Time: 9:30AM – 3:00PM, 3:30PM – 5:00PM
Location: Edwards rest area; I70 bridge to first bridge on way to Minturn
Fish Landed: 13 at rest area, 5 in Minturn
Eagle River 07/09/2013 Photo Album
It was quite chilly when I woke up at 6:30AM on Tuesday despite afternoon highs approaching 90 degrees. The Rocky Mountains are a variable place with wide temperature ranges between day and night. I ate my breakfast and packed a lunch and packed everything back in the Santa Fe as I wasn’t sure I would stay another night. My success or lack thereof on the Eagle River would dictate whether I returned or not.
A View of Campsite with Background
A 30 minute drive down Battle Mountain and through Minturn and then west on I70 delivered me to the Edwards rest area parking lot and by the time I lathered up with sunscreen and put on my waders and rigged my rod it was 9:30. Contrary to the previous Friday, I decided to hike down the river past the Edwards bridge for 30 yards or so and begin my fishing where the river split around a tiny island. I tied on a yellow Letort hopper and copper john and began prospecting likely holding spots. It didn’t take long before I hooked a nine inch brown below a rock at the base of the small narrow island near the north bank.
There was a nice deep slot to the right of the island so I repositioned myself to get so nice drag free drifts through this area, and as I was doing this I noticed a nice brown move toward the surface and sip something. There were swarms of small midges on the water so I added a zebra midge below the copper john, and much to my amazement, the indicator dipped and I set the hook and battled a nice brown. Unfortunately after playing the fish for a bit the small zebra midge hook worked itself out of the fish’s mouth.
After this disappointment I moved on and fished some nice water between the tip of the tiny island and the bridge and hooked another nice brown on the midge. I know this because I played the fish for a decent amount of time to get a good look at it, but it also shed the small zebra midge larva hook before I could net. At the bridge the flows were too high to wade underneath so I exited and came back down on the upstream side where I made some casts to a small packet right above the cement bridge support. Here I spotted a nice fish, but I couldn’t induce a take. It was about this time that I grew frustrated with the poor flotation of the hopper so I converted my top fly to a Chernobyl ant and also added a beadhead hares ear and jettisoned the copper john and midge.
Between the bridge and a fallen tree across from the rest area that is favored by workers as a lunch spot I landed an additional six fish, and this represented the hottest fishing on the Eagle during 2013. It was pocket fishing at its best as I moved back and forth in the wide area of wadeable pocket water between the bank and the fast main current popping casts into the deep pockets and standing ready to set the hook on short drifts with my rod held high to prevent drag. Shortly after moving above the Edwards bridge I added a bright green caddis pupa in addition to the beadhead hares ear and this combination produced the best fish on the day.
Only one of the six fish took the bright green caddis but it was a beauty, a 17 inch fish that grabbed the pupa as I began to lift to recast at the tail of a very narrow band of slack water. I was shocked that a fish this large inhabited such a nondescript piece of water on the Eagle River. Several additional fat hot fourteen inch browns were also among the six landed during this one and half hours of enjoyable action which recalled some of my great outings in 2002.
17″ Eagle River Brown
After lunch back at the car I resumed the same plan of attack but the game changed as I witnessed an emergence of small PMD’s. In a spot 25 feet above the place where people gather on their lunch break I spotted two very nice brown trout in a four foot deep lane just five feet away from me. Meanwhile some workers arrived below me in the lunch spot, but I didn’t think they were paying much attention to me. I drifted a Chernobyl over the lower and upper brown trout and both twitched their tails and made a slight move indicating they saw my fly but rejected it. I stopped casting and observed closely and I could determine that both fish were drifting side to side and eating something subsurface. With this insight I changed the bright green caddis for a Craven emerger and then tried lifting to imitate emergence, but this had no impact on the two visible fish. Next I removed the three flies and went with a light gray comparadun hoping this imitated the PMD’s, but again I failed to experience any success.
Clearly the two target fish were feeding in the foot or so below the surface, so I went back to the Chernobyl as an indicator and attached a hares ear and pheasant tail on the theory that the pheasant tail mimicked the nymph stage of a PMD. While I was focused on the two difficult browns I spotted another fish rise in another deep lane 15 feet out from me and five feet below. I fired out some longer casts and on the third drift a fish grabbed the pheasant tail and I fought and landed a 14 inch rainbow. Upon releasing the fish I glanced downstream to the group of lunch time workers and one of the men gave me a thumbs up so perhaps they were spectators after all.
Nice Action in Pockets Along Bank from Bridge Upstream
Once again I turned my attention to the large feeding browns knowing that the pheasant tail had fooled at least one fish. After quite a few casts I actually managed to prick the lower fish as I lifted my flies, so this further added to my frustration, but at least I now learned to go to a pheasant tail nymph earlier in the hatch should I return tomorrow. Having nicked the lower brown I decided to concede to the fish, and I progressed further up the left side of the river all the way to the pedestrian bridge by 3PM and landed another five browns to reach 13 on the day. These fish generally ran smaller than those caught in the morning session although the last one was a feisty 13 incher that consumed the hare’s ear in a nondescript location along the bank just before the bridge.
By 3PM the action had slowed considerably as it was quite warm, perhaps high 80’s with a bright overhead sun. I considered returning to the campground and taking a nap, but then remembered that I was curious about the Eagle River between Minturn and interstate 70. This water is above the confluence with Gore Creek and therefore somewhat smaller and it appeared to have excellent public access along the railroad tracks. Since it was further upstream perhaps it was colder and fished better in the afternoon heat. I decided to give it a try.
As I exited I70 and headed toward Minturn, I turned left at the first bridge and parked on the east side of the river. I gathered my rod and hiked down along the railroad tracks to a point just before the I70 bridge and returned to the Chernobyl plus a beadhead hares ear plus a beadhead green caddis pupa. Initially the water was wide with shallow riffles and no holding place for trout so I skipped by until I reached some small pockets tight against the rocks where the main current swept to the east side of the river. Here much to my surprise I landed a twelve inch rainbow and two small browns. Clouds began to build in the west and moved overhead and it began to rain fairly heavily even though the sun was out. Initially I discounted this storm, but quickly realized I was going to get soaked so I went through the annoying process of digging out my raincoat and pulling it on under my backpack and frontpack.
Nice Rainbow from Below Minturn
Just as the rain began I spotted a rise and quickly clipped off my dry/dropper set up and tied on a dark olive deer hair caddis. This attracted the riser and I landed another small brown. After I zipped on my raincoat I sent a prospecting cast above where I caught the brown and what appeared to be a decent fish rose and sucked in my caddis. I set the hook and felt some weight for a split second, but then the fish escaped.
Once the skies cleared I reverted to the Chernobyl and hares ear and was able to add another small brown that consumed the beadhead hares ear to the count. I ended just below the bridge that I parked by in a huge pool and when I departed at 5PM in a tired and weary state there were caddis everywhere but no fish rising. Perhaps there was some great evening dry fly fishing ahead, but I’ll never know.