Time: 11:00AM – 2:00PM

Location: Christina public water upper end

Fish Landed: 5

Elk River 07/05/2015 Photo Album

Sunday July 5 was overcast with light rain off and on and temperatures in the low to mid-60’s in the Yampa Valley. This weather was quite a change from Friday when the hot sun made it nearly impossible to cool the Supple’s south facing condominium. Once again Steve and I evaluated fishing options. We fished the tailwater on Friday, so we were anxious for a change, and the crowds on the Sunday of the Fourth of July weekend would probably be formidable. I considered the east end of the Yampa before it enters downtown Steamboat Springs, but Steve was convinced the tubers would not be deterred by the cool damp weather. That left our remaining option, the Elk River, and we agreed to give this tributary of the Yampa a chance.

I drove to the Christina public access stretch, and we parked by a large green sign that enumerated the rules of the leased water. The sign stated that we were within 200 yards of the northern border with private property,. so Steve and I decided to walk downstream a bit to a large bridge. A sign warned that the bridge was private, so Steve and I found a rugged path down a short but steep bank to the edge of the river. The flows at Milner, near the junction with the Yampa, were 580 compared with 750 on Wednesday July 1 when I last fished the Elk River. This represented a significant drop, however, the water remained fairly high and fast compared to the norm. Unlike my visit earlier in the week I was able to wade much farther from the shoreline in my pursuit of likely trout holding spots.

I began fishing with a thingamabobber, split shot, a salvation nymph and a size 18 gray nymph to imitate pale morning duns. We visited the Straightline Fly Shop on Lincoln Avenue on the Fourth of July, and the young salesman showed me some flies that represented the nymph stage of the PMD, and they were all size 18 and mostly gray. I thought I was outwitting the trout, but this was not the case as I failed to attract a hook up of any sort. I pondered the situation and concluded that the small nymph was not flashy enough in the higher flows, so I replaced it with a beadhead hares ear. This finally yielded a six inch rainbow from a current seam in a non-descript area.

Shadowy Figure in My Net

I worked my way upstream to a wide deep run that Steve abandoned, and here I discovered that I could carefully cross at the tail out. I waded slowly and carefully and reached the west bank where I could effectively drift my nymphs through a deep run. This proved to be the winning spot for our Elk River venture, as I fought and landed three nice thirteen inch rainbows from the area. It required many drifts, but eventually the fish spotted my nymphs. The salvation proved to be the most desirable of my two flies to the finned creatures that I was attempting to fool.

A Fine Elk River Rainbow Trout

After I exhausted the attractive area I crossed back to the road side of the river and waded above Steve to a narrow deep slot next to the bank. A narrow evergreen leaned at a forty-five degree angle over the top of the run, and I frustrated myself by losing two sets of salvation/hares ear nymphs to the nuisance tree. Steve was not having any success, and I was frustrated by the careless casting that resulted in a loss of flies, so we hacked our way through some dense brush and reached the car.

Steve Changes Flies at a Nice Pool on the Elk River

We left the large parking area and drove to the downstream area where we parked and scrambled down another bank to the edge of the river. I succeeded in finding the gentle pool where I ended on Wednesday with a brook trout, and I invited Steve to give it a try. I meanwhile went downstream a bit and worked some pockets surrounding exposed rocks with my nymphs. I experienced no success, so I decided to at least have some casting fun, and switched to a yellow sally dry fly. The highly visible little stonefly attracted a six inch rainbow which I landed, but then the rain picked up so I met Steve, and we returned to the car and called it a day.

I managed five fish in three hours, and I was frankly disappointed with the quality of fishing on the Elk River which presents many stretches of wide shallow riffles. As the flows drop it seems that fewer fish holding locations exist. The Yampa Valley provided some excellent late June stream fishing, but now other rivers are falling to attractive levels, so I plan to take a break and move on.

Time: 2:30PM – 5:00PM

Location: Stagecoach tailwater

Fish Landed: 7

Yampa River 07/03/2015 Photo Album

Our friends, Steve and Judy Supple, invited us to spend the Fourth of July with them at their condominium in Steamboat Springs, so we quickly accepted and found ourselves in that fine western town by 11AM on July 3. We took a walk to the ski area to check out an art fair, and then returned to the condo for lunch. Steve was anxious to do some fishing, so we discussed the options and settled on the tailwater at Stagecoach. I knew the odds were in favor of a crowd since Friday was a holiday for most of the United States, but counterbalancing that factor were the warm temperatures in the upper 80’s and the fact that we would reach the water in the mid-afternoon. The flows were running at 84 cfs, and that is quite favorable compared to other streams in Colorado at the time of the July 4th weekend.

The other option was the Yampa River within Steamboat Springs, but the high temperatures assured a never ending stream of tubes and flotation devices, so we agreed it really was not a valid choice. I drove to the Stagecoach State Park parking lot below the dam, and seven cars greeted our arrival. I was disappointed, but Steve accurately commented that it was not that bad for the Fourth of July weekend, and there were actually some decent gaps visible as we looked down at the stream. If only the state of Colorado could somehow extend the public access for another .5 mile.

The Water Available to Steve and Me

As one would expect, many of the fishermen were stacked at the upper end of the public segment starting with our favorite wide riffle pool, and then more anglers occupied the next two downstream pools. Steve and I stepped in between the bend below the parking lot and a long pool occupied by two fishermen. I tied on a size 16 cinnamon comparadun and began to cast to a short shelf pool where some slow water slid off from the main current. In this comparatively obscure spot a deeply colored fifteen inch rainbow rose and slurped my comparadun, and I was quite pleased to begin my July 3 outing in such an auspicious manner.

Nice Early Rainbow

I tossed another cast a foot from the bank and witnessed a refusal, and then dropped a cast at the top of the short pool and registered a momentary hook up with a rainbow that was visible as it leaped above the water and tossed aside my fly. I could not have asked for a faster start to my day.

The cinnamon comparadun was on fire, as I landed an eleven inch rainbow in the next short pool, and then I turned my attention to some twin side pools on the opposite bank. This led to a second momentary hook up on a decent fish, but that was the extent of the action from the stair step short side pockets in this area. I’m sure most fishermen skip these areas, so I was quite pleased to have such heated action under hot sunny skies and relatively crowded conditions.

Next I moved to the very bottom of a long deep pool where two fishermen occupied the top third. The pool was probably thirty yards long, so I felt that it was proper etiquette for me to cast to the bottom third, and they seemed to be paying no attention to the area I was targeting. I spotted a few rises along the bank but spent way too much time here with no results. Making the situation even more challenging was a muskrat that worked busily along the bank gathering grass and sticks. The bank risers ceased their feeding as the muskrat frolicked and performed aquatic movements eight feet in front of me.

Five Fishermen in View

Finally after wasting half an hour in this area I met up with Steve, and we decided to hike up the road to the area above the riffle pool. As we grew closer we realized that even the next area above the riffle pool was occupied so we settled for some faster pocket water more typical of a high gradient mountain stream. I stood on a rock high above the river and looked down on many large rocks and numerous pockets and runs. Steve took a pair of moderate sized upper pools, and I carefully waded toward the center of a lower section so I could reach some narrow slots and pockets on the opposite half of the river.

I began executing mostly drifts that were across and downstream from my position, but the fish were showing no interest in my cinnamon comparadun, so I switched to the scraggly sulfur from my formative years of fly tying. This fly also lost its magic, so I defaulted to a size 16 gray comparadun which exhibited a nice full upright deer hair wing. This fly drew immediate interest, although I was disappointed to witness two momentary hook ups with rainbows of decent weight on downstream drifts. Downstream presentations are tricky as they require a bit of hesitation before setting the hook, and I have a very quick trigger when I see a fish react to my fly.

Just Outstanding Color

I shifted my focus back to a narrow pocket across from me where I spotted a fish on an earlier drift. I dropped a very accurate cast right along the short current seam by a large exposed rock, and a deeply colored fourteen inch rainbow gulped the comparadun. Unlike the two escapees that occupied my line for a brief period, this feisty fish found a brief home in my net.

I attempted some downstream presentations to some swirly water in front of a large boulder where I experienced one of the momentary hook ups, and I finally enticed a rise from an eleven inch brook trout. Eleven inches is a nice size for a brook trout in a western stream, and I could not recall ever catching a brookie in the Yampa tailwater previously.

A Rare Brook Trout from Stagecoach

By now I exhausted my limited holding locations, so I climbed the bank and investigated the remaining stretch of water to the outflow from the dam. It was quite fast and could be described as a white water chute, so I reversed my direction and circled back to Steve. The sweet series of upper pools remained occupied, but Steve claimed the bottom of a long deep area. Steve told me he observed a pair of rises along some rocks on the far bank, but he was unable to attract any surface bites, and he invited me to take some shots at the difficult stream dwellers.

I made some decent across and downstream drifts a foot or two away from the bank with no results, so I decided to gamble and shot a longer cast that landed on top of the largest rock. I twitched it so it fell off the rock and into the water and instantly a fifteen inch rainbow pounced, after which I worked the thrashing trout across the current and guided it into my net. I was quite proud of this success under some fairly challenging conditions.

Once again I moved downstream to the area with three cascading side pockets on both sides of the river. As a first step I addressed the first pocket directly below me. I checked my cast high and piled some slack, and the pale morning dun slowly drifted toward the tail of the short side slack water. I watched intently as a beautiful rainbow slowly drifted up from the bottom and sipped my fly. What a visual! Unfortunately after a brief tussle the ‘bow managed to shed the hook, and I was back in stalk mode.

The lower two pockets on my side did not yield any interested trout, so I turned my attention to the mirror images along the opposite bank. Using the slack cast technique with a downstream drift, I managed another connection that lasted for five seconds, but then I repeated the scenario in the lower pocket and played a nice rainbow to within five feet of my net at which point it flopped free.

After completing the six side pocket episode, I made some downstream drifts along the center current line and hooked and landed an eleven inch rainbow. I wandered upstream a bit to the top of the big pool with a long back eddy since the occupying fishermen departed. Steve preceded me, and he suggested that I take a crack at the location where he spotted some risers. I accepted his suggestion and fluttered some casts to the eddy line, but I did not generate any interest, and I perceived that the fish shifted to a new food source.

It was now close to 5PM, so Steve and I agreed to call it a day, and we returned to the car. We were both curious about a second stretch of public water a couple miles north of the tailwater called Sarvis Creek, so we decided to return to Steamboat Springs via the dirt road that passes that access point. The Sarvis Creek public water did indeed look very interesting, but there were many cars along the road and in the parking lot, so we posited that it may have been almost as crowded as the tailwater. We discovered the main impediment to future trips to this intriguing water was the extremely rough dirt road that we suffered through on our return trip.

Once again I enjoyed a fun visit to the Yampa River at Stagecoach Reservoir. I was unable to cast to the prime pools, but I managed to work around this hurdle to land seven nice rainbows, and I am embarrassed to admit that I probably could have landed another six fish that escaped before reaching my net. After two successive outstanding visits to Stagecoach, I was probably due to be humbled, and Friday certainly served that purpose.

Time: 2:30PM – 5:00PM

Location: Tailwater below Stagecoach Reservoir

Fish Landed: 13

Yampa River 07/01/2015 Photo Album

I returned to Steamboat Springs and found an 8 hour angled parking spot not far below the pedestrian bridge that crosses to Howelsen Hill ski jump. Here I ate my lunch on the rocks while observing river traffic. Since it remained overcast, I was hopeful that this would deter the tubers, and the river traffic definitely seemed lighter than on the previous Tuesday, but I probably counted 15 tubers in the thirty minutes while I ate. They also seemed to gravitate toward the north bank, which was the stretch I wanted to fish.

I experienced an exciting couple of hours at Stagecoach on Tuesday, so I decided to cast my lot with that waterway again. Perhaps the PMD hatch from 3-5PM would repeat? By the time I ate my lunch and made the drive to the tailwater, it was 2:30 when I entered the water. There was only one other car in the lot, and by this point in the afternoon the sun had burned off the clouds. There were some darker clouds to the southwest which prompted me to wear my raincoat, but this proved to be overkill, and I was quite warm for most of my time on the river.

I began at a long smooth pool and made some casts with the dry/dropper combination that remained on my line from the Elk River, but this proved to be futile. As happened on Tuesday I began to witness some sporadic rises, so I exited and went around the wooden fences that were created to promote re-vegetation, and then I cut back to the river at the next spot which proved to be at the top of the long pool where I began.

I walked downstream along the edge a bit and then spotted a rise farther downstream. I observed a few PMD’s floating on the surface and making erratic actions to take flight, so I clipped off the dry/dropper accoutrements and tied on a size 16 light gray comparadun. I tried a downstream drift to the riser along the bank, but could not tempt a take, so I refocused on the area across from me. There I could see a gorgeous rainbow trout hovering a foot below the surface. This fish was moving aggressively and snatching emergers, but it also occasionally sipped food from the film. I worked this fish for quite some time and generated a couple looks, but it was too smart for me.

I abandoned the rainbow and made some downstream drifts along the seam, and registered tallies on the Stagecoach scoreboard with two 13 inch rainbows. At least I now knew that the light gray comparadun could fool these fish. I thought I viewed an occasional rise in the deep V slot behind the large rainbow, and sure enough when I made a cast and allowed it to drift over that area, a very fine rainbow in the fifteen inch range sucked it in. The term cast was a bit of an overstatement for what I did, as I simply reached my long rod over the water so that only leader extended beyond the tip, and allowed the fly to drift with the erratic current until the rainbow tipped up and took the fly.

Beautiful Color

Back Eddy Pool

I photographed and released this beauty, but the rainbow at the head of the slot continued to have nothing to do with my comparadun, and I did not see additional rises, so I moved to the next long pool. This pool is characterized by a strong center current with a ten foot wide shelf pool that featured a long back eddy. I positioned myself across from the back flow at the midpoint and allowed the comparadun to float back upstream along some foam bubbles. Smack! A sixteen inch rainbow slurped the fraud with confidence. I carefully dried the fly and flicked it to the upstream current and after a five foot drift from where I hooked the previous fish, another 16 inch rainbow inhaled it. This fish pretty much allowed me to pull it in, and as I released it, I noticed it had several black splotches on the side. I’d caught the same fish that I fooled on Tuesday.

Better View

I was now at twelve fish on the day, and the wide shallow riffle where I ended my fishing on Tuesday still beckoned. As I walked up the path toward my next destination, two women stood on the road. One held binoculars, and the other had a camera, and these accessories were aimed at the opposite bank. I followed the direction of their aim, and observed a deer grazing. I patiently waited until they finished their photography, and then I moved to the worn spot between two large trees to fish the wide riffle.

Riffle Pool Ahead

As had been the case on Tuesday, I could see fish, and many were quite large fish, and they were spread out in the thirty yard by twenty yard riffle. I flicked the light gray comparadun no more that eight feet above my position and drifted it over a large rainbow and then a second rainbow almost as big as the one above it. Both fish elevated to look at my fly but then snubbed it by returning to the bottom. Hmm, now what?

Old Sulfur Productive

The ratty twenty year old sulfur that produced on Tuesday beckoned me, so I tied it to my line, but on Wednesday this fly was no longer favored. I clipped it off and replaced it with another slightly less poorly tied full hackle sulfur, and flipped this imitation upstream and over twenty feet. As this fly danced down on the riffles a large rainbow could not resist it and gobbled it in. What fun. I dried the fly and lobbed it toward the middle of the riffle and a second rainbow in the 15-18 inch range inhaled it. What made this fly so popular?

That is a good question, because all of a sudden it was rudely rejected by large and small fish in front of me. Did the stage of emergence suddenly change so that a fully hackled fly did not imitate what the fish were seeing? I gave it no more thought and switched to a size 16 cinnamon comparadun. It was clear that the fish stopped liking the gray comparadun and then rejected the sulfur, so I had to try something new. The cinnamon comparadun was ignored by the savvy characters within ten feet of me, but eventually another typical fifteen inch rainbow could not let it pass by. It seemed that once the fly got water logged and then dried out with white dry shake, it became a more desirable morsel. Does the residual white powder somehow modify the color to look more like a natural?

Gill Color Is Amazing

The cinnamon comparadun proved to be the most desirable PMD imitation that I offered the Stagecoach trout. Over the remaining hour I landed an additional seven fish from the giant riffle area. Certainly the comparadun was politely ignored or rejected numerous times, but there were enough that viewed it as a tasty snack to motivate me to repeat the cycle of catch, net, release, refresh fly and recast. The last fish was a twelve inch baby, but all the others were in excess of thirteen inches and mostly in the fifteen to sixteen inch range.

I could have stayed and continued catching fish, but I reached twenty for the day and glanced at my watch and discovered it was approaching five o’clock. I had a 3.5 hour trip ahead of me, so I reeled up my line and hooked the comparadun to my guide and marched back to the car. I’m in love with the Stagecoach tailwater of the Yampa River. Twenty one large fish in 4.5 hours of fishing will do that to you.

Time: 9:30AM – 1:00PM

Location: Christina Lease downstream end and then upstream

Fish Landed: 7

Elk River 07/01/2015 Photo Album

The fishing on the Yampa River within the town of Steamboat Springs on Tuesday was not enjoyable enough to offset the annoyance of the heavy traffic of flotation devices, so I decided to gamble a bit and try new water. When Jane and I camped at Steamboat Lake, we drove along the Elk River for much of its length, and at the time it was flowing at 1,200 cfs. The Elk River streambed is smaller than the Yampa, yet the flows were 25% greater. While I was in cell range in Steamboat Springs on Tuesday, I checked the department of water resources web site, and the velocity had dropped to the 750cfs range. This is still quite high, but I hoped that edge fishing might be a hot ticket so I made the trip.

Other than the headwaters in the national forest along Seedhouse Road, there is only one 1.2 mile section of public access on the lower Elk called the Christina lease. I arrived at a pullout at the downstream edge of this area after 9AM on Wednesday morning and prepared to fish with my Sage five weight rod. As I looked down at the water, I could see that it was indeed high but also very clear. Unlike Tuesday the weather was cool as the sky was quite overcast, and it would remain this way for most of my time on the Elk.

Once I was ready I walked along the shoulder for a short distance to check out the water and to find a reasonably safe path down the very steep bank. A dangerous fall before I even wet a line was not in my plan. After some searching I discovered an angled path and very cautiously side stepped my way down to the edge of the river. Since I was hoping for robust edge action, I tied on a buoyant Charlie boy hopper and trailed a beadhead hares ear and ultra zug bug. This was virgin water for me, and I did not remember the recommended flies from the online fishing reports.

Nice Deep Pool Along the Edge

Despite my optimism I covered quite a bit of water in the first half hour with only a small six inch rainbow to show for my efforts. The hungry rainbow inhaled the hares ear, but I was hoping for more size and quantity. The river was somewhat intimidating due to the high fast flows and my lack of familiarity with the river. In addition I was in the shadow of the high eastern bank, and this made it difficult to judge water depth as I moved upstream. As an added hindrance dense thick bushes hugged the shoreline, and this did not facilitate walking, so I was forced to carefully negotiate around branches and trees that swept over the river. I was quite fearful of being knocked off my feet at these spots by the swift run off currents.

After an hour or so of unproductive dry/dropper fishing, I decided to try deep nymphing. I added a split shot, thingamabobber, pine squirrel leech (no bead), and juju emerger. I spotted a few PMD’s floating up from the surface thus the choice of a juju emerger. On nearly the first cast the indicator paused, and I set the hook and saw a large brown trout thrash near the surface. What a shock! I played it for five to ten seconds, and then it made a sudden twist, and the fly came free. Needless to say I was quite disappointed.

Best Rainbow from the Elk River

I moved on, but the pine squirrel leech did not appear to be producing, so I removed it and added a salvation nymph but kept the juju emerger, since I thought the escaped brown was fooled by it. The salvation/juju combination improved my fortunes, and I landed six more fish until I quit at 1PM. It was not especially hot fishing, but at least it was steady enough to keep me interested. Among these fish were a feisty thirteen inch rainbow and a very nice thirteen inch brown. The brown had vivid spots and deep gold coloring and was quite thick. As expected by this description, it put up a tenacious battle with much head shaking and deep diving. The brown trout took the juju emerger.

Another Angle

Not long after the first hefty brown, I also hooked another that appeared to exceed fifteen inches. This bruiser came from a nondescript relatively shallow rocky chute right along the edge. I fought this fish longer, but as I was finally guiding it to within 10 feet of my net, it worked free, and the pent up energy in my rod caused the flies to catapult into an evergreen tree high above me on the bank. Somehow I stretched as far as I could and managed to break off the tip of the evergreen branch to recover the fly.

Another lost opportunity was a rainbow that also appeared to be in the fifteen inch range. This fish actually took one of the flies from a slick behind a large boulder farther out away from the bank. I fought this fish for awhile, but it managed to break free on the third or fourth hot dash toward the middle of the river. In the case of all the lost fish, the fly did not break, but worked loose during the heat of the battle.

At 12:30 I approached a point where the river split around a small island. The right or eastern channel created a lovely pool where the current spilled around a curve toward the bottom tip of the island. I tried the nymphs, but this water screamed for a dry/dropper approach, so I made the conversion with a Charlie boy on top and the salvation and juju emerger on the bottom. I sprayed casts along the main current seam and spotted one refusal, as a rainbow finned toward the hopper but then turned back. A secondary current ran toward the island above the main one that I prospected, so I launched a long cast to the slow area above the tongue of the current. A swirl to the hopper surprised me, so I set the hook and stripped in an eight inch brook trout and took a photo. While not much size, this gave me a trout trifecta on the Elk River…one brown, one brook, and five rainbows.

A Brook Trout Completes the Trifecta

After releasing the brook trout, I noticed a worn path on the other side of the river, so I found a safe crossing point and climbed to the road and then walked down the shoulder to the car. The Elk River fishing was steady, and I missed some decent opportunities for better fish, but I was quite weary from all the climbing and scrambling required to negotiate the bank with the high flows. I never found a great rhythm and was not clear on what type of water produced the better fish. There did not seem to be any commonality to the productive areas. I decided to return to Steamboat Springs to check out the Yampa in town and assess the tube traffic while I ate lunch. I was keeping my options open for the afternoon.

Time: 7:00PM – 9:30PM

Location: Eastern shore

Fish Landed: 4

Dumont Lake 06/30/2015 Photo Album

When I woke up I noticed that my water container was less than half full. The spigot has a slow leak, and I forgot to put the container in a upright position before I went to sleep. Meadows Campground does not have a water supply, so I decided to drive five miles east to Dumont Lake Campground to refill the container. After I pumped enough water to meet my needs, I took a side trip to the picnic area at Dumont Lake. I camped at Dumont Lake once but never bothered to actually view the body of water.

I looked across the fairly large lake situated at high altitude and formed the idea of returning to try some evening fishing. At this point it was merely a passing thought, but as I drove back from Stagecoach, I realized I would have a couple hours after dinner, so why not explore Dumont? When I pulled into the camp site, I made a firm commitment and facilitated the plan by keeping my waders on through dinner and clean up.

By 6:30 my light dinner was finished, and I cleaned up the dishes, so I was on my way to Dumont Lake. I pulled into the small parking area and walked down a short path to the shore. I expected to see a smooth surface with dimpling trout, but instead I was shocked to see five inch waves verging on whitecaps. A large dark cloud hovered in the sky to the north, and Dumont Lake appeared to be at the southern fringe of the bad weather and just close enough to absorb the strong winds. I switched my reel to my sinking line and knotted an olive Cathy’s super bugger to the leader. Perhaps the fish were hungry and eating goodies below the surface, although this was not the pleasant dry fly fishing to rising trout that I envisioned.

I sprayed casts to the right, center and left and stripped the bugger back at varying speeds, but there was no sign of fish life in the corner of Dumont Lake that I occupied. Fairly quickly I grew bored with this game and reeled up my fly. I decided to kill some time hiking and exploring, so I followed the worn path along the shore of the lake with the inlet as my impromptu destination. For awhile this seemed like any easy accomplishment, but then the path ended, and I cut through some tall grass until I encountered some short woody bushes that thrived in the marshy conditions. I was not to be deterred and carefully picked my way through the brush and marsh until I came to what appeared to by the inlet. It was difficult to tell as the beavers worked overtime to build a network of dams and canals.

Indian Paintbrush and Lupines Adorn the Hillside at Dumont Lake

Eventually I found a solid spot next to a still beaver pond and observed for five minutes. Sure enough some small dimples presented themselves, so I took the bait and changed my reel back to a floating line and tied on a size 16 olive brown deer hair caddis. I made twenty to twenty-five casts around the pond, but the target of the fish must have been something much smaller, because they ignored my well placed offering. After quite a bit of this wasted motion a fish finally slashed at the caddis. I made a quick hook set and momentarily hooked up with a tiny trout. The hook was probably bigger than the mouth of this water bound fish as it quickly fell back into the pond. A significant return hike remained, and the sun was setting so I made my exit and battled back through the woody shrubs until I reached an official hiking trail on the higher ground overlooking the lake.

Clumps of Columbine Were Everywhere

I hustled back along the path, but I was startled by an animal that loped across the trail and then down the hillside. I crested the hill and looked down to the meadow next to the lake and saw what initially appeared to be a deer. However as I gazed more closely, I concluded that it was an antelope, and it was making a strange high pitched hissing sound.

Onward I strode until the path veered back to the main lake shoreline, and by now the wind had ended and the surface of the lake was mostly calm. I paused and looked closely at the water, and I was pleasantly surprised to see several rises. This was what I envisioned although I did not expect it to occur at 8:30 at dusk. I began to cast my caddis to the vicinity of recent rises while observing the strange activity of the fish. They seemed to travel in a school as rises erupted in waves all along the shoreline. The water would be still for several minutes, and then I was treated to a feeding frenzy as four or five fish would gulp whatever they were eating for an intense but short period.

I was making a lot of casts but apparently my caddis was not part of their diet. I persisted however and finally after ten minutes or so, I spotted a bulge on my fly and set the hook. Instantly a missile blasted above the lake surface and crashed back, and I could tell that I had a decent trout. I cautiously played the resisting torpedo and eventually steered it to my net. Indeed I had a beefy thirteen inch rainbow trout, and that meant that the entire pod of fish in front of me were probably rainbows as well.

A Fat 15 Inch Rainbow from Dumont Lake After Dark

This scene played out for nearly an hour until 9:30, and I landed three more greedy feeders. The best of the bunch was my third fish which aggressively gulped my fly and then made loud thrashing noises as it attempted to expel the sharp thing in its lip. This vanquished rainbow appeared to by in excess of fifteen inches and apparently in need of a South Beach diet. For the last half hour I was fishing by moonlight as a full moon aided my efforts, but even that light was not enough to see my fly, so I played the game of setting the hook every time I saw a rise near where I anticipated my fly would be. It worked.

What an ending to a spectacular day of fishing. The four leaping and streaking rainbow trout from Dumont Lake were certainly icing on the cake after the great fun at Stagecoach, and I still had Wednesday to look forward to.

Time: 3:00PM – 5:00PM

Location: Tailwater below Stagecoach Reservoir

Fish Landed: 8

Yampa River 06/30/2015 Photo Album

What is not to like about a pretty section of the Yampa River with bottom release cold water that contains large trout with the majority being healthy rainbows? Crowds. The public water is only .5 miles, and the parking lot is frequently packed with fly fishing enthusiasts.

I was apprehensive about my move to Stagecoach after being underwhelmed by the Chuck Lewis water. Fortunately as I crested the gravel road next to the dam and gazed down at the tailwater parking lot, I noted only one car. Working in my favor were the facts that it was a weekday and the middle of the afternoon when the trout notoriously develop a case of lock jaw. When I arrived at 2:30PM it was also quite warm with clear blue skies above.

My rod remained rigged, and I was already in my waders, so I descended down the rutted path to the river and then found an entrance aisle to an area where there was a long forty foot run with a narrow corridor where fish could hold along the bank. I tossed my nymphs upstream and allowed them to drift back toward me, and on the second such cast a spunky rainbow nabbed the ultra zug bug. Could it really be this easy? In fact, no, but I did follow up on the rainbow with a momentary hook up, so I was a bit optimistic early in the game.

Another Look at the First Fish from Stagecoach

Next I moved up to a long deep run that was bordered on my side by a shelf pool where the current slides off to the side and creates a sloping pool with a sand bottom. In this particular pool, the current forms an eddy, and a nice current flows back upstream for quite a distance until it meets the nook of the eddy. At about this time some clouds moved in from the southwest and blocked the sun for five to ten minute intervals. Much to my glee, this provoked some pale morning duns to emerge, and this in turn caught the attention of the resident trout. Rise rings began to appear along the current seam, so I elected to jettison the nymphs and converted to a size 18 cinnamon comparadun.

Looking Downstream from Long Pool

I dropped the small dry fly near the beginning of the back flow and as the comparadun drifted slowly upstream a seventeen inch rainbow elevated and sucked it in. I landed the cooperative cold water fish and noticed it had some dark splotches on its side. They did not appear to be fungus but perhaps some sort of birth defect. Once I dried the fly, I noticed another fish feeding next to the main current seam, and after numerous casts, I induced a rise and landed a 13 inch rainbow. At this point I pinched myself to make sure it was not a dream.

Another Stagecoach Beauty

As this was going on I noticed a young fisherman was wet wading in the next pool, and he had a female companion with a long handled net who assisted with landing fish. After I released the second fish in the reverse current pool, the young man foul hooked a large brown trout in the belly, and he was forced to allow it to tumble over the rapids and followed it down to the pool I was occupying. Of course this disturbed the pool, but I was tolerant since the young man had no control over the situation. The couple returned to their wide riffle area while I considered my options. I finally decided to skip around them to explore the narrow pocket water above, but before I could do that, the couple arrived on the bank next to me and invited me to take their places. Apparently they were finished for the day. I asked if there were any fish rising, and they quickly nodded in the affirmative and told me there were fish stacked everywhere.

The Wide Riffle Pool

Who am I to turn down such an invitation? I found a spot on the right bank between two tall evergreen trees and surveyed the water. I was in the middle of a forty foot long riffle, and indeed I could see trout stacked everywhere across the wide shallow expanse of water. I fluttered down a few casts of the size 18 cinnamon comparadun and anxiously watched the reaction. Unfortunately the response was not what I desired, as fish lifted a bit and inspected but soundly snubbed the comparadun.

Hmm. What should I do now? I remembered that I stocked my front pack with an assortment of PMD imitations, so I unzipped it and scanned the flies. I spotted a size 16 sulfur that I tied when I lived in Pennsylvania. This was an early tie, and I was not proud of the result. The hackle was sparse and matted, and the wing protruded at a 45 degree angle from the top of the thorax, but I theorized that it was a great imitation of a cripple. It was the right color and size, so I grabbed it and knotted it to my 5X tippet.

The minds of trout work in mysterious ways. The bedraggled dun became the pretty girl at the function that everyone wanted to dance with. Over my remaining time at Stagecoach I landed five more trout with several in the 15-17 inch range. One was my first brown trout of the day, and it measured a chunky fourteen inches. In short I had a blast, and I could not fathom why I had the entire stretch of prime water to myself. Apparently the word was not out, or other fishermen accept the myth that one needs to arrive early to beat the crowds. Hopefully Steamboat fishermen will not read this blog. Of course success is predicated on having a misfit sulfur dun, and who possesses any of those?

Scruffy Sulfur in the Corner of the Mouth

The sky grew even darker, and I heard distant thunder, so I reeled up my line and returned to the car. Without the weather interruption, I could have continued fishing for another couple hours. I drove back to my Rabbit Ears campground in a total state of euphoria that was enhanced by a sugar free Red Bull. Stream fishing in Colorado is back.

Time: 9:30AM – 2:15PM and then 1:00PM – 2:00PM

Location: Across from Steamboat Flyfisher and then upstream to pedestrian bridge that spans an island; Chuck Lewis fishing access.

Fish Landed: 6

Yampa River 06/30/2015 Photo Album

Ever since the fun day I experienced on June 23 on the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs, I yearned to return. On that Tuesday I worked exclusively along the edge of the river and landed twelve very nice fish. The other rivers in Colorado were receding, but the Yampa remained the best option for late June.

Campsite Number 11 at Meadows Campground along Rabbit Ears Pass

I created a window of time in my schedule for Tuesday and Wednesday, June 30 and July 1 to make the drive to Steamboat to recreate the magic. On June 23 a strong pale morning dun hatch developed between 11AM and 1PM, so I wanted to be present during that time on June 30 in case it repeated. For this reason, I drove to Rabbit Ears Pass on Monday and secured campsite number eleven at the USFS Meadows Campground. The long drive was now behind me, and I was positioned to be on the water early on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning I made the thirty minute drive to town and parked at the Howelsen Ice Arena lot and rigged my Sage four weight rod. I made sure I had several varieties of pale morning dun imitations in my front pack, and then I crossed the Fifth Street Bridge and turned left so that I entered the water directly across from the Steamboat Flyfisher. I knew that the flows had dropped quite a bit in a week, but I was surprised to discover that they were now at 320 cfs. It was obvious as I stepped in the water that this would not be edge fishing. The lower flows made it possible for the river population to spread out, and I could no longer focus on the ten feet next to the bank. At least I could count on a pale morning dun hatch to cause the trout to reveal their positions. Or could I?

I began fishing some attractive pockets along the left bank with a Charlie boy hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear nymph and a salvation nymph. I moved along at a decent pace and quickly arrived at the Fifth Street Bridge with no results to report. A nice pool beckoned me just above the bridge, so I positioned myself at the downstream lip and began to cast. As I was in the process of covering the pool, I spotted a rise, but the fish was not interested in my three course meal. I was contemplating a switch to a pale morning dun imitation even though I did not see any in the air, when a mother and two young boys appeared. The boys were quite active, and they scrambled across some exposed rocks at the top of the pool. Of course this alerted the fish to the presence of human beings, so I waited out the surprise guests and abandoned ideas of switching to a comparadun.

A Nice Fish from the Yampa River in Town on Tuesday Morning

After five minutes the threesome moved on, and so did I. More time passed, and I was having no success, so I decided to convert to a deep nymphing approach. I began with a beadhead hares ear nymph and salvation nymph and continued upstream. This change in strategy paid dividends, and I landed a pair of rainbows that nabbed the hares ear nymph as it drifted by. Number three was a hard fighting rainbow that measured in excess of fifteen inches, and this fish displayed lots of girth.

Great Girth on This Bruiser

Late in the morning I spotted a small blue winged olive, so I clipped off the salvation nymph and tied on a size 20 soft hackle emerger. This move provided temporary results as I landed my fifth fish on the small wet fly. All the other fish that found my net in the AM favored the hares ear. In fact between 11 and noon I noticed quite a few yellow sallies cruising up from the water surface, and the hares ear nymph is a fair imitation of the stonefly nymph. The yellow sallies would represent the only hatch I encountered on the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs, as the much anticipated pale morning duns never appeared.

By 12:15PM the tuber and kayak traffic became an annoyance, so I decided to move to a different location. I chose the Chuck Lewis public access east of Steamboat Springs, as I knew that this was beyond the reach of the tubing enthusiasts. I pulled into the parking lot and munched my lunch so that I was prepared to resume fishing at 1PM. A nice worn path cut through a recently cut hay field until I eventually arrived next to the river. The river was still flowing too high to enable crossing, and it is largely a wide featureless trough. Some man-made concrete wings were constructed, but at 320 cfs the water simply flows over the top of these structures, and therefore there are minimal current breaks that create fish holding sanctuaries.

Featureless Chuck Lewis Segment of the Yampa River

I began covering the middle of the river with the nymphs that remained on my line from downtown, and much to amazement I landed a thirteen inch rainbow from the middle of a deep trough on the ultra zug bug. The ultra zug bug was on my line because I broke off the salvation nymph on a root clump earlier. Once I covered the entire trough section, I could see another fisherman above me near a bridge, and the water in between was unattractive, so I decided to cut my losses and head to Stagecoach State Park.

Six fish in a morning of fishing is relatively slow, and clearly the conditions changed quite a bit since my fun day of edge fishing on June 23. The greatest impact on my success was the apparent absence of a pale morning dun hatch. Was this a temporary phenomenon related to the weather conditions, or was the hatch complete on the Yampa River for the 2015 season?

Time: 11:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Upstream from the park next to the library in Steamboat Springs until I almost reached the bridge that crosses to the ice rink.

Fish Landed: 12

Yampa River 06/23/2015 Photo Album

There is light at the end of the tunnel, and river fishing in Colorado is no longer a distant event. Once again I experienced the elation that comes from fishing to a hatch, catching nice hard fighting trout, and enjoying the surprise that comes with prospecting a dry/dropper combination to likely trout holding water.

After my lack of success on Monday on Steamboat Lake, Jane agreed to accompany me to Steamboat Springs so that I could enjoy a day of river fishing in the Yampa. Based on the stream reports from the Steamboat Flyfisher I envisioned fishing either the tailwater below Stagecoach Reservoir or the Yampa River within the town of Steamboat Springs. We attached Jane’s bike to the rack so she could explore the trails while I fished. In addition we packed a change of clothes so we could end the day with a fine dinner in town to celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary.

Our first stop was the previously mentioned Steamboat Flyfisher where I purchased a three pack of tapered leaders and then asked the sales clerk where he would fish if given a day to fish in the area. He never paused before replying that he would choose the section of water that runs through town. He explained that it was fishing well, and said that a trail parallels the stream and any stretch of water should be productive. I also noticed a blackboard on the wall with fishing reports, and the information suggested PMD patterns for the Yampa in town. The fishing information also noted that flows were 959 CFS.

We left the store and headed west to the area of the library where we found a parking spot that was good for eight hours. I put on my waders and assembled my Sage five weight, and I was prepared to fish. Jane and I agreed to meet at the car at 12:30 after she purchased ice and explored town on her bicycle. By 11AM I approached the water and noted that it was quite high although also clear. I typically enjoy these conditions as the trout are forced to seek relief along the banks where boulders and logs block the current and create eddies and slower moving currents. This situation means that I can virtually ignore the entire river except for the five to ten feet of edge water next to the bank.

I’ve had success in high post-runoff conditions with a Letort hopper, so I elected to tie one on as my surface fly, and then I added a beadhead hares ear beneath it on a long three foot dropper. I prospected the edge water for fifteen minutes or so with no success, so I swapped the hares ear for a beadhead salvation nymph. This also failed to attract interest, so I exchanged the Letort hopper for a Chernobyl ant, but after a half hour of fishing I remained without so much as a look.

Fortunately it was about this time that I began to see pale morning duns fluttering up from the surface. They were a light yellow in color and some were size 18 and others were size 16. They all seemed to emerge from the very fringe of the river right next to the bank. Despite this sudden abundance of food, no trout appeared on the surface, so I decided to go deep with PMD subsurface imitations. I looped a thingamabobber to my line and crimped on a split shot and then tied on a salvation nymph as my top fly followed by a juju emerger at the point. This would be my first test of the juju emergers that I tied over the winter.

Nice Speckles

My modification resulted in a sudden change in fortune as I landed a thirteen inch brown on the juju emerger as the fly began to swing at the end of the drift. After moving up the river a bit, I felt the throb of a thirteen inch rainbow that inhaled the salvation nymph. I was especially thrilled to discover that both my offerings were of interest to the trout during the early stages of the pale morning dun hatch. I was gaining confidence as I covered a few more attractive spots along the bank with no luck, but then I made an exception to my casting regimen and lobbed a cast to a deep slot behind a submerged boulder more than ten feet out from the bank. As the flies drifted toward the end of the deep run, the indicator paused, and I lifted and set the hook on another nice thirteen inch brown trout. This fish also chomped the salvation nymph, and this would be the only fish on the day that did not come from the ten foot corridor along the north bank.

No Two Was This Rainbow

Next I approached a sweet deep run below some overhanging tree limbs, and I was excited to spot a pair of rises from two different fish. I was tempted to switch to dries, but I patiently stuck with my nymphs. This turned out to be a wise move, and I was rewarded with another thirteen inch brown that also found the salvation nymph to its liking. I cast the nymphs back to the fishy area, and once again hooked a fish on the lift, but this proved to be only a momentary success as the fish freed itself after a short run. I also sensed that this fish may have been foul hooked.

Once again I scanned the target area below the tree limbs, and much to my surprise the two risers were now feeding with increased regularity. I was reluctant to take the time to switch from my nymph rig since it produced four fish in a short amount of time, but these fish were paying no attention to my subsurface offering and were instead focused on the abundant food supply on top of the water. I relented and removed all the nymphing gear and tied on a light gray size 14 comparadun, also known as the money fly.

Best Fish of the Day Was This Fat Brown

I made a couple conservative casts short of the top riser, and then made a third and checked my forward stroke high allowing the small dun imitation to flutter down to the swirly water where the top fish was working five feet below the menacing branches. Slurp! The dry fly disappeared, and I set the hook and felt a strong active heavy weight on my new Sage rod. Quite early in the battle I obtained a glimpse of my foe and realized I was dealing with a more substantial fish. I played the fish cautiously always prepared to yield line at the first sign of a strong run or change in direction. Luck was with me on this day, and I finally played the fish to my net and discovered a brown trout in excess of fifteen inches. It was a beauty and would be the best fish of the day.

Site of Brown Trout Chow Down

I gently released the prize brown and returned my attention to the area below the branches, and I was surprised to see that the lower fish continued to rise despite the commotion that I just created. I dried the comparadun and placed a cast above the second riser. It took a few drifts to get the timing right, but eventually a fourteen inch rainbow fell for the money fly as well. Did I really just land six gorgeous fish between 13 and 16 inches in the space of an hour on the Yampa River when it was flowing at 959 cfs? I pinched myself and moved along the bank to the next juicy spot. The fishing gods were looking down on me with favor as I once again spotted a rise just below some faster water at the top of a long run. I carefully worked the tail with no results and then positioned myself and dropped a nice cast to the spot where the fish rose. Slurp! Another 13-14 inch brown mistook my imitation for a real PMD and fell victim to my fly.

By now it was nearly 12:30 so I quickly exited the stream just before reaching the tubing rental shop, and I discovered that I was nearly across from the Santa Fe. Jane was waiting, and although I felt the hatch was waning, I asked if we could meet in another hour, as I desired to continue fishing while the hatch was still in progress. Jane was amenable because she was not very hungry, but she requested that we meet at some picnic tables near baseball fields on the opposite side of the river. She planned to move the car there, and she scoped it out on her bike ride and suggested it was a much nicer place to have lunch. I quickly agreed and returned to the river where I exited, but there were very few remaining mayflies on the surface, and I soon felt that prospecting with the small size 16 comparadun was futile with no sighted fish to cast to.

I converted to a Chernobyl ant with a salvation nymph and used up half of my hour exploring water with this combination to no avail. I encountered a place where low hanging branches prevented me from wading along the edge, so I climbed to the bike path, and as I began to walk upstream, an approaching couple flagged me down to ask questions. I learned that they were from Harrisburg, Pa., and they asked quite a few questions about my level of success, what I was using, and what technique I was employing. They seemed quite surprised that I had already fished to a hatch and that I was having success despite the high water level. This conversation used up another fifteen minutes of my time, so when I resumed fishing, I only covered a small amount of water until I reached the tubing shop. I used this as an excuse to quit and hustled across the pedestrian bridge to the Howelsen Hill ski jump parking lot where I discovered Jane at a large picnic table under a massive gazebo.

The Middle of Town

16″ at Least

We enjoyed a one hour lunch and agreed to reunite at 4PM. I returned to the river where I ended before lunch and skipped the tubing shop area until I reached a nice section of water with no interfering vegetation. There was a boulder wall on the left bank, and I landed three more nice rainbows in the next hour while continuing with the dry/dropper approach of the Chernobyl ant and salvation nymph. All three gobbled the salvation as the Chernobyl served merely as a strike indicator. During this time the river exploded with all manner of traffic…tubes, kayaks, and rafts drifted by with jubilant water enthusiasts. As I fought and landed one of the three rainbows, a raft passed by, and I received a strong ovation from the occupants.

Evening Tubers on the Yampa

After the three early afternoon rainbows I weathered a dry spell, so I changed to a Charlie Boy hopper, salvation nymph and iron sally. I observed a handful of yellow sallies in the air, so I theorized that the iron sally nymph imitation might create some interest. It paid off, as I landed two more rainbows of thirteen and fourteen inches in the last hour on the iridescent attractor nymph, although I covered a lot of water and worked hard to get around bank obstacles to land these fish.

Last Fish of the Day

I’m still in a euphoric state as I write this blog. I never expected to have a double digit day on June 23 on the Yampa River with flows still high. Even more surprising was the 1.5 hour long hatch of pale morning duns and my ability to land three nice fish on a comparadun. As the reader might expect, I’m already yearning for another day on the Yampa River as I not so patiently wait for the other rivers to fall into tolerable fishing conditions.