Time: 12:00PM – 2:30PM

Location: Hidden Valley Exit Off of Interstate 70

Fish Landed: 2

Web Album Link

The days remaining in 2011 were dwindling, particularly the days nice enough to get out on a stream and fish. With unseasonably warm days forecast for Thursday and Friday, November 17-18 I cleared an afternoon on Friday to resume my quest to surpass the 2010 cumulative fish count. I wanted a destination within an hour of Denver and limited my options to Clear Creek, Bear Creek or the South Platte River. The South Platte flows were extremely low at 50 cfs, and that makes for difficult fishing. Bear Creek is a very small stream, and low fall conditions would make this a challenge as well. By process of elimination I chose Clear Creek.

I left work at 10:30AM, returned home and tossed all my fishing gear in the Santa Fe including a lunch. I arrived at the Hidden Valley exit off of interstate 70 at noon and parked at the bike path trailhead and ate my lunch. I was on the water by 12:15 and elected to walk down the path to a place where the stream fans out into a nice slow moving deep pool. I discovered there was a five foot wide ice ledge along the side that I was fishing from. The water wasn’t very deep so I tied on a parachute hopper and added a beadhead hares ear and then a RS2 as the point fly.

I began casting to the main central run and drifting my flies along the seams into the center of the pool as it fanned out into the deepest section but I had no results. Next I probed the deep water within a couple feet of the ice shelf and moved to the top of the pool with no success. I hiked along the bike trail toward the car and dropped down to a couple sections where there were nice deep slow moving troughs along the south bank, and again did not experience any success. In fact, I did not spot a single fish and the area I was fishing was totally covered by the shadows of the hills running along the south side of the narrow valley.

When I arrived at the car, I carefully picked my way down the steep bank and fished the nice wide deep pool below the parking area. Judging from the well worn paths, this area received a lot of pressure, and sure enough I couldn’t connect with any fish in spite of thorough prospecting of the tail, midsection, and top of the area. This pool had a wider shelf of ice along my side of the stream, and I broke a few chunks loose in order to wade closer to the top of the pool for some nice drifts.

Catching number 531 was beginning to look quite bleak as I contemplated my next move. The stream made a forty-five degree bend to the north and then flowed under the on ramp to I70 and then under the eastbound and westbound lanes of the highway. It appeared that the sun was hitting Clear Creek on the other side of the highway, so I decided to make my way under the highway and explore the north side. As I approached the first bridge I noticed some nice short pockets so I unclipped the flies and tossed a cast along the left bank. As I lifted my rod to make a second cast, I felt a throb and set the hook and spotted a small brown thrashing in the water. Could this be the one? Unfortunately when I brought the fish to my net I noticed that the tiny RS2 was embedded in the side of the small brown, and I’d foul hooked the fish. I’d rather settle for a tie than count a foul hooked fish so I quickly released the fish and resumed my quest.

At least I’d now found evidence that fish were in the stream and perhaps showing some interest in following a fly and eating. I was beginning to doubt the dry/dropper strategy, but before switching to an indicator and fishing deeper, I decided to fish the existing flies in the shadows under the highway. I could switch to deep nymphs once I exited to the sunny north side. There was a nice deep slot opposite where I’d foul hooked the small brown so I waded into the stream a bit and cast the hopper and nymphs to the top of the slot and let it drift to the tail. Just as the flies began to drag at the tail I noticed a flash and set the hook and played a nine inch brown trout to my net. This fish was hooked in the mouth by the RS2 and represented the much sought after number 531 for the 2011 season. I photographed the brown on top of a nice waist high rock and released it to resume its winter survival ordeal.

Fish That Put Me Over the Top

I moved up along the stream a bit further and in short order discovered that my landing net was no longer clipped to my Fishpond front pack configuration. Apparently in my euphoria over catching a fish, I’d forgotten that the net was decoupled, and I’d allowed it to drift down the stream. I was cursing myself as I retraced my steps to the large rock, and sure enough it wasn’t visible. I’d lowered the fish in the net to the water, removed the hook, released the fish and gathered my line while allowing the net to drift away. Could I walk downstream and find the net lodged on a rock or stick? I was skeptical but decided to scramble downstream to the car and have a look. Fortunately when I got to the parking area and looked downstream I saw my net lodged against a large rock protruding above some shallow riffles. I quickly scrambled down the bank and waded to the shallow riffle area and retrieved my net.

Next I moved back up under the I70 overpass and fished some additional interesting pockets and slots to no avail. I emerged out of the shadows on the north side of the highway and circled past some wide shallow unattractive areas until I approached a nice area with riffles running three to four feet deep. I made some nice casts here but saw no action and moved to another nice run with some depth along the rocky northeast bank. While standing at the tail of the run, I spotted a small brown briefly look at my fly, but it quickly returned to its holding spot and then ignored more repeated drifts over it.

This provoked me to remove the hopper, and switch to a strike indicator and split shot with the same two nymphs that I’d been fishing below the split shot. I worked the upper part of the run I was in and then moved up to the next attractive water. Here there was a large protruding midstream rock and then eight feet below a large subsurface rock and then a nice soft pocket below that. I drifted the nymphs through the soft pocket repeatedly with not action, and then waded up a bit to cast into the short pocket behind the protruding rock. The combination of the two rocks created a situation where the current was being sucked back upstream against the large rock so my indicator moved back toward the rock and remained stationary. After allowing it to sit motionless for a bit I lifted my rod to recast, but as I did so, a fish grabbed the beadhead hares ear. This fish was around eleven inches and I quickly played it to my recovered net, photographed and released it.

A Second Larger Brown

I continued up the stream a bit further, but the water was largely unattractive as it widened out into shallow riffles. Next I would need to continue underneath the highway into the shadows again, and it was around 2:30 and I wasn’t excited about going back into the shade as the temperatures began to decline so I called it a day satisfied that I’d landed two fish and surpassed my cumulative fish count of 2010.

Nice Stretch of Water North of Interstate 70

Time: 2:00PM – 5:00PM

Location: Downstream from Hidden Valley exit 0f I70 along bike path

Fish Landed: 8

Clear Creek 10/3/2011 Photo Album

The gray parachute hopper produced for half an hour on Clear Creek during my last visit and worked great on Tarryall Creek so I was anxious to return to Clear Creek with a fresh supply. During my last visit I vowed to cross to the opposite bank and fish back to the parking lot since I felt the stream flows remained high and few fishermen ventured to the bank next to I70.

I finished closing August at work and quickly logged off my computer and drove home, ate lunch and tossed all my fishing gear in the Santa Fe. I left the house at 12:45 and arrived at the parking area near the Hidden Valley exit off I70 by 1:30. By the time I put on my waders and rigged my rod and hiked down the path, crossed the stream and then hiked down the shoulder of I70 it was 2PM.

Next to Interstate 70

I tied on a parachute hopper and immediately had a refusal and then experienced a momentary hook up and then foul hooked a brown. I had lots of action but nothing to show for it. I continued working all the likely pockets and gradually landed a few fish, but there were more refusals than fish to show for my efforts. After I’d landed three fish, I decided to try something different and replaced the hopper with a lime green trude and seeing a few small mayflies in the air prompted me to add a RS2. In a nice narrow pool next to the bank I spotted three or four fish rising sporadically and after numerous casts got a 10 inch brown to grab the RS2.

Clear Creek Brown

This combination however was not working consistently so I tried a Chernobyl ant trailing the RS2. This caught one brown on the RS2, but that was it, and I wasn’t even seeing refusals to the Chernobyl so I returned to the gray parachute hopper. It was around this time with a fish count of five that somehow my plastic canister that contained my large dry flies and attractors fell out of my front pack. I immediately dropped my rod so I could use both hands to scoop the plastic container from the stream. In the process of doing all this I broke the rope that connects my wading stick to my belt. I recovered my rod and reel and then began looking for the rope and clip that previously attached my stick to my belt. Eventually I realized it was still on my belt, but it slid around behind me.

I looked for a means to reattach the wading staff to my belt, but didn’t see a solution, so I proceeded upstream casting the parahopper to likely pockets and wedging the stick in rocks as I moved along. This worked fairly well as I landed three more browns among numerous refusals. After ten minutes of fishing I spotted audio cables among the jumble of rocks along the creek bank. The cables were coiled and held by a twisty so I removed the twisty and used it to connect the remaining rope to the wading staff. Then as a safety net I used the audio cables to connect the stick to the belt in case the twisty couldn’t handle the stress. This setup sufficed until I returned to the car at around 5PM.

Makeshift Tether Found in I70 Debris

Time: 2:00PM – 4:00PM

Location: Downstream from Hidden Valley exit off of I70 along bike path

Fish Landed: 10

Clear Creek 9/26/2011 Photo Album

When I arrived at work on Monday and checked with the office manager, I discovered that she hadn’t finished her piece of August closing so I completed my routine weekly reports. The city of Denver is doing work on the water, sewer, and electrical lines in front of our studio and the water was cut off, so I decided it was a good time to take the afternoon off and go fishing. By the time I drove home, ate lunch, loaded the car and drove to Clear Creek it was around 1:30. It took me another 15 minutes to gear up and then I hiked down the bike path for another 10 minutes before I began fishing at 2PM.

Scenic Clear Creek by Interstate 70

I began with the traditional yellow Letort hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear. I picked up a couple small browns (6-8 inches) on the beadhead and then as it clouded up I added a RS2. I was covering a lot of water as I was fishing mainly the pockets along my side of the creek. The section I was in was quite fast with the main current a straight chute down the center of the streambed, and the flows were still strong enough that I couldn’t find a safe spot to cross to the north side, although I would have loved to explore those pockets. Eventually I swapped out the hopper for a Chernobyl ant, and I landed a couple small fish on the Chernobyl. But I was experiencing a huge quantity of refusals and foul hooked fish as I reacted to surface movement and hooked fish on the trailing nymphs.

Typical Small Brown Caught Early Afternoon

After an hour and a half I’d landed five small brown trout and experienced a huge amount of frustration due to refusals, foul hooked fish and resultant tangles. Since the fish were obviously looking to the surface I clipped off the nymphs and started to experiment with attractor dries. First I tied on a royal stimulator that I’d purchased, but that gained me one refusal and then not even any looks. Next I rummaged through my small plastic cylindrical container where I stash my large dry flies and attractors, and I noticed a gray parachute hopper. My son Dan told me he caught four rainbows in a trout pond over the weekend on the gray parachute hopper I’d given him, and they slurped it with confidence. I grabbed the parahopper and tied it on to my tippet and began working the side pockets.

Bigger Fish Liked Parahopper

It was magical. Over the next half hour I landed five brown trout and each fish was larger than any of the fish I landed in the first hour and a half. The fish didn’t typically jump on the fly on the first cast, but usually the second or third, and they exhibited a confident take as they calmly rose and sipped it in. Normally I’m a big believer that reading water, fishing where there is less pressure and making good presentations is more important than fly selection. But Clear Creek convinced me that sometimes fly choice can make a big difference.

I’d like to return to Clear Creek while the weather remains nice and cross to the north bank and see if the parachute hopper can continue to work its magic. Unfortunately I lost the productive parahopper in a tree, and my inventory is getting quite low so I’ll need to tie some more.

The Productive Parahopper

Time: 2:00PM – 5:30PM

Location: Upstream from Philadelphia Mills Access and then from trailer park upstream east of Idaho Springs

Fish Landed: 13

Clear Creek 08/15/2011 Photo Album

I enjoyed the success on Clear Creek, and I was caught up at work, so I decided to leave work at noon on Monday and return to the water Dan and I fished on Sunday. I arrived around 1:30 and was on the stream at around 2PM. I remained on the frontage road and fished water upstream from where Dan and I ended on Sunday. This water was faster and required more edge fishing than the previous day.

I began with the gray Letort hopper and had a few refusals before finally hooking a fish. Eventually I added a beadhead hares ear and worked my way upstream mostly fishing the pockets and slots along the south bank. By 3PM I’d covered a quarter mile or so and landed 8 browns between 7 and 10 inches long. Most of the browns took the hopper, but several grabbed the hares ear. It seemed the hares ear worked better in the faster runs and the hopper produced in the slower water along the edge.

Small Clear Creek Brown Trout

I spotted one green drake shortly after I began fishing and tied on a green drake I’d bought at Taylor Creek Fly Shop in Basalt, but this didn’t produce. Next I tried a comparadun I’d tied with an olive CDC body. I promptly hooked this in a spruce tree on my backcast and had to tear it off along with a large portion of my tippet. The green drake ploy didn’t seem to work, so I tried a yellow Letort hopper and BHHE.

At 3PM I decided to go back to the car and drive east beyond Idaho Springs. I exited I70 at the last exit going east and drove on the frontage road over a hill. I came to an intersection with a trailer park ahead of me and a dirt road that turned left and went underneath I70. I liked the idea of fishing Clear Creek on the north side of the interstate so I parked along the dirt road and went down the rocky bank. I immediately caught a couple small browns plus a few too small to count in some tiny pockets tight to the rocky bank.

Interstate 70 is 50 Yards Away

Action slowed however as I reached the overpass and some sweet water around the bend north of the overpass produced only refusals. I switched to a size 14 olive body caddis and this enabled me to land three more browns as I covered quite a bit of water north of the Idaho Springs landscape maintenance facility.

Time: 1:00PM – 5:00PM

Location: Philadelphia Mills Open Space Area west of Idaho Springs

Fish Landed: 9

Clear Creek 08/14/2011 Photo Album

Dan called while I was in Eagle and wanted to fish on Sunday, so I suggested we could meet in Idaho Springs and fish in Clear Creek on my return trip. As I drove along Clear Creek on my way to Eagle I observed that the stream was still somewhat high but clear as its name suggests. I was hoping that the fish would still be hungry from the protracted snow melt.

Jane drove on ahead to Denver, and I met Dan at a parking lot near interstate 70 in Idaho Springs. We transferred Dan’s gear to my car and drove west on route 6 paralleling the interstate. We turned into the open space and crossed an old bridge and parked. We both got into our waders, and although I noticed some dark clouds to the west, I eschewed my raincoat. We hiked back across the bridge then along the shoulder of the road heading back east until a point where the stream bends and runs along the road.

Dan started with a Chernobyl ant with a beadhead hares ear, and I tied on a gray Letort hopper with no dropper. Almost immediately I experienced several refusals to the hopper and then hooked and landed a small fish. Meanwhile nothing was looking at Dan’s Chernobyl, so we tied on a yellow Letort hopper and paired it with the BHHE.

Brown Trout from Clear Creek

After we’d changed Dan out, there was a spot with an overhanging branch. I attempted to shoot a cast back under the branch and succeeded only to see a refusal to my hopper. On a subsequent cast I looped my line over the branch, and as the hopper dangled above the water, a trout leaped and tried to grab it. Next I cast further upstream and hooked another branch. I wasn’t able to free the fly, so I suggested that Dan make a cast while I held my rod and line back so as not to interfere with his cast. Sure enough he flicked a cast under the branch and a small brown rose up and smashed his hopper.

The fly change worked and Dan began landing browns on the hopper. The river spread out near the bend and afforded us the ability to fish together in parallel. Dan took the north shore and I remained on the more shaded south bank. I watched Dan make an expert cast within a foot of the bank near some evergreen trees and a nice brown rose and took his fly.

Dan Perched on Rock in Clear Creek

As this was taking place I noticed two lumbering green drake naturals buzzing up from the stream. Also the dark clouds were moving closer. I clipped off my hopper and tied on one of the bushy green drakes I’d bought at the Conejos River Angler shop. This was a magical move as I landed a couple fish on the first cast. It started to rain lightly, and I called for Dan to come over so I could tie a green drake on his line. He came over, and I tied on the second and last bushy green drake that I’d purchased. I told him to test it in a nice long pocket above us, and a fish immediately rose and smashed it.

Now the intensity of the rain increased, and I told Dan I was going to return to the car and get my rain coat. As I walked along the road, it rained pretty hard and my fishing shirt was saturated by the time I got to the car. I removed my shirt and went with my T-shirt with my raincoat on top of it. I grabbed Dan’s net, raincoat, and a vial of white powder for drying flies and returned to where Dan was positioned. I fully expected him to report that he’d landed three or four fish on the green drake while I was gone. Unfortunately he announced that he’d snapped the fly off on the first fly that rose and then tied on a bushy caddis and landed a fish on that fly.

Of course the rain ended when I got to the car, and the storm clouds were replaced with partly cloudy skies and occasional sun. When the weather changed, the fishing also deteriorated. We worked the stream a bit more, and I landed a couple fish but the shadows and sun glare made it difficult to follow our flies. Eventually as we neared the bridge, we saw another fisherman, so we exited the stream and hiked back across the bridge. I suggested we go upstream from the parking lot and fish for another hour until 5PM so we scrambled over some large boulders on the steep bank just below interstate 70.

We got to a spot where the river spread out and there was a nice long smooth pool on the opposite side so we waded a bit beyond midstream and made some casts. Dan got a refusal on his Chernobyl, and I had one on my fly. I saw several mayflies that looked like PMD’s so I tied on the gray comparadun and flicked it out near a rock and let it drift the bottom half of the pool. At the very tail a small brown sipped it in. We made a few futile attempts in the pockets above the long pool, but as 5PM approached we decided to call it a day and return to Denver.

Time: 1:30PM – 4:00PM

Location: Philadelphia Mills Open Space

Fish Landed: 3

Clear Creek 10/29/2010 Photo Album

Denver high temperatures were projected to be in the 70’s on Friday, so I decided to give fly fishing another try for the 2010 season. Since it was quite chilly in the morning I busied myself running errands and taking care of other miscellaneous chores, as I waited for the fall sun to warm up the air. I left the house at around 12:30 and headed to Clear Creek west of Idaho Springs. I arrived at the Philadelphia Mills Open Space parking lot and was dipping my boots into the water at 1:30PM.

Clear Creek with I70 Above

The stream was up a bit from the September low point probably due to melting snow in the high elevations. I began fishing just above the bridge and tied on an olive body deer hair caddis. I covered 30-40 yards of water with no success, and concluded that this was futile with the water temperature quite cold due to snow melt, so I tied on a Chernobyl ant trailing a beadhead hares ear on a long 2.5 foot dropper. I fished this combination for an hour or so. At one point I flicked it into an eddy behind a large boulder next to the bank and spotted a fish rising to inspect the Chernobyl, but no take. When I got close to the eddy, I spotted several fish hovering in the slack water below the rock. I cast above the rock and felt a tug and landed a small brown trout on the BHHE. I could see at least five trout in this area, but once I landed the small brown, they were showing no interest in my offering so I moved on and considered returning on my way back at the end of the day.

The wind began to gust in frequent intervals, and I ended up with several significant tangles. The wind was blowing from the north across my backcast, and this was causing the double flies to catch my fly line on the forward stroke. I spent fifteen minutes trying to undo one particularly nasty tangle that resulted in tight knots that I picked apart with the point of two fly hooks.

Once I’d saved my leader from the epic tangle, I decided to go to an olive woolly bugger with a black marabou tail. I began working the deep pools of which there were quite a few. I tried casting up into the pools from below and bouncing the bugger with an up and down movement. I experimented with casting across the center current and letting the line drag the streamer down and across. The last technique was to cast three quarters downstream and strip the fly back across and then up toward me. I was enjoying the casting and creativity. I’d fished the bottom of a nice hole and placed the rod in my left hand while I grasped my wading stick to move to the top of the pool and try some downstream presentations. The rod was out over the water and the woolly bugger was dangling in the current. When I glanced back to look at my fly I saw a fish quickly move to the surface and grab the fly. I set the hook and landed my largest trout of the day; all of eight inches. It had extremely dark coloration; in fact so dark that I thought it was a catfish at first.

Largest Fish from Friday

With this positive reinforcement, I continued working the woolly bugger with renewed enthusiasm. But alas it wasn’t drawing any attention, and in fact I wasn’t even seeing any fish. At around 3PM the sun was getting lower in the sky and casting shadows across much of the water, and I was bored with the lack of action, so I hiked up the steep bank and walked back toward the car on the shoulder of interstate 70. When I reached a point which I thought contained the large boulder with the pod of brown trout, I dropped back down to the stream. However, I was mistaken and had to wade downstream along the edge of the bank for a bit before I eventually found the sought after boulder.

Olive Woolly Bugger

I stopped above the boulder and swung the streamer down from above and then twitched it through the pocket in front of the rock. I kept recasting and feeding out a bit more line. On the sixth cast the fly swung back toward the side of the boulder, and I felt a bump and hooked and landed a small brown similar in size to the first fish of the day. Next I waded to the top side of the large boulder and peered over the top into the eddy behind it. I spotted a decent sized trout along the stream bottom in the middle of the eddy. I twitched 5-10 casts through the eddy, but the observed trout was ignoring my efforts.

I thought perhaps the trout would move to something on top so I tried the olive deer hair caddis, and the targeted fish actually moved up toward it a bit but rejected. Maybe I needed something small? Next I tied on a CDC BWO and tried to tantalize it with the tiny olive morsel. Gusting winds might be blowing ants in the water? I tied on a parachute ant and let it spin in the eddy, but the fish showed no interest. That was enough fun. I allowed the smart eddy resident alone and quit fishing for the day.

Time: 6:00PM – 9:00PM

Location: Philadelphia Mills Open Space

Fish Landed: 1

When playing tennis with Dan on the weekend, he asked whether I’d be interested in fishing the South Platte some night after work. I replied that I needed to check the conditions on the South Platte, but I was definitely interested in some after work fishing.

I checked the South Platte and flows were elevated to 366, but not coming from the bottom of the dam, and the previous week, while they worked on the dam, the flows were cut to a low level during the heat wave. Flies and Lies shop took temperature readings in the low 70’s. I decided the South Platte probably wasn’t a good choice as conditions were fluctuating too much.

I emailed Dan and told him the South Platte probably wasn’t a good choice, but I’d had a blast on Clear Creek, and that was only an hour away, so why not give that a try. He replied that he was in, and could we go on Monday after work. I loaded the car and picked Dan up at 5:15 and we drove to the Philadelphia Mills open space and parked a bit west of my Friday venture. There were several other fishermen that we worked around. We crossed the bridge and went down the road to the midpoint of the area I’d fished on Friday. I tied a Chernobyl Ant on for Dan, and he began fishing the likely pockets. I didn’t tie on a fly until Dan had been fishing for an hour or so. Dan landed a couple decent trout by Clear Creek standards in the first hour on the Chernobyl. He followed his fly and saw the trout take and set the hook. He was doing quite well, so I tied on a caddis and began fishing in parallel with him. I was still helping him a bit and netting the fish for him, so I was fishing sporadically.

When we reached one of the fishermen, we skirted him and re-entered the stream 40 yards further upstream. Dan caught another rainbow along the left bank in the glare, and I was quite impressed. I still wasn’t having luck, so I swapped the caddis for a royal stimulator. The stimulator brought a few refusals, but still no fish. We encountered another fisherman, so once again went around and under the bridge near where we parked. We went upstream from the bridge quite a ways while prospecting some narrow slots along the bank with no success. Finally near the bend where the creek widened out a bit, Dan landed a fourth brown that he hooked when he felt it as he couldn’t follow his fly in the low light and glare.

When we got to the wide area at the bend, there was a smooth pool on the far side. I spotted a fish working on the surface so I waded into position across from the pool. I had switched to a Chernobyl and tossed five to ten casts in the pool and had several refusals. It was now getting pretty dark at 8:30 or so, so I used my headlamp and switched out the Chernobyl for a light gray caddis. I couldn’t see my fly when I resumed casting, but watched for a rise in the vicinity of where I thought my fly was. I hooked and landed a tiny no-counter towards the top third of the pool. Dan was laughing at the minnow as I released it. I dried my fly and cast toward the middle and above where I’d seen the initial fish working. I felt a tug and set the hook and landed a 9 inch brown to prevent a skunking. We both decided to head back to the car over the boulder field while there was still a glimmer of remaining light.

Time: 1:00PM – 5:00PM

Location: Philadelphia Mills Open Space then east of Hidden Valley

Fish Landed: 14

Clear Creek 07/23/2010 Photo Album

On Friday morning I returned to work and finished the commentary package for June. I left work at around 11AM and returned home. I’d left my fishing gear in the car hoping to get a trip in to a closer destination that allowed me to return in time to accompany Jane to pick up Dan at DIA as he returned from three weeks in China. Originally I was considering the North Fork of the St. Vrain at Wild Basin within RMNP, but I wasn’t going to depart until around noon, so that crimped my fishing time. Next I considered Bear Creek, Boulder Creek and Clear Creek. I could make it to each of these destinations in an hour or less. I’d read reports on the Orvis store email and on Blue Quill Anglers recommending Clear Creek as a decent nearby fishing destination. I called Blue Quill Anglers, and asked Chris, the young man who answered the phone, for a recommended stretch of Clear Creek.

He pitched the Clear Creek Canyon stretch between Floyd Hill and Golden, but he fishes it in the evening. Since it was a very warm day again with minimal cloud cover I decided to drive further west beyond Idaho Springs to an area called Philadelphia Mills Open Space. I’d fished here several years ago. I parked on the eastbound side of the Frontage Road and began fishing at the eastern edge of the open space. I tied on a Chernobyl Ant and landed a brown and cutbow from the first two deep slots I tried. This hot fishing continued for the next three hours as I landed 13 trout, three bows and the remainder browns. All fish were in the 6-10 inch range, but quite feisty.

At around 2PM, I began to notice sporadic green drakes taking off, so I tied on a green drake comparadun and prospected the likely locations. This produced three trout, but then I experienced a dry spell so I reverted to the Chernobyl. Once again the Chernobyl came through and I picked up the remaining six trout. At around 4PM the action slowed considerably so I decided to experiment and drive back down I70 toward Denver and try an area east of Idaho Springs.

I exited at Hidden Valley and then turned left and drove .2 miles on the frontage road to a place where it dead ended, and a bike trail began. I parked and grabbed my rod and hiked down the bike path .2-.3 miles or so to a place where the stream fanned out a bit from the narrow fast chute that characterized much of the stretch. I began working some deep slow areas between the bank and stronger current. I spotted a brown holding in the water three feet behind a boulder and tossed the hopper/dropper above it, but there was no interest. Since I’d sighted a fish, I decided to switch flies and try to entice it. I removed the hopper/dropper and tied on a lime green trude. Once again there was no sign of interest. Next I clipped off the trude and tied on an olive-brown deer hair caddis. On the third drift the brown drifted up and sipped the caddis.

After releasing the fish, I moved up 5-8 feet and began casting again. Once again I spotted a trout hugging the bottom. This fish was demonstrating no interest in the caddis. I decided to try something different and tied on the royal stimulator on top and trailed the caddis. On my first cast I created a serious tangle between the two flies. As I was untangling my mess along the edge of the stream three rafts went by and pulled in to the bank just below me. I could still see my target fish. But then a flotilla of rafts, perhaps five, came down the rapids and pulled in practically next to my elbow. Occupants jumped out of the rafts, and the guides encouraged them to climb the bank and jump in the creek and float the rapids in their life jackets. While I was untangling, one of the guides asked me how I was doing. I replied that I was doing pretty well until they arrived. He told me that unfortunately this was the only slow spot on their drift and, therefore, they were going swim here. I replied that didn’t do me much good, and climbed the bank and hiked upstream beyond the narrow chute stretch.

Once I untangled, I continued prospecting some nice water and no additional rafts appeared. I landed two more trout in the 7-8 inch range and when I reached the minivan, called it a day.