Time: 2:00PM – 4:30PM

Location: Just downstream of rock moraine area

Fish Landed: 13

South Boulder Creek 10/24/2014 Photo Album

The meteorologists forecast unseasonably warm weather for Denver, Colorado for Friday October 24 through Sunday October 26, so Jane and I made plans for an outdoor day on Friday. I hiked the Walker Ranch Loop in July 2013 with my friend Don Batchelor, but Jane had only completed pieces of this trail. I had the ulterior motive of wanting to scout the point where the trail intersects with South Boulder Creek, so I suggested that we hike out and back on the Crescent Meadows section, and then I would spend the rest of the afternoon fishing in South Boulder Creek. From the Crescent Meadows parking lot to the bridge over South Boulder Creek was 2.3 miles, so we were undertaking a 4.6 mile hike, and we both felt this was about right.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/-sjQyr7MNpIc/VE2_TpVLDlI/AAAAAAAAoII/fWJ3KL76klw/s144-c-o/PA240041.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/10242014SouthBoulderCreek#6074721816625745490″ caption=”Dave on the Steep Descent to South Boulder Creek” type=”image” alt=”PA240041.JPG” ]

Jane and I completed the 4.6 mile hike on Friday morning in approximately two hours. It was great fun as we snaked through a sparse forest of pine trees and junipers before eventually dropping down some steep steps to the edge of South Boulder Creek. From that point we climbed over a short rocky hill and then found ourselves at the bridge that spans the stream. We passed one biker and four female runners, so we essentially had the area to ourselves. When I checked the stream flows on area streams on Thursday, South Boulder Creek below Gross Reservoir was listed at 91 cfs. As I gazed at the stream as it passed under the bridge, I suspected that the current flow was much less.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-CCP7ZzFuxvo/VE2_VZ2DN1I/AAAAAAAAoG4/BaGP3KLz9gI/s144-c-o/PA240044.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/10242014SouthBoulderCreek#6074721846828414802″ caption=”The Upstream View” type=”image” alt=”PA240044.JPG” ]

Our return hike was a 900 foot vertical climb over 2.3 miles so we were constantly fighting a gradual grade. We began the day with added layers, but by the time we reached the car, we were clad in just T-shirts. It was 1PM when we reached the parking lot, and then we drove to a second lot just beyond the first bend on the north side of the stream. I pulled on my waders and assembled my Loomis 5 weight rod, and Jane and I then descended the steep path to the small tailwater. Jane wanted to set up her chair to read at the base of the path, so we stopped next to the stream and ate our lunches. After lunch I said goodbye and hiked downstream for twenty minutes to a point just beyond a large jumble of boulders that form the base for the trail and then continue down to the edge of South Boulder Creek.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Trc6RLKUH14/VE2_YC65nzI/AAAAAAAAoHY/cuwsqm-9ivk/s144-c-o/PA240048.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/10242014SouthBoulderCreek#6074721892214349618″ caption=”Flows Were at 17 CFS” type=”image” alt=”PA240048.JPG” ]

I could not believe the number of exposed boulders in the stream bed, and I was certain that the flows were drastically reduced from the DWR web site reading on Thursday. When I checked the flows on Saturday, I was surprised to see that the water managers dropped the flows on South Boulder Creek from 91 to 17 in one day! What a dramatic change. By 2PM I was finally ready to fish, and I tied on a size 16 olive deer hair caddis. I pulled my fly line out of the tip, and to test the flotation of the fly, I flicked it into a shallow riffle below me and fed out some slack. It was bobbing along nicely when a small brown trout attacked it, and I had my first fish in a matter of minutes.

My curiosity was aroused, so I floated the caddis through the riffle a second time but allowed it to dance farther downstream until it was just beyond a protruding boulder, and at this point a second small brown inhaled the small dry fly. I released this fish and waded toward the center of the stream, and then I dropped a cast into the short pocket behind the exposed boulder, and trout number three smashed the caddis. What a way to start my day!

I was now rather euphoric as I began working my way upstream, and it did not take long before I landed a fourth brown trout on the caddis in a run that was only two feet deep. However, as I’ve learned through many years of fly fishing, the only constant is change, and now the confident takes changed into frustrating refusals. Obviously my imitation was close enough to attract the attention of the trout, but it differed in some critical way causing the fish to turn away at the last instant. As this thought was bouncing around in my head, I began to observe quite a few tiny black stoneflies flying erratically above the stream, and simultaneously a few sporadic rises caught my attention.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-2k_sfTKmjHg/VE2_Z0JpoXI/AAAAAAAAoHw/VOX2Ejgawnw/s144-c-o/PA240052.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/10242014SouthBoulderCreek#6074721922609422706″ caption=”A Beautiful Deep Pool” type=”image” alt=”PA240052.JPG” ]

I read my two blog posts from October 21 and 23, 2012 before making the Friday trip, and in these reports I described encountering small size 18 black stoneflies between 2 and 3PM. Being a smart fisherman, I stashed five or six size 18 black stonefly imitations in my fly box in anticipation of this event, and now I replaced the size 16 caddis with one of these. The move was magical, and I landed four trout over the next thrity minutes. The fish were gulping the little fake bug with utter confidence, and one of the fish that I landed during this time period was a colorful rainbow that would become my best catch of the day.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-e3ctz-O83Ys/VE2_ZQwfr0I/AAAAAAAAoHo/JDABKayXwFY/s144-c-o/PA240050.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/10242014SouthBoulderCreek#6074721913108672322″ caption=”A Colorful Rainbow” type=”image” alt=”PA240050.JPG” ]

After this fast action I continued moving upstream, but the number of visible stoneflies diminished, and the fish began to ignore my previously red hot offering. The small stonefly with a charcoal colored wing was very difficult to follow in the glare and riffles and thus made a poor searching pattern, so I clipped it off and returned to the size 16 olive brown deer hair caddis. The caddis generated some success as I landed four more trout by prospecting likely lies. The pace of catching was slower, so I moved rather quickly from place to place, but there were enough interested fish to keep me focused.

At 3:30 I looked up and was startled to discover two fishermen in my path next to a nice deep pool. I quickly concluded that they were a father and son team, so I exited and allowed the father to continue fishing with his son while I circled around and above. I allowed fifty yards of space before I cut back to the stream and resumed my progress. Shortly after reentering the creek I approached a spot where the current flowed between an exposed rock and the bank via a three foot wide gap. Below the gap the current formed a nice long deep run that ran for eight feet and was never wider than five feet. I paused to observe and saw two decent fish in the run. One was just below the rock, and the second fish was five feet farther downstream in front of a smaller underwater boulder.

Because of the low clear water I elected to hold my distance and began tossing longer than normal casts to the visible fish. My stealth could not overcome the fact that they ignored my caddis, so I tied on a size 14 light olive stimulator and then dropped a soft hackle emerger off the bend of the dry fly. After several casts a brown trout snatched the soft hackle emerger as it went along the bank. This fish was not one of the two I spotted, and those two, which appeared to be rainbows, ignored my offerings so I moved on.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-s_YXpD4jlmg/VE2_afBD1tI/AAAAAAAAoH0/jLV8aQcZqPY/s144-c-o/PA240053.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/10242014SouthBoulderCreek#6074721934116116178″ caption=”A Nice Brown Trout from South Boulder Creek” type=”image” alt=”PA240053.JPG” ]

My last fish of the day was a brown trout that grabbed the soft hackle emerger as it began to swing away from the bank as I executed a downstream drift on the south side of the creek. By 4PM the shadows covered nearly the entire stream, and the air was beginning to feel cooler. I had quite a distance to hike, and I guessed that Jane was getting anxious to leave. I climbed the bank and made the 15 minute hike along the trail to Jane’s retreat, and I found her folding her chair to head back to the car. My timing was perfect as we gathered everything and climbed the steep path to the parking lot.

It was a fun day on South Boulder Creek with a high temperature in the middle 70’s. I had the stream almost entirely to myself, and the abnormally low flows seemed to concentrate the fish in the deep pools, and the fish were still looking toward the surface for food. This translated into dry fly success. Best of all, I did my homework, and it paid dividends as four of the better fish gulped my little black stonefly imitation.

Time: 10:30AM – 3:00PM

Location: End of path back to the boulder area along the fisherman path

Fish Landed: 15

South Boulder Creek 08/30/2014 Photo Album

South Boulder Creek is rapidly becoming my home water. I can drive from my house to the parking lot below the dam in one hour so it meets the proximity criteria that is associated with home water. Intimacy with the stream is the other factor cited in descriptions of home waters, and with each visit this summer, I am gaining more knowledge of the nuances of fishing South Boulder Creek. Having said that, the only constant in fly fishing is change.

After returning from whitewater rafting on the Arkansas River and fishing in the South Platte River, I needed to spend a full week at work in order to catch up. A few unexpected glitches forced me to work on Thursday and Friday, so I was in dire need of some river therapy, and I scheduled a rare weekend fishing day on Saturday. It was Labor Day weekend, so I was concerned that the local streams would be unusually crowded. The flows on the Big Thompson River and South Boulder Creek were attractive, and I selected the latter since it was a shorter drive, and the Big Thompson attracts more out of state tourists due to its proximity to Rocky Mountain National Park.

I got off to a reasonably early start in an attempt to beat the crowds, but the parking lot was already approaching capacity with five or six pickup trucks and cars present as I pulled in at 9:30AM. Perhaps I did not get an early enough start. It was a very nice late August day with the temperature reading at 71 degrees as I stood in the parking lot and prepared to fish, and the high temperature probably reached 81 in the middle of the afternoon before some large clouds rolled in. The flows were at 125 cfs, and this level is a bit high resulting in slightly more challenging wading than ideal levels between 80 and 100 cfs, but I have fished at higher flows, and 125 is certainly enjoyable.

South Boulder Creek Near Start on Saturday

I hiked down the path on the north side of the stream as far as I could until it faded into dense bushes and vegetation, and then I found a faint spur that allowed me to reach the creek further downstream than any previous visit in 2014. I’m very intrigued with the idea of crossing and bushwhacking even further downstream, but I need to get an even earlier start to satisfy this curiosity. As I hiked along the path, I passed quite a few fishermen on the upper .5 miles, but miraculously the entire lower stretch appeared to be void of competing anglers.

I tied on a parachute hopper as my first fly simply because it was readily available in the small fly box that is attached to the strap of my frontpack, and also because I had a hunch it might produce. I began my day by working downstream to some short but deep pockets on the edge of the creek below me, but this strategy did not produce. Perhaps I spooked the fish because of my presence upstream? This may have been the reason for the lack of production from the parachute hopper, so I left it on my line and reversed direction and worked upstream popping the large dry fly into some juicy pockets and deep runs. Alas the hopper just wasn’t attracting fish even after giving it the benefit of the doubt, so I clipped it off and attached a size 12 stimulator with a medium green body. A stimulator with a gray body had been a top producer for me on two previous trips to South Boulder Creek earlier in the season.

Pretty Rainbow

The stimulator finally generated a rise, and I hooked and landed an eight inch brown trout, but I continued to be disappointed with my ability to attract fish in some very attractive locations, so I replaced it with a green drake comparadun. It was still early in the day for green drakes, but a similar fly was on fire in my previous visit, and large juicy green drakes sometimes draw fish to the surface at all times of the day. Once again these thoughts were sound in theory, but proved to be flawed in reality. I did manage to hook one decent rainbow that rose in a deep run along a current seam, but then refusals became the ongoing pattern. At least fish were seeing the green drake as a food source and checking it out.

Pretty Speckled Rainbow

After an hour of focused fishing, I landed two fish, and I was dissatisfied with dry fly fishing so I elected to make a more dramatic change and converted to the dry/dropper method of fishing. I defaulted to my standard Chernobyl ant and beadhead hares ear with the addition of a salvation nymph, and I began to prospect all the likely spots. This move turned the tide, and I landed eight more fish before breaking for lunch at 12:30. I had a blast moving along quickly and popping casts into likely holding spots, and I picked up fish with rapid regularity. Much of my success came from less obvious pockets particularly when I lifted the flies at the tail before they spilled over a faster chute.

Nice Water Along the North Bank

At 12:30 I approached a beautiful long run and pool and fished up to the midpoint until I saw a nice spot on the bank to sit and eat lunch. As I munched my sandwich, I observed quite a few yellow sallies slowly fluttering above the water and landing in the bushes. I thought about returning to a single dry yellow Sally or lime green trude after lunch, but I was having solid success with the dry/dropper approach, so I stuck with the method that was producing.

Afternoon Brown

After lunch I resumed fishing the long pool, but amazingly the top half did not yield any fish. Between 1PM and 2:30PM I landed five more fish and hooked but did not land at least another three. My catch rate fell off, but the size of the fish improved as evidenced by the fact that most of the afternoon trout that rested in my net were in the 10-12 inch range. For one memorable stretch in three successive small pockets along the left bank, I spotted rainbows holding in front of a large submerged boulder. In each case there was a deep depression in front of the rock, and the fish was a foot or two out from the bank. Because I could see these fish, I allocated more than the usual three casts, and when I lacked success with a dead drift, I began to deploy a lift in front of the nose of the fish. In all three cases persistence and the lifting technique resulted in a hook up on the salvation nymph. It was very gratifying to spot the fish and devise a tactic to entice a take.

Nicest Fish of the Day

It was a fun day although the fishing action slowed measurably from 2:30 until 3:00, and this window coincided with the warmest portion of the day. As I walked back to the parking lot, I stopped at a few places and made some casts, and as I was doing this, some large clouds moved in from the west and blocked the sun. This change in light intensity provoked a sparse BWO hatch, so I swapped the salvation nymph for a size 20 soft hackle emerger. I paused to fish a small pocket as I made my final crossing of the stream and managed a momentary hook up with a brown. I’m guessing this fish slammed the soft hackle emerger on the swing, and perhaps I could have enjoyed additional success by imparting movement to the soft hackle, but I was tired and satisfied with my day, so I climbed up the bank and made the final steep ascent to the parking lot.

Great Water Ahead

Time: 10:00AM – 3:30PM

Location: Began at the end of the trail and ended where the Walker Loop Trail moves away from the fisherman path.

Fish Landed: 23

South Boulder Creek 08/06/2014 Photo Album

I managed to get caught up at work, and that left me with a three day window for fishing prior to our scheduled trip to Olympic National Park. I hoped that my new fishing friend, Danny Ryan, could accompany me on a three day trip; however, I discovered that he had plans for Wednesday evening and was unable to join me until Thursday morning. A successful fly fisherman needs to be flexible, so I pondered my options and decided to return to South Boulder Creek on Wednesday for a day trip. I had a fair amount of success on my previous trip on August 2, and the flows remained at a nice level of 115 cfs. This is higher than ideal, but still allows decent movement. Most of the other rivers within a day of Denver continued to run high from the slug of rain received during the week of July 28.

I gathered my fishing gear and departed the house by 8AM, and that enabled me to begin fishing at 10AM after negotiating fairly heavy traffic. I hiked to the end of the trail on the north side of the stream, and considered crossing to explore virgin territory, but thought better of it when I realized it was already 10AM. I tucked my spare reel containing my five weight sink tip line in my wader pocket just in case, but I began fishing with the Loomis five weight strung with a floating line. The weather was cool and cloudy initially but quickly warmed up as the sun burned through the thin haze.

I elected to begin fishing with the size 12 gray stimulator that produced for me on Saturday, and this served me well in the first hour or two as I landed six fish including a brown trout on my second cast with a downstream drift through a long run of medium depth. I was gloating a bit as I approached a very nice place where there was a deep riffle and run directly above me along the south side of the creek, and a nice wide pool on the other side of the main center current. The pool fanned out where another secondary current moved from the bank back to the deep run in the center of the stream.

First Rainbow Landed on South Boulder Creek

Unfortunately just as I was certain I would increase my fish count in this juicy stretch of water, I experienced refusals to the stimulator as I cast above and across from my position. Remember my comment about being flexible and no constants in fly fishing? I shifted to the pool area, and here with the aid of my polarized glasses, I could see two decent rainbow trout rise and inspect the fly, but they refused to take it. I decided to focus on the fish in this area longer, so I swapped the stimulator for a size 16 gray deer hair caddis, and this did not even provoke a refusal. I noticed one mayfly in the air, so I removed the caddis and knotted on a cinnamon comparadun, but this was ignored as well. Maybe the color was off. I exchanged the cinnamon comparadun for a light gray version, and this got refused once or twice.

Before forsaking the attractive water I decided to make a last ditch effort with a green drake comparadun. I rested the pool area and returned to the riffle and run above me and suddenly a gorgeous rainbow appeared from the seam along the main current and inhaled my offering. With this boost in confidence I turned my attention once again to the two rainbows in the pool, but they were too cautious, and I eventually moved on and congratulated them.

I moved upstream and continued fishing the green drake and added three more fish to my count before I encountered another fisherman at around 12:15PM. I thought I’d waded far enough from the parking lot to avoid fishing competition, but apparently others had the same idea. In fact, after I waded across the stream and climbed the bank to the path, I bumped into another fisherman accompanied by a small dog. He asked where I was fishing, and I told him from the end of the path to below the other fisherman in the stream.

I walked through an open area with a sparse growth of trees, and found a nice spot on a log next to the stream where I ate my lunch. Upon completing my lunch I waded into the stream, but I quickly discovered the same fisherman that I’d encountered in the stream had now moved rather quickly to just below my re-entry point. Once again I returned to the path and hiked a decent distance and then crossed to the opposite side and resumed fishing. Shortly, however, I discovered the fisherman with a dog had apparently done a U-turn after learning that I’d already covered the lower water.

Fortunately the fisherman with the dog moved on before I approached too closely, so I continued wading along the left bank and fished through much of the water that I covered on Saturday, but on this day I did much better. The green drake continued to perform in outstanding fashion. Trout numbers 11-13 came from a nice wide riffle that fanned into a pool along the north bank, and all three slurped the green drake confidently as I executed nice downstream drifts over the length of the pool.

Green Drake Was Productive

It was during this time frame that I made a high backcast and hooked a bare pine tree limb that forced me to break off my initial green drake comparadun. I found a refurbished fly in my fly box that was made with a body of gray sparkle yarn, and it did not have the maroon ribbing that I was fond of using on flies I tied more recently. I was reluctant to use this fly, but decided to give it a test, and I was pleased with the results. It performed beautifully as I landed 14-20 before it broke off on a rainbow that may have been my best fish of the day. I drifted the mutant comparadun downstream tight to the north bank, and as I lifted to recast just before it approached some overhanging limbs, the fish grabbed the fly. I was rather disappointed to lose both the fish and the productive fly.

My Kind of Water Ahead

Numbers 14, 15, and 16 were all very nice fish by South Boulder Creek standards with each falling in the 12-13 inch range. One was a brown and the nicest brown of the day so I photographed it. When I lost the comparadun to the bank dwelling rainbow, I replaced it with a similar sized comparadun, but with a lighter green body. This fly produced three small fish, but I did not have the same confidence in this fly as I did in the previous two because of the lighter body color.

Nice South Boulder Creek Brown Trout

By 3:30 the shadows were extending across a third of the stream and the comparadun was not producing to the extent that it did earlier. In addition the approaching water was not as attractive, so I quit and hiked back to the parking lot.

Largest Fish of the Day Took Green Drake

Wednesday August 6 was a fun day on Boulder Creek and probably my best day ever on this local stream both in terms of size and quantity of fish. Best of all, I discovered that my green drake comparaduns were productive, but there are no constants in fly fishing, so I won’t bank on that level of success again during 2014.

Time: 12:30PM – 4:30PM

Location: Half hour hike from parking lot. About as far as one can go before having to cross to the opposite side.

Fish Landed: 9

South Boulder Creek 08/02/2014 Photo Album

After spending five consecutive days fishing in Utah and Idaho, I returned to Denver and worked diligently on Wednesday through Friday, but I was definitely feeling the itch to fish again on the weekend. During our return trip across Wyoming we encountered heavy rain on Tuesday, and this rain extended through Colorado on Tuesday through Thursday morning. When I reviewed the DWS stream flows on Saturday morning, I discovered that many rivers returned to the levels recorded during the late stages of runoff.

Fortunately the Big Thompson River remained at 128 cfs, and South Boulder Creek below Gross Reservoir displayed a reading of 123 cfs. South Boulder Creek is closer to my home, and I prefer the remote canyon area over the Big Thompson which runs next to a highway, so the South Boulder Creek tailwater became my destination. I stopped for fuel and left the gas station by 10:50, and this enabled me to reach the parking lot near the dam by 11:50AM. I quickly assembled my rod, pulled on my waders and stuffed my lunch in my backpack and began the steep descent into the South Boulder Creek Canyon. I hiked downstream for 30 minutes until I reached a point where a stream crossing was necessary to continue, so I stopped at this point and began to fish.

The air temperature was in the low 70’s with clear skies as I began, and the flows were a bit high for the small South Boulder Creek stream bed, but still conducive to fishing and in fact allowed me to cross in numerous locations. During past visits to South Boulder Creek I discovered that the fish prefer dry flies as opposed to the nymphs that perform well in most Colorado streams. For this reason I tied on the same size 12 gray stimulator that served me well on small streams in Idaho.

Same Rainbow Displayed for the Camera

My first fish was a small rainbow that moved a foot to snare the drifting stimulator, so I was hopeful I made a good choice. Because there were quite a few other fishermen in the canyon, I decided to cross to the southern side and worked my way upstream on the less pressured bank. This strategy combined with the choice of a stimulator proved to be solid, and I landed six fish over the next couple hours.

The second fish of the day was the nicest. I tossed a short cast into a very deep hole in front of a large rock. I expected to make one or two casts and move on, as this location in my estimation was fairly marginal. I was shocked when a large nose emerged from in front of the rock and slurped in the stimulator revealing a very colorful rainbow or cutbow. I didn’t check for a slash, but the spot pattern struck me as more akin to a cutthroat trout than a rainbow.

Nicest Fish of the Day with Stimulator in Lip

After six fish I approached some very attractive water, but a young fisherman entered 30 yards above me from the opposite shore and essentially cut me off. I used this as an opportunity to eat my lunch and waited for him to move on, but unfortunately I noticed he had a momentary hook up, and that caused him to dwell in his position longer than I hoped. I gave up on waiting and waded upstream along the edge of the creek and skirted the other fishermen until I reached a spot forty yards above him, and I was beyond his line of sight. I passed up some very attractive pools and pockets, and now I found myself in marginal water along the left bank. In addition the position of the sun was casting long shadows that made it difficult to follow my earth-toned stimulator.

Nice Stretch, but Cut Off by Fisherman in Top Right

I found a place where I could wade back to the trail and walked up the path a bit until I was beyond three more fishermen above me. After I created a courteous amount of space, I scrambled down a steep boulder field to the stream and resumed prospecting with the stimulator. In this short stretch of water I landed two more fish, but then I encountered another fisherman, and I was forced to once again exit and climb the rocky bank.

Once again I hiked upstream using the trail and again found a spot to cut back to the stream, although this time I found a fisherman path that made access much easier. When I reached the water, I discovered a section that spread out a bit; and this offered easier wading, and I was able to move about much more. It was during this period late in the afternoon that I observed two green drake mayflies flutter up from the stream, so I clipped off my productive stimulator and substituted a size 14 comparadun green drake. It was worth the effort, as the green drake generated two refusals on downstream drifts, but no takes were forthcoming.

Created Two Refusals

Eventually I clipped off the green drake and tied on a size 16 gray deer hair caddis. This size of caddis more closely approximated those that I observed on the water in the late afternoon. This fly also produced some refusals, but eventually a small brown gulped it on a long downstream drift in front of a large submerged boulder. This fish was my ninth for the afternoon, and my watch revealed that it was 4:30PM, so I climbed the bank once again and hiked back to the parking lot and called it a day.

It was a fun day prospecting with dry flies, but it also made me realize how fortunate I was to fish small streams in Idaho away from hordes of fishermen from more densely populated urban centers. I’m already working on a strategy to seek out more remote water during August.

Time: 11:00AM – 3:30PM

Location: One mile from the parking lot where there is a huge mass of large boulders extending from the path to the stream

Fish Landed: 4

South Boulder Creek 05/20/2014 Photo Album

With work commitments scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, I knew that Tuesday was my best opportunity to enjoy a day of fishing. The high temperatures in Denver were forecast to be in the upper 70’s, so from a weather perspective as well, Tuesday was favorable for fishing.

Now the challenge revolved around finding a stream that was still in reasonable fishing condition, as I had not checked stream flows in a week. I went down the South Platte watershed list on the DWR website which is listed alphabetically. Bear Creek was at 132 cfs so I crossed it off. This is roughly six times ideal flows. Clear Creek swelled from 120 cfs to 251 cfs in the last couple days, so that was not an option. The South Platte River below Cheesman Reservoir jumped from 280 cfs to 400 cfs in a matter of a day. 400 is high, and I don’t like water that increased significantly within the last couple days as the fish haven’t had time to adjust. The South Platte River below Strontia Springs in Waterton Canyon was at 222 cfs, and from previous experience that is high for the narrow canyon stream bed, so that wasn’t a good destination. The Big Thompson skyrocketed from 130 cfs to 330 cfs in five days, so this was another show stopper.

I finally uncovered two options. South Boulder Creek below Gross Reservoir was listed at 132 cfs, and I fished it earlier in May at 148 cfs, so I knew this was manageable. The South Platte River near Lake George was presented at 75 cfs and actually this projected the best fishing conditions within a day drive of Denver. I had fished the South Platte on Friday and experienced a fine day, but I opted for South Boulder Creek due to its proximity.

At the Start

I got off to a late start as I had to handle some chores for the workmen delivering sheet rock for the basement finish project, and consequently I pulled into the parking lot above South Boulder Creek at 10:15. By the time I pulled on my waders and prepared my gear for fishing and hiked down to the stream it was approaching 11AM. It was overcast and cool with the temperature in the low 50’s when I began. I had my 5 weight Loomis two piece rod and began with a tan pool toy and below that I added a beadhead hares ear nymph. These flies were not productive and after moving upstream for thirty yards, I swapped the hares ear for an emerald caddis pupa, and added a third fly in the form of a beadhead bright green caddis pupa.

These flies also proved to be out of favor with the South Boulder Creek trout, so after a reasonable test period, I clipped off the bright green caddis pupa and replaced it with a salvation nymph. This finally turned the tide, and I landed two small rainbows on the salvation nymph. By 12:30 I had two fish in my count, and I was feeling hungry and a bit chilled, so I paused for lunch. I removed the fleece that I tied around my waist under my waders and pulled it on, and then I sat next to the stream below a nice pool and ate my lunch while observing the water.

Nice Pool Did Not Yield Fish

The water was high for the relatively small Boulder Creek stream bed, and there were minimal points where I could safely cross to the bank away from the path so I remained on the more accessible side. Most of the water I was able to fish was in the 5-10 feet of space bordering the bank where the high current velocity was broken by logs and large boulders. After lunch I decided to exchange the salvation nymph for a soft hackle emerger since I spotted one or two blue winged olive mayflies fluttering in the air above the water. I stuck with the pool toy, emerald caddis and soft hackle emerger for a fair amount of time and covered a decent amount of water. For some reason I began to experience fairly frequent refusals to the pool toy and disregard for the trailing subsurface patterns.

The normally productive edge water was not producing, so I began to experiment with fishing some of the deep slots and troughs where currents merged as I took a lesson from my success on Friday on the South Platte River. This actually worked, and I landed a very bright and colorful eleven inch rainbow that attacked the emerald caddis. At the tail of the drift as I gradually lifted my rod to make another cast, the rainbow grabbed the caddis.

Bright Rainbow with Emerald Caddis Pupa in Its Mouth

The soft hackle emerger had now been on my line for a fair amount of time without generating any interest, so I decided that there was no significant BWO activity in spite of the overcast conditions. I concluded that I might as well offer something larger and with more flash, so I reverted to the salvation nymph as it had at least produced two fish earlier. I began to direct my casts to the deeper slots and troughs and executed swings and lifts at the end of the drift and managed two land a second brightly colored rainbow on the salvation nymph. In addition I felt the temporary weight of two other fish that reacted to the swing and lift approach, however, I was unsuccessful in bringing these fish to my net. The frequency of contact with fish did in fact improve and held my interest until close to 2:30PM.

Salvation Nymph Was the Top Producer

Despite more action and changing my tactics to prioritize a different type of water and drift, I continued to notice refusals. Once a fish rose to inspect the pool toy but returned to its lie without taking the fly, it no longer responded to repeated drifts. I was bothered by this interest in surface food accompanied by a reluctance to eat the floating morsel, so I removed my three flies and experimented with some dry flies over the final hour. I tried a gray size 16 deer hair caddis and a green size 12 stimulator, but these didn’t even generate a refusal. It was worth a try, but I now reached the pedestrian bridge and decided to cross and cover the same water that I’d cast to on my two hour visit during an earlier evening in May.

A Second Bright Rainbow in the PM

I carefully walked along the path on the south bank of the creek and then dropped down the steep slope to the point where several currents merge in a deep run before the main current then deflects off a large vertical wall. I reverted to the dry/dropper technique and deployed the tan pool toy with a beadhead hares ear and then the salvation nymph. I thoroughly covered the attractive water characterized by merging currents and the deep trough, but nothing responded to my careful presentations. I was certain that this area would yield a fish, but I was wrong. I turned around and moved up along the south bank for another twenty yards, but again I was thwarted in my efforts to land  a fish.

Self Timer

I was now growing frustrated with the lack of action, and it was approaching 3:30 so I decided to climb back up the steep bank to the path and explore the nice water on the south side above the pedestrian bridge. I angled back to the creek a short distance above the bridge and prospected twenty yards of decent water, but I’d lost confidence, and the fish weren’t doing anything to reverse my mental state. I decided to call it a day and made the return hike and ascent out of the canyon to the Santa Fe.

Wildflowers and Cactus

I enjoyed a beautiful day in a scenic canyon setting a little over an hour from home, and I managed to land four pretty fish. While the catch rate was beneath my usual rate, I was fishing in a stream on May 20, and that in and of itself was quite an accomplishment. My stream fishing days in Colorado appear to be numbered, and I will shortly turn my attention to stillwaters.

Time: 5:00PM – 7:00PM

Location: From below footbridge upstream

Fish Landed: 3

South Boulder Creek 05/06/2014 Photo Album

Tuesday proved to be a gorgeous day in Denver, and I was at a good pausing point at work, so I decided to leave early and make my first evening fishing venture of 2014. By the time I left work, returned home, packed my gear and drove to South Boulder Creek below Gross Reservoir; it was 5PM. Traffic was heavy on westbound I70 resulting in an extra fifteen minutes of drive time. In addition, as I drove west I noticed some dark gray clouds hovering over the front range. I chose to place a positive spin on the weather and told myself that some overcast skies and light rain would probably translate to improved fishing.

There were three or four additional cars in the parking lot, so I didn’t have the space to myself, and three young fishermen were stringing their rods and close to departing as I climbed into my waders and put together my rod. The threesome headed down the trail ten minutes before me, but when I made my descent down the steep trail to the stream, I came upon them quite quickly as they jumped in the water relatively close to the beginning of the open fishing water.

I hiked past them and continued a half mile or so until I reached the pedestrian bridge, and here I crossed to the southeast side of the creek. The flows were up quite a bit from my previous visit, and when I checked them beforehand on the DWR web site, they were 149 cfs. I knew from a previous trip that I could fish at 180 cfs, but I also realized that this was higher than ideal and would entail tossing a lot of casts along the bank and behind current breaks.

After crossing the bridge, I began hiking up the steep trail that is part of the Walker Ranch Loop, but I veered to the left and followed a fisherman path along the south bank until I reached a very large vertical rock wall. Here I clambered down to the edge of the stream and fed my line through the guides and tied on some flies. To begin, I attached a tan pool toy and below that an emerald caddis pupa and then added a soft hackle emerger. By now it was quite overcast, so I was covering the possibility that the gloomy weather might initiate a blue winged olive hatch or an evening caddis emergence. It was clear that some adverse weather was moving in, and the temperature dropped considerably so I removed my raincoat from my backpack and pulled it on beneath my wader straps mainly to serve as a windbreaker and add a layer of warmth.

A Tan Pool Toy to Start

Initially I made some downstream casts to some very juicy runs that deflected against the vertical rock wall and gradually covered the water until I rolled out a forty foot cast to a nice current seam where two currents merged. In an instant I saw the pool toy dive and set the hook, but my excitement transitioned to disappointment when I realized that the nice rainbow on the end of my line was foul hooked. After another ten minutes of searching I turned my attention in the opposite direction, and I began prospecting along the left bank and moved upstream covering the forty yards of water between my start point and the bridge. This period was characterized as frustrating as I pricked two or three fish along the way and witnessed several refusals of the pool toy. I was attracting the interest of fish, but I was unable to fulfill my goal of putting some weight in my net.

Starting Point on South Boulder Creek on Tuesday Evening

During this period I somehow broke off the soft hackle emerger, so I decided to replace it with a beadhead hares ear nymph. I wasn’t seeing any natural BWO’s in the air, and given the higher flows, I felt more confident having a larger fly that the fish could see. This seemed to help my plight and after making the change I hooked and landed a small rainbow that struck the emerald caddis pupa. I continued above the bridge and in the next nice stretch of water before a thunderous whitewater chute, I hooked and landed another rainbow on the emerald caddis. I would eventually discover that this fish was the nicest fish of the evening, and I snapped a photo while I held the catch above the stream.

Best Fish Took Emerald Caddis Pupa

It was right around this time that some rain began to fall, and I was quite pleased that I already had my rain jacket in place to keep me warm and protect me from the moisture. The next 45 minutes or so prior to quitting were spent working my way upstream along the left bank. It seemed like the quality of the water and my approach should have been producing more action, but unfortunately this was not the case. While I was fishing the water closer to the bridge, two of the young fishermen that left the parking lot ahead of me passed me on the path along the left bank.

I managed to land one more eight inch rainbow in the last 45 minutes, and this fish struck the hares ear as I gave it a lift next to a large submerged rock, but even repeating this technique that worked once didn’t seem to increase the interest of the fish in my offerings. By seven PM I was feeling quite chilled; mainly my feet that were constantly submerged in the ice cold flows from the bottom release dam, so I decided to begin my outbound hike. As I climbed up the bank to the path I noticed several wet imprints in the gravel, so I began to suspect that the young fishermen had gone ahead of me and covered the water that I was now exiting from. I’m not suggesting that they crowded my space, but it’s always difficult to be the second fisherman through water that was recently covered by others. Fish go on high alert and procure more secure positions. The basic need of safety supersedes the other primary need of food.

I completed the vigorous hike out of the canyon and packed my gear and made the drive back to my home where Jane and I grabbed a quick bite at Burger Works. It wasn’t an extremely productive outing, but it was enjoyable to get out on a weeknight. I had quite a few opportunities to catch more fish, and as always I was alone with my thoughts and challenged trying to solve the riddle of how to entice small trout to eat imitations that I created myself. There may not be many more opportunities before the full force of the heavy snow pack rushes down the streams of Colorado.

Time: 10:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: 1.5 miles down the path from the parking lot. Started fishing at the spot where a large vertical rock makes passage difficult.

Fish Landed: 9

South Boulder Creek 04/25/2014 Photo Album

Temperatures were projected to reach the low 70’s in Denver on Friday, April 25 so I decided to take a day off for fishing. I was frustrated by several difficult trips to the Arkansas River and had my eye on South Boulder Creek. I discovered this fishery several years ago on a train ride to Fraser, and it became my favorite spot for fishing close to the Denver metro area. I checked the flows, and they were running at 102 cfs, and I knew from previous trips that this is a good level.

I took my time on Friday morning to allow the air temperature to warm up, and after an hour of driving I pulled into the parking lot high above the canyon where the stream flows out of Gross Reservoir. I was the first car in the lot, but as I prepared to fish two more vehicles arrived, and two fishermen jumped out of each car. I decided to wear my fleece top and stuffed my raincoat in my backpack along with my lunch so I could hike quite a ways down the path and eat my lunch by the stream.

Just as I was ready to close the hatch and embark on my hike, a Denver Water truck pulled into the lot and a bearded man jumped out. He walked to the trash can and checked it, and then on the return trip to the truck he asked to check my license and that of the two gentlemen in the vehicle parked next to me. We each complied with his request, and then the other two fishermen at the far end of the lot volunteered their licenses for review as well. As I walked to the trailhead, the Denver Water employee called out and asked if I went to Bucknell. I replied yes, and then he told me he went to Penn State. After some additional conversation I learned that he was from Plymouth Meeting, and he did have a bit of a Philly accent.

South Boulder Creek on Friday

High clouds remained in the sky for most of the morning and consequently the sun never broke through to warm the air temperature. As I walked briskly along the trail, I created enough body heat to remain comfortable, but once I arrived at my starting point, I was a bit chilled. I began fishing with a Chernobyl ant and then added a long tippet section of 5X and attached a beadhead hares ear. Finally I extended another 18 inch section from the bend of the hares ear and tied on a soft hackle emerger.

Chernobyl Ant on My Line

I began prospecting some attractive runs and pockets around large exposed rocks and in short order experienced a refusal to the Chernobyl ant. At least it was good to know that fish were present and looking toward the surface for a meal. I experienced a couple refusals to the Chernobyl, but continued working upstream and eventually landed a nice rainbow that gobbled the soft hackle emerger. I cast into a pocket and allowed the Chernobyl to be pulled back upstream by an eddy below an exposed rock, and the rainbow  grabbed the soft hackle emerger and pulled the Chernobyl under, although I actually saw the fish dart away from the rock and grab the subsurface fly.

Very Nice Rainbow Landed in the Morning

The morning and in fact the remainder of the day continued pretty much in this fashion. I fished the Chernobyl ant, beadhead hares ear, and size 20 soft hackle emerger and landed nine fish. One gullible trout nailed the Chernobyl, and two fish snatched the beadhead hares ear in the afternoon. All the other fish that I landed favored the soft hackle emerger.

The sun never appeared in the morning, and because my sungloves were wet from handling fish, the evaporation caused my fingers to ache. This finally forced me to stop for lunch at noon, and I removed the sungloves and placed them in the zippered pocket of my waders. In addition to cold hands, my feet felt like stumps due to the icy flows coming from the bottom of the dam. The sun did come out during lunch and warmed me a bit before I resumed after lunch.

After lunch I found a spot where I could cross to the opposite bank, and I prospected up along the south side for quite awhile. I always favor the side of the stream away from the road or main path, and this did in fact seem to help in the afternoon. Also since I’m righthanded, the left bank was more natural for me to hook casts under overhanging branches and into soft pockets behind rocks and current breaks.

Attractive Stretch with Slower Current

At around 2PM I was wading along the bank when I stepped on something that shifted under my weight. I looked down and spotted a net under my foot, so I reached in the creek with my hands and extracted it. Initially I thought it was fairly old and not desirable, but after swishing it in the water and removing old rotting leaves, I realized it had one of those plastic nets that doesn’t snag ones flies. It was a large net with a long handle, and it had a mayfly logo engraved at the top of the handle and the word Brodin above the mayfly. I decided to try and carry it back to the car with me, but I wasn’t ready to quit fishing so I stuffed it between the straps of my backpack and wedged it between my back and the backpack.

Major Find Was This Brodin Net

This lasted for a bit, but then it almost fell out, so I used the broken cord attached to the ring on the handle and tied it to my belt. This worked better but the net and handle were so long that the net dangled down to the water surface, and it hampered my wading for the last 1.5 hours. At approximately 2:30 I’d gone without any action for quite a while, so I decided to make a change and replaced the Chernobyl with a size 14 stimulator. I removed the hares ear and added a single dropper consisting of the beadhead soft hackle emerger.

The stimulator did arouse some interest, and I experienced two or three rises and momentary hook ups, so I think the fly attracted fish, but it wasn’t exactly what they were looking for. By 3:30 I’d gone quite a while without landing a fish, so I decided to find a rare crossing point and quit for the day.

It was a fun day on South Boulder Creek in a gorgeous location relatively close to Denver. The weather remained much cooler than I expected, but I managed to land nine fish and had four or five momentary hook ups and a couple foul hooked fish. With options quickly diminishing due to early snow melt, it was nice to enjoy some dry/dropper fishing on South Boulder Creek.

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

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

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

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.

Time: 11:00AM – 4:30PM

Location: Furthest downstream point I could go. The path ended.

Fish Landed: 11

South Boulder Creek 10/23/2012 Photo Album

It’s rare in Colorado that I observe an aquatic insect that provokes surface feeding for which I do not have a decent imitation mainly because there are only a handful of significant hatches on the local streams. As documented on Sunday’s post I encountered a decent hatch of small black stoneflies on Sunday afternoon and I struggled to find a reasonable imitation among my inventory. On Sunday night I found myself with some spare time so I sat down at my fly tying desk and created my little black stonefly imitation. I placed a size 18 dry fly hook in the vice and began with some medium olive thread. I dubbed an abdomen of dark brown olive and then added a dark gray wing made from coastal deer hair. Finally I wound two or three turns of dark dun hackle to imitate the legs. I created five of these little black stoneflies, and I was anxious to test them.

Meanwhile the weather forecast looked pretty bleak for Thursday and Friday with the possibility of rain and snow and high temperatures in Denver only in the forties. Tuesday on the other hand was expected to be gorgeous with a high in the mid-70’s, so I shuffled my work schedule to take a day off on Tuesday and then work the remainder of the week. Of course I chose to visit South Boulder Creek so I could test my new stonefly creations on the resident fish, and I was certain they would give me a passing or failing grade.

I took my time getting ready on Tuesday morning to allow for the air temperature to warm and departed the garage at 9AM and arrived at the parking lot by 10AM. I decided to rig my line for nymphing using the newly learned technique, so I sat down at the picnic table in the parking lot and tied all the connections except for the flies. I began hiking down the trail at 10:20 and decided to continue further than any previous ventures. This resulted in a 40 minute hike and ended where the path disappeared just above a stretch where the stream was too rapid to cross and my path was blocked by a huge vertical rock cliff. In order to continue I would have needed to scale the rocky hill to approximately 150 feet above the creek, so I decided to keep this little adventure for a future trip when I have a fishing partner; and therefore, entered the stream where the path ended.

I tied on a salvation nymph as the top fly and beneath that added a beadhead RS2 and began working some deep pockets in a narrow fast section. The third or fourth such pocket produced a small brown that plucked the drifting salvation nymph, but that was the extent of the action on the nymphs as I progressed upstream and eventually crossed to the opposite side.

Several Fish Resided Here But Couldn’t Be Enticed

At noon I found a nice grassy spot on the south bank and decided to munch my lunch as I’d packed it in my backpack. After lunch I removed all the nymph components and reconnected my tapered leader and tied on a Chernobyl ant with a trailing beadhead hares ear. I worked this for a bit with no interest indicated by the resident trout, so I switched the Chernobyl for a stimulator and then eventually swapped the hares ear for a salvation and then a beadhead pheasant tail. None of these offerings worked as I now approached a beautiful long run below an exposed boulder near the north edge. I noticed a couple small dimples indicating that fish were beginning to feed on the surface and I’d also spotted a couple stoneflies flitting about so I tied on the new imitation I’d created for exactly this purpose.  I clipped off the two flies and tied on the size 18 dark stonefly and flicked it to the riffled water at the top of the run. Guess what happened? A small fish rose toward my fly and turned away at the last instant, and then adding insult to injury, this happened a couple more times, but the action was initiated by different fish. I was pretty disappointed with my hatch matching capabilities as I removed the stonefly and noticed a larger mayfly, perhaps a PMD, steadily float up from the stream. I couldn’t find anything on the water so I decided to try a light gray comparadun as I usually do when fishing to a PMD hatch. Much to my surprise in short order a fish rose and sipped in the comparadun for my second catch of the day.  By now three of four additional fish were rising sporadically in the current seam, but the comparadun was not to their liking.

Could they be eating the stoneflies, but the color of mine wasn’t what they were seeking? I decided to try a size 16 light gray caddis and on the first or second cast a fish slammed the caddis, but slipped free as I played it. Again, however, when I cast the caddis to the location of the rising trout, I was severely disappointed as they ignored it just like the previous flies and continued to feed. As a last resort I tied on a different light gray comparadun, but this made no difference and I decided to tip my hat to the fish and move on. Perhaps other segments of the stream held less educated fish.

Playing off of that thought, I slid to the south side of the stream again and continued prospecting with the comparadun. It was difficult to see and fish were not showing themselves until I approached a nice deep pool created by a dead horizontal log. I paused to observe the pool and spotted a rise and as I did this I was standing beneath a tree with some branches that extended over my head. It was around 2PM and all of a sudden the stoneflies got quite active as they swarmed around my face and several actually landed on my skin. Could the rise indicate that the stoneflies were finally touching down on the water? I once again tied on one of the flies I created for this occasion and flicked a cast into the lower end of the pool. Wham! A nice brown tipped its nose out of the water and confidently slurped in my fly. It worked! My observation and efforts to match the stonefly hatch finally paid dividends.

Small Stonefly Rests on Photographer’s Hand

Over the next hour I worked my way up along the south bank and picked off six additional fish on my dark stonefly. This was quite gratifying as the fish were taking the drifting fly without hesitation. By three o’clock the stonefly event had dwindled, and it was fortunate for me, as I lost my second size 18 stonefly on an errant high backcast to a pine bough. I had one more in my front pack, but decided to switch back to a Chernobyl ant with a trailing Craven soft hackle emerger.  Between 3 and 4PM I landed number ten and eleven, and they were the nicest fish of the day. Number ten was a twelve inch brown that grabbed the emerger as I lifted the flies near the end of a drift tight to the bank.

Nice Rainbow Took Soft Hackle Emerger Along Left Side

Number eleven was a gorgeous chunky rainbow that also grabbed the soft hackle emerger. I cast the two fly combination to some still water behind an exposed rock, and since the top fly was barely moving, I decided to lift and recast, but just as I began to lift the rod tip, I noticed through my polarized glasses a quick subsurface flash as the rainbow darted to intercept the rising emerger. I set the hook and the bow dashed toward the main current and downstream a bit, but I applied side pressure and kept the head up to avoid the fish going beneath any branches or rocks.

I kept waiting for a late afternoon BWO emergence, and catching two nice fish on the emerger indicated that the fish were tuned into BWO nymphs, but by 4PM it had not happened, and my two fly offering was no longer generating any interest. Perhaps a deep nymphing set up would work? I decided to place an indicator, split shot and two flies on the tapered leader and experiment with nymphs. I selected a salvation nymph as my top fly and added a beadhead hares ear as the point, but unfortunately this did not produce any action in the final half hour before I called it a day and hiked back to the car.

I was rather pleased to land eleven trout on a beautiful late fall day. The temperature probably hit 70 degrees, and the dark stoneflies produced seven fish. I observed the stoneflies on Sunday, created a match, and used it effectively on Tuesday. Isn’t this what fly fishing is all about?

Time: 12:00PM – 4:30PM

Location: 30 minute hike downstream from parking lot

Fish Landed: 16

South Boulder Creek 10/21/2012 Photo Album

After a rough outing on Wednesday I was anxious to find another opportunity to test the Colorado waters before hanging up my waders for the winter excepting of course the scheduled trip to Argentina in December. The weather forecast appeared to be favorable for Saturday and Sunday, so I chose Sunday as the day to make a late October fishing trip. The flows on South Boulder Creek were 95 and I can reach the water below Gross Reservoir in an hour and the stream supports a large population of rainbows who are not fall spawners, so this became my choice for Sunday.

I left the house a bit after 10AM and arrived at the parking lot shortly after 11. The lot was almost full, and I had to park next to the picnic table in the northeast corner. It was a pleasant day with air temperatures probably reaching the mid to high 60’s as I packed my lunch in my backpack along with my raincoat and assembled my Loomis 5 weight and began the hike down the path at roughly 11:20. I decided to hike beyond my furthest point to date and succeeded in this endeavor. By the time I tied on my Chernobyl ant with a trailing beadhead hares ear it was noon. I extended the tippet section that was tied to the bend of the Chernobyl to roughly three feet as I wanted to get deeper in the higher flows.

The Chernobyl/hares ear combination did not produce through some choice water so I clipped off the beadhead hares ear and added a beadhead Craven soft hackle emerger. Finally after fifteen minutes or so of additional fishing, a decent rainbow grabbed the BWO imitation at the tail of a deep run. Shortly after this, a small brown darted to the surface and snatched the Chernobyl ant. However, after this welcome success in the first hour, I began to experience refusals to the Chernobyl with no attention paid to the trailer, so I clipped off both flies and substituted a gray comparadun. This fly worked well for me in previous trips and the fly shop report suggested PMD’s and green drakes were still hatching.

I approached a nice pool with three current seams feeding the top and spotted a couple rises where the current fanned into the pool. I tossed the comparadun to the top and a nice brown tipped up and inhaled the mayfly imitation. Perhaps I’d chanced upon the winning fly for South Boulder Creek. Unfortunately this appeared to be a fluke because fish continued to rise in the riffled current at the top right of the pool, and they paid no attention to my offering. I studied the surface closely and spied two mayflies lifting off, but they were much smaller than a PMD and likely BWO’s so I switched to a CDC BWO. Unfortunately after a couple drifts, I tried to loop a cast above and to the right of a protruding dead branch, and as I picked up my line, the tiny fly lodged in the end of the branch. The only way to save the fly was to wade over and disturb the pool and the CDC fibers were now saturated and required drying and fluffing.

Nice Rainbow Early in Afternoon

I moved on above this area, but I didn’t see any more rising fish nor did I see anymore BWO’s. What I did see however were small stone flies riding the surface and dapping and fluttering up from the stream. I managed to swipe one with my net and inspected it at close range. It was a size 18 body of dark brown-olive with smokey dark gray wings and black legs. The wings were almost twice the length of the body and I looked in my fly patch and fly boxes and found two size 16 dark olive caddis with undersized hackles, so I removed the one from my fly box and tied it to my line.

Flows at Nice Level

I began prospecting with the caddis in hopes that it would be a close enough imitation of the stoneflies and It was about this time that I approached a very attractive long riffle stretch. The area was roughly 25 feet wide and 30 feet long and I flicked some casts to the lower portion and below some overhanging branches. It didn’t require more than a cast or two and a small rainbow smashed the caddis, now stonefly imitation. I fanned some casts to the left and then covered the middle area and the top and landed six more fish on the stonefly in this area and in some nice water above the riffle area. The teeth of one of the browns broke the hackle stem so I clipped it off and fished the fly with only a wing and body and no hackle. This almost worked better than the hackled version as I landed several of the fish on this fly. One fish took the fly fairly deeply indicating that it didn’t suspect that it wasn’t a real stonefly.

Unfortunately as I moved along, the stonefly activity waned and I went through a slow spell, but around 3PM I began to notice legitimate BWO’s and rising fish. In a pool with some steady risers I decided to clip off the caddis and replace with a size 22 CDC BWO and this did the trick for the next 45 minutes as I landed three additional fish. If I could spot a rise and put myself in a position where the sun glare wasn’t too bad, I could dupe the fish with my tiny imitation. One of the nicer fish sucked in the CDC BWO just as it sank below the surface.

Decent Brown Sipped BWO

Once again however the hatch slowed and disappeared and the shadows began to extend over much of the stream. I exited at this point and hiked up the path looking for stretches of water that remained in the sun. I did manage to find several of these areas and as the lighting was now quite difficult, I abandoned the size 22 CDC BWO and tied on the other size 16 olive brown deer hair caddis. Over the remaining hour I picked up four more small trout on the caddis by fishing in sunlit areas. By 4:30 the entire canyon was covered with shadows although the temperature remained quite conducive to fishing, but I decided to hike back out and return home as I was already running late compared to the return time I’d communicated to Jane.

I was quite pleased to land sixteen fish on October 21 with nearly all taking flies on the surface, and I resolved to tie some size 18 stonefly imitations so I’m prepared for the next visit. I’ve concluded that South Boulder Creek is one of the few streams in Colorado where large attractor style flies do not perform. These educated trout seem to prefer offerings on the small side and flies that actually come close to imitating the real food that they see on a day to day basis. Go figure.