Time: 1:30PM – 5:00PM

Location: Mile marker 10.5 below spring

Fish Landed: 9

Frying Pan River 06/26/2014 Photo Album

The rivers and streams in Colorado are gradually receding, but not fast enough for an avid fly fisherman like myself. Three weeks elapsed since my fun day in Wisconsin, and the brief foray in Eleven Mile Canyon only served to whet my appetite for more. I exchanged some emails with my new fishing friend, Danny Ryan, and he suggested doing a trip a bit further away from Denver such as the Frying Pan River.

I fired up my laptop and learned that the flows on the Frying Pan were 220 cfs, and that reading is nearly ideal for my favorite Colorado tailwater. I also noted that the Taylor River below Taylor Reservoir was at 401 cfs, and that is an attractive flow as well. I checked with Jane to see if she was interested in a camping trip to Reudi Reservoir, and she indicated that she approved. I wasn’t sure what campsite availability would be, so I logged into the web site to make reservations and discovered that twelve sites were unreserved so I staked my claim to number 7 in Little Maud. Jane and I were now committed to the trip, so I informed Danny of our plans in hopes that he and his girlfriend, Juls. would also make the camping trip to the Frying Pan River.

Early in the week I heard from Danny, and Juls was unable to accompany him, and he needed to prepare for a two week work assignment in Alaska beginning on the weekend, so he could only stay for one night. He asked if he could put his tent up on our site Thursday night, and of course we agreed. Danny’s plan involved getting up very early on Thursday morning, and then leaving on Friday after some early morning fishing right below the dam. I asked Danny to describe his car, so I could look for it along the river on our way from Basalt to Reudi Reservoir on Thursday.

Jane and I finished packing the Santa Fe with our excessive array of camping gear on Thursday morning and departed by 9AM. The drive was relatively uneventful and by noon we were driving up the twisting two lane road that follows the Frying Pan River. Sure enough at mile marker four we spotted Danny standing next to his green Toyota Camry with a Missouri license plate. He informed us that he’d had a good morning and was about to move further upstream to another location. I told him that I’d seek him out after we ate lunch and shed some of our cargo at the campground.

Jane on Her New Camp Rocking Chair

Much to our surprise, Danny appeared at our campsite as we were eating lunch. Apparently most of the pullouts that he targeted were full so he continued on so he could pick me up and allow Jane to have the Santa Fe for the afternoon.

After I finished lunch, I put on my waders and threw my gear in the trunk of the Camry, and we were off on our Thursday fishing adventure on the Frying Pan River. I suggested parking at the spring or below the spring if no one else was there, and Danny agreed as it was only his second visit to the fabled Frying Pan River. The spring pullout was open, but we continued downstream to the border with the next private water and parked there at mile marker 10. The river was wide enough that we decided we could fish both sides as long as we stayed across from each other.

First Fish Landed on Thursday Afternoon Was a Nice Brown

Danny began his afternoon with a nymph rig, but I elected to start with my traditional Chernobyl ant and beadhead hares ear nymph. This was the earliest in the season that I ever fished the Frying Pan River, and the reports I read suggested there was very little mayfly activity, so I felt that the fish would be more opportunistic compared to my normal visits in late July, August and September. Within the first 15 minutes I foul hooked a brown trout that refused the Chernobyl ant, and as I reacted, I set the trailing hook in the fish.

Unfortunately after this early encounter with a fish, I continued along the left bank with no action, so I decided to make a change and tied on a yellow Letort hopper and then added a salvation nymph as a third fly behind the hares ear. The deer hair wing of the Letort hopper is more visible than the low riding Chernboyl ant, and I was hoping that perhaps the slender body and profile of the hopper might imitate golden stoneflies should they be present.

18″ Rainbow Was Number Two

The stonefly theory never materialized but the addition of the salvation nymph paid big dividends. The hopper dipped as I was across from Danny, and I set the hook and played and landed a strong 14 inch brown trout. The salvation nymph was indeed living up to its name as I cast further upstream along the bank and again saw the hopper disappear. I set the hook and this time I battled an eighteen inch rainbow that eventually flopped into my net. This brought Danny across the river so that he could snap some photos while I attempted to pose with the scarlet beauty.

Danny Took an Underwater Photo with His New GoPro

Since I’d landed two very nice fish with the salvation nymph, I asked Danny to accept two of my flies so he could experiment with them over the remainder of the afternoon. A short distance above the spot where I landed the large rainbow, we encountered a small island, and I elected to fish the pockets on the side of the island that was away from the road. I also realized that the Letort hopper was not producing, and it was not very buoyant due to the dubbed body, so I swapped it for a pool toy. The large foam pool toy was much more effective at supporting the two trailing nymphs in the turbulent pocket water that I was now prospecting. Danny meanwhile found a stone to sit on and rest and observe, as he was feeling the effects of his early start to the day.

Over the remaining two hours of the afternoon I used the pool toy with the hares ear and salvation nymphs as droppers and picked up seven additional brown trout at a fairly regular pace. I was using my favored technique of popping casts to all the likely holding spots, but then quickly moved on if a fish did not emerge after three or four casts. I gradually angled across the middle of the river above the island and began working the south side, and I was pleased to see that Danny resumed fishing the bank closest to the road, and he began landing fish on the salvation nymph.

Looking Downstream at Danny

Eventually we were separated by 50 yards or more. Danny reached some juicy deep slots between the bank and the main current, and I later learned that he was slowed down my some nice catches. As I was now directly across from the spring, I checked my watch and discovered that it was 5PM. Some of the best water between mile marker 10 and 11 was ahead of me, but I did not wish to commit to crossing again to the south bank, so I carefully waded back to the left bank and climbed to the shoulder of the road.

Danny Displays His Nice Catch

I quickly hiked back downstream and found Danny with a sharp bend in his rod, and as I looked on, he landed his own 18 inch rainbow. It was his second of the day as it matched a pink striped beauty that he landed in the morning. I returned the favor and snapped some photos of Danny with the rainbow, and then we called it quits for the day. We both rode the short distance back to Little Maud campground in a euphoric state. Danny informed me that in addition to the rainbow, he landed several other fish in excess of 15 inches and also battled a large fish that escaped his fly. A chubby chernobyl was performing well for him along with a large black foam creature, and the salvation nymph also contributed greatly to his afternoon success.

As we backed into the parking space at site number 7, we discovered that Jane prepared appetizers, so we joined her and sipped some tasty beers while telling fish stories. It was a great start to a three day camping trip.

Time: 10:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Deadfall pool and upstream to MM12

Fish Landed: 8

Frying Pan River 09/24/2013 Photo Album

After a great day on Monday I was anxiously anticipating our last day on Jeff’s fishing trip, Tuesday, September 24. The high temperature for Tuesday was forecast to be in the high 60’s with sunshine and no precipitation. These were certainly good conditions for fishermen, but what about the fish? Could I replicate my success from Monday and how crowded would the river be with a lack of cancellations due to inclement weather?

We woke up early and packed the car, made lunches, checked out of the hotel and visited Saxy’s for tea again and put ourselves in position to begin driving the road toward Reudi Reservoir by 10AM. Once again we parked at the large guide lot as this was a nice central point that allowed us to work upstream or down. By 10:30 we were fitted out in our waders and had our rods ready for action. Once again I decided to walk downstream beyond MM12, but instead of stopping at the long island I continued to the stretch of water just above the boundary with the private water where a dead tree spans 2/3 of the river and touches a small island.

Jeff Next to Our Jam Packed Travel Vehicle

The sky was a brilliant shade of blue and totally void of clouds and the temperature was in the low 50’s as we began the day. I wore a fleece all day and was never overly warm. As is my custom I tied on a Chernobyl ant and a beadhead hares ear and then a RS2 as my third fly. In order to warm up I began prospecting along the left bank with the three fly combination but generated only a few looks from trout. As I was reaching the top of the run I noticed two fishermen walking my way so I hustled back to the base of the pool to reserve my space. As the pair came into view I realized it was a man and woman and they set up to fish roughly half way between the fast water at the head of the run and my position at the tail.

I focused on my fishing and prospected over some fish at the tail with no success so I clipped all the flies off and resorted to the size 14 green drake. This also did not attract any interest and concurrently I began to notice a very sparse BWO hatch so I added a CDC BWO as a second fly behind the green drake. Again I couldn’t entice the visible fish hovering near the surface to take either of my offerings. The other fishing pair seemed to be established at their initial stopping point so I gambled they wouldn’t move down to my area and dropped below the deadfall and worked downstream along the channel closest to the road.

When I reached the bottom tip of the tiny island I encountered a deep pool and within the pool two rainbows worked in a circular manner sipping something small periodically. Unfortunately I could not provoke them to sip either of my flies despite fifteen minutes of casting and futile attempts to anticipate their direction and counteract the variable currents in the eddy. After awhile I became frustrated with these challenging conditions and also I worried that I’d lose my prime position at the tail of the deadfall pool before a significant hatch commenced so I moved on. The concern over holding a good position in deadfall pool would repeat itself throughout the day and probably served as an impediment to having a better day.

Nice Hidden Pool Below Deadfall Pool

I moved up to the small hidden pool at the top of the right channel, but didn’t observe any rises nor could I spot any fish subsurface in this area that typically holds 4-5 actively feeding fish. I looked upstream and spotted another fisherman working down the right side toward the tail of deadfall pool so I quickly abandoned hidden pool and moved back to the tail of deadfall but I was now on the south side away from the road and opposite the male and female pair that continued to fish from the midsection of the run and pool.

The other fisherman above me worked the right edge of the river and passed below me to hidden pool and then downstream. By now the BWO hatch had abated and the sun was quite warm and bright and nothing was hatching so I sat on a rock and ate my lunch at approximately 1PM. After lunch I began to fear there wouldn’t be a hatch due to the bright blue sky, warmer temperatures, and lack of cloud cover so I decided to rig up for nymphs and tied on a 20 incher to imitate the green drake nymph and added a RS2 to match the BWO nymph.

I began migrating up the river but stopped to try a tiny pocket where the main river flow angled toward the bank and amazingly a nice fat 13 inch brown nailed the 20 incher and I had my second fish of the day. I had landed a small brown on the green drake comparadun at the tail of deadfall pool just before lunch. Perhaps the deep nymph strategy would pay off. With renewed enthusiasm I advanced beyond the couple along the roadside bank and began working the riffles at the head of the run and on my side of the strong current that split the river. Over the next half hour I enjoyed great fun as the fish attacked my nymphs. Normally I don’t enjoy fishing nymphs as much as dry flies, but when the fish are aggressively attacking them on upstream casts, twitches and mends it can be a lot of fun, and that is exactly what evolved.

I landed four fish on the nymphs with a couple in the 13 inch range and had two additional fish that felt heavy but escaped my efforts to net them. The second one broke free suddenly and the pressure I was exerting on the fish caused the flies to rocket back over my shoulder. To prevent entanglement in the bushes and trees I quickly initiated a forward stroke, but I was too late and I snapped off both flies on something. I spent a few minutes scanning the brush but couldn’t spot any dangling monofilament or flies embedded in a branch so I wrote them off and tied on a fresh pair. During this time period the fish were attacking the flies at the top of the riffle, slamming them when I lifted to recast, and snaring them as they began to swing at the end of the drift.

But change is constant in fly fishing and just when I thought I had things figured out with my nymph set up, the river came alive with green drakes and rising fish so I returned to the tail of the pool and removed my nymphing flies and gear and tied on the size 14 comparadun but this went unmolested in spite of quite a few green drake naturals on the water surface. The green drakes on the water appeared to be larger than the ones I observed on Monday so I gave the parachute green drake a try. This fly was visible and looked great on the water, but the fish apparently didn’t agree. In a fit of frustration I dropped back down to the faster water below the deadfall and managed to land a 12-13 inch brown along the edge of the heavy current toward the base of the pool.

Despite this success there were at least four additional fish rising in this small area and  they exhibited no interest in the paradrake. This prompted me to return to the tail of deadfall pool where I noticed some fairly regular risers, but again my fly was looked upon with scorn. I decided to ignore these picky eaters and moved up a bit as I felt the good hatch slipping away with my failure to participate. How about the purchased green drake that duped the 19 inch rainbow on Monday? I tied it on to my line and cast it above a pod of rising fish, but again the fish weren’t impressed.

For a short period there were 5 or 6 trout rising in the shallow flats along the right side and just 10 to 15 feet above me, but this was in the shadows and the fly was difficult to see. Nonetheless I popped some casts over this pod of risers and not a single fish responded. Yesterday’s joy shifted into Tuesday’s frustration. Once again I waded up the pool a bit and targeted some risers more to the center of the river in the sunlight and now I noticed quite a few PMD’s joining the green drakes, and I began to wonder if the fish had switched away from green drakes to PMD’s?

First I tied on one of the size 16 cinnamon comparaduns that I purchased at Taylor Creek Fly Shop, but this fly looked too large so I moved to a quill body melon dun that I’d also purchased in a size 18. This looked like a much more representative imitation on the water to me but apparently not to the fish. Finally I resorted to my bedraggled size 18 one fly wonder that produced twelve fish on Monday, and the fish snubbed this fly as well. At this point I decided to abandon the tail to seek faster more forgiving water so I began to move back to the faster riffles on my side at the head of the run. On my way there I switched from the PMD back to the purchased green drake cripple and dropped a cast into another small pocket along the bank where the river angled away from the main channel. Thwack! A brown rose and took the green drake so maybe my luck was improving.

I proceeded to the top and I was now just above the male member of the fishing tandem who was sending out long casts across the main center current to the riffles on my side. I got off a few casts and then the crazy wet wading fisherman who was showing off his long ineffective distance casting shouted out that I caused him to lose a fish. It wasn’t clear to me how I caused him to lose a fish, but I realized I was dealing with a lunatic so I apologized and moved upstream beyond the fast water via the woods which made for some difficult bushwhacking.

Next I was across from tree rock again and spotted two browns feeding in the low smooth water so I placed some decent green drake casts over these fish but again they appeared to be sipping something minute. I waded below tree rock pool to gain a better casting position and then tried a money fly but this didn’t produce. I looked closely at the water but couldn’t really see any food source that could be prompting the sipping rises so I gave up and focused on the angled riffle in the later afternoon shadows. I had great difficulty seeing the money fly in these shadows so switched back to the green drake but to no avail.

I gave up on this area as there was another fishermen 20 yards above me and crossed to the road and then hiked up to the top of the island across from rectangular rock pool. The river was totally in shadows here and no bugs were on the water and nothing was rising so I decided to try nymphing again. I returned to the 20 incher and combined it with a yellow caddis pupa after having seen quite a few caddis dapping the water. I worked the nymphs upstream through some juicy pockets on the left side above the island and then covered all the slack water between the bank and the swift current in the chutes area before exiting at MM12.

I was now quite chilled from cold feet and being in the shadows and the air temperature was dropping rapidly so I returned to the car and waited for Jeff. My attention now turned to the long drive back to Denver. If I had Tuesday to do over again, I would not focus on saving my position in a single pool and instead would move about and fish more obscure locations. This worked on Monday so I’m not sure why I obsessed with holding my spot at the tail of deadfall pool.

Time: 11:00AM – 6:00PM

Location: Small island below MM12 up to fast water below MM12; tree rock and angled riffle

Fish Landed: 27

Frying Pan River 09/23/2013 Photo Album

Occasionally the fishing gods smile upon us humble fishermen, and Monday proved to be such a day, but before getting to that part of the story, more on the weather. While sleeping at The Green Drake in Basalt I awoke periodically to the sound of rain pounding down on the roof and as the morning drew near, these periods of heavy rain continued. Would we be able to fish in these wet rainy conditions?

We killed some time by paying for another night’s stay at The Green Drake and then proceeded down the street to Saxy’s coffee shop for some tea. After our morning tea we returned to the hotel and prepared lunches as we were optimistic that the weather would clear based on Jeff’s review of the satellite weather imagery. It remained quite overcast with ongoing periods of moderate rain and drizzle. Next we drove to Aspen to check on a medical issue and then returned and headed back up the Frying Pan River Valley to the upper 2.5 miles below the dam. Here we found a parking place in the large guide lot which only contained two other cars at 10:30 in the morning. Jeff overheard a guide saying that Frying Pan Anglers experienced three cancellations due to the rainy weather, so perhaps the morning rain would keep some of the fishermen off the water.

Upstream View of Right Channel Below Rectangular Rock on Monday

Jeff decided to begin fishing near the parking lot, but I elected to walk down the road to the small island just below MM12 where I angled on the path that meets the smooth pool at the bottom of the left braid around the island. At this point I proceeded down the fast water to the bottom point of the island and then began fishing my way up the right channel which contained more favorable volume at the low 115 cfs flow rate. I began once again by prospecting with a green drake and alternated between the size 14 parachute green drake and a size 14 comparadun. I used the parachute pattern with the easily visible white tipped wing post in the faster water and switched to the comparadun in smooth water.

When I arrived at the large pool at the top of the island with the large rectangular rock I substituted an even smaller comparadun for the one that I used previously, and this comparadun seemed smaller than others that I tied because it was not tied on a 2XL hook and it had a lighter tan wing. This comparadun produced far better than the darker winged version and the combination of green drake flies delivered eight fish to my net by approximately 12:30. Meanwhile it was quite chilly but the sky was brightening and the sun peeked through the large puffy gray clouds on a more frequent basis. The weather was changing but presistent wind and breezes were part of the clearing equation.

Nice Chunky Brown From Rectangular Rock Pool on Monday

At around 12:30 a BWO hatch commenced in the large pool and I was still positioned at the tail and continuing to prospect with my green drake imitations, but the fish were either wise to my fraud or had switched to another food source. Within a few minutes the BWO hatch thickened and the pool came alive with rising fish. The fish in the faster current along the main run down the center of the pool rose sporadically and I could see them underwater moving and perhaps feeding on subsurface nymphs and emergers. More of interest to me were two very visible brown trout that began sipping BWO’s along the smoother left side of the large pool where the current fanned  out below a large protruding rock. These fish were directly above my position so I tied on a CDC BWO and began making casts above the two fish. I was careful to shoot my casts high and check them early so the fly fluttered down with plenty of slack tippet. It took quite a few casts and patiently watching these fish snatch natural duns within inches of my fly, but eventually I duped and landed both fish, an accomplishment that I was quite proud of.

Rectangular Rock Pool

By 1PM the BWO hatch had abated somewhat although with the overcast skies it never truly stopped, so I used this period to quickly down my lunch next to the rectangular rock pool. After lunch I waded closer to the top of the pool where the faster water entered and I began to notice a larger mayfly mixed in with the BWO’s. As I looked on I observed a brown trout ten feet in front of me drift back sipping BWO’s and then a larger mayfly fluttered on the suface, and the feeding brown slurped that in as well. Clearly the fish were tuned into this larger mayfly in addition to the BWO’s, and this natural was larger than the BWO’s but smaller than green drakes. I spotted another one drifting on the suface toward me and was fortunate enough to scoop it off the surface with my net for closer observation.

The mayfly appeared to be a size 16 with a light olive/maroon body so I began searching through my fly boxes, especially the two that contain comparaduns that I tied for the many mayflies that hatch in Pennsylvania. Buried along the edge of one of these boxes was a size 18 comparadun with a body blended with light olive and maroon dubbing. The resultant color was a shade of cinnamon with tinges of olive. At this point I thought I had only one of these so I tied it on my line and began to cast it over rising fish. What a choice! Over the next hour and a half I landed twelve nice fish on the one fly wonder, and I was careful to not damage it too much with each release. Several of the fish were in the 14-16 inch range and the remainder were chunky twelve inch browns. At one point I felt abrasions on the tippet near the eye of the hook so I clipped off an inch of monofilament and reknotted the valuable comparadun with smooth line. I rarely pay this much attention to line damage.

This Brown Isn’t Missing Any Meals

I moved above the long narrow island and fished the pockets along the left side of the river, but because the flows were lower than normal based on past trips I was able to wade across to the south side and explore new water that is typically out of reach at higher flows. It was in this area between the top of the large rectangular rock pool and one of the larger pools along the right side that I experienced the success with the olive/maroon comparadun.

I Was Attracted to the Small Fin with Brilliant Orange Red Spots

There were two nice pools that formed along the south bank where significant current breaks allowed the water to fan out and provide nice feeding stations for hungry trout. The lower pool was smaller and had a branch angling upstream from just below the tail. Here I spotted four or five trout rising regularly and I managed to fool and land several on the size 18 comparadun, but the nicest fish cruised about the pool in a small circle and periodically sipped a fly off the surface. I worked this fish relentlessly, probably longer than I should have during a nice hatch when other fish were more willing to cooperate with my efforts. Unfortunately I couldn’t time my casts, avoid drag and predict where the fish was moving and eventually conceded and moved on.

Just above this smaller pool was the larger wider version and this also contained some visible fish. The most visible was a large fish that resided in a deep depression at the very tail of the pool next to a large rock that extended from the bank. The water in the pool funneled through this narrow deep trough before pouring downstream. I observed this fish rising occasionally, but my magical comparadun was not of interest. At this time I also noticed two green drake naturals on the surface of the water so I removed my valued comparadun (the wing had by now been reduced to a small cluster of five deer hair fibers), and replaced with the size 14 comparadun with the tan wing, and cast to some decent water to my left and above me and landed two medium sized browns.

My eyes returned to the big guy in the trough and again I observed a sipping rise. I ran a few drifts of the comparadun green drake over the large target, but they were ignored. Jeff had given me three green drake flies that he purchased at Taylor Creek Fly Shop so I decided to try one of them on this stubborn fish right in front of me. I nervously removed my comparadun and tied on the purchased version with a tall dark gray CDC wing and yellow hackle wound parachute style around the wing post. This fly looked quite similar to the naturals while on the water as it created the illusion of fluttering movement similar to the ones that floated by.

I flicked a short cast above the fish and as it drifted toward the target, the large fish drifted up and sucked it in! What a visual moment! Somehow I remained under control and waited for a second or two so as not to pull the fly out of the fish’s mouth. Now the battle was on and the rainbow charged up and down the pool and thrashed vigorously from time to time, but much to my relief it never attempted to escape the pool and swim into faster water. I carefully lifted the thrashing fish so its nose was above the water and quickly slid my small net opening beneath the long body and the net bowed out with the weight and length of an eighteen or perhaps nineteen inch rainbow. In addition to the discovery of an effective fifteen year old fly, I had now landed perhaps my longest fish of the summer.

A Green Drake Fooled this 19 Inch Rainbow

This pool was actually the last piece of good water along the right side so I backtracked along the bank and crossed above the island and fished the deep pocket above the island on the left side with the purchased green drake and landed a few more fish. At this point it was 4PM so I exited and walked down the road to “tree rock” pool, a nice small pool with a large protruding square rock at the center top with a small tree growing from it. I spotted two fish below the rock and made some solid casts with the green drake but they ignored it and seemed to be focused on smaller food. I acknowledged their preference and removed the green drake and tied on a CDC BWO and placed some casts over the fish in tree rock pool, but they were not interested so I turned my attention in the direction of angled riffle.

I was positioned in the middle of the river and to my right was a nice wide riffle where much of the river angled toward the south bank and then deflected and ran swiftly along the bank for twenty feet. From past experience I knew these riffles held quite a few nice fish so I began drifting my BWO along the current seams sequentially covering the water closest to me and then extending away. This search yielded a nice rainbow on the BWO but other visible fish were not reacting. After I’d worked the area for awhile Jeff arrived and began making downstream casts from the bank next to the road, and he experienced some success.

I was quite chilled and weary at this point with quite a successful day behind me, so I wandered back to the car and left the area for Jeff. When I arrived at the lot I noticed that Jewel Pool directly across from the parking lot was void of fishermen, so I decided to wade part way across the riffles and give it a try. I spotted small tan wing caddis on the water, so I tied on a light gray caddis and prospected with that for a bit, but it only generated refusals. Suddenly the pool came alive with slashing fish that occasionally broke the surface and I noticed some fairly large midges flying by. These natural insects appeared to approximate size 20 flies, so I tied on a Chernobyl ant as my indicator and then added a trailing zebra midge larva. This did not generate a response but the fish continued to slash and move subsurface for something. I clipped off the midge larva and replaced it with a griffith’s gnat, and once again my flies were simply treated like floating leaves or debris. Nothing was working and it was getting quite cold so I called it a day and retreated to the car and waited for Jeff who arrived fairly soon thereafter.

On this chilly autumn Monday I experienced some great surface action and landed 27 fish on green drakes, PMD’s and BWO’s. I discovered an old fly that was eaten like candy and I landed a 19 inch rainbow. It was certainly one of my better days on the Frying Pan River.

Time: 12:00PM – 4:00PM

Location: Above guide lot

Fish Landed:10

Frying Pan River 09/22/2013 Photo Album

Jeff and I spent Saturday night in the tent at Lottis Creek and although it was quite chilly on Sunday morning, we didn’t think it was as cold as Saturday morning. We were anxious to get an early start for the Frying Pan River and the drive entailed a trip over Cottonwood Pass and then Independence Pass, so we rolled up the tent in a damp condition and ate some quick breakfast foods that didn’t require any stove or cooking. As we traveled up the Arkansas River and then over Independence Pass we encountered some thick clouds and heavy rain.

The rain abated somewhat in Aspen and when we reached Basalt there was no precipitation, but the sky to the north and west was quite dark and foreboding. We stopped in Basalt for gas and purchased ice and then visited the Taylor Creek Fly Shop and then moved on and drove up the road that follows the Frying Pan River. The flows were at 115 cfs and the water was crystal clear. We quickly decided to park in a pullout on the opposite side of the road from the river .5 mile or so above MM12 and quickly prepared to fish while the rain held off, but with each passing moment the wind kicked up and the sky darkened.

My rod was still rigged with the nymphs that were on my line from the end of the day on the Taylor River, a beadhead hares ear and a salvation nymph. I walked down the road a bit until I was somewhere between the Santa Fe and the large “guide lot” across from Jewel Pool. Jeff continued on down the road a bit further and found some nice water with respectful distance between fishermen above and below him.

Almost immediately an eleven inch brown hit the beadhead hares ear on an upstream cast, but the nymphs stopped working and the water seemed a bit shallow at 115 cfs for this approach so I converted to a green drake and began to prospect. My first green drake was a size 14 parachute version and before long a 15 inch brown smashed my offering. At this point I was pretty excited about my early hot streak, but the sky was very gray and the air temperature hovered in the low 60’s.

A Nice 14 Inch Brown from the Frying Pan River on Sunday

Next I spotted some nice fish in a smooth pool behind a current break and noticed they were sipping something quite small so I put on a CDC BWO and after quite a bit of casting I induced a nice 13 inch brown to rise and take the BWO. As I progressed upstream I encountered water with faster current as well as slower smooth water so I continued to switch back and forth between the parachute green drake in the riffles and runs and then the CDC BWO in the placid water. The BWO got ignored in the next two slow water situations, however, the green drake picked up two smaller browns.

When I reached five fish landed a nice brown rose to the green drake in a current seam, but it broke off when it went into heavy current and needless to say I was quite disappointed with this turn of events. Another medium size brown slid into my net after slurping the green drake and I was now pleased to have landed six fish on the afternoon. Unfortunately at this point it got quite windy and began to rain fairly heavily so I crossed the river and returned to the car for 5-10 minutes until the rain subsided. I felt it wasn’t worth getting drenched when it was nearly impossible to cast in the stiff wind blowing across the stream.

After the wind and rain subsided I returned to my exit point and resumed fishing just below some overhanging tree branches on the road side of the river. The branches forced me to wade up the middle or south side of the stream and fish back toward the north bank. After covering this area with no success I prospected along the left bank by popping the green drake into all the narrow pockets between the bank and the heavy current. This approach yielded two more trout including a rainbow and a brown that probably measured thirteen inches. The last pocket before the raging chute with no fishable water contained at least four fish working in a small space, and when they flashed their sides they appeared to be rainbows.

A Rainbow Adds Variety

Unfortunately these fish ignored the green drake so I tried a light gray comparadun and that was equally uninteresting to these trout so I gave up on them and decided to walk back down the road to see if there was an open space with rising fish. Sure enough I found Jeff stationed in a nice riffle area and joined him. Fish were rising everywhere and just as I arrived Jeff began to have success with a quill body parachute green drake. Prior to this, however, he insisted that the naturals on the water were mayflies larger than pale morning duns, but smaller than green drakes and he was ill prepared.

Based on his description of the naturals on the water I tied on a size 14 comparadun with a yellow body and landed a small brown, but then Jeff began landing fish on the quill body green drake so I quickly clipped off the comparadun and tied on the parachute green drake that had performed admirably for me earlier while I was in prospecting mode. Unfortunately  the fish in this part of the river did not favor my green drake imitation, so I switched to a green drake comparadun and this resulted in a thirteen inch brown for my tenth fish of the afternoon.

At this point the hatch faded and the rain continued to fall steadily and it was 4PM so we decided to call it a day and returned to Basalt and found a room at The Green Drake. We draped our wet clothes on hangers in the bathroom and visited the Riverside Cafe for dinner. We survived some difficult weather conditions on our first day on the Frying Pan River, but did experience some decent hatching action and looked forward to Monday.

Time: 10:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Pool across from large parking area .3 miles above MM12

Fish Landed: 29

Frying Pan River 09/06/2013 Photo Album

What did the Frying Pan River have in store for me on Friday September 6? Would it be another hot bright sunny day? Would I have to battle for prime space on the upper public water? Should I perhaps retreat to the water near the spring between mile markers 10 and 11 where I had a great day during my previous visit in August? The Frying Pan continues to amaze me, and Friday was certainly another different experience. How would Friday stack up against my other days on the Frying Pan River?

Thursday evening yielded several rain showers, one during my dinner, and then I retreated to the Santa Fe and listened to the first half of the Ravens vs. Broncos game. With the Broncos losing at halftime 17-14, I snuggled in my sleeping bag and fell asleep to the sound of the pitter patter of rain on the tent roof. I find this sound very relaxing and in a brief amount of time I was sound asleep. When I awoke on Friday morning the sky was blue and once the sun peeked over the hill to east of the campground, the moisture from the previous night’s rain burned off quickly. As I ate my breakfast and prepared my lunch I discovered that my ice supply was quite low, so this required a trip to Basalt to purchase more.

I loaded the car with my lunch and fishing gear and made the 14 mile drive to Basalt where I bought a 10 pound bag of ice at the liquor store and then stopped at Taylor Creek Fly Shop where I purchased five PMD imitations. My standby light gray comparadun did not seem to be producing as on previous occasions, so I decided to experiment with some locally recommended store bought flies. Next I called Jane to check in with her while in cell range, and she asked me to buy some M&M’s at the supermarket. Jane packed her car and drove to work and planned to make her departure from downtown Denver in the early afternoon.

By the time I returned to the upper Frying Pan it was 9:45AM but this was still earlier than my Thursday arrival so I decided to cruise the upper 2.5 miles in case there was prime open water. Sure enough the wide pullout just above mile marker 12 was totally open so I stopped there and prepared to fish. When I approached the water I discovered another fisherman on the opposite side who must have parked further upstream and crossed and waded down the south bank. The river is quite wide at this spot, so I began to fish next to the parking lot in the beautiful deep run and riffle with a Chernobyl ant trailing a salvation nymph and beadhead RS2. Other than a few refusals to the Chernobyl, I was unable to attract any fish in this attractive area, so I began wading up along the left bank.

In a short amount of time I arrived at another favorite spot where a large rectangular rock juts out into the river and creates a fifteen foot long eddy. I’ve fished this numerous times in the past by going above the rock and then casting downstream and allowing the eddy to bring the fly back toward the rock. I replicated this manuever, but initially I didn’t spot any fish facing downstream as is usually the case. However, as I observed I noted the huge nose of a rainbow sip a tiny insect very tight to the rock that I was kneeling on. I continued to watch the water and recognized another decent but smaller rainbow along the current seam four feet downstream of the large rock. I tried the three fly combo including some lifting action, but this didn’t attract any interest. Next I clipped off the flies and tried a parachute green drake and again no sign of recognition by the two rainbows. How about a light gray comparadun? Once again my strategy was thwarted. Finally having seen some tiny mayflies in the air, I tied on a CDC BWO, but the two target trout were apparently tuned into something different and I couldn’t unlock the code.

I tipped my hat to the fish and moved on upstream where I encountered two young men fishing the edge of the river in the stair step riffle area. The river was fairly wide here so I carefully waded across the bottom of the wide shallow riffles and began working my way up along the shadows from the branches on the south bank. I switched back to the Chernobyl plus salvation plus RS2, but after a brief time I swapped the RS2 for a BWO emerger. The emerger finally produced two fish; one as the flies began to swing at the end of the drift and the second as I lifted to recast at the tail of a pool. In spite of these two fish the action was quite slow so at 11:30 I decided to wade back to the road above the two fishermen working the edge, and I walked back to the car for my lunch.

Before making the walk, however, I noted that there was only one car in the large lot that is usually filled with at least six automobiles, so I decided to drive the .3 miles upstream and park in the “guide” lot. As I walked down to the river, two guides with clients did in fact pull into the lot and began preparing their customers to fish. I wolfed down my sandwich and the remainder of my lunch and practically sprinted back to the car to exchange my lunch bag for my rod and fishing gear. I made a bee line for the spot where I ate lunch and waded out into the river, and observed the two young men that I encountered before lunch thirty yards below me and another fisherman twenty yards above, but directly across from me was a very desirable pool that was open and beckoning my flies. I waded to the middle of the river where I was midway through the pool and standing in a 2-3 foot deep riffle that comprised the larger current of the river.

The river above me split with two thirds of the flow tumbling between the north bank and where I was standing. The other one third struck a current break and deflected toward the far side where it ran in a deep eight foot wide run along the south bank. In between these major flows was a sweet pool that was 25 feet wide at its maximum point near the top and then narrowed slowly until it tailed out below my position. The total length of the pool was probably 30 to 40 feet. This appeared to be one of the nicest spots on the river, but I was concerned that I was hemmed in by fishermen above and below me. I resolved that I would fish this attractive pool as long as I could see fish and then possibly retreat to the spring area for more space to wade and cover water.

The Chernobyl, salvation and BWO emerger remained on my line and in fact I now began to notice more of the tiny mayflies occasionally floating up from the surface. I tried dead drifting and then imparted motion to the emerger in hopes that this would imitate the small emerging mayflies, but the fish were having nothing of my overanalyzing ways. After a half hour or so of futility, however, I began to see a few fish break the surface and in short order I noticed some yellowish colored mayflies cruising on the surface. Meanwhile some larger clouds glided overhead and blocked the intense rays of the sun periodically causing the hatch to intensify during the low light periods and then wane a bit when the sun reappeared.

I clipped off the three fly combination and replaced with one of the store bought flies, a fly that had an olive quill body and a white poly tuft on top as an indicator. This didn’t draw interest so I tied on another store bought version with a light yellow body and again the fish told me my fly was a joke. What should I do now? Maybe my tried and true light gray comparadun would work on these educated fish today so I gave it a try. I moved up a bit toward the top of the pool and began relying on downstream drifts more and as I did this noticed several rainbows rising on a more regular basis along the current seam no more than six feet out and five feet below my position. I flicked some short casts to the seam up and across from me and then slowly raised my rod to take all the line off the water and then lowered the rod as the fly drifted below me. Smash! One of the rainbows tipped up and inhaled my comparadun and the fight was on. I quickly worked the rainbow back and forth and elevated it over my outstretched net and then carefully waded across the swift riffle to photograph on the bank while keeping an eye on the fishermen above and below me.

Nice Rainbow Landed from Upper Frying Pan Pool on Friday

It was now after 1PM and I was at the point of no return. Should I continue fishing from this hemmed in position or quickly adjourn to the spring area. Fortunately I’d just landed a nice rainbow, so I decided to give the jewel pool more time. I waded back to my same position in the riffle and observed more and more fish rising. In fact the scene morphed into one of those electric experiences where it was total mayhem. The clouds got larger, the light dimmer, the wind kicked up a bit, and the mayflies began to emerge and flutter and skip across the water. Trout noses appeared everywhere and I could spot at least twenty fish rising in the pool at any point in time. There were nice rainbows along the seam near me as well as several decent rainbows working the upper center area of the pool where the current created a small eddy. These fish were cruisers that worked in a small circle so it was difficult to judge where to place my fly. Meanwhile some browns were working from the midsection of the pool down to the tailout. Several fish rose along the current seam on the far side of the pool and a fine fish rose at the very top of the pool where the angled current fanned out toward the opposite bank. I would estimate that the jewel pool contained at least 50 fish if not more!

For the next two and a half hours I cast relentlessly to these feasting fish and landed twenty-two more beyond the initial rainbow described above. I was making perhaps ten casts and drifts for each landed fish, but there were so many flies on the water that I wasn’t surprised that my fly was often ignored. It was a matter of targeting a fish and making enough casts to finally match the feeding rhythm of the fish. I managed to land one of the cruisers in the eddy but never pricked the big feeder at the tail of the angled current at the top of the pool. Quite a few of my fish resulted from downstream drifts, and this was actually a suggestion from the sales clerk in the fly shop, although I normally use this approach on my own.

Dave Grips Nice Brown at Productive Pool on Friday

As this was going on two guides with clients moved in below me and another fisherman was fifteen yards above me. These fishermen landed a few fish, but I seemed to be eclipsing their productivity and couldn’t help feeling a bit smug after my guide encounter on Thursday. As this was transpiring my feet grew so cold that I lost feeling, and I felt like I was balancing on stumps. I tried to move only a step or two and almost lost my balance before leaning on my wading staff for support. When the sun was bright and adding solar energy to my body, I could tolerate the icy cold flows of the tailwater, but now the clouds were dark gray and the rumble of distant thunder rolled through the air.

The hatch continued but did wane a bit and the gaps between fish now extended so I decided to take a break and give up the jewel pool. I waded to the bank and placed my worn comparadun in the hook keep and returned to the car. I didn’t bother to look back to see how quickly the guides swooped into the prime pool. The wind picked up and some light rain began to fall as I stashed my gear in the car. I decided to  drive downstream to the area I fished on Thursday, but work upstream where the river splits around a long island. There were a few cars parked in the two pullouts but I found a space in the upper area and as I put on my backpacks, another white SUV pulled in front of me. Most of the fishermen seemed to be downstream in the area where I fished the previous day so I walked upstream along the shoulder to a path that angles down the bank and meets the smaller north braid between the island and the road. I added a fleece layer and raincoat to my attire and it was raining very lightly as I resumed fishing at the bottom of the long shallow smooth pool with my light gray comparadun.

I spotted a few dimples in the water and made some long casts and may have aroused a refusal, but experienced no success in the lower half of the north braid. When I reached the top area where the river narrowed and the velocity of the current increased I flicked my fly to the center of a small pool and a long rainbow sipped my comparadun. The sky was now quite dark and the rain was intensifying as I played and landed the surprise 16 inch fish to my net. I couldn’t end on this note even though some closer streaks of lightning lit up the sky, so I popped a cast to the left side and again at the lip a nice brown nosed up and engulfed my fly. Another brief fight ensued and I gently landed and released a nice 13-14 inch brown. The weather was now getting a bit scary as the wind kicked up but I managed to dry my fly and flick a cast to the right of the main center current and, wham, another brown mauled the money fly. I landed three beautiful fish within a span of 10 minutes in a fairly nondescript area near the top of the small left channel. Unfortunately the rain began to come down in sheets at this point so I retreated to the Santa Fe and jumped in the car, started the engine, turned on the heater and warmed my frozen feet. This all took place just before 4PM.

Meanwhile unbeknownst to me, Jane was able to depart Denver by 12:30PM and was approaching Basalt. She later told me that it was hot and 92 degrees as she entered the small town at the junction of the Frying Pan and Roaring Fork; however, as she drove east along the river she approached dark clouds with streaks of lighting and thunder and the temperature reading on her Forte plunged to 56 degrees. She scanned the parked cars along the river and when she passed mile marker 11, she located the Santa Fe in the pullout. This was just before 4PM and she claims it was raining hard with lighting and thunder everywhere and yet I was not in the Santa Fe. She became concerned and got out of her car in the pouring rain to look for me. As she did this, another fisherman emerged from the white SUV so she approached him and asked if he’d seen me. He responded that, “Yes, he’d seen me and thought I went upstream”. Jane then asked, “Why is my husband fishing in this terrible storm?”, to which the fisherman smiled and replied, “Because he has the DISEASE!”.

Jane Prepares Shrimp for Spinach Spaghetti on Friday Evening

I must have just missed Jane as I sat in the car and waited out the worst of the storm probably for 30 minutes or so. Eventually the rain slowed to a drizzle so I climbed out and geared up and returned to the top end of the left channel next to the island. At the tail of the nice run just above the point where the river splits, I landed a bright and colorful rainbow on the money fly to reach 29 fish on the day, and then had a shot at number 30 when I hooked a medium sized brown in the angled pocket ten feet further upstream, but the feisty fish managed to shed my hook.

I had now run out of decent water and it continued to rain lightly so I decided to call it a day and returned to the car and removed my waders and began to drive back to the campground, but as I approached mile marker 12 I spotted Jane in the oncoming lane. I pulled into the pullout at mile marker 12 and waited for her to U-turn, and then we caravaned back to the campsite where I was chastized for fishing in a thunderstorm. What a day it was on the Frying Pan River!

Time: 1:00PM – 5:00PM

Location: MM11.5 near downstream boundary with private water

Fish Landed: 14

Frying Pan River 09/05/2013 Photo Album

After spending 2.5 weeks in tropical weather I was anxious to return to the Rocky Mountains and some cool clear streams in search of fly fishing heaven. Jane and I spent five days in Hilton Head Island and had a grand time visiting family and enjoying the many activities available in this lovely resort island, but there is no getting around the humidity present at all times during August. I spent the last week of August working and then Jane and I flew to St. Louis, MO for a wedding on September 1. We did touristy things on Saturday, September 1 and you guessed it, St. Louis experienced highs near 100 degrees and the air was thick with humidity.

My previous trip to the Frying Pan River was during the week, and Jane needed to work, so she could not accompany me, so we made plans to make another camping trip on September 5 – 8. I packed the Santa Fe on Thursday morning and made the drive to the Frying Pan River, and then Jane got off work at noon on Friday and made the same trip to join me Friday evening.

The last week of August and the first week of September worked out to be some of the hottest weather of the summer, so I was a bit concerned about the quality of the fishing on the Frying Pan River, although a cold tailwater is usually the best option during these heat waves. At least the humidity was much lower than either Hilton Head or St. Louis.

No Time to Remove Bikes Before Fishing on Thursday

I got off to a reasonably early start on Thursday morning after attending the Dodgers vs. Rockies game on Tuesday night. This meant I needed to pack everything from scratch in the morning. The drive to the upper Frying Pan River is approximately 3.5 hours assuming no traffic snags and that is about how long it took me. I arrived by the upper river at around 12:15PM and .2 miles above the boundary between the public and private water below the dam. I grabbed my lunch bag and walked down the road a bit and then sat on the shoulder overlooking the river to observe while I quickly munched down my sandwich, carrots and yogurt. As I was doing this, a silver SUV passed me, did a quick U-turn and then stopped across from the spot where I planned to begin my afternoon of fishing. A guide dropped off his client who proceeded to put on his waders while the driver parked the vehicle. Apparently this guide saw me and was pulling out all the stops to reserve his favorite stretch of water.

I returned to the car and grabbed my rod and walked down the road, but seeing the man putting on his waders, I went beyond him and crossed below the place where a large dead tree spans two thirds of the river at the tip of a small island. I waded to the midpoint of the island and then fished downstream to the bottom tip and then worked my way up the smaller south channel with a parachute green drake. This produced two long distance releases and then I landed two medium size browns.  Near the top of the island a large rectangular boulder protrudes in the middle of the braid and creates two nice small pools on either side. I looked up the river as I was considering fishing opposite the guide and fisherman, but by now the guide had arrived and crossed and was standing in the very spot I considered fishing. He made a funny motion with both his arms pointing downward like and umpire giving the safe sign on a play at a base. Was he saying that the spot was his, or was he saying it was OK for me to fish there? I assumed it was most likely the former, so I refocused on the nice little pools near the rectangular rock. I was annoyed by the guides tactics, but didn’t feel like creating a scene on my first day on the river.

The large rectangular rock had a nice ledge that was about the width of my boot so I edged my way as far as I could to the upstream point. This put me in a nice position to cast to the slack water and eddy directly across from me as a strong deep run separated me from the little pool. A nice brown began to rise but it ignored my green drake so I switched to a size 14 sulfur comparadun and this didn’t tempt the cruiser along the far bank, but more fish began to dart to the surface and snatch food. Several risers were right along the current seam not more than five feet across from me so I began to focus my casts on them. I could flick my fly to the top of the seam and then hold my rod tip high so that virtually no line was touching the water. While performing this technique a fine 15+ inch brown tipped up and sipped in my fly and I landed it and snapped a photograph.

A Fat 15 1/2 Inch Buttery Brown

Unfortunately as the hatch intensified, the fish became much more selective and I made many unproductive casts to the area until I ran through a series of fly changes including a light yellow and light gray comparadun. The light gray comparadun produced three small browns during the course of the heaviest hatch, but there were a ton of empty casts around these small successes. I did manage to hook and lose a sizeable rainbow and medium brown during this period as well.

As the hatch waned I finally gave up on my small hidden pool and crossed the small island and then fished a nice little run and pool below the dead tree. I decided to return to the green drake for prospecting and landed a medium size brown and then hooked a decent fish that dove under a submerged log and snagged my fly. I was forced to break off the green drake and then climbed the bank and moved to the position where the client fisherman was orignally putting on his waders. The guide and customer had by now vacated the tail of the run and pool that I so desired to fish.

I began prospecting the lower section with a new green drake and landed a nice brown and then proceeded up along the slack edge water next to the steep bank that bordered the road. This stretch did not produce any fish and the hatch had dwindled so I tied on a Chernobyl ant with a Craven soft hackle emerger and worked around the tiny group of islands. The Chernobyl attracted two fish, one a small brown and the second a decent rainbow that was in the right channel where a tree limb extends over the water.

Pretty Rainbow Liked Chernobyl Ant

The next nice area I reached is the thirty foot wide riffle and pool with a square rock containing a tree in the upper center of the pool. I worked this area from right to left and managed to hook a decent rainbow on the Chernobyl, but it shed the hook and escaped before my net could scoop it from the river. I slid over toward the right bank to the area where the current angles against the south bank, and began prospecting the seams and slack pools with the Chernobyl and emerger and this paid off with another very nice rainbow on the Chernobyl ant.

I finished out my day by moving up along the right bank, but this strategy didn’t result in any additonal fish so I retreated and crossed back to the road along the same path that I’d followed to reach the south bank. I could now see some streaks of lightning and heard distant thunder, but it seemed to be quite a distance to the east, so I continued walking beyond my car to the path that angles back down to the smaller north channel of the river. The north braid is typically more challenging than the south channel here as the flow is only 1/4 the volume and the bottom half is relatively shallow slow moving water. However, from past experience I know that it harbors some nice albeit difficult fish.

I worked my way up the bottom half with no success so I swapped the Chernobyl and emerger for a light gray deer hair caddis and eventually landed a small brown that mauled the caddis in front of a rock. That was the last fish of the day as the weather became more threatening, and I realized I needed to set up the tent, unload the bicycles and prepare dinner before darkness. It was a fine four hours of fishing on the Frying Pan River, but I was a bit frustrated with the fisherman competition and my inability to fish the water I targeted.

Rainbow from Campsite Thursday Evening

Time: 9:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: MM4 in morning and MM7 downstream from large White River National Forest sign in afternoon

Fish Landed: 9

Frying Pan River 08/16/2013 Photo Album

The Department of Water Resources chart for the Frying Pan River near Reudi displayed a straight line of 220 cfs for over a week and this stability generally bodes well for excellent fishing. I’d experienced a nice day on Thursday, but could I repeat that experience on my last fishing day before returning to Denver for the weekend? Also, should I fish the water between MM10 and the dam or drive downstream further in hopes of finding a heavier green drake and PMD hatch as they generally progress upstream? These were questions I pondered as I packed up my tent and camping gear on Friday morning and prepared for a day of fishing. I retrieved my large fly boxes from my fishing bag and took an inventory of green drakes and added a few more to my frontpack foam patch.

By 9AM I was packed up and ready to begin my day of fishing. The sky was once again a brilliant blue with no clouds in sight and the temperature was already in the upper 60’s. Dave Loch described some nice water near Strawberry Rock access on the lower river, and I’d never spent much time in that area, so I decided to sample it on Friday morning. I found a tiny pullout just below the MM4 sign and prepared to fish. My rod was already put together from the previous evening so all I had to do was remove the caddis and tie on a Chernobyl ant and beadhead hares ear.

Frying Pan Starting Point on Friday

The next challenge was finding a path to the river as the bank was extremely steep and some dense bushes separated the road and river. After a short walk I found a faint trail and carefully descended to the river. I wanted to access an area twenty yards downstream where the river fanned out before plunging over some rocks, but the only way to get there was to wade along the bank and through some fairly attractive pockets. I made some downstream casts to the pockets before disturbing them, but I wasn’t very optimistic that I hadn’t spooked the fish by being in their upstream field of view.

When I got to the shallower area I moved to the middle of the river and then toward the south or east bank so I wasn’t looking into the morning sun. I began casting back toward the middle and roadside bank and after a half hour of fishing landed a 10 inch brown that attacked the Chernobyl ant. Prior to this I foul hooked two or three fish that apparently refused the Chernobyl and I snagged them with the trailing nymph. The hares ear once again wasn’t producing any results so I switched it for a salvation nymph.

As I moved upstream along the right bank I came upon a deep narrow slot along a red ledge rock and as my flies drifted tight to the rock wall the Chernobyl dipped and I set the hook and landed a nice 13 inch rainbow and photographed it. Next some fast water forced me back to the bank closer to the road and in a nice deep pool behind a current break I landed two very nice rainbows on the Chernobyl ant. The first fish was 15 inches and the second appeared to be 16 or 17 inches relative to the opening on my net.

Another Nice Rainbow Fooled by Chernobyl on Friday

I was perplexed by the fact that I was catching only rainbows and attributed it to the fact that I was fishing two attractors, so I once again exchanged the salvation nymph for the hares ear and this resulted in two browns under 12 inches. Perhaps there was something to my theory of attractor vs flies with a more natural appearance. By now it was 11:40AM and I was positioned directly beneath the Santa Fe, so I scaled the very steep bank and sat on the top rim to eat my lunch.

After lunch I resumed from my morning end point and proceeded around a bend and then through an area with a cluster of dead falls and fast water and then approached a huge wide pool. Another fisherman was stationed next to the attractive run at the head of the pool so I climbed out of the river and went around the pool. On the way I passed a host of fishermen eating their lunch or preparing to fish. The noon sun was now directly overhead and pounding down on everything below, and Friday was shaping up to be considerably warmer than Thursday.

Huge Pool Occupied

Above the large pool I encountered another inviting deep pool and as I drifted my Chernobyl and nymph combination I spotted a rainbow holding 4-5 feet below the surface. The fish showed interest several times in the Chernobyl by elevating closer to the surface and twitching its tail fin, but no take was forthcoming. I didn’t want to fixate on this fish as it was quite deep in the water column, so I moved along and fished some narrow slots next to the bank, but again I was not rewarded for my efforts.

By 1PM it was quite warm and no clouds were in the sky so I decided to move further upstream in hopes of a higher likelihood of encountering a hatch. I drove to MM7 and parked in a pullout that contained a large White River National Forest sign. I grabbed my gear and walked down the road to a point just before some private water and made some half hearted casts with the Chernobyl and nymph combination. This clearly wasn’t working so I resolved to change things up and removed the two flies and tied on a parachute green drake thinking that I was further upstream and perhaps close to where the drakes were still hatching or maybe in an area where the green drake hatch was a recent event. I selected the size 14 green drake with an olive hackle, but the hackle had become deformed and pressed back so that no fibers extended beyond the eye of the hook. The fly didn’t ride correctly on the surface so I clipped it off and replaced with a size 12 version and this resulted in a foul hooked brown.

I continued working up the left side of the river and began to see a few sporadic rises. This perplexed me as I didn’t see any insects riding on the surface or in the air above the river, so I paused to seine the water with my net, but this didn’t clarify the situation in any way. Much to my chagrin the mystery hatch intensified and the rises became more frequent. At a loss for an answer to what the fish were feeding on, I tied some tippet to the bend of the green drake and added a parachute ant with an orange wing post. I cast these two flies above the closest fish and most frequent riser and watched in dismay as the brown rose and pressed its nose against my ant without eating it.

As this transpired another fish rose five feet above the lower one so I switched focus and lofted a curve cast above the new feeder. The flies landed so that the parachute ant led the  green drake and a thirteen inch brown drifted up and consumed the ant! I was pretty excited to land this fish under very difficult conditions. Unfortunately the ant did not produce more action and the green drake was useless, so I clipped them off and tied on a rusty spinner from my Pennsylvania fly box but then added the ant back below the spinner. I attempted to catch the lower fish again with this new combination and actually pricked the fussy guy with the spinner.

This was enough frustration from this area, so I moved on upstream and began to see emerging PMD’s, but quite sparse so I switched to the light gray comparadun AKA money fly. I landed a medium size brown along the left side, but the intensity of the hatch increased although still not as strong as Thursday. I surveyed the river which was actually a wide riffle of moderate depth and observed more rises along the right side so I waded to the middle and then moved below the more dense cluster of rises. Unfortunately an hour of frustration followed as the regular risers showed no interest in my usually effective light gray comparadun.

I began a series of fly changes beginning with a yellow body comparadun and then a very light yellow sulfur version but still no luck. Four fish above me rose regularly but they ignored all my offerings. I finally conceded to these picky trout and moved back to the left bank and tied the proven light gray comparadun back on. The natural flies on the water during this hour of frustration looked smaller than my imitation so I probably need to tie some size 18’s before I return to the Frying Pan River. I now realized I’d gone fishless through the best hatch of the day, so I moved up along the left bank and spotted sporadic rises to stragglers as the hatch now dwindled.

Brown Was in Front of Tree Limb on Left

I was focused on an upstream rise when I spotted a subtle move and sip out of the corner of my eye in front of a tree branch no more than eight feet above me and to my left. I backcast and hooked a short cast above the rise and a large brown slowly appeared and sipped in my fly. This is the kind of visual action that keeps me addicted to this sport. After a strong fight and dogged head shaking I landed the 14-15 inch brown and brought my count on the day to nine.

14.5 Inch Brown Sipped Money Fly

Once again I moved upstream closer to a spot where I spotted a rise and as I prospected the general area I spied a decent rainbow holding very tight to some dead branches along the bank. I attempted to hook some casts to the rainbow, but could not get above the fish due to the branches and eventually shot a cast to far and wrapped the fly and line. This forced me to wade to my fly to retrieve it and in the process I disturbed the fish.

Another move upstream brought me to a sitiation similar to the last fish landed as I noticed a nice brown just above a protruding branch. This target however would not take my comparadun although it inspected and refused it. Next I tried a parachute ant with a yellow wing post and this provoked two or three refusals where the fish put its nose against the ant. I opened my patch and spotted the predator, a new fly I’d tied at the very end of the tying season. I only made two and it looked like a large realistic foam beetle. It went on to the end of my line and I plopped it above the brown, and the fish darted up and gobbled the foam creation. I set the hook and managed to prick the fish and then uttered a few expletives.

Next came a nice deep area below some dead logs and I spotted another brown lurking in the partial shadows. The predator was still on my line but I added a beadhead pheasant tail and launched a few casts in the vicinity of the brown and on the third or fourth drift I saw a bulge and set the hook. The fish took off instantly and I thought I had fooled the brown in the shadows, but quickly discovered the fish was foul hooked in the cheek area by the predator, so I either experienced a refusal or I was late on the hook set due to the difficult lighting.

At this point my progress was blocked by a jumble of logs so I climbed up to the parking lot and then found a worn path through the woods back down to a long deep pool with a vertical rock wall on the south side of the river. I covered this stretch to no avail as the water now appeared to be dead with no insects, not even stragglers present. Shortly after 4PM I reeled up my flies and called it quits with a long drive back to Denver ahead of me.

The temperature on the dashboard in the Santa Fe was in the mid-80’s as I began to drive back along the Frying Pan River to Basalt. I probably should have spent the day or at least the afternoon above MM10 but at least I had the water to myself and did have an hour of hatch action. Unfortunately I couldn’t convert my opportunity as completely as I would have liked.

Time: 7:30PM – 8:30PM

Location: By inlet of small stream that runs through the campground

Fish Landed: 10

Reudi Reservoir 08/15/2013 Photo Album

After an enjoyable day of fishing I returned to my campsite and put up my tent and ate my light camping dinner. After cleaning up my dishes, I glanced at my watch and noticed it was only 7PM so I decided to get some more exercise by taking a walk to the lake below the campgrounds. Little Maude where I was camping is situated in the first loop that is closest to the main road and the next campground below Little Maude is Mollie B which borders on the lake. I hiked through Mollie B and followed a path through some willows and across a small stream and then came out on the rocky beach just above the marina. I strolled down to the edge of the water and found a flat rock to sit on. The water was extremely calm as most of the boating activity had ended for the day, so I took a photo and relaxed in the gorgeous scene before me.

As I gazed around the lake and admired the beauty and the reflections on the water, a few rings appeared in the inlet next to me. In ten minutes while I rested on my rock I noticed four or five sporadic rises. Was it too insane to return to the campsite and retrieve my rod and reel and make a few casts to these fish? Absolutely not. This was my camping/fishing trip and I could choose to do whatever I wanted to.

I hustled back up the path and gathered my frontpack, net and rod and reel and bounced back down to the inlet area. I quickly tied on a dark olive size 16 deer hair caddis and began to make casts in the proximity of visible rises. Initially I experienced a few refusals and then a momentary hook up, but it wasn’t long before I set the hook and landed a small eight inch rainbow. The current from the small stream continued along the shore across from my position, and it seemed more fish were rising in this area than in the still water of the lake in front of me.

Water Level Higher Than 2012

I spent the next hour flicking casts to the site of various rises and hooked and landed ten rainbows. Three were chunky specimen that were twelve inches in length and the remainder were in the 7-10 inch range. I’m guessing these were stocked fish, but perhaps they were resident fish that migrate to the inlet where they feed on insects that wash into the lake from the stream.

At any rate, it was an enjoyable hour of fishing and icing on the cake after a great day on the Frying Pan River. I probably experienced as many refusals as landed fish, and there were numerous long distance releases mixed in. As darkness descended I reeled up my line and turned on my headlamp and carefully made my way back to the campground.

Time: 11:00AM – 5:00PM

Location: MM10 to above spring

Fish Landed: 20

Frying Pan River 08/15/2013 Photo Album

The Frying Pan remains my favorite stream in Colorado, and Thursday I was planning to make my first visit to these hallowed waters in 2013. Everything about the Frying Pan is magical beginning with the fishing centric town of Basalt, the 14 mile road that follows the river, the red rock cliffs and walls, Reudi Reservoir, the campgrounds, the spring, and of course the fish. The river is actually more like a creek yet in these intimate surroundings there is a high density of trout in the 14 – 20 inch range. Let one not forget the hatches. I enjoy prospecting hopper/droppers but I’m still partial to match the hatch fishing to rising trout and I can’t recall ever visiting the Frying Pan without experiencing some decent dry fly fishing to a hatch.

West Side of Independence Pass on Thursday Morning

Dave Loch, a new friend from Air Products, paid the Frying Pan a visit in July and this only served to make me more anxious to visit and fish there. Finally on Thursday, August 15 I would fulfill my wishes. I was up early at the Lakeview Campground near Twin Lakes and began my journey over Independence Pass and through Aspen, CO and then on to Basalt. I stopped in Basalt and purchased a new bag of ice for the cooler and then stopped at the spring near MM 10 to refill my water container. From here it was on to Little Maude Campground by Reudi Reservoir where I quickly snagged site number 6 and then unloaded a few items to make it obvious that the site was taken. Next I reversed course and drove back down the road and parked at the large pullout by the spring.

It was another warm day with clear blue skies, and I was concerned about how good the fishing would be. Most of the good pullouts on the upper two miles of the river were already taken, but no one was visible between MM10 and the spring, so I guessed that I could propsect the pocket water and work my way up toward the attractive water across from and above the spring. I had no idea whether green drakes or PMD’s would hatch in this area.

I walked down the shoulder of the road as a steady stream of cyclists passed me on their way to Reudi Reservoir and stopped at the downstream border with private water as indicated by no trespassing signs. My starting point was just above a small island where the river widened to create some shallow riffles that I could wade across to get to the opposite bank. My strategy was to prospect the south bank and eventually arrive at the nice deeper pockets and pools across from the car.

I was getting a bit of a late start as I entered the water at 11AM and of course I tied on a Chernobyl ant and beadhead hares ear. I probed some deeper slots and pockets on the side near the road with no success and then waded to the oppposite bank as planned. Here I was frustrated by a couple refusals to the Chernobyl ant, but then I extended a long cast closer to the bank to some nondescript water that was no more than three feet deep and I was surprised to see a buttery golden brown smash the Chernobyl ant. I carefully played the strong fish to my net and then carefully released it in some slow moving water to aid recovery.

16″ Rainbow Gulped Chernobyl Ant on Frying Pan

The beadhead hares ear didn’t seem to be adding any value so I exchanged it for a salvation nymph, and then in response to visible midge clouds, I added a third fly, a zebra midge larva. Eventually I switched the zebra midge for a RS2 and WD40. The Chernobyl, salvation and RS2 or WD40 became my workhorse combination as I worked up along the right bank and landed a 15 inch rainbow and another nice brown. I was amazed at the unspectacular locations that were yielding nice fish. By 1PM I’d landed seven fish and I decided to cross at the top of a second small narrow island and return to the car for lunch. Of the seven fish landed, one consumed the salvation nymph, two fell for the RS2 and four crashed the surface for the Chernobyl ant. All of my diverse trio of offerings generated some interest.

I took my lunch to a large rock next to the river across from the spring and munched it while observing for visible fish or insect activity. I didn’t really spot anything of interest so I returned my lunch bag to the car and prepared to resume fishing. As I walked up the road before lunch I passed a guide and customer going the other way and noticed that they entered the river where I had just exited, so after lunch I decided to begin across from the spring and fish up along the right bank. This was really the attractive stretch of water I desired to be in and it was already close to 1:30PM when hatching activity might begin. As I began fishing another guide and customer appeared along the left bank 30 yards above me, but they weren’t close enough to create any interference of my fishing or vice versa.

Frying Pan Looking Upstream from Across from Spring

I began prospecting the same trio of flies that produced seven fish before lunch, but they were not longer favored by the fish. It’s amazing what a change of location and thirty minutes can do to fishing success. I hadn’t spotted any green drakes, but 1-2PM is generally the time when they appear, so I thought perhaps the fish were tuned in to them, or perhaps one could serve as a large attractor. I clipped off the trio of flies and tied on a size 14 parachute drake with a natural grizzly hackle. I’d used this same fly on the Taylor River and Big Thompson with success, but it was a bit mangled and the hackle was climbing up the wing post.

The used fly did not seem to bother the fish as I landed a bunch of medium size browns. The first two came on downstream drifts in some deep narrow slots when I flicked the large parachute drake to the top of the lane and kept the line off the water and allowed the fly to slowly float the length of the slower moving water. As the fly reached the tail it was attacked aggressively by medium size brown trout.

As I worked across the river I encountered a spot where the current angled against the far bank and then deflected and ran for another ten feet along the grassy bank. Here I landed another three browns that pounced on the green drake, and as I played and landed these fish I observed a nice sized fish rising and working in a shallow cushion of water just in front of a submerged rock next to the bank just above the deflection point. I made some accurate casts above this fish but it ignored my green drake yet continued to rise to something. I was now observing the occasional PMD in the air, so I clipped off the green drake and tied on a light gray comparadun and placed some nice drifts over the area of the rising fish, but apparently casting the green drake had alerted the fish and it no longer rose nor was it visible with my polarized sunglasses.

I moved on and decided to revert back to the green drake but received several refusals so I swapped it for a fresh version with a dyed olive parachute hackle.This fly was slightly smaller than the bedraggled speciman I started with, and it also produced some fish. As this was transpiring several periods of overcast skies caused by some large clouds blocking the sun initiated a light PMD hatch, and this provoked another switch to the light gray comparadun but once again the fish ignored it.

Again I reverted to a green drake but this time I decided to go large, and experimented with a size 12 parachute drake with a dyed olive hackle. Much to my surprise as I lifted my rod tip to recast when the fly was five feet in front of me at the lip of a small pool, a 16-17 inch rainbow snatched the big drake! What a thrill to pound up such a large fish that I hadn’t spotted just a few feet in front of me. After releasing the large rainbow I resumed casting to rising fish in the deeper runs, but again I couldn’t generate any consistency. Once again some clouds moved in and another overcast period ensued thus provoking another wave of PMD emergence, and again I followed suit with a switch back to the comparadun.

Ahead of me was a sweet 8X10 foot pool and as my comparadun drifted through the center of this area, a monster brown jumped on my fly. When I got a good look at the fish as I carefully played it, I was certain that it would measure in excess of 15 inches. Luckily I was able to get a close look at the fish as I landed it and spread it out on my net for a photograph and it was easily 17 inches if not 18 inches. I clearly remember that this was fish number 18 on the day, and I was shaking with excitement as I resumed fishing. Once again however the clouds moved on and the sun reappeared and the PMD hatch waned so I again returned to the size 14 olive hackle green drake.

17″ Brown Was Highlight of Thursday

I prospected this fly through some smaller pockets as the river narrowed and offered fewer attractive spots, and added two more small browns to my count to reach twenty. It was now 5PM and I’d run out of juicy spots and I still had to put up my tent, so I retreated back along the south bank and then crossed back to the road, and called it a day, and a fine day it was. Twenty fish with four or five in the 14-18 inch range was certainly a satisfying effort. Catching fish on my parachute green drakes that I created over the winter was very gratifying as well, and being able to prospect and fool educated Frying Pan fish on the Chernobyl ant before lunch was an added bonus. I returned to the campground in a very happy state of mind.

Avalanche Ale

Time: 10:30AM – 5:30PM

Location: Downstream from spring; within one mile of dam; across from the spring.

Fish Landed: 23

Frying Pan River 09/14/2012 Photo Album

Friday brought frustrations other than the picky fish that I experienced on Thursday between 1 and 3, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I woke up Friday morning to a fresh coat of frost on the tablecloth, stove and windshield. It was quite cold, but as soon as the sun rose over the eastern ridge at 8AM, things warmed up quickly. After a quick breakfast I retrieved all my various fly boxes from my fishing bag and spread them out on the picnic table at the campsite (after wiping off the water from thawed frost). I selected all the imitations of green drakes that were dispersed among three or four boxes and then grouped them into a large size 12 pile and a smaller size 14 pile. I put four size 14 comparaduns in my front pack patch, a couple size12’s, and three Wellerfish paradrakes. I was now prepared for whatever green drakes the Frying Pan River could throw at me.

Frost on Camp Stove Friday Morning

I decided to drive down to the spring area to begin my fishing in the morning as there was a lot of pocket water that was ideal for the hopper/dropper technique and that area was further away from the ridge and therefore would warm in the sun more quickly. Once again I began with a Chernobyl ant and beadhead hares ear combination and once again this yielded only refusals and no fish. I exchanged the Chernobyl for a parachute hopper and this yielded one small brown on the BHHE. As I was working up along the bank next to the road I began to observe quite a few midges zooming up from the surface of the water so I added a zebra midge beneath the beadhead hares ear and fished three flies.

Frying Pan Across from Spring on Friday Morning

I was optimistic that the midge would yield some action, but in a short amount of time I snagged a stick and in the process of trying to free the flies, I broke off both the hares ear and zebra midge, probably as a result of an aging knot. This forced me to replace the hares ear with a new model, and as I looked at the midge section of my fly patch I decided to try an olive colored beadhead midge larva. This combination brought me some decent action between 11 and 12 as I built my count to six with three hitting the beadhead hares ear and two hooked on the midge. I also had perhaps five or six hooked but unable to land presumably on the tiny size 22 midge hook.

At the top of a tiny island I momentarily hooked a rainbow that appeared to be in excess of fifteen inches, but it made a quick turn of its head to the left and the fly popped free. To say the least I was quite disappointed by this turn of events. During this time I discovered that I generated more action by casting directly across from my position and allowing the flies to drift downstream and then swing. As the fly was drifting downstream I made quick jerky mends that gave the trailing flies action, and quite a few of the fish hit the nymphs on the lift or swing.

At noon I broke for lunch and drove back up the road to a favorite spot close to the dam. The river angles toward the bank and creates several nice runs of moderate depth. After lunch I positioned myself at the base of one of the angled runs and began to fish with the three fly combination still in place from the spring. Not much was happening however until 1:30 when I noticed the fisherman across and down from me landing several fish. I stepped back toward the bank a bit to gain a higher vantage point and noticed he was nymphing, so I invested time in going to a strike indicator, split shot, beadhead hares ear and beadhead pheasant tail in hopes that the fish would be tuned into PMD nymphs prior to a hatch. It was a great thought process, but it didn’t yield any fish.

Shortly after going to the trouble of converting to deep nymphing I began to see light yellow colored mayflies and sporadic rises. I was in a precarious position sitting on a raised boulder with my legs on each side similar to riding a horse with a deep chasm between me and another large boulder anchored to the bank. While balanced in this position I clipped off the nymph paraphernalia and tied on the sulfur comparadun. Using this fly I landed a small brown from the small run and riffle above me, but then I noticed a single rise twenty feet below me beneath an  overhanging branch that came within 18 inches of the surface of the river. I began making downstream drifts by simply feeding out line and letting the fly drift down along the current seam. On the fifth or sixth downstream drift a fifteen inch brown smashed the sulfur from beneath the branch. What a thrill!

Beast Taken on Downstream Drift Under Branch

I spun around on my rock and focused my attention on the small triangular pool sandwiched between the surrounding runs above me. Two or three nice fish were visible and had now begun feeding actively, but they were ignoring my yellow comparadun. They showed slight interest as evidenced by a slight move up toward the fly or a tail wag, but that was the most energy they would expend on my frauds. I decided to halt my frantic casting for a bit and watch the water and much to my surprise I noticed a dense hatch of small BWO’s on the water! I quickly switched to my CDC BWO and on the first cast landed a nice 14 inch brown from the triangular pool area.

This Beauty Fell for BWO

It was around this time that I was distracted by a man and woman who arrived and waded into positions no more than 10 yards above me. I immediately yelled, “Hey! Hey!”, but the man either didn’t hear me or chose to ignore me. I later discovered that the woman was likely the man’s teenage daughter. I was pretty irate about this turn of events as I was now hemmed in to a small area after arriving two hours earlier and staking my claim to the space. There wasn’t much I could do at this point short of confronting the man, so I refocused on the fish in front of me. Another fish continued to feed at the very tail or point of the triangle just above where currents merged, and I needed to run quite a few casts over him, but eventually I convinced a 13″ brown to chomp on the CDC BWO.

Meanwhile I continued to see a sparse hatch of PMD’s, and I thought perhaps the fish would switch to these larger morsels, but I stuck with the tiny BWO imitation. I had now taken two nice fish from the triangle area and disturbed the water a couple times and wasn’t seeing any more feeding activity. Just above me was another small riffle where a side current ran almost perpendicular to the main river and deflected off the bank and then continued along the bank to the rock I was sitting on. Unfortunately between me and the run was a large branch that extended over the water by five feet or so. I began to hook casts to the run above the branch, and as I did this I spotted a barely visible sip in front of the branch. Because this water was very riffled, I was having great difficulty seeing the tiny gray tuft of a fly, but I began dropping casts further to the left and closer to the rise. On perhaps the third such cast the rainbow moved for my fly and smashed it and shortly thereafter he was in my net.

Fine Rainbow Sipped CDC BWO

I was pretty much hemmed in now with nowhere to go but up the bank, so that’s what I did, and then I had the evil idea to return the favor. I found an opening in the dense vegetation between the road and the river and decided to explore as I couldn’t really see how much above the intrusive pair it would take me. Unfortunately I appeared only five yards or so above the girl. I was on a long fairly flat rock that protruded out in the river, and this created a nice little pocket where the river curved from the bank and rushed around the rock. I began dropping extremely short casts into the tiny pocket, but I wasn’t very confident this held a fish. Amazingly on the fifth or sixth cast a chunky 13″ brown emerged from the current seam and sipped in my CDC BWO. I took the time to be obvious about my nice fish and placed it on my net on the large rock to photograph. I still couldn’t coax a look or remark from the father who stoically fished and faced the main river.

Now I was truly out of decent water so I retreated to the Santa Fe and decided to drive downstream and check out the area that I fished on Thursday. What a shock I was in for. On this pleasant Friday in September apparently a lot of fishermen decided to take a long weekend to fish. All the pullouts were full and there were guides with multiple anglers near bush rock riffle and in fallen tree pool. There was a fisherman positioned in the pool below large rectangular rock. Before I knew it I was out of the public water and driving along the private water and beyond mile marker 11. Fortunately there was no one at the spring area so I pulled into the pullout there and geared up to fish.

I was really fuming at this point as I’d been forced out of my prime spot just as I solved the hatch riddle. I’d landed six very nice fish in a very confined space, and the last four sipped in my CDC BWO with confidence. It was tough to accept the fact that I relinquished this favorable situation.

I began wading across the river to reach the opposite bank as I planned to fish up through the series of runs and pools that had produced for me in late August. The crossing was quite challenging as the flows were roughly 50 cfs higher than August. Since I still had the CDC BWO on my line, I gave that a try initially and landed a small brown, but I wasn’t seeing many rises and the tiny BWO was very difficult to follow in this faster more turbulent pocket water.

I switched to the money fly and landed another medium sized brown, but the quality of this fishing experience really suffered compared to the enjoyment I had just experienced closer to the dam. I was consoling myself that at least I’d now landed 14 fish on the Frying Pan, and even if I quit now, it was a decent day. Just as this thought ran through my brain at around 3PM, all hell broke loose. I saw BWO’s and PMD’s (some yellow and some gray) and green drakes simultaneously popping off the water. When I noticed quite a few green drakes tumbling in the surface film and trying to lift off, I decided to take advantage of my earlier fly sorting and tied on one of the size 14 comparaduns. My fly search paid huge dividends as I landed another nine fish over the remainder of the afternoon on the smaller green drakes. Three or four of the fish in this mix were strong 14 – 15 inch fish including a hard fighting rainbow that demanded quite a few casts but eventually succumbed to the allure of my green drake.

During this entire period a heavy PMD hatch was taking place, and I considered switching but stuck with the green drake, and didn’t regret this decision. By 4:30 the green drake hatch had largely fizzled out, but I observed a continued fairly strong PMD hatch so I tied on the money fly and prospected some attractive spots. I wasn’t able to entice any fish during this last half hour and saw minimal rises in spite of the fairly decent ongoing hatch. I can only conclude that the fish had full bellies by this time late in the afternoon.

Patchwork of Colors on Hill Above Campground

As I carefully waded back to my car by the spring I could only thank the father and daughter team and all the other fishermen and guides for forcing me downstream to the spring area where I had the entire stretch of river to myself while PMD’s, BWO’s and green drakes hatched in dense numbers simultaneously. For some reason I get all the tough breaks.