Time: 2:00PM – 4:15PM
Location: Southern shoreline
Pine Valley Ranch Lake 06/19/2023 Photo Album
After experiencing some mild health setbacks on Friday and Sunday, I desired a less taxing day of fly fishing on Monday, June 19. I settled on Pine Valley Ranch Lake, because it represented a bit over an hour drive, and the hike to the lake was only .2 mile. The high temperature in Denver spiked in the low nineties, so that was an additional consideration.
Jane and I arrived in the lower parking lot at Pine Valley Ranch Park by 1:30PM, and we were fortunate to snag a spot near the trailhead, because only a few spaces remained. June 19 is Juneteenth, a new federal holiday, so we assumed that this circumstance impacted the greater than normal number of park visitors on a weekday.
Looking East
I considered wet wading, but I did not wear the proper shirt to hold my dry fly box, so I reverted to waders, and I never felt overheated during my time on the lake. For casting, I selected my Sage R8 four weight, and I have grown to love my newest graphite stick. Jane and I departed from the parking lot and hiked along the northern shore using the dirt road that separates the lake from the North Fork of the South Platte River. Anglers were spaced out along the south and north shorelines by roughly thirty feet, with the only remaining open spaces on the earthen dam and at the upper end of the southern shore. I decided to inspect the narrow channel at the west end, and it was devoid of fishermen, but as I scanned the shallow slough, I was unable to spot any fish, nor were any fish feeding on the surface. The combination of no sighted fish and no fishermen convinced me to move on. We circled around the west end of the lake, and I grabbed a spot toward the western end of the southern shoreline. The vegetation grew into the water, so waders or wet wading were required to fish in this section. Most of the fishermen at Pine Valley Ranch Lake were shore bound, so I saw this as an advantage. Jane set up her chair in the pavilion in the southwest corner.
West End
Release Time
I began my quest for rainbow trout with a double dry configuration that featured a peacock hippie stomper as the first fly and a size 16 gray deer hair caddis as the trailer. For the next two hours I fired forty foot casts in a fan pattern from my waded position, and I edged my way eastward. After an hour the man and woman who claimed the spot by the angled dead tree departed, and I quickly replaced them. How did I do? I landed nine stocker rainbow trout during 2.25 hours of fishing. I utilized the same technique that resulted in a twenty-five fish day on a previous trip. I allowed the flies to rest for thirty seconds, and then I made quick pulsing strips back to my casting position. All but two of the trout sipped the fly, while it was motionless, and two made a grab on an early strip. The caddis accounted for six trout, and the hippie stomper attracted three smacks. The hippie stomper eats seemed to coincide with a breeze or wind and the presence of a slight chop on the surface of the lake. Many fruitless casts were part of the equation, and doing the thirty second countdown repeatedly tried my patience, but nine fish in 2.25 hours during air temperatures in the low eighties was actually a fairly solid performance.
Send It
By 4:15PM the pace of action slowed to a crawl, and my back began to tighten, so I stripped in my flies, and Jane and I returned to the car. Jane enjoyed watching my efforts and actually called out a take, when I looked away for a split second. We were both awestruck, when an osprey assumed the shape of a wedge and plunged into the lake at high velocity directly across from us. Neither of us had our cameras available, but we then watched, as the majestic bird of prey circled the lake several times. On two occasions it swooped, until it was twenty feet above the surface of the lake, and we were sure another dive was imminent, but on both occasions it backed off and regained altitude.
From the Earthen Dam
I hope to explore a few more lakes within the next couple weeks before rivers and streams return to fishable levels.
Fish Landed: 9