Time: 10:00AM – 12:30PM

Location: Upstream from Cascade and first bridge

Fish Landed: 5

Chalk Creek 07/27/2011 Photo Album

Dan took a vacation day on Wednesday so he and I could go fishing and break in his new waders and boots. In addition, Dan purchased a fishing license and net and I made him a wading staff. There was an assortment of stocking stuffer fishing gadgets to try out as well.

I picked Dan up at 7AM, and we departed for US 285. It was shaping up as a bright sunny day and we arrived at our Chalk Creek fishing destination at 9:45AM. Chalk Creek was flowing at around 73 cfs and clear. 73 cfs is higher than ideal but still fishable; however, there are fewer holding lies for the fish. We took our time getting into our waders and rigging our rods. Dan had to remove his waders from the bag, that’s how new his things were!

When we started, I tied a Chernobyl ant to Dan’s line and let him cast into the first decent water as the stream was rushing pretty rapidly on my north side. It didn’t take long before Dan landed a couple 6-8 inch browns. I decided to try something different initially and fished a large size 12 caddis with a palmered body, and this netted me a small brown. Dan started off on fire and continued to pick up fish as he waded up along the left side of the creek. In addition to landed fish, he was also getting a fair number of long distance releases and refusals.

Dan Works to Release Catch

Meanwhile I switched out the large caddis for a royal stimulator, but that didn’t produce and sank quickly. Next I experimented with a yellow Letort hopper and added a beadhead prince dropper. After a bit I exchanged the beadhead prince for a beadhead hares ear. I was catching my fish mostly on the beadhead dropper, but it seemed like I wasn’t getting action in places that should have yielded fish.

Dan on Chalk Creek

As we approached noon, the sun got higher in the sky and the air warmed up considerably and the fishing action slowed measurably. I finally switched to a Chernobyl ant and slowly caught up to Dan. When we decided to break for lunch, Dan had landed 6 and I was at 5. We pulled out our lunches and ate in the shade of some trees by the car.

Natural Ground Cover Along Chalk Creek