Time: 10:30AM – 2:30PM

Location: Downstream from mile marker 263.5.

Fish Landed: 11

Clear Creek 10/28/2015 Photo Album

High temperatures in Denver were forecast to be in the mid-60’s for the last week of October, and Wednesday was expected to be the best day with less wind and no precipitation, so I decided to designate October 28 as my fishing day. My last two visits to Clear Creek produced double digit fish counts, so why not give it another try since it only required a 45 minute drive to the canyon area.

Jane decided to accompany me, and we targeted the parking lot at Mayhem Gulch so that Jane could hike the trail, while I fished in the creek that was across the highway. Unfortunately we discovered that excavation work was in progress on a bike trail along Clear Creek in this area, and we were uncertain whether fishing was allowed. Rather than risking encroachment on a temporarily closed construction zone, we jumped back in the car and drove east to a pullout just beyond mile marker 263.5. I agreed to return to the drop off spot by 12:30, so Jane could use the car to revisit Mayhem Gulch and complete a hike, while I tested the waters of Clear Creek two miles downstream.

Nice Deep Runs Like This Produced

I began my fishing outing by walking east on the shoulder a bit until I found a place where the slope of the bank was manageable for a safe descent to the stream. Clear Creek was flowing at 40 cfs, and the water was tinged with some sedimentation perhaps from the excavation work taking place upstream. The clarity however was adequate for my purposes, and in fact the murkiness probably helped shield me from the resident trout. The air temperature at 10:30 was in the low fifties and the sky was overcast with some high clouds.

I tied one of my new red bottom Jake’s gulp beetles to my line, and embarked on a late season fishing adventure. I plopped the beetle in a host of likely spots for fifteen minutes and only managed to land a tiny brown trout that was four inches long. I concluded that red was not a popular color with the local trout, so I swapped the size 10 beetle for a size twelve version with a peacock dubbed body. Another fifteen minutes through promising trout water failed to deliver any results, so I paused and reevaluated my approach. The water was quite cold and the cloudy sky allowed minimal solar warming, so I decided to offer some subsurface candy to the Clear Creek fish.

I tied a hares ear parachute hopper to my line and then added a beadhead ultra zug bug on a 2.5 foot dropper and resumed prospecting the pockets and runs on the right side of the creek. A short amount of time passed before I landed an eight inch brown that snatched the ultra zug bug on the lift. I heaved a sigh of relief knowing that I was on the scoreboard and a skunking was no longer a possibility. Although I was pleased by this advancement in my fortunes, it seemed I continued to cover a lot of attractive spots with no action, and I considered ending my fishing day at 12:30.

Parachute Hopper to the Liking of This Fish

Another ten minutes transpired, and then I approached a nice deep pool where the main current angled against the bank and then curved back toward the center of the creek where I was standing. I made five or six nice drifts along the current seam with no evidence of fish, and then before I moved on, I lobbed a short cast to some still water next to a large midstream boulder. Suddenly a flash appeared from a location deep in the pool right next to the boulder, and I quickly set the hook and stripped in a nine inch brown trout that crushed the hopper. My outlook was improving.

Hopper Snacker

Pretty View

Onward I moved, but I should add here that movement was not effortless. The stream bed was populated with numerous smooth boulders and the upstream construction deposited a thin film of brown sediment everywhere. Each step was a cautious experiment in traction. Despite this adversity, I began to connect with small brown trout with greater frequency. By the time my digital watch displayed 12:25, I registered seven fish landed in 1.5 hours, and I was brimming with confidence that the hopper and ultra zug bug combination could deliver more fish in the afternoon. The last five fish chomped the zug bug, and all were browns except for one six inch rainbow.

Nice Spots

I scrambled up the steep embankment and found Jane parked just east of the 263.5 mile marker sign. We executed a U-turn and drove west to the Mayhem Gulch parking lot, where I enjoyed a brief lunch with my lovely wife. We sat next to our car in the parking lot using our camp chair and stool, but the wind kicked up, and the sun was reluctant to appear. A bit of warmth would have added comfort to our lunch setting.

After lunch I added a second top layer and my New Zealand hat with ear flaps, as I felt a slight chill during the morning, and I determined that a windbreaker was required. Jane drove me back to my exit point, or so I thought, and we agreed to rendezvous again at 2:30. This provided me with another 1.5 hours of fishing, and I hoped to double my fish count. Once again I found a reasonably safe place to scramble down the steep slope, and I resumed prospecting with the hopper/dropper technique. Unfortunately 45 minutes elapsed, and I was still affixed to a fish count of seven.

I was baffled by this turn of events, when I reached a nice pool, and as I evaluated my approach, I realized that it was the same place where I landed the second brown trout on the parachute hopper in the morning. Somehow I chose the wrong landmark as my reentry point, and I wasted 45 minutes covering the same barren water that shut me out during the morning. I shrugged and stepped out of the  water and climbed over rocks until I eventually reached my true exit point for lunch.

In the remaining 45 minutes before my committed quit time I landed four more browns, and all consumed the ultra zug bug. The catch rate was slower that my noon time hot streak, but the size of the fish was improved despite less attractive water. The top producers were the riffles at the top of pools and the slow water next to these current seams. Toward the end of my fishing time I began to skip the tail sections and marched directly to the head of the pool with improved results.

Some Color Remains

At 2:30 I hooked the ultra zug bug to the first rod guide and carefully picked a path up the steep bank to the road and then returned to the drop off point where I found Jane. She arrived fifteen minutes early in case I decided to avoid the cold and cutting wind that began to rush down the canyon. The intermittent blasts did in fact become a significant factor in the last thirty minutes, but I persevered until the agreed upon meeting time.

Double digit fish on a cool autumn day in late October was certainly a positive experience, and I now know that the ultra zug bug can fool fish, and that the dry/dropper method is productive late in the season. I suspect that the final chapter of my fishing during 2015 is not yet complete.