Time: 11:00AM – 2:00PM

Location: Christina public water upper end

Fish Landed: 5

Elk River 07/05/2015 Photo Album

Sunday July 5 was overcast with light rain off and on and temperatures in the low to mid-60’s in the Yampa Valley. This weather was quite a change from Friday when the hot sun made it nearly impossible to cool the Supple’s south facing condominium. Once again Steve and I evaluated fishing options. We fished the tailwater on Friday, so we were anxious for a change, and the crowds on the Sunday of the Fourth of July weekend would probably be formidable. I considered the east end of the Yampa before it enters downtown Steamboat Springs, but Steve was convinced the tubers would not be deterred by the cool damp weather. That left our remaining option, the Elk River, and we agreed to give this tributary of the Yampa a chance.

I drove to the Christina public access stretch, and we parked by a large green sign that enumerated the rules of the leased water. The sign stated that we were within 200 yards of the northern border with private property,. so Steve and I decided to walk downstream a bit to a large bridge. A sign warned that the bridge was private, so Steve and I found a rugged path down a short but steep bank to the edge of the river. The flows at Milner, near the junction with the Yampa, were 580 compared with 750 on Wednesday July 1 when I last fished the Elk River. This represented a significant drop, however, the water remained fairly high and fast compared to the norm. Unlike my visit earlier in the week I was able to wade much farther from the shoreline in my pursuit of likely trout holding spots.

I began fishing with a thingamabobber, split shot, a salvation nymph and a size 18 gray nymph to imitate pale morning duns. We visited the Straightline Fly Shop on Lincoln Avenue on the Fourth of July, and the young salesman showed me some flies that represented the nymph stage of the PMD, and they were all size 18 and mostly gray. I thought I was outwitting the trout, but this was not the case as I failed to attract a hook up of any sort. I pondered the situation and concluded that the small nymph was not flashy enough in the higher flows, so I replaced it with a beadhead hares ear. This finally yielded a six inch rainbow from a current seam in a non-descript area.

Shadowy Figure in My Net

I worked my way upstream to a wide deep run that Steve abandoned, and here I discovered that I could carefully cross at the tail out. I waded slowly and carefully and reached the west bank where I could effectively drift my nymphs through a deep run. This proved to be the winning spot for our Elk River venture, as I fought and landed three nice thirteen inch rainbows from the area. It required many drifts, but eventually the fish spotted my nymphs. The salvation proved to be the most desirable of my two flies to the finned creatures that I was attempting to fool.

A Fine Elk River Rainbow Trout

After I exhausted the attractive area I crossed back to the road side of the river and waded above Steve to a narrow deep slot next to the bank. A narrow evergreen leaned at a forty-five degree angle over the top of the run, and I frustrated myself by losing two sets of salvation/hares ear nymphs to the nuisance tree. Steve was not having any success, and I was frustrated by the careless casting that resulted in a loss of flies, so we hacked our way through some dense brush and reached the car.

Steve Changes Flies at a Nice Pool on the Elk River

We left the large parking area and drove to the downstream area where we parked and scrambled down another bank to the edge of the river. I succeeded in finding the gentle pool where I ended on Wednesday with a brook trout, and I invited Steve to give it a try. I meanwhile went downstream a bit and worked some pockets surrounding exposed rocks with my nymphs. I experienced no success, so I decided to at least have some casting fun, and switched to a yellow sally dry fly. The highly visible little stonefly attracted a six inch rainbow which I landed, but then the rain picked up so I met Steve, and we returned to the car and called it a day.

I managed five fish in three hours, and I was frankly disappointed with the quality of fishing on the Elk River which presents many stretches of wide shallow riffles. As the flows drop it seems that fewer fish holding locations exist. The Yampa Valley provided some excellent late June stream fishing, but now other rivers are falling to attractive levels, so I plan to take a break and move on.