Time: 9:00AM – 2:00PM
Location: Below Stagecoach Reservoir
Fish Landed: 10
Yampa River 07/20/2013 Photo Album
I was either in a fishing slump or I reached the turning point where I shift my focus from freestone rivers to tailwaters and high elevation headwaters. My last day on the Eagle River yielded six fish, a day in Rocky Mountain National Park on headwaters resulted in four fish, and a day on the Colorado River netted five fish. Size was another matter. A few of the Eagle River fish were decent size, but most of the other fish were below average in size for those rivers. Thursday on the Big Thompson was a slight improvement from a numbers perspective, but size continued to be lacking. Catching five trout on my newly designed parachute green drake was a nice boost, but given the overcast conditions, I was dissatisfied with the results.
Our original plan for the weekend was to drive to the Denver Creek Campground along Willow Creek north of Granby where Jane and I would set up camp and then spend Saturday hiking and biking and then we would return early on Sunday to beat the construction traffic east of Idaho Springs. While I was at the Saddleback Design Golf Tournament on Friday afternoon, however, Jane and Judy Supple worked out a change in plans. Jane returned the camping gear to its storage locations as we now planned to drive to Steamboat Springs and stay with our friends, Judy and Steve Supple. Judy and Jane planned to attend a parade of homes type tour on Saturday morning and then bike around town while Steve and I would fish in the Yampa River. I hate these changes in plans that add to my fishing time.
I got home from the golf outing by 6PM and in a short amount of time I packed a few remaining items and we headed off to Chipotle Mexican Grill for a quick dinner. We made the three hour journey to Steamboat Springs and arrived at the Supple condo by 10PM. After some brief chatting we crashed to the sound of hummingbirds hovering by the Supple feeder.
On Saturday morning we woke up early to the sound of Grady and Duffy’s tails banging the hallway walls. Grady and Duffy are the Supple’s well loved golden retrievers, and they bring a lot of energy to each day. Judy prepared some quick eggs for breakfast and Steve and I pooled our gear in Steve’s car and headed to the Yampa River below Stagecoach Reservoir. Along the way we passed a pack of road bikers apparently doing a century ride or some distance between 25 and 100 miles. The Yampa tailwater below Stagecoach is a short but impressive fishery with only perhaps .5 mile of open water, but an extremely dense population of fish. I counted 14 fishermen already in the visible stretch of river as we drove up to the parking lot and at least 12 cars in the lot. It would not be a day of solitary reflection.
A Few Friends Below Us
Steve and I quickly set up our rods and climbed into our waders and then hiked down the path to some open water above the last group of fishermen. The positive to this fishery is that the fish density is so great that one does not need a large amount of space to wade in. I chose a spot below Steve and 20 yards above the next downstream fisherman as my starting point and tied on a Chernobyl ant and a beadhead hares ear and then a zebra midge as a third fly below the hares ear. Steve told me the Steamboat Angler was recommending tiny flies such as midge larva and RS2’s. I stood next to and slightly above a large exposed rock with a rounded top and as I began to flick upstream casts I observed one, then two then five then seven or eight large fish in a 25 square foot area next to and above me. I can attest to the fact that this immediately gets the juices flowing.
Steve on Yampa below Stagecoach Reservoir
It didn’t take long before the Chernobyl dipped and I set the hook and landed a fine chunky 13 inch rainbow. I gazed out a bit further to a nice run next to another large rock, and there I spotted another nice fish, and eventually another rainbow rose and smashed the Chernobyl. This fly was supposed to simply serve as an indicator for shallow nymphing! Eventually I worked my way across the river to a nice pool area along the opposite bank and here I added a third rainbow that stopped the Chernobyl indicator and inhaled the midge. In an hour or so of fishing I’d landed three beautiful rainbows in the 13 -15 inch range and I was feeling pretty good about this bonus day of fishing.
Pretty Rainbow Caught in the Morning on Chernobyl Ant
The hares ear wasn’t producing so I exchanged it for an orange scud but kept the midge larva as the bottom fly, and it was this combination that delivered the third fish. After focusing on the pod of fish above me for quite awhile I moved upstream on the left side and over the next couple hours added a couple more rainbows and one twelve inch brown. The rainbows crushed the Chernobyl ant and the brown fell for an olive midge larva that replaced the zebra midge. I was amazed by the success of the large Chernobyl with the bright peacock chenille body in a river where miniscule flies are recommended. There were probably 50-100 casts in between each catch and most fish ignored my offerings, but enough fish were gullible enough to show interest in my flies to make things interesting.
By one o’clock I found myself positioned below a nice pool characterized by a run that ran within four feet of the left bank and then a much stronger current that bordered the right side and split the river in half. I could see ten to fifteen large trout spaced out in this pool between the currents and they weren’t showing interest in my three fly offering so I decided to experiment with single dry flies to see if I could unlock the code and land one of these beauties. I was at seven fish and they were all nice size so I was ready to do some focused dry fly fishing for the remainder of the outing.
First I tried a parachute ant and one large fish nosed this fly at least three times. I could actually see the wave created by the fish’s jaw spill over the ant on one of the close up looks. Next I tied on a size 18 light yellow comparadun, but this didn’t even create interest when it passed over the fish. I’d spotted a few sporadic PMD’s riding the surface of the water and a couple that became airborne, so I elected to tie on a light gray size 16 comparadun. I cast this fly to the very top of the smooth water and as it drifted slowly back toward me a large rainbow gradually elevated under the fly, inspected, and then miraculousloy sipped it in. I made a quick sure hook set and battled the big guy to the net. This fish was easily 18 inches with a nice thick girth, but I couldn’t settle it on my net for a photo and eventually it squirmed back in the water and snapped off my fly before I could capture a good photograph.
I tied on another light gray comparadun and flcked it upstream but slightly below the point where I’d hooked the previous fish. This time the fly drifted to the midsection of the pool area and it was deja vu. Another rainbow slowly floated back under the comparadun and then confidently sipped it in. Again I reacted with a solid hook set and played and landed a sixteen inch rainbow. This was really fun. I decided to leave the spot I was in and walk downstream to find Steve and offer him a light gray comparadun. It was now 1:45PM and we planned to depart at 2PM and the crowd of fishermen had thinned out significantly.
16 Inch Rainbow Took Light Gray Comparadun
I found Steve in a prime pool closer to the parking lot, a spot that was ringed with fishermen when we arrived in the morning. I gave him a comparadun and then began probing the nice water near him. There was a little nook next to the bank where a side current curved along the bank and then merged back into the main current. I could see at least eight nice fish in this small area and I succeeded in getting one that was inches from the bank to refuse my fly two or three times. There were a couple nice rainbows in the slack area between the current along the bank and some large rocks at the top of the indentation. I couldn’t get a good drag free drift over these fish because of the swirling current even though I moved several times to create different approach angles.
I gave up on this area because of the difficult angles and moved close to Steve. Steve pointed out all the fish that were stacked up below him ostensibly to feed on nymphs and larva kicked loose from Steve’s wading. I attempted a few downstream drifts to these fish, but they were looking down for their meal and probably aware of our presence. I pivoted around and popped some casts into some faster moving runs between exposed rocks above us, and on one of these drifts experienced a refusal. I rested this run for five or six casts to an adjacent run, and then returned to the scene of the refusal and midway down the run a fish rose and slammed the light gray comparadun. This fish betrayed itself as a hot fish as it charged up and down the river in short spirts. Several times I thought I had control and attempted to raise the fish’s nose, only to face another short spurt upstream and then downstream, but eventually it grew weary of the fight and I slid my net under a brightly colored rainbow. It was another 15 inch fish, but this one was perhaps the most fit and brightly colored of all the fish I landed on the Yampa River.
Ten fish landed in five hours does not sound that exceptional, but all the fish were in the 13-18 inch range and all but one rainbows. I was able to land three fish on a Chernobyl ant and three on a size 16 light gray comparadun, and by all accounts this is exceptional for this stretch of water where size 20-24 size flies predominate. Just spending five hours fishing over hundreds of large trout that I could see and target was a salve to my bruised confidence after being battered by a heavy dose of unproductive blind casting in the previous four outings. On a bright blue sky day with high temperatures approaching 90 degrees, this day was a huge success and perhaps among my top ten of 2013.