Time: 11:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: Eastern shore

Jefferson Lake 07/05/2023 Photo Album

After a somewhat disappointing day on Monday on the Eagle River, I yearned for a return. I was hopeful that two days would allow a 200 CFS foot drop, and that would place the flows at the upper limit of my favored range for edge fishing. Unfortunately, when I checked the flows on Tuesday evening, it was apparent that the run off had leveled off, and the graph depicted no appreciable decline. I also checked the Arkansas River, although I was reluctant to make the nearly three hour drive, and the flow graph displayed a similar trend of flat water levels. I considered the Big Thompson, and flows there remained on the high side at 127 CFS, so I ultimately chose to visit another high country lake.

I scanned my list of lakes, and I singled out Jefferson Lake. I never fished Jefferson Lake, however, I recently read a brief article about it in American Fly fishing, and I searched and found the article that I scanned. The brief description of Jefferson Lake was found in my destinations folder on the computer. After reading the article, my curiosity was peaked, and I decided to make the trip. Jefferson Lake is located in South Park a little over 1.5 hours from Denver.

I needed to make some phone calls about appointments, so I got off to a late start and departed the garage by 9:00AM. This enabled me to pull into the boat launch parking lot by 10:40AM after paying my $5 fee to use the Jefferson Lake Recreation Area. The air temperature at the high elevation lake was 51 degrees, and huge snowfields were located along the western side of the parking lot. I pulled on my fleece hoodie and raincoat, and I assembled my Sage R8 four weight, and I was prepared for a day of fishing. An ominous dark cloud appeared in the western sky, but I began my hike with the hope of getting in thirty minutes of fly fishing before the rain began. The article in the magazine suggested fishing the eastern shoreline to get away from the crowds of fishermen that pressured the water near the south end parking lot.

My Fly on the Still Surface

I followed the instructions perfectly and hiked to a spot roughly one-fifth of the length of the eastern bank. I tied a yellow size 8 fat Albert to my line and then added an olive-brown size 16 deer hair caddis on a three foot dropper. I do not usually fish such a long tippet in a double dry arrangement, but I was reluctant to cut down the leader without a place to dispose of the excess. I began lobbing relatively long casts toward the center of the lake, and during the times when the wind died back, I observed sipping rises in the vicinity. The feeding was very sporadic, but I used the action to locate fish, and tossed casts nearby. I counted thirty seconds and then stripped, and I generated several swirls, but no commitment to the fake food source. Finally after several teases, a fish absolutely crushed the fat Albert, and I landed a fine twelve inch rainbow trout.

Number One Was Pretty

I was rather excited that I unlocked the secret to catching Jefferson Lake trout, when the wind kicked up, and a curtain of rain descended on me and the water. It was too early to get soaked, so I retreated to the shelter of a clump of pine trees, and I waited out the weather interruption. The rain varied between very heavy and moderate, before I heard loud smacks, and at this point I realized that small hail balls replaced the liquid precipitation. I waited for roughly thirty minutes, until I resumed casting in light rain under partially blue skies at 11:30AM. Rising trout were absent after the storm ended, so I spent twenty minutes making fruitless casts and strips, until I adjourned to a large rock, where I consumed my lunch.

North End of the Lake

After lunch I decided to move toward the north to sample different sections of the lake and to eventually investigate the inlet. Between 12:30 and 2:30 I walked the shoreline to the inlet, and I stopped intermittently to cast the flies, when I spotted random rises. During this process I added two additional rainbow trout in the twelve inch range. One crushed the fat Albert, and the other inhaled a peacock hippie stomper that replaced the Albert. At one point I removed the caddis and replaced it with a salvation nymph in case the trout were focused on subsurface offerings, but that change never produced success. When I removed the salvation, I used the changeover as an opportunity to exchange the fat Albert for the hippie stomper, and I also swapped the salvation for a black size 18 parachute ant.

Inlet Area

The catch rate was below average, and there was very little activity in the form of refusals, looks or temporary connections. By 2:30PM I arrived at the first inlet to the lake. A very small mountain stream trickled into the lake, but the entry was not attractive to fish. I crossed the small entering stream and walked across a spit of land to the point where another slightly larger stream entered. This area had more depth, where the current flowed, and it fanned out into a nice wide mouth with moderate depth. I began spraying casts upstream and then across the little inlet cove, and as I did this, some sporadic feeding activity materialized. Finally on a cast to the center of the lake where the stream current ended, a fish rocketed to the surface to inhale one of my flies. The take was so rapid, that I was uncertain which fly was attacked.

A Lake Trout Perhaps?

The fish put up a stronger fight than my previous catches, but eventually I landed it, and I was both pleased and surprised to see a lake trout. I think it was a small lake trout, although I read that the lake contains splake, so that was another possibility. After releasing the cold water species, I resumed casting, but the wind kicked up, and the rises ended, and my flies were not productive.

I stripped in my flies and once again changed tactics. For my final effort at salvaging Wednesday, I knotted an olive-black woolly bugger to my line along with a wiggle damsel nymph. For the next hour I worked my way back along the eastern shoreline, and I stopped periodically to cast and strip the streamer combination. I cycled through a black mini leech, a blonde woolly bugger, and a Mickey Finn during this last hour, but my only reward was a soft bump to the mini leech.

Columbine Family

When I was next the last cove before the parking lot, a wide bank of black clouds rolled in from the west. Distant thunder suggested ominous weather, so I hustled back to the car and removed my gear and broke down my rod. My timing was perfect, as large but widely spaced raindrops smacked my shirt, as I climbed into the Santa Fe for the return trip.

Four trout in 3.5 hours of fly fishing was a sad catch rate. The rainbows were feisty adversaries, and it was fun to break the monotony of stocker rainbows with a small lake trout. I would have liked more fishing time without wind and a riffled surface, but I explored quite a bit of the lake, and if I ever return, I now know the layout.

Fish Landed: 4