Time: 9:30AM – 2:15PM and then 1:00PM – 2:00PM

Location: Across from Steamboat Flyfisher and then upstream to pedestrian bridge that spans an island; Chuck Lewis fishing access.

Fish Landed: 6

Yampa River 06/30/2015 Photo Album

Ever since the fun day I experienced on June 23 on the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs, I yearned to return. On that Tuesday I worked exclusively along the edge of the river and landed twelve very nice fish. The other rivers in Colorado were receding, but the Yampa remained the best option for late June.

Campsite Number 11 at Meadows Campground along Rabbit Ears Pass

I created a window of time in my schedule for Tuesday and Wednesday, June 30 and July 1 to make the drive to Steamboat to recreate the magic. On June 23 a strong pale morning dun hatch developed between 11AM and 1PM, so I wanted to be present during that time on June 30 in case it repeated. For this reason, I drove to Rabbit Ears Pass on Monday and secured campsite number eleven at the USFS Meadows Campground. The long drive was now behind me, and I was positioned to be on the water early on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning I made the thirty minute drive to town and parked at the Howelsen Ice Arena lot and rigged my Sage four weight rod. I made sure I had several varieties of pale morning dun imitations in my front pack, and then I crossed the Fifth Street Bridge and turned left so that I entered the water directly across from the Steamboat Flyfisher. I knew that the flows had dropped quite a bit in a week, but I was surprised to discover that they were now at 320 cfs. It was obvious as I stepped in the water that this would not be edge fishing. The lower flows made it possible for the river population to spread out, and I could no longer focus on the ten feet next to the bank. At least I could count on a pale morning dun hatch to cause the trout to reveal their positions. Or could I?

I began fishing some attractive pockets along the left bank with a Charlie boy hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear nymph and a salvation nymph. I moved along at a decent pace and quickly arrived at the Fifth Street Bridge with no results to report. A nice pool beckoned me just above the bridge, so I positioned myself at the downstream lip and began to cast. As I was in the process of covering the pool, I spotted a rise, but the fish was not interested in my three course meal. I was contemplating a switch to a pale morning dun imitation even though I did not see any in the air, when a mother and two young boys appeared. The boys were quite active, and they scrambled across some exposed rocks at the top of the pool. Of course this alerted the fish to the presence of human beings, so I waited out the surprise guests and abandoned ideas of switching to a comparadun.

A Nice Fish from the Yampa River in Town on Tuesday Morning

After five minutes the threesome moved on, and so did I. More time passed, and I was having no success, so I decided to convert to a deep nymphing approach. I began with a beadhead hares ear nymph and salvation nymph and continued upstream. This change in strategy paid dividends, and I landed a pair of rainbows that nabbed the hares ear nymph as it drifted by. Number three was a hard fighting rainbow that measured in excess of fifteen inches, and this fish displayed lots of girth.

Great Girth on This Bruiser

Late in the morning I spotted a small blue winged olive, so I clipped off the salvation nymph and tied on a size 20 soft hackle emerger. This move provided temporary results as I landed my fifth fish on the small wet fly. All the other fish that found my net in the AM favored the hares ear. In fact between 11 and noon I noticed quite a few yellow sallies cruising up from the water surface, and the hares ear nymph is a fair imitation of the stonefly nymph. The yellow sallies would represent the only hatch I encountered on the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs, as the much anticipated pale morning duns never appeared.

By 12:15PM the tuber and kayak traffic became an annoyance, so I decided to move to a different location. I chose the Chuck Lewis public access east of Steamboat Springs, as I knew that this was beyond the reach of the tubing enthusiasts. I pulled into the parking lot and munched my lunch so that I was prepared to resume fishing at 1PM. A nice worn path cut through a recently cut hay field until I eventually arrived next to the river. The river was still flowing too high to enable crossing, and it is largely a wide featureless trough. Some man-made concrete wings were constructed, but at 320 cfs the water simply flows over the top of these structures, and therefore there are minimal current breaks that create fish holding sanctuaries.

Featureless Chuck Lewis Segment of the Yampa River

I began covering the middle of the river with the nymphs that remained on my line from downtown, and much to amazement I landed a thirteen inch rainbow from the middle of a deep trough on the ultra zug bug. The ultra zug bug was on my line because I broke off the salvation nymph on a root clump earlier. Once I covered the entire trough section, I could see another fisherman above me near a bridge, and the water in between was unattractive, so I decided to cut my losses and head to Stagecoach State Park.

Six fish in a morning of fishing is relatively slow, and clearly the conditions changed quite a bit since my fun day of edge fishing on June 23. The greatest impact on my success was the apparent absence of a pale morning dun hatch. Was this a temporary phenomenon related to the weather conditions, or was the hatch complete on the Yampa River for the 2015 season?