Time: 1:30PM – 4:00PM

Location: Clear Creek Canyon between first and second tunnel where creek crosses to north side of route six.

Fish Landed: 8

Clear Creek 09/29/2015 Photo Album

Jane and I returned from our trip to Pennsylvania late Sunday night. I was exhausted from the travel and from sleeping in different places, so I relaxed on Monday and worked on a backlog of desk jobs. However, by Tuesday I was anxious to resume fly fishing in Colorado to take advantage of the dwindling nice autumn weather. I had two appointments scheduled for the morning, so I ate lunch at home and then threw my gear in the car and departed for Clear Creek. After a fifty minute drive that was extended by an accident on interstate 70, I turned into a wide pullout between tunnels one and two and prepared to fish.

Clear Creek was flowing at 50 CFS, and that represents a nearly ideal level for the small drainage that flows along route six. I chose my Orvis Access four weight rod and found a path down the steep bank to the edge of the river slightly upstream from where the Santa Fe was parked. Given the low flows and relatively clear water, I chose to fish a single dry fly and began with a Chernobyl ant. It did not take long before a feisty ten inch brown rose and smashed the Chernobyl, and I was pleased to enjoy an early success. Perhaps the Chernobyl would be attractive to the Clear Creek trout on Tuesday September 29.

First Nice Trout from Clear Creek

I continued to prospect with the large foam terrestrial, and a second brown trout charged the buoyant rubber leg ant and inhaled it as I set the hook. These two fish bracketed a long distance release, and I was beginning to think that I was in for some fast action. Alas, that was not the case, and suddenly the residents of Clear Creek began to refuse my offering. As this early afternoon scene was evolving, I realized that the fish were mostly tight to the rocky bank, and they seemed to emerge from medium depth holding positions. Cover, moderate depth, and slow velocity became the key characteristics for locations that yielded trout.

I was frustrated by the sudden streak of Chernobyl rejections, so I clipped it from my leader and replaced it with a hares ear parachute hopper. This attracted attention, and I managed to land one small brown trout, but it also generated far more refusals than takes, so I opted for yet another change. I stayed with the terrestrial theme and tied my sole Jake’s gulp beetle to my line. Except for the last half hour, this foam beetle with a small orange indicator remained attached to my leader and yielded four additional trout. Like the other catches, the beetle attackers appeared from protected locations along the rocks. The beetle takes were more subtle than what I experienced with the Chernobyl ant, as all I saw was a small dimple in the surface resulting in the disappearance of the small orange indicator.

Jake’s Gulp Beetle to This Fish’s Liking

In addition to the four landed fish, I accumulated a series of momentary hook ups. I am not clear if this was due to the quick subtle take, or if the fish were tentative in their bite, but I could have easily landed double digit fish had I converted a higher percentage of takes. I covered a considerable amount of stream in the process of landing the four beetle admirers, and it seemed like many very attractive spots failed to yield fish, so I once again made a change. I was curious if perhaps a nymph dropper might increase my hook ups, so I returned to the Chernobyl ant and added a beadhead hares ear dropper.

A Pretty Scene Close to Denver

The conversion produced one more small brown trout that hammered the Chernobyl, but the subsurface offering was ignored. By 4:30 the shadows lengthened across the stream as the canyon walls tightened, and this made it difficult to follow the low riding foam ant, so I called it quits and scrambled up the steep rocky bank. I found myself half a mile above my parking place, and this necessitated a brisk hike back to the car.

Eight fish in 2.5 hours is a reasonable catch rate, but for some reason I continue to expect easier fishing in Clear Creek. The fish are small, and the creek is not rich in aquatic insects, so I anticipate opportunistic feeding. Unfortunately my last three or four trips suggest that the fish of Clear Creek Canyon are nearly as selective as educated spring creek sippers. It is hard to ignore fishing that only requires a forty-five minute drive, so I expect I will continue to make the trip with abnormal expectations.