Time: 12:00PM – 4:00PM

Location: Edwards Bridge to long run/pool then from island upstream quite a ways

Fish Landed: 3

Eagle River 07/14/2010 Photo Album

I was itching to return to the Eagle River after some decent action the previous Friday near the rest area above the pedestrian bridge. Denver was in a heat wave and escaping to the mountains was an additional appeal. I decided to pack the van with camping gear and fish the Eagle Wednesday and Thursday and camp at Hornsilver high above Minturn. I got off to a reasonably early start and arrived at Hornsilver around noon. The campground was empty, so I grabbed site 4 and paid my fee, ate lunch and then headed to the Eagle. I arrived and was on the stream at around noon. I hiked downstream to the auto bridge next to the entrance to the rest area and began working the pockets tight to the left bank facing upstream. I picked up a small brown near the start, but that was all I’d catch over the entire stretch from the bridge to the long run/pool above the rest area.

It was a very hot day with temperatures in the 80’s and clear, blue skies. I skipped past the stretch of water I’d fished the previous Friday and hiked behind the condos on the left around the bend with the pedestrian bridge and then beyond the next 90 degree bend near route 6. I began fishing again below the island and up the left smaller channel. I had been using a yellow Letort hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear, the combination that produced so well on Friday, but it wasn’t working on this day. I decided to experiment with some alternatives. Part way up the left channel I tied on a lime green trude and two-thirds of the way up the channel a nice 15 inch brown sipped it in. I battled the brown and landed it and photographed. I moved on to the top of the island and fished the nice pockets along the left bank and caught one more small brown on the lime green trude.

That would be my count for the day, two small browns and one very nice fifteen inch fish. I was very disappointed. I had changed out my tapered leader at the start of the day, so decided to stop at the Alpine River fly show in Riverwalk and purchase a new one. I asked the gentleman behind the counter what happened to the fishing, and he said that fishing in the middle of the day when it is hot, is generally not productive. He suggested morning or evening and going deep with nymphs if I wanted to fish in the afternoon.