Time: 4:00PM – 6:00PM
Location: Clear Creek Canyon
Clear Creek 04/15/2022 Photo Album
Wind, wind and more wind. This pretty much describes my spring fishing in 2022 so far. I managed a decent day on Monday on Clear Creek, and I was anxious to complete another fishing trip during the remaining weekdays; however, high winds on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday precluded any such thoughts. In fact, it was too windy for my other favorite activity, pickleball. Tuesday night was so cold that the overnight temperature dipped to 16 degrees, and my tender radish sprouts felt the brunt of it.
Finally, the forecast predicted some abatement from the wind on Friday, but I decided to join Jane for some pickleball in the morning, and of course that led to lunch and beers at the Stanley Marketplace afterward. I arrived back home by 2PM, and after watering the garden (including frost damaged radish seedlings), I decided to make a late afternoon visit to Clear Creek Canyon. I had fun there on Monday, and the drive was only thirty minutes.
Pocket Water
My gear remained in the car at the ready after Monday, so I took the plunge and made quick work of the drive to Clear Creek west of Golden, CO. The wind remained a factor, but it slowed from its limb rattling force of the previous three days.
By the time I made the drive and rigged my line on my Sage four weight, I was on the water ready to cast a bit before 4PM. I wore my light down coat, and that kept me comfortable in the lengthening shadows of the canyon with the air temperature in the upper fifties.
I began my quest for trout with a peacock hippie stomper and trailed a yellow stimulator on a six-inch dropper. These two flies delivered seven fish to my net in the afternoon on Monday April 11. For the next two hours I worked my way upstream, as I probed all the promising pockets and deep runs of Clear Creek. In the early going the hippie stomper lured two fish to the surface, and I reacted with swift hooksets in both cases to increase the fish count to two.
Clear Creek Respectable
This early action was followed by a lull and some refusals to the hippie stomper, so I swapped the yellow stimulator for an olive-brown deer hair caddis. The move paid dividends, when a small brown trout snatched the caddis from the drift. If the fish were refusing the hippie stomper, why did I change out the trailing fly? My thought process reasoned that at least the hippie stomper was attracting interest, while the stimulator was merely trailing surface debris. I also anticipated that I could execute downstream drifts which would allow the deer hair caddis to drift over potential targets first.
In spite of catching a fish on the deer hair caddis, I was underwhelmed by the performance of the combination, and the size 16 was very difficult to track in the shadows and glare of the late afternoon. I pondered another fly change, and this time I elected to switch the caddis for a gray stimulator size 14.
Last Catch Was a Rainbow
For the last thirty minutes I manipulated the hippie stomper and stimulator combination along Clear Creek, and I netted two more trout including another brown and a twelve-inch rainbow. In both cases the trout smashed the stimulator at the extreme downstream border of the pool, as I lifted to execute another cast. Apparently, the trout could not allow a potential food source to fly off. I had a third trout that was potentially my largest of the day that reacted in similar fashion to the late lift, but it escaped after an abbreviated battle. I caught a glimpse of its side, and it appeared to be another rainbow.
Five trout in two hours of fishing represented an above average catch rate, and I was pleased with my brief tenure on Clear Creek. I fished dry flies with moderate success, and the air temperature remained at the low end of the comfort zone. I look forward to continued trips to nearby Clear Creek.
Fish Landed: 5