Time: 11:00AM – 3:30PM
Location: Davis Ponds
Davis Ponds 05/25/2021 Photo Album
If you are a long time follower of this blog, you know that I am not a big fan of fishing in stillwater. Unfortunately the options for fly fishing in flowing water are dwindling in Colorado, as snowpack shifts from solid to liquid form late in May. The run off conditions have actually been delayed as a result of colder than normal weather in April and May of 2021. Nevertheless, the inevitable has begun, so I turned my thoughts to lake fishing options on May 25.
I enjoyed several trips to Davis Ponds during my recovery from heart surgery in June of 2020, so I decided to test the waters once again on Tuesday. Temperatures in the seventies in Denver translated to sixties for the Davis Ponds area, and I am pleased to report that my fishing outing was a splendid spring experience. Before choosing Davis Ponds as my destination, I checked the DOW stocking report, and this useful document informed me that the Davis Ponds were stocked on May 11, two weeks ago. I was hopeful that some fish remained to entertain me.
Murky Pond
I arrived at the Davis Ponds trail parking lot at 10:30AM, and I quickly climbed into my waders and assembled my Sage four weight. Strong winds provided some concern, and intermittent gusts continued at the ponds, but my fishing position was somewhat protected, and I was not significantly impacted by the strong air currents. The pond water was significantly stained with only a foot or two of visibility, and this unfavorable condition factored into my choice of flies. I searched through my fleece wallet and extracted a black nosed dace streamer and dark cahill wet fly. These were throwback flies to my early days of fly fishing and fly tying, so I was anxious to determine, if they could still produce fish thirty-five years later. The black nosed dace displayed a silver body and white bucktail underbody, which I hoped would stand out in the turbid water. The dark cahill contained a muskrat fur body, and when wet, the dark fly contrasted with the brownish tan water in the pond.
The dark cahill proved to be a solid choice, as I netted five stocked rainbow trout, before I broke for lunch at noon. I tossed the two fly combination in all directions and stripped it back to shore with short pulsing pulls. Fairly early in my pursuit of trout I noticed periodic schools of stocked trout, as they swam at a fairly quick pace parallel to the shoreline. Several of the early catches resulted from stripping the flies in front of the advancing cluster of trout.
Dark Cahill Victim
After I reached four landed trout, the action paused noticeably, so I made a switch and replaced the black nosed dace with an emerald caddis pupa. With this two-fly offering in place, I landed a fifth trout on the dark cahill, but then another extended lull caused me to reconsider. The presence of periodic rises caused me to ponder the idea of a dry fly, so I removed the wet flies and changed to a size 18 olive body deer hair caddis. I focused on the water near my position, and when I spotted a rise, or when a fast moving cluster of trout swam by, I fluttered the caddis in the area, and this tactic paid dividends, as I boosted the fish count from five to twelve. During this period I also endured quite a few long distance releases due to the small hook and the tentative nature of many of the takes.
Unlike blue winged olive activity, it seemed that the surface feeding ticked up, when the sun reappeared from the clouds. The tiny deer hair caddis became waterlogged, and I was having difficulty tracking it, particularly after longer than normal casts, so I resorted to my popular ploy and placed a peacock hippie stomper in front of the caddis. I continued to lead the migrating fish with the two-fly combination, or I cast to the vicinity of single rises, and the fish counter climbed again to twenty-three. Surprisingly most of these afternoon fish smashed the hippie stomper, as it seemed the school of cruising fish competed to inhale the large attractor dry fly. Once again the hippie stomper amazed me with its versatility.
Hippie Stomper in Lip
Tuesday was another very enjoyable day at the Davis Ponds. Hopefully during the next month I will make another visit or two. The setting is spectacular with spaced out ponderosa pines and green meadows and gray rock facades overlooking the area. Sure, I was catching small stocked rainbow trout, but solving the puzzle of what the trout were eating remained a challenge. Bring on the snow melt. I am ready for stillwater action in 2021.
Fish Landed: 23
The Path Back