Category Archives: Fishing Reports

Fishing Reports

South Platte River – 06/14/2023

Time: 10:15AM – 4:15PM

Location: Eleven Mile Canyon

South Platte River 06/14/2023 Photo Album

My new friend, Nate, expressed an interest in wrangling with a fish that put a significant bend in his rod, and I suggested the South Platte River in Eleven Mile Canyon. During the run off season, the South Platte River was a rarity, with flows running at 47 CFS, so we made plans for a day on the tailwater west of Colorado Springs on Wednesday, June 14, 2023. Unbeknownst to both of us, the day held several surprises.

We arrived at my favorite roadside pullout a bit before 10:00AM, and this allowed us to be on the river by 10:15AM. I chose my Sage One five weight, and Nate went with a five weight as well, as his reel that held a four weight line was out of commission. We walked up the road for .3 mile, and then we dropped down an angled bank to the river across from some huge exposed boulders and deep surrounding pocket water. We both began our days with dry/dropper rigs, and in my case I chose a tan pool toy hopper, beadhead hares ear nymph, and salvation nymph. Between 10:15 and noon, Nate and I pushed our fish counters to two. Both my trout were fine brown trout in the twelve to thirteen inch range, and one nipped the salvation nymph and the other crushed the pool toy hopper. I was standing to the side and slightly above a small but deep hole in front of an exposed boulder, and I spotted a fish, as it darted to the surface to grab a small food item. I dropped a very short cast to the pocket, and almost immediately the same fish aggressively smashed the hopper. What a start to my day!

Home of First Brown Trout

Gorgeous Brown Trout

We quickly discovered that the most productive water was deep pockets and runs around large rocks, such as the area where we began. The popular pools seemed devoid of fish, and we quickly lost confidence in these spots. As we approached the next extensive section of pocket water, we encountered a group of three anglers, so we decided to circle around them. At the time we were on the west side of the river, and we normally travel on the east side to navigate our way upstream. I could see a large vertical rock wall ahead, but I assumed that we could sneak by in the river with flows at their low levels. Wrong. As we grew near, we realized that we had to do some rock climbing, if we stayed on our side of the river, or backtrack and cross. We chose the first option, and we endured the first surprise of the day. We clambered up a fairly steep rock face for sixty feet using crevices to gain footing and handholds. However, upon reaching a more level area, we followed the contour of the rock to a position that we hoped would allow us to descend back to the river. Nate went ahead to scout the situation, and he announced that the drop off was too steep, so we resumed our ascent for a distance that more than doubled our initial climb. We were now perched high above the river, so we cut in a southern direction. but once again we encountered an impediment to our progress. The drop off remained more than either of us were willing to risk, so we angled away from the river. At one point I was faced with maneuvering my aging body around a large protruding rock, but I was unable to find good hand grips, even though I handed my rod off to the much younger fishing companion in order to free up two hands. Instead of risking the dicey balancing workaround, I followed a large deadfall, and eventually I found a line that allowed a more gradual descent. Whew! Nate and I were both relieved to return to the river, but we were also pleased with our ability to overcome the rock climbing obstacle.

Wild Iris

When we approached the river again, we were just downstream from one of my favorite pools, the one that I named big bend pool. The river splits around a narrow island and then merges into the pool where the western braid curls around a large ninety degree bend. We noticed a few sporadic rises, but for the most part the pool was dead. Nate chose the upstream portion of the pool, where a nice wide riffle section extended for fifteen yards before the river spread out into the middle section of the slow moving pool. I waded to a position opposite the mid-section, and I began lobbing long casts to a deep trough between two large boulders. One of the boulders was subsurface, and the other peeked above the waterline. I allotted ten minutes to my prospecting, but my confidence was low, and I moved around Nate to some small pockets just above the entering run on the western braid. Nate was focused on a massive tangle that consumed twenty minutes (his estimate), but he announced that he would continue fishing the riffles once the snarl was rectified.

Nice Colors

Tiny Bucket Produced the Rainbow

First I dropped a few casts in a marginal shallow run, but then I fired a cast to a very short but deep pocket above the shallow run. I was just killing time, but almost immediately a hot rainbow trout grabbed the salvation nymph, and the game was on. I battled the cantankerous trout for a few minutes and then landed it for some beauty poses. I love extracting nice trout from obscure areas, and this was a classic example. I continued working my way around the bend and along the west channel, and suddenly I heard Nate cry, “Come here, Dave”. I quickly reeled up my line and hooked my fly to the rod guide, and then I stepped down a worn path on the narrow island, until I was across from Nate. He was enmeshed in the second surprise of the day, as he valiantly battled a very large trout. I whipped out my camera and videotaped three sequences, as the long, fighting cold water species made four or five determined runs away from Nate’s net. Nate performed like a pro, and each time the trout stressed the situation with a bold streak, Nate released line and allowed the combatant its space. Eventually the behemoth tired enough that Nate was able to hoist it over his Fishpond net. I waded across the channel to get some closer photos, and when I approached, I peered down at a twenty inch cutbow. Nate beamed from ear to ear, and why wouldn’t he? I snapped some fin and grins, and then Nate allowed the prize to recover before he nudged the beast back in the river. Nate’s day was already compete at noon, and so was mine.

What a Fish

Cutbow Magic

There Is a Smile

Big Boy Took the Fly Below the Bright Green Bottom

I returned to my exit point and fished my way up to the tunnel pools. By now my watch displayed 12:30PM, so I found a comfortable spot on a grassy bank to eat, and I was joined by Nate within a few minutes. He reported that his legs and arms were still shaking from the adrenalin rush initiated by the largest fish of his young life. As we chomped our snacks, we observed the pool, and we were entertained by a smattering of rises. I also spotted a handful of small mayflies, and we surmised that a very sparse mayfly hatch was in progress. We debated switching to dries to focus on the risers, but I was reluctant to remove my dry/dropper configuration, and I was not certain that the rises were steady enough to create reasonable success or just a tease that would lead to frustration.

Lunch View

We moved on to some faster entering currents, and at this spot Nate bumped into his third surprise. His three fly rig snagged near the vertical rock wall on the far side of the river, and in his effort to disengage, he snapped off all three flies. He undertook the laborious task of reconfiguring his flies with three new versions, and when he cast near the same spot as the snag, his drift was once again interrupted. Upon lifting the flies to free them, he realized that he was connected to the three flies he just broke off. In this instance, however, he waded through some moderately deep water, freed his active flies and recovered the ones that he broke off!

Nate Scanning the Pool

With this bit of good fortune in hand, we decided to vacate the troublesome hook grabbing environment, and we advanced around two ninety degree bends to a wide slow moving pool. A couple was perched on the bank eating lunch, so we circled around them and progressed to a long stretch of pocket water that I targeted early on. I continued fishing the dry/dropper for the next hour, and I covered some gorgeous deep pools and pockets, but only had some refusals to the hopper to show for my efforts. I cycled through a number of nymphs including an emerald caddis pupa, a bright green go2 caddis pupa, an RS2, and an iron sally. I concluded that the fish were not in tune with nymphs, but the refusals to the hopper suggested that surface food was on their menu. I removed the three fly dry/dropper offerings and moved to a double dry set up. The front fly was a peacock body hippie stomper, and it trailed a size 16 olive-brown deer hair caddis.

Great Colors

Although the last two hours of fly fishing would not be characterized as hot fishing, I did increase the fish count to six with three fish netted while deploying the double dry approach. One of the afternoon trout hammered the hippie stomper, and the other two nabbed the trailing caddis. Two of these fish were quite nice including a fourteen inch rainbow and a thirteen inch brown trout. I made a large quantity of fruitless casts for these trout, so the catch rate remained subpar. Nate mostly stuck with the dry/dropper approach, and he advanced his fish count to five, although the monster cutbow made his day, and everything else was gravy.

Beefy

Six fish in five plus hours of fishing is quite slow, but I managed to land some very fine rainbows and browns. Stream productivity in the middle of June is always welcome. Of course, the highlight of the day was Nate’s cutbow, and the euphoria extended into the next day, when I saw him at physical therapy. We already discussed some future trips. His goal of putting a significant bend in his rod was easily surpassed.

Fish Landed: 6

Curtain Ponds – 06/12/2023

Time: 10:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Second Pond

Curtain Ponds 06/12/2023 Photo Album

Cool damp weather stalled the snow melt temporarily in Colorado during the first full week of June, but the conditions did not improve enough to enable a visit to a freestone river. One of my goals for 2023 run off season was to experiment with more stillwaters during the snow melt time frame, and Monday, June 12, 2023 was one of those days.

My new fishing companion, Nate, told me about the Curtain Ponds, and then I received a book for my birthday titled Easy Access Mountain Lakes of Colorado. One of the lakes featured in this book was the Curtain Ponds. The combination of these two independent references to the Curtain Ponds caused me to make it my destination on Monday. I was fairly certain that the ponds would be ice free, and that was another important consideration, although the weather forecast was rather unsettled with rain and thunderstorms predicted for the late morning and all afternoon. I decided to risk the 1.5 hour drive regardless of the negative prognostications.

Looking West

I arrived at a dirt parking lot along the bike path by 9:45AM, and the temperature hovered at 48 degrees. This was colder than I expected, so I took the necessary precautions and suited up with my Under Armour long sleeved thermal shirt, my fishing shirt, my fleece hoodie, and my North Face light down parka. I stuffed my raincoat in my backpack and donned my New Zealand billed hat with earflaps. These were winter conditions, and I was prepared. I fitted my four piece Sage R8 rod together, and began my journey along the bike path in an eastward direction. Nate told me that he had the most success at the second pond, so that became my destination, and I stopped at a worn spot, where the shoreline jutted out into the deep blue-green pond. The book that I cited earlier mentioned that the lake was quite deep, and it suggested making longer casts toward the middle to avoid fishing the highly pressured locations closer to the bank. The book also mentioned the existence of quite a few easy to catch rainbows, but the real prizes were wild brown and brook trout that grew to greater length, but they were also harder to dupe.

Looking East

I knotted a peacock body hippie stomper to my line and then added an olive-brown size 16 deer hair caddis, and I began spraying casts in all directions from the point that I stood on. As I was doing this, I observed a few sporadic rises, so I directed some casts to those locations. On my last lake visit to Pine Valley Ranch Lake, I adopted the practice of casting, counting to 30 seconds, and then twitching and short stripping the flies back. I repeated this cycle on the Curtain Pond, but the trout did not respond. After twenty minutes of fruitless casting and stripping, I directed my attention toward the west, and I was surprised, when a fish raced to the surface to crush the caddis. I set the hook and carefully played a feisty ten inch brook trout to my net. I was on the board, but I was unclear regarding what variables led to my success.

What Colors

I released the brook trout, and as I paused to dry and refresh my flies, I peered eastward and noticed some rises thirty yards up the shoreline, so I made the short hike to a position adjacent to their activity. I managed one or two soft momentary hookups on the caddis on short strips, but the area was unproductive, and I once again turned my attention to the extreme southeastern corner of the pond. In that area I recognized increased feeding activity, so I once again shifted my position. I found a nice point on a small protruding grassy bank, and I began lobbing forty foot casts to the vicinity of the feeding trout. My flies were summarily ignored, and I paused to consider alternative choices. I stripped in my line and extended the tippet to 18 inches in case the stillwater fish were leader shy, and I replaced the caddis with a black parachute ant. The ant might as well have been inert flotsam. I dug out a small plastic canister that I carry in my wader bib that contains an array of tiny dry flies that mostly fall in the size 20 to size 24 range. Whatever these trout were feeding on, it had to be tiny, because I was unable to see anything on the surface of the pond. I retrieved a size 20 parachute Adams, but the desirability of this offering was equal to the black ant. I sorted through the small canister once more, and I located a size 14 midge emerger with a gray body and a wisp of a gray CDC wing. Nothing doing. Finally I stirred the flies again, and I plucked a size 24 CDC trico spinner.

Stunning Brown Trout

As this fly trial and error process evolved, the feeding action in front of me escalated to a full fledged frenzied hatch. There were at least twenty fish feeding aggressively in front of me, and I was unable to interest them in my tiny offerings. It was quite clear that these fish were the wild browns and brook trout mentioned in the book and not the stocker rainbows. I was in a state of frustration, as I tied the small trico on my line. I fluttered a thirty foot cast to a spot occupied by an active feeder, and suddenly there was a bulge near the visible hippie stomper, I set the hook and instantly felt the weight and resistance of a nice trout, and after a brief struggle the fourteen inch brown trout nestled in my net. I was beyond happy with this turn of events, and I rushed to dry the trico spinner to get it back in action.

As I sopped the fly on my sleeve, I heard the sound of distant thunder, and as I was ready to resume casting, a strong breeze kicked up and ruffled the surface of the lake. This either ended the surface activity or made it impossible for me to view it, and within minutes a dark cloud settled above me and delivered light rain. Fortunately my raincoat was in place, but my casting continued to be futile, and I was unable to see my targets. My confidence plunged, and my wet hands began to sting, so I tromped back to the car to warm up and eat my lunch. I waited out the storm, and by 12:45PM the rain subsided enough to consider resuming my exploration of the Curtain Ponds.

I pondered a change of approach during the rain delay, and I removed my Orvis reel with the four weight line and replaced it with a sink tip version. I decided to probe the depths, as suggested by the book, with streamers. I possessed the suggested streamers, and I began with an olive slumpbuster. I began my streamer experiment where the land poked into the lake to the deeper section, and I fanned casts in all directions, but it was to no avail. A black mini leech worked on another lake several weeks ago, so I knotted one to my line, but it was equally unpopular. I knew that the east end of the lake contained a host of fish, so I migrated there and stripped the leech with a jigging action, but futility ensued.

Most Fish Seen In This Area

What now? I removed the leech as well as the sink tip line and reel and returned to the floating four weight line. What about a dry/dropper? I had not tried that approach, so I added a tan pool toy hopper and trailed a zebra midge. Were the feeding fish locked into midge larva and adults? If they were, they were not in tune with my zebra midge. I actually saw a visible fish look at the midge larva, but it turned away without eating it. How about a scud? Dense aquatic vegetation grew from the floor of the pond, and surely an ample quantity of scuds were present. An orange scud replaced the zebra midge, but once again the trout showed no interest.

During the early afternoon, heavy clouds dominated the sky, but precipitation held off for a couple of hours, and the surface of the pond returned to mostly a glassy smooth shimmer. Once again the fish in the corner resumed sipping something from the surface, but the frequency was no where near the frenzy before lunch. I returned to a deer hair caddis in the form of a size 18 with a light gray body. I began firing casts in every direction and especially to those spots, where a fish made its presence visible via a rise. I managed a couple very brief connections on the caddis, as I twitched it, but frustration reigned.

Another Fine Brook Trout

I paused and observed that some trout near a protruding point across from my position fed a bit more frequently, and I had not disturbed that water, so I waded across a shallow cove and took a position near an old stump a few feet out from the bank. A small lagoon extended eastward next to the highway, and several fish began to rise in the space between my position and the opposite bank. Once again some clouds rolled above me, and rain was imminent, but I persisted and managed to hook and land two brook trout in the ten to eleven inch range. Both grabbed the caddis, as I twitched and lifted it.

Rain Resuming

The rain intensified, and my watch announced that it was 3:30PM, and my hands were beginning to chill, so I hooked my fly to the guide and began the walk back to the parking lot. I stopped briefly at the west end of pond number one and made a few casts to places, where a rise was seen, but once again my efforts to land a fish were thwarted.

Stunning

I landed four wild trout in five hours of fishing. I wore my arm out making longer than normal casts, and the weather was quite adverse, although I was able to complete more fly fishing than I expected. I was never able to lock in a fly that consistently fooled the selective feeders at the east end of the ponds, but I saw enough to seek a return engagement at a future date with more favorable weather.

Fish Landed: 4

Pine Valley Ranch Lake – 06/07/2023

Time: 10:15AM – 2:30PM

Location: The lake at Pine Valley Ranch Park

Pine Valley Ranch Lake 06/07/2023 Photo Album

Today, June 7 was all about improving my stillwater fly fishing game. I enjoyed a fun day on Tuesday on the South Platte River, so I was anxious to experiment with a day of lake fishing that did not involve too long of a drive. On June 1 I detoured to Pine Lake at Pine Valley Ranch after a frustrating morning at the Davis Ponds, and after a bit of success I was eager to return. The weather forecast called for a high probability of thunderstorms from 2PM on, so I arrived at Pine Lake a bit earlier than normal. Quite a few cars occupied the spacious parking lot, and I would soon learn that many fishermen were present.

The temperature was in the mid-sixties, so I wore only my fishing shirt over a short sleeved high tech undershirt, and I was comfortable during the morning and early afternoon. I chose my newest fly rod, my Sage R8 four weight, and I was quite pleased with its action and responsiveness for the longer casting required for lake fishing. I began my quest for stocker rainbows by heading to the narrow channel at the west end of the lake, and as I strolled down the dirt path, I passed a woman with a spinning rod, who seemed to be vacating my target area. Once I arrived at the spot, where the lake narrowed into the channel, I encountered another man who occupied the mid-section of the shallow slough. He commented that there were a lot of visible fish, and he was tossing a thin mint (woolly bugger style fly) with a spinning rod and casting bubble. As I looked on, he landed a fish or two, and I asked him if I could fish below him. He approved my request, and I took up a position at the mouth of the channel and tied a size 16 deer hair caddis adult to my line.

Morning Hunting Area

As Good As It Gets

For the next 1.5 hours I fished from my perch and made casts toward the other angler, who was soon joined by the woman that I passed on my hike to the lake. I landed three small stocker rainbows, and then my fly was consistently ignored, so I changed tactics. I replaced the caddis dry fly with a size 18 black parachute ant, and the terrestrial accounted for two more fish. The woman of the pair was chucking a bubble as well, but the landings were not as soft as the man’s, so I felt that my repeated casts and her plops were putting the fish down. I circled around the fishing pair and asked if I could make some casts from the end of the narrow channel back toward them, and they replied that my intentions were not a problem for them.

Aimed to Freedom

I curled around the end of the water-filled ditch and followed a worn path for around ten feet on the opposite bank. A film of pollen washed into the extreme western end area, so I positioned myself to fish the area beyond the pollen scum. Fish were rising sporadically, and I returned my offerings to a size 18 tan body deer hair caddis, and this fly produced a fish or two. After an encouraging start, the fish began to ignore the caddis, so I extended some tippet off the bend and tied on a tiny size 24 griffith’s gnat. I connected temporarily with the gnat, and then I lengthened my casts to prospect new water and managed to land two more rainbows on the caddis.

Showing Off

At this point it was 11:45AM, and the frequency of rises slowed to a very sporadic pace. I decided to vacate the channel and moved to the south shore of Pine Lake. Most of the anglers at the lake were clustered on the earthen dam breast or in the southeast corner, so I had most of the southern shoreline to myself. I dropped down a short path to a small worn beach, where a dead, fallen tree angled into the lake. I switched the caddis and griffith’s gnat for a size 8 tan pool toy hopper trailing a size 14 yellow stimulator. I shot some casts to the area, where the log submerged in the lake, and I was shocked when a feisty rainbow trout crushed the hopper. I released number nine and fired another cast five feet beyond the one that yielded a success, and after a long wait, another rainbow grabbed the stimulator. These two fish elevated my fish count to ten, and I celebrated with a quick lunch. In both cases I allowed the two flies to sit in excess of a minute, before a trout was enticed to strike. This method of fishing was taxing my patience.

Area Beyond the Tip of the Log Produced

Surprise Hopper Eater

After lunch I endured an abundant quantity of refusals to both the hopper and the stimulator, so I paused to assess my options. I concluded that I needed to down size, so I swapped the pool toy for a peacock hippie stomper and replaced the stimulator with an olive-brown size 16 deer hair caddis. This choice proved to be on the money, and the fish count zoomed from ten to twenty-five over the next two hours. initially I landed a few fish that snatched the caddis, while it sat motionless, but then I experimented with a twitching retrieve, and this resulted in some brief hook ups. Eventually I settled on a cycle of allowing the flies to rest motionless for thirty seconds followed by quick short strips, and quite often a fish would grab the caddis on one of the strips. The leading hippie stomper tended to dive briefly and then pop back up, and a few fish went for the stomper, but in most cases I believe the larger foam indicator attracted attention, and the rainbows swiped the  trailing caddis. In a few cases the grab occurred immediately on the first short strip. It was almost as if the fish was watching the flies, and then the twitch caused them to eat for fear of their food source escaping. I also observed that the pace of action seemed to accelerate when the wind kicked up a bit to create a small riffle. I theorized that the surface disturbance interfered with the trout’s vision, and movement of the flies caught their attention.

Looking at the Popular Southeast Corner

Caddis Fan

Of course, I did not catch a trout on every cast, but I estimate that I averaged one landed fish for every three casts, once I settled on the cast, wait, twitch and strip routine. Lake fishing seems to be a game of trial and error to a greater degree than stream fishing. I’ve settled on a warm weather sequence of single dry, double dry, downsizing, dry/dropper, streamers and indicator nymphs. It is harder to view the fish’s reaction to these different methods, so systematic experimentation seems to be the name of the game. Of course, I have been dealing with mostly stockers, so the approach may deviate, when I visit wild trout in high country lakes, once the ice clears.

Fish Landed: 25

South Platte River – 06/06/2023

Time: 10:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: Eleven Mile Canyon

South Platte River 06/06/2023 Photo Album

I reviewed and tracked the flows on roughly thirty streams in Colorado during the 2023 snow melt season, and only a few tailwaters were available for reasonable fly fishing on June 6. One of them was the South Platte River in Eleven Mile Canyon, and the graph depicted flows of 42 CFS. 42 CFS is actually below the ideal range, and low levels suggested difficult fishing. I debated a trip to the South Platte vs. a trip to one of my favorite lakes, and I chose the moving water option.

I arrived at a dirt parking lot by 10:00AM, and this enabled me to be on the water fly fishing by 10:30AM. The temperature was sixty degrees, so I wore only my fishing shirt, but I stuffed my raincoat in my backpack, and I assured myself that I could always return to the car, should I need to add layers. The weather forecast predicted thunderstorms all afternoon, and I knew from the previous Wednesday that a storm produced wind and a temperature drop.

My Playground on June 6

I began my fly fishing effort with a peacock hippie stomper and a beadhead hares ear nymph, and in the one hour and fifteen minutes, before I stopped for lunch, I landed four brown trout. Two of the eager eaters grabbed the hares ear nymph, and the others favored the surface hippie stomper. All the morning fish were in the eight to ten inch range, but I was nevertheless pleased with the early action on a stream in the first week of June.

A Bit Larger

After my quick lunch I resumed my progress upstream, but I abandoned the dry/dropper approach; and I, instead, replaced the hares ear with a size 16 olive-brown deer hair caddis. During this time frame the caddis was the productive fly, but the hippie stomper was attracting an annoying number of refusals, so I replaced it with a size 8 Chernobyl ant. The double dry combination enabled me to boost the fish count to seven, before I noticed another angler twenty yards above me. I was disappointed to get high holed, but there was another stretch I was anxious to test, so I stripped in my flies and made a move .5 mile upriver. During the morning session I noted that most of the trout did not come from the obvious attractive areas such as deep runs and pools, but instead materialized in more obscure lies such as the very top of a riffle or a deep slot tight to a boulder. The three fish landed after lunch ate the trailing caddis, and the size of these fish was moderately larger than the morning catches.

Displayed

Pocket Water Ahead

When I pulled into the pullout at my second location, I replaced my short sleeved shirt with a long sleeved thermal undershirt, and then I added my fleece hoodie and my billed hat with earflaps, I kept the earflaps turned up, but I was prepared for the predicted afternoon storms. When I began fly fishing at my second stretch of river, I applied the knowledge I gained from the morning, and I focused on similar types of water, and the strategy paid off. In the first location I spotted a handful of aggressive rises, but my Chernboyl and caddis were ignored, so I swapped the Chernobyl for a size 12 stimulator with a light yellow body. Voila! The stimulator and caddis combination was quite popular, and I incremented the fish count from seven to nineteen, before I called it a day at 3:30PM. I fished through a forty yard section of pocketwater, and the majority of the trout came from this area. Two of the final twelve trout were rainbows, and the remainder were brown trout. Four of the afternoon twelve attacked the stimulator, and the others favored the caddis. At one point I swapped the olive-brown caddis for one with a gray body, and this change seemed to improve the catch rate a bit. Toward the end of my time in the second section, I snagged my flies on a backcast, and when I tried to rescue the flies by pulling down the branch, I snapped them both off. I spent five minutes scanning the branches for my flies and dangling monofilament, but I finally accepted the loss and moved on. I replaced the yellow stimulator with a gray version. and this fly along with a gray caddis accounted for the last two trout.

One of the Better Fish

Slow Areas Along the Boulders Are Prime

The two rainbow trout were in the twelve inch range, and at least four of the brown trout stretched the tape to twelve and thirteen inches. I do not actually measure them, but based on experience, I am fairly accurate at assessing length. The larger browns all came from fairly obscure lies next to large exposed boulders. In one case (click on the photo album link to view a video of this spot), I thought I spied a very subtle rise in a narrow two foot wide band of water between two large exposed rocks. I made some casts to the  lower part of the run right above my position, and then I targeted the small area, where a fish possibly rose. The first cast landed on the bankside rock and then tumbled into the river below the target area. The next cast, however, was on the mark, and instantly a thirteen inch brown trout smashed the caddis. How gratifying! This was one of my favorite scenarios of the season thus far.

Green Algae Kept Clinging to My Line and Flies

Narrow Space Between the Smallest Exposed Boulder and the One Below Produced

I was very pleased to land nineteen trout on June 6, 2023. While most of the state experienced dangerous river and stream levels, I enjoyed a pleasant day on a clear river in flows that were actually on the low side. The action was not torrid, but the successes were frequent enough to keep me focused for my entire time on the river. While I was fishing, I observed dark clouds to the north and then to the south, but my location was luckily spared. I was prepared with layers, but unlike June 1; wind, chill, and precipitation never developed.

Fish Landed: 19

Pine Valley Ranch Lake – 06/01/2023

Time: 3:00PM – 4:00PM

Location: West channel and then south shoreline

Pine Valley Ranch Lake 06/01/2023 Photo Album

I was pleasantly surprised to discover blue sky and a bit of sunshine, as I pulled into the Pine Valley Ranch parking lot. I added my Adidas pullover and billed hat with earflaps, and I immediately hoofed it to the lake. My rod remained assembled and featured a sparkle minnow.

I decided to check out the narrow channel at the west end of the lake first. As I approached, I witnessed a family dominating the east end of the slough, but more importantly, fish were rising throughout. There was one middle aged man and two high school aged boys who were fishing and three younger girls in the process of playing along the pathway. The man and one of the boys had spinning rods, and the other boy was fly casting from the side of the channel opposite the path. I cursed my luck to find a spot rich with trout, but I was beat to the punch by the occupants.

Lots of Fish in This Area

I moved to the far end of the narrow lagoon, and I spotted a cluster of trout. They were jockeying for position and sipping small insects on the surface with decent frequency. I was twenty yards from the fly fishing high schooler, so I decided to lob a few casts. I converted from the streamer to a small size 18 deer hair caddis with a tan body, and on the third cast a rainbow trout made an aggressive eat. I played the twelve inch stocker to my net and snapped a few photos. My line got tangled in the bushes during this process, and by the time I was ready to resume, the fly fishing youth moved within ten yards. The group was there first, so I retreated and circled to the south shoreline of the lake.

Deer Hair Caddis Fancier

I stepped down the bank at the midpoint of the south bank, and I tied on a peacock hippie stomper with an olive-brown body size 16 deer hair caddis, and I began spraying forty foot casts toward the middle of the lake. This approach lasted for thirty minutes, and I netted a small rainbow that mistook the hippie stomper for a live insect. A couple of refusals were in the mix, but then I suffered an extended period of boredom, as my flies sat unmolested. I tried stripping them and allowed them to sit motionless, but neither tactic was effective.

Black Mini Leech Eater

I pondered alternative approaches and opted for a beadhead black mini leech. I began methodically casting, and then I stripped and moved a couple steps, and in this way I covered a chunk of the shoreline. I felt two bumps that did not connect, but I also brought two stocker rainbows to my net. By 4:00PM some light rain began, and my neck was sore, so I called it quits in order to return to Denver in time to watch the Heat vs Nuggets in game 1 of the NBA finals. Go Nuggets.

Fish Landed: 4

Davis Ponds – 06/01/2023

Time: 10:30AM – 11:15AM, 12:00PM – 1:45PM

Location: Both ponds

Davis Ponds 06/01/2023 Photo Album

I anxiously looked forward to attending my 50 year reunion at Bucknell University on June 2 – 4. I contracted an upper respiratory illness during my bucket list trip to Iceland, and I was fairly certain it was a common cold. However, when I told a friend about my sickness that originated during international travel, he encouraged me to take a covid test. The trip to Bucknell included a day of fly fishing in central Pennsylvania, as well as my entry in a pickleball tournament sponsored by the alumni network. Needless to say, I was very excited to participate in two of my passions. After I completed my packing on Tuesday evening, I decided to take the home covid test, and it yielded a positive result. I had somehow avoided covid for three and a half years, but now I was faced with contracting the dreaded disease. By Tuesday evening I was experiencing minimal symptoms; perhaps a few random coughs and some congestion, when I woke up on the morning. I pondered the situation, and ultimately I decided to cancel my trip. I canceled the airline reservation, the car rental and all hotel reservations. I informed my friends about my disappointment, and I decided to make the best of my situation.

Thursday is the day when Jane and I babysit for our grandson, Theo. Given my positive test, I decided to vacate the house on Thursday, to avoid the risk of transmission. In place of spending the day with Theo, I made plans for a day of fishing. As a footnote, I took the covid test again on Thursday night, and it once again registered positive, so I researched the CDC guidance for individuals, who tested positive. The directive recommended five days of isolation after the onset of symptoms. I first felt congestion, fatigue and a cough on May 21 while in Iceland. Wednesday, May 31 was ten days after the onset of symptoms, so I probably overreacted by cancelling my trip.

I surveyed all the stream flows, and a few tailwaters remained as viable options for June 1, but I did not desire a long drive, so I opted to visit a pair of relatively local ponds. I arrived at the parking lot and assembled my Sage four weight. The air temperature was in the upper fifties, and some large gray clouds occupied the western sky, so I pulled on my fleece hoodie and stuffed my raincoat in my backpack. I would later regret my choice of attire. I made the necessary hike to the lower lake, and I was prepared to fish by 10:30AM.

In the next forty-five minutes I landed one small rainbow trout on the hippie stomper, and then I experimented with a double dry including an olive-brown size 16 deer hair caddis. I managed several refusals to both dries, before I heard the distant sound of thunder. Dark gray clouds gathered, more thunder sounded, and a flash of lightning forced me to the covered pavilion on the west side of the pond. After I arrived, three other fishermen from the upper pond appeared, and then two women joined the group. They appeared to be a family, and they had a tablecloth and lunch spread out on a picnic table. After ten minutes of approaching thunder and lightning, heavy rain descended. Small ice pellets collected, where the rain dripped off the roof, and I impatiently checked the unending dark sky to the west. I decided to eat lunch at 11:30AM while waiting out the rain.

Ice Pellets from the Storm

By noon the rain subsided enough that I resumed my pursuit of trout on the north pond. I spent the next 1.5 hour circling the shoreline of the north pond starting on the east side of the inlet creek. I generated a few refusals, but I was unable to connect with a single fish. I cycled through double dries with the hippie stomper and the caddis and an ant. I switched to a dry/dropper with an emerald caddis pupa, salad spinner, San Juan worm, ultra zug bug, and nothing worked. Next I removed everything and tied on an old bucktail streamer and stripped it for awhile. There was a period, where I retrieved a black mini leech with no bead, but the fish ignored my antics.

I abandoned the north pond and returned to the south and had it all to myself. Nothing worked. Another set of dark clouds pushed in from the west, This time, there was no thunder or lightning; just steady rain. I persisted through the rain, until I was overcome with chill and my confidence reached a low ebb. No fish were rising, and the end of the rain was not imminent, so I began the one mile hike back to the parking lot. My hands were aching, gnarled claws by the time I unlocked the hatch of the Santa Fe. All I could think about was the heated seats and the heater.

Fish Landed: 1

Laxa River – 05/23/2023

Time: 9:00AM – 10:30AM

Location: Honey Hole

Laxa River 05/23/2023 Photo Album

My last morning in Iceland featured a trip to the Laxa River. The location was named the honey hole, and the structure of the river was quite different from the section I fished on my second day. The river was a bit higher than normal and discolored to a green tinge. In spite of this, visibility remained decent. Gilbert chose the spot because it was in a protected canyon with vertical rock walls on both sides of the river. Our 1.5 hours of fishing were confined to a narrow ribbon of slow water next to the rapid torrent that represented the main branch. The air temperature was fifty degrees F, but the wind was once again a huge factor. The protection of the canyon was essential to my ability to fish effectively.

Subtle Spot Pattern on This One\

Scene of the Action

Gilbert started off with a cased caddis larva and a guide’s choice pheasant tail along with a twist-on Thingamabobber. I started at the bottom of the V-shaped ribbon of water along the left bank and began casting upstream in order to cover the area between the bank and the fast water current seam which expanded from five feet to twelve feet at the bottom. The tail area failed to deliver results, so Gilbert swapped the guide’s choice for a beadhead pink San Juan worm. I cast the double rig to the middle third, and the indicator dipped, so I set and felt an immovable object. Gilbert warned me about getting too close to the bank rocks, so I uttered some malicious words and gave the rod to him, as he is expert at removing snags. He very stealthily moved along the bank away from the river to get away from the “snag”, but after two tugs of the rod, the tip vibrated, and he felt the weight of a fish. He quickly handed the rod to me, and I battled an eighteen inch brown trout. It was a team effort all the way.

Even Better Fish

Upon the release I continued drifting the middle section, and once again the indicator dove, and I lifted for a hook set. This “rock” seemed heavier and more immovable than the first. I attempted to lift several times with no success, so once again I passed the rod to Gilbert, the fly extractor. Gilbert also raised up on the rod to assure himself of a snag, and then he advanced to a position above and beside the bound flies. He began his usual ploy of casting above and lifting, and suddenly the rod bent, and the object moved! In this case a huge fish surfaced and then escaped. Gilbert swore it was 22 -23 inches with a tail that looked like a shovel.

Big Tail

We took some deep breaths and continued working the relatively narrow area, and I landed more spectacular browns. One cleared the magical twenty inch and 50 CM mark, and the other was an impressive, thick specimen. The last fish made moves to the fast water, the rocks and the tail; but I was able to control it within the boundaries of the small area. After the third brown trout I continued fishing with some casts to the upper third, and I generated a momentary hookup with another quite large trout. I caught a glimpse, as the brown trout elevated toward the surface after my quick hookset. Gilbert viewed it as well, and he was convinced that it was the large “rock” that escaped earlier or another one of similar proportions. What a fun 1.5 hours on the famous Laxa River to end my fly fishing adventure in Iceland!

Fish Landed: 3

Myrarkvisl River – 05/22/2023

Time: 5:00PM – 8:30PM

Location: Pool 40 -41

Myrarkvisl River 05/22/2023 Photo Album

Monday evening was perhaps my best session so far in Iceland. The wind abated a bit, and more importantly it shifted direction, and this enabled me to stray from the spey casting routine to back casting and eventually dry/dropper fishing. For the first hour I fished the Mickey Finn, and the continuation of this method allowed me to land three very fine brown trout. These healthy fish  were all in the 18 – 19 inch range and exceptional fighters.

Ram Watching Us

Kype

Thicker Than a Brick

Part way through the evening session we rounded a bend, which put the wind in a different position, and Gilbert determined that we could switch to the dry/dropper method. Gilbert tied on a sausage fly (orange foam cylinder) in the upper position with his cased caddis on the dropper. I began firing casts upstream to all the promising channels. The right side of the river was covered with glare, so I was having a difficult time tracking the fly, but on a drift along the right bank, Gilbert shouted “set”, and I hooked my best fish of the trip, a 51 cm/ 20 inch brown. Needless to say, we celebrated this accomplishment.

Held Forward

I took a break to warm my hands, and Gilbert made some upstream casts through some faster, deep runs, but he cast close to the bank and snagged some deep roots. He was unable to free the flies and was forced to break off his treasured cased caddis and sausage flies. Undaunted, he replaced the sausage fly with another and replaced the caddis larva with a size 18 pheasant tail nymph. Over the next 1.5 hours I landed two more gorgeous brown trout of nineteen inches, and both smacked the pheasant tail.

Arms Getting Tired

The last fish of the day was perhaps the heaviest fish of the trip with an expansive girth on a nineteen inch frame. What a battle! This fish fought back and forth across the moderate center current at least six times and then up and down, before we could land the fish on 4X tippet. What a great day!

Fish Landed: 6

 

Myrarkvisl River – 05/22/2023

Time: 8:30AM – 12:15PM

Location: Pool 40

Myrarkvisl River 05/22/2023 Photo Album

Mud Banks Were Prime Targets

Mickey Finn Delivers

I was offered the opportunity to travel to two new rivers in northern Iceland on Monday, May 22; however, I declined because I sensed a developing cold, and the drive was 2.5 hours each way. The destination rivers offered the chance to catch Arctic char and sea trout (brown trout that live in the ocean), so I struggled with my decision, but in the end, I believe it was the correct one. Monday morning on the Myrarkvisl was a great time! I did much better with my spey casting, which I refer to as the swoop , dip and flip. This describes the motion of the cast which is necessary, when the wind blows from behind and toward the left for a right handed caster.

Again

Once again I spent the entire morning session chucking a streamer, but in this case, my guide, Gilbert, broke off the black ghost, while he was simply messing around, as we moved from pool to pool. He looked at his fly patch, spotted a Mickey Finn, and in a stroke of luck or genius tied it to my line. In total I landed six brown trout, and the first two snatched the black ghost, while the remainder grabbed the Mickey Finn. I am learning that streamer fishing features all manner of takes. Some are hard, aggressive grabs and some feel more tentative and soft. Among the more interesting are swirls followed by aggressive crashes. I also experienced a few, where the fish bumped the fly and then snatched it on a succeeding strip. These Iceland fish are dogged fighters and quite strong featuring runs, dives, headshakes and rolls.

Lovely Butter

Beautiful

All the morning fish were in the sixteen to nineteen inch range, and the nineteen inch beauty at the top of the range was my best so far. What a tussle it was! The girth was outstanding for a nineteen inch fish (47.5 cm in the local measurement system).

Fish Landed: 6

Successful Morning

Reykjadalsa River – 05/21/2023

Time: 5:00PM – 7:00PM

Location: High bank area

Reykajadalsa River 05/21/2023 Photo Album

On the Reykajadalsa River I fished the same black ghost streamer for a couple hours. The Reykajadalsa was slightly smaller than the Myrarkvisl River with very high banks in the area that we fished. The wind actually stopped for twenty minutes during my stay on the river, and I was able to false cast instead of spey cast. I landed two brown trout that measured fifteen and sixteen inches in length, but they did not possess the girth of similar length fish on the Myrarkvisl.

Fine Fish from a Different River

Number Two Also Excellent

My arm and neck were extremely fatigued, so we quit early at my insistence.

Fish Landed: 2