Category Archives: Fishing Reports

Fishing Reports

Eagle River – 7/9/10

Time: 1:30PM – 4:00PM

Location: Edwards Rest Area

Fish Landed: 11

Eagle River 07/09/2010 Photo Album

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

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

Fishing Buddy Dave Gaboury

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

Fat Eagle River Brown

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

Another Brown from Eagle River

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

Brush Creek – 7/9/10

Time: 10:30AM – 12:00PM

Location: Eagle Ranch

Fish Landed: 1

Brush Creek 07/09/2010 Photo Album

As I drove from the Arkansas River through Leadville and on to Eagle on Thursday evening, the weather grew clearer. I could see that the Eagle River was clear and a bit high as I followed it down the valley to Eagle, CO. I stayed overnight with my friends the Gaboury’s, and Dave suggested we fish Brush Creek in Eagle Ranch in the morning then hit the Eagle River near Edwards in the afternoon. Friday turned out to be a gorgeous day from a weather standpoint with relatively clear skies and temperatures in the upper seventies or low eighties.

Dave G. and I were ready to fish by around 10:30, so we hiked down the path behind their house and entered the water downstream. Brush Creek is kind of small for two fishermen, so we decided to alternate attractive pools. Dave was catching small browns on a beadhead pheasant tail, but I wasn’t having any luck whatsoever. I was using a yellow Letort hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear, beadhead green caddis, copper john, and beadhead pheasant tail. We reached a point where the creek divided into two channels with roughly equal volume, so Dave G. took the north side and I explored the south. There was some caddis buzzing about, so I made yet another fly change and tied on a size 14 beadhead prince nymph. Halfway through the south channel just below a bend and in a seam, my hopper disappeared, and I hooked a nice brown that probably measured around 15 inches. I photographed the fish while holding in my hand as there was tall vegetation all around and no good spot to place the fish.

Nice Brush Creek Brown

I continued fishing the south channel and met up with Dave. We moved rather quickly now as Dave G. wanted to try a stretch .3 miles upstream where he’d caught some very nice browns on previous outings. There was one spot that Dave had already fished with a refusal to his stimulator where I hooked three fish, but only landed a very small brown that didn’t meet my minimum length for counting. After this I thought perhaps the prince was the magical fly to turn things around, but alas, it didn’t produce again. We called it quits around noon and returned to the house for lunch.

Arkansas River – 7/8/10

Time: 1:30PM – 4:00PM

Location: Stone Bridge

Fish Landed: 5

According to the DWR site, the flows on the Arkansas River near Salida were down to 775 cfs. From past experience, this is decent for edge fishing, and the fishing reports from the fly shops were touting this very approach. I had to meet the house inspector for our new house at 8AM, but hoped to be on my way by 9AM. I had the minivan packed with all my fishing stuff plus my suitcase for a weekend in Eagle, CO with our friends, the Gaboury’s.

As I drove southwest on US 285, I could see heavy cloud cover, and when I stopped for gas in Aspen Park it was quite chilly. This was the story of the day. I passed through a stretch between Kenosha Pass and Fairpay where there was 2-3 inches of snow on the road, and then passed through several thunderstorms before arriving at the Stone Bridge parking area at around 1PM. There was no precipitation at the time of arrival but nasty looking clouds were approaching from the west. I ate my lunch in the car, then put on my waders and rigged my rod.

I used the steps to go over the fence, then slid down the bank and went under the 291 bridge and up the left bank a bit. It was quite cloudy and chilly and I wore my fleece plus raincoat. I tied on a yellow Letort hopper and trailed a beadhead hares ear. This didn’t produce, so I switched out the BHHE for a beadhead pheasant tail. I worked up the left bank for the next couple hours and fished the likely pockets and slow areas behind rocks. I managed to land five small brown trout on the BHPT. Part way through the afternoon, it thundered and I saw lightning, and it rained fairly steadily. I fished beyond the raft launch area at the Stone Bridge access area, but never really got in a good groove. At 4PM I hiked back to the car and stashed everything to dry out while I drove to Eagle, CO to visit the Gaboury’s.

Roaring River – 7/2/10

Time: 11:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Ypsilon Trail Fork Upstream

Fish Landed: 19

Roaring River 07/02/2010 Photo Album

I stopped at Estes Anglers to buy a tippet spool and the Aussie behind the counter told me Roaring River was fishable, although high due to heavy rain the previous day. He suggested Glacier Run as another alternative in RMNP. The Big T was swollen from the rainstorm.

Roaring River Near Where I Stashed My Gear

I drove to the Lawn Lake Trailhead and after a 40 minute hike uphill with my gear in a backpack, stopped at my normal sandy area to stash my backpack and put on my waders. It was a beautiful day weather wise with temperatures probably in the upper 70’s and partial clouds most of the day. Some small storms rolled north and south, but never affected me. The stream remained quite high, almost as high as when my friend Allen and I hiked along the trail on Memorial Day.

Still High Flows

As it was nearly lunch, I hiked down from the Ypsilon Trail crossing and fished my way back to my base area for lunch. I began with a lime green trude attractor and caught a small greenback in short order. I caught a second before I reached the log bridge crossing, but it was now noon and I was quite hungry, so I returned to my base camp and ate lunch. While eating I spotted three trout holding in some slack water in front of a large boulder near where I was eating. After lunch I tried for these from the right side behind the boulder, but had no success.

Scarlet Head

I hiked back down to the Ypsilon Lake Trail and crossed to the other side. The volume of water was still high and the current very swift. The only places where fish held were in the pockets and soft water along the bank where there were current breaks such as boulders and logs. I worked my way upstream along the left bank casting to these types of areas. There were long stretches between fishing spots where the gradient was steep and few refuges from the current existed. I could see some fish and they weren’t reacting to the lime green trude, so I added a BHPT. When I arrived across from my lunch spot I cast across to the three fish and landed two on the trailing BHPT.

Super Macro of Teardrop Flowers

At one point as I moved up the left side I spotted a decent cutthroat in a shallow lie behind a stick covered with moss hanging in the stream. I knew I couldn’t cast the dry/dropper as I would catch the stick on the trailing fly, so I removed the combination and tied on a black fur ant with an orange poly wing post for visibility. On the third cast the greenback made a quick move and I hooked and landed it. I was very proud of this catch. I moved on using the fur ant a bit, but it was very difficult to follow in the fast water, so I tied on a Chernobyl ant trailing a beadhead hares ear.

Colorful Trout

I used these flies for the remainder of the afternoon and caught most of my remaining fish on the Chernobyl. Even the large Chernobyl was difficult to follow in the foaming water and glare at times, and I received numerous refusals. I lost two beadhead hares ears to rocks and trees, so I replaced with a bright green caddis pupa at some point. But I probably could have made life easier by fishing the Chernobyl solo. I’d guess I received one refusal for every catch.

Indian Paintbrush

At around 4PM, the skies darkened a bit more than usual and I was extremely tired so I found the trail and returned to my base. I was probably further upstream than I’d ever been on the Roaring River before. I changed back into my shorts and stashed everything in my backpack and hiked back to the trailhead and the minivan.

Bear Creek – 7/1/10

Time: 5:30PM – 8:00PM

Location: O’Fallon Park Upstream

Fish Landed: 7

Bear Creek 07/01/2010 Photo Album

I needed to take Dan to the airport for his trip to China, so I planned to fish close to Denver when I returned. I wanted to take advantage of the long hours of daylight and perhaps hit some evening hatching activity. I used the time before driving Dan to the airport to gather my gear and tie five size 18 yellow body deer hair caddis. I felt these would more closely imitate the caddis that I captured on Bear Creek on Sunday evening.

I arrived at O’Fallon Park and began fishing at around 5:30. Another fisherman was already working the water just upstream of the parking lot at the end of the park. I hiked above him and entered the water near the picnic tables just as I had on Sunday. I tied on the yellow caddis and almost instantly had a momentary hookup with a small brown in a slot behind a rock.

Next I moved up to the nice deep bend run that goes against the Bear Creek Restaurant. Once again I had an audience. Initially an older gentleman from Texas observed. While he was watching a brown darted up and sucked in the caddis in the soft water on the left side above my position. I worked the deep center run and the seam along the far bank, but couldn’t entice any fish. I moved around the bend to the next nice pool and landed a small brown from the top of the riffle where it enters the pool. I continued working my way  upstream and caught one more trout before approaching the nice long pool where I’d done so well on Sunday afternoon.

Small Brown from Bear Creek

Dark clouds threatened a storm on several occasions, but nothing ever materialized. It was a pleasant evening with temperatures in the 70’s. Seeing no fish rising in the long pool, I switched to a Chernobyl ant trailing a beadhead pheasant tail. This didn’t produce either, but when I moved above the long pool I caught two additional browns on the BHPT and photographed one. I went under the bridge and fished my way up quite a distance, but again no success.

I climbed up the short bank and hiked back down the road at around 7:30, then crossed the bridge and checked out the long pool hoping to see some caddis activity as dusk approached. Nothing was showing, so I continued down the path to the restaurant. A woman and two men were standing outside the restaurant posing for photos. They spotted me, and photographed me as I began fishing. On the third or fourth cast at the top of the riffle a nice brown darted up and smashed my yellow caddis. It immediately ripped out line as it dashed upstream then made a run back past me to the bottom of the pool while my spectators looked on. I dipped my net and landed a 12 inch brown. Where was the applause?

Next I moved up to the nice pool around the bend. I’d spotted a trout refusing my fly several times previously at the very tail of the pool. It was a tough lie with a protruding branch a couple feet above where I need to place the fly. My first couple casts went to the right, but on the third attempt I dropped the fly just above the trout and below the branch. Bam. The small brown jumped on the yellow caddis, and I landed my seventh fish of the evening. Next I cast up to the very top of the riffle. On perhaps the fifth drift a trout tipped up and took the caddis. I set the hook, and felt weight a bit heavier than normal for Bear Creek, but it quickly turned and slipped off the hook. I went downstream a bit and made some casts to no avail, but it was now getting dark, and I was getting hungry, so I called it a day and returned home.

Bear Creek – 6/27/10

Time: 3:00PM – 5:00PM

Location: O’Fallon Park Upstream

Fish Landed: 12

Bear Creek 06/27/2010 Photo Album

Jane suggested we get away from Stapleton and thinking about houses (buying a house and selling our house) on a beautiful Sunday in late June. I tried to think of a spot not too far away yet close to the mountains. I remembered O’Fallon Park on Bear Creek where I’d fished without success in early April. Originally I thought we’d just drive there and read and snack, but then I checked the flows on my iPad and noticed the flows were only 62, so I threw my fishing gear in the minivan, and we took off.

All the open space areas along Bear Creek were quite crowded on this warm afternoon on the weekend before the Fourth of July. We got to O’Fallon Park and entered the dirt road, then turned right and crossed the bridge and proceeded as far as it is possible to drive where we parked. I took out Jane’s folding chair and we hiked up the path that followed the stream upstream. There were a bunch of tubers in the stream directly across from where the car was parked, but they seemed to be confined to a small stretch. We encountered a large family picnicking along the trail after a short walk. We returned to the car, and I prepared to fish. Jane walked up the path with me to a nice shady area where she opened her chair to pause and read.

I continued further upstream beyond the picnic tables and then entered the stream. I tied on a size 12 yellow Letort hopper and trailed a beadhead hares ear nymph. I worked some nice areas to no avail. The stream was crystal clear, but the flows were up, thus limiting to some extent the areas where fish could hold. But it was definitely in good fishing shape. After a bit I came to a nice area below a small island where the stream curved and went tight against a restaurant. The sky by now had clouded over and a man was standing outside the restaurant taking a smoke break. He told me the best fishing was near the island.

The water next to the restaurant below the point of the island was very attractive…maybe 3-4 feet deep run and riffles. I spotted a couple rises and then some flashes to my hopper, but they didn’t take. There was a bunch of small caddis buzzing about along the trail and over the water, so I clipped off the hopper/dropper and tied on a dark olive body deer hair caddis. This got no looks whatsoever. The fish looked at my yellow hopper and wouldn’t take, but didn’t even show interest in the caddis. Perhaps a small yellow sally was the ticket. I tied this on and worked the attractive riffles while diners in the restaurant watched the action from the restaurant windows. One man opened the window to snap a photo of me fishing. I moved up a bit closer to the point of the island and cast so the yellow sally drifted in the seam where the currents merged and wham, a decent rainbow smashed the stonefly. The customer got his photo and a couple of kids in another window watched intently as I played and landed the 10 inch rainbow.

Next I worked up the channel on the left side of the island and encountered a nice bend run with some soft water on the island side. I cast my yellow sally in the seam and landed four small browns in this area. I looked back and the two kids that watched me through the window had somehow crossed the small channel on the other side of the island and were now watching me catch and release fish from the island. While I was watching, an adult emerged and called them back over to the bank above the restaurant.

Dark clouds continued to pass overhead with the occasional sound of thunder, but it never looked like it would rain significantly, so I pressed on. I picked up a few more small browns, until I came to a beautiful long run/riffle stretch of maybe 20 yards in length just below a bridge in the town of Kittredge. I spotted quite a few splashy rises in this water, but the fish were showing no interest in my yellow sally. I decided to clip it off and tie on a deer hair caddis. The caddis worked better than the yellow sally and I picked up a couple browns at the tail of the riffle area. As I was fishing a caddis landed on my hand and I picked it up and looked at the underside. It was mostly gray/olive, but had a light yellow abdomen. I had some caddis pupa like this, but no dries. I decided to try the deer hair caddis with the light gray poly body that I made for the Colorado River, and this turned out to be a good choice. I worked up the sweet 20 yard stretch and picked off another four browns that sucked in the light gray caddis.

Bear Creek Below Kittredge

At around 5PM the rising activity slowed measurably, so I reeled up my line and returned to the parking lot where Jane was waiting in the car as it was cloudy and had chilled a bit.

A Double Rainbow

South Platte River – 6/6/10

Time: 2:00PM – 4:00PM

Location: Pullout downstream from Nighthawk before big bend

Fish Landed: 1

South Platte River 06/06/2010 Photo Album

It was a very hot Sunday and Allen Gilbert had returned to Vermont and Wendy hadn’t yet arrived. I suggested to Jane that we head to the South Platte, and she could sit in her chair and read in the outdoors while I tested the water with flies. I checked the flows, and they were recently raised to 312.

Flowering Shrub Along South Platte
Jane Avoids Sun and Heat

We got a late start and arrived at the parking lot a mile or so below the Nighthawk turn off after noon and ate our lunches. After lunch I put on my fishing gear and hiked down the road a bit. There were campers, and picnickers, and kayakers and tubers everywhere. I fished back to the car and then went around a gentleman above the parking lot. The water was somewhat murky, but visibility to around 3 feet or so.

Kayakers Approach Dave

I fished upstream for another hour or so and finally managed to land a small brown in the area where a small narrow island is positioned close to the roadside bank.

Big Thompson River – 5/16/10

Time: 1:30PM – 3:30PM

Location: Below Road to Bear Lake in RMNP

Fish Landed: 5

Big Thompson River 05/16/2010 Photo Album

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

Three Elk in RMNP

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

Big Thompson Below Bear Lake Road
Another Herd of Elk Near Park Entrance

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

Arkansas River – 5/14/10

Time: 10:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: Below Salida at Fremont – Chafee county line

Fish Landed: 13

Arkansas River 05/14/2010 Photo Album

The online fishing reports stated that the Arkansas River remained low and clear with decent BWO hatches on cloudy days and some spurts of caddis hatching activity. To be able to fish on May 14 in Colorado in clear rivers is bonus time. I decided to make the trek to the Salida area. The one foreboding piece of information was the threat of heavy afternoon showers similar to that experienced the last three days.

As I drove the US285 route and ascended to Aspen Park I noticed approximately three inches of fresh snow on the hillsides. This continued all the way until half way across South Park where it diminished to an inch or less, and by the time I descended to the Arkansas River drainage, there was no snow on the ground. When I crossed the river for the first time below Buena Vista the river was indeed low and clear.

The sky on the other hand was gray with high cloud cover. Occasionally specks of blue appeared, but it was very overcast. Would this promote good fishing or simply keep air and water temperatures too low?

I planned to park at the same location as I’d used on my previous trip and fish upriver from where I’d ended. But when I made the U turn on US50, another fisherman was stringing his rod and preparing to fish. I drove back toward Salida and stopped at the next pullout. Since I hoped to eat lunch at noon, I decided to not cross the river and fish up along the roadside bank. I began with a nymph set up…prince on top and bright green caddis pupa on the bottom. I wasn’t seeing many caddis flitting about, but figured they were so plentiful that fish would still grab them. This strategy however proved to be fruitless. After covering some juicy water with no action, I tied on a yellow Letort hopper and trailed a beadhead prince. Again there was no action. Next I tried a caddis dry fly. This brought two refusals and a momentary hookup, but it wasn’t producing the way I expected. Next I arrived at a nice deep eddy that fanned out into a nice deep run and spotted several rises. I looked closely at the water and spotted some small BWO’s riding the current like tiny sailboats. I switched to a CDC BWO and covered the fish in the eddy for around 15 minutes, but could not entice any action.

Arkansas River on May 14

It was now around noon, and I was at a decision point. Should I break for lunch and possibly miss a BWO hatch or continue fishing? I had left my Camelback in the car anticipating a return in 1.5 hours. I chose to return to the car. As usual I ate my lunch overlooking the river and spotted numerous rises on the far side from the eddy I’d been fishing. After finishing lunch I retrieved my rod and fishing gear and returned to where I ate and surveyed the river for a crossing point. The current appeared to be too swift directly across from my position, but there was a deep slow pool that fanned out to a wider tail upstream a bit. I walked up along the bank for 70 yards and began my crossing. When I was 2/3 of the way across, the river was covering the bottom of my front pack, and I realized I wasn’t going to make it. I did a 180 and had a few steps where only my tip toes were touching due to my increased buoyancy and the depth of the river. I had to thrust my right arm below the surface of the river nearly up to my elbow in order for my short handmade wading staff to touch bottom.

Having evaded this wading danger, I returned to shore and decided to drive back down to the Fremont-Chafee pullout and cross at the tail of that pool. I had done this several times during my previous visit and I really wanted to get to the rising fish across from where I ate lunch! The fisherman who I’d seen earlier had now departed, so I had the entire pullout to myself. Despite my fleece cardigan, I was still feeling chilled as the wind blew from the east and the sky darkened, so I put on my new Columbia raincoat that Jane gave me for Christmas. This would prove to be a crucial positive move.

I waded across the tail of the long pool without incident and hiked the railroad tracks on the north bank for two football fields until I came to the area I targeted. In the short time after I left my spot, a pickup truck had arrived and two fishermen were rigging up to fish. When I got close to the water I observed and noticed BWO’s on the surface but also some caddis. I decided the fish were going for the BWO’s and kept my CDC BWO on the line and began casting. It was quite difficult to see the tiny fly and the wind had picked up and threw off my accuracy. Windblown casts and not being able to spot your fly are difficult to overcome. Meanwhile the two fishermen arrived across from me, and the taller of the two caught a trout on the first cast. I’d been fishing for almost two hours and had yet to land a fish. After perhaps 20 casts in the area of rising fish, I hooked and landed a chunky rainbow on a downstream drift. The rainbow grabbed the BWO just as it started to drag.

Nice Rainbow

After releasing the fish, I paused to dry my fly and observed the water. I could see emerging caddis skittering across the water and several of the rises looked like fish moved laterally, so I guessed that some of the fish were on to the caddis. I switched to a dark olive deer hair caddis and in short order landed a couple fish. I continued working the nice area and landed five trout in total. The productive area was around thirty yards long and 15 yards wide and consisted of three or four wide runs that fanned out beneath rocks that poked above the water. There were probably 20 fish rising in this area with average depth of 3-4 feet. I occasionally observed the fishermen across from me, and they weren’t catching fish. They were spending more time changing flies.

When I reached the top of the sweet area, an inflated river raft came down along the bank and got hung up on some rocks 15 feet above where I was fishing. The gentleman rowing gave me a gruff  “sorry about that” apology. I replied, “If you tried to ruin my fishing, you couldn’t have done a better job.”

I walked up along the bank to a point that I guessed was above where the raft had floated. It was now around 2PM and the sky darkened more and the wind picked up and it began to rain. I already had my raincoat on, so I simply pulled up the hood to cover my stocking cap. I looked down the river and the fishermen across the way had disappeared. I was just below a narrower fan run and spotted three separate rises. I cast the caddis to the lower fish first and then the upper plus a couple prospecting casts and land four trout from this small area! I continued working my way up along the bank. The fishable water was smaller here as the riverbed was narrow with swifter current not very far out from my position. The rain picked up as I worked my way upstream along the bank and landed another four trout. The twelfth fish I landed was a beautiful chunky rainbow. I was facing downstream as I played, landed and released the fish and just as I turned around a raft drifted by (further out than the previous one), and the oarsman said “nice fish”.

Finally at around 3PM I got to some nice looking water, and the rain was coming down harder than it had up until that time. But the hatch had died back, and I no longer saw steady risers working consistently. My hands were raw and chilled from the evaporating water, so I decided to make the long hike back to the car. I now had about 2.5 football field lengths to cover and another river crossing. As I hiked back, the two gentlemen on the opposite bank were still at it, wearing raincoats now. Apparently they missed some of the best fishing while they returned to the truck to get their rain gear.

Arkansas River – 5/4/10

Time: 11:00AM – 3:30PM

Location: Below Salida at Fremont – Chafee Country line

Fish Landed: 20

Arkansas River 05/04/2010 Photo Album

It was worth the wait. I’ve lived in Colorado for 20 years, and every year I visit the Arkansas River to attempt to hit the fabled caddis hatch. I’ve often seen the massive numbers of caddis after they already hatched, but only once have I hit the front edge of the hatch where the caddis are emerging and trout are rising to dry flies. Today was a second such experience. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The online fishing reports said that the caddis hatch stalled near Texas Creek due to cool temperatures. Arkanglers predicted that the warmer temperatures early this week would cause the hatch to advance, perhaps exploding all the way up the river at once. As near as I could tell they were right.

I left the house at 7AM and took the US285 route as I was interested in fishing below Salida. The strong gusts of wind pushed the van relentlessly as I drove through the Front Range and across South Park. How could I fish in this wind?

My Favorite Section of the Arkansas

I arrived at the pullout at the Fremont-Chafee County line and prepared to fish. I went down the cement steps, and then crossed the river at the tail of the long pool across from the pullout. I hiked down the railroad tracks on the north side of the river to a point below the small island. I rigged up with a split shot, strike indicator, prince nymph and bright green caddis pupa and began swinging the flies through the riffles at 11AM. The wind was tough, but the weight and indicator helped punch the flies into the wind. I picked up two browns fairly quickly on the prince as the flies swung at the end of the drift. When I reached the bottom of the island, I removed the split shot and adjusted the indicator down to 3-4 feet above the top fly to fish the shallow right channel. I landed a couple small browns. When I nearly reached the top of the island, I returned to the bottom and worked up the left side of the island and landed a very nice brown. These trout were all grabbing the prince.

First Trout of Day on Beadhead Prince Nymph

At the top of the island I crossed over to the north bank and worked my way up the right side with the two nymphs. I picked up six more trout by prospecting the deeper pockets and runs close to the bank. Two or three of the trout took the bright green caddis pupa and the remainder fell for the prince nymph.

Nice Brown Landed

There was another fisherman on the south bank down the bank from my car, so I crossed the shallow tail and returned to the car for lunch. I grabbed my lunch bag and walked down to a rock high above the river and watched the water and the other fisherman. I ate my lunch around 1PM and as I finished eating, I noticed a pod of four or five fish rising along the north bank near a small rock that poked above the water a couple feet from the bank. I assumed the fisherman below me would move over and fish to the risers, but he continued struggling to punch casts into the wind below the high rock cliff where I was eating.

Lots of Risers by Rock Two Feet from Bank

After lunch I waded back across the river and headed for the aforementioned rock. The fisherman moved back near shore and pulled his line in and left! I maneuvered into casting position below the rock and noticed quite a few BWO’s on the surface. Of course the wind was gusting even stronger than in the late morning. Could I cast a dry fly upstream directly into the wind? I tied on CDC olive and got within eight feet of the lowest riser below the rock. I could see that the fish was decent. I failed to get a couple flies to where the fish was as the wind blew the tiny dry back near my feet. I totally overpowered several casts almost hitting my rod tip on the water and got some drifts over the fish. On the third or fourth such cast, the brown sipped in the BWO. Next I moved a bit closer and cast upstream of the rock and two or three feet toward the middle of the river. Bam! Another brown sipped the BWO.

Silvery Rainbow
Afternoon Action Was Along Right Bank

It is difficult for me to describe what happened over the next two hours of the afternoon. All hell broke loose. I began seeing caddis tumbling and spinning on the surface as they tried to emerge in the gusting wind. The wind picked up flies and skittered them over the surface. There were BWO’s and caddis everywhere with the wind riffling the surface and blowing so hard that I could only cast between gusts. But fish were rising pretty regularly. I decided to switch to a dark olive deer hair caddis. This worked great, when I could get a cast upstream into the wind so it drifted over risers, I hooked fish. I worked my way up along the right bank spotting risers and landing beautiful fish in between waiting out the wind. Most of the six fish I caught between the last one on a BWO and the end of the day were nice size and three of them were chunky rainbows.

Another Decent Brown
Fat Rainbow Took Caddis Dry

At 3:30, the wind picked up even more. I could only cast sporadically and sometimes had to wait five minutes for the wind to subside before I could attempt a cast. I wasn’t seeing rising fish anymore despite the continuing presence of caddis, albeit not as dense as an hour earlier. I called it quits at 3:30 with 20 fish landed and a fantastic day.