Category Archives: Fishing Reports

Fishing Reports

South Platte River – 08/14/2013

Time: 10:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Above cascade to place where I stashed my backpack

Fish Landed: 40

South Platte River 08/14/2013 Photo Album

The thing about the Wildcat Canyon area of the South Platte is the effort it requires to reach this beautiful stretch of water. I’ve made this excursion quite a few times and it always takes at least an hour to hike the three mile Platte River Trail to reach the public stretch of the river. Perhaps my backpack is not the correct size or maybe I haven’t fit it properly, but I’m always extremely exhausted after these ventures. The weight of the pack causes me much neck and shoulder soreness, and of course a full day of fishing with repeated casting and wading and climbing over rocks and through streamside vegetation only adds to the fatigue.

I was now situated close to the trailhead at Round Mountain so I could avoid the two hour drive and begin my hike earlier than previous occasions. I woke up at 6:30AM, ate breakfast, prepared a lunch and stuffed my backpack with all the essentials for a day of fishing three miles from my vehicle. This required some serious planning and thought as I first went through my mental checklist and then reviewed the list in my iPhone. Finally I was convinced that I had all the essentials and I proceeded to drive the ten minutes required to the trailhead. Here I hooked my fishing backpack containing my Camelbak water bladder over my backpack and began the trek into the canyon.

The air temperature was 47 on the dashboard when I began, but rather quickly the radiant energy of the bright sun warmed me and the air to the seventies. I wore my running shoes and shorts and made steady progress along the nice trail that passes through tall ponderosa pines. By 9:30 I approached the open area with a stone fire pit next to one of the nicest holes on the river, and here I put on my waders and rigged my Orvis 4 piece, 4 weight rod and stashed my backpack behind a tree.

Staging Area in Wildcat Canyon

Staging Area in Wildcat Canyon

As is usually my custom I continued to hike along the trail for another half mile or so to a point just above where the river cascades through a narrow gap in the large rock walls. It was a bright sunny day and the flows were roughly 132 cfs. I had great success in 2012 in mid August when the flows were 167 cfs and in the fall at 80 cfs, so I was pretty certain this level would be close to ideal. My car was the only one parked in the lot at the trailhead, and I saw no other human beings on my morning hike. It was 10AM when I began fishing and I had the entire canyon to myself!

Nice Flow Level on South Platte River

Nice Flow Level on South Platte River

I began fishing with a Chernobyl ant and beadhead hares ear. I reviewed my blog post from the August outing in 2012, and learned that this combination did the heavy lifting at that time, so I hoped to repeat my success. This strategy worked well as I landed 17 fish between 10AM and noon. Quite a few fish were rising and smashing the Chernobyl and the other difference was the number of rainbows landing in my net compared to brown trout. Over the course of the day I estimate that 70% of my catch was rainbows and 30% browns. This was quite different from a year ago.

Productive Fly...Chernobyl Ant

Productive Fly…Chernobyl Ant

I quit for lunch at noon and hiked back to the place where I stashed my backpack. Along the way I passed a young couple with two girls on a pleasant hike, but clearly not embarking on a fishing outing. After lunch I returned to my lunchtime exit point and continued up along the left bank of the stream using the same combination of flies and continued to land fish at a steady rate.

During this time I approached a nice long pool below some large protruding rocks. The current break created smooth water that was ten feet wide and 25 feet long with a deep current seam on the far side away from me. I hooked two very nice rainbows along the current seam, one at the tail and one in the mid-section. These fish fought hard and eventually slid down beyond the large protruding boulder at the base of the run, and in both cases my fly popped free as the fish thrashed next to the rock. I was quite disappointed with these lost fish, but how could I remain in grief with the great scenery and a catch rate approaching eight fish per hour?

Another memorable moment was fish number 24. I flipped a short cast above the lip of a pool and almost instantly the Chernobyl paused and dipped and I set the hook and discovered I was attached to a fine battling trout. I played it up and then down for a few minutes and prayed it wouldn’t attempt the same manuever as the previous large rainbows. This time, however, I held on and finally netted a beautiful 15 inch cutbow that featured the pink stripe of a rainbow, but also displayed the orange slash of a cutthroat and the fine black speckles on the sides similar to a cutthroat trout.

At 2PM the action slowed relative to what I was experiencing earlier and I spotted some tiny mayflies in the air so I swapped the beadhead hares ear for a RS2. This didn’t improve things, so I inserted a salvation nymph and attached the RS2 below the salvation, and this combination produced the last ten fish of the day with most hooked on the salvation nymph.

Rainbow from South Platte

Rainbow from South Platte

On the day I probably landed 10 of the 40 fish on the Chernobyl ant, and as I commented earlier, I was surprised that roughly 70% were rainbows and 30% browns. Perhaps the higher ratio of rainbows resulted from lower flows which enabled me to fish more midstream pools, and not focus as much on the banks and edge. It seemed that the browns came from the rocky banks and generally they opted for the more natural trailing nymphs. The rainbows on the other hand liked deeper water and larger pools and there tended to be multiple rainbows in the same place; whereas, the browns were solitary and more territorial. The rainbows also seemed more apt to go for attractors; flies that don’t really imitate a specfic insect such as Chernobyl ants and salvation nymphs.

All in all it was a great day. Several periods of clouds moved by in the afternoon but it never rained nor was there ever a hatch that resulted in surface feeding. The size of the fish was decent, although not as impressive as the preponderance of browns landed in August 2012. The larger fish during this visit tended to be rainbows. It would be interesting to return and focus on the banks to see if this would change the ratio to predominantly browns. Of course this would necessitate another two hours of hiking with an ill fitting backpack, and I can’t consider that until more time has elapsed. Time causes me to forget the discomfort and exhaustion, but remember the fishing. The one hour exit hike was even more taxing than the entrance, but I survived and drove on to Lakeview Campground near Twin Lakes on the way to Independence Pass where I rested and prepared for Thursday on the Frying Pan River.

Sleeping Accommodations Wednesday Evening

Sleeping Accommodations Wednesday Evening

South Platte River – 08/13/2013

Time: 4:00PM – 6:30PM

Location: .5 mile below Happy Meadows Campground

Fish Landed: 8

South Platte River 08/13/2013 Photo Album

Flash floods are a real danger in Colorado, and Jane told me about a severe occurence several weeks ago in the narrow canyon along route 24 west of Manitou Springs. Apparently a local thunderstorm dumped a deluge of rain in a short amount of time and this resulted in a flash flood that caused one death and swept numerous vehicles downstream in a muddy torrent.

I left work in the morning on Tuesday and packed the Santa Fe for a three night and three day fishing/camping trip that I expected to result in a day on the South Platte River and two days on the Frying Pan River. Everything was packed, and I was on my way by around 1PM. I was quite excited to have nearly a week to explore some of my favorite waters in Colorado as I made my way south on interstate 25 through Colorado Springs and then west on route 24 toward Manitou Springs. Yes, I was traveling through the same area devastated by a flash flood several weeks ago, and in fact as I began driving up the narrow twisty stretch I saw a large flashing highway sign announcing a flash flood watch. I looked west and sure enough the sky was darkening, but I made a quick assessment that the clouds were fairly distant, and I could travel through the canyon stretch before any rain might commence.

This turned out to be an accurate decision as I reached Woodland Park west of the canyon stretch as rain began to hit the windshield. Along the way, however, I saw the result of the previous flash flood with side roads converted to deep gulleys and massive piles of red sediment along the roadway in several areas where the CDOT crews had removed it from the highway.

By 3PM I’d reached my planned destination of Happy Meadows Campground, a small campground situated right along the South Platte River a mile or two away from the Platte River Trailhead that I planned to depart from on Wednesday morning. Unfortunately I was faced with another setback as the small campground was completely full. What was I to do now? I had checked alternatives prior to departing Denver and remembered another national forest campground further west along US 24 as well as nice campground that we’d used as a family called Spruce Grove. I turned into a pullout and removed my Colorado map from the glove box and checked the distances. Clearly Round Mountain was the closest and only five miles or so west of the turn off I had taken from route 24.

I reversed my direction and returned to the highway and sure enough a five to ten minute drive led to Round Mountain. I circled the campground and there were 16 sites with only three occupied so I snagged number 16 and unloaded my water container, tablecloth, and camp stove and paid my fee for one night. It was 3:30PM by now, and I decided I could whet my appetite for fishing by returning to the South Platte near Happy Meadows and test the waters for a few hours. I always drove by this water on my way to the Platte Trail and wondered what the quality of the fishing was like.

Round Mountain Campground

Round Mountain Campground

I passed Happy Meadows and drove slowly along the dirt road while glancing to the right to review the water. I was looking for some faster stretches with rocks and pockets as other fishermen tend to avoid this type of stream structure, and with the hot August temperatures, fish are attracted to these well oxygenated areas. Roughly half a mile beyond the campground I found just this type of water and parked in a large pullout and prepared to fish.

By 4PM I was on the water with my Loomis 5 weight rod featuring a Chernobyl ant and beadhead hares ear, and I crossed to the bank away from the road and began working my way upstream. Nothing showed in the first fifteen minutes or so, but then I added a small RS2 after spotting several tiny mayflies. In a short amount of time I landed three small trout, two browns and one rainbow. The rainbow took the RS2 on a lift, and the two browns grabbed the hares ear on the dead drift.

After this initial success I somehow broke off both nymphs even though I couldn’t recall any significant snag and I replaced them with a salvation nymph. This ended up producing quite well over the remaining hour or so of fishing as I supplemented my count by five to reach eight on the evening. The fish seemed to like movement with most hammering the nymph on the lift or on a twitch or during a poor mend.

South Platte River Near Happy Meadows Campground

South Platte River Near Happy Meadows Campground

I had difficulty seeing my flies in the first hour as I was on the east side of the river looking into the sun glare from the western sky, so I crossed back to the west side and this helped quite a bit until the shadows covered the river. In the last half hour I fished a stretch below where I parked the car, and it was more typical South Platte River water with long runs, fine gravel bars, and no large rocks or pocket water.During this time I had a pair of refusals to the Chernobyl so I switched to a light gray caddis, but this also generated rejection. At 6:30 I decided to call it quits and return to the campsite to made dinner before it got dark. I’d experienced a nice introduction to fishing in the South Platte River, and I was optimistic that I’d have a decent day on Wednesday.

Arkansas River – 08/10/2013

Time: 10:00AM – 4:30PM

Location: Chafee-Fremont County Line

Fish Landed: 14

Arkansas River 08/10/2013 photo album

Jane and I decided to embark on another camping trip on the weekend beginning August 9, and I had been following the fishing reports on the Arkansas River through the Royal Gorge Angler and ArkAnglers web sites. Both sites suggested that numerous bugs continued to hatch on the Arkansas including pale morning duns, caddis, yellow sallies and red quills. The flows were back up to the 740 cfs range after a fair amount of rain earlier in the week, but both sites indicated that the water clarity was good. One of our favorite campsites near the Arkansas River is Angel of Shavano as it is fairly remote, and we’ve had good luck finding sites available without a reservation. The campground is roughly five miles off of route 50 as one drives west toward Monarch Pass. Jane and I decided to make this our camping destination for the weekend.

Jane was able to get off work early on Friday, so I packed the car and picked her up outside her office in downtown Denver and we were on our way by 2:30PM on Friday. We drove through several rainstorms as we took 285 southwest and crossed South Park; however, the rain had ended by the time we reached the campground. With some threatening clouds remaining in the western sky, we set up both our tent and our canopy before eating dinner and going to bed.

On Saturday I planned to take the Santa Fe and drive to the Arkansas River to fish for the day while Jane expected to hike the Colorado Trail toward Mt. Shavano as the trailhead is right next to the campground. I was able to depart by 9:15 and arrived at the river by the Fremont-Chafee County line by 9:45AM, and I got my waders wet by 10AM. The sky was bright blue with no clouds visible and the air temperature was in the low 70’s as I began. The water was a bit off color, but actually perfect for fishing as the fish could still see the surface but less care was required in approaching fish.

I considered crossing the river at the tail of the long pool below where I parked, but changed my mind as I gazed at the higher volume. Why risk it when I had practically the entire river to myself? I climbed back up the bank to the road and walked east along the shoulder for .3 mile and then descended on a worn trail next to a vertical rock wall. I decided to begin with a yellow pool toy hopper and trail a beadhead hares ear. There was a nice wide run that deflected off the vertical rock wall below me, but I couldn’t interest any fish in my offerings in this area.

I moved further upstream to a nice wide tailout below some long riffles, and here I landed a small brown on the beadhead hares ear while I experienced two additional momentary hookups. I continued on fishing mostly the 10 to 15 feet of water out from the left bank, but nothing was going for my flies, so I swapped out the pool toy for a gray parachute hopper. This at least generated some refusals but I couldn’t close the deal and the trailing nymph wasn’t generating any interest. I again switched flies and experimented with a yellow Letort hopper as the top fly and tried a 20 incher as the trailing fly. It was about this time that I glanced at my watch and noticed it was 11:30, and I was quite close to the spot where I parked the car, so I exited the river and climbed the steep slope to a nice high rock overlooking the river. Here I munched my lunch while observing, but I didn’t really see any evidence of fish.

Prickly Lunch Location

Prickly Lunch Location

After lunch I circled around the large lunch rock and positioned myself at the top and adjacent to the beginning of the deep pool just below the lunch rock. I began making casts into the slow moving water and just as my confidence waned and thoughts began to enter my head to move on, a nice rainbow emerged from the depths of the pool and slowly glided up to the Letort hopper and confidently devoured it! Much to my surprise and delight I was connected to a battling 14 inch rainbow and I moved closer to the river and netted the fish after a brief battle.

Took Letort Hopper Above Lunch Rock

Took Letort Hopper Above Lunch Rock

I continued on and added a few more fish to my total but the 20 incher wasn’t producing and it was a heavy fly to support with the dubbed body hopper, so I decided to trade it for a lighter nymph. As I inspected my fly patch, I noticed two iron sallies that I’d tied over the winter. These nymphs are intended to imitate yellow sallies and the reports suggested that yellow sallies were present in early August. Lacking another strategy, I tied on the iron sally and it proved to be an excellent choice. I began to pick up fish on a more regular basis on the iron sally but now the yellow Letort hopper ceased to produce and it was becoming waterlogged quite frequently. If the top fly wasn’t producing fish, shouldn’t it at least be buoyant and easily seen? Of course, so I went to my old standby, the Chernobyl ant.

The Chernobyl ant combination would produce most of my remaining fish with a few exceptions. I worked my way along the left bank and plopped the two fly combination in all the likely pockets and slots behind current breaks. The Hofer strain rainbows now populating the Arkansas River proved to be my saviour on this Saturday. The rainbows occupied the deeper eddies and pools, and in many cases I could spot them hovering a foot or so below the surface. They didn’t smash my flies instantly, but if I spotted them and put enough casts over them, I could generally eventually extract a smashing take of the Chernobyl or a grab of the iron sally as I lifted to recast.

Canoers Below Me

Canoers Below Me

I was stuck on nine and working hard to reach double digits when I encountered a nice long eddy where the current circled back along the bank until it intersected with a large rock that protruded into the river. The intersection of the current flowing downstream past the rock and the recirculated current along the bank created a sucking vortex. I cast upstream but short of the whirlpool and allowed the Chernobyl to drift slowly toward the intersection when a large mouth surfaced and inhaled the surface fly. I set the hook and saw a large rainbow clear the surface and crash back to the river, but the connection didn’t last long before the fish was gone. I reeled up my line and discovered the trailing iron sally was gone, so I’m not sure if the fish rolled on it or whether it got hooked into a rock or branch in the short battle. I was disappointed to lose a nice sized number ten and I only had one more iron sally in my fleece patch.

I mustered my energy and focus and moved on upstream after replacing the iron sally with a beadhead hares ear. In a short amount of time I encountered another nice narrow deep ten foot stretch of water, and as I began casting I spotted another rainbow positioned in front of a large submerged boulder. I made at least ten drifts over this fish, but it showed no interest in my offerings. I paused and observed closely and saw the rainbow rise to the surface and sip something quite miniscule from the film. What should I do? In these situations in the past I have resorted to a parachute ant, so I decided to give it a try again. Unfortunately while I concentrated on tying on the ant, the trout disappeared. I was ready to cast but now my target was gone. But wait a second, I looked below the submerged rock and now there were not one but two rainbows hovering six inches below the surface in front of another submerged rock.

I made a couple extremely short casts and allowed the two flies to drift no more than five feet below me, but the flies were beyond the two fish. I could clearly see the orange poly tuft on the parachute ant leading the Chernobyl ant, so I was pleased with that circumstance. I lifted the two flies and gently placed them on top of the upstream submerged rock and watched as they slowly drifted to the position of one of the rainbows. As I held my breath the rainbow slowly elevated and tipped its nose above the water and sucked in my ant. In a split second I lifted my rod tip and the agitated rainbow splashed and fought but eventually slipped over the wooden rim of my net. Number ten was certainly worth waiting for.

Rainbow Smashed Chernobyl Ant Out from Log

Rainbow Smashed Chernobyl Ant Out from Log

It was now late afternoon and some large gray clouds began to build in the west. I attempted to recover my earlier magic on the nymph and tied on my last iron sally, but this didn’t produce as it had done in the early afternoon. I came to a nice long side pool where a long log or stick jutted out over the tail above a large protruding rock and I made a nice long cast ten feet above the rock. The slow current brought the Chernobyl ant bobbing back toward me and just as I was preparing to lift to recast before the nymph tangled in the rock, the foam fly disappeared, and I made a slightly late hook set, but connected with another nice rainbow. Perhaps I didn’t need a trailing nymph?

Nice Rainbow Near End of Day

Nice Rainbow Near End of Day

With the darker skies and lower light intensity I hoped that perhaps some pale morning duns would emerge, so I decided to exchange the now unproductive iron sally for a salvation nymph. This proved to be a fortuitous move as the last three fish landed snared the salvation nymph. The most memorable was a 14 inch brown that stopped the Chernobyl ant by snatching the salvation nymph in a tiny pocket that was no more that two feet deep right along the bank. I released this fish and as I did so, heard the intimidating sound of thunder and saw a flash of lightning in the distant western sky. I wanted to catch another fish, but I also didn’t want to get caught in a thunderstorm deluge.

Nice Brown Took Salvation Nymph in Very Shallow Lie

Nice Brown Took Salvation Nymph in Very Shallow Lie

I picked up the pace and quickly covered some attractive water along the bank, and it wasn’t long before I landed a small brown to reach 14 fish on the day. With this fish released, I hustled through some thick brush, climbed a steep narrow path and reached the shoulder of route 50. I quickly strode east along the highway until I reached the Santa Fe. I tossed my rod, wading stick, frontpack and backpack in the back of the car and as I stepped into the driver’s seat with my waders on, it began to pour. Timing is everything.

 

Big Thompson River – 08/08/2013

Time: 9:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: Downstream end of catch and release water

Fish Landed: 14

Big Thompson River 08/08/2013 photo album

My original plan for the week of August 5 was to work Monday and Tuesday and then drive to the Happy Meadows Campground on Tuesday evening so that I was positioned to hike into Wildcat Canyon and fish the South Platte River on Wednesday. If all worked out, I planned to camp again on Wednesday night and then fish in Eleven Mile Canyon on Thursday. Unfortunately when I checked the weather report for Wednesday it called for an 80% chance of rain and 1 to 2 inches. This forecast spooked me so I decided to defer this trip and instead I reported to work on Wednesday.

The upside to all this is that I completed everything I can at work for July closing, so I am now in wait mode until the office manager completes her portion of the process. This probably won’t happen until August 26, so I’m pretty much free to fish for the next week and a half. Thursday became the first open date on my calendar so I made a trip to the Big Thompson River. The forecast for Estes Park on Thursday projected overcast skies and a high of around 70 degrees. This forecast did in fact turn out to be accurate.

The flows on the Big Thompson were slightly reduced to 90 cfs after running at 125 for most of the summer. These flows are still quite high for August, but create decent fishing conditions. I felt that the slightly lower flows and the cooler weather and overcast skies would create an ideal environment for catching fish. Was I right?

Chubby Rainbow Landed in Morning

Chubby Rainbow Landed in Morning

I set out by 7:15AM and arrived at the river by 9AM and was in the water fishing by 9:30. It was quite cool when I began, so I wore my fleece under my wader suspenders, but after 20 minutes or so the sun came out and I circled back to the car to return the added layer. After approximately 20 minutes of fishing a fish rose and smashed my 14 inch caddis with a palmered body and I landed my first fish of the day, a chubby rainbow trout. I was noticing quite a few midges in the air so I added a size 24 zebra midge dropper below my bushy caddis and picked up a small brown on the midge. After this however I went quite awhile before another similar sized rainbow gulped the caddis. Once again a dry spell commenced so I eventually removed the caddis and midge larva and decided to try a parachute green drake. This fly had been effective during my last visit to the Big Thompson, so why not give it another try?

Rainbow Was in Slack Water Along Willows

Rainbow Was in Slack Water Along Willows

I was below a narrow slack lane next to the willow covered bank so I made a left handed cast approximately 10 feet upstream and as the drake drifted back toward me, a fish darted from cover and blasted the green drake. I still had the rod in my left hand so I set the hook and played the fish which turned out to be an eleven inch brown. I was quite proud to land a fish almost entirely left handed.

I remember looking at my watch and being pleased that I’d landed four fish in the first two hours by around 11:20, but before I returned to the car to eat, I landed another small brown on the green drake. By 11:30 I was feeling quite hungry so I walked back along the shoulder of the highway to the car, and then executed a U-turn and found a pullout above the point where I’d exited for lunch. Here I crossed the road with my lunch bag and water and munched away on a nice flat rock overlooking the river.

Precarious Parking Spot

Precarious Parking Spot

After lunch I returned to my exit point which represented a nice opportunity to cross the stream to the opposite bank as the river fanned out and presented shallower depth and less velocity. My theory was that the flows at 125 cfs prevented other fishermen from covering the left bank, and this would work to my advantage. The sky brightened a bit, but there were still numerous large high clouds blocking the sun’s attempt to warm the atmosphere. I resumed prospecting with the parachute green drake, but covered quite a bit of water with only a few refusals to show for my efforts so I resorted to my old faithful combination of a gray hares ear parachute hopper and beadhead hares ear nymph.

This didn’t really improve matters so after a fairly short test in some very attractive water, I replaced the beadhead hares ear with a salvation nymph, and this proved to be the best combination I would discover on Thursday. The catch rate improved so that I landed another nine trout after lunch with most of the activity taking place between noon and 2:30. Most of the fish grabbed the trailing salvation nymph with at least one aggressively smashing the hopper imitation. It was the typical type of fishing that I enjoy; prospecting all the likely spots with three to five casts and moving on quickly.

Nice Rainbow Landed in Afternoon

Nice Rainbow Landed in Afternoon

The downside of working the bank away from the road was the difficult maneuvering required to migrate upstream. It involved rock climbing, moving up and down steep banks, and crashing through thick brush and tree limbs. This resulted in increased movement time and reduced time with my fly on the water as well as increased fatigue. By 3PM the sun was peaking out more frequently and the action slowed considerably so I decided to try the green drake again. I skipped past some fast water and walked up along the shoulder of the road looking for the most attractive water. When I found a nice pool and shallow riffle area I positioned myself downstream and covered the area with the green drake, but nothing was interested in my offering. I glanced at my watch and noticed it was 3:30 and I was feeling more tired than normal so I decided to call it a day.

I was pleased to land 14 fish on the Big Thompson despite the fact that I saw very little hatching activity in spite of overcast skies and cool temperatures. Roughly half of the fish landed were rainbows and the other half browns and the largest fish was probably twelve inches. I probably had half a dozen momentary hook ups and long distance releases, so it could have been a better day, but overall I’m pleased with the outing. It surely served as good exercise.

Taylor River – 08/02/2013

Time: 9:30AM – 5:00PM

Location: Same as Thursday but opposite side of river and across from Lodgepole Campground

Fish Landed: 9

Taylor River 08/02/2013 Photo Album

Additional rain fell on my tent Thursday night and I awoke to damp conditions on Friday morning, however, this didn’t stop me from preparing for a day of fishing on the Taylor River. I had some breakfast and then packed a lunch and added a few additional green drakes and light gray comparaduns to my frontpack fly patch. Before the trip I’d cleaned up my patch by removing all the nymphs and wet flies except for one working fly. I placed all the extras in my fleece pouch and this freed up space in the foam patch for additional dry flies.

Santa Fe Along Taylor River Friday Morning

Santa Fe Along Taylor River Friday Morning

I made the short drive from the campground to the same parking space as I’d used on Thursday, but my strategy for Friday was to wade across the river at a wide shallow spot just upstream from the car, and then negotiate my way downstream through the woods to a position across from the Lodgepole Campground. In theory the fish on the far side of the river had not been pounded with as many flies as those along the road, and I would be the beneficiary of these less pressured fish. I’d experienced decent success with this approach in previous seasons, and being right handed, I liked working upstream on the left side as it is easier to hook casts in toward the bank and under overhanging vegetation.

The sky was bright blue and largely devoid of clouds and this would continue for most of the day. There was a brief period in the early afternoon where some large clouds temporarily blocked the sun, but these periods didn’t last more than a few minutes. During visits in 2012 I had decent success with a gray parachute hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear, so this became my initial combination on Friday. Despite all the planning and thought just described, I fished for at least 1.5 hours before I experienced any action.

Finally I approached a spot where a large boulder protruded into the river from the bank and a huge pile of branches and sticks created a partial dam between the bank and the large boulder. By this time I’d given up on the hopper/dropper and tied on the same green drake parachute that produced a couple fish for me on Thursday. I carefully climbed to a comfortable position on top of the debris but maintained a low profile and began to prospect the slow area beginning along the left side and gradually fanning out casts to the right. After I’d covered the water left to right I allowed the drake to drift very deep into the nook right in front of the boulder. In another second the fly would be devoured by the swirling current against the rock, but before that scenario could unfold, a fish darted to the surface and sucked in the parachute.

14 Inch Brown Fooled by Parachute Green Drake

14 Inch Brown Fooled by Parachute Green Drake

My reflexes kicked in and I set the hook and lifted the rod high to keep the fish out of the debris pile I was standing on. Several times the brown attempted to wrap the line around the sticks, but I kept it upstream. Unfortunately I was not in a good position to net this fighter so I began to carefully step closer on some stable sticks while extending my arm outward and as high as I could. As I did this risky maneuver, the fish finally executed its escape move and darted under one of the branches. Fortunately for me, however, the fish just hunkered there under a few sticks. I made another step to the point where I could reach my net under the stick and scoop the 14 inch brown. Somehow I was able to outwit this underwater foe, so I snapped a few photos and then released the fish. At this point I fed the  fly under the branch and extracted it still tied to my line.

After this initial success I continued with the green drake, but the other fish were not as enamored as the 14 incher. Eventually I came to a nice deep run and converted to deep nymphing with a beadhead pheasant tail on the point and this produced a second brown trout. But alas this approach could not repeat the success so I returned to a parachute hopper with a beadhead pheasant tail as the dropper. The pheasant tail probably produced the best particularly during the short period where some clouds blocked the sun, but even this success required much wading and casting.

Typical Taylor River Brown

Typical Taylor River Brown

By 4:30 I’d managed to land 9 trout with the initial brown representing the largest catch of the day. The sunshine and blue skies were ideal for human beings, but apparently not to the liking of brown and rainbow trout in the Taylor River. I crossed the river upstream of the point where I’d crossed in the morning and walked back along the road to a point above the Santa Fe where I’d ended the previous day. I paused and stared at the water in a nice moderate run with around four feet of depth and noticed a nice brown facing the current. This was approximately ten feet above the shallow riffle where I’d landed two rainbows on Thursday evening. I decided to focus on this fish as I could see it was moving side to side and feeding on something.

First I floated a light gray caddis over the brown and it wiggled its tail, but showed no additional signs of feeding. Next I tried a light gray comparadun, and this provoked the trout to move upward three times, but in each case it returned to its holding position after getting no closer than six inches. A small size 18 comparadun with a light yellow body was totally ignored. Next I spotted a size 14 comparadun with a medium olive body, probably a version I tied to imitate the cornuta hatch in Pennsylvania. This fly brought out the worst in my targeted foe as it rose and put its nose against the olive imitation three times, but never opened its mouth to eat. With this indignity now on my record, I glanced at my watch and reailized it was approaching 5PM, so I called it quits and gave the win to the ultra selective trout in front of me.

Taylor River – 08/01/2013

Time: 3:30PM – 6:30PM

Location: Upstream from Lodgepole Campground where fisherman path ends and river widens.

Fish Landed: 15

Taylor River 08/01/2013 Photo Album

It had been a week since I last fished with Dan on South Boulder Creek, and that outing was cut short by steady rain. My friend, Don Batchelor, drove to Colorado from State College, Pa. so I dedicated Monday through Wednesday to spend time with him. Don is not a fishermen, so we had a blast undertaking hikes to Devil’s Backbone near Loveland, Red Rocks near Morrison, and Walker Ranch near South Boulder Creek. In addition we spent Tuesday afternoon using B-Cycle stations to bike among various locations in downtown Denver.

Don arose quite early on Thursday morning and departed before Jane and I awoke. Jane and I made plans to camp along the Taylor River for the upcoming weekend, so I occupied myself with completing a few chores and gathering all the essentials for a weekend of camping. I planned to drive to the Taylor River valley on Thursday and set up camp, and then Jane would make the trip on Friday after work and join me for the weekend.

By 10:30PM my fishing gear was stashed as well as all the necessary camping gear and bicycling essentials, and I’d topped off the tank with gasoline and bought a fresh bag of ice for the cooler, and I was on my way. As I made my way up Cottonwood Pass west of Buena Vista I encountered some dark skies and it began to rain fairly heavily. In fact the intensity picked up at the top of the pass and created a fairly slippery road surface as I descended on the western side of the pass. I arrived at Lottis Creek Campground by 2:30 and the rain had subsided to a steady drizzle, but the sky remained dark and threatening.

I didn’t relish putting up my tent in the rain, so I unloaded the bikes and bike rack and placed my water container on the picnic table to announce my claim to site number 8 in the Union Park Loop of Lottis Creek Campground. I decided the best activity for the light rain was fishing, so I continued on down the highway to a wide pullout just above the paved parking lot across from Lodgepole Campground. I quickly put on my waders and rigged my rod and began fishing along the right bank with a size 12 parachute green drake as I’d read in the Willowfly Angler fishing report that a few green drakes were observed. Trout seem to have a long memory for large western green drakes.

It didn’t take long before I landed a 12 inch brown on the green drake and I photographed my initial fish to document the effectiveness of my new fly. Quite early in my late afternoon fishing experience, the rain ended, but the skies remained overcast with only occasional glimpses of blue sky and a few rays of the sun. I continued upstream with the green drake and after a few refusals, I landed a small rainbow, but after this success the refusals resumed. As I observed and considered switching away from the green drake, I noticed a few fairly large PMD’s in the air, so I tied on a size 14 light gray comparadun.

Early Brown Landed on Green Drake on Thursday

Early Brown Landed on Green Drake on Thursday

This translated into a fine move as I fished the comparadun for the remainder of the afternoon until 6:30PM when I quit, and it produced 13 additional fish. By 6PM it rained again briefly, but I continued fishing for another half hour and landed two nice rainbows in a shallow riffle close to the road. In fact the last rainbow and last fish of the day was a 14 inch rainbow that rose and confidently sipped the scruffy comparadun.

14" Rainbow Was the Largest Fish on Thursday

14″ Rainbow Was the Largest Fish on Thursday

In three hours of fishing after the rainstorm under overcast skies I landed fifteen trout, four rainbows and eleven brown trout. One rainbow was 14 inches and a couple browns were in the twelve inch range. Overall the size of the fish was somewhat lacking, but it was quite enjoyable to fish to a steady hatch of pale morning duns, and quite a few of my landed fish resulted from spotting a sporadic rise and then tossing the comparadun to the spot of the rise. In most instances, the trout that revealed itself would cooperate and sip in my imitation.

With this steady action under my belt, I returned to the campsite and put up my tent now that the rain stopped. In fact I began to see blue sky to the west and the weather cleared nicely as I prepared my light dinner. I looked forward to a fun full day on the Taylor River on Friday before Jane was due to arrive in the late afternoon.

South Boulder Creek – 07/25/2013

Time: 10:00AM – 3:00PM

Location: A Half Hour Hike Below Gross Reservoir

Fish Landed: Dave 5; Dan 3

South Boulder Creek 07/25/2013 Photo Album

My son Dan returned to Denver after spending nearly five months in Asia, and he wanted to spend a day fishing before heading off to Durham, NC for graduate school in the Fuqua MBA program. We settled on Thursday as the best day to fit in a day of fishing. Dan had plans for most evenings, so we didn’t want to make a long trip that required two or more hours of drive time, so I researched the closer stream options.

I’ve had my eye on South Boulder Creek after some interesting visits in September and October of 2012, but the stream flows have been hovering over 200 cfs and that is relatively high for a fairly small streambed. I did notice that the flows dropped below 200 cfs to 193 a few days prior to our planned fishing venture, so I gambled this would be manageable. I felt we could do better than Clear Creek and Bear Creek on Dan’s sole fishing trip of 2013, and the Big Thompson is crowded, and the NF of the St. Vrain flows dropped precipitously thus projecting difficult fishing in my thought process.

Dan and I departed from Stapleton by 8:00AM and we did encounter a bit of morning rush hour congestion on interstate 70, but despite this hardship, we arrived at the parking lot near the dam by 9:15. The air temperature remained quite cool with quite a few large gray clouds overhead as we set up our rods and put on our waders. We packed our lunches and raincoats as I told Dan I wanted to hike quite a distance downstream on the trail.

We followed the trail all the way to its farthest point and at that location we entered the water. The sky remained overcast and Dan began with a Chernobyl ant and beadhead hares ear, and I elected to tie on a yellow Letort hopper and a beadhead bright green caddis pupa and below that a zebra midge larva as a third fly. This proved to be a mistake as I worked the right bank which required backhand casts. Backhand casts and three flies are a recipe for disaster, and I spent much of the first hour of fishing untangling some massive snarls.

Dan meanwhile was working up the left bank in expert fashion, and he landed a pair of browns on the trailing hares ear. The midge larva wasn’t producing so I replaced it with a beadhead pheasant tail, and it was this combination that produced my first fish of the day. I cast the hopper along the edge of a current seam and as it drifted back toward me the top fly paused so I set the hook and lifted my rod. Amazingly I saw two fish on my line; one on the caddis and one on the pheasant tail. The top fish freed itself fairly early in the fight allowing me to easily land the small nine inch brown that was fooled by the pheasant tail. Although it was nice to register my first fish of the day, this was probably an unfortunate incident for my long term fishing success.

The double gave me incentive to continue the three fly experiment, and that proved to be a major strategic error. Rather than connecting with multiple fish, I found myself unraveling three or four massive line snarls where I had to cut off the trailing flies and then reattach. Eventually I wised up and removed the third fly and fished the hopper and caddis until we broke for lunch at noon.

As Dan and I sat on a decaying log consuming our lunches we heard distant thunder, but since we had our raincoats, we didn’t give it much attention. After lunch I experienced a couple refusals to the yellow hopper, so I decided to make a change. Perhaps the fish were attracted by the yellow, but my fly was too large. Clearly they were looking toward the surface for their meal, so I tied on a yellow sally size 14. This proved to be a stroke of solid reasoning and within the first hour after lunch I landed another three fish and in fact I was convinced enough by the effectiveness of the yellow sally  that I exited the stream and walked back across from Dan and informed him. Unfortunately he did not have any yellow sallies in his fly box so he waited until we could meet on the same side of the stream.

Rainbow Came from Pool Just Above Logs on Left

Rainbow Came from Pool Just Above Logs on Left

I returned to my point of exit as some large but well spaced raindrops began to descend from the sky. Dan and I both extracted our raincoats and prepared for the worst. Just above my reentry point there was a jumble of dead logs that created a natural dam along the right side of the stream and a fine twenty foot long pool. I dried and fluffed my yellow sally and flicked it five feet above the stick jam and almost as soon as the fly touched the water it was savagely accosted by a fish. I set the hook and watched a twelve inch rainbow leap from the water. This would turn out to be my best fish of the day.

12 Inch Rainbow from South Boulder Creek

12 Inch Rainbow from South Boulder Creek

Shortly after photographing and releasing the rainbow the storm moved over Dan and I and  the interval between lightning flashes and thunder shrank to four seconds so Dan and I found locations next to large rocks and laid low for a bit. Once the thunder and lightning faded into the distance the rain intensified, but we resumed fishing. It was very difficult to keep my dry fly dry as there was moisture everywhere; dense raindrops descending from the sky, wet fingertips, no dry article of clothing to absorb moisture and of course the surface of the stream.

Ready to Resume Action

Ready to Resume Action

The rain continued to descend in sheets as Dan and I worked upstream, but the fish weren’t cooperating and we were getting wet and chilled so we decided to hit the trail and work our way back toward the car with the thought of fishing some nice pools closer to the parking lot should the rain end or diminish. The act of hiking on the path had the effect of warming our bodies somewhat, and we did stop briefly to fish a nice pool just upstream of the footbridge, but it was 3PM and our thoughts turned to dry clothes and the Cannonball Creek brewpub in Golden.

It was a fun day before the storm hit, although I wish I’d discovered the success of the yellow sally earlier. Should the flows decrease to the 150 cfs range, I will surely return to South Boulder Creek.

 

Yampa River – 07/20/2013

Time: 9:00AM – 2:00PM

Location: Below Stagecoach Reservoir

Fish Landed: 10

Yampa River 07/20/2013 Photo Album

I was either in a fishing slump or I reached the turning point where I shift my focus from freestone rivers to tailwaters and high elevation headwaters. My last day on the Eagle River yielded six fish, a day in Rocky Mountain National Park on headwaters resulted in four fish, and a day on the Colorado River netted five fish. Size was another matter. A few of the Eagle River fish were decent size, but most of the other fish were below average in size for those rivers. Thursday on the Big Thompson was a slight improvement from a numbers perspective, but size continued to be lacking. Catching five trout on my newly designed parachute green drake was a nice boost, but given the overcast conditions, I was dissatisfied with the results.

Our original plan for the weekend was to drive to the Denver Creek Campground along Willow Creek north of Granby where Jane and I would set up camp and then spend Saturday hiking and biking and then we would return early on Sunday to beat the construction traffic east of Idaho Springs. While I was at the Saddleback Design Golf Tournament on Friday afternoon, however, Jane and Judy Supple worked out a change in plans. Jane returned the camping gear to its storage locations as we now planned to drive to Steamboat Springs and stay with our friends, Judy and Steve Supple. Judy and Jane planned to attend a parade of homes type tour on Saturday morning and then bike around town while Steve and I would fish in the Yampa River. I hate these changes in plans that add to my fishing time.

I got home from the golf outing by 6PM and in a short amount of time I packed a few remaining items and we headed off to Chipotle Mexican Grill for a quick dinner. We made the three hour journey to Steamboat Springs and arrived at the Supple condo by 10PM. After some brief chatting we crashed to the sound of hummingbirds hovering by the Supple feeder.

On Saturday morning we woke up early to the sound of Grady and Duffy’s tails banging the hallway walls. Grady and Duffy are the Supple’s well loved golden retrievers, and they bring a lot of energy to each day. Judy prepared some quick eggs for breakfast and Steve and I pooled our gear in Steve’s car and headed to the Yampa River below Stagecoach Reservoir. Along the way we passed a pack of road bikers apparently doing a century ride or some distance between 25 and 100 miles. The Yampa tailwater below Stagecoach is a short but impressive fishery with only perhaps .5 mile of open water, but an extremely dense population of fish. I counted 14 fishermen already in the visible stretch of river as we drove up to the parking lot and at least 12 cars in the lot. It would not be a day of solitary reflection.

A Few Friends Below Us

A Few Friends Below Us

Steve and I quickly set up our rods and climbed into our waders and then hiked down the path to some open water above the last group of fishermen. The positive to this fishery is that the fish density is so great that one does not need a large amount of space to wade in. I chose a spot below Steve and 20 yards above the next downstream fisherman as my starting point and tied on a Chernobyl ant and a beadhead hares ear and then a zebra midge as a third fly below the  hares ear. Steve told me the Steamboat Angler was recommending tiny flies such as midge larva and RS2’s. I stood next to and slightly above a large exposed rock with a rounded top and as I began to flick upstream casts I observed one, then two then five then seven or eight large fish in a 25 square foot area next to and above me. I can attest to the fact that this immediately gets the juices flowing.

Steve on Yampa below Stagecoach Reservoir

Steve on Yampa below Stagecoach Reservoir

It didn’t take long before the Chernobyl dipped and I set the hook and landed a fine chunky 13 inch rainbow. I gazed out a bit further to a nice run next to another large rock, and there I spotted another nice fish, and eventually another rainbow rose and smashed the Chernobyl. This fly was supposed to simply serve as an indicator for shallow nymphing! Eventually I worked my way across the river to a nice pool area along the opposite bank and here I added a third rainbow that stopped the Chernobyl indicator and inhaled the midge. In an hour or so of fishing I’d landed three beautiful rainbows in the 13 -15 inch range and I was feeling pretty good about this bonus day of fishing.

Pretty Rainbow Caught in the Morning on Chernobyl Ant

Pretty Rainbow Caught in the Morning on Chernobyl Ant

The hares ear wasn’t producing so I exchanged it for an orange scud but kept the midge larva as the bottom fly, and it was this combination that delivered the third fish. After focusing on the pod of fish above me for quite awhile I moved upstream on the left side and over the next couple hours added a couple more rainbows and one twelve inch brown. The rainbows crushed the Chernobyl ant and the brown fell for an olive midge larva that replaced the zebra midge. I was amazed by the success of the large Chernobyl with the bright peacock chenille body in a river where miniscule flies are recommended. There were probably 50-100 casts in between each catch and most fish ignored my offerings, but enough fish were gullible enough to show interest in my flies to make things interesting.

By one o’clock I found myself positioned below a nice pool characterized by a run that ran within four feet of the left bank and then a much stronger current that bordered the right side and split the river in half. I could see ten to fifteen large trout spaced out in this pool between the currents and they weren’t showing interest in my three fly offering so I decided to experiment with single dry flies to see if I could unlock the code and land one of these beauties. I was at seven fish and they were all nice size so I was ready to do some focused dry fly fishing for the remainder of the outing.

First I tried a parachute ant and one large fish nosed this fly at least three times. I could actually see the wave created by the fish’s jaw spill over the ant on one of the close up looks. Next I tied on a size 18 light yellow comparadun, but this didn’t even create interest when it passed over the fish. I’d spotted a few sporadic PMD’s riding the surface of the water and a couple that became airborne, so I elected to tie on a light gray size 16 comparadun. I cast this fly to the very top of the smooth water and as it drifted slowly back toward me a large rainbow gradually elevated under the fly, inspected, and then miraculousloy sipped it in. I made a quick sure hook set and battled the big guy to the net. This fish was easily 18 inches with a nice thick girth, but I couldn’t settle it on my net for a photo and eventually it squirmed back in the water and snapped off my fly before I could capture a good photograph.

I tied on another light gray comparadun and flcked it upstream but slightly below the point where I’d hooked the previous fish. This time the fly drifted to the midsection of the pool area and it was deja vu. Another rainbow slowly floated back under the comparadun and then confidently sipped it in. Again I reacted with a solid hook set and played and landed a sixteen inch rainbow. This was really fun. I decided to leave the spot I was in and walk downstream to find Steve and offer him a light gray comparadun. It was now 1:45PM and we planned to depart at 2PM and the crowd of fishermen had thinned out significantly.

16 Inch Rainbow Took Light Gray Comparadun

16 Inch Rainbow Took Light Gray Comparadun

I found Steve in a prime pool closer to the parking lot, a spot that was ringed with fishermen when we arrived in the morning. I gave him a comparadun and then began probing the nice water near him. There was a little nook next to the bank where a side current curved along the bank and then merged back into the main current. I could see at least eight nice fish in this small area and I succeeded in getting one that was inches from the bank to refuse my fly two or three times. There were a couple nice rainbows in the slack area between the current along the bank and some large rocks at the top of the indentation. I couldn’t get a good drag free drift over these fish because of the swirling current even though I moved several times to create different approach angles.

I gave up on this area because of the difficult angles and moved close to Steve. Steve pointed out all the fish that were stacked up below him ostensibly to feed on nymphs and larva kicked loose from Steve’s wading. I attempted a few downstream drifts to these fish, but they were looking down for their meal and probably aware of our presence. I pivoted around and popped some casts into some faster moving runs between exposed rocks above us, and on one of these drifts experienced a refusal. I rested this run for five or six casts to an adjacent run, and then returned to the scene of the refusal and midway down the run a fish rose and slammed the light gray comparadun. This fish betrayed itself as a hot fish as it charged up and down the river in short spirts. Several times I thought I had control and attempted to raise the fish’s nose, only to face another short spurt upstream and then downstream, but eventually it grew weary of the fight and I slid my net under a brightly colored rainbow. It was another 15 inch fish, but this one was perhaps the most fit and brightly colored of all the fish I landed on the Yampa River.

Ten fish landed in five hours does not sound that exceptional, but all the fish were in the 13-18 inch range and all but one rainbows. I was able to land three fish on a Chernobyl ant and three on a size 16 light gray comparadun, and by all accounts this is exceptional for this stretch of water where size 20-24 size flies predominate. Just spending five hours fishing over hundreds of large trout that I could see and target was a salve to my bruised confidence after being battered by a heavy dose of unproductive blind casting in the previous four outings. On a bright blue sky day with high temperatures approaching 90 degrees, this day was a huge success and perhaps among my top ten of 2013.

Big Thompson River – 07/18/2013

Time: 9:30AM – 3:00PM

Location: Bottom of hill just before RV campground and then just above Grandpa’s Retreat

Fish Landed: 9

Big Thompson River 07/18/2013 Photo Album

After a slow hot day on the Colorado River on Wednesday I had another day available to fish since the office manager didn’t have June ready for my attention so I decided to make a trip to the Big Thompson River below Lake Estes. Flows have been at 125 cfs for several months now and fish tend to love consistency. The other option was the North Fork of the St. Vrain, and that was tempting, but I’d been there twice recently and I was looking for something different. I checked out the various fly shop reports on the Big Thompson before I departed at 7:30AM and all suggested that the fishing was reasonably good.

I arrived along the stream at around 9AM and parked on the right shoulder just above the RV park at a large bend. Quite a few of the pullouts upstream were already occupied and I continue to be amazed by the pressure this relatively small stream receives. I suspect Rocky Mountain National Park attracts a lot of tourists and they decide to hire a guide for the day and the Big Thompson in the canyon is the best local fishery.

It was already quite warm for 9:30AM as I waded into the Big Thompson just above the last RV. As is my custom I began with a Chernobyl ant and a beadhead hares ear and it didn’t take long before I landed an eleven inch brown as I lifted to recast, but then I began noticing refusals to the Chernobyl ant so I clipped off the two fly combo and began experimenting with different dries that the fish might be willing to eat. I tried a light gray caddis and a small stimulator with a green body but this didn’t even prompt refusals. Eventually I went back to the dry/dropper with a yellow Letort hopper and a salvation nymph, and the nymph produced a nine inch rainbow. After an hour of fishing I’d landed two fish, but I was covering a lot of territory in order to land a few fish and the air was getting warmer.

I worked my way up along the roadside bank prospecting all the decent pockets and slots and landed another small six inch rainbow on the salvation nymph, but I experienced a long dry spell so I decided to replace the salvation nymph with a bright green caddis pupa under the theory that the reports mentioned caddis and a pupa with some movement might create some interest. Sure enough as I was climbing over some rocks to move upstream I allowed my flies to dangle behind me and a rainbow nailed the caddis. I played it for a bit and could see it was a rainbow when it leaped from the water, but then it turned in some faster water and the fly came free.

It was now 11:15 so I decided to return to the car and eat my lunch and exchange my Loomis five weight for my Sage four weight as this is a stiffer rod and better for deep nymphing. After lunch I returned to a nice deep slot and began working the nymphs deep with a lot of movement. You don’t know until you try, and in this case I tried  with no results.  I grew bored with nymphing and hadn’t the fish at least been looking toward the surface and refusing the Chernobyl ant? I removed all the nymphing gear and returned to a gray parachute hopper with the beadhead hares ear below and returned to popping the dry/dropper into the likely pockets.

Pretty Rainbow from Big Thompson

Pretty Rainbow from Big Thompson

Sure enough in one nice pocket a rainbow tipped up and confidently slurped the parachute hopper, but the success did not repeat as several refusals ensued. By now the sky was getting dark and some large gray clouds were building to the west and I could hear distant thunder. I didn’t think it would rain much so I ignored the weather for awhile, but then the rain intensified so I waded to shore and pulled my raincoat from my backpack and slid it on under my wader straps. I pondered the success on the parachute hopper and then the refusals and remembered that one of the fishing reports mentioned drakes as a hatch that was present. I’d seen them on the Big Thompson quite a few years ago. Fish have a long memory for green drakes, so could they be mistaking the gray parachute hopper for a green drake?

Another Nice Rainbow from Big T

Another Nice Rainbow from Big T

I had nothing to lose so I pulled out one of the brand new parachute green drakes I’d tied this winter and tied it to my line. It looked great with a clump of long moose mane fibers for the tail and a white calf body wing that I colored gray with a marker and left the tip white for visibility. I applied floatant and flicked it upstream in a nice pocket and, wham, it disappeared in a confident swirl. Was this a tease like previous single hit flies? I continued casting the green drake and landed two more rainbows in the process, and I was quite excited by this discovery. Unfortunately the water wasn’t offering many good holding spots so I progressed quite rapidly to an area where another fisherman had just been so I decided to exit, return to the car, and drive to another location.

Parachute Green Drake Produced

Parachute Green Drake Produced

It continued to rain lightly as I drove further east on the highway and stopped at the small pullout just before the dirt road that leads to Grandpa’s Retreat. I jumped out of the car and grabbed my rod and gear and walkded down the dirt road until I spotted an RV parked along the shoulder. I wasn’t sure if this was a fisherman, so I decided to cut down to the water ten yards above the RV. I began casting the green drake but now the thunder grew louder and some flashes of lightning lit up the sky. The wind and rain picked up a bit, but I continued on and two more rainbows rose to the green drake. Unfortunately an increasing number of refusals were also occuring and it seemed I was covered more juicy spots with no reaction.

I had now landed nine fish so I focused extra hard to try and net number ten and this led me to an extremely juicy hole just down from the Santa Fe. I flicked the green drake to the foam line in the center of the hole and allowed it to drift right along the current seam to the tail. With my polaroid sunglasses I could see one, then two and then three rainbows rise to within six inches of the fly and then drop back down. I witnessed a triple refusal! It was clear that these fish were not going to be duped by the green drake so I ran through some fly changes….a light gray caddis, a lime green trude and an ant. They were having none of them and I was beginning to feel a bit chilled and it was approaching 3PM with no sign of let up in the weather so I called it a day and returned to the car.

In summary it was a slow day on the Big Thompson, but I at least unlocked the secret to some decent surface action in the afternoon. It was gratifying to see the success created by my parachute green drake invention. I was surprsed that the overcast and light rain didn’t initiate more hatching activity.

Colorado River – 07/17/2013

Time: 9:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Sunset lease, second access west of Parshall

Fish Landed: 5

Colorado River 07/17/2013 Photo Album

With Dave Lach, an employee of Air Products and a friend of my fishing buddy Jeff Shafer, spending the coming weekend fishing in Colorado, I decided to make a scouting expedition to the Colorado River to determine whether it was worthwhile for Dave L. to make the detour to Parshall to fish on Saturday on his way to the Frying Pan River.

The reports indicated that fishing was four stars with pale morning duns, yellow sallies, and caddis present. I’m somewhat skeptical of these reports since I’ve been burned by them, and the fly shops tend to overhype the conditions to attract customers and they are notoriously shabby in keeping the information current. I made one trip to the Colorado River in 2012, and it was very difficult fishing. In 2011 I visited this stretch of river three times with poor results. In the three years prior to 2011, however, I experienced some of the best fishing I’ve ever had in Colorado. So what would 2013 be, Jekyll or Hyde?

I had everything prepared Tuesday night so that I launched from my house by 6:40 and this enabled me to avoid the morning traffic rush and I was the first car in the parking lot at the Sunset access point by 9AM and I was in the water fishing by 9:30AM. Fortunately I doused myself in insect repellent prior to descending the sagebrush bank to the river where swarms of mosquitoes buzzed my ears with every step through the shrubs and grasses along the river.

I decided to head downstream first and walked as far as I could along the north bank and then crossed at the top of an island and began walking down the south side of the island. I spotted another fisherman in the north braid and then another fishermen fishing downstream at the bottom end of the island in the south channel so I tied on a Chernobyl ant and beadhead hares ear and quickly covered the center run at the top of the south braid with no success.

When I got to the top of the island I moved to the south bank where there is some nice smooth water in shadows with moderate depth. The north channel fisherman had now moved to the top of the island as well, and he opted to test the nice riffles along the north bank. Ultimately I had my eye on the beautiful long pool just above me, so I was concerned the other guy would usurp my target water. As I began prospecting the ten feet of water out from the bank, I spotted a few sporadic rises, and determined that the dry/dropper wasn’t what they were seeking so I began a game of trial and error with dry flies. I tried a light gray caddis and a light gray comparadun and a parachute ant. There were a bunch of spinners bobbing above the riffles to my left, so I dug in one of my boxes and found a rusty/tan sulfur spinner I’d tied for Pennsylvania and tested it for awhile as well. None of these offerings did the job and I moved up to a point where a gentle current angled toward the bank and then deflected parallell to it.

In this area I spotted two fish working, I think, although it may have been one cruiser doing a circular route. I believe, however, that a smaller fish was in the nervous water where the current angled and this fish made two or three splashy rises separated by quite a bit of time. The other fish was a large cruiser that was in the slow water just above the angled current and five feet out from the bank. I know this fish was larger because I could see the back fin and the tail out of the water, and the distance from nose to tail was substantial. Unfortunately I placed all the flies I mentioned including double dries over these fish and they would not respond so after an hour of fishing I moved on with nothing to show for my efforts.

I moved on to the previously mentioned long pool as the other fisherman retreated back to the north channel next to the island. The long pool is probably half a football field long and is characterized by a wide riffle at the head that angles toward the south bank and then the main current flows along the bank but there is nice water with decent depth twenty feet out for most of the length of the pool. I elected to wade to the riffle area at the top using the shallow barren north water, and then I decided to tie on a yellow Letort hopper and salvation nymph. The Chernobyl was difficult to see in the sun glare, and the large wing of the hopper was much more visible. I also hoped that the yellow fly might be mistaken for a golden stonefly.

All this was good in theory, but it didn’t pan out in my real life application. I fanned casts across the entire width of the riffle where it enters the long pool and deepens and then worked downstream shooting longer casts close to the bank. It was a lot of exercise with only a swirling refusal to the hopper in the eddy seam below an exposed rock to show for the effort. After this thorough coverage of the long pool area I decided to move on to the next juicy pool upstream. This required a hike along the south bank through swarms of mosquitoes, and when I arrived next to the pool I decided to eat my lunch early as it was approximately 11:15AM.

Looking Up the River

Looking Up the River

After lunch I retraced my steps to the tail of the pool and crossed to the north side and as I did this I spotted some rising fish at the left tail. Having seen the spinners bopping above the riffles, I decided to give the sulfur yellow-rust spinner another try. This turned out to be a prescient move as I landed a pair of thirteen inch browns that smacked the spinner. I was pretty excited to get on the scoreboard, and the fact that they took the spinner was icing on the cake. In additon I experienced a heart stopping swirl, a refusal, in the same area.

First Trout of the Day, 13" Brown

First Trout of the Day, 13″ Brown

I paused to seine the river with my net and found a solitary PMD dun so I replaced the spinner with a size 16 light yellow comparadun, and this created another slashing refusal and then I connected on a fish near the bank, but the weight on the rod was only momentary as the fish escaped. Just above the scene of these near misses I could see a nice fish working the deep trough next to the bank. I positioned myself and made quite a few casts above the fish by shooting line high and letting the fly flutter down into the slow current. In spite of my best presentations I could not fool the nce cruising brown.

Fish Were Rising in Area Next to Grassy Bank

Fish Were Rising in Area Next to Grassy Bank

I finally surrendered to the fish at the tail of the pool and moved up to the midsection where I paused to observe for rises, but none were forthcoming. The top third of the pool looked like nymphing water so I added a strike indicator, small split shot and a beadhead hares ear and pheasant tail, and worked my way back down to the middle as I cast the flies to the current seam and the deep water along the edge of the riffles. I began noticing quite a few yellow sallies buzzing through the air, and then spotted two random rises so I gave up on the nymphs and went back to a fresh never before used yellow sally. I cast the yellow sally to the places where I’d seen a rise, but nothing was doing.

Having now covered the entire pool from top to bottom I elected to hike back to where I began the day. I was above the island and below the long pool and I began to cast to the area where I’d spotted a large brown working in the morning. The yellow sally wasn’t attracting any attention but I spotted another single PMD dun, so I exchanged them, and the PMD also failed to bring any fish to the surface. I pondered my next move and decided to add a parachute ant with an orange wing post as my second dry fly, and similar to the Eagle River, a large fish made my heart stop when it put its nose against the ant but refused to sip it. I made a few more casts, and then switched the fat bump ant for a skinny version. After some more drifts a ten inch brown aggressively attacked the PMD and I had my third fish on the day.

Having disturbed the area on the south bank I turned my attention to the nice long run along the north bank. and here I landed two small browns on the skinny ant. After I’d fished the north bank I waded back to the top of the long pool and observed the area for quite a while hoping a fish would give itself away. I was particularly focused on the nice deep run along the south bank, but nothing cooperated so I quit at 4PM and battled through the mosquitoes to the parking lot and escaped to make my two plus hour drive back to Denver.