Time: 2:00PM – 6:00PM

Location: Between Lottis Creek Campground and Cold Spring

Fish Landed: 16

Taylor River 08/19/2011 Photo Album

Jane was anxious to do another camping trip before summer was over so we decided to spend the weekend on the Taylor River below Taylor Reservoir. I returned from my trip to Philadelphia to see a Phillies game and visit with college friends on Thursday afternoon and packed the car on Friday morning and took off by 8:40AM. I drove southwest on US 285 and then through Buena Vista and over Cottonwood Pass and down to Taylor Reservoir. We planned to find a campsite at Lottis Creek, but I soon discovered it was closed for reconstruction.

It was quite overcast and cool Friday morning and this weather continued throughout the day until late afternoon when the sun appeared. I decided to continue on the road to the next campground and look for vacancies. I cruised through Cold Spring and there appeared to be one opening. Should I take it? I was familiar with Lodgepole and it was a few miles down the road, so I decided to check it out before returning to Cold Spring if nothing was available. I turned into the first entrance at Lodgepole and found the last site, number 15 was open until August 23. Perfect. I removed the dish and food bins and water container and camp stove and prepared a quick lunch. A sign told me that the campground host would be around to collect the fee, so I left my things at the site and returned to the car and drove up the road to a spot less than a half mile below Lottis Creek.

Lodgepole No. 15 Campsite

I parked in a large pullout and prepared to fish and then hiked down the road a bit to a place where some trees had been thinned out and I could see down to the river. I cut down and waded in along the edge. The Taylor was still flowing at 395, and only the edge could be reached. Over the course of Friday and Saturday I fished no more than ten feet out from the south or roadside bank. I tied on a yellow Letort Hopper and a beadhead hares ear and began probing the pockets, pools and runs where the velocity was slow enough to harbor trout. I picked up a few small browns on the beadhead hares ear, and as I hoped I began to see a few BWO’s rising slowly from the water around 2:30 or so. I added a RS2 to the BHHE, and this produced a couple browns in a beautiful long deep run below a wide rock.

Nice Brown Trout in Taylor River Friday

I began to see some fairly frequent rises along the current seam and a few other places so I clipped off all my flies, and tied on a CDC BWO. I fished this vigorously throughout the run while fish were rising, but they were having none of it. Next I resorted to a strike indicator, split shot and a BHHE and RS2. I worked this through the run from top to bottom with a dead drift and also swing and only foul hooked one fish. Finally I abandoned the nice spot and moved on. The water above the long deep run wasn’t conducive to nymphing, so I switched back to the yellow Letort hopper and BHHE and began landing fish again.

Rod Balanced While I Take Fish Photo

Toward the late afternoon as I moved up closer to the point where the river ran within ten feet of the road, I began to have more success. First I landed a beautiful brown that measured the length of my net. The brown moved a few inches to grab the trailing BHHE in a fairly shallow side channel. I was quite surprised to see such a large fish appear in such thin water. In the last hour I landed two beautiful rainbows also extending the length of the net. The first and largest fell for the BHHE, but the second engulfed the hopper. There was a deep pocket behind a rock with an eddy pulling my flies back against the rock. I saw the fish come up to inspect the hopper, but I reacted too quickly and pulled it out of the pocket. I rested the water a bit while I dried the hopper and on the second or third subsequent cast, the rainbow reappeared and inhaled the hopper.

Bruiser Rainbow from Taylor River

Beadhead Hares Ear in Corner of Mouth

On the afternoon, two fish were landed on the RS2 and the other 14 mostly took the BHHE with perhaps three or four hammering the hopper.

Another Large Rainbow Late in Day Friday