Time: 10:15AM – 2:30PM

Location: Below Gross Reservoir

South Boulder Creek 08/05/2026 Photo Album

A projected high temperature of 89 degrees in Denver had me once again seeking cold water options on Wednesday, August 5, 2026. The flows on South Boulder Creek dropped from 73 CFS to 63 CFS for five days and then increased to 69 CFS. This is well within what I deem the ideal range, and the water released from the bottom of Gross Dam is very cold, so I made the small Front Range tailwater my destination.

Likely Spot

Two cars preceded me in the Kayak parking lot, and a couple more arrived, while I prepared to fish. I grabbed my Loomis two piece five weight and descended the steep trail to the creek. The stream was indeed flowing at a nice level, and it was crystal clear.

Nice One

I passed one other fisherman and continued another .2 mile beyond him, and I began my quest for trout with a tan pool toy hopper and a size 12 prince nymph. Neither fly attracted attention in the early going, so I added a salvation nymph to attain greater depth on my drifts. This paid dividends, as I recorded seven landed trout in the 1.5 hours, before I broke for lunch. Two fish nabbed the salvation and the others grabbed the prince, but I covered a considerable amount of stream real estate in order to net the seven fish. Many attractive locations failed to yield any form of attention.

Pretty Rainbow

After lunch I decided to experiment with a double dry arrangement. I placed a peacock hippie stomper in the forward position and trailed an olive-brown deer hair caddis. The caddis was on the menu for the resident trout, and I landed three to increase the fish count to ten.

Rainbow Territory

At this point I was rather pleased with my fish count, but the hippie stomper was generating a lot of refusals. Could the fish be looking for green drakes, and the hippie stomper was close enough to attract interest but not close enough to eat? I knotted a parachute green drake to my line, but it was totally ignored. Maybe the fish desired a different version of the western green drake? I replaced the parachute style with a comparadun. The creek was devoid of action.

Another Fine Rainbow

What were the fish looking for? I decided to revisit the dry/dropper, since I was approaching some faster water that contained deep runs and plunge pools. I went with the tan pool hopper, the prince nymph and the salvation once again. Almost instantly after the change, a nice rainbow trout crushed the hopper, and what a pleasant surprise that was. Shortly thereafter, a brown trout grabbed the drifting prince, and I thought I was in the money.

Wide Slick Behind Boulder

Alas, that was not the case, and I suffered through a long fish catching drought. While I was in this lull, I spotted three yellow sallies, as they hovered above the creek, so I swapped the salvation for a hares ear nymph. The move produced another brown trout, but then futility once again became my companion.

Speckles Galore

In a last ditch effort to add to the fish count, I reacted to the observed yellow sallies, and I cycled through a size 14 yellow stimulator and a small deer hair yellow sally imitation tied like a deer hair caddis. These ploys failed to arouse interest, so I hooked my fly to the rod guide at 2:30PM and hiked back to the car.

Moderate Riffles

Wednesday was a fair day on South Boulder Creek. I took the water temperature at 10:30AM, and it was 53 degrees. My hand actually got numb while holding the thermometer underwater for a minute. Before I quit at 2:30PM, I once again recorded the temperature, and it remained at a very cold 53 degrees. This was a very impressive example of holding the temperature steady. Of course the air temperature, where I was fishing, stayed in the mid-seventies, so there was less solar heating of the water column. Thirteen fish was respectable, and the largest was probably a thirteen inch rainbow. I was disappointed to once again fail to interact with green drakes. Hopefully the water managers keep the flows in the same range for awhile, and the green drakes make their annual appearance.

Fish Landed: 13