Pine Valley Ranch Lake – 08/16/2025

Time: 11:00AM – 2:00PM

Location: Shoreline

Pine Valley Ranch Lake 08/16/2025 Photo Album

After experiencing a skunking on Wednesday and enduring a continuing struggle with a cold, I considered my options for a day of fly fishing on Friday, May 16, 2025. My Tuesday outing involved a long drive to the South Platte River, so I filtered my choices to those close to Denver. I examined the DWR flow information, and I quickly discovered that all the Front Range streams were in the process of blowing out with rapid increases in volume. Even South Boulder Creek, a tailwater, was chugging along at 199 CFS.

The one drainage that was conspicuous as an example of favorable flows was the South Platte River tailwaters. Other than the Waterton Canyon stretch, however, they all involved relatively lengthy drives, and I was reluctant to undertake that, having made the trip on Tuesday to Eleven Mile Canyon.

I shifted my attention to lakes, and in a short amount of time, I settled on Pine Valley Ranch Lake. The travel time was reasonable, and I love the Pine Valley Ranch Park, and I enjoyed decent success at the lake in prior seasons. The stocking report indicated that a transfer of trout took place on March 28, and that was quite a while ago, but I gambled that hungry fish remained albeit perhaps a bit wiser and more spread out.

In the meantime, I received a text from the mother of my fly fishing student, Ben, and Ben had Friday off, so I invited him to join me. He jumped on the opportunity, and I picked him up at 9:30AM, and we continued our drive out US 285 from there. We arrived at the lower parking lot by 10:30AM, and six other cars were present. A fisherman was preparing to fish in one of the vehicles, but the others seemed to be hikers and dog walkers.

I wore my down coat and my rain jacket, and I fit together my four piece Sage R8 four weight. Ben assembled his gear and rods, and we hiked around the lake to a spot on the south shoreline. I selected the long way around to familiarize Ben with the surroundings, since it was his first visit.

Ben’s Early Catch

Initially I fished a peacock hippie stomper, salvation nymph and salad spinner midge pupa, and I managed one connection. The rainbow leaped from the water several times and then shed the hook, before I could gain control. Ben, meanwhile, was fishing with a balanced leech streamer that displayed shiny brown fibers and a tungsten bead. His choice proved fortuitous, as he hooked and landed three rainbows of above average size in the time period prior to lunch. In addition, he noted some follows and recorded a few temporary hook ups, so his action was quite impressive.

Ben with Fish Number One

We paused for lunch at noon, and after lunch we resumed our efforts to attract the attention of the lake dwellers. After seeing Ben’s success, I removed my dry/dropper setup, and I knotted a woolly bugger to my line and crimped a split shot right above the eye of the hook. The bugger had a brown marabou tail and a peacock chenille body. The wind was gusting dramatically, and this in turn caused small waves to develop on the surface, and I assumed the fish were unable to see the hippie stomper. The woolly bugger failed to produce, so after fifteen minutes and many casts and strips, I replaced it with the streamer I made, while my grandson, Theo, observed.

Intruder

Theo Thunder

Imagine my excitement, when I felt the bump of a take and hooked and stripped in a slightly above average-sized rainbow trout. I simply threw together a jumble of leftover materials for this fly, so It was very gratifying to achieve success.

Streamer Stripping

The weather went through cycles that consisted of strong wind, waves, and clouds; and then sunny and clear skies. During the sunny periods, the surface would change into smoothness, and then a smaller cloud would block the sun and create an overcast and a bit of riffle, and the lake would bloom with sporadic rises. Between one and two o’clock, when we quit, I settled on the double dry approach with a peacock hippie stomper and a size 22 dry fly. The fly consisted of a light olive quill body and olive wing and dubbing at the thorax. I noticed a few small adult midges buzzing about, and they appeared to display the same light olive coloration.

Not Bad for Dave

Finally I enjoyed some success. I landed three rainbow trout, and two sipped the small olive dry fly, and one crushed the hippie stomper. All these fish hit the surface fly, after I cast and waited for twenty to thirty seconds. Stripping and popping the flies was not an effective technique on this day. Also, the fish responded during those times, when the sky clouded and before the wind became too strong.

Ben’s afternoon was quite slow after a solid morning, and we agreed to depart at 2PM. Four trout in three hours of fishing was not impressive, but I had fun introducing Ben to a new spot, and I was thrilled to observe his streamer success. I look forward to more lake fishing over the next several months.

Fish Landed: 4