Time: 9:45AM – 3:45PM

Location: National forest

Clear Creek 08/15/2023 Photo Album

Although my fishing outing on Tuesday, August 15 was decent by most standards, it could have been even better. Let me explain.

After a fun day on a high mountain stream on Friday, I was yearning for another day on a Colorado stream; however, I was in favor of a closer destination, so I chose Clear Creek. I left the house at 7:40AM in order to pass through Floyd Hill before the rock scaling operations began at 9:00AM. CDOT announced that motorists should be prepared for delays between 9AM and 3PM on Mondays through Thursdays. I successfully avoided this scenario and arrived at my chosen pullout without incident.

Stream Improvement

The air temperature was in the sixties, but highs in the nineties were predicted for the metro Denver area. When I left the stream on Tuesday afternoon the dashboard digital display read 77 degrees. It was a splendid day to be in the mountains with mostly clear skies and the absence of wind. I assembled my Orvis Access four weight and fought my way through the trees and brush to arrive at the creek and begin fishing by 9:45AM. The water was exceptionally clear, and the flows were nearly ideal. I began my search for trout with a Chernobyl ant, and the all foam terrestrial produced four trout in the early going, although I experienced an equal number of temporary hookups. In fact, the escapees seemed to be the largest fish, and I was quite upset about this circumstance.

Sparse Speckles

In an effort to convert a higher rate of takes, I downsized the Chernobyl ant to a peacock body hippie stomper, and this change produced a couple fish, before it lost its luster to the local trout. I added a salvation nymph on a short sixteen inch dropper, and the salvation contributed a few additional catches to the fish count. During the late morning time frame I attempted to roll cast the dry/dropper, and I was unaware of an overhanging evergreen bough, and this foolish action resulted in breaking off the hippie stomper and salvation. I pulled another stomper from my fly box, but I opted for a sunken ant as the bottom fly, and the ant yielded a pair of trout. By the time I paused for lunch the fish count rested on ten, as four devoured the Chernobyl, two grabbed the salvation, two nipped the sunk ant, and the remainder crushed the hippie stomper. Ten fish in two hours of fishing was respectable, but I could have easily doubled the numbers, if I converted a higher percentage of my hookups to the net, and I am forced to reiterate that the fish that managed to free themselves also felt like the larger trout.

Lovely Pool

Jake’s Gulp Beetle

Beetle Chomper

After lunch I changed things up significantly, as I was not satisfied with the catch rate or the size of the fish. I grabbed a size 12 Jake’s gulp  beetle from my fly box and fished it solo. The change paid off handsomely, and I elevated the fish count to seventeen. During the early phase of the beetle slapping session, the trout responded very positively, and in many cases the trout smacked the terrestrial as soon as the foam imitation splashed down. Unfortunately, in one scenario a very nice fish sipped in the beetle and upon feeling the hook set, it raced downstream. I applied side pressure to keep the prize in the small pool, but it twisted its head, and the beetle was hurled skyward. Adding to the insult of losing the fish, the beetle came to rest in a tall evergreen twenty feet above me, and I was forced to apply direct pressure and snapped off another fly.

Subtle Beauty

The interest in the beetle seemed to fizzle after an hour of intense action, so I implemented yet another fly change. I plucked a lime green trude from my fly box in a fit of nostalgia, and the size fourteen dry fly notched a small cutthroat. The magic of the lime green trude was short lived, however, and I defaulted to the hippie stomper with a gray size 14 stimulator in the trailing position. The combination of the two buoyant dry flies, worked for while, but then refusals began to escalate, and I swapped the stimulator for a size 14 light gray deer hair caddis. The caddis worked its charms on the wild trout, until I quit at 3:45PM, and the double dry fly tactic enabled me to boost the fish count from seventeen to twenty-six over the course of the afternoon.

Side Pool Was Attractive

Melon Color

I landed a pair of twelve inch cutthroats, but the remainder were rather small and ranged from six to eleven inches. These cutthroats more than compensated for their diminutive size with an explosion of vivid colors. Pastel olive and tan provided the body background, but ink black speckles, pink accents, crimson gill plates and the classic orange slash finished the pallet of colors. I had numerous opportunities to land slightly larger trout, and this was particularly the case in the morning time period. Nevertheless, Tuesday was a fun summer day with nearly perfect weather and ideal stream conditions. One cannot ask for much more than that.

Fish Landed: 26

Time: 11:30AM – 2:30PM

Location: Inlet area

Urad Lake 06/30/2023 Photo Album

Friday was available for a short day of fly fishing, since Jane and I had a whitewater rafting trip planning session on the agenda for Friday evening. I checked the Front Range flows, but they remained unfavorable, so I once again chose a lake for my fly fishing outing. The Big Thompson River was actually a stream possibility with flows at 124 CFS, and I have had moderate success at those levels in the past, but I felt more comfortable with a lake adventure. It has been several years since I visited Urad Lake, so I decided to revisit the high elevation gem just up the mountain from the Henderson Mine. Fortunately the mine is not visible from the end of the lake, where I fished, but the drive on a rough dirt road to the parking lot was not scenic. Actually I had very little time to look at the scenery, as the access road was extremely bumpy with potholes everywhere. I suspect that my average speed was less than 5 MPH, as I crept along fearful of bottoming out on one of the bumps.

Weather was another consideration. The closest Weather Underground station was Idaho Springs, and the graphic depicted thunderstorms in the morning and then again at 2PM. I gambled that I could sneak in three hours of fishing before the weather forced me to quit. I drove through the morning thunderstorm and showers, and when I arrived at the parking lot just under 11,000 feet, the temperature registered a cool 41 degrees. I pulled on my Adidas pullover and followed that with my North Face light down coat and then covered those layers with my rain shell. My New Zealand billed hat with earflaps was a no brainer, and I was pleased for every layer that I added. For casting, I assembled my Sage R8 four weight pole, as I expected an abundant quantity of longer casts.

South Looking North

The Cove Beyond the First Inlet

I climbed a steep four wheel drive road for .2 mile, and I paused three or four times to catch my breath. Once the road evened out, I maintained an even pace and then dropped down a winding trail with switchbacks to the edge of the lake by the eastern inlets. Two creeks enter the lake at the southern end of the stillwater, and I began my day with the first one that I encountered. I began with a tan size 8 pool toy hopper, a prince nymph and a salvation nymph. A prince and pheasant tail were suggested by the book. In this case the book was not helpful, so after a reasonable amount of time I swapped the salvation for a salad spinner. These flies proved ineffective, and I exchanged the salad spinner for a zebra midge, and finally a small rainbow trout followed the flies and then turned and snatched the midge imitation. I was on the board with one fish before lunch.  I sat on a grassy bank and inhaled my lunch, and by now some blue skies appeared, so I removed my raincoat and stuffed it in my backpack.

Brilliant

After lunch I stayed with the dry/dropper; however, I replaced the prince with a hares ear and added a zebra midge as the end nymph. I wanted lighter nymphs to combine with the less buoyant hippie stomper. I could see sipping rises throughout the plume of the entering creek, so I was fairly certain that the trout were tuned into some form of midge. I decided to explore the other entry creek, and I moved west to a prime spot, where the faster water spread out and dropped off in the lake. Quite a few fish were visible in the narrow riffle section of the creek right above the entry point, and fish rose along the current seam that flowed into the lake. I began prospecting the riffle area, and the fish count mounted to five, as rainbows and brook trout picked off the zebra midge and hares ear. This period of success was accompanied by quite a few refusals to the hippie stomper.

Look at the Speckles

After I disturbed the water considerably by landing fish, I turned my attention to the deeper water of the lake proper. I pivoted to face the lake and several sporadic rises were evident to my right. I fired some casts to the vicinity of the rises, and in one instance after I allowed the flies to rest for a thirty second count, a fish raced to the surface to crush one of my flies. I was certain that it took the stomper, but when I settled it in my net, I found the zebra midge in its lip. Moreover, the fish was a six inch tiger trout. I am not sure I ever caught a tiger trout before, so I was rather excited despite the small size.

Inlet Number Two

Beauty Over Size

Next I focused on the deeper water, where the entering current fanned out, and here I landed a couple very small brook trout, but the hippie stomper continued to elicit splashy refusals. After a particularly long lull in action, I stripped in the flies, and I made another significant shift. I removed both flies and attached a single light gray size 16 deer hair caddis to my line. The move was a roaring success, and over the remainder of my time the fish count elevated from eight to fourteen. The solitary caddis was particularly effective in the riffles of the creek, and some spectacularly colored rainbows in the eleven to twelve inch range lingered in my net. A few hungry feeders also nabbed the caddis where the creek fanned out into the lake.

Yellow, Blue and Green

Love This

By 2:00PM some threatening dark clouds appeared above the ridge to the southwest, and I heard the din of distant thunder. The wind escalated, and I pulled up my hood and snugged my collar around my neck. It became increasingly clear that I was in the bullseye of the storm, so I hooked my fly to the rod and began the .5 mile hike back to the parking lot. I ascended the steep hill to the rough road, and at this point heavy snow flakes began to pelt my body. My raincoat did a fine job of protecting me, but my bare hands took the brunt of the wet snow and sleet. Ice accumulated on the cork rod handle, and I switched the grip from left to right and back to left in order to shove the off hand in the fleece lined wader pockets. My hands were stiff claws, when I reached the Santa Fe, and the stiffness inhibited my ability to remove the fly and breakdown the rod. The parking lot was muddy, so I left my fleece lined tights on under my jeans, and I did not bother to swap out my socks. When I was ready, I jumped in the car and turned on the defroster and ran the heater for five minutes, before I made the challenging pot hole drive down the four wheel drive rock garden.

Submerged

Lovely Shade of Pink

In spite of the rough drive and the adverse weather, I enjoyed my brief day on Urad Lake. I was challenged to solve the riddle, and eventually success came my way. This was an instance where experimentation and persistence paid dividends. It was evident that Urad Lake has not been stocked yet in 2023, but I actually liked the challenge of catching wild or carryover trout. Hopefully I can transition into edge fishing bigger rivers next week, but if lakes continue to be my destination, I feel like like I have made significant progress in my lake angling evolution.

Fish Landed: 14

Time: 10:15AM – 2:15PM

Location: Mostly the inlet area, but also next to the lower parking lot.

Clear Lake 06/28/2023 Photo Album

After two partial days of fly fishing in the Rio Grande drainage I was feeling unfulfilled, so I logged another day of fishing on June 28, 2023. Jane and I were committed to a social obligation on Wednesday evening, so I needed a fishing spot that was not too distant. The Front Range creeks remained high, so I turned my attention to lakes, and I decided to revisit Clear Lake. The high temperature in Denver was forecast to peak in the upper 80’s, so I wanted a high elevation option, where temperatures were moderated by altitude. I experienced quite a bit of success on my previous visit, so I departed for the small stillwater near Georgetown, CO.

I arrived a bit before 10:00AM, and the lower parking lot was full, so I grabbed a space in the upper lot and quickly assembled my gear. My rod of choice was my old Sage four weight, and a temperature of 64 degrees allowed me to proceed with no extra layers. I immediately hiked to the inlet area, and I was greeted by several anglers who arrived before me. Two young men occupied the side closest to the road and another angler was perched on a large rock high above the spot where the creek first entered the lake. My greatest disappointment was a fisherman across from me in the spot that yielded ridiculous quantities of trout on 06/21/2023, but I determined there was adequate space below him, so I crossed North Clear Creek and settled by a cluster of rocks on a point that jutted into the lake. I began my day with a tan size 8 pool toy hopper, a size 12 prince nymph and a size 14 iron sally. The iron sally was crack to the Clear Lake fish on June 21.

My Spot Near the Inlet

I began to lob casts to the lake surrounding my position, and I quickly observed quite a few fish finning in Clear Lake above, across and below me. However, my hopper and nymphs were apparently not on the trout diet on Wednesday. A fair amount of surface sipping prompted me to switch to a double dry approach. I removed the dry/dropper flies and replaced them with a peacock hippie stomper and trailed a size 18 deer hair caddis. The caddis drew some attention but no connections, so I replaced it with a black size 18 parachute ant. The ant fooled a small trout, and I was excited to be on the right track, but apparently the little rainbow eating an ant was an aberration. Once again I made a swap, and this time I replaced the ant with a size 16 olive-brown deer hair caddis. The caddis also generated some looks and eventually a bold feeder grabbed it, as I gave it a twitch. Unfortunately the trout continued to sip periodically, but my flies were not targeted, so I decided to return to the dry/dropper. The man in the sweet spot continued landing fish at a torrid pace, and I concluded he was drifting nymphs in the area that displayed stronger current.

Fine Rainbow

Once again I knotted the pool toy to my tippet, but unlike earlier, I extended the 4X tippet from the bend for at least 3.5 feet, before I tied a beadhead hares ear and size 20 salad spinner (midge pupa) to my line. Finally I achieved a degree of success, and I grew the fish count from two to nine, before I took a break for lunch just after noon. The catch rate lagged June 21, but I finally settled on a fly configuration that seemed to satisfy the appetites of the stocker rainbows. Of the seven fish landed before lunch, five nabbed the salad spinner and two plucked the hares ear. During the late morning time period I gradually edged south along the bank, so that my casts were covering water that exhibited slightly more current, and I feel that this extra movement was also responsible for my greater level of success.

A Bit More Color

After lunch I resumed fishing the dry dropper above the rocky point, and the fish count moved to twelve. Two of these fish favored the hares ear and one snatched a zebra midge. I replaced the salad spinner with a zebra midge, after I lost the hares ear and salad spinner in an evergreen tree on an overly aggressive hook set. After I landed number twelve, I stared at the lake bottom and noticed that it was a red-brown color. Why hadn’t I observed this earlier? My gaze shifted to the incoming creek, and I was astounded to see red-brown turbid flows entering the lake. The leading edge of the muddy plume contained pine needles and typical debris from the floor of a forest. Very few clouds appeared in the southern or western sky, so a brief thunderstorm as the source was unlikely. I could only conjecture that someone did some digging in the creek and churned up the sediment.

From the Parking Lot End

In response to the discoloration, the other anglers departed, but I moved north along the shoreline to a nearby area where the clarity of the lake remained unaffected. The dry/dropper ceased to interest the trout, so I decided to experiment with some streamer fishing. I began my lineup with an olive woolly bugger with rubber legs and below that I added a Mickey Finn. I began to distribute casts in a fan formation from the rocky point, and I was rewarded with two trout that chased and crushed the woolly bugger. I also felt some grabs on the Mickey Finn, but then I noticed that the trout pulled the bucktail fibers from the head wraps, so I replaced the Mickey Finn with another old tie that may have been in the Edson tiger family.

At this point I checked the incoming flows, and they remained a very thick red-brown color, and I grew concerned over my ability to wade across the incoming stream, so I hiked back to the inlet and safely made the crossing. The fish count was at fourteen, and I felt satisfied with my day, so I hoofed it back to the entry road. I intended to end my day, but I stared at the small cove north of the lower lot, and I decided to give the area a try with my streamer combination. I inspected the Edson tiger, and I noticed that some of the yellow and red bucktail had escaped on this fly as well, thus presenting a much narrower baitfish profile than desired, so I exchanged it for a wiggle damsel nymph. In the next fifteen minutes I landed two trout on the damsel nymph and generated several temporary hook ups, but then the action came to a screeching halt, and I decided to finally end my day of fishing.

Roadside Grazing

Sixteen cookie cutter rainbows between seven and twelve inches were a respectable day, and this temporarily satisfied my fly fishing addiction. The surge of muddy creek water was an unwelcome surprise, but I managed to work around it and salvage a fun lake fly fishing day. Experiencing success with streamers in Clear Lake was an added bonus. I suspect that I will be tying some bucktail streamers in the near future.

Fish Landed: 16

Time: 10:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Next to parking lot and inlet area

Clear Lake 06/21/2023 Photo Album

The rivers and streams of Colorado remained in an elevated state, and I was attempting to ratchet back the strenuous nature of my endeavors for a few weeks, so I decided to visit another lake. On Wednesday, June 21 I opted for Clear Lake, and this was another example of a lake described in my Colorado’s Easy Access Mountain Lakes book. The weather was predicted to be cooler than earlier in the week, and the threat of precipitation was minimal.

I departed Denver at 8:30, and I arrived at my chosen destination by 10:00AM. I quickly assembled my Sage four weight, and I ambled a very short distance to the south side of the beach area next to the parking lot. The easy access book repeatedly emphasized not fishing right next to the parking lot, but I ignored this advice. The sun was bright and the air temperature was in the upper sixties, so I wore no layers beyond my fishing shirt and stuffed my raincoat in my backpack.

Double Dry in Place

In the early going I tossed an olive hippie stomper and trailed a size 16 gray caddis, and this double dry fly combination enabled me to establish a fish count of three. Two of the stocker rainbows caught during this time frame nipped the size 14 stomper, and one grabbed the trailing caddis. I also experienced quite a few brief connections, as the trout bumped the caddis without fully chomping down. The book suggested working along the southern shoreline, but it consisted of a steep rocky bank, and I was reluctant to negotiate the relatively severe terrain with my pledge to reduce stress. I clipped my flies to the rod guide and mounted a dirt bank next to the entry road and then followed a rough two-track to the inlet section. The book suggested that the inlet was the place to be, and the author described hours of hot fishing with a dry/dropper.

Salivating Over This Area

Initially I persisted with the double/dry, but other than a refusal or two, the offering was not effective, so I decided to make a switch. I followed the author’s lead, and I rigged with size 8 tan pool toy hopper, beadhead hares ear nymph and a size 12 prince nymph. This combination proved to be the ticket, and I notched five additional trout before lunch to increase the fish count to eight. The hopper accounted for one fish, but the others nailed the prince. I began fishing the inlet by prospecting the faster run where the creek emptied into the lake, and this locale yielded a fish or two, but when I slid westward, so I was beyond a moderate-sized exposed boulder, I began to enjoy more success. The lake in this area dropped off and still carried some current; however, the tongue of the run fanned out to much slower moving water.

One of the Better Fish

Just before lunch I inadvertently broke off the two nymphs, so after lunch I replaced the prince as the top subsurface offering and then added an iron sally. What a fortuitous move this turned out to be! Just before lunch some thick clouds blocked the sun for an extended period of time, and I grew quite chilled standing in the waist deep water. I decided to return to the car for another layer, but I left my rod and all my gear on the gradual shoreline. I decided to vacate the area, and a solo fisherman was below me, so I approached him and made the offer for him to take my spot. He was very thankful, but I was not certain he would change his position.

I quickly hiked back to the car and grabbed my North Face light down coat, and upon returning to my pile of gear, I snugged the down coat under my thin rain shell. My comfort level zoomed to positive and remained in that status for the remainder of the afternoon. Not wishing to wade waist deep again, I began shooting longer casts to the deep and moving water that rolled by forty feet across from my position. The fun began instantly. On the first three casts a rainbow trout attacked the iron sally, and for the remainder of the afternoon this torrid success level continued, until I boosted the fish count to thirty. Sixty percent of the time a trout locked on to the nymph on the drift, but a strip or twitch initiated action the rest of the time.

Got a Grip

After an hour of this trout catching bonanza a trio of kids arrived, and they set up operations fifteen yards below me. The male of the group was likely in his late teens, and the two females were probably ninth or tenth grade. Their tools consisted of two fly rods and two spinning rods. They were not having much success, and they looked on in awe, as I hoisted fish after fish from the honey hole that was across from me.

At one point between fifteen and twenty landed fish, I snapped off the prince and iron sally on a backcast, and I retooled with a beadhead hares ear as the top fly and stayed with an iron sally for the bottom offering. During this time one of the young ladies asked to see my fly, and when I showed her, she produced her fly box and asked which of her flies I thought would work. I pointed to four flashy hares ear nymphs.

Next to the Bank and Between the Boulders

After breaking off two valued flies I decided to follow the gentleman who was below me before lunch. He crossed the creek above the lake and scaled a steep bank and positioned himself along the opposite shoreline thirty yards below my position and that of the teenagers. I hoped to eliminate the risk of loss during long backcasts, as the prime water ran very close to the bank across from me. The tactic worked, and after a brief creek crossing and short hike I was prepared to cast from the north shore.

Nice Gleam

I was pleased to discover that my catch rate resumed at a similar pace, if not perhaps even greater. The rainbow trout were all over my nymphs, although the hares ear began to produce, albeit at a lower ratio than the iron sally. Several narrow evergreens invaded my space, so I was forced to be very cautious with my backcasts and hooksets. Short roll casts served the purpose of keeping my flies in the water and out of the timber.

From the Opposite Shore

By 3:30PM I grew weary of the easy fishing (I cannot believe I am writing this), so I snugged up my line, climbed the bank, followed the trail, crossed the creek and returned to the trio of teenage friends. I asked the young man, if I could look at his line, and he gleefully handed it to me. He told me the rod was new and called it a Crosswater (I think). I inspected the fly, and he had a thick leader with a tiny elk hair caddis knotted to the end. What comes after 0X? I nipped off the fly and added three feet of 4X using a surgeons knot, although it was very difficult to cinch the thick leader side. I asked if he had any large foam flies, and amazingly he produced a size 10 chubby Chernobyl. I knotted it to the 4X, and then I asked to inspect his fly box. I instantly spotted a pair of flashy beadhead hares ear nymphs, so I added a three foot dropper to the chubby and added the flashy nymph. I proclaimed him ready to catch a fish and suggested that he cast to the area, where I was landing fish after fish from both sides of the lake.

The young angler gave it a game effort, but he was unable to extend a cast more than thirty feet or so, and the sweet spot required another ten feet. He was left handed, and he was applying his forward stroke way too early, and this drained all the energy from the line. I attempted to instruct him on how to pause to allow the rod to load, and he managed it a few times, but then he angled his arm on the forward cast and landed the flies upstream in still water rather than the target area. I began to shout at the moment that the rod loaded on the backcast, and that helped, but his flies continued to fall short. Meanwhile the two females landed a pair of fish on the spinning rod, and I sensed he wanted to transition back to that form of fishing.

One of the Better Rainbows

I said my farewell, and they thanked me for my assistance, and I returned to the small cove next to the parking lot. Several fish rose sporadically, but the hopper/dropper was not their cup of tea, so I clipped off the flies and tied on a size 16 gray deer hair caddis. For the next fifteen minutes I fished this tiny morsel solo, and I increased the fish count to thirty-five, before I called it quits and ambled back to the car. Of the last five fish to feel my net, three reacted to a twitch or strip, and the other two crushed the fly, while it sat in a stationary position.

Ram Tough

Wednesday, June 21 evolved into a fish catching orgy. All the trout were rainbows except for one brook trout that barely exceeded my self imposed minimum of six inches. The iron sally was far and away the favorite of the lake residents, although the prince, hares ear, pool toy, hippie stomper and deer hair caddis contributed to the haul. I suspect another lake fishing adventure lies in my near future, and my confidence in the Easy Access Mountain Lakes book is growing.

Fish Landed: 35

Time: 1:00PM – 4:00PM

Location: Clear Creek Canyon

Clear Creek 041/17/2023 Photo Album

Monday, April 17 was a gorgeous spring day in Denver with the high temperature in the mid-seventies. I could not resist the urge to wet a line and settled on a trip to nearby Clear Creek for my fly fishing fix. I was planning another trip to the South Platte River on Wednesday, so I was averse to undertaking a long drive on Monday. I evaluated the typical Front Range options, and I eventually settled on Clear Creek. I was disappointed to note that South Boulder Creek and the Big Thompson River were already rolling at elevated levels, with SBC 111 CFS and the Big T 99. Both of these are manageable, but they are above my ideal range. Jane and I hiked along Clear Creek on Sunday on the Peak to Plains Trail, so I had first hand knowledge that the creek west of Golden was running low (27 CFS) and clear, and I liked the certainty of this option.

Because my destination was relatively close, I opted for a two hour pickleball session on Monday morning, and when I returned home, I gathered my gear and downed my lunch. I arrived at my chosen parking lot by 12:45PM after being forced to stop twice by flagmen, while highway maintenance sessions were in progress. I quickly pulled on my hooded fleece for comfort in the shadows and against the breeze, and then I rigged my trusty Sage four piece, four weight.

Off and Running with Perhaps the Best Fish of the Day

Ultra Zug Bug Produced

I waded upstream for .2 mile, until I reached a place where the creek bed narrowed, and this topography created more deep runs, riffles and pockets. Given the low and clear conditions, I chose to begin my quest for trout with a yellow size 8 fat Albert, beadhead ultra zug bug, and beadhead hares ear nymph. During the first hour I prospected upstream and managed to net three medium sized brown trout by Clear Creek standards in the nine to eleven inch range. Each fly accounted for one fish. The catch rate was fair, but the three landed trout were accompanied by quite a few looks and refusals to the fat Albert, so I decided to downsize  and go with a double dry. More fish seemed to be looking toward the surface for their meals than lower in the water column. I switched to a peacock body hippie stomper and trailed a gray size 16 deer hair caddis. The hippie stomper fooled a small rainbow trout, but it was slow going, so I swapped the caddis for a size 14 yellow sally dry fly and positioned it behind the hippie stomper, and this combination delivered another brown trout that selected the hippie stomper.

Nice Current Seam Here

Trough Near the Left Bank Log Stream Improvements

It was clear that the double dry was generating less interest than the earlier dry/dropper, so I once again changed course and reverted to a dry/dropper. For my last assault on the Clear Creek trout population I deployed a classic size 10 Chernobyl ant and a beadhead prince size 14. This proved to be my best move of the day, and I built the fish counter from five to twelve. Two of the last seven trout crushed the Chernobyl ant, and the remainder nabbed the weighted prince nymph. I avoided adding a second nymph, and this reduced the inevitable rash of tangles associated with a three fly configuration.

Prince Turned the Tide

Chernobyl Ant Gets In on the Action

By four o’clock I approached a convenient exit point, and I took advantage. The last thirty minutes featured dark gray clouds and reduced lighting, and a breeze became an ever present companion. I was pleased at this point to have had the foresight to wear my fleece hoodie. Unfortunately I never witnessed a blue winged olive in response to the overcast conditions.

Afternoon Success

Second Rainbow Trout

Monday’s day on Clear Creek surpassed my expectations, as I landed double digit trout. Once I settled on the Chernobyl ant and prince nymph, the pace of action accelerated a bit, and I grew confident that I could interact with trout, when I encountered the proper structure. I am fairly certain that the larger and weighted prince accounted for the biggest difference from my earlier approaches. It was good to learn that Clear Creek can produce some decent action within close proximity to my home.

Fish Landed: 12

Promising Deep Trough Along the Right Bank

Time: 12:00PM – 3:00PM

Location: Clear Creek Canyon

Clear Creek 04/02/2023 Photo Album

I endured the last two weeks of March with no break in the weather that promised a solid day of fly fishing. Nice days in March consisted of high temperatures in the low fifties in Denver. and highs at that level translate to low forties and thirties at best in the foothills and mountains, where I fish for trout. Fortunately the weather forecast projected a brief window of nice weather on April 1 – 3, so I jumped at the opportunity. Unfortunately the best day was Sunday, and as a retiree I am loathe to fish on weekends, but I decided to leverage the small window of seventy degree weather before another cold front rushed across the state.

Nice Starting Pool

I reviewed my Front Range options and settled on Clear Creek in the canyon west of Golden. Why? High winds were a factor on South Boulder Creek and the Big Thompson. Bear Creek and Boulder Creek were viable options; however, flows were low, and these two destinations do not offer as much space in case of crowded weekend conditions. The North Fork of St. Vrain Creek was also considered, but I experienced minimal success on my first trip of the season, and I was also fearful of elevated fishing pressure there.

Source of Rainbow

I arrived at my chosen starting point at 11:30AM, and I layered with my fleece hoodie. The temperature was a comfortable 64 degrees, but the wind accelerated periodically, and I was in the shade of the narrow canyon from time to time. I rigged my Loomis five weight two piece, and then I devoured my small lunch, since it was approaching noon.

Fat Albert

Another Decent Trout

Big Pocket

After lunch I hiked downstream from my parking space and fished mostly along the south bank of the creek. Thick patches of snow and ice shelves remained, but they receded significantly from previous scouting hikes along Clear Creek, and the stream was in fine shape at 27 CFS. I began my quest for trout with a size 8 yellow fat Albert, a beadhead hares ear nymph, and an ultra zug bug. In the early going I landed five rainbow trout, and I was quite pleased with the success. One of the bows grabbed the ultra zug bug, and one aggressive feeder crushed the fat Albert, while the remainder nabbed the hares ear nymph. Based on past experience I knew Clear Creek as primarily a brown trout fishery, so I was unable to explain the heavy weighting of rainbows on this fine spring outing.

One of the Better Fish

Finally a Brown Trout

Number six was a thick ten inch brown, and I built the fish count to eleven over the remainder of the afternoon, as I steadily worked my way upstream. On my hike to my starting point along the south side of the creek, I passed at least six other fishermen stationed on the north side, but by the time I reached their positions, they had abandoned the effort.

My lineup of flies remained the same as the start, and on the day I tallied one on the fat Albert, three on the ultra zug bug, and seven on the hares ear nymph. Most of my action materialized from riffles and the tail of runs that consisted of three to four feet of depth with a slowing current. Nine landed trout were rainbows and two were browns. I have no explanation for this aberrant ratio of species compared to my normal experience.

Lifted Briefly

I am off and running with a double digit day to start April, and hopefully the weather will afford me more opportunities than were available in March. It is blue winged olive time, so trips to the Arkansas River and South Platte River are highly anticipated.

Fish Landed: 11

Time: 11:00AM – 2:30PM

Location: Clear Creek Canyon

Clear Creek 10/12/2022 Photo Album

I was certain that the stars and planets were aligned for an autumn fishing trip to South Boulder Creek. Readers of this blog may recall that I embarked on a trip to South Boulder Creek on 10/03/2022, but it was suddenly aborted, when I encountered a digital display sign that announced that Gross Dam Road was closed, and this forced me to pivot to the Big Thompson River for a day of fishing.  Subsequent to that frustration, I made a phone call to Denver Water and eventually learned of a web site with a map that informed the public of days when Gross Dam Road was closed. In addition one of the readers of this blog sent me a link to the same web page.

The closure schedule indicated that the road was closed on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday during the week of October 10, so I built my fishing plans around this information and made South Boulder Creek my destination on Wednesday. I checked the flows, and the DWR graph depicted volumes of 89 CFS, and this was very favorable from my perspective. The weather was also a positive with high temperatures of 59 degrees in nearby Pinecliffe, CO. My historic blog posts established that I had some very successful days around the same time on South Boulder Creek in previous years. In short, I was quite excited to finally make a return trip to South Boulder Creek below Gross Reservoir.

I departed Denver by 8:30AM, and this allowed me to reach the turn off to Crescent Meadows by 9:15AM, and guess what greeted me? The same irksome sign that stopped me on 10/03/2022, and once again it announced that Gross Dam Road was closed on 10/12 and 10/13. Needless to say I was steamed. I decided to persist with my route in case the web site information was accurate, and the person that posted the sign made a typographical error. After a few minutes on upper Gross Dam Road I reached Crescent Meadows parking lot, and sure enough a young man blocked farther progress with a stop sign. I parked in the lot and walked over to the poor unsuspecting worker and expressed my anger with the disconnect between the web site information and the local road closure decision. Of course he was not responsible, but he did offer to pass along my frustration to his supervisors. I, likewise, planned to make another call to Denver Water, although I fear I the weather may never allow me to attempt another trip to South Boulder Creek in 2022.

What should I do now? I considered driving to the Big Thompson River, but after making the drive to Lake George on Tuesday, I was averse to extending my trip once again. I considered other options and temporarily decided to make the southward journey to the South Platte River at Deckers; however, when I stopped in cell phone range near Golden to map directions, I first checked the stream flows. The water managers apparently opened the taps, because the CFS reading was 430. I was reluctant to attempt to fish at those high levels in the fall, so I gave up on that idea and defaulted to the relatively nearby Clear Creek in the canyon.

Rolling Along

Clear Creek is generally my least favorite front range destination; as the fish are small, they are surprisingly difficult to catch, and brown trout comprise at least 80% of the population. One of my criteria for October fishing is streams with a higher ratio of rainbow trout, and Clear Creek does not meet that guideline. At any rate I found myself at the tailgate of my Santa Fe preparing to fish in Clear Creek by 10:50AM on Wednesday. I fitted together my Loomis two piece five weight and slipped on my raincoat, since the temperature was sixty degrees but felt cooler due to a constant breeze that changed into strong gusts on a fairly frequent basis. I carefully maneuvered myself to the edge of the stream and began my upstream progression at 11:00AM. I began with a size 8 tan pool toy hopper, a size 14 prince nymph, and a size 16 salvation nymph.

Number Three

Catching Some Leaf Change

I covered a substantial distance and probed all the likely spots for thirty minutes with no response from the trout. I was starting to fume over my lousy luck, but eventually I calmed down and decided to reconfigure my offerings. I extended the leader from the hopper to the first fly to gain more depth, and then I replaced the prince with a size 12 weighted 20 incher to enable a faster sink rate while leaving the salvation in place. This move paid dividends, as I landed a spunky eleven inch rainbow and a six inch brown trout before I broke for lunch. The rainbow chomped the 20 incher, and the brown trout favored the salvation.

Pretty Little Trout

Very Attractive Section

I pretty much stayed with the same three fly combination for the remainder of my time and built the fish count to eight, before I quit at 2:30PM. There was a period, after I was forced to break off the 20 incher and salvation, when I substituted an ultra zug bug and pheasant tail for the salvation, but the substitute nymphs never delivered, and I reverted to the salvation. My catch rate seemed to improve toward the end of my upstream movement, and I netted an eleven inch rainbow and a thirteen inch brown trout. A brown of that size is a trophy in Clear Creek. I suspect the improved catch rate was attributable to a combination of reasons that included warming water temperature due to the sun’s penetration, a narrower streambed which created more depth and better structure, and less pressure because of limited parking and a steep bank next to the road.

Beast of the Day

At any rate I salvaged an eight fish day on Clear Creek, and I fished for 3.5 hours including my lunch time. The trout were small and picky, as is usually the case, and the wind was quite adverse. I was forced to drive my casts into the wind most of the day, and this action was very tiring to my elbow and shoulder. I was actually quite pleased to net eight fish under the challenging conditions, but Wednesday was not the day I envisioned, when I departed from home at 8:30AM.

Fish Landed: 8

Time: 10:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: West of Idaho Springs

Clear Creek 08/02/2022 Photo Album

The title of this blog report is unfinished business. After my net drifted away from me on Monday, I spent forty-five minutes wading downstream in search of the escaped landing device. I never found it, so I quit and returned to Denver. I immediately made the short trip to Bass Pro Shop at Northfield, and I purchased a cheap $42 wooden landing net. I expected to replace the bag with one with small holes, but I was surprised to discover that the $42 net contained the desired small hole rubber mesh, thus saving me the job of removing and attaching a different net bag. I stopped fishing at 1:30PM on Monday, and I sensed that the action was escalating, and that is why Tuesday’s session is labeled unfinished business.

I departed Denver and arrived at my chosen destination by 10:00AM. Unlike Monday, however, four or five vehicles were spaced along the road that borders Clear Creek, so I was forced to fly fish a section that was not my preferred stretch. I once again rigged my Orvis Access eight foot four weight rod, and I hiked for .5 mile, before I cut perpendicular to the trail and intersected with the creek. The flows were nearly ideal in my opinion, and the air temperature at the start was probably in the sixties.

A Good Place to Start

Moose

I launched my angling day with a yellow stimulator trailing a size 16 gray deer hair caddis, but the fish did not cooperate in the early going. Eventually the double dry fly offering began to click, and I built the fish count to seven, by the time I paused for lunch at noon. The stimulator created mostly refusals, and the caddis was the main attraction for the high country trout. All the trout were small cutthroats or cutbows in the six to ten inch range.

Perfect Color Scheme

After lunch I shifted direction and replaced the yellow stimulator with an olive hippie stomper, and then I extended the tippet from the bend and added a salvation nymph. The salvation accounted for a single trout, but then it was ignored, so I swapped it for a black sunk ant. The ant and stomper combination enabled me to increment the fish count from seven to eleven, but I covered a significant amount of water to net those four fish.

Brilliant

Spotted Fish Here

Once again I pondered a change, and in this case I opted to return to a double dry fly offering. It was early afternoon, and some large clouds blocked the sun to create some cooling, and I spotted a few random stoneflies and tiny mayflies in the creek environment. In fact, I needed to extract my raincoat for a short time, when a heavy mist changed into a brief rain shower. My choice for the double dry fly was a size 14 purple haze trailed by a size 16 light gray deer hair caddis. Between 1:30PM and 2:30PM the fish count ballooned to sixteen, and the purple haze was the desired food source for most of the trout. After number sixteen shot from my net, I inspected the purple parachute fly and discovered that the hackle was shredded by some strong teeth. Before I could exchange it for a fresh version, I stupidly tried to execute a roll cast beneath an evergreen branch, and the flies snagged some needles beyond my reach. I applied direct pressure to the line (avoided using my fly rod), and snapped off the purple haze and caddis.

Very Fine Catch

I considered tying on another purple haze, but the catch rate had slowed considerably, so I knotted a solitary classic Chernobyl ant to my line in a size 10. I was below a long narrow gliding run that deflected off a very large angled log, and I flipped the foam attractor to the top of the run. Thwack! A magnificent twelve inch cutthroat reacted to the plop and engulfed the low riding fly. I cautiously steered the fish away from the log and its menacing branches and lifted it over my new net. What a beauty!

Closing In

For the next hour I continued upstream at a fairly rapid pace, and I cherry picked only the very best locations. I experienced one very brief connection with a decent trout under some low hanging branches, but that was the extent of my action for the remainder of the afternoon. I added a black sunken ant and finished the day with a double ant offering, but I was unable to interest the high country creek residents in a mid afternoon snack.

I found a relatively unobstructed path that led back to the road and hiked 1.3 miles back to the parking lot. Seventeen trout in five hours of fishing was decent but not exactly a torrid pace. All the trout, however, were absolutely stunning wild cutbows and cutthroats, and this more than made up for their diminutive size. Most importantly, other than the loss of three flies, I avoided losing or breaking any of my equipment.

Fish Landed: 17

Time: 12:15PM – 4:15PM

Location: Clear Creek Canyon

Clear Creek 05/01/2022 Photo Album

Although a distant second to fly fishing, I am also an avid pickleball player, and Sunday morning began with a visit to a local set of courts. Unfortunately, after 1.5 hours of play, it became clear that the four courts were overwhelmed by twenty-six players. This meant that ten players were sitting out at any given time waiting for a court to open up. Having already played some quality pickleball on Friday and Saturday, I concluded that my time could be better spent on a trout stream.

My go to nearby creek this spring has been Clear Creek, so I made that my destination on Sunday afternoon. I quickly loaded the car and threw together my standard lunch and made the relatively short drive to Clear Creek Canyon west of Golden, CO. The parking spaces were jammed with hikers, bikers, fishermen and rock climbers taking advantage of the nice weekend weather, but I found a nice wide pullout with the absence of other cars. It was 11:45AM, when I arrived at my chosen section of Clear Creek, so I munched down my sandwich and carrots, before I prepared to fish. The temperature was in the low fifties, so I pulled on my light down coat and added my raincoat as a windbreaker, and this proved to be a good decision, as the wind was a periodic factor in the narrow canyon. My fly rod of choice was my Sage four weight, as I desired its stiffness and fast action to combat the wind.

Second Cast Produced Here Along the Seam

Hungry Fish

Based on my experience on previous trips, I began my day with a peacock hippie stomper trailing a size 16 olive-brown deer hair caddis. The double dry delivered five trout in two hours of fishing, as I moved often and executed a significant number of casts. I would characterize the fishing as steady, but I was disappointed nevertheless. Two of the landed fish gulped the hippie stomper and the other three nipped the caddis. These results were accompanied by an abundant quantity of looks and refusals, and this added to my frustration. I began to experiment with different combinations including a classic black Chernobyl ant, a purple haze, and a size 14 gray deer hair caddis as the lead fly. None of these flies delivered results, so at 2:15PM, I modified my approach and switched to a dry/dropper configuration.

Landed One From the Narrow Slick Next to the Large Rock

On previous trips to Clear Creek the nymphs failed to produce, as the trout either looked at, refused or ate the surface fly. I was skeptical that Sunday would be any different, but I reluctantly rigged with a yellow size 6 fat Albert, a beadhead hares ear, and a salvation nymph. Voila! The change worked, and my catch rate elevated, as I moved the fish count from five to thirteen. Initially the hares ear was the prime producer, while the salvation accounted for a couple trout as well. It seemed that the salvation was more effective on the lift, or when the flies swept across the current at the end of a drift; whereas, the hares ear connected on dead drifts.

Hares Ear Looked Tasty

After I increased the fish count from five to nine, I began to notice very spaced out and sporadic rises as well as some small blue winged olives, as they floated skyward after their emergence. I decided to forsake the salvation and replaced it with a sparkle wing RS2. During the last hour I netted four additional trout with the hares ear responsible for half and the sparkle wing RS2 the object of desire for the remainder. All was not perfect during the dry/dropper phase, as several fish refused the large yellow fat Albert, but I learned to ignore these picky eaters, and if I managed nice drifts through deep pockets and runs, I was rewarded with subsurface eats.

Large Pool

My last minute decision to abandon the pickleball courts in favor of a trout stream proved to be productive. Thirteen fish in four hours represents a decent catch rate, but as usual the size of the trout was lacking. One or two of my catch may have stretched the tape to eleven inches, but they were mostly in the seven to ten inch range. I considered the outing a great success given the short drive and the cool windy conditions.

Fish Landed: 13

Time: 4:00PM – 6:00PM

Location: Clear Creek Canyon

Clear Creek 04/15/2022 Photo Album

Wind, wind and more wind. This pretty much describes my spring fishing in 2022 so far. I managed a decent day on Monday on Clear Creek, and I was anxious to complete another fishing trip during the remaining weekdays; however, high winds on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday precluded any such thoughts. In fact, it was too windy for my other favorite activity, pickleball. Tuesday night was so cold that the overnight temperature dipped to 16 degrees, and my tender radish sprouts felt the brunt of it.

Finally, the forecast predicted some abatement from the wind on Friday, but I decided to join Jane for some pickleball in the morning, and of course that led to lunch and beers at the Stanley Marketplace afterward. I arrived back home by 2PM, and after watering the garden (including frost damaged radish seedlings), I decided to make a late afternoon visit to Clear Creek Canyon. I had fun there on Monday, and the drive was only thirty minutes.

Pocket Water

My gear remained in the car at the ready after Monday, so I took the plunge and made quick work of the drive to Clear Creek west of Golden, CO. The wind remained a factor, but it slowed from its limb rattling force of the previous three days.

By the time I made the drive and rigged my line on my Sage four weight, I was on the water ready to cast a bit before 4PM. I wore my light down coat, and that kept me comfortable in the lengthening shadows of the canyon with the air temperature in the upper fifties.

I began my quest for trout with a peacock hippie stomper and trailed a yellow stimulator on a six-inch dropper. These two flies delivered seven fish to my net in the afternoon on Monday April 11. For the next two hours I worked my way upstream, as I probed all the promising pockets and deep runs of Clear Creek. In the early going the hippie stomper lured two fish to the surface, and I reacted with swift hooksets in both cases to increase the fish count to two.

Clear Creek Respectable

This early action was followed by a lull and some refusals to the hippie stomper, so I swapped the yellow stimulator for an olive-brown deer hair caddis. The move paid dividends, when a small brown trout snatched the caddis from the drift. If the fish were refusing the hippie stomper, why did I change out the trailing fly? My thought process reasoned that at least the hippie stomper was attracting interest, while the stimulator was merely trailing surface debris. I also anticipated that I could execute downstream drifts which would allow the deer hair caddis to drift over potential targets first.

In spite of catching a fish on the deer hair caddis, I was underwhelmed by the performance of the combination, and the size 16 was very difficult to track in the shadows and glare of the late afternoon. I pondered another fly change, and this time I elected to switch the caddis for a gray stimulator size 14.

Last Catch Was a Rainbow

For the last thirty minutes I manipulated the hippie stomper and stimulator combination along Clear Creek, and I netted two more trout including another brown and a twelve-inch rainbow. In both cases the trout smashed the stimulator at the extreme downstream border of the pool, as I lifted to execute another cast. Apparently, the trout could not allow a potential food source to fly off. I had a third trout that was potentially my largest of the day that reacted in similar fashion to the late lift, but it escaped after an abbreviated battle. I caught a glimpse of its side, and it appeared to be another rainbow.

Five trout in two hours of fishing represented an above average catch rate, and I was pleased with my brief tenure on Clear Creek. I fished dry flies with moderate success, and the air temperature remained at the low end of the comfort zone. I look forward to continued trips to nearby Clear Creek.

Fish Landed: 5