Time: 10:00AM – 4:00PM

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

Fish Landed: 29

Frying Pan River 09/06/2013 Photo Album

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nice Rainbow Landed from Upper Frying Pan Pool on Friday

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

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

Dave Grips Nice Brown at Productive Pool on Friday

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

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

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

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

Jane Prepares Shrimp for Spinach Spaghetti on Friday Evening

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

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

Time: 1:00PM – 5:00PM

Location: MM11.5 near downstream boundary with private water

Fish Landed: 14

Frying Pan River 09/05/2013 Photo Album

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

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

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

No Time to Remove Bikes Before Fishing on Thursday

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

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

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

A Fat 15 1/2 Inch Buttery Brown

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

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

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

Pretty Rainbow Liked Chernobyl Ant

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

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

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

Rainbow from Campsite Thursday Evening

Time: 9:30AM – 4:00PM

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

Fish Landed: 9

Frying Pan River 08/16/2013 Photo Album

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

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

Frying Pan Starting Point on Friday

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

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

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

Another Nice Rainbow Fooled by Chernobyl on Friday

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

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

Huge Pool Occupied

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brown Was in Front of Tree Limb on Left

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

14.5 Inch Brown Sipped Money Fly

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

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

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

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

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

Time: 7:30PM – 8:30PM

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

Fish Landed: 10

Reudi Reservoir 08/15/2013 Photo Album

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

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

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

Water Level Higher Than 2012

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

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

Time: 11:00AM – 5:00PM

Location: MM10 to above spring

Fish Landed: 20

Frying Pan River 08/15/2013 Photo Album

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

West Side of Independence Pass on Thursday Morning

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

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

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

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

16″ Rainbow Gulped Chernobyl Ant on Frying Pan

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

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

Frying Pan Looking Upstream from Across from Spring

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

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

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

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

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

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

17″ Brown Was Highlight of Thursday

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

Avalanche Ale