Time: 1:00PM – 6:00PM

Location: Upstream from Lodgepole Campground

Fish: 20

Taylor River 08/07/2014 Photo Album

I picked up Danny at 7:30 on Thursday morning, and we were on our way for a two day and one night camping/fishing trip to the Taylor River. The Arkansas River received additional rain on Sunday night, and despite optimistic reports from the fly shops, I didn’t trust the conditions to provide a positive experience for Danny. The Taylor River is a bit further, but is a tailwater and thus presented a more reliable option. Flows were hovering around 400 cfs, and based on past experience, that is a bit high yet still comfortable for fishing.

We arrived at the Lottis Creek Campground by 11:30 and unloaded a few items to secure our site and then munched quick lunches and headed back to the river. I immediately targeted the section of the river above Lodgepole Campground, as I have enjoyed previous success there, and I knew lots of public water could accommodate two gung ho fishermen. It was quite cool with high temperatures in the 60’s and heavy clouds floated across the sky 60% of the time we were fishing. It was actually quite ideal weather for fishing and fish.

Danny Prepares His Line to Fish the Taylor River

As Danny and I began to fish in the pocket water next to the car, we immediately observed a fair number of green drakes followed by some pale morning duns, but these mayflies waned after an hour. I elected to begin fishing with a parachute green drake, and Danny opted for a nymph set up that included his newly tied tungsten red San Juan worms. I worked my way along the right bank with my green drake and landed four browns in the first hour including a 14 incher that I spotted just in front of a submerged rock. I returned to tell Danny the green drakes were producing and shared a parachute style and comparadun style with him.

We continued fishing along the bank that bordered the road until we reached a point where the river narrowed and crashed through a whitewater chute, and here we turned around and reversed our steps to the car. We both looked longingly at the opposite bank with full knowledge that it hadn’t been fished much since the inception of runoff. There was one wide riffle spot where a crossing might be possible, but four fishermen were positioned in this area, and it would not have been mannerly to cross while they were fishing. We quickly reversed course again and found another wide spot below a huge protruding boulder in the middle of the river. This ford seemed possible, although there was a fast deep run within ten feet of the north bank.

Since I’m here to write this blog, it is evident that we pulled off the crossing, although it happened with a few scary moments. As was the case with the fishing next to the road, Danny and I took turns leapfrogging around each other as we covered the best pockets and pools within 20-25 feet of the bank. I switched from the green drake to a parahopper with a beadhead hares ear and landed four small browns as we progressed upstream over the hour from 2PM to 3PM. At that time I switched the parahopper for a large yellow Charlie Boy hopper with long dangling rubber legs, but that fly did not last long before I exchanged it for a smaller Charlie Boy and added a salvation nymph below the beadhead hares ear.

Gateway and Rod Holder

At 3PM I suddenly began to catch fish with increased regularity primarily on the salvation nymph and some of the brown trout extended into the 12-13 inch range. As the afternoon advanced it seemed that the fish got larger with numbers eighteen and nineteen falling in the 13-14 inch range, and for some reason the fish landed later in the day fell for the beadhead hares ear rather than the salvation nymph.

A Nice Brown from Thursday Afternoon

Near the end of our fishing I approached a nice deep run towards the middle of the river, and I positioned myself 10-15 feet to the left of it and one fourth of the way up from the tail. The current divided around a large boulder and created a thirty foot long slick that was only six feet across at its widest point. I began drifting my three fly combination starting toward the middle and covering the tail section, and I had the unique feeling of confidence that comes from many years of fly fishing and recognizing water that delivers on high expectations.

It wasn’t long before I saw a fish emerge from the cover of the faster deeper current seam, and I instinctively set the hook and felt myself attached to a gorgeous rainbow trout. The powerful pink-sided fish flashed up and down the narrow pool a few times, and I maintained solid pressure, but then it did an abrupt turn and streaked for the whitewater below. I tried to allow the line to slide through my hands and spin off the reel, but I failed and felt a knot in my stomach as the rainbow made another quick turn and snapped off the salvation nymph.

I paused for a moment to collect myself and then tied a new salvation to my line below the hares ear and resumed casting. I moved up the river a few steps and began prospecting the midsection of the narrow pool, and after a few casts, the hopper paused and dipped, and I once again set the hook and felt decent weight on the end of my line. By now, Danny had moved on to the bank and was just above me. I fought the bruiser back and forth and prevented it from charging into the fast water. I bought enough time for Danny to wade below me, and after I pressured the brown toward the bank, Danny scooped it into his large long-handled net. It was just in time as the fly fell from the seventeen inch brown’s lip just as Danny lifted it from the water.

17″ Brown

We paused to photograph the last and best fish of the day before tackling another adrenalin generating crossing. We had a fun afternoon of fishing and looked forward to a full day on the Taylor River on Friday.

Time: 11:00AM – 5:00PM

Location: Start of road construction above Almont and then about a mile upstream.

Fish Landed: 18

Taylor River 09/21/2013 Photo Album

Jeff and I woke up to frost on the tablecloth and tent as the temperature dropped to nearly 32 degrees on Saturday morning. I slept with no socks on my feet and had great difficulty keeping them warm in the early morning but did roam around the campsite in a ski hat, down parka and ski mittens. We decided to fish the lower Taylor on Saturday and camp at Lottis Creek again on Saturday night and then pack everything up on Sunday and move on to the Frying Pan River.

Jeff Shafer at Lottis Creek Campground

After making breakfast and paying the campground host we threw our fishing gear in the Santa Fe and made the drive to Almont. Unfortunately the road construction on the lower river between Spring Creek and Almont was still in progress, and this forced us to detour using Jack’s Cabin Cutoff, and when we finally began traveling east from Almont we ran into a roadblock. A barricade impeded our progress and a construction worker informed us that we were not allowed beyond this point. He even insisted that walking up the road beyond this point was not recommended although we could certainly work our way up along the stream.

Jeff and I surveyed this situation and decided to drop down off the road while within eyesight of the construction gatekeeper and then climb back up the road and walk east on the shoulder. We parked our car at the post office and prepared to fish. Saturday morning was quite cool and I wore a fleece and carried my raincoat as we set off on our adventure. We both felt that the fishing could be good as a result of the road construction and the likely reduced pressure from lack of access. Most fishermen would not go to the trouble that we were undertaking.

We followed our plan and walked below the shoulder of the road for a bit and almost immediately passed a pair of fishermen who set up near the post office parking lot. After another ten minutes or so we found a reasonable path through the brush to the river and began fishing and by this time it was 11AM. I decided to cross to the bank opposite the road and Jeff worked up the road side of the river. As has become my custom I tied on a Chernobyl ant and a beadhead hares ear and began prospecting the likely holding locations.

Unfortunately I did not experience any success in the first half hour so I switched the hares ear for a salvation nymph and this resulted in two fish landed including a fine brown in the 15″ range. Because of the slow fishing Jeff and I met and agreed to break for lunch at around 12:30. Jeff ate on a large midstream boulder, but I wanted to add a layer so I used the north bank as my resting place. After lunch we switched sides and Jeff worked the north shore while I crossed back to the bank next to the road. The sky remained cloudy and the air temperature probably never climbed much higher than the low 60’s.

A Nice Brown Landed on Taylor River Saturday

After lunch I decided to switch to nymphing with a strike indicator, 20 incher and salvation nymph. The weighted 20 incher served as my split shot and this setup began producing fish at a faster clip than the dry/dropper arrangement. Jeff took the stream temperature and announced it was 53 degrees and later he checked again and it climbed a whole degree to 54. These water temperatures suggest fishing deep, so that is exactly what I decided to do.

Jeff Enjoys His Lunch

While fishing this combination I landed two fish on the 20 incher including a brown in the 14-15 inch range, but as time passed I began to see BWO’s in the air and the 20 incher stopped producing so I moved the salvation to the top position and knotted an RS2 as the bottom fly. This combination of flies and method of fishing served me well over the remainder of the afternoon, and I ended up landing 18 fish on the day including the two on the 20 incher, one on the RS2, one on a hares ear nymph, and the remainder on the salvation nymph. Saturday was pretty much a game of prospecting with nymphs and covering the water; not a lot of decisions to be made but fun nonetheless.

Bighorn by the River

Time: 4:00PM – 7:00PM

Location: Below wide pullout below Lottis Creek

Fish Landed: 2

I invited my fishing friend, Jeff Shafer from Whitehall, Pa., to visit me and spend some time fishing in September 2013. We found a window of time that fit our schedules from September 20 until September 24, and Jeff booked his flights and arrived at 10:15AM on Friday.

My original plan was to spend two days on the Arkansas River and then travel over Independence Pass to Basalt and spend Monday and Tuesday on the Frying Pan River. We wanted to avoid the Frying Pan on the weekend if possible. Unfortunately the rain that caused flooding in the northern Front Range rivers also created high and dirty water on the Arkansas River, although there was no flooding on the larger Arkansas drainage. Two subsequent storm systems west of Salida added more murkiness to the river just before Jeff’s arrival, so I switched plans to the Taylor River instead of the Arkansas.

I had the Santa Fe packed with camping and fishing gear for two people and picked Jeff up at the airport after his timely arrival. We were instantly on our way to Buena Vista and then over Cottonwood Pass to the Lottis Creek Campground three miles below Taylor Reservoir Dam. Jeff and I stopped at the hog trough, but it was crowded with fishermen and we decided to avoid the combat fishing and moved on to the campground. We were pleased to discover that Lottis Creek was still open even though the NFS office informed me that it was closed on September 16. We quickly paid for a campground on Friday night and then drove down the road a mile and parked at a wide pullout across from the river. Next we hiked down the road a ways to a place where a dirt lane angled toward the river and then we cut through the woods to some nice water with large pools.

Since the water was fairly narrow and swift at this spot we elected to not attempt a crossing, and Jeff and I alternated the attractive locations along the right bank. I fished for quite awhile with a parachute gray hopper and a beadhead hares ear before landing my first fish. During this time I experienced several refusals to the hopper but eventually landed a small brown on the hares ear nymph.

The hopper became saturated with water and required frequent drying and wasn’t producing any fish, so I exchanged it for a yellow pool toy as I hopped around Jeff on my way to the area across from the Santa Fe. Jeff meanwhile was having more success using dry flies and actually spotted some fish rising to dry flies and landed several of them.

When I reached the smoother water near the car I switched to a light gray caddis and a 13 inch brown slurped it in a small pocket along the edge. This would be my best and last fish on the evening. We concluded our fishing by 7PM and returned to the campsite where we put up the tent using the propane lantern for light and then ate our dinners before crashing under the shelter of the tent. It was a decent beginning to our five day fishing trip.

Time: 9:30AM – 5:00PM

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

Fish Landed: 9

Taylor River 08/02/2013 Photo Album

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

Santa Fe Along Taylor River Friday Morning

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

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

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

14 Inch Brown Fooled by Parachute Green Drake

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

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

Typical Taylor River Brown

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

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

Time: 3:30PM – 6:30PM

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

Fish Landed: 15

Taylor River 08/01/2013 Photo Album

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

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

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

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

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

Early Brown Landed on Green Drake on Thursday

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

14″ Rainbow Was the Largest Fish on Thursday

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

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

Time: 9:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: Upper Taylor River below Dinner Station Campground; Lodgepole Campground upstream halfway to Cold Spring

Fish Landed: 32

Taylor River 08/10/2012 Photo Album

Regular readers of this blog (are there any?) may ask why I fished the Taylor River so much in 2012. The answer lies in the fact that it is a tailwater in this summer of low water flows and it offers an abundance of nice campgrounds. Jane and I wanted to camp again and the Taylor seemed like a nice option for camping, fishing, hiking and biking.

I wrapped up the financial package for the month of June on Thursday early afternoon and rushed from my desk to home so I could pack and be on the road by a reasonable time. I succeeded in my mission and departed at around 3:45. Jane planned to do some fun activities on Friday morning and then depart around 1PM and join me at the campground for Friday evening. I stopped at a King Soopers in Aspen Park to purchase a few items and then made another stop at the Subway in Buena Vista for dinner. I arrived at Lottis Creek at 7:45PM and immediately set up the tent before dark. I grabbed campsite 8 on the Union Park Loop, the same location that I enjoyed during my last visit.

Friday Morning Fog Above Upper Taylor River

I was up at 7AM on Friday morning and had a quick breakfast and packed a lunch and hit the road by 9. It was quite foggy and misty as a result of a rainstorm that I drove through on my may down Cottonwood Pass. I decided to drive to the Upper Taylor and fish for a couple hours in the morning and then return to the lower Taylor near Lodgepole Campground for the afternoon. I found a pullout between the inlet to the reservoir and Dinner Station Campground and cut down to the river and began fishing by 9:30AM. The Upper Taylor was already crowded with RV’s and ATV’s in the many unofficial camping locations.

I began my fishing with a bushy caddis, but this didn’t produce any fish or looks so I exchanged it for a lime green trude which produced three small browns as I worked my way upstream. The trude was producing sporadically but I was experiencing quite a few refusals as well, and the fly was getting waterlogged and was difficult to see, so I clipped it off and tied on a Chernobyl ant and dropped a beadhead hares ear from the bend of the ant. I’d landed three on the lime green trude when I ran into a barbed wire fence which meant private water, so I exited the small stream and marched back to the car and motored a bit further north where I found a rough lane and parked. I angled through the sagebrush in a southwest direction until I intersected with the stream at a nice location with a small pool spanning the river.

By now the sun had burned off much of the fog and I shed my fleece by wrapping it around my waist under my waders. It was at this second location that I switched to the Chernobyl and beadhead hares ear, and I began prospecting with this combination. The beadhead hares ear began producing with more frequency and I landed another four on this combination with three grabbing the trailing nymph and one falling for the Chernobyl. However as the air and water warmed and the fog disappeared, I began observing many refusals to the Chernobyl with no attention being paid to the nymph. I decided to make another change and replaced the Chernobyl ant with a gray body parachute hopper and kept the BHHE in place. This proved to be a smart move, and I landed another five fish with two slamming the hopper and the others snaring the nymph.

Nice Size for Upper Taylor

It was now near noon and I’d planned to quit at 11:30, and I was directly opposite the Santa Fe so I reeled up my line and strode back to the car. I drove the twelve miles or so around Taylor Reservoir and past the hog trough and eventually came to the pullout along the Taylor where I’d ended my fishing on the previous trip. I pulled out my lunch bag and ate on a large rock by the river and didn’t observe too much happening from an insect perspective.

After lunch I waded across the river at the wide riffle stretch below a large rectangular rock in the middle of the river. I reached the opposite side of the river across from my car and began working the pockets and runs along the bank with the hopper/dropper combination. Initially I covered a fair amount of water with no action, but within a half hour the fish began reacting to the hares ear nymph. It remained cool with large gray clouds passing overhead and blocking the sun, and I spotted a very sparse emergence of PMD’s. Since I was having success with the hares ear, I did not attempt to change to a beadhead pheasant tail or something closer to the PMD nymph.

This Guy Is a Good 13 Inches

Between 1 and 3 PM I had a blast. I was simply popping casts into all the likely runs and pockets on the north side of the river and more times than not extracted at least one fish from each likely location. By 2PM the fish count was climbing and more fish began to hammer the hopper. Also, I landed two nice fat fish close to fifteen inches that inhaled the nymph as I drifted the dry/dropper combination along heavy riffle current seams that bordered smoother deeper slots. These fish put up nice battles in the faster current before I scooped them into my net.

Close to 15 inches

By 3PM some dark clouds moved up from the south and I heard thunder rumbling in the distance. The storm appeared to be heading toward the campground, and I’d left a folding chair out in the open, so I decided to wade back across the river as I was conveniently at another relatively wide riffle section. I hopped in the car and drove the three miles to the campground and put the chair back in the Santa Fe where it would remain dry, and then quickly returned to a pullout where I’d exited the river. I waded back to the far side and resumed my prospecting. As I recall I picked up two more browns in the 9-10 inch range, and then the river went dead so that I simply exercised my arm until quitting at 4PM.

I returned to the campground and discovered Jane had just arrived from Denver, and I helped her unload the few items she’d transported to the campground. It was a great start to a fun weekend in the Taylor River valley.

Time: 10:30AM – 3:00PM

Location: Across from Lodgepole Campground upstream to large boulder in wide area

Fish Landed: 24

Taylor River 07/27/2012 Photo Album

Friday morning wasn’t quite as chilly as Thursday at my campsite at Lottis Creek, although the tent and tablecloth were covered with rain from the brief shower that took place at dark on Thursday night. I fired up the propane stove and made a cup of tea and ate my minimal breakfast. I was waiting for the sun to rise above the hill to the east so the tent would dry before I packed it up since I needed to be out of site number 8 by 11AM, and I planned to fish another day before returning to Denver.

I busied myself with packing the car with the storage bins and rolling up my sleeping pad and sleeping bag. Eventually I removed the rain fly and draped it over a picnic table at an unused site two down from mine, and then I removed the tent pad and draped it over the table one site over as it was also unoccupied. Finally I tipped the tent up on its side to encourage the bottom to dry. The sun appeared partially over the hill by 8:30, but there were quite a few clouds in the sky, and that prevented the intense drying rays I was hoping for. There was a light breeze however and that aided the evaporation.

As I waited for the drying process to take place, I removed all my fly storage boxes from my fishing bag and sorted through them looking for large caddis, as I planned to try fishing caddis dries along the north bank like my friend from Ohio had been doing on Thursday. I did some fundamental fly organizing and when I’d completed this task checked the tent paraphenalia covering three campsites. Fortunately the breeze and sun were working their magic, and I was able to pack up the dry tent and left the campground by 10AM.

I planned to drive down the road to Lodgepole Campground and park at the nice paved lot across the street. I was concerned that this was in the construction zone, and I’d need to wait for flagmen to let me through, but as it turned out Lodgepole was just east of the start of the construction zone. I actually parked upstream from the Lodgepole lot in a nice pullout adjacent to where the river spread out into a wide shallow riffle. I planned to ford the river at this point and walk down the north bank to a spot across from the Lodgepole lot. I felt that the fish on the north bank were not as pressured as it took quite a bit more effort to get there.

Everything worked according to plan and I found myself next to the river by a large rock moraine with my Loomis five weight strung and ready to fish by 10:30AM. As it turned out, another gentleman was directly across from me wading wet and fishing up along the south shore. The river between us was quite swift and noisy, so I didn’t feel that my presence would affect his fishing.

My first fly choice was a large royal stimulator. It worked in the hog trough so why not here? That was my thought process. I cast the stimulator repeatedly in the nice deep V-shaped pool behind a mid-stream rock, but nothing showed interest. I could see a nice brown hugging the light sand bottom, but the fish was showing no interest. I clipped off the royal stimmy and tied on a deer hair caddis with a palmered body. This also was ignored by the elusive fish of the Taylor River. I decided to forsake the pool and moved upstream along the bank and ten to twenty yards above my opposite bank companion.

After casting to another sweet slack water area below a log with no results, I decided to go back to a proven producer and tied on the bushy purchased green drake. In a short deep pocket just above the log, a nice brown darted to the surface and inhaled my green drake. Why do I always over analyze? I continued and covered a fair number of attractive runs and pockets with no results before landing a second fish, a rainbow, on the green drake. Fortunately the green drake seemed to be more buoyant on Friday than Thursday and wasn’t requiring the frequent drying stops.

Friday Morning Chunky 12″ Brown

It was turning out to be a beautiful day for fishing with cool air temperatures and partly cloudy skies. The clouds were large and gray but quite high in the sky so they didn’t appear to threaten any heavy precipitation, but did create a nice overcast. Once again I seemed to be covering quite a bit territory between fish and by 1PM I remember thinking that I’d caught seven fish in 2.5 hours, and my catch rate was slightly above the two fish per hour norm. With this thought in mind and no green drakes observed, I decided to make a strategy shift.

I clipped off the green drake and tied on a gray parachute hopper size 10 and then attached a two foot dropper to the bend and added a beadhead hares ear. I was fishing near the bank so perhaps the trout were tuned into hoppers, and shouldn’t the all purpose hares ear attract fish subsurface? At the rate I was catching fish I estimated I’d end the day with twelve or so and that would be a nice accomplishment on top of the sixteen of Thursday.

Amazingly the strategy worked to perfection. Initially I began to catch browns on the trailing beadhead hares ear and fish were attacking the nymph in most of the places where I expected fish to be. I got in a nice rhythmn and moved along at a decent pace placing two to five drifts in all the likely spots, and more times than not a fish would grab the trailing nymph. Meanwhile the clouds were getting thicker and the periods of sun less frequent and eventually I could hear distant thunder. However I was largely oblivious and as a half hour or so flew by, the fish began to hammer the parachute hopper. This was even more fun catching fish on the top dry fly. I spotted a few PMD’s and considered switching the BHHE for a beadhead pheasant tail, but decided to stay with what was working until the success ended.

Typical Fish Landed on Friday

One detail I forgot to mention is that shortly after landing the first brown on a green drake, I snagged my net on a tree branch and as I took another step I snapped off the retractor cable. I couldn’t decide how to attach my net without my trusty retractor, but I eventually decided to stuff it handle first behind my back so it was pinched between my backpack and back as I was wearing a raincoat. This worked reasonably well, but I had to focus every time I landed a fish not to drop the net as I usually do when the retractor pulls it back into its proper position.

Well I was rolling along augmenting my fish count nicely when I hooked a twelve to thirteen inch brown in a very shallow riffle. I was very surprised at the non-descript lie that produced the fish, but as I raised my rod to net the fish it wiggled free. I no longer needed the net so I unconsciously dropped it. Instantly I realized the error of my ways as the net began drifting downstream away from me so I tried to stretch down to retrieve it, but it was already out of reach. I was now in panic mode and I took a step downstream and lunged for it. I successfully grabbed the net, but it was as my body began a downward trajectory, and I hit the water with my left side and temporarily went under and water trickled over the top of my waders and filled my left leg and foot. I also tangled my line in a dead overhead branch during this ridiculous process.

I climbed up on shore with my prize net still in my hand and managed to break off the dead branch and untangle my line. I was across the river from my car, but didn’t want to waste time wading back across, so I decided to suck it up and continue. My shirt, undershirt and underwear were all wet and water was sloshing around in my feet. Eventually the water inside my waders warmed up but the cotton undershirt and underwear continued to be cold and clammy particularly as the rain clouds continued to build. The best medicine for my condition was to continue catching trout, and that’s exactly how I got well.

Nice Brown Came From Eddy Next to Large Rock

I continued probing the pockets and runs with my hopper/dropper combination and landed more fish. By three o’clock the storm moved in and light rain began to fall. I was prepared with my raincoat already on, but my wet undergarments were causing me to feel quite chilled. I had reached twenty-four landed fish, and I was trying to make it 25, but I was moving further away from my crossing point and feeling chilled so I decided to wade back and return to the car. It proved to be a great decision as the rain began to descend in sheets as I unlocked the car and changed under the dripping hatchback door. I had clean dry clothes in my sack from camping, so eventually I was in the dry heated comfort of my car driving back to Denver. An energy drink and snack later, I was back in a pleasant state remembering my fine day on the Taylor River.

Time: 9:30AM – 4:00PM, 7:00PM – 9:00PM

Location: Across from Cold Spring Campground to private border below Lottis Creek; Lower Hog Trough

Fish Landed: 16

Taylor River 07/26/2012 Photo Album

I vowed to return to the Taylor River and this promise was kept. Would I encounter green drakes and PMD’s hatching like I experienced briefly in my two hour teaser session on July  20? Read on.

I worked at a furious pace Mon. – Wed. so I could take off on Wednesday and return to the Taylor River and snag a campsite at Lottis Creek as I completed the May package and left work at 2:30 and hustled home to finish packing the car. After stopping at King Soopers to purchase ice and two propane tanks on my way out of Stapleton,I hit the road by 3:15. I pulled into the Lottis Creek Campground at around 7:30 after stopping in Buena Vista for a dinner of Subway sandwich and had the REI two person tent assembled and up just as darkness descended. I elected to try the new loop at Lottis Creek, Union Park, and found a nice site with sparse trees on the outside of the loop.

On Thursday morning I ate my breakfast and took a brief walk while waiting for the sun to rise higher in the sky and warm things up a bit. It was probably 40 degrees and I wore my ski hat and down vest. Once the sun peaked over the hill east of the campground it warmed quickly and I shed layers just as rapidly. For the first day I decided to fish the stretch below Lottis Creek as I had done on the previous Friday, but I elected to start further downstream. When I reached the Cold Spring Campground, I noticed a wooden stairs that went up and over the fence so I concluded this was public water and chose this spot to begin my fishing.

I was on the river rigged and ready to fish by 9:30 and walked up along the bank away from the well worn path. There was a stretch of very fast water in a narrow chute so I skipped around this to the first point where the river spread out a bit and created some nice pools  and pockets along the right bank. Since it was fairly early I elected a tan Charlie Boy hopper and dangled a beadhead hares ear off the bend. I covered a reasonable amount of water with no success before I decided to switch to nymphs in this stretch of fairly fast turbulent water with periodic short pockets. It screamed out as stonefly water so I tied on an Arkansas rubberlegs and below that a beadhead prince nymph thinking this might imitate a green drake nymph. Nothing. I covered some very juicy runs with no results and then clipped off the rubberlegs and went with two flies plus a split shot and strike indicator.

First Fish on Thursday

I tried a beadhead bright green caddis, beadhead hares ear, and beadhead pheasant tail in the two fly nymph set up to no avail. I’d now fished for an hour or so with nothing to show for my efforts so I decided to revert to the dry fly tactic that worked for me the previous Friday. I clipped off the nymphs, removed the split shot and strike indicator and tied on one of the bushy green drakes I’d purchased on the Conejos River. Wham! A nice brown rose and sucked in the green drake in a nice run along the bank above me. It was a nice chunky 13 inch fish so I photographed it and moved on. Either the fish were sluggish, or the green drakes had passed, or my fly wasn’t a perfect imitation because I covered quite a bit of additional water with no takers, and I was about to change flies again when a nice chunky 13 inch rainbow rose and slurped in the green drake at the deep tail of a nice run. Again I photographed this fish and moved on.

Nice Rainbow Is No. 2

As I worked upstream the bushy green drake became waterlogged and I was spending a lot of time pressing it against my shirt and dipping it in the dry shake to enable decent flotation. I decided to try one of my comparaduns to see if they would float better. They did, and I continued working my way upstream catching seven more before breaking for lunch at 1PM.

The Wild Taylor River Below Lottis Creek

After lunch I landed one more brown on the green drake, and it was starting to require frequent drying as well, so I decided to experiment with something different. I tied on a Chernobyl ant with a beadhead hares ear and then added a beadhead pheasant tail as well. I was covering my bases in case a pale morning dun hatch evolved. A sparse emergence did in fact occur as I spotted several duns fluttering skyward and a rare random rise. I stuck with the dry/dropper strategy believing that the two nymphs would imitate the PMD nymphal stage, but managed to land one small brown on the pheasant tail. I did, however, land a nice colorful rainbow that was duped by the Chernobyl.

Nice Rainbow Landed on Thursday

When I no longer noticed PMD’s and hadn’t caught a fish for quite a period of time, I decided to return to the green drake comparadun. I was near the top of the stretch where a wide pullout is present along the paved road and from this location to the private water I landed two more browns on the green drake. I retreated from the no trespassing sign to the wide pullout just as another fisherman who had been working the opposite bank emerged. I asked how he did, and he informed me that he did pretty well with stimulators and caddis. He showed me his caddis and they were quite large with a dark body and light dun palmered hackle.

I decided to call it quits and return to the campground for an early dinner that would hopefully allow some time for evening fishing. After dinner and cleaning up the dishes, I jumped back in the car and drove to the hog trough below the Taylor Reservoir dam. The stretch is only .2 – .3 mile long and constantly crowded with fishermen trying to land one the football size trout that reside there. The trout pig out on mysis shrimp that pass through the dam and reach outlandish proportions. Unfortunately they are extremely educated and this is a very difficult place to catch fish.

I parked in the second unoccupied pullout on the north side of the road and much to my amazement the large wide and long pool near the western border of the public water was open. I decided to tie on a caddis initially and worked my way up along the bank at the tail of the massive pool. I was spraying casts from the bank to the middle of the river which covered a distance of approximately 50 – 60 feet. I wasn’t getting any action, so I decided to tie on one of my royal stimulators that seem to work well in the evening hours. It has a white calf body wing, and that makes it very visible in the evening light. Some blotchy gray rain clouds were blocking the setting sun and making it darker than normal for 7:30.

Since the top of the pool was open I moved pretty quickly to the prime area and made a few casts to the nervous water at the top of the run. While doing this I spotted a rise in an eddy behind a protruding rock. I worked my fly in this area and held the rod tip very high to keep my line off the water and spotted a swirl or refusal to my fly. I continued trying for this fish, but as is usually the case, it didn’t respond after the initial refusal.

Again I noticed a rise further down the pool five feet inside the center current seam toward the bank I was positioned on. I was above this rise, so I began making casts across from me, executing a big mend to put the fly line above the fly, and then performing stack mends to feed out line and let the fly drift downstream toward the area of the rise. I did this perhaps five or six times when I noticed a sip on my fly and set the hook. A rainbow trout immediately jumped from the water and demonstrated a strong fighting spirit before I could contain it and bring the battling rainbow to my net. It was a chunky thirteen inch shiny fish, and I photographed and released the fish.

First Fish Landed in Hog Trough

The dark clouds were now overhead and it began to rain lightly so I pulled my raincoat from my backpack and pulled it on under my wader straps. I continued fishing and alternated between the middle section of the pool and the nice pockets and run at the top of the pool. The remaining light was getting quite scarce, and now I saw a cloud of spinners in front of me bobbing up and down. I swiped my net through the cloud of insects and spotted a captured spinner, but before I could examine it closely, it fluttered away. Once again I made a swipe and noticed a spinner clinging to the fine webbing in my net. This mayfly had less energy, and I was able to pinch its wings and inspect the dark rust colored body.

I pulled my fly boxes from my front pack and found a cornuta spinner of a similar size, but it had a dark olive body. Lacking any dark rusty spinners, I tied the cornuta spinner on to the size 14 royal stimulator as a second fly. I figured the leading stimulator with the white wing would allow me to locate the difficult to follow spinner, and this theory largely held true. I later discovered that I had a fly box in my backpack that contained four dark rusty spinners.

At any rate I began working the two flies across and letting them drift downstream to the middle of the pool. As I did this, several rises took place, and the frequency suggested that perhaps some of the spinners had fallen to the water. Finally near 8:30 I spotted a rise in the vicinity of my flies and set the hook and played and landed a nice thirteen inch brown. I was quite pleased to have landed two fish in the hog trough. A bit after landing the brown, I spotted a swirl in the vicinity of my flies and set the hook; however, this fish was foul hooked. Apparently it refused the stimulator and the spinner caught the fish on the hook set.

By 8:45 it was virtually impossible to see anything and the small amount of rising fish had now subsided so I decided to pack it up for the night. I was pleased to have landed 16 trout on the Taylor River including three or four in the thirteen inch range, and twelve using large green drake dry flies. What would tomorrow yield?

Time: 11:30AM – 1:30PM

Location: A mile or two downstream from Lottis Creek Campground

Fish Landed: 9

Taylor River 07/20/2012 Photo Album

Why does it seem that the fishing is best when one has a limited window of time to fish? This was my situation on Friday, July 20, 2012. Amy and Dan were members of the Runny Noses Revival, a running relay team that started in Canon City on Friday morning at 8:30AM. The twelve team members would run 36 legs, three per person, and cover 195 rugged miles until ending in Crested Butte, CO.

The team needed to provide three volunteers so Jane and I provided our services and selected a 7.5 hour stint at exchange 33 near the end of the course. Since we needed to be at our station at 7:30AM on Saturday we decided to drive across Cottonwood Pass on Friday and secure a camp site near the Taylor River. We did a lot of packing on Thursday before hosting the team carbo loading party at our house, so we were able to depart the house by 7:30AM and arrived at Lottis Creek by approximately 11:15. We both wanted to drive back east over the pass and meet up with the Runny Noses, but I convinced Jane to allow me to fish from 11:30 until 1:30. I helped Jane unload much of the camping gear, and then she drove me down the road and dropped me off at a spot near the river.

I’d read on the Willowfly Angler web site that green drakes and pale morning duns were hatching between 10AM and 2PM, so I was anxious to see if this was true. I’d called the fly shop to find out what stretch of the river was most likely to produce hatching mayflies, and the man at the shop suggested the public water between Lodgepole and the dam.

I was right in the middle of the 10AM – 2PM time window as I strung my line through the rod guides and then hiked through the woods to the river. I emerged next to a beautiful deep pool that would actually be the nicest water I’d fish on Friday. As I pushed the loop of my fly line through the rod guides, I kept an eye on the water, and sure enough noticed one or two green drakes slowly fluttering up from the river. Surely the fish would be tuned into these juicy size 12 morsels. I elected to tie on one of the bushy green drakes I’d purchased at the Conejos Angler, but unfortunately the fish didn’t agree with my choice and rudely refused my offering. Two fish darted to the surface but turned away at the last instant.

Meanwhile I also observed some smaller mayflies, probably PMD’s, as I followed my rejected green drake. Could the fish be ignoring the big guys and focusing more on the abundant PMD’s? The only way to find out was to clip off the green drake and tie on a money fly, a light gray comparadun. The comparadun looked very life like to me, but the fish didn’t even refuse this fly. I pulled my fly up and observed the water, and noticed more green drakes and PMD’s emerging. I decided to go back to the green drake comparadun that I tied myself for the Frying Pan River. I plucked the smallest one I had in my patch, probably a size 12 2XL, and knotted it to my leader.

At last I had a winner when at the very tail of the deep run a fine twelve inch rainbow rose and confidently sipped in my green drake. I paused to wade to the bank and photographed the rainbow before releasing. I pressed the green drake against my shirt sleeve to absorb the moisture and then dipped it in the dry shake cannister. I shot some casts higher in the run and picked up a smaller brown.

First Fish on Friday on Taylor River

Over the next hour and a half I covered the pockets and runs along the right bank with the green drake comparadun and landed seven more fish, all browns. I also experienced numerous refusals, so my fly wasn’t a perfect imitation, but nine fish in two hours was certainly productive fishing. Of the nice fish landed three including the initial rainbow were in the foot long range with the others being 8-11 inches long. It was fun to flick the large green drake upstream and watch fish rush to snatch it from the surface. Unfortunately I needed to call it quits at 1:30PM and there were still mayflies emerging and fish rising.

I pledged to return at the end of the next week, and climbed up the bank and walked to the pullout where I’d agreed to meet Jane. At least the limited time window forced me to focus on my fishing and be as efficient as possible. If everything came easily, fly fishing wouldn’t be the challenge that keeps me coming back.