Time: 10:30AM – 3:30PM
Location: 1.5 miles down the path from the parking lot. Started fishing at the spot where a large vertical rock makes passage difficult.
Fish Landed: 9
South Boulder Creek 04/25/2014 Photo Album
Temperatures were projected to reach the low 70’s in Denver on Friday, April 25 so I decided to take a day off for fishing. I was frustrated by several difficult trips to the Arkansas River and had my eye on South Boulder Creek. I discovered this fishery several years ago on a train ride to Fraser, and it became my favorite spot for fishing close to the Denver metro area. I checked the flows, and they were running at 102 cfs, and I knew from previous trips that this is a good level.
I took my time on Friday morning to allow the air temperature to warm up, and after an hour of driving I pulled into the parking lot high above the canyon where the stream flows out of Gross Reservoir. I was the first car in the lot, but as I prepared to fish two more vehicles arrived, and two fishermen jumped out of each car. I decided to wear my fleece top and stuffed my raincoat in my backpack along with my lunch so I could hike quite a ways down the path and eat my lunch by the stream.
Just as I was ready to close the hatch and embark on my hike, a Denver Water truck pulled into the lot and a bearded man jumped out. He walked to the trash can and checked it, and then on the return trip to the truck he asked to check my license and that of the two gentlemen in the vehicle parked next to me. We each complied with his request, and then the other two fishermen at the far end of the lot volunteered their licenses for review as well. As I walked to the trailhead, the Denver Water employee called out and asked if I went to Bucknell. I replied yes, and then he told me he went to Penn State. After some additional conversation I learned that he was from Plymouth Meeting, and he did have a bit of a Philly accent.
South Boulder Creek on Friday
High clouds remained in the sky for most of the morning and consequently the sun never broke through to warm the air temperature. As I walked briskly along the trail, I created enough body heat to remain comfortable, but once I arrived at my starting point, I was a bit chilled. I began fishing with a Chernobyl ant and then added a long tippet section of 5X and attached a beadhead hares ear. Finally I extended another 18 inch section from the bend of the hares ear and tied on a soft hackle emerger.
Chernobyl Ant on My Line
I began prospecting some attractive runs and pockets around large exposed rocks and in short order experienced a refusal to the Chernobyl ant. At least it was good to know that fish were present and looking toward the surface for a meal. I experienced a couple refusals to the Chernobyl, but continued working upstream and eventually landed a nice rainbow that gobbled the soft hackle emerger. I cast into a pocket and allowed the Chernobyl to be pulled back upstream by an eddy below an exposed rock, and the rainbow grabbed the soft hackle emerger and pulled the Chernobyl under, although I actually saw the fish dart away from the rock and grab the subsurface fly.
Very Nice Rainbow Landed in the Morning
The morning and in fact the remainder of the day continued pretty much in this fashion. I fished the Chernobyl ant, beadhead hares ear, and size 20 soft hackle emerger and landed nine fish. One gullible trout nailed the Chernobyl, and two fish snatched the beadhead hares ear in the afternoon. All the other fish that I landed favored the soft hackle emerger.
The sun never appeared in the morning, and because my sungloves were wet from handling fish, the evaporation caused my fingers to ache. This finally forced me to stop for lunch at noon, and I removed the sungloves and placed them in the zippered pocket of my waders. In addition to cold hands, my feet felt like stumps due to the icy flows coming from the bottom of the dam. The sun did come out during lunch and warmed me a bit before I resumed after lunch.
After lunch I found a spot where I could cross to the opposite bank, and I prospected up along the south side for quite awhile. I always favor the side of the stream away from the road or main path, and this did in fact seem to help in the afternoon. Also since I’m righthanded, the left bank was more natural for me to hook casts under overhanging branches and into soft pockets behind rocks and current breaks.
Attractive Stretch with Slower Current
At around 2PM I was wading along the bank when I stepped on something that shifted under my weight. I looked down and spotted a net under my foot, so I reached in the creek with my hands and extracted it. Initially I thought it was fairly old and not desirable, but after swishing it in the water and removing old rotting leaves, I realized it had one of those plastic nets that doesn’t snag ones flies. It was a large net with a long handle, and it had a mayfly logo engraved at the top of the handle and the word Brodin above the mayfly. I decided to try and carry it back to the car with me, but I wasn’t ready to quit fishing so I stuffed it between the straps of my backpack and wedged it between my back and the backpack.
Major Find Was This Brodin Net
This lasted for a bit, but then it almost fell out, so I used the broken cord attached to the ring on the handle and tied it to my belt. This worked better but the net and handle were so long that the net dangled down to the water surface, and it hampered my wading for the last 1.5 hours. At approximately 2:30 I’d gone without any action for quite a while, so I decided to make a change and replaced the Chernobyl with a size 14 stimulator. I removed the hares ear and added a single dropper consisting of the beadhead soft hackle emerger.
The stimulator did arouse some interest, and I experienced two or three rises and momentary hook ups, so I think the fly attracted fish, but it wasn’t exactly what they were looking for. By 3:30 I’d gone quite a while without landing a fish, so I decided to find a rare crossing point and quit for the day.
It was a fun day on South Boulder Creek in a gorgeous location relatively close to Denver. The weather remained much cooler than I expected, but I managed to land nine fish and had four or five momentary hook ups and a couple foul hooked fish. With options quickly diminishing due to early snow melt, it was nice to enjoy some dry/dropper fishing on South Boulder Creek.