Bear Creek Thurs

Fished the creek this morning - fairly off-color. But I tried anyway, using attractor dries and a red disco midge. Not much luck - just two small guys. At least Bear Creek has a decent flow (however, low for run-off). Guess I will stick to lakes for awhile longer!

Arkansas and the Blue

I went down to Salida on Tuesday to check out the Caddis Fly Hatch. East of town there were large numbers of caddis in the bushes but not many fish feeding on them. I suspect the fish were already full of the flys. Also it was pretty windy and sunny (conditions that interfer with the feeding). AND there were LOTS of fishermen in the river. Most pullouts/pulloffs had cars in them. A number of rafts coming down the river with guides and clients. So I headed back north of town and caught one fish at the Stone Bridge site (a raft put in/take out area) on a Chartruese Copper John nymph. Then moved upstream to the Ruby Mountain Campground where I caught another six fish, still on the Chartruese Copper John nymph. North of Salida I was getting ahead of the caddis hatch and had it been calm (wind was gusting pretty hard) and cloudy I would have seen a good Blue Wing Olive hatch going on. Fish will come up to an Adams fly when that happens.

Wednesday I was on the Blue up where it enters into Green Mountain Reservoir. Parking off of US9 at the Prairie Point Campground and hiking down to the river to fish in what will later in the season be the lake bottom. There is a great run just before the river bends to the right. I caught somewhere around 20 fish in this zone using a Bead Head Prince Nymph followed by a pink San Juan Worm (fished about 24 inches below an indicator). Most fish were in the 11-12 inch size but I did land a couple over 15 inches. I have heard that the inlet (where the river enters the lake) is fishing very well with Wooly Buggers. Maybe I'll check this out next week!

April on the Arkansas

Yesterday, Tuesday the 14th of March, I drove down to fish the Arkansas. I first stopped at the state lease just south of the junction heading south (US 24) toward Salida. The flow was terrific (300 cfs) and the water mostly clear. However even though a BWO hatch had started there were no fish rising (this was around 11:30 am). After catching only one brown on a nymph I chose to head back to the car for lunch and drive on down to Salida. I went to the section of river near the stockyards (just east of Salida). Fished there for several hours watching the sporadic BWO hatch start and stop. Finally around 2 pm the fish were keying in on the hatch. I caught 5 nice browns on an Adams fly (size 18). The river is very wadable and is suppose to stay that way throughout the caddis hatch, which is expected to start in the next several weeks. I did have caddis flys landing on me at the edges of the stream. Could I have stayed later I would have tried a caddis fly as well. Get on down there soon!

Jim

January Fishing

Friday 1/16 - I went to fish the Blue behind Cutthroat Angles. As I walked across the pedestrian bridge, around 10 AM, I saw a few fish below the bridge. I thought great, and wow is the water ever clear! What a way to start the day. After a few cast I hooked into a nice size Rainbow. A few head shakes later he was off and scattering the rest of the fish to spots unknown. I scouring the water to locate the fish with no success. I moved on, but before I did I took a water temperature reading, 39.7 degrees. I returned later, around noon and did manage to catch and release a 22" Rainbow, in that same location. I'm not sure it was the same fish, and who cares! That is the largest Colorado trout that I've caught to date. Caught it on an egg pattern.

Monday 1/19 - I found myself driving to South Park and Terryall Reservoir to fish the small stretch of water below the spill way. Water temperature was 39.6 and very low compared to other times of the year. I did manage to catch some fish on a variety of fly patterns. Nothing over 10" was to size range for that day. After spending most of the morning there I took off to fish the stretch of water just below North Fork Ranch. The Forest Service has an office there and the land adjacent to it is open to the public. No fish, but some really nice looking water.

Tuesday 1/20 - On this day I chose to go to Deckers to try my luck. Does that canyon ever see the sun? Got there plenty early to try some of the holes that I've had luck in before. I got through one hole, the Cable Hole and no luck, before noticing that there had been a whole bunch of people with the same idea I had. Good weather why not go fishing. That section fill up so fast that it made my head spin. I got into my car and headed down stream thinking that the crowd wouldn't go that far to fish. I was right, but I had driven to Night Hawk before I saw an empty parking lot. I did hook 4 fish there on a blood midge #18 pattern before throwing in the towel, and saying that my toes are gone. With the water temperature at 35.2 degrees I knew I was in for some cold feet before the end of the day.

Thursday 1/21 - A new high temperature was scheduled for this day so I said that the Blue would be a good place to go for some fishing. Got on the river at 9:30 AM fishing the 7-11 hole. Not much happened for the first hour or so. Then I missed a small fish in some shallow water after working my way upstream. I move back down stream and made a few cast. Then the water exploded with a large Rainbow porpoise jumping across the hole to the other side of the river. See that it was going to be rough trying to get the fish across numerous currents I decided to walk to the fish. After getting half way across the river the fish went over the water fall. After getting over the rocks and down to the same level as the fish we were off down river for another 30 yards before land an nice 20" Rainbow that had obviously been lifting weights. That was fun!

Deckers after Christmas

Just after Christmas and after the weather warming up I made it down to Deckers to do some winter fishing. I wasn't alone. It seemed like everyone had that same idea. Which isn't all that unusual for that stretch of the South Platte any time of the year.
Spent some time nymph'n the Cabin Hole with no luck so it was off down stream to the first bridge and working my way back upstream for a couple hundred yards. Using a yarn indicator and a #20 Rainbow Worrier as an attractor with a #18 Blood Midge dropped off of it to complete my set up. Didn't get even a look with that set up. Didn't see or even spook a fish either.
Then I went down stream to Night Hawk where I did manage to see fish and catch an 8" Rainbow before calling it quits for the day. A red #16 San Juan Worm was the fly that caught the only fish of the day.

Fishing the Shale Hole

Two weeks ago Doug Beabout (ETU Member) and I ventured to the Shale Hole on the Blue to check out Pat Dorsey's tips given at our November membership meeting.



The water temperature was 36 degrees and before we left, just after noon, it was spiting snow. That didn't deter the fish. We actually didn't get any action until the clouds came and the snow started flying. That happened around 10:30 AM. By that time we were fishing the Bridge Hole just down from the Shale Hole.



Doug celebrated catching his first fish on a fly, Black Beauty, he tied. A nice 16" to 18" Rainbow.

We did manage to catch some more fish on red San Juan worm and a Black Baits all #18 or #20's Pat's advice was used and paid off.



Then it was off to Silverthorn to fish the varrious town holes. By the time we arrived the wind was blowing about 20 mph, the snow was flying horizontal and the eye lets were freezing. We didn't fish for very long before packing it up and getting some hot chocolate at the local gas station.

San Juan River - Navajo Dam, NM

Just got back from a 4 day fishing trip on the San Juan River - below the Navajo Reservoir Dam. The 4 days were sunny and warm (80's), the river was flowing at 820 cfs (very wadable) and the fish were fat and willing to come to the fly! I was averaging 10 fish per day but they were all 18" or better. I've been doing a fall trip here for the last 12 years and it is true there are not as many fish as in the past, but the fish that are here are bigger, chunkier, and fight hard! Stayed at the Enchanted Hideaway Lodge with my sister and son (very resonable rates) which is about 3 miles away from the river. Float and Fish fly shop was helpful with flies and such. Owner - Raymond - is knowledgable and easy to talk to. Looking forward to repeating the trip again next year!