Time: 11:00AM – 5:00PM

Location: Start of road construction above Almont and then about a mile upstream.

Fish Landed: 18

Taylor River 09/21/2013 Photo Album

Jeff and I woke up to frost on the tablecloth and tent as the temperature dropped to nearly 32 degrees on Saturday morning. I slept with no socks on my feet and had great difficulty keeping them warm in the early morning but did roam around the campsite in a ski hat, down parka and ski mittens. We decided to fish the lower Taylor on Saturday and camp at Lottis Creek again on Saturday night and then pack everything up on Sunday and move on to the Frying Pan River.

Jeff Shafer at Lottis Creek Campground

After making breakfast and paying the campground host we threw our fishing gear in the Santa Fe and made the drive to Almont. Unfortunately the road construction on the lower river between Spring Creek and Almont was still in progress, and this forced us to detour using Jack’s Cabin Cutoff, and when we finally began traveling east from Almont we ran into a roadblock. A barricade impeded our progress and a construction worker informed us that we were not allowed beyond this point. He even insisted that walking up the road beyond this point was not recommended although we could certainly work our way up along the stream.

Jeff and I surveyed this situation and decided to drop down off the road while within eyesight of the construction gatekeeper and then climb back up the road and walk east on the shoulder. We parked our car at the post office and prepared to fish. Saturday morning was quite cool and I wore a fleece and carried my raincoat as we set off on our adventure. We both felt that the fishing could be good as a result of the road construction and the likely reduced pressure from lack of access. Most fishermen would not go to the trouble that we were undertaking.

We followed our plan and walked below the shoulder of the road for a bit and almost immediately passed a pair of fishermen who set up near the post office parking lot. After another ten minutes or so we found a reasonable path through the brush to the river and began fishing and by this time it was 11AM. I decided to cross to the bank opposite the road and Jeff worked up the road side of the river. As has become my custom I tied on a Chernobyl ant and a beadhead hares ear and began prospecting the likely holding locations.

Unfortunately I did not experience any success in the first half hour so I switched the hares ear for a salvation nymph and this resulted in two fish landed including a fine brown in the 15″ range. Because of the slow fishing Jeff and I met and agreed to break for lunch at around 12:30. Jeff ate on a large midstream boulder, but I wanted to add a layer so I used the north bank as my resting place. After lunch we switched sides and Jeff worked the north shore while I crossed back to the bank next to the road. The sky remained cloudy and the air temperature probably never climbed much higher than the low 60’s.

A Nice Brown Landed on Taylor River Saturday

After lunch I decided to switch to nymphing with a strike indicator, 20 incher and salvation nymph. The weighted 20 incher served as my split shot and this setup began producing fish at a faster clip than the dry/dropper arrangement. Jeff took the stream temperature and announced it was 53 degrees and later he checked again and it climbed a whole degree to 54. These water temperatures suggest fishing deep, so that is exactly what I decided to do.

Jeff Enjoys His Lunch

While fishing this combination I landed two fish on the 20 incher including a brown in the 14-15 inch range, but as time passed I began to see BWO’s in the air and the 20 incher stopped producing so I moved the salvation to the top position and knotted an RS2 as the bottom fly. This combination of flies and method of fishing served me well over the remainder of the afternoon, and I ended up landing 18 fish on the day including the two on the 20 incher, one on the RS2, one on a hares ear nymph, and the remainder on the salvation nymph. Saturday was pretty much a game of prospecting with nymphs and covering the water; not a lot of decisions to be made but fun nonetheless.

Bighorn by the River