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

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

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.

Time: 11:00AM – 3:00PM

Location: Whale Rock below Nighthawk and then the area just below where the Nighthawk road meets the South Platte

Fish Landed: 3

South Platte River 04/04/2013 Photo Album

With Thursday expected to be a nicer day than Wednesday, and being in wait mode at work until the office manager announced that the numbers were ready for February, I decided to undertake another fishing venture. I looked at the flows on the streams closer to Denver and settled on the South Platte River below Deckers. The flows out of Cheesman Reservoir were 97 cfs and they increased to 117 in the village of Trumbull. This is fairly low, but I’ve seen flows around 50, so I figured it wouldn’t be ridiculously low. I can reach the lower stretch of the South Platte in 1.5 hours so this played into my thouight process as well.

I took care of several chores and departed the house by 9:30 and traffic in Denver was light so I arrived at my destination and was in the water fishing by 11AM. I chose to park at the lot by Whale Rock a couple miles downstream from Nighthawk. The temperature was in the low 50’s when I began fishing so I wore one layer of fleece, and I was quite comfortable. Another fisherman was upstream in the area where the river divided around a small island and I wanted to fish the pool and eddy at the bend so rather than begin further downstream where the river shoots through some large boulders, I elected to begin at the bend pool.

I rigged with a strike indicator on my tapered leader and added a split shot then a beadhead RS2 and a zebra midge. I began at the lower end of the bend pool and began working my way up with casts directed to the seam between the current and the smooth pool on the opposite side. When I reached the midpoint of the seam, my indicator paused and I set the hook and felt the throbbing of a decent fish. The brown trout fought defiantly which surprised me as I expected a small 9-12 inch brown. When I finally netted and photographed my catch is stretched out to around 13 inches. I was quite pleased with this early outcome. When I cast to the very top of the seam I noticed another pause and hooked and landed another brown in the 11-12 inch range. I was feeling pretty confident as I’d now landed two fish in the first half hour.

Decent First Fish on South Platte River

I wasn’t able to coax anymore trout from the bend pool, so I decided to fish up stream a bit along the high bank where the main current ran. I was working the narrow slot between the current and bank but to no avail. Meanwhile the fisherman above me did in fact appear and began fishing the top of the run that I was headed toward. He must have seen me as he retreated fairly quickly, but I decided to return to the area below the bend to water that was totally undisturbed.

I hiked down a narrow path for 50 yards or so and moved into the river where it divided into a small side channel. I began working my way upstream covering a lot of water quickly. The depth was only three to four feet and extremely clear so I made long uptream casts on my side and three quarters casts toward the far side. Nothing was showing interest and in fact I was seeing only one or two small trout bolting for cover as I waded slowly upstream.

Finally I got to a nice deep run with a slower moving pocket on the inside. I was sure this would yield some action, but again I was disappointed. I spotted some nervous water next to the opposite bank, so I quartered a cast up and across. Sure enough as the flies began to swing away from the bank, a brown hammered one of the flies. I set the hook and the fish immediately cleared the water but the hook came flying back. I moved up a bit and in similar fashion the indicator stopped in a deeper trough and I set the hook so that a rainbow launched out of the water. Once again the excitement dissolved as the fly came flying back free of any grip on the fish.

When I reached the bend I decided to adjourn to the car to eat my lunch as it was close to noon. After lunch I walked up the road to the rocky area near the huge boulders. I fished this area thoroughly and carefully, but again no interest was shown if there were in fact fish present. A deep run above the large boulders and below the next parking lot provided another disppointment. I passed an elderly gentleman stooped over the river as he seined the water with his net and moved to another favorite stretch where the river flows next to the dirt road and over a very rocky streambed. I passed the lower portion as it typically fishes better with dry flies or dry/dropper rigs and moved up to the nice long deep run that feeds the rocky pool stretch.

Low and Clear

I ran the nymphs through this attractive area quite thoroughly but once again I was surprised to see no evidence of fish. I was now losing confidence in my ability to land anymore fish under the bright blue sky with the relatively shallow flows and extremely clear water. I rounded the next bend and waded to two or three nice deeper areas where I’d enjoyed past success, but nothing was showing. Another fisherman was now above me in some riffles, so I walked back to the rocky area and clipped off my nymph apparatus and tied on a olive body caddis with a RS2 dropper. Surely this would entice some small browns from the rocky pool area. I methodically covered the bottom end and did notice two decent browns bolt under a large boulder next to the bank due to my wading upstream.

As I approached the best part of the pool, the elderly fisherman who had been seining the water appeared above me. He was at the very top of the pool and began making downstream casts. He kept a distance of around 20 yards, but he clearly was disturbing the top portion of the stretch that I had my eyes on. I fished out a nice pool/run 25 foot stretch where I’d landed fish previously and then climbed the bank and returned to the car.

I planned to fish for another hour so I decided to drive back to the area where the road from Sprucewood joined the road along the river. I parked where there used to be a pay phone and made some half hearted casts to some deep water behind protruding boulders, but again this proved fruitless. After the bend there was some nice water with rocky pockets next to the bank and I’d caught nice fish there in previous visits when I lived in Castle Rock. I crossed over and decided to at least try out one of my newly tied pool toys to see how they cast and float. I attached a tan body pool toy to my line and below the bend added a beadhead hares ear.

I began working upstream prospecting the likely pockets and seams along the northwest bank. I wasn’t catching fish but I was falling in love with the rythmn of casting and following the highly visible hopper imitation. It floated quite well although occasionally the poly indicator material became saturated so I gave it a quick dip in my dry shake. Next I moved up ten yards and reached an exceptionally juicy area where the river flowed along an angled log that protruded from the bank. Between me there was 15 feet of nice water with moderate depth with numerous submerged rocks on the river bottom. As I looked at the water, I spotted two trout nestled in a depression at the very tail of the pool by the point of the log. I began to drift my hopper and nymph over them and on perhaps the seventh drift, one of the fish actually moved from its position as my flies drifted overhead.

Since I wasn’t having much luck moving and prospecting I decided to focus on these fish and I clipped off the hares ear and replaced with a beadhead RS2. Again I thought I saw one of the fish wiggle its tail and move slightly when the nymph drifted by, but there was no take. I cast this combination for perhaps ten drifts and then reeled up and again switched the point fly. This time I tried a beadhead soft hackle emerger, and once again I began flicking casts above the position of the two fish. On the third of fourth drift I allowed the pool toy to drift further downstream than normal and as I lifted my rod to pick up the flies and recast, one of the browns angled up and grabbed the soft hackle emerger. After all this work I’d finally landed another 11 inch brown.

Fish Taken Above Rock Cluster

I released the small brown and worked upstream a bit further to a point where the main current runs along a long slate rock ledge. Dave Gaboury and I used to catch quite a few fish from this area and we called in Dave’s Run. At the very tail I spotted a couple fish dimpling the surface in a fairly regular pattern. I thought about transitioning to a CDC BWO, but thought perhaps I could drift the pool toy and soft hackle emerger and lift the trailing fly to elicit a strike. Mistake. The large indicator fly appartently spooked the feeding trout and the game was over. I belatedly clipped off the dry/dropper set up and tied on a CDC olive and then rested the water for five minutes or so, but the hunt was over and the fish discontinued their feeding.

It was now 3PM and I was quite tired and the fishing remained quite challenging so I elected to return to the car and ultimately to Denver. It was a gorgeous spring day to be outside, but very difficult conditions for fishing in the South Platte River.

Time: 12:00PM – 4:00PM

Location: Wildcat Canyon

Fish Landed: 3

South Platte River 10/17/2012 Photo Album

Normally these fishing reports are about catching fish, but my experience on October 17 was more about overcoming difficult obstacles to experience a day of fishing. Dan called on Sunday and asked if I was interested in going fishing if he took a day off. He indicated that Tuesday and Wednesday were his best options, but he preferred Wednesday so we made tentative plans. I suggested hiking into Wildcat Canyon to fish the South Platte River as we enjoyed some decent fishing in 2010 and 2011 during October on this stream.

As Wednesday approached I frequently checked the streamflows and weather, and the flows of 124 were reasonable and actually favorable since they were higher than our trip in September when the fish were a bit skittish, but lower than my trip in August when it was difficult to cross the river. Unfortunately I couldn’t say the same thing about the weather as highs were forecast to be mid-50’s and lows around freezing. I fished the Arkansas River the previous Friday with a high of 57 and steady rain, so I felt these temperatures were tolerable. We hoped to eliminate the two plus hour drive on Wednesday morning by camping at Happy Meadows Campground near the trailhead on Tuesday night, so I was a bit concerned about the low temperature.

Dan arrived at my house by 7PM on Tuesday and we made the drive and watched the thermometer drop as we traveled south through Colorado Springs and then west over Ute Pass. By the time we reached the campground the air temperature was 45 degrees and there was one other camper at Happy Meadows. Dan and I put up the tent but didn’t stake out the rain fly as there was minimal chance of rain. Dan had his down sleeping bag as well as a second sleeping bag and a small quilt. I had my down sleeping bag and two thick quilts. We put one quilt on the floor of the tent, then placed our pads on top of that, and then our sleeping bags, and then in my case a thick blue quilt was used as a top layer.

Happy Meadows Campsite

We climbed into our cozy quarters by 10:30 and within a half hour I felt a mist hitting my face. Much to our surprise it rained briefly and I had neglected to zip the rain fly. Once I zipped it down, I no longer felt moisture, but I fell asleep to the sound of the light pitter patter of rain hitting the tent. The factor we had not anticipated was the strong wind that blasted the tent all night long. Since the rain fly was not staked to the ground it continually slapped against the side of the tent, and several times I awoke as the tent itself was pushed relentlessly down against my face from the force of the wind. I placed my flip flops on the ground outside my tent door in case I needed to get up during the night, and when I looked for them in the morning, only one was where I left it and the other was forty feet away near the pay station.

Dan found some ice on the tent so apparently the temperature had dropped below freezing, although I was quite comfortable in our cozy tent from a temperature perspective. As we threw all our layers back in the car and prepared a light breakfast using Dan’s backpacking stove the wind continued to howl and I checked the temperature at 9:30 and it was 42 degrees. Evindently a cold front had blown in during the night, and the high of 55 degrees was looking optimistic.

After breakfast we stuffed our backpacks and I put on my waders and wading boots and we drove a mile or two to the trailhead. Fortunately I removed all my top layers except for my long sleeved undershirt and fishing shirt for the three mile hike as we generated quite a bit of body heat. When we reached the river it was flowing higher than September but clear and we were encouraged and hoping for another decent late fall day of fishing. I was a bit concerned about the wind and I’ve never done well the day after a cold front arrives, but we planned to overcome these concerns.

Dan Assembles His Rod

We deposited our packs at the campsite that we used in September and assembled our rods and then hiked further down the path to a point where the canyon narrows and the velocity of the water increases. Here we cut over to the river and while Dan tied on his flies, I began casting along the bank closest to the path. I covered twenty yards of water while Dan knotted on a Charlie Boy hopper and beadhead hares ear. After twenty yards we reached a spot where the river became wider and Dan could wade to the far bank. I began fishing with a gray parachute hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that the fishing was going to be difficult compared to my previous trips in 2012. I was casting to water that yielded nice brown trout during my earlier visits, but during the first half hour these drifts were producing nothing but arm exercise. The same was true of Dan’s casts along the far side of the river.

Dan Ready to Begin Fishing

As I moved upstream I reached a point where a small side channel of water merged with the main river. As I gazed at the junction I spotted several fish moving in the shallow water with their upper fins out of the water. It became pretty clear what was going on; three or four browns were in spawning mode. This probably explained the absence of browns from the lies that had produced fish in August and September.

I continued upstream and after 45 minutes or so my hopper dipped at the tail of a run in front of a large submerged rock and I set the hook and played an eleven inch rainbow in to my net. In short order I landed a second rainbow that was a bit larger on the beadhead hares ear. Meanwhile Dan finally connected on a brown along the opposite bank. The wind continued to blast down the valley and our hands began to ache after releasing fish due to the cooling effect of evaporation. At 1:15 I suggested that we take a break, return to our base camp, eat our lunches and warm our hands.

Casting in Nice Pool Before Lunch

After lunch I decided to change my approach and rigged my line in the manner demonstrated by Taylor Edrington of Royal Gorge Anglers. This involved a thingamabobber, and four foot section of 3X, a split shot, a twenty incher as my top fly, and  a beadhead hares ear as my point fly. Dan continued fishing with the hopper/dropper combination that he used in the morning. We hiked back down the path to the area where we had finished as there was a long pool that I wanted to run the nymphs through. Unfortunately the change in method didn’t really improve my fortunes to any great degree. Over the remaining two hours of fishing I worked the nymphs through some juicy deep runs and pools and landed one more rainbow. After a half hour or so I noticed some tiny mayflies floating on the surface and fluttering up into the air, so I swapped the hares ear for a beadhead Craven soft hackle emerger.

I should point out that I had four or five momentary hook ups in the afternoon that I did not land. I’m guessing these fish were taking the soft hackle emerger, but for some reason I wasn’t doing very well with setting the size 22 hook in a manner that allowed me to net the fish. Dan meanwhile landed a nice brown trout in excess of 12 inches on a beadhead pheasant tail at around 3PM. He converted from the Charlie Boy hopper to a Chernobyl ant and trailed the beadhead pheasant tail and soft hackle emerger. I was impressed with his willingness to fish three flies in the cold windy environment. Just before we quit for the day he landed a small brown.

Nicest Fish of the Day

By 4PM the shadows covered most of the water and the air temperature was plummeting, and combined with the consistently annoying wind created quite a bit of fishing hardship, so we decided to pack things up for the day. We stuffed our packs with our gear and made the three mile return hike in an hour. Once we stowed everything in the car, we fired up the heater and turned on the heated seats and pulled out the snacks. We stopped at Front Range BBQ in Old Colorado City on the outskirts of Colorado Springs for a warm enjoyable dinner.

The fishing was difficult on October 17, but we took pride in camping during sub-freezing temperatures and overcoming the wind and cold to catch a few fish. Wildcat Canyon was as always a beautiful place to be with no other human beings to interfere with our enjoyment of the gorgeous Colorado outdoor environment.

Time: 11:00AM – 3:00PM

Location: Wildcat Canyon 50 yards below campsite to area next to thick willows

Fish Landed: Dave 15; Dan 20

South Platte River 09/09/2012 Photo Album

The temperature dipped quite low on Saturday night, but Dan and I slept late in our warm down sleeping bags until the sun rose above the eastern mountain. I got up at 7:45, and didn’t really need my down parka, although I wore it since I packed it in. Dan slept until 10AM, and after he awoke we lowered the bear bag and prepared our breakfast consisting of two packets of instant oatmeal.

Our Home for a Night

We once again climbed into our waders and grabbed our rods and walked down the path to the spot where we exited the river Saturday evening. Sunday was another bright sunny day with the high temperature exceeding Saturday’s high. Once again Dan took the far side and I remained on the side of the river next to the path. We both returned to the parachute hopper and beadhead hares ear, and on Sunday Dan was attached to a fish almost immediately. As we worked up the stream in parallel Dan continued to be a fish magnet while I couldn’t even muster a refusal. After an hour of fishing I’d failed to land a fish as we approached the deep attractive pool next to our campsite. Meanwhile Dan had landed around five trout with several being quite chunky 12 and 13 inch specimen.

One of the Better Fish of the Weekend

Sweet Pool Next to Our Campsite

As I cast from below into the sweet camp pool, I didn’t attract any interest; but when I got to the top across from where the riffle deflected off the large rock I began casting across and allowing the center current to take my flies downstream along the current seam. Using this technique I landed four or five trout on the beadhead hares ear. Dan was behind me on the opposite side, and when he reached the pool he climbed up on top of the huge boulders and looked down on the eddy along the far bank. He said he could spot 4-6 fish lingering in the eddy, and he picked off two or three before moving on. Unfortunately he hooked a rock and broke off both his flies and had to reconnect his hopper and nymph.

Dan’s Favorite Perch

I continued working upstream and began catching fish at a more regular pace moving from four to thirteen between noon and 2PM. The downstream approach served me well in the deeper runs where I could get above the target area without spooking fish, but I also managed to land some with upstream casts. I was proud to see that Dan’s catch rate continued at a high rate and by the time I caught my thirteenth fish he had already achieved 16. Unlike the previous day, his fly was constantly in the water, and he was spending less time untangling and knotting. His long 25-30 foot casts were serving him well in the 82 cfs flows over skittish fish.

Before we started fishing we mutually decided to quit at 2PM and estimated we’d be on the trail by 3PM and back at the car by 4PM. At 2 we reached a spot where the river split around a narrow island with the channel on Dan’s side being smaller than the main channel ahead of me. I remember that Dan was at 17 at this point, and I was stuck on 13. Dan decided to explore the smaller channel while I continued through the main channel which consisted of a heavy dose of pocket water. I was seeing a lot of small mayflies again so I gambled that a switch to nymphing with a RS2 would allow me to gain on my son. I was pretty certain he’d stay with the hopper/hares ear.

I picked up two more trout in the pocket section on the nymphs with quite a few foul hooked fish and long distance releases. When Dan emerged at the top of the island and we compared notes, I discovered that he stayed with the parachute hopper and hares ear as I expected. Fortunately for him (and not good for me in the fish count competition) the fish continued to hammer his hares ear and hopper and he landed an additional three nice trout to reach 20. I failed to gain ground and in fact slid and ended with 15. But 15 is still a nice total for four hours of fishing in a beautiful setting on a bright sunny and warm afternoon in September. In fact I’m pretty proud of Dan’s emergence as a fly fisherman with his first twenty fish day. I expect there will be many more.

We returned to camp and filled our packs and began the return hike at 4PM. Once again it took an hour to negotiate the trail so that we arrived at the Santa Fe by 5PM and returned to Denver in time to see the second half of the Steelers vs Broncos Sunday night game. It was a great weekend of backpacking, fishing and spending time with my son.

Time: 1:30PM – 6:00PM

Location: Wildcat Canyon from just above cascade and narrow canyon to 50 yards below our base camp

Fish Landed: Dave 18; Dan 8

South Platte River 09/08/2012 Photo Album

In 2008 and 2009 Dan and I backpacked into Wildcat Canyon in September of each year and had a great time. A three mile hike is required, and as a novice aging backpacker this is about right for me. After this relatively mild exertion, a beautiful world is pretty much exclusively available to the camper with the cold South Platte River in close proximity. The river valley is fairly wide for most of the stretch available for camping with nice flat areas and the large ponderosa pines are spread out with soft pine needles covering much of the ground. Several well used camp sites are obvious with crude rock fire pits already constructed.

I hiked in to this area in late August and experienced a fabulous day of fishing and of course when Dan heard this tale, he wanted to make the trip again. The only problem was when? Initially Dan was scheduled to go on another weekend camping trip with another couple, but that fell through at the last minute, so we jumped on the opportunity to do Wildcat Canyon on September 8 and 9. Dan met me at our house at 7:30 on Saturday morning and we transferred all his gear to my car and rechecked our lists of necessities. We were on our way by 8AM and stopped in Woodland Park for some last minute food items. Once again we were on our way and reached the trailhead by around 11:30. It took us a bit of time to finalize our packs and attach fishing gear to the outside of our backpacks, and we were probably on the trail by noon. Because my wading boots and waders consume much space in my pack, I elected to hike the three miles in my waders. It turned out to be warm but tolerable.

Once we hit the river we continued on the trail to the place where a fire ring and a log bench are right next to a beautiful pool on the river. We’ve used this on previous trips to stash our gear and set up for fishing. We ate our lunches and then prepared our rods and hiked down the path to a point just above the falls where the canyon narrows between some vertical rock walls. Dan waded to the far side of the river and I took the near bank and we began fishing at around 1:30PM. The flows were 82 cfs, and that was 50% of the level when I fished earlier in August. Because it was a bright sunny day and we were beginning at 1:30 in the afternoon and the flows were down, I didn’t expect much from the river.

I began with a parachute hopper with a hares ear body and a beadhead hares ear nymph and was immediately surprised with a decent brown on the first cast. Just as on my previous trip the brown attacked the nymph late in the drift. Dan was still tying on his flies as I landed another brown on the fourth cast and then a rainbow and another brown. Within the first half hour I had landed five trout, and I was beginning to think this would be a repeat of my earlier stellar trip. Meanwhile Dan finally got his flies in place and began landing fish quickly as well. By the time I landed number five he was at three or four.

Dan About to Release Nice Catch

Unfortunately after the first half hour the catch rate dropped off significantly. I began seeing some tiny mayflies lifting off the surface of the water, and as this happened the fishing went from ridiculously easy to requiring more casts and covering more water. By three o’clock I’d landed nine trout with a few in the thirteen inch range, but on average they were smaller than my earlier trip. After a half hour of seeing the small mayflies I added a RS2 below the beadhead hares ear as a third fly. The RS2 didn’t really produce any fish, but it did increase the number tangles I had to undo.

Following His Drift

Meanwhile Dan picked up a few more trout and several appeared to be decent sized browns. Unfortunately there were a series of downed dead evergreen trees covering half the width of the stream on his side of the river. Dan could spot fish behind the natural structure, but he was also casting a bit long and creating his own messy tangles. Dan’s knot tying proficiency is not as advanced as mine, and extricating himself from tangles consumed a higher percentage of fishing time.

I totally lost track of the time and it seemed to be getting dark early as the shadows extended across the river. The sun fell behind the mountains by around 4PM and the combination of the shadows and my sunglasses made me think it was approaching darkness. As the fishing slowed at 3:30 in the afternoon I noticed more and more small mayflies slowly fluttering up from the water so I decided to try deep nymphing with a strike indicator. My past experience has taught me that this method of fishing is more effective when fish are tuned into active nymphs than dead drifting a nymph below a large attractor indicator fly.

I crimped a split shot on my line above the last knot, added a strike indicator, used a clinch knot to attach a beadhead hares ear, and then knotted an RS2 below the BHHE as my point fly. This proved to be a strategic plus as I began catching fish on the nymphs. Initially I landed two or three fish in an attractive deep run, and I was concerned that my fishing method would only be effective in this type of water. But I also began catching fish in riffles of moderate depth and even in some fairly shallow areas along the edge. Perhaps half the landed fish snatched the hares ear and the other half grabbed the RS2. I also experienced quite a few long distance releases and several foul hooked fish. I’m always amazed when I make an upstream cast with a split shot to shallow water and I lift the flies almost immediately after entry to make sure the split shot isn’t hung up and a fish grabs the nymph on the lift.

A Pretty Rainbow Landed by Dave

After an hour or so of me catching fish, Dan asked me to rig him up with nymphs. We met in the middle of the river and I set up his indicator and split shot and tied on a hares ear and RS2 from his fly box. Dan picked up two or three fish after going to nymphs, but he definitely favors fishing dries or dry/dropper over nymphing.

Filtering Process Begins

Setting Up Tent Is Next

By 6 o’clock I thought it was time for bed and the fishing had slowed and I was quite weary after the strenuous hike in the heat so we decided to exit the river and return to the base camp. Dan only transported a water bottle quantity of water from the car, so he immediately filtered some water and filled his camelback. Next he set up the camp stove and started the beans and rice which required 30 minutes of cook time. While dinner cooked we set up Dan’s luxurious two person tent that features foyers on each side and a dangling storage caddy below the ceiling. After our tasty dinner we made a campfire and stayed warm until curling up in our sleeping bags at 9:30. I fell asleep dreaming of the 18 fish I’d landed, with nine coming after my switch to indicator nymph fishing.

And Finally a Blazing Fire

Time: 10:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Wildcat Canyon

Fish Landed: 35

South Platte River 08/17/2012 Photo Album

On my second day of back to back fishing I decided to make the trek to Wildcat Canyon on the South Platte River. I did this last year at the end of August with the Costantini’s, and I wanted to see what it was like a bit earlier. The stream flows were at 167 cfs compared to 150 at the time of the Constantini vacation. Would this make fishing too difficult? One expects conditions to be good when committing to a three mile hike to access the river. Realizing that a two hour drive and one hour hike were in my future, I departed the house at 6:30AM. I encountered some minor traffic slow downs, but on the whole the trip was as expected and I arrived at the trailhead at around 9:15. I applied sunscreen and filled my backpack with the essentials for a day of fishing three miles from the car; lunch, raincoat and fishing essentials were included

Base Camp

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I set off at a strong pace, but it took me an hour to negotiate the gravel trail through the sparse vegetation and ponderosa pines. I established a base camp at the large log bench, the same spot selected on the Constantini trip and on previous trips with Dan and Jane. I put on my waders and prepared to fish and stashed my backpack, lunch and spare rod under a tree by the river. I headed down the path to a spot just above the narrow cascade where the river shoots through some rock canyon walls. The river was higher than any previous visit, but quite clear and there were numerous good holding spots. I didn’t want to risk crossing the swift current in the center of the river, but there was plenty of water to cover.

Flows Were Up at 167 CFS

Unlike the previous day, Friday would prove to be a day of minimal fly changes. I began with a yellow Letort hopper and knotted a beadhead hares ear to the bend with a long tippet extension of approximately 2.5 to 3 feet to account for the extra water depth. I began tossing casts at the tail of a nice long pool and stood below where the current spilled over a large rock. On the fifth or sixth cast the hopper dipped as the fly began to drag at the lip and I lifted my rod to make sure I wasn’t snagged. Instantly I felt some weight and the throbbing of a nice thirteen inch brown and brought it to my net and photographed my first fish of the day. After releasing this surprising catch, I landed a second twelve inch brown in virtually the same spot and then a third four or five feet further up in the pool.

First Fish of the Day

The next hour would continue in roughly the same manner as I hooked and landed nine fish before 11:30. All the fish except one were brown trout and all hammered the beadhead hares ear and all were taken from the pockets and runs in the fifteen feet of water out from the right bank. I did prospect some of the attractive mid-river holding areas, but these casts were not productive. I added a tenth fish to my total in the next half hour as things slowed down a bit and decided to exit the river at the tail of a long smooth pool and return to my base camp.

When I arrived back at the long log, I ran some drifts through the delicious large pool next to the campsite, but this didn’t produce any action. I returned to the log and pulled out my lunch and found a spot next to the large pool and observed while eating. There was little insect activity evident as I watched.

Pool Next to Lunch Spot

After lunch I grabbed my rod and gear and hiked back down the path to the point where I exited the lower end of the long smooth pool where I began working my way upstream. The slow deep water proved to be unproductive, however, when I resumed fishing the faster water above the pool with more rocks and short pockets and runs, I picked up another pair of browns. It was around this point that I decided to forego the Letort hopper which required frequent attention to maintain buoyancy, and substitute a Chernobyl ant. The fish were locked on the beadhead hares ear and ignoring the hopper, so why not use a foam fly as an indicator.

At around 1PM some clouds moved in and blocked the sun for longer periods, and during these intervals I noticed some tiny mayflies rising from the stream like miniature hot air balloons. This prompted me to add a third fly below the hares ear, a RS2 imitating a BWO nymph. This combination would serve me well between 1 and 3 PM as I experienced some of the most ridiculous insane fishing of the season.

I flicked the Chernobyl and trailing nymphs to all the likely pockets and spots within 10-15 feet of the right bank and the fish were all over the nymphs. In addition an occasional brown would slurp the Chernobyl, but the most popular fly to the chunky browns was the hares ear nymph. It was one of those rare occasions where the fish weren’t that selective, and I didn’t have to go through a series of fly changes to figure it out. Most of the time I made casts directly upstream and the Chernobyl would stop or pause and I’d lift the rod and find myself attached to a fish. A few times a fish jumped on the nymph as soon as it hit the water. I’m always amazed by this circumstance as it is almost like the fish was looking for a nymph to fall in the water, a totally unnatural occurrence.

Pretty Typical Chunky Brown

I landed a couple of fish on the RS2, but I concluded it was largely a nuisance and unnecessary as the beadhead hares ear was the main fish attractor. Two or three times I landed a fish with the Chernobyl in its mouth and in the fish’s efforts to escape, it wound the two trailing nymphs in a ridiculous tangle around the top fly. I’d have landed even more fish without these interruptions to untangle a massive monofilament mess. After the third such episode I clipped off the RS2 and the hot fishing continued unabated.

For two to two and half hours I rolled up fish after fish and finally finished with 35 landed. The catch rate did slow a bit over the last half hour, but I’m sure I could have continued landing fish until dark if I didn’t have the prospect of a one hour return hike and two hour drive back to Denver before me. The mystery of Friday is why were the trout so aggressively feeding on my beadhead hares ear nymphs? Why did I catch all browns except for one rainbow when previous trips yielded a majority of rainbows probably in a 60/40 ratio? Why did I catch fish along the edge and not in the middle?

Nice Buttery Color on This 13″ Brown

My theory revolves around the change in stream flows. The chart showed a slow reduction in flows from 200 to 167 so perhaps the fish were forced to the banks by the higher water and found it to their liking. Browns like the rocky margins of a stream so that is why I caught primarily browns. Perhaps the higher flows prevented them from feeding, and my hares ear nymphs were a welcome relatively large treat tumbling along in their feeding lane. The other surprising thing to me was the size of the brown trout. Nearly all the fish were chunky fish in the 12 to 14 inch range. They were brightly colored healthy fat fish that put up strong battles for their size. These fish were clearly larger on average than the rainbow/brown mix I experienced in previous trips.

It was a great day of fishing in a remote environment with no one else present. I passed three backpackers coming in along the trail on my hike back to the car. I’ll certainly figure out a way to return as soon as I recover from the physical exertion.

Time: 5:00PM – 8:00PM

Location: From Deckers upstream to parking lot around the bend

Fish Landed: 0

South Platte River 06/12/2012 Photo Album

The days were approaching their longest length, and I had a new fly rod begging to be tested so I packed all my fishing gear in the Santa Fe on Tuesday morning and planned to drive directly from work to the South Platte River in the Deckers area. The plan worked reasonably well and I arrived at the first parking lot on the dirt road that heads straight from Deckers and was ready to fish by 5PM. Some large dark clouds appeared in the western sky and it seemed much later in the evening than it actually was.

Stretch Above Deckers

I walked down the dirt road a good distance until I was just above the large pool by the bridge at Deckers. Another fisherman was on the opposite shore at the top of the pool, so I decided to drop down to the river fifty yards above him, even though I was on the opposite bank. I began fishing with an orange scud and bright green caddis pupa on a nymph set up with an indicator and split shot and began covering all the deeper slots and runs for 20 yards or so. Nothing was doing. I switched out the orange scud for a San Juan worm and continued but still no action. I also tried a beadhead hares ear and beadhead pheasant tail on the nymphing tandem.

After covering quite a bit of nice water with no results, I elected to go with a dry/dropper setup as the water wasn’t excessively deep. I began with a yellow Letort hopper and dangled a bright green caddis pupa as well as a beadhead hares ear, but these combinations were equally ineffective.

Toward the latter part of the evening, I clipped off the hopper and nymph and went with a muggly caddis and then a light gray deer hair caddis and finally an olive brown deer hair caddis. Frustrated with the lack of success with these dries, I resorted to fishing classic wet fly style. I just read an article in Fly Tyer about situations when wet flies work when nothing else produces. I was in that very situation. I tied on a beadhead bright green caddis as the top fly and an old hares ear wet fly at the point and began cast across and letting the tandem sweep down and across below me. I did this without the aid of a strike indicator, but alas this also proved to be fruitless. I removed the hares ear wet fly and replaced with an olive and black woolly bugger and imparted action, but this also was not effective.

My last tactic was to stop and watch the water for any signs of rising fish. This actually worked as I was on a large rock overlooking the river and there were some beautiful slower moving areas opposite me and the main current. I saw two separate rises toward the tail so I tied the caddis back on and placed numerous casts in the area, again to no avail. I decided to flick some casts to a small current that fed the pool and on one of these drifts a fish rose in the small current area. I set the hook thinking it was on my fly, but that was not the case. Either the fish took a real natural next to my fly or I witnessed a refusal.

New Rod in Action

After attempting a few more casts to the area with sporadic rises, I decided to reel in and call it an evening. My feet felt like stumps from standing in the icy tailwater flows. The Orvis Access is light yet stiff and casts quite well, but I still don’t know how it feels to have the weight of fish on the new rod.

Time: 2:00PM – 5:00PM

Location: Cheesman Canyon, Cows Crossing to Rainbow Bend

Fish Landed: 3

South Platte River 05/28/2012 Photo Album

After hosting a Memorial Day party on Sunday, Jane and I decided to take a break and visit one of our favorite places in Colorado, Cheesman Canyon. Cheesman Canyon can only be accessed by hiking on the Gill Trail for two to three miles, and it is a beautiful setting as the clear cold South Platte River cuts through a deep canyon with massive boulders and tall ponderosa pines. We packed our lunches, water and fishing and hiking gear and got off to a late start. As we descended to the South Platte drainage at Nighthawk and began driving along the river it was evident than a lot of folks were taking advantage of the 75 degree sunny day and the Memorial Day holiday.

We couldn’t find a parking space at the Wigwam parking lot so circled back to the dirt road that crosses the Gill Trail and parked along the shoulder. I stashed all my fishing gear in my backpack as it was too warm to hike fully attired in chest waders. After a forty minute hike we found a small shaded spot on a large slanted rock next to the river just above Cows Crossing and munched our lunches. Leftover teriyaki chicken from the Sunday cookout was a tasty highlight.

Jane at Our Lunch Spot in Cheesman Canyon

After lunch I rigged my Scott six weight, clipped on a split shot and knotted a green caddis larva and RS2 to my line. Jane found a thingamabobber in a small eddy next to our lunch rock, so I attached that as my strike indicator. I walked up the right bank twenty yards and began working the deep runs. Having failed to receive any response to my offerings I skipped around a huge boulder and found a nice deep spot where the current funneled around another large boulder and fanned against the boulder I circled. Here on the tenth drift along the edge of the faster current a nice fourteen inch rainbow grabbed the RS2 and I battled it to the gravel beach where I snapped a quick photo.

First Nice Rainbow Landed Near Start After Lunch

I continued upstream to a very nice spot where the river widened and tumbled over some rocks creating a nice wide fan shaped riffle. On an early upstream cast something caused the strike indicator to dart and I set the hook and momentarily felt the weight of a fish. But just as quickly the fish was off, so I continued casting and after quite a few drifts fanned out over the top of the riffles I managed to hook and land a 12 inch rainbow that was also deceived by the small beadhead RS2.

The next stretch featured some fisherman gymnastics as the steep canyon wall met the river and left only a single way to progress which involved contorting my body to squeeze through some small openings between the rocks. The area actually felt like a grotto with the large rocks and small openings and water running beneath me. On the other side of the boulder garden the river wasn’t as attractive and as I fished fairly quickly Jane appeared high on the trail above. She negotiated her way down the steep trail and met me at Rainbow Bend where we took some photos.

White Water Run Framed by Huge Boulders

The other side of rainbow bend featured a long pool and I covered this water with my nymph combo to no avail. I could see quite a few fish, but I suspect the splash of my indicator, line and split shot in the slower moving water was spooking them or at least alerting them to my presence. The green caddis larva had yet to produce any fish, so I decided to exchange it for an orange scud. Orange scuds had been very effective on the South Platte in May when I used to fish it prior to the Heyman fire.

At the top of the long pool there was a nice deep area where the riffles consolidated into a long deep run with deep water on both sides of the run. I fished this area thoroughly and as I was about to continue, I slung a long cast to the very top of the riffle where it dropped off into the deeper water along the main current. Wham! The indicator darted and I set the hook and I was attached to a large torpedo. Fairly quickly I received a glimpse of the large rainbow as it turned broadside in the current and shot downstream beyond my position a bit. I held tight and let it run, but when it paused I used the power of the six weight rod to turn it and maneuver it to the side. The rainbow then began a tactic of rolling on the line, but the orange scud held and I was able to scoop the big guy into my net. I let out a couple whoops of glee and as I carried my net to the gravel beach for a photo, Jane reappeared high on the trail above. She was amazed at the size of the fish as I held it with two hands for her to see. The fish extended beyond the opening of the net by two inches and carried impressive girth.

Monster Rainbow Took Orange Scud

I fished a bit longer but couldn’t create any success, so as the shadows began to extend I climbed up to the path and hiked back to meet Jane at our lunch base camp. We packed up all our belongings and made the long hike back out of the canyon to the car and returned to Denver.

Monster Rainbow Took Orange Scud

Time: 10:30AM – 3:00PM

Location: Whale Rock area and then just past town of Trumbull

Fish Landed: 10

South Platte River 03/13/2012 Photo Album

Would all you readers agree that a ten fish day on March 13, the first outing of the season, is a great day? Somehow the accomplishment felt cheap, but you’ll have to read on to understand.

High temperatures were forecast to be 75 degrees in Denver so I made a spur of the moment decision to take the day off and head to the South Platte River downstream from Deckers. I checked the flows and they were in the low 200’s, and that is pretty nearly ideal for the South Platte in that area. I checked a report, and it said the water was clear and unaffected by snow melting at the lower elevations. I took my time getting ready in the morning as I knew the air temperatures would be rather chilly until late morning so there was no need to be there early. I created a fishing packing list on my iPhone in hopes that it saves me from forgetting a critical item on future trips.

The Santa Fe was out of the garage by 8:45 and I was on the water fishing by 10:30AM. As I suspected the air temperature was in the low 40’s when I began so I wore my Adidas pullover and a fleece layer on top of that. I parked the car in the Whale Rock area and hiked down the road a bit and then down the steep bank to my traditional first day starting point just above a steep cascade among the many large boulders. I decided to go back to my historical South Platte workhorse combination of a pink San Juan worm and beadhead pheasant tail. I worked the nice deep eddy in front of me, but despite some great drifts didn’t connect with any fish. I clipped off the pheasant tail and replaced it with an orange scud and moved upstream.

It didn’t take long before I snagged on the bottom and in my efforts to extract the flies, I snapped them both off. I only had one more pink worm with me, and it wasn’t producing so I plucked a beadhead hares ear from my patch and below that I tied on a teal baetis nymph. Again I began to work the water upstream to the large bend and eddy just below the parking lot. The river at this point deflects off the far bank and then slowly rolls through a fairly deep hole with a small slow moving eddy and surface foam between the hole and the bank. I spotted a sporadic rise in the foam, but decided to stick with the nymphs before going to a dry. I didn’t see any blue wing olives on the water, but did spot the occasional midge, so I assumed the fish were sipping midges in the surface foam. I clipped off the teal baetis nymph and replaced it with a tiny dark olive midge larva. This fly is about as basic as it gets with dark olive thread for the body and a fine silver rib and a silver bead.

Ten Fish Landed from This Run and Eddy

I drifted the nymphs along the seam and on the fifth drift the indicator made a subtle pause. I thought I was hung up so I lifted the rod and was surprised to feel a tug. I played the fish for a bit before it released itself downstream. I cast again and sure enough saw another pause and set the hook harder this time and landed a small brown. This was the first fish of the season so I snapped a couple photos even though I was too far from the bank to position it on my net as I normally do.

Same Fish Held Out of the Net

The next hour proved to be a great introduction to 2012. I kept running the two fly nymph combination through the deep run and along the seam and landed another nine fish. They were all browns in the 9-11 inch range, and they were mainly taking the tiny midge larva fly.  Perhaps two fell for the beadhead hares ear. One of the last of the ten probably extended to around a foot and I photographed this one on my net on the bank below the parking lot. Meanwhile the cruisers continued to sip something very small in the eddy across from the subsurface action.

Largest Fish of the Day

At noon the action slowed and by now my feet were numb from the ice cold water. I decided to head back to the car and eat lunch and warm up my feet. After lunch I eagerly anticipated testing the two flies on different stretches of the river, so I wandered upstream a bit to an area with huge boulders and numerous large deep pockets and runs. This water was slightly faster than the bend pool. I managed one temporary hookup, and saw another decent fish follow my flies as they did a swing at the end of the drift, but failed to take. I moved on above the last large boulder and attempted a few casts where the water cut deep in front of the boulder, but again no action.

I've Named This Area Whale Rock

I returned to the car and drove to the next U-shaped parking lot above the large boulder area. From here I hiked up the road to the rock garden area that has always produced for me in past trips. Unfortunately Tuesday was not going to be one of those days. I cast to all the likely areas with no success and didn’t even spot a fish. When I reached the end of this stretch of water, I returned to the car and decided to drive to the upper special regulation water just below Deckers. I parked in a lot just beyond the town of Trumbull and hiked down the path and then fished upstream to the large bend where I encountered another fisherman. I spent an hour in this water and spotted one fish. I worked my nymphs deep through some juicy holes and runs to no avail. When I spotted a small fish and it didn’t respond to my nymphs, I decided to try a dry dropper and tied on a yellow Charlie Boy hopper trailing a beadhead RS2. This didn’t work either and I continued fishing this combination upstream through some nice water for the next 15 minutes.

When I encountered the other fisherman blocking my path upstream I decided to move one more time. I returned to the car and drove up the road around the bend to the next pullout. But it was now 3PM and my heart was no longer in it, so I removed my waders and drove back to Denver.

Ten fish on my opening day is a great story, but I’m disturbed by the fact that I caught them all in the same place over a one hour period and couldn’t land a fish anywhere else. Perhaps the fish are still schooled in ideal winter holding locations, and I didn’t manage to find any more of these spots? The fishless afternoon certainly destroyed the confidence I built up from 11-12.

Time: 10:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Wildcat Canyon

Fish Landed: 23

South Platte River 10/15/2011 Photo Album

When I spent a weekend at Gregg Sutherland’s cabin, we hiked in to Wildcat Canyon with his golden retriever Angie and along the way Gregg caught a couple grasshoppers, clipped their wings, and tossed them in the river. In both cases we watched as the hopper drifted downstream 8-10 feet and a fish confidently rose and inhaled the hapless creatures. I inspected the body of the hoppers and they were a segmented cream color. I decided I needed to tie some cream body parachute hoppers for my fly collection.

On my last trip to the Big Thompson I had great success with a size 16 light gray deer hair caddis and broke my wading stick. I inspected my light gray caddis supply and was surprised to learn I only had a few remaining. Clearly I needed to get busy and tie some more light gray caddis for late season fishing.

The weather forecast was predicting a four or five day stretch of beautiful Indian summer weather for Denver culminating in projected highs in the low 80’s for Saturday. I called Dan early in the week and asked if he’d be interested in a hike into Wildcat Canyon on Saturday. He agreed to join the adventure, and Jane signed up for the hiking aspect as well.

Jane's Spot While Dave and Dan Fish

On Thursday evening I sat down at the vice and cranked out four cream body parachute hoppers and on Friday afternoon I wrapped things up early at work and returned home to craft a new wading staff made from a street hockey stick. Next I returned to my fly tying desk and quickly made eight size 16 light gray deer hair caddis. I divided the hoppers and caddis flies between my fly patch and a small fly box for Dan.

Everything was set and Dan arrived on Saturday morning at 7AM, and we packed the car with our fishing gear and lunches and began our drive. When we arrived at the turn off on the dirt road that reaches the Platte River trailhead the temperature was 33 degrees, and it improved to only 35 when we parked and began stuffing our backpacks for the two mile hike to our fishing destination.

We arrived at the river by 10:30AM and set up a base camp at the same location we used last October and when I did the same trip with the Costantini’s in late August. Jane put down her blanket and prepared to read her Kindle while Dan and I pulled on our waders and then hiked down the path a short distance. The air temperature was warming as the sun moved higher in the blue sky and I fished with only a fleece over my fishing shirt. The river was running higher than normal, but still quite clear. Dan waded to the far side and I took the bank along the path.

Dan Prepares to Release Brown Trout

I tied a cream parachute hopper on Dan’s tippet and I decided to prospect with the light gray caddis. On Dan’s second cast he hooked an 11 inch brown, but it broke off the hopper as he was attempting to net it. He replaced the hopper with his second cream hopper. Nearly simultaneously I hooked a brown on the caddis as it began to drag at the end of a drift. It was a great start to our day, but would it continue? In my case I continued working my way up along the right side of the river with the caddis, but nothing was responding. I wasn’t even observing flashes or refusals to the fly that had been so popular on the Big Thompson.

Some Yellow Remains Along the River

I decided that I needed something more visible and tied on one of the two cream parahoppers I’d allocated to my fly patch. Again I began prospecting the attractive side pockets, small pools and runs of moderate depth, but once again no trout showed interest in my offering. Meanwhile Dan wasn’t having any success either. When I reached a wide juicy run with moderate current and water depth of three to four feet, and I didn’t get any response from the hopper, I stripped in my line and added a beadhead hares ear. This turned out to be a plus, and I quickly landed two browns on the beadhead hares ear. I called out to Dan and moved on up the river and landed two more browns before lunch. We decided to quit for lunch at around 12:15 and walked back to the base camp and met Jane as she was walking down the path to meet us. Dan told me he experienced refusals to his hopper and then tied on a caddis and had refusals to that as well. When I called out that the BHHE dropper was working, he attempted to add a dropper but wasn’t tying the connecting knot to the bend of the hook properly and spent quite a bit of time trying to solve the bend knot riddle.

After lunch I coached Dan on tying the simple loop knot I use to connect the tippet to the bend of the top fly and then added a beadhead hares ear to a cream body Letort hopper that I pulled out of his fly box. We returned to the place where we’d exited the river for lunch, and Dan actually went back to the hole where he’d experienced the successive refusals and landed a brown on the beadhead hares ear.

Pulling Fly Free from Net

Meanwhile I spotted a few BWO’s emerging so I decided to try deep nymphing given the higher flows and sparse emergence. There was a lot of aquatic vegetation floating in the river that had apparently been dislodged by the higher flows. Perhaps this meant that there were scuds available to the fish, so I tied an orange scud as my top fly and added a size 22 RS2 as the trailer and began working the deeper runs with a strike indicator, split shot and this two fly combination. This didn’t produce anything, and I was constantly plucking vegetation and slime from my flies while Dan was catching fish at a fairly frequent pace, so I abandoned the deep strategy and went back to the hopper/dropper technique. It was worth an experiment, but wasn’t the right strategy for October 15.

Instead of using one of my valuable cream body hoppers I settled on a gray body parachute hopper that was pretty badly mangled from previous usage. The hackle was climbing up the wing post causing the wing to tilt forward in the water, but I was more interested in using the top fly as an indicator and liked the visibility of the white wing. I added a beadhead hares ear and then a RS2 and began prospecting. Dan had pretty much caught up to me, and he worked his way upstream along the left bank slightly behind me.

A Decent Brown Landed by Dave

I began to catch fish with increasing frequency, and they were smashing the beadhead hares ear. My first goal was to land eleven trout to reach 500 for the 2011 season, and this milestone fell by the wayside pretty quickly. In fact number 500 came out of the sweet pool next to our base camp. I let out a whoop, but before I could celebrate further a man with his dog appeared, and I didn’t want to brag about my accomplishment so I calmed down my demeanor to greet the stranger. Once they moved on I resumed a small celebration with Jane. I continued upstream and by the end of the day had accumulated 23 trout landed. All except two were brown trout and all except three took the beadhead hares ear. The first fish attacked the caddis and I landed one on the RS2 in the deep pool and one nice brown slurped in the bedraggled gray parachute hopper.

Dan From High Perch

Meanwhile Dan was on fire with his beadhead hares ear. When he reached the high rocks next to the juicy pool next to our base camp he climbed up to a high vantage point and could see five trout swimming in the deep pool in front of him. He cast his hopper/dropper in their midst and watched as a fourteen inch rainbow slowly rose up and slurped the Letort hopper. He was now challenged to lift the behemoth rainbow seven feet above the water to his perch, but he realized this wasn’t a recommended move and somehow scrambled back down the rock to a lower position and landed the biggest fish of the day. Shortly after this catch, he landed a second slightly smaller rainbow from the same pool.

Holding Up for Fans

After this success he continued working up along the left bank making nice upstream casts and landing a series of browns that grabbed the trailing hares ear. At the end of the day Dan estimated he’d landed around 12 fish. It was quite a day in Wildcat Canyon. For the first time, I was ready to quit for the day and Dan suggested we each catch one more fish. Usually Dan is ready to quit way before Dad.