Time: 2:00PM – 4:00PM
Location: Just upstream from Dallenbach Ranch wedding venue.
Frying Pan River 06/11/2021 Photo Album
I forgot how much fun it is to fly fish the Frying Pan River. It has been at least two years, since I last made the acquaintance of this jewel of a tailwater in the Roaring Fork Valley.
That Smooth Slick Yielded a Brown Trout
My daughter, Amy, moved from Portland, OR to Carbondale, CO to be close to her boyfriend. She obtained a physical therapy position in Carbondale and rented a condominium in the same town. Jane and I were anxious to pay a visit to Amy and her boyfriend, Phil, and we finally made the trip on Friday, June 11.
We arrived in Carbondale at 11:00AM and spent an hour chatting, and Phil and Amy provided an apartment tour, before we cycled to Dos Gringos Burritos for a tasty lunch of tacos. After lunch I was anxious to wet a line, so I left Jane, Amy, and Phil and made the short drive to the Frying Pan River. Because June 11 is early in the season, and the heavy pale morning dun and green drake hatches were not in progress on the upper river, I decided to gamble on the lower water. I stopped at a pullout upstream of the Dallenbach Ranch wedding venue.
Salvation and Chunky Brown Trout
The river was in spectacular condition with crystal, clear visibility and flows in the 125 CFS range. The air temperature was around eighty degrees, and very little cloud cover blocked the intense rays of the sun. Before departing for my stint on the Frying Pan River, I checked the fishing report at the Taylor Creek website, and it mentioned midday hatches of blue winged olives and pale morning duns, so I armed my line with a tan size 8 pool toy hopper, a size 16 salvation nymph (PMD imitation), and a size 20 sparkle wing RS2 (BWO imitation). These three flies clicked immediately, and I maintained them for two hours of exceptional fishing on the Frying Pan River.
Speckles and Stripes
I steadily worked my way upstream for .4 mile and landed eleven trout. All but two were brown trout, and the landed population included a pair of fourteen inch browns, and a thirteen inch rainbow, and the remainder were predominantly feisty twelve inch browns. The prime targets were deep slots near large boulders, and pockets of moderate depth.
Promising Small Shelf Pool
In addition to eleven landed trout, I experienced quite a few refusals to the pool toy. Surprisingly very often the flash of a refusal to the hopper revealed the position of a trout, and during a subsequent drift the reluctant surface feeder grabbed one of the trailing nymphs. The pool toy converted one fish, and seventy percent of the remaining landed trout nabbed the salvation nymph, while thirty percent locked in on the RS2.
Length
In summary, I had a blast. I moved fairly rapidly with a flurry of casts to likely spots, and very frequently a hungry trout responded with a grab. The catch rate was fantastic, the size of the trout was excellent, and I basked in the gorgeous natural setting. Hopefully Amy’s presence in the Roaring Fork Valley enables many future visits to the Frying Pan River.
Fish Landed: 11