Time: 10:30AM – 2:00PM

Location: East of Basalt

Frying Pan River 08/19/2022 Photo Album

After a series of storms, the stream and river levels in the Roaring Fork Valley elevated significantly, but by Friday I was ready to visit the Frying Pan River. The upper river dropped from 130 cfs to 79 cfs over a two day period, and that convinced me to make the drive from my daughter’s condo in Carbondale, CO. The dashboard displayed a temperature of 60 degrees, when I arrived at my chosen pullout, and as the day progressed, the air warmed into the upper 60’s. Dark clouds and rain, however, dominated the sky in the early afternoon, and this forced the temperature to drop back to the low 60’s  At lunch I pulled out my raincoat, and I wore it until I ended my fishing adventure at 2PM. The raincoat protected me from the rain and kept me warm in the early afternoon.

Nice Pockets

As I began my fly fishing venture, I crossed to the north side of the river and configured my line with a tan size 8 pool toy hopper, a beadhead hares ear nymph, and a beadhead salvation nymph, while casting my new Sage R8 four weight. I chose the Sage R8 because the river level was higher than normal.

Salvation Nymph Fancier

By the time I broke for lunch at noon, eleven fish visited my net. Nearly all were rainbow trout, and a third of my catch smacked the hopper, another third nabbed the hares ear, and the remainder grabbed the salvation. The rainbows were predominantly spunky trout in the ten to eleven inch range. I managed to lift five silver-sided bows from one particularly productive deep run along the south bank.

Deep Slots Produced

After lunch I continued with the same approach until just before 2PM, and I built the fish count to twenty-four. The early afternoon results were very similar to the morning with a few brown trout sprinkled in including a gorgeous thirteen incher. The success rate on the hares ear faded a bit, and the salvation compensated. The only negative was an increase in the number of temporary hook ups on the pool toy.

Great Fish for These Waters

Friday was a fun day after a week away from fly fishing. Twenty-four trout in three hours of fishing was appreciated. A thirteen inch rainbow and brown trout topped the tally with most of the landed trout in the nine to eleven inch range. Another trip to the Frying Pan would be a welcome addition to the 2022 season.

Fish Landed: 24