Time: 10:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: West of Idaho Springs

Clear Creek 08/02/2022 Photo Album

The title of this blog report is unfinished business. After my net drifted away from me on Monday, I spent forty-five minutes wading downstream in search of the escaped landing device. I never found it, so I quit and returned to Denver. I immediately made the short trip to Bass Pro Shop at Northfield, and I purchased a cheap $42 wooden landing net. I expected to replace the bag with one with small holes, but I was surprised to discover that the $42 net contained the desired small hole rubber mesh, thus saving me the job of removing and attaching a different net bag. I stopped fishing at 1:30PM on Monday, and I sensed that the action was escalating, and that is why Tuesday’s session is labeled unfinished business.

I departed Denver and arrived at my chosen destination by 10:00AM. Unlike Monday, however, four or five vehicles were spaced along the road that borders Clear Creek, so I was forced to fly fish a section that was not my preferred stretch. I once again rigged my Orvis Access eight foot four weight rod, and I hiked for .5 mile, before I cut perpendicular to the trail and intersected with the creek. The flows were nearly ideal in my opinion, and the air temperature at the start was probably in the sixties.

A Good Place to Start

Moose

I launched my angling day with a yellow stimulator trailing a size 16 gray deer hair caddis, but the fish did not cooperate in the early going. Eventually the double dry fly offering began to click, and I built the fish count to seven, by the time I paused for lunch at noon. The stimulator created mostly refusals, and the caddis was the main attraction for the high country trout. All the trout were small cutthroats or cutbows in the six to ten inch range.

Perfect Color Scheme

After lunch I shifted direction and replaced the yellow stimulator with an olive hippie stomper, and then I extended the tippet from the bend and added a salvation nymph. The salvation accounted for a single trout, but then it was ignored, so I swapped it for a black sunk ant. The ant and stomper combination enabled me to increment the fish count from seven to eleven, but I covered a significant amount of water to net those four fish.

Brilliant

Spotted Fish Here

Once again I pondered a change, and in this case I opted to return to a double dry fly offering. It was early afternoon, and some large clouds blocked the sun to create some cooling, and I spotted a few random stoneflies and tiny mayflies in the creek environment. In fact, I needed to extract my raincoat for a short time, when a heavy mist changed into a brief rain shower. My choice for the double dry fly was a size 14 purple haze trailed by a size 16 light gray deer hair caddis. Between 1:30PM and 2:30PM the fish count ballooned to sixteen, and the purple haze was the desired food source for most of the trout. After number sixteen shot from my net, I inspected the purple parachute fly and discovered that the hackle was shredded by some strong teeth. Before I could exchange it for a fresh version, I stupidly tried to execute a roll cast beneath an evergreen branch, and the flies snagged some needles beyond my reach. I applied direct pressure to the line (avoided using my fly rod), and snapped off the purple haze and caddis.

Very Fine Catch

I considered tying on another purple haze, but the catch rate had slowed considerably, so I knotted a solitary classic Chernobyl ant to my line in a size 10. I was below a long narrow gliding run that deflected off a very large angled log, and I flipped the foam attractor to the top of the run. Thwack! A magnificent twelve inch cutthroat reacted to the plop and engulfed the low riding fly. I cautiously steered the fish away from the log and its menacing branches and lifted it over my new net. What a beauty!

Closing In

For the next hour I continued upstream at a fairly rapid pace, and I cherry picked only the very best locations. I experienced one very brief connection with a decent trout under some low hanging branches, but that was the extent of my action for the remainder of the afternoon. I added a black sunken ant and finished the day with a double ant offering, but I was unable to interest the high country creek residents in a mid afternoon snack.

I found a relatively unobstructed path that led back to the road and hiked 1.3 miles back to the parking lot. Seventeen trout in five hours of fishing was decent but not exactly a torrid pace. All the trout, however, were absolutely stunning wild cutbows and cutthroats, and this more than made up for their diminutive size. Most importantly, other than the loss of three flies, I avoided losing or breaking any of my equipment.

Fish Landed: 17