Time: 9:30AM – 5:00PM

Location: Edwards Rest Area

Fish Landed: 17

Eagle River 07/30/2011 Photo Album

The flows on the Eagle River declined to the 680 cfs range, and based on previous experience the Eagle gets pretty tough below 500 cfs. Not knowing when I’d have another opportunity, I decided to make the 2 hour trip even though 680 is still pretty much volume. It was forecast to be a bright sunny hot day, so that would make things difficult as well. I got off to a nice early start around 7AM and was on the river fishing by 9:30AM.

Another fisherman arrived while I was getting my stuff together, but I beat him out of the lot. I planned to hit the juicy spots based on prior experience and not dwell on less productive water. This would prove to be a winning strategy over the course of the day. I made a beeline for the nice long deep run first, but unfortunately as I arrived at the water and pulled my line through the rod guides I saw another fisherman waving his line above me in the middle of the run. I traced back over my path and went further up the river to the pocket water above the long run. The river was indeed running along at a fast clip and I could only work the pockets along the edge, some of which were among the willows that are normally on dry land.

I tied on a yellow Letort hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear and managed to land a small brown and then a pretty decent specimen around 13 inches long and fat. Both took the Letort hopper on the surface. Once I’d fished the edge of the pocket water, I skirted the large bend pool and crossed the pedestrian bridge and then came down from the other side to the pool. I cast my dry/dropper in the shallower edge water and tail out, but had no success. I spotted a fish angled into the faster current, so I decided to switch to a strike indicator and split shot. I covered the water where I spotted the fish, but had no luck. Next I decided to try the stack mending technique so I walked to the top of the run and cast to the faster water, did a big mend, and then stack mended and fed out line. I got some great drifts through the heart of the hole, but still no takes. Perhaps I wasn’t getting deep enough. I added another split shot and tried again, but on the second or third drift the indicator dipped and I set the hook, but I was hung up on the bottom. All I could do was apply direct pressure, and I ended up tearing off one of the split shot and both flies.

Right Bank Above Bridge Was Productive

Frustrated with the lack of action in the nice pool, I walked back under the footbridge and then out to the river underneath it. There was a nice area here where I could fish ten feet or so out from the bank. I landed one nice brown here that grabbed the beadhead emerald caddis in a fairly shallow spot along the bank under some overhanging branches. I also foul hooked another fish that took me down the river a bit before I could control it and release. I also had a momentary hookup.

It was close to 11:30 so I decided to hike back to the car for lunch before going further up the river along the right side facing upstream as it is difficult to exit if one gets too far above the bridge. I returned to the car and grabbed my lunch and walked down the path to the river near where my car was parked at the rest area. I sat on a fallen log and ate my lunch and noticed a sparse hatch of small mayflies and many swallows were snatching them from the air above the river. The area before me was pretty nice with numerous pockets so I decided to fish out this area after lunch before returning to the right bank above the bridge.

When I returned with my rod and wading stick, as I was walking down the muddy path to the river at the bottom of the pocket water stretch, my feet slid out from under me on some slick moss and I fell backward with my back landing on the pointy gnawed off stump of a narrow tree. It felt like I got stabbed and I checked for a wound or blood, but feeling none I moved out in the river and began fishing. At the bottom of the stretch and out toward the middle I hooked two fish on the hopper at the very tail of some pockets. I landed one nice fish comparable to two of the morning fish, but lost the other one in the ensuing fight in the swift pocket water below.

Check the Spots on This Beauty

I continued fishing upstream hitting all the nice slots and pockets, but didn’t have any additional action so I exited and hiked back on the road and then across the bridge and then down to the river under the bridge again. Over the next two and a half hours I fought the current and the willows and made left handed and backhanded casts into the narrow pockets along the right bank and landed eight fish. I also had numerous hook ups that didn’t result in landed fish and broke off two sets of flies when the fish ran downstream in the heavy current and wrapped me around sticks. The action was not as hot as other times I’d been there, but considering the blue sky and high air temperatures still rather acceptable.

Small Side Pockets Were the Ticket

Tough Fishing Right Along the Edge

When I reached the bend where the river curves to the east and runs along route 6, I debated what to do. I like the small braid that runs on the north side of the island just ahead, but it was higher than normal and a woman was sitting on the bank enjoying the serenity so I didn’t want to infringe on her moment. In addition I would have to walk all the way around to the bridge and then up the other side. I climbed up the bank to the highway and walked east a bit until I saw a path down to the river just below where it forked around the island. I went down to this area and ran a few casts through the slack water. Then I noticed some more slack water below me so I cast to the current seam and did some stack mends, and I was startled to see a fish rise to the hopper. I set the hook and had a momentary hook up, but it got off rather quickly. I tried the stack mend thing again and as the flies drifted beyond the previous rise, the hopper slowly dipped and I belatedly set the hook and felt momentary weight. Apparently a fish had taken the pheasant tail, and I was late again.

I couldn’t move up the river due to the heavy current and brush, so I once again retreated to the highway and walked up the shoulder to a point above the island adjacent to some churning pocket water. I found a path to the river and covered some nice pockets along the bank for the next 1.5 hours and landed another five brown trout. Several were similar in size to the morning browns. I spotted one fish when it moved toward my hopper but didn’t take it. The fish appeared to be of decent size and it did a couple more refusals, but on a later drift it spotted the trailing pheasant tail and grabbed it. That was a gratifying catch.

There were limited spots where I could get through the dense vegetation and climb the bank to the road, so when I saw one at around 5PM, I took my exit route and hiked down the road, through the condos to the pedestrian bridge, across the bridge, and then the bike path back to the rest area. It was a taxing day, but successful nonetheless.

Time: 12:00PM – 4:00PM

Location: Edwards Bridge to long run/pool then from island upstream quite a ways

Fish Landed: 3

Eagle River 07/14/2010 Photo Album

I was itching to return to the Eagle River after some decent action the previous Friday near the rest area above the pedestrian bridge. Denver was in a heat wave and escaping to the mountains was an additional appeal. I decided to pack the van with camping gear and fish the Eagle Wednesday and Thursday and camp at Hornsilver high above Minturn. I got off to a reasonably early start and arrived at Hornsilver around noon. The campground was empty, so I grabbed site 4 and paid my fee, ate lunch and then headed to the Eagle. I arrived and was on the stream at around noon. I hiked downstream to the auto bridge next to the entrance to the rest area and began working the pockets tight to the left bank facing upstream. I picked up a small brown near the start, but that was all I’d catch over the entire stretch from the bridge to the long run/pool above the rest area.

It was a very hot day with temperatures in the 80’s and clear, blue skies. I skipped past the stretch of water I’d fished the previous Friday and hiked behind the condos on the left around the bend with the pedestrian bridge and then beyond the next 90 degree bend near route 6. I began fishing again below the island and up the left smaller channel. I had been using a yellow Letort hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear, the combination that produced so well on Friday, but it wasn’t working on this day. I decided to experiment with some alternatives. Part way up the left channel I tied on a lime green trude and two-thirds of the way up the channel a nice 15 inch brown sipped it in. I battled the brown and landed it and photographed. I moved on to the top of the island and fished the nice pockets along the left bank and caught one more small brown on the lime green trude.

That would be my count for the day, two small browns and one very nice fifteen inch fish. I was very disappointed. I had changed out my tapered leader at the start of the day, so decided to stop at the Alpine River fly show in Riverwalk and purchase a new one. I asked the gentleman behind the counter what happened to the fishing, and he said that fishing in the middle of the day when it is hot, is generally not productive. He suggested morning or evening and going deep with nymphs if I wanted to fish in the afternoon.

Time: 1:00PM – 5:00PM

Location: Lease water between red rocks canyon and Eagle, CO

Fish Landed: 2

Eagle River 07/10/2010 Photo Album

Jane, Beth, Dave G, and I did a walking tour of Eagle, CO and had lunch at the Grand Avenue Grill on Saturday morning. After lunch we returned to the house and prepared to fish. Dave G and I decided to check out the clarity of the water on the lower Eagle River above Eagle, CO. It looked good as we drove along the east side of the river in Eagle, so we decided to give it a chance. We parked at a narrow pullout at one of the access points roughly midway through the state lease.

Near where we began there was a small side channel around 5-8 feet wide on our side of the river. I headed up the small channel while Dave G stayed along the main river. I spotted a deep spot in the channel with an area covered with foam around five feet long and four feet wide. As I watched the foam I could see some movement and then a fin poking above the foam. Next I spotted occasional dimples in the foam, but the foam was so thick that I couldn’t really see what kind of fish it was or what it was eating. The foam looked like half inch thick shaving cream. I was able to see that the fish was facing downstream, but apparently the foam was blocking its vision of me.

I had a yellow Letort hopper and a beadhead hares ear, and began casting into the foam. I could barely see the hopper in the foam. On perhaps the tenth cast I spotted a dimple in the vicinity of where I thought my fly was, and set the hook. Immediately the fish shot upstream a short distance then turned and raced past me, down the channel and into some fast water in the Eagle River main stem. I allowed the fly line to rip off the reel as there was no turning this fish in its current state of rage. I decided I needed to follow this fish to have any chance at it, but as I pivoted to face downstream, my foot slipped and in the instant when I raised my arms to catch my balance, the line popped and the foam fish disappeared.

I was almost shaking after this encounter, and was feeling rather optimistic about the afternoon. I returned to the main river and walked upstream a bit to an area of nice pockets and long slots. Dave was above me at this point. As I fished a particularly nice long slot behind a rock that was four feet deep or so, I began to notice small mayflies emerging. They were small size 16 pale morning duns and as the minutes passed the intensity increased. A decent imitation of PMD nymphs is the pheasant tail nymph, so I tied one on below the hopper. After numerous casts, the hopper went sideways and I set the hook and was attached to a decent rainbow for a split second. I could see the bow turn sideways and slip the hook. Would this fish fall for a fly again? The section looked so attractive that I felt there had to be more fish there so I continued working to the left and above where I’d seen the fish. As I did so, I once again saw the rainbow occasionally move out from its lie to snatch insects. Several times it grabbed a fly near the surface.

Could I tempt the rainbow with a dry? I clipped off both my flies and went to the trouble of tying on a light gray size 16 comparadun that worked well for me on the Colorado River PMD hatch. Sure enough, on around the third drift, the rainbow finned up and sipped the comparadun. The fish shot downstream and below me toward the heavy current, but I applied side pressure and coaxed it back to the soft water below. After several shorter runs, I overcame the rainbow’s resistance and netted a beautiful fat 16 inch fish.

I released the beauty and continued fishing upstream with the comparadun, but when I reached a beautiful deep junction pool at a bend in the river, there didn’t appear to be any more mayflies hatching and casting the size 16 fly in the big water seemed futile. I tied the hopper back on and attached a beadhead pheasant tail. It was now getting late in the afternoon, and Dave G and I wanted to fish some nice pocket water that had yielded many nice fish to us many years ago so we moved quickly to that area.

Dave G took the tail of the pockets where the river fanned out over rocks with water perhaps three feet deep and landed several fish. I worked up along the left side fishing the attractive pockets, slots and seams for a 50 yard stretch. I managed one nice 12 inch rainbow on the beadhead pheasant tail in this area. As I neared the top of the targeted stretch, Dave approached from below, and we found our way out of the lease and walked back down route 6 to the car.

Time: 1:30PM – 4:00PM

Location: Edwards Rest Area

Fish Landed: 11

Eagle River 07/09/2010 Photo Album

After lunch we hopped in Dave G’s rental car and drove to the rest area in Edwards, CO. We hiked along the fisherman path upstream from the parking lot to a point where a long pool is fed by an attractive deep run. Here Dave hooked and landed a decent brown to start his afternoon. I moved beyond Dave and fished the attractive pockets between the long pool and the pedestrian bridge. In one of the lower pockets a decent brown smashed and inhaled my yellow hopper. The area around the rest area represents my favorite stretch of the Eagle River, and I was very optimistic at this point.

Dave G. moved past me and fished the pockets along the left bank. He finished covering the pocket water and moved beyond the pedestrian bridge and out of sight, while I continued prospecting the pockets, but trying to cover water a bit beyond what he had just covered. I didn’t have any luck, and perhaps the fish became wary due to Dave G’s presence along the bank.

After finishing the pockets, I moved quickly up to the pedestrian bridge and crossed to the south side of the river. A fisherman (wearing shorts but a fishing vest) stopped and asked me why I went around the nice deep pool at the bend just below the bridge. I showed him how I was set up for dry/dropper fishing which requires fishing shallower water and not very effective in the deep pools. He nodded and I moved on. I dropped down just below the bridge, waded under it, and then began fishing the pockets along the right bank. I knew from previous trips that this stretch contains many nice fish, and I feel it doesn’t get the degree of pressure as the left bank because it is difficult to get to, tough to wade, and requires backhand casts.

Sure enough, I started hooking fish. The sky clouded up some, but I didn’t see much hatching or surface feeding, so I stuck with a yellow Letort hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear. I landed eleven additional trout in the 100 yards or so of water along the west/south side of the river. Many were fat spunky browns in the 13-15 inch range. I was catching half on the hopper and the other half on the beadhead hares ear. I used the same hopper throughout the afternoon, and it held up quite well until losing a bunch of deer hair near the end. There was one sweet area where the river curled against the bank then flowed back out between some rocks and fanned into a wider pool/pocket. I landed at least four beauties from this spot and had some additional hookups that I didn’t land. In fact, in addition to the eleven landed fish, I probably had another 5-6 refusals and momentary hookups.

At around 4PM I reached the top of the pocket water area where the river makes a 90 degree turn and parallels route 6. Dave G appeared on the opposite bank and I could see he was fishing half heartedly, so knew it was time to go.

Time: 10:00AM – 5:00PM

Location: Edwards Rest Area

Eagle River 07/22/2006 Photo Album

Having recovered somewhat from a nasty cold and with a weekend free to fish, I decided to return to the Eagle River, where I had great success on July 12.

Above Pedestrian Bridge

I parked at the rest area and hiked the bike path on the north side of the river to the pedestrian bridge, and then I crossed to the south side and began fishing along the right bank. Most of my fishing during the entire day was within ten feet of the bank. The flows were around 300 cfs, 200 less than July 12 but still fairly stiff, and the fish continued holding tight to the bank. I decided to use a gray body parahopper on top with beadhead pheasant tail nymph trailing. The beadhead peasant tail produced exceptionally well in the afternoon during my earlier visit. In short order I landed a fat thirteen inch brown on the trailing pheasant tail. I noticed another fisherman above me on the right side, but he was close to the bend along route 6 and probably 100 yards or so upstream. I estimated  that I could work along the bank until lunch and not reach him, and this assumption proved correct. I cast the parahopper/beadhead pheasant tail combination in all the likely runs and pockets. I landed six additional brown trout, before I retreated to the car for lunch. Four of the seven fish that I caught in the AM were quite nice, as three of the seven inhaled the parahopper, and the rest preferred the nymph. 

Beadhead Pheasant Tail Worked

After lunch I decided to circle around the other fisherman, so I crossed the main bridge and then followed the bike trail up to the pedestrian bridge, where I made a right and skirted the apartments and turned left on route six. I ended upstream from the other fisherman and crossed the river to position myself to fish the smaller left channel around a small island, but when I turned to survey the channel, I saw two other fishermen already there! As a fallback I decided to fish along the south side of the small island in the right channel. At the point of the island in some very shallow water where the river deflected to the right, I landed a beautiful brown, that took the beadhead pheasant tail almost immediately after it hit the water.

Royal Stimulator

I was now above the two fishermen I saw previously, so I covered the north bank for the remainder of the afternoon and caught another ten trout. Quite a few were very nice 14-15 inch fish, and many were feisty and in the 12-13 inch range. At one point in mid-afternoon I endured a refusal on the parahopper, so I clipped the combo off and tied on a tan body deer hair caddis. On the first cast with the caddis the same fish that refused the hopper slurped down the new offering. On another occasion the same thing happened, and I once again switched to the caddis, and I landed two fine trout in short order. In late afternoon the parahopper stopped producing, so I tied on a royal stimulator that produced on my first trip to the Eagle River. I landed two trout on this fly, and in the last 1.5 hour I hooked up on some very nice fish, but failed to land (long distance release) them. One wrapped my flies around a rock, and the others slipped free of the hook. 

All in all it was a great day. 

Fish Landed: 18

Time: 10:00AM – 5:00PM

Location: Edwards Rest Area

Eagle River 07/12/2006 Photo Album

At the last minute I decided to use a vacation day in the midst of budget preparation at work to make a trip to the Eagle River. I committed to driving to Santa Fe over the weekend and was, therefore, locked out of fishing during that time frame. I read that flows dropped to 514 cfs. From historical experience I knew that when flows drop after snow melt, the Eagle can be a hot fishery.

From Rest Area Toward Bridge

I arrived at the Edwards rest area around 9:45AM, and by the time I put on my waders and strung my line, it was 10AM. I walked across the road and worked my way along the north shoreline for quite a distance, before I started. I tied on a light yellow Letort hopper with a beadhead pheasant tail dropper. I was not seeing much action, so I switched out the dropper for a bright green beadhead caddis pupa. Still no takes resulted, and I noticed quite few small caddis flitting about, so I changed to a smaller beadhead emerald caddis pupa. This worked, and I caught a nice brown on the emerald caddis and then two beautiful brown trout on the hopper. The flows were strong but clear, and the fish were hugging submerged rocks at the tails of pockets and slots. I caught one more brown before lunch on the caddis pupa. All the browns were in the 13-16 inch range, and this would prove to be the case for the remainder of the day except for four or five in the ten to twelve inch range.

Length of Net

After lunch I hiked back down to the bridge and began fishing upstream from there along the north bank. My fishing was confined to the ten feet of water next to the bank except for a stretch directly across from the rest area parking area, where the river widened, and the flow dispersed over a broader area. I picked up another four trout tight to the bank upstream from the bridge on the emerald caddis after lunch. When I reached an area above where a small side brook entered, I experienced a refusal at the tail of the run on the hopper. I moved farther out in the current to cover some mid-stream pockets; and when I was above the run where I witnessed the refusal, I saw the fish rise to a natural. There were small mayflies emerging at this point in time, so I tied on a parachute pale morning dun. The fish gave this fly a look but did not eat it, so I next tried a CDC olive. On about the fourth drift the fish rose and inhaled the olive, and this success was very rewarding.

Next I began spotting green drakes, as they took flight quite sporadically. A western green drake is a large lumbering mayfly on the water that does not typically go unnoticed by trout. I knotted a green drake cripple to my leader and worked the water thoroughly for an hour with this imitation. This change in approach yielded two smaller browns close to shore.

Inhaled a Hopper Imitation

I did no see many mayflies emerging after 3PM, so I tied on a large attractor fly that I made from the Scott Sanchez book (peacock and red floss body with white calftail wing) and a beadhead pheasant tail dropper. I was now above the long pool with a nice run entering upstream of the rest area. The area above the long pool is characterized by thirty yards of pocket water. The Sanchez convertible combined with the pheasant tail proved to be very effective. I landed four or five very nice browns, as most consumed the beadhead pheasant tail, but one or two crushed the large attractor. After landing the four or five fish, I connected with perhaps the largest brown of the day. I know this, because it jumped out of the water and broke off both flies. I did not have any more of the large attractors in my front pack, and did not want to pause to search my backpack, so I tied on a royal stimulator fly with a peacock and red body. I added the beadhead pheasant tail dropper and landed another four trout. Two chomped the nymph and two smacked the royal stimulator. All the fish caught in the pocket stretch after 3PM were beautiful specimens in the fourteen to seventeen inch range.

Fish Landed: 20

Productive Stretch

John Downstream

Time: 10:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: Edward Rest Area

Eagle River 09/17/2005 Photo Album

John Broadbent and I headed to the Eagle River. It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the high 70’s. We started fishing at the BLM recreation area west of Wolcott, and we hiked across the railroad bridge and fished along the north side of the river. John had a parahopper with gray body trailing a copper john. I started with a yellow Letort hopper trailing a beadhead pheasant tail, and then I switched to beadhead hares ear. We had no luck, so we quit around 11:30 and headed back to the car.

Brought to Net

In our pursuit of success we drove back east on I70 to the Edwards rest stop, where we ate our lunch. The river was exceptionally low with many boulders that were submerged earlier in the season, but they now extended halfway above the water. We went below the bridge to some pocket water and began working back up toward the bridge. John split off and went downstream. I worked back upstream and spotted some small BWO size mayflies emerging. I added a WD40 with glass bead to the end of the hares ear. I finally hooked up with a decent brown in the frothy water at the head of a pocket, but the brown trout quickly freed itself. I continued working the hopper with two nymphs and hooked and landed two browns on the beadhead WD40. That was the extent of the success. John waded back upstream to where I was, and we walked under the bridge. John had a fish flash at the hopper on the east side of the bridge, but it never touched the hook.

Late in the Day

We worked our way up the left bank, and then eventually went on the path to the long deep run that is popular. Unfortunately several fishermen beat us to the sought-after spot, so I guided John on some pockets upstream, but we had no success and called it a day.

Fish Landed: 2

Time: 9:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Edwards Rest Stop

Eagle River 07/23/2005 Photo Album

The river was running a bit high, but clear and looked to be in great shape for fishing. I prepared my equipment, and then I hiked across the bridge by the rest stop and waded downstream. Shortly I encountered another fisherman, so I decided to give him space and turned around and began fishing back upstream toward the bridge. I tied on a yellow Maddam X and then a Copper John dropper. I caught five nice browns, as I worked my way back up to the rest area. All the trout were caught along the left side in pockets or along the rocks on the bank. One rose to the Madam X, but most took the Copper John.

Eagle River Brown

Lunch Spot

I took off my gear and went back to the car for my lunch, and then I returned and ate by the river. It was getting very warm. High temperatures in Denver surpassed 100 for the sixth day in a row. After lunch I began fishing upstream from where I ended. I tied on a yellow Letort Hopper to get more flotation and a beadhead hares ear. Eventually I added a beadhead pheasant tail, when I saw what appeared to be pale morning duns emerging, but the hatch was not heavy enough to bring on surface feeding. I was unaware that some Hispanic guys were sitting on a large boulder next to the river, and as they watched, I hooked my largest brown of the day. One of the guys moved down the bank to watch me play the fish and land it, and I snapped a quick photo for memory’s sake.

Brown No. 3

I moved upriver and covered more water in the afternoon. I got very warm. I caught a couple brown trout in the pocket water above the nice pool, when I was forced to circle around, as a guide was directing two female clients. I did not catch anything from the pedestrian bridge all the way around the next bend, but I did manage one last brown in the small braid around the next bend. Most of the afternoon fish took the beadhead hares ear nymph.