I began to observe midges so I added a black ribbed midge larva below the hares ear. There was a tough lie ahead where some branches hung out over the water so I side armed a cast beneath the branch and let the three flies drift back along the bank in the shadows. As I lifted to pull the flies at the end of the drift a brown darted out and grabbed one of the nymphs. I landed a nice twelve inch brown and amazingly it had taken the tiny midge larva.

Foliage Beginning to Change on Big Thompson

At noon I exited the river and drove downstream to the handicapped platform area hoping to jump in around the bend and fish back up toward Grandpa’s Retreat. Just about every pullout was now occupied by a fisherman vehicle, and this amazed me for a river that doesn’t produce very sizable fish. I ate my lunch on the bank while watching another fisherman work his way upstream with no apparent success. I returned my lunch bag to the car and gathered my fishing gear and walked around the bend on the highway and then cut down to the water twenty yards above the bend. Much to my chagrin as I pulled back the willows to enter the water another fisherman in a blue shirt appeared. I acknowledged his presence and did a quick U-turn.

Nice Rainbow After Lunch

What should I do now? I decided to drive back downstream below the special regulation boundary, and as I did so, I spotted two pullouts near two stretches of water where the gradient didn’t appear to be too severe. I parked and walked down the road to a point where I thought I could scramble across the rocks and through the willows. It turned out to be more difficult than I thought and the water was rushing quite rapidly forcing me to contort myself to move upstream tight to the willows and shrubs.

Another Colorful Rainbow

But once I got in a decent position the fishing heated up quickly. I landed four rainbows on the BHHE in a half hour or so after lunch. Once I moved past the thick streamside vegetation to where the river flowed next to some large rocks next to the road,  the fishing slowed. I was still able to pick up fish, but not in every likely pocket like I’d experienced in the less accessible area. Over the course of the next couple hours I added four more fish mostly on the hares ear, but a couple on the Chernobyl as well. By 3 o’clock I’d reached twelve, and I was pretty satisfied with my day.

Typical Rainbow

I arrived at a nice deep pool across from me and I could spot at least six fish, two at the tail and four at the midpoint up to the head. By now a sparse hatch of BWO’s began to emerge so I added a RS2 below my Chernobyl and hares ear and experienced a brief hook up with a fish in the middle part of the pool. The fish seemed to be showing no interest in my RS2 so I decided to go deep with a split shot and strike indicator. Just as on Thursday on the North Platte, this had no impact, yet I could see the fish and they seemed to be eating something. Finally I watched a single fish for awhile and noticed it rose to the surface once. It was the only surface rise I saw, but because of the lack of success with other methods, I decided to go to a CDC BWO.

I cast the tiny tuft towards the tail and immediately had a refusal from a small brown. I worked the middle and then the top of the pool where I cast downstream and let the eddy bring the fly back to the heart of the eddy. After flailing with no action for ten minutes or so, I sent a cast downstream to the tail again. When the tiny tuft of gray got to the end of the drift it did a little curl and hop. Normally drag is the enemy of a fisherman, but in this instance it aroused a nice brown trout who swirled and inhaled the tiny fly as it skipped across the water. The tiny drag must have imitated a natural trying to escape the surface film. I landed the brown and photographed and then caught one more nine inch rainbow in the middle of the pool before calling it quits for the day.

Brown Took BWO Dry

Pretty Section

Time: 10:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Bottom boundary of catch and release water below dam

Fish Landed: 15

Big Thompson River – 09/11/2011 Photo Album

Jane and I had dinner guests on Friday night, and I got to bed too late to get up early and make the long drive to the Arkansas River as I planned, so I decided to visit the Big Thompson below Lake Estes instead. I left the house at around 8:30AM, and I was on the water fishing by 10:30AM. The flows were surprisingly high for early September, and this was confirmed when I checked them on Sunday, 150 cfs. I probably would have gone somewhere else had I checked beforehand.

I began fishing at the downstream boundary of the catch and release water approximately eight miles below the dam. Initially I tied on a caddis dry fly, but this produced only a few refusals so I switched to a yellow Letort hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear. This also began producing refusals so I swapped out the Letort hopper for a Chernobyl ant. I fished a fifty yard stretch from below the bridge to the bend with only a few refusals. When I got to the small bend and water that was not as easy to fish from the road, I began to catch fish. The Chernobyl began producing as well as the BHHE. In some nice water where the stream spread out into a lot of small pockets, I began to score with increasing frequency and finally broke for lunch at around noon with a fish count of nine. These fish were predominantly rainbows with a few browns mixed in and the size was 7-9 inches.

Big Thompson Brown Trout

I returned to the car for lunch and decided to drive back upstream a bit and park where I would resume fishing. I ate my lunch on the rocky bank overlooking the river, and spotted several fish in an eddy opposite me, but they were in a spot that was nearly impossible to cast to from my bank. After lunch I walked down the shoulder of the road to a point above a narrow chute where white water thrashed through some rocks making fishing impossible. I continued catching fish mainly on the Chernobyl ant but with less frequency than the last hour of the morning. The size of the fish was improving and most of my catches were tight along the bank.

Flows Were Still High at 150 cfs

I’m certain that I could have caught more fish if I could have accessed the south bank, but the high flows made crossing dangerous and drag free drifts with the intervening swift current were nearly impossible. Toward the end of the day I spotted a decent fish in a small pocket downstream of a boulder hugging the bank. The fish showed itself briefly when it darted toward the surface to refuse the Chernobyl ant. I patiently made a few more casts, and eventually the rainbow made a subtle move and I hooked and landed a nice fish on a small beadhead RS2.

Pretty Rainbow Also Fell Prey to Chernobyl

On another occasion I hooked a left handed cast around some overhanging branches and saw a rise and hooked a nice rainbow. I executed the cast and hook set entirely with my left hand. There were small mayflies emerging sporadically between 3PM and 4PM which is what caused me to tie on the RS2, but there were never enough to spur any surface feeding and I stayed largely with the Chernobyl/dropper approach. At the very end of the day I drove a bit further upstream to just below the handicapped platform and watched the water for a while without casting. I spotted many caddis and a few BWO’s, so I rigged up with a strike indicator and yellow caddis pupa and RS2 and worked a nice deep run repeatedly, but my flies didn’t receive any attention. As the shadows covered the river, I placed my flies in the hook keep and returned to the car and made the return trip.

Pretty in Pink

Time: 9:30AM – 5:30PM

Location: Mile Marker 72 Near Handicapped Platform

Fish Landed: 12

Big Thompson River 05/29/2011 Photo Album

David Luther called earlier in the week to inform me he’d be in Estes Park for Memorial Day Weekend and asked if I’d like to join him for fishing. I agreed to meet him on Sunday. David called me on Saturday from Estes Park after fishing with a guide on Saturday, and we agreed to meet at 9AM at the pullout at mile marker 72 in the Big Thompson Canyon. I was a bit skeptical the fishing would be very good, as I noticed the flows were over 300.

It was quite cloudy and chilly as I drove to Estes Park and then along the Big Thompson in the canyon below Lake Estes. It would remain mostly cloudy all day with high temperatures probably in the low 60’s at best. I fished comfortably with a fleece and rain coat all day and wore a ski hat in the morning.

David arrived at around 9AM and I was already dressed in my waders and stringing my sage rod. The river was definitely up, but I was encouraged by the clarity and the number of slow pockets and pools where fish could hold. I walked down the road to the last point before the river raged over a chute and began fishing back toward the car. David L. would begin fishing 50 yards or so above me. I tied on a Chernobyl ant and then added a beadhead hares ear and below that an emerald caddis pupa. It didn’t take long before I’d land a colorful 10 inch rainbow and photographed it. I continued working up mostly in water tight to the bank and landed the occasional fish on the emerald caddis.

First Trout a Rainbow on Big Thompson

When I reached David L, he was nymphing with flies he’d purchased at Kirk’s Fly Shop in Estes Park, but not having any luck. I skipped around him and fished closer to the handicapped platform and landed a couple more fish. By noon I’d landed 5 trout, 4 rainbows and one brown. I hiked up the bank to go around the handicapped platform and noticed a recently arrived fisherman in the nice water above the parking lot before the 90 degree bend, so I looped back to David to discuss plans. I didn’t want to fish too far ahead of him.

Another Cast

We both decided to hike above the lot and fish further upstream. I entered just above the handicapped platform and David was going to fish an attractive run above a large drainage pipe, but then he noticed another fisherman hidden by the trees. As he began walking beyond the fishermen, the other fisherman and a companion decided to quit and left the targeted water for David. I covered the fishable water between me and David L fairly quickly and reached the lower end of the run that he was beginning to cover. At this point we began to notice some blue winged olives skittering on the water and some sporadic rises. I rearranged my flies and moved the emerald caddis to the top and added a beadhead RS2 to the bottom and cast this combination throughout the lower section of the run, but there were no takers.

Notice Water Level Over Stream Bank

The frequency of rises now increased so I decided to abandon the Chernobyl ant and droppers and go to a single CDC BWO fly. Over the next half hour or so I frantically cast the tiny dry to the 8-10 rising fish, and managed four momentary hookups but didn’t land any of them. David L continued to nymph and then finally added a small Adams parachute and elicited a refusal. Eventually the sun came out, the hatch diminished and the fish stopped rising so we decided to rest the water and return to the car for lunch.

Another Pretty Rainbow

After lunch we returned to the run and observed, but the hatch was off. David L. worked his nymphs through the mid-section and tail while I moved upstream and returned to the Chernobyl ant with the emerald caddis and beadhead RS2. I added a rainbow in a nice side slough before David arrived. This fish grabbed the RS2. David began fishing above me but got snagged on a branch along the far bank and managed to maneuver through the heavy flow to dislodge his fly. Since he was close to the bank away from the road, he decided to remain on that side of the river while I fished up along the road.

Between 2 and 3 in the afternoon it became partly cloudy and another sparser BWO hatch transpired. During this time I stayed with the RS2 as I didn’t see surface rises and picked up five more trout, four rainbows and one brown. The brown was notable in that it rose and slurped in the Chernobyl ant. One of the fish took the emerald caddis and the remainder went for the RS2.

Watching the Indicator Ball

By around 4:30 I was feeling pretty tired so I hiked back down the river to a point across from David L. and watched him work his nymphs. While I watched he caught several fish, so I decided to go deep with my nymphs and work my way back up through the juicier spots I’d already covered. While fishing in this manner I hooked three fish and landed one. I switched out the emerald caddis for a large size 12 beadhead hares ear, and one of the fish I lost broke off at the beadhead hares ear knot. This fish felt a bit heavier than the others.

We fished until around 5:30 when we decided to call it a day. David L. followed me in his rental car back to our home in Denver, and he joined us for a wonderful meal.

Time: 9:30AM – 2:00PM

Location: Upstream from Waltonia Bridge at downstream end of catch and release

Fish Landed: 13

Big Thompson River 05/10/2011 Photo Album

Temperatures cooled somewhat from the balmy Mothers’ Day high of 85 and were expected to reach mid-70’s on Tuesday. I had a lull at work waiting for the office manager to catch up so I decided to take a fishing day. Jane and I had tickets for the Mets vs.Rockies at 6:40, so I needed to return earlier than normal.

I was weary of the long drive to the Arkansas River with high expectations and low returns, so I checked out the flows on alternatives as it was getting late in the pre-snowmelt season. I had seen the St.Vrain and Big Thompson on Sunday during our Mothers’ Day trip so I knew they were likely fishable. The Big T flows jumped from 65 to 95 on Monday, so I was a bit concerned, but decided to give it a try.

Nice Area with Lots of Slower Water

When I arrived in Estes Park to make the turn to the river I looked at the thermometer in the car, and it was 43 degrees. I kept checking it as I drove down the canyon along the river to the Waltonia Bridge pullout, and it moved from 43 up to 50 by the time I parked. The river looked clear but higher than ideal. I rigged my rod and walked upstream beyond the bridge. The water was pretty rapid here and somewhat murky with minimal slower water where fish could hold. But as I gazed down at one of the three foot wide slots along the rocky bank, I spotted a couple fish holding a foot or so below the surface. I tied on yellow Letort hopper and trailed a beadhead hares ear and then a beadhead emerald caddis. It wasn’t long before I hooked and landed a rainbow in one of the narrow slots along the rocks on the BHHE. The rest of the morning pretty much followed this routine. I skipped over a lot of rushing, churning water and fished only the soft slower moving pockets and pools along the right bank. The BHHE was out producing the caddis pupa, so I switched their positions fairly early.

First Spunky Rainbow

By 11AM I’d landed 8 trout, all rainbows and five on the BHHE and three on the emerald caddis. I returned to the car and immediately removed one of my layers as the sun was out and the air temperature was now 60. As I walked back to the car, I observed some nice slack water on the opposite bank so decided I’d try to cross the bridge and work up along the left bank. But as I was eating, I noticed a car and person moving about in the cabin behind the one closest to the stream. I wasn’t sure if I’d be trespassing if I crossed over to the other side as two cabins were moderately close to the stream, so I elected to drive back up the highway to the closest pullout to where I’d ended the morning and began fishing where I’d ended.

A Nice Rainbow

After lunch my catch rate slowed as I landed 5 more trout between 11:30 and 2PM. I attribute this to the fact that I was fishing along the highway where numerous fishermen access the river and apply pressure. Ironically I began to get more action on the emerald caddis so I reversed their positioning again. Two of the trout after lunch were browns and the remaining three rainbows. Four succumbed to the emerald caddis and one of the browns took the beadhead hares ear. There was minimal insect activity as the wind and air temperature warmed up. Facing a 1.5 hour drive back to Denver, the possibility of early rush hour traffic, and desiring to take a shower and gather up snacks and gear for the game caused me to quit at 2PM, and I was on the road at 2:30.

Time: 12:00PM – 2:30PM

Location: Upper part of canyon before some cabins near wide pullout

Fish Landed: 4

I finished closing the month of August at Saddleback Design on Thursday, and I was anxious to get in some fall fly fishing. The weather forecast called for overcast skies and scattered showers for Friday, so I hoped to hit a nice BWO hatch. BWO’s love overcast wet cool conditions. I needed to remain at the new house and wait for a repairman to come and change out a window in the guest bedroom, so I knew I couldn’t get an early start. This ruled out the Arkansas River or Colorado River, so I focused on the reports on Clear Creek and the Big Thompson River. The Big Thompson River mentioned BWO’s in the canyon, so I elected this as my destination. Unfortunately the repairman didn’t arrive until 9:15AM and it took him 30 minutes to complete his work, so I didn’t leave the house until 10AM.

By the time I drove to the Big Thompson and ate lunch, I began fishing at around noon. I chose some water that I’d never fished a couple miles below the dam in Estes Park. As predicted, the sky was cloudy and overcast and the air temperature was cool. While eating lunch, I spotted three trout in a small pocket behind a large rock along the bank. I decided to cast to these fish first before moving downstream and then fishing back up. I tied on a gray body deer hair caddis, but the targeted fish showed no interest. However, I fanned a few casts to the left in a nice run toward the middle of the stream, and a brown rose up and sucked it in. I landed the 11 inch brown, and it seemed to have a disproportionately large hooked jaw for its size, so I attempted to photograph it. When I pulled the camera from my case and tried to turn it on, it wouldn’t start, and I realized that I’d removed the battery to charge and never replaced it. There wouldn’t be any photos on Friday.

Having covered the lunch section, I retreated to the road and walked downstream to a point where I saw a private property/no trespassing sign. I cut in to the river ahead of the private area and worked my way back up stream. The caddis wasn’t producing so I clipped it off and tied on a Chernobyl ant and beadhead hares ear. I flicked this combination to likely lies and caught another decent brown along the right bank in a shallow riffle on the Chernobyl ant. I continued prospecting and covered quite a bit of water and added two more trout that grabbed the trailing beadhead hares ear. At around 2PM I moved a bit beyond my lunch spot, but I was doing a lot of casting and wading with no action. Judging from the worn bank, I guessed this stretch next to the highway received a lot of pressure, so I decided to move further downstream.

As I put my rod and front pack back in the car, I noticed some dark clouds building in the west and moving my way. Perhaps some rain would prompt the BWO’s to emerge and create some great fishing. I drove down the highway another four or five miles and parked just upstream from a location where there is a handicapped platform. This water presented some deeper runs and plunge pools, so I decided to use a strike indicator and the beadhead hares ear and a small beaded baetis nymph. The wind was now gusting and I put on my ski cap, fleece and raincoat and positioned myself next to a nice deep pool. The wind now began to gust fiercely, and I had to turn my back to the wind and light rain. Over the next half hour I worked my way upstream a short distance making half hearted casts between the strong gusts of wind and rain.

My fingers were developing a serious ache, and I wasn’t really enjoying the experience. My mind was anticipating the 4PM Phillies playoff game more than the fishing, so I reeled up my flies and called it quits at around 2:30. I can put up with difficult weather conditions if there is a good hatch or I’m catching fish, but suffering in rain and cold with nothing to show for it is not my idea of fun.

Time: 1:30PM – 3:30PM

Location: Below Road to Bear Lake in RMNP

Fish Landed: 5

Big Thompson River 05/16/2010 Photo Album

Jane wanted to go to Rocky Mountain National Park on her last day before hip surgery. She also wanted to meet her ex-boss at Public Service Credit Union since he lived in Ft. Collins, and Estes Park would be somewhat of a midpoint. I checked the flows, and they were 129cfs below Estes Lake, which is pretty high for that streambed. The flows in the Big Thompson above Lake Estes near Moraine Park, however, were 35 cfs.

We met Steve for lunch at the Big Horn Restaurant on the edge of Estes Park. Steve and Jane then dropped me off at Moraine Park, and they continued to Sprague Lake. I hiked down along the river and underneath the road to near a cabin at the edge of RMNP. At this point I discovered I’d forgotten my front pack containing my nymphs, hemostats, nippers, tippet, prime flies, split shot and strike indicators. Jane had taken the car, so I debated hiking back up to the road and hitching a ride to Sprague Lake or trying to make do with what I had in my backpack. I had three fly boxes containing all dry flies and a couple spools of old 6X tippet. I elected to make a go of it.

I tied on some tippet then an olive body palmered caddis that could have been a stimulator. I began prospecting with this fly and much to my amazement, landed a small brown. I continued working upstream, but wasn’t getting any more looks and the fly was sinking so I switched to a Chernobyl ant. In the next two hours I landed four additional small brown trout in the 9 inch range on the Chernobyl ant. All the fish were caught along the edge in fairly slow moving water. The deep runs and pockets in the middle of the stream cried for a beadhead dropper, but my lack of preparation precluded this option.