Time: 11:00AM – 5:00PM
Location: Preserve open space near Edwards and then by the Eagle-Vail trestle
Fish Landed: 8
Eagle River 09/28/2013 Photo Album
If you read my previous blog, you may be wondering about the outcome of the realtor appointments on Saturday morning. Both houses were similar but the one next to the Gaboury’s was furnished and had quite a few additions causing the price to be $35,000 greater. Jane and I actually love both houses and now are trying to decide whether to commit to owning a second home. There are many advantages ranging from a jumping off point for fishing and skiing, but it also represents a significant financial commitment at a fairly late stage in our lives. Stay tuned.
Back to fishing. Dave G. arranged with his friend Todd to meet at the preserve open space area near Edwards on Saturday morning at 10AM. Todd is originally from California and spent a long career working for Chevron, and now he and his wife Karen own a home in Arrowhead. Three years ago Todd got interested in fly fishing, and he has progressed rapidly to the point of being a very competent fisherman. According to Dave G. Todd fishes nearly every day except for cold winter days when he puts on the skis and in the process of spending significant time on the water has gained much insight into fishing locations on the Eagle River. Suffice it to say, the preserve water was new to me, and I’m anxious to return and explore it thoroughly.
After introductions and gearing up Todd, Dave G. and I hiked down the path by the parking lot to the river, but a guide and fisherman were fishing the opposite shore from where Todd wanted to fish, and since we needed space for three fishermen, we decided to move further downstream. Todd had actually never explored the water this far downstream behind a gravel quarry so we were all undertaking a new experience. I offered to cross the river to the north side at a wide shallow riffle while Dave G. walked down the south shore and Todd found a home in a deep riffle upstream. I targeted a point where there was a jumble of rocks from stream improvement projects and at this point there was a slight bend in the river.
Dave G. Lands Rainbow on Eagle River
The water in this stretch of the river was characterized by long sweeping runs with shallow riffles in between so I decided to fish deep and tied on a 20 incher for weight and then a salvation nymph as my point fly. By this time Dave G. was directly across from me and fishing the other side of the deep run and current seam, and he began catching rainbows on a hares ear and RS2 almost immediately. Based on his positive results I eventually switched to the same flies and had a hook up with a nice fish, but it got into heavy current and broke off the RS2.
I shook off my disappointment and worked my way upstream to the wide riffle opposite Todd who was also experiencing exceptionally fine fishing with five or so landed and just as I arrived he landed a 16-17″ brown. Todd was fishing at beadhead hares ear and a beadhead pheasant tail, and he informed me that most of the fish were taking the pheasant tail. Of course I took his advice and swapped the RS2 for a beadhead pheasant tail and progressed up the left side. Finally I landed a small rainbow for my first fish, and it was nice to be on the scoreboard, but my fish didn’t measure up to the beauties that Todd and Dave G. were landing.
Todd Displays Brown from Across the River
As I moved along I did begin to enjoy more action and had a few foul hooked fish, but then I finally connected with a nice fat fifteen inch brown that consumed the hares ear in a four foot wide swath of slow water between the bank and the swift main current. Unfortunately I couldn’t even fully enjoy this catch as the flies somehow worked through a gap in the fish’s lip, and I struggled to release it, and eventually snipped off both flies. This forced me to retie both nymphs before moving on.
Again I progressed along the north bank and landed a small brown and then in an obscure short pocket I dropped the nymphs for a short drift. This is one of the places where I debate whether to even cast, but because the pocket was so short I made one cast and as I raised my rod to recast further up, another 15 inch brown latched on to the rising pheasant tail. I battled this active fish to my net and photographed it before carefully releasing it back to its environment.
Another Buttery Brown
At this point I arrived at some nice pocket water and landed another small fish, but I also felt the weight of two decent fish for brief hook ups that resulted in long distance releases. It was just that kind of day.
Dave G. and Todd at Lunch
At around 1:30PM Dave G. signaled across the roaring whitewater that it was lunchtime, so I carefully waded across the river and joined my fishing companions for lunch in the parking lot. After lunch we moved to some water further upstream at the eastern border of the preserve. Once again I elected to cross and fish a deep run with the nymphs which remained on my line from before lunch. The run didn’t produce any fish so I completed my crossing and worked my way downstream and changed to a gray parachute hopper and beadhead hares ear. I saw a mass of hoppers along the path on the way to the river, so I was convinced that my gray hopper would produce.
It took awhile to remove the nymphs and tie on the hopper and hares ear, but finally I began to prospect the pockets along the bank and landed two small browns. The hopper looked amazingly realistic as it bobbed along on the current next to rocky structure, but apparently the fish were no longer tuned into these tasty terrestrials. The other guys weren’t doing anything with their nymphs so they motioned me that they wanted to move on and once again I made the river crossing to join them.
Autumn Splendor Along Eagle River at the Preserve
It was now late afternoon and Todd gave some thought to where we could go and experience some different water and came up with the trestle area in Eagle-Vail. We jumped in our cars and made the short trip up interstate 70 and exited at Eagle-Vail and then made a left turn into an apartment complex and eventually parked at the eastern end of the parking lot. Once we descended the steep bank to the river we discovered a huge deep run that ran down the center of the river and fed into a long beautiful pool. By this time the river was almost entirely covered in shadows and Todd and Dave G. moved to the top and midsection of the long run and pool.
I elected to wade in toward the end of the run but above the smooth shallow tail and almost immediately I noticed some sporadic rises across and downstream from my position. I stared at the water for a bit and noticed a tiny BWO dancing and fluttering up from the surface so I tied a CDC BWO below my parachute hopper. I began casting across the main current and attempted to make downstream drifts to the rising fish, but the wind was blowing upstream and on every cast the wind pushed the flies back upstream of the line. This situation produced almost immediate drag on every cast and I couldn’t get the BWO to land ahead of the other fly and line so that it would drift over the fish first. In addition the sun was very low in the western sky and created a difficult glare on the water.
I wasted much of the best hatch time trying to battle these variables before I finally moved to the tail where it was shallow and waded across to within eight feet of the far bank. Now I had better light and the wind was behind me so I clipped off the hopper and tied on the CDC BWO by itself and began casting to a pair of risers to my right and upstream around twenty feet. On perhaps the sixth cast to the target area a fish rose and sipped my tiny imitation prompting me to set the hook and fight a beautiful 13 inch cutbow to my net! It was well worth all the effort and adjustments to be rewarded with this fish.
My confidence soared so I worked my way to the far bank and moved up a bit to where I’d spotted rises earlier when the hatch was denser, but by now the BWO’s were gone and the water was calm with no more signs of rising fish. We decided to call it a day and hustled back to Dave G.’s house to prepare for dinner. For some reason I felt jinxed on Saturday, but had fun nonetheless and discovered some new Eagle River public locations to visit in the future. I also met Todd and exchanged contacts as he will most likely be a solid fishing companion on future trips.