Time: 11:30AM – 4:00PM

Location: West of Wolcott

Eagle River 07/08/2024 Photo Album

I was mostly over my cold, and with the Fourth of July week in the rear view mirror, I decided to do my first fly fishing/camping venture of the year. I departed Denver by 8:30AM, and this enabled me to reach my chosen destination on the Eagle River by 10:45AM.

The dashboard registered 72 degrees and the flows were in the 700 -800 CFS range. I love edge fishing the Eagle River, and the conditions were nearly perfect for that approach. For the most part I confined my casts to the twenty feet of river that bordered the left bank. The rest of the river except for the unreachable opposite bank was too fast to hold fish, so they were stacked up in the twenty foot ribbon of water. Pockets, eddies and moderate riffles with slow velocity and decent depth were my target for 4.5 hours on the river.

Starting Point

700 – 800 CFS

I began with a size 8 yellow fat Albert, an iron sally and a salvation nymph; and I covered quite a bit of water, before a chunky thirteen inch rainbow grabbed the iron sally. Most of the spots in the morning stretch were rather marginal, so I stuck with my lineup of flies, until I resumed after lunch.

Early Catch

Submerged Willows

Much Appreciated Brown Trout

During lunch along the river, I witnessed a fairly dense emergence of yellow sallies, so I swapped the salvation (PMD nymph) for a beadhead hares ear (yellow sally nymph). The move paid dividends, as the fish count mounted from one to twelve by 3:30PM. The yellow sallies definitely dominated the scene, but I also observed some size 18 caddis and a few pale morning duns. Most of the trout during this run grabbed the hares ear with perhaps two favoring the iron sally. This was by no means torrid fishing action, as the level of success required constant movement and an abundance of casting. Some attractive spots failed to produce, while other marginal locations provided a surprise.

Fighting Bow

Deep Trough

Pink Stripe

On the day I tallied thirteen landed trout, and two were browns with the remainder rainbows. Five of the final count were quite small, but the remaining eight were hard-fighting, chunky trout. Among the larger fish was a fifteen inch brown trout and three prize rainbows in the fifteen to sixteen inch range.

Talon Wound Obvious

Home of Talon Wound Rainbow

This brings me to number thirteen. I was near quitting time, and I was still fishing the dry/dropper, when I arrived at the spot, where the river widens, and there is a nice wide moderate depth riffle. I made some exploratory casts with the dry/dropper, but I experienced no luck, but I spotted a decent sized nose poking up two times to eat something. I removed the dry/dropper and shifted to a solo yellow sally dry fly. The fish refused the yellow sally, so I swapped it for a size 16 light gray comparadun, and a gorgeous sixteen inch rainbow sipped it confidently. What a way to end my day, and I love moments like that.

Home of Comparadun Sipper

Fish of the Day

Monday was a fun day. in addition to the thirteen landed trout, I tangled with three additional hot fish that managed to shed the fly. I played them long enough to realize that they were worthy of my deep regret.

I found a campsite at Hornsilver Campground for Monday night, but I was unable to connect the propane canister to the camp stove regulator, so I drove back to Kirby Cosmos in Minturn for a BBQ dinner. I suppose I can now claim that I was glamping and not camping.  A revisit to the Eagle River on Tuesday before returning to Denver is in the plans.

Fish Landed: 13