Time: 2:00PM – 4:30PM
Location: Just downstream of rock moraine area
Fish Landed: 13
South Boulder Creek 10/24/2014 Photo Album
The meteorologists forecast unseasonably warm weather for Denver, Colorado for Friday October 24 through Sunday October 26, so Jane and I made plans for an outdoor day on Friday. I hiked the Walker Ranch Loop in July 2013 with my friend Don Batchelor, but Jane had only completed pieces of this trail. I had the ulterior motive of wanting to scout the point where the trail intersects with South Boulder Creek, so I suggested that we hike out and back on the Crescent Meadows section, and then I would spend the rest of the afternoon fishing in South Boulder Creek. From the Crescent Meadows parking lot to the bridge over South Boulder Creek was 2.3 miles, so we were undertaking a 4.6 mile hike, and we both felt this was about right.
[pe2-image src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/-sjQyr7MNpIc/VE2_TpVLDlI/AAAAAAAAoII/fWJ3KL76klw/s144-c-o/PA240041.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/10242014SouthBoulderCreek#6074721816625745490″ caption=”Dave on the Steep Descent to South Boulder Creek” type=”image” alt=”PA240041.JPG” ]
Jane and I completed the 4.6 mile hike on Friday morning in approximately two hours. It was great fun as we snaked through a sparse forest of pine trees and junipers before eventually dropping down some steep steps to the edge of South Boulder Creek. From that point we climbed over a short rocky hill and then found ourselves at the bridge that spans the stream. We passed one biker and four female runners, so we essentially had the area to ourselves. When I checked the stream flows on area streams on Thursday, South Boulder Creek below Gross Reservoir was listed at 91 cfs. As I gazed at the stream as it passed under the bridge, I suspected that the current flow was much less.
[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-CCP7ZzFuxvo/VE2_VZ2DN1I/AAAAAAAAoG4/BaGP3KLz9gI/s144-c-o/PA240044.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/10242014SouthBoulderCreek#6074721846828414802″ caption=”The Upstream View” type=”image” alt=”PA240044.JPG” ]
Our return hike was a 900 foot vertical climb over 2.3 miles so we were constantly fighting a gradual grade. We began the day with added layers, but by the time we reached the car, we were clad in just T-shirts. It was 1PM when we reached the parking lot, and then we drove to a second lot just beyond the first bend on the north side of the stream. I pulled on my waders and assembled my Loomis 5 weight rod, and Jane and I then descended the steep path to the small tailwater. Jane wanted to set up her chair to read at the base of the path, so we stopped next to the stream and ate our lunches. After lunch I said goodbye and hiked downstream for twenty minutes to a point just beyond a large jumble of boulders that form the base for the trail and then continue down to the edge of South Boulder Creek.
[pe2-image src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Trc6RLKUH14/VE2_YC65nzI/AAAAAAAAoHY/cuwsqm-9ivk/s144-c-o/PA240048.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/10242014SouthBoulderCreek#6074721892214349618″ caption=”Flows Were at 17 CFS” type=”image” alt=”PA240048.JPG” ]
I could not believe the number of exposed boulders in the stream bed, and I was certain that the flows were drastically reduced from the DWR web site reading on Thursday. When I checked the flows on Saturday, I was surprised to see that the water managers dropped the flows on South Boulder Creek from 91 to 17 in one day! What a dramatic change. By 2PM I was finally ready to fish, and I tied on a size 16 olive deer hair caddis. I pulled my fly line out of the tip, and to test the flotation of the fly, I flicked it into a shallow riffle below me and fed out some slack. It was bobbing along nicely when a small brown trout attacked it, and I had my first fish in a matter of minutes.
My curiosity was aroused, so I floated the caddis through the riffle a second time but allowed it to dance farther downstream until it was just beyond a protruding boulder, and at this point a second small brown inhaled the small dry fly. I released this fish and waded toward the center of the stream, and then I dropped a cast into the short pocket behind the exposed boulder, and trout number three smashed the caddis. What a way to start my day!
I was now rather euphoric as I began working my way upstream, and it did not take long before I landed a fourth brown trout on the caddis in a run that was only two feet deep. However, as I’ve learned through many years of fly fishing, the only constant is change, and now the confident takes changed into frustrating refusals. Obviously my imitation was close enough to attract the attention of the trout, but it differed in some critical way causing the fish to turn away at the last instant. As this thought was bouncing around in my head, I began to observe quite a few tiny black stoneflies flying erratically above the stream, and simultaneously a few sporadic rises caught my attention.
[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-2k_sfTKmjHg/VE2_Z0JpoXI/AAAAAAAAoHw/VOX2Ejgawnw/s144-c-o/PA240052.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/10242014SouthBoulderCreek#6074721922609422706″ caption=”A Beautiful Deep Pool” type=”image” alt=”PA240052.JPG” ]
I read my two blog posts from October 21 and 23, 2012 before making the Friday trip, and in these reports I described encountering small size 18 black stoneflies between 2 and 3PM. Being a smart fisherman, I stashed five or six size 18 black stonefly imitations in my fly box in anticipation of this event, and now I replaced the size 16 caddis with one of these. The move was magical, and I landed four trout over the next thrity minutes. The fish were gulping the little fake bug with utter confidence, and one of the fish that I landed during this time period was a colorful rainbow that would become my best catch of the day.
[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-e3ctz-O83Ys/VE2_ZQwfr0I/AAAAAAAAoHo/JDABKayXwFY/s144-c-o/PA240050.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/10242014SouthBoulderCreek#6074721913108672322″ caption=”A Colorful Rainbow” type=”image” alt=”PA240050.JPG” ]
After this fast action I continued moving upstream, but the number of visible stoneflies diminished, and the fish began to ignore my previously red hot offering. The small stonefly with a charcoal colored wing was very difficult to follow in the glare and riffles and thus made a poor searching pattern, so I clipped it off and returned to the size 16 olive brown deer hair caddis. The caddis generated some success as I landed four more trout by prospecting likely lies. The pace of catching was slower, so I moved rather quickly from place to place, but there were enough interested fish to keep me focused.
At 3:30 I looked up and was startled to discover two fishermen in my path next to a nice deep pool. I quickly concluded that they were a father and son team, so I exited and allowed the father to continue fishing with his son while I circled around and above. I allowed fifty yards of space before I cut back to the stream and resumed my progress. Shortly after reentering the creek I approached a spot where the current flowed between an exposed rock and the bank via a three foot wide gap. Below the gap the current formed a nice long deep run that ran for eight feet and was never wider than five feet. I paused to observe and saw two decent fish in the run. One was just below the rock, and the second fish was five feet farther downstream in front of a smaller underwater boulder.
Because of the low clear water I elected to hold my distance and began tossing longer than normal casts to the visible fish. My stealth could not overcome the fact that they ignored my caddis, so I tied on a size 14 light olive stimulator and then dropped a soft hackle emerger off the bend of the dry fly. After several casts a brown trout snatched the soft hackle emerger as it went along the bank. This fish was not one of the two I spotted, and those two, which appeared to be rainbows, ignored my offerings so I moved on.
[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-s_YXpD4jlmg/VE2_afBD1tI/AAAAAAAAoH0/jLV8aQcZqPY/s144-c-o/PA240053.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/10242014SouthBoulderCreek#6074721934116116178″ caption=”A Nice Brown Trout from South Boulder Creek” type=”image” alt=”PA240053.JPG” ]
My last fish of the day was a brown trout that grabbed the soft hackle emerger as it began to swing away from the bank as I executed a downstream drift on the south side of the creek. By 4PM the shadows covered nearly the entire stream, and the air was beginning to feel cooler. I had quite a distance to hike, and I guessed that Jane was getting anxious to leave. I climbed the bank and made the 15 minute hike along the trail to Jane’s retreat, and I found her folding her chair to head back to the car. My timing was perfect as we gathered everything and climbed the steep path to the parking lot.
It was a fun day on South Boulder Creek with a high temperature in the middle 70’s. I had the stream almost entirely to myself, and the abnormally low flows seemed to concentrate the fish in the deep pools, and the fish were still looking toward the surface for food. This translated into dry fly success. Best of all, I did my homework, and it paid dividends as four of the better fish gulped my little black stonefly imitation.