Time: 9:00AM – 11:00AM
Location: Steamboat Springs
Yampa River 06/02/2021 Photo Album
I rarely deploy streamers, even though I know they are a very effective method of catching large trout. Wednesday, June 2, 2021 was a rare occasion, when a streamer made an appearance on the end of my line. How did it turn out?
Tuesday was a fairly average day on the Yampa River, and it failed to live up to my expectations for edge fishing, when flows are in the 1,000 – 1,300 CFS range. At 5PM I packed up my gear and remained in Steamboat Springs to grab some barbeque on Tuesday evening, before I drove to Stagecoach State Park to claim my campsite reservation. Only two other campers occupied sites on the McKindley Loop, and I was pleased with the solitude, since I was extremely tired from fighting the heavy currents for six hours on Tuesday. Since dinner was in my rearview mirror, I completed my fishing notes, and then I tuned in the Trailblazers vs. Nuggets game on satellite radio. I managed to listen to three quarters, until my eyelids grew heavy, and I clicked off the game and climbed into my sleeping bag in the rear of the Santa Fe. I decided to learn the result of the game, when I woke up on Wednesday morning. As it turned out, I missed a memorable double overtime win by the Nuggets in which Damian Lillard scored 55 points. Going to sleep early was probably a sound move to avoid stress on my heart.
My decision to forego a tent enabled me to get a reasonably early start, and I was back at Howelsen Hill by 8:45AM on Wednesday morning. I quickly donned my waders and assembled my Sage One five weight and ambled along the south side of the river, until I was thirty yards above my starting point on Tuesday. I was required to leave by 11:00AM in order to be back in Denver in time to accompany my wife to a Rockies game at 6:10PM. I chose to fish the same, albeit shorter, section of the river on Wednesday because refusals from Tuesday haunted my dreams. I knew that respectable fish occupied the prime spots, and I was convinced that I could fool them a day later.
I began with a yellow fat Albert, 20 incher, and iron sally. I reasoned that the chubby Chernobyl and pool toy hopper matched the size favored by the resident trout, but the body color was off. I guessed yellow might be the answer due to early season golden stonefly activity. The absence of any significant hatch other than some tiny blue winged olives convinced me that the trout were in an opportunistic frame of mind, and the most prevalent early season food source was dark and golden stoneflies, thus, the 20 incher and iron sally.
A Rare Brook Trout
I worked my way upstream in a very focused manner, and in the early going I landed a small brook trout and temporarily hooked a fine rainbow trout. However, my strategy did not play out in the manner that I envisioned, and at 10:30AM the fish counter remained at one, and I was once again in a state of disappointment. I was near the pedestrian bridge across from Howelsen Hill, and two attractive deep pools remained ahead of me. I decided to deviate from my normal stubborn adherence to dry/dropper and indicator nymph fishing, and I deployed a streamer. I opted to forego changing to a sinking tip line and instead knotted a sparkle minnow to the leader on my floating line. The sparkle minnow was heavily weighted, and this allowed me to sidestep adding weight.
Sparkle Minnow Shines
A Top Notch Pool at Flows Over 1000 CFS
The first deep shelf pool was rather marginal, but I stripped the flashy baitfish imitation through the area ten times with the slim hope of inducing a strike. Either the area was devoid of fish, or the aquatic inhabitants were not interested. I moved on to the main attraction, the large eddying pool just downstream from the Howelsen footbridge. Once again I began firing casts to all areas of the pool, but I focused my probing on the current seam that curved along the rapid flow near the middle of the river. I allowed the streamer to sink a bit, and then I stripped it in with all manner of movement – fast, slow, erratic, across the current, upstream against the current and even downstream. Nothing. It was 10:45AM, and I was about to get a jump on my return trip, while once again judging streamer fishing as an ineffective fly fishing technique invented to sell expensive flies.
Zoomed on the Sparkle Minnow
Showing Off
I tossed a cast toward the middle of the seam, and as I made rapid, short strips to swing the fly through the tail section, I felt a pronounced bump. Could that have been a fish? I was convinced it was, and this small bit of action elevated my concentration. Two casts later I fired a short missile to the top one-third of the pool, and as I stripped the fly back toward my position along the bank, I felt a tap and then a grab. I was connected and swept the rod sideways, and this action provoked a heavy throbbing through the five weight rod. I held tight, as a splendid cutbow streaked up and down the pool, until I guided it into my net. Needless to say I was thrilled with the fourteen inch beauty and with the rare streamer fishing success story. I snapped quite a few photos and gently returned my Wednesday prize to its home in the Yampa River.
Wednesday morning was nearly a significant flop, but a major deviation in my normal approach yielded an exciting result. I landed rainbows and browns on Tuesday, and that fact, along with the small brook trout and cutbow on Wednesday produced a grand slam! Netting a gorgeous cutbow on a sparkle minnow was easily the highlight of the day, and perhaps a streamer will find a place in my arsenal more frequently in the upcoming weeks, as the flows on the rivers and streams begin to abate.
Fish Landed: 2