Time: 1:30PM – 4:00PM

Location: Clear Creek Canyon

Clear Creek 04/28/2025 Photo Album

As I looked ahead at the last week of April, the weather forecast was not conducive to fly fishing across much of the state. In addition, I tested the air conditioning system on the Saturday, when the high temperature poked into the upper 80’s, and the unit was not cooling the house efficiently. The HVAC repairman visited on the following Thursday and ordered a replacement part, and he was scheduled to return on Monday morning.

I checked weather reports in towns near possible fishing destinations, and I concluded that I could sneak in a few hours on Clear Creek, if the wind was not overly onerous. The section of Clear Creek that I targeted is only 45 minutes from my home, so it was a viable option for a half day after the HVAC experts were finished.

Theo’s Thing

By 11:00AM the two man crew departed, and Jane returned from pickleball, so I downed my lunch and departed for Clear Creek Canyon. By the time I made the drive, pulled on my gear, assembled my Sage four weight, and hiked and waded to the creek it was 1:30PM. I decided to test the streamer fly that I freelanced, while my grandson, Theo, looked on. In honor of Theo’s input I named it Theo’s Thing. I flicked the streamer through a long but relatively narrow pool along the left bank for ten minutes, and I actually observed a trout, as it followed the baitfish imitation; however, it did not seal the deal.

Early Success

I circled around a pair of wading anglers and another fisherman seated across from the parking lot, and moved upstream along the left bank. I was considering a change to another more proven streamer, when I noticed a couple rises in a nice deep shelf pool across from my position. I considered abandoning my streamer project, but I was hesitant to spend time switching out my line configuration. The trout made my decision for me, as at least five or six began to sip something tiny from the surface in a fairly regular rhythm.

Many Rising Fish in the Pool Behind the Exposed Rock on the Left

I snipped off the streamer and tied on a peacock hippie stomper and trailed 5X tippet off the bend and added a CDC blue wing olive. I began lobbing casts across the swift center current with reach casts, and I managed to land four small brown trout in the nine to eleven inch range over the next hour. The shelf pool featured some funky currents with an eddy at the top and then a long wide glide at the tail. It was difficult to produce a drag free drift with the conflicting currents, and the strong wind was not aiding my efforts. In addition to the landed trout I endured a few momentary hook ups, as tracking the tiny olive was a challenge even with the leading hippie stomper.

Grand Colors

Eventually the sun peaked out a bit, and the hatch waned, so I moved upstream to some riffles of moderate depth. A pair of fish refused the hippie stomper, but their reckless behavior allowed me to spot their holding positions, and a bit of persistence resulted in two more blue wing olive eaters.

The Bubbles Held a Rising Fish

Another move brought me to a nice shelf pool that resulted from man-made stream improvement structures, and it was here that I lost my awareness and hooked an overhanging tree. My flies dangled up high and out of reach, and I lost the hippie stomper and CDC BWO to a limb.

Not Bad

I concluded that the dry fly action was over, and the creek structure ahead featured much faster water and pockets and was not conducive to dries, so I made another change over to a dry/dropper arrangement. For this session that extended to the end of my day I knotted a tan mini chubby to my line and added a 3.5 foot 4X tippet connected to an olive perdigon. Another 1.5 feet below the perdigon held a size 22 sparkle wing RS2. If this sounds familiar, it was, as the perdigon and RS2 combination have evolved into a favorite offering this spring.

Mini Chubby Eater

Fly Removed

The revised lineup produced, and I doubled the fish count from six to twelve over the remaining time on the creek. Much to my amazement, two browns smashed the mini chubby. One grabbed the RS2 on the swing and the others nabbed the olive perdigon. My last fish was a twelve inch rainbow; the only ‘bow to rest in my net on the day.

Eager to Cast Upstream Here

Monday proved to be a nice outing with twelve fish landed in 2.5 hours of fishing. The wind was rather strong at times, but I was able to wait out the worst gusts. Hitting a blue wing olive hatch was unexpected but much appreciated, and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of fooling small browns on tiny dry flies. Once again the tungsten bead perdigon did the heavy lifting, and the sparkle wing RS2 complemented it nicely. Two fish on the mini chubby was a total surprise. The flows ranged from 65 -75 CFS during my time on the creek, and the air temperature peaked in the mid-fifties. The creek was a bit tinged, but it did not seem to bother the trout.

Last Fish Was a Rainbow

Monday was one of my better days on Clear Creek in recent years, and I am contemplating another visit before the snow melt takes charge.

Fish Landed: 12